Quick sitrep:

Our group is playing a two part story, trying to save the soul of somebody that has made a contract with an Infernal Duke.

In a previous adventure the party had found a tome that detailed the infernal hierarchy at the expense of imbuing evil into the reader's heart. The first part of the current story had the party collect ingredients for a potion that would allow them to read the book safely for a day. In the book they found the rituals for enchant, last command, and guardian (all from Secrets of the Supernatural), and a new ritual that would allow the group to call forth a representation of a powerful being between worlds to communicate with it.

So after reading the book, the party has decided that they don't want to deal with the devil, but instead want to attempt to kill/destroy/trap him. Party consists of a L4 Warlock, L5 Illusionist, and a L5 Summoner. I have repeatedly impressed upon the group that this Infernal Duke is level 11 and while in his personal hell is a god and will be immune to your attempts at summoning him (not including the fact that I don't think that the summoner could roll high enough to get a L11 to come forth anyway).

Yes I know my job as the GM is that everybody has fun and does not feel as though the group's time is not wasted. I have repeatedly said that I believe that your current course of action could lead to failure and that you are not at the power level that you need to be to pull off what you are trying. The retort from the players was that, "well this is something amazing and it should work".

So coming back around to my question, game masters and world spinners do you ever have stories where your players do not achieve the goals that were first put forth and at times do your players absolutely fail? I know that this is a game of dark fantasy where there are powers that could consume the players' minds and souls in a blink of an eye.

Quick update ( I know the starting post was not that long ago)

I just talked to one of my players this morning and she was like,

Players: "UM I don't think I am going to make the next session."

Me: "We haven't even set a date yet."

P: "Yeah but I don't want to see my character die. I like this character and I feel vested in it. So I am just going to walk away for a few months and come back when the dust has settled."

M: "Okay."

I "let" the group fail. I set the world rules, and make it clear what is and isn't possible. If they try anyway, I let them. I have been known to give them extra leeway, but if they continually run headlong at certain death, they find it.

. . .and as for not wanting to lose the character, you can have alternate ways to "lose" at the encounter but survive. Enslavement to the duke, transformation as punishment, regression. I had one player say he didn't want to die, so I had him make a deal with an NPC. I staged it like this:

"So, your character makes a comment about the possibility of dying, and Necessity (NPC) hears you. She asks if you would like a guarantee that you will survive the encounter in exchange for working for her employer. . ."

There was a half-hour of RP discussion between just the two of them. . .but he took the deal, which means he took a different road than the rest, and came back during a different campaign. So, there are ways to help the player evade a certain death, but the path they take might not be what they initially wanted.

Thank you Silkentoes, kinda how I felt about the whole thing.

Crap! Crap I say!

Not wanting to come to the session because you don't want to see your character die? It'd be the first character I killed. Absolute crap!

Secondaly, let them try. There are rules that govern summoning and calling forth such evils, let me try to get a big baddy that they probably can't control. When he shows up have him sit down for a respectful talk. Maybe while they are talking the Duke can nibble on the soul of the rediculous crap excuse that wouldn't come to the session.

So that being said, I say let them. Have the Duke show up. Let them think they are in control, then make them realize they are not. There are many ways to make this enjoyable for all. Maybe the Duke needs agents topside to do his dirty work.

My 2 cents anyways

well I wouldn't really go with punitive action tends to lead to lots of bad feeling

I suppose the best course of action would be turning the next set of adventures into how to get souls back and stop being dammed as frankly their plan is foolish and the characters really should have an idea its out of their league ,

wouldn't recommend it but you could drop some of his numbers on them in a purely warning theory conversation as he is a challenge at higher levels

Greystroke,

I did drop his numbers. I actually found it kinda flattering that a player is so into their character that they are worried about death. The player is hearing that this idea is bad and knows that bad things are going to happen. Believe me this is also the first player that will put their "life" on the line too, so this is huge to hear that from her.

I have spoken with the player that is leading the charge on this and that person still wants to go down this path. The PC is refusing to make any attempt to deal with the devil, there is a reason that is a saying; nothing "good" comes from dealing with demons. I was already thinking that there is going to be another story where they have to go to the duke's personal hell and retrieve the NPC's soul. Sounds like the party is going to start having nightmares where the NPC is burning in hell and screaming for help.

Thank you all

Drake

As a Gm I try to ensure that my characters always have a way to achieve victory in any conflict so long as they don't behave as if they have a death wish, and as long as the dice don't turn on them. But the GM who brought me into the game taught me to always look at everything the player does and ensure that every decision they make, good or bad comes back to them in a manner that builds the story.

For instance when I was just getting into Anima I created a character who had the Selene as a powerful enemy without truly understanding just how big a deal this was. The GM of course knew just how easily this could get me killed and wanted to make sure I learned just how dangerous having enemies can truly be without upsetting me enough to drive me away from the game. So as a solution he sent 2 agents after me, the first gave me one free pass with a warning that the next time we met I would die. This was because a member of the party who turned out to be the very woman who had trained this agent (this trainer had amnesia due to a severe illness) bargained with her for my life. As my character lay paralyzed on the floor with a dart in her neck and this assassin standing over me for the first time I truly understood why the name Selene was to be feared. The second agent decided that I wasn't a serious threat to her and opted instead to poison me with a very slow acting poison; then by offering me medicine that would stall my immanent death she turned me into her own personal puppet. She began by using me to find out more about the rest of my clan since the hit was on my entire clan, but as time passed she began to uncover evidence that something wasn't right regarding their client. Realizing that someone might be trying to play the Selene for fools she decided to once again employ me as her puppet with a promise I could't ignore, "If you are a good little girl I may even give you the antidote." And with my cooperation secured she dragged me down into the depths of hell with her. By the time that chapter in the campaign was over my character had changed completely. I had been sold to the slave trade as bait, carried out one of her hits, demon powers were forcibly infused into my bones, I seduced and then poisoned the man who experimented on me and much more.

This accomplished two things for the GM; First of all I learned from my mistakes, but most importantly I became more invested in this character than I had ever been with any other character and to this day she is still my favorite.

Now my GM made one more important decision regarding this, in response to the sheer amount of life I breathed into my character during her trials which in addition to the above problems included; tragic dreams of her past life, her confusing love life, conflicted feelings regarding her duty to her clan vs her new found friends and the fact that she was an Empath and thus blessed/cursed to always feel the emotions of those around her. He decided to reward me, during my trials I got my hands on 2 artifacts and by helping the Selene uncover a plot against them I was able to get the hit on my clan canceled. In addition due to the manner in which I interacted with these Selene agents I was able to earn an invitation and the trainer we had traveled with (who regained her memories thanks to us.) offered to train me personally, an offer my character simply couldn't turn down since she had developed a major crush on this woman. she now has the Selene as a powerful ally, though to balance this out she also has the enemies of the Selene as her own. And of course my decision also affected party dynamics. Some characters have gained a new respect for my reborn character as she now hunts the slave trade from the shadows, others now despise her for embracing her inner darkness and informed her when she returned from training that the only reason they don't try to kill her is because it would hurt the other party members.

I'm sorry if I seemed to ramble but I wanted to demonstrate how a a creative GM can teach his players the hard way all while making the game so much more fun and riveting. This plot I uncovered actually steered the entire campaign, the mastermind of this plot had by some twist of fate become the linchpin to every character's personal goal and with his downfall everything fell into place. And he also left off perfectly for a sequel campaign that promises to be just as riveting. So yes let players fail but do it in a way that makes a better story.

P.S. the campaign wasn't 100% dark and gritty it was honestly equal parts of ominous evil, hilarious antics, romance and classic adventure all sprinkled with a generous does of daily life as we tried to blend in with the "normal people" of the city.