Dear fellow GMs

I have a rather unusual question as it rather not Dark Heresy specific.

In our recent session my groups PCs were storming the HQ of a powerful planetary trading cartel supported by three NPC acolytes of their own Inquisitor as well as two acolytes/agents of a fellow Ordo Malleus Inquisitor and a veteran platoon of Brontian Longknives. After landing with a Valkyrie and storming the back entrance, the PCs cut through modest opposition on their way towards the inner part of the main building. They were in more or less constant vox contact with the other groups (5 groups altogether), but after killing two more security operatives in a central room and being surprised by a third with a grenade launcher, they became a little nervous. When another door suddenly burst open and a guy wielding two pistols entered, the groups Arbitrator PC charged the guy without hesitation and struck him twice with his newly acquired Power Sword. Only then someone asked how the guy looked like as it was in fact one of the NPC acolytes (i.e. a Black Priest of Maccabeus the PCs know rather well) from the other allied Inquisitor.

To cut a long story short, I tried to dodge and thought to have just dodged both attacks (we use BC rules) as I looked up the Per score (35) instead of the Ag score (34). As it was already after midnight we finished the session and all went home. Only a day later I realized my mistake (i.e. that one of the hits were in fact not dodged). How would you handle the next session?
Would you simply stand by the original decision (the players of course do not know of my mistake/misreading of the values so far) of having dodged the attack? Or would you start next session by saying “well, I mixed up the values and in fact you hit your ally…”. The latter decision would teach them some humility and I somehow would like to have my PCs in the moral dilemma of having attacked an ally. On the other hand I fear that to retcon my own GM decision (especially to the worse for the PCs) a session later would earn a lot of moaning and damage my “GM-reputation” so to speak.

So, how would you handle that and why?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hey!

So, I am very familiar with what your talking about here: my group's play sessions usually start at 9-10pm and go all the way until 8:00 Am the next day (We pull an allnighter ever two weeks.)

I can't count the number of horrendous mistakes that I've made- both in favor, and against the PCs, when you start hitting that 7:00 Am mark the next day having only slept a few hours the night before or, god forbid, worked before the game.

For story-telling mistakes, I usually Flash-back to an earlier scene, if the NPC's forgotten to tell them something important. But I've had to change the scenario a few times when I've forgotten to introduce a clue in a spot once- the players were none the wiser though.

However, for mechanical decisions, I stick by what I said. One time, they were fighting a Herald of Nurgle, and I screwed the damage on its warp instability: instead of dealing 1 damage for every failure on its WP test, I was giving it 1d10 damage. It died really quick- was still an epic fight, but it was a lot easier then it could have been.

Not to mention the amount of times I've had NPCs go into Frenzy, only to forget about the exact effects. Or the amount of time we've auto-fired while forgetting the pinning (not that it really matters VS Daemons ).

Luckily, none of these mistakes have ever affected play negatively because were usually so into the current scene that these little details completely fly by.

If you'd like to add some mind-screwing in your game, you can always have the group's psyker (if you have one) or barring that, any of the players- live trough the death, describe it in agonizing detail (brains exploding, gore-splattering, drenching them in blood) only to "wake them up" or "snap them out of it".

But, as a purely OOC approach, I'd say suck it up and move on- you'll find other, more interesting ways to screw over the players.

(Maybe that Acolyte was supposed to die, but, in that fraction of a section before the bullet hit him, he signed his soul over to a daemon that deflected the shot Or burned a fate point to survive.)

If that was the last thing to occur that session, the outcome didn't effect any subsequent events, so I wouldn't hesitate to alter it. If it was me, I would start the next session by having the Arbite make an Awareness check to see if he recognizes the NPC; if yes, then just cancel the attacks and start over from that point. If he doesn't recognize him, then, sure, kill the NPC. Fog of war...

Saldre pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Remember that the rules are just guidelines for you as a GM to run a good and fun game for both your players and yourself. I often modify roles so the game becomes better.

Also if your players is a bit out of order and is charging everything that moves (or open doors) without you even getting the chance to describe him, then a slight punishment might be in order. If its a black priest as you say, I think he would retaliate without hesitation. The black priest would later argument that any fool who attack a black priest is either controlled by a daemon or is worshipping one.

Let the black priest retaliate and then give the player a description of who they are fighting, and give them a chance to "ceasefire".

Hope it helps.

You could also make the security cameras of the stormed building to record the attack, and then declare the copy of this data was stolen (and tampered with) by PC's rivals. Such evidence could go a long way and resurface at the most inopportune moments.

For example, the black priest might be killed a few nights later by a power sword just like the one wielded by the acolyte. How would that look when combined with the above-mentioned recording and presented before the tribunal of the Holy Ordos?

I don''t think you should worry about your ''rep'' too much. Anyone can mix up two stats from one of the many NPCs you were trying to coordinate at the time. I''m sure your players can cope with that happening. I would think about what you want to happen. If you want the hit to connect go for it. Is it enought that an attack was made► Maybe the NPCs acolyte buddies are going to wade in shortly after with heated comments (or blazing rounds) assuming the players are under some sort of control► Maybe at some crucial point later on they won''t help the PCs because they don''t trust them after that.

There should definitely be consequences for something like that, just decide what you think they should be. After all the attack did hit, you aren''t really ret-conning anything as nothing else has happened yet.

I wouldn't worry. At this point, going back and saying "whoops you actually killed the dude" seems cheap. Only do it if it's necessary to the story, with apologies.

Otherwise don't retcon unless you have to. So the guy got a situational +1 to his die roll. Hardly reason to fret.

The only reason I'd consider going back and changing that outcome would be to increase tension in the groups. To do so I'd start out the next session by giving a description of what happened, like a flashback or some such. Describe the priest ducking under the first strike, but the second one catching him. I think for tension later on it would be interesting, particularly if he gets killed. I'm not sure of the group, but its not like you're fixing a mistake that loses them a bunch of experience and six treasure chests. You're altering it to make some really interesting roleplay down the pipe.

Especially if someone walks in when they are looking down at the body, or if one of the other acolytes goes to find those tapes to learn the truth. Do they kill that other acolyte to make sure there are no rifts in that makeshift alliance? What if someone else knows, do they kill him to to keep the secret of their own mistake? Now they are doing some dirty deeds to keep two inquisitors from being angry at one another. I think it could be pretty swell!

If you go without amending what happened, at the very least maybe that successful dodge still got that black priest a dirty scar somewhere. Its not life threatening, but he just got a power-slice to the cheek and now looks kind of ugly. He'll likely be really angry all of the time (if he's not already). He may not leap to try and kill the PCs at his first chance but he may no longer have the best interest in mind for the one that powerslapped him.

Hope that helps something!