What the investigators say no to Blaine?

[pookie]

In the middle of day three, Robert Blaine abandons the geologists to be taken by the mi-go in the midst of a deluge, going off to see if the anthropologists have arrived back at the farmhouse. What happens if the investigators say no?

Further what excuse does he give for not returning? I am planning to say that he got lost and then was picked up by the sheriff on the way to pick up the anthropologists at the farmhouse.

[morganhua]

In my game, Blaine told them he was just going to the next farmhouse to make a phone call.  A player made a token effort to go with him, but I told the player it was raining really hard and Blaine told the PC to stay in the car.  It worked.  I then asked the players how long they will wait for Blaine.  After that time period, I tell them he hasn't shown up.  They then went to the next farmhouse and the next looking for Blaine.

When Blaine shows up at the Maclearan Farmhouse, I tell the players he got lost in the rain.  Having him picked up by the Sheriff is not a bad idea, but you'll have to make sure the timing works.  e.g. make sure the story is that the Sheriff got the call about the truck stuck on the collapsed bridge and he headed towards the Maclearan Farmhouse and ran into Blaine on the road.  Only issue is that the Sheriff is from town, but in my game, the Maclearan Farmhouse is between the dig site and the town.  So, the Sheriff can only pick up Blaine just as he walks down the path to the farm.   I had the Sheriff arrive at the Farmhouse with the news of the accident after Blaine arrived.   The Sheriff arrived to get help with pulling the truck out of the river with the student's two additional cars.

[pookie]

I am hoping that given my players' grumbling about their crappy accommodation (to borrow their phrase), they will take the hint about the rain.

[Cyenobite]

This was an awkward moment in my game too. I had one player who was very insistent about going with Blaine (they are paranoid). But I pretty much had to say that Blaine used his "authority" of running the expedition to say, "no, you can't go with me". But as a Keeper, I wasn't too happy with telling my players they couldn't do something.
Of course, once I told them that Blaine never returned, they wanted to go look for him. So they asked which way the nearest farmhouse was. They wanted to go talk to the owner, and I basically said (as the owner), yes, he was here, he made a phone call then left about 2-3 hours ago. 
When they finally met back up with him at the farmhouse, Blaine just said he got lost in the storm and made a left turn instead of a right turn. It was a lame excuse, but that lameness also added more fuel for them to NOT trust Blaine anymore.

[Baniak]

In my game PCs agreed to stay in the car. I think I build a good level of authority for Blaine, and they just listened. Of course they wanted to go after him, but after couple of metres they stopped because of the heavy rain. Besides other studends like Roderick Block kept investigators from doing reckless things - I used them as a voice of conscience

[joggiwagga]

9 hours ago, Baniak said:

In my game PCs agreed to stay in the car. I think I build a good level of authority for Blaine, and they just listened. Of course they wanted to go after him, but after couple of metres they stopped because of the heavy rain. Besides other studends like Roderick Block kept investigators from doing reckless things - I used them as a voice of conscience

I'm totally stealing that idea and using Rod to be the back up authority/voice of reason.  At least one of my PCs is trying to hook up with Rod, and they all think Blaine is just a dick (because he's in charge?  I'm not sure), so they're not crazy about listening to him.

[Destrin]

I struggled with this point too, there was a HUGE amount of suspicion and questioning of Blaine when they got back to the farmhouse.  It didn't occur to me to try the 'got lost' idea, that's actually entirely viable given the situation and his lack of local familiarity

[caddy1071]

Hiya!  I know this is very old, but in case somebody is running this and it helps - I've been playing Blaine as "safety first"  - he doesn't want injuries on his watch...  The players are picking up that it is his guilt about the loss of his friends, NOT that he wants pristine specimens for the Mi-Go.   It seems to be working well so far.

tty!
Cory

[mvincent]

2 hours ago, caddy1071 said:

I've been playing Blaine as "safety first"  - he doesn't want injuries on his watch...  The players are picking up that it is his guilt about the loss of his friends, NOT that he wants pristine specimens for the Mi-Go.

I did this as well, and it definitely helped.

[caddy1071]

On 9/13/2016 at 2:52 PM, mvincent said:

I did this as well, and it definitely helped.

Heh, I have to say it's definitely did not work as well this week - I guess it's just the "trust no one" nature of CoC players.   I'm still playing him as a pain in their butts with him being uberleader... I guess it's a lot of roleplaying fun either way.