I have a rare thing in RPG groups right now: Two of my three F&D players are actually playing "good guys." I've played with and GM'ed primarily for bands of murder hobos, so it's kind of refreshing, actually. But, I gotta admit, I was getting a little worried about these Goodie-Two-Shoes hitting Paragon too easy, too fast. Eli Ren the Seer and Arasul the Pathfinder were just not facing the tough decisions.

Enter the miscreant. Played by my old buddy, Nathan Huffheins the Shadow is a slick liar and thief who has an easy time getting what he wants. We're playing through the adventure in the Core book, and they realized they needed academic credentials to get into the archives at the university. As the good guys pondered the various ways they could get them (even forgery left a bad taste in their mouths), Nathan slipped off, found a group of folks playing Ultimate Frisbee (IN SPACE!), and casually grabbed their backpacks, rolling Success, a Triumph, and several Advantage. Now, the would-be-Jedi weren't too excited about the theft, but they did have valid student ID's (with the meal plan!), right in their hands, that looked an awful lot like themselves. Well, when fate (or a jerk) hands you the keys, you roll with it (HA! Conflict!). They followed the thief, who was waving his card proudly, saying, "Let's swing through the commissary, lunch is on me!"

Three corndogs later, they breezed handily through the first checkpoint, only to be taken aside by the dour proctor, who almost saw through their baloney. Two of the PC's succeeded on their rolls to convince him of their sincerity, but they piled up a lot of threat (which I used to decide that the proctor looked into them a bit more after they went into the archives, and would try to apprehend them as they left). Arasul, unfortunately, drew more immediate suspicion, and was assigned two armed security guards to follow him everywhere.

Finishing their research into forbidden Jedi lore, they got onto the elevator to head back down and leave. One of the security guards got a message in his headset, and I was about to have him tell the group that he would need to escort them to the Proctor's office. I never got the chance. He did that thing where he puts his finger to his ear, listening, and Nathan Huffheins decked him. "I know that look." Already in a tight spot (both morally and physically), his companions quickly joined in the elevator brawl. The final blow that subdued the guards also rolled some threat, so I decided the lift stopped, and the doors opened to reveal a shocked "multicultural group of students," like you see on every college catalog.

The crew ran for a side stairwell, and made their way out a side door. Huffheins drew the attention of the guards, who gave chase, allowing the other two to slip out unnoticed. Huffheins sprinted through a crowd of students, stealing a really nice Schwinn Hoverbike to assist his escape, meeting his compatriots back at the ship.

As you've probably guessed, this was a pretty irreverent session, but it was a lot of fun. The Shadow earned a lot of conflict, but rolled well, so it actually came out a wash. The other two took much less conflict, but they ain't rocketing up that morality scale anymore.

I started clapping.

Next week, run The Breakfast Club or Animal House. It'll be a hoot.

A. Hoot.

I told the story to my son and the DM for our D&D game. They both said the same thing about the heroic escape from the administrator.

"ROBOT HOUSE!"

I also like it when group has a jerk in it. Those characters can sometimes create adventures on their own, by doing a lot of stupid things.

When I was playing my D&D adventure, I used to be that. I don't think the Neutral Good actually suited him. He seemed more like Chaotic Neutral character. But whatever, we rolled with it. GM didn't even have to worry about getting adventures done, when my character just caused a lot of trouble, causing domino effects that resulted in a lot of villains and a lot of cities that banned our characters EVER enterting into them. We did good things too, but some bad selfish things as well. Well, my character did.

It was our longest D&D adventure and we had a lot of fun with it.

I also like it when group has a jerk in it. Those characters can sometimes create adventures on their own, by doing a lot of stupid things.

It's a fine line. This guy generally likes causing trouble. He used to be the guy who just threw monkey wrenches at the GM until he broke any sense of credulity. Seriously, watch out for Halfling rogues. When he played World of Warcraft his favorite thing to do was instigate wars between the Alliance and the Horde.

He's dialed it back quite a bit, which I appreciate. He's considering going Dark Side at some point, but he doesn't want to just plummet via murder and mayhem. We're looking at a longer spiral of "the ends justify the means." We'll see how it plays out with the paladins.

It's a fine line indeed... I never did anything that would really piss my fellow players off.