Get back in touch with an old player and good friend

>Get back in touch with an old player and good friend
>He's moved back to the area and wants to play in a game like the good old days
>Invite him to join my current group, all players who joined on after he left
>During the session, I have his old PC from five years back show up as an NPC
>He's looking for something in the dungeon they're about to delve and offers to tag along
>Friend gets really excited
>All of the other players don't realize that this is his old character of his I slipped in as a cameo
>Before either of us can mention it, they all decide they fucking hate this guy
>Antagonize him, threaten him
>Eventually I have him back off and leave so the other players don't attack him and completely ruin the night
>Friend too embarrassed to say that was an old character of his that he really liked from back in the day
>Spends the rest of the night looking kind of bummed
>He leaves at the end of the night without saying a word
>Hasn't responded to my skype messages or texts
>Didn't show up to session last night

D-did I do something wrong, Veeky Forums? I feel fucking terrible.

You did nothing wrong, user.

Always remember that no plan, even cameos, survives contact with the players.

I deal with shit like this more than I'd care to admit. If he's not responding, I'd explain the situation to the other players who antagonize him, maybe encourage them to send an apology. If you want to keep messaging him as well, just make it very clear this whole scenario came about because of a mistake, but that you're still apologetic. Don't blame yourself, you couldn't have forseen this result. Good luck man. I know how much it sucks when someone won't hear out your side of the story.

No he just didn't mesh with your other players, granted your other players sound like shit without more context.

Players, especially ones who don't have a lot of normie characteristics, tend to be very insular and xenophobic when it comes to "outsiders" and their group. While they may have been OK with your friend returning (a friend-of-a-friend already into the hobby has potential and is already vetted by one approved member of the group, and thus has less of an outsider status), the NPC they saw was totally unknown.

Because of this, their more passive or fully suppresed resentment of the outsider expressed itself on this NPC, as he both isn't a real person (and thus is fair game) and an outside force, which they resent in general.

Play with normies, OP. You won't have as much trouble with this shit.

You did nothing wrong. Players can be the most vindictive, sociopathic spergs when it comes to interaction with NPCs.

Never plan anything around the expectation that your players won't be irrationally antagonistic, while simultaneously feeling completely justified in their actions.

I thin it's in player nature to randomly designate NPC's to hate. I have two players who want to kill a tavern owner for no good reason. They talk about burning their tavern to the ground in and out of the game.

>>Before either of us can mention it,
You mean you didn't clear that up ASAP? Before the session started, even?

This makes me thankful for my completely random roll20 group: we always try to talk our way out of a fight if we can help it. When we happened upon four drakes in a village, our dragonborn addressed the alpha, through whom the green dragon was speaking and we left without anyone killing anything.

The bandits that jumped us, though, were unfortunately decimated. Only one survived

Probably wanted to surprise the player. The OP made a fatal mistake of being too kind for the world of murdehobos

Your're probably an insufferable faggot since the players hate an NPC presented through you.

>too kind
Too inconsiderate, maybe. Players hate surprises, and you know what's worse? Having an NPC appear out of nowhere, with no real context, for 'assistance'.

Oh yes, god forbid the GM throws an NPC without writing up a 2 week notice so the players don't feel slighted when *gasp* they're presented with an opportunity to interact with the world beyond wanton slaughter and frivolous spending.

If you're someone who spergs out because you hate being surprised then you're obviously someone who doesn't enjoy playing the game and only want to show off how awesome your build is.

In which case, there's the door.

Hi OP.

Try again sperg.

>being this assblasted about people not liking your stupid surprise

Try again, I'm not OP. I literally popped into this thread a few minutes ago and noticed your retardation.

I mean, believe or don't, it's not going to change the fact that you're a sperg who hates being surprised in a game where the deciding factor of everything you do is luck.

>decimated
>only one survived
Not to be anal about definitions, but I'm picturing you fighting 1 1/9 bandits, letting the poor guy go after removing the freakish 1/9 siamese twin stuck to him.

It's okay. I'm used to autists getting ruffled because of different meanings for different words.

You mean fighting 1.111... bandits, right?

It would be 1.1 not repeating like that.

Why not repeating? If you decimale 1 1/9 bandit you get 1.111....

Other user said fighting 1.111 if you decimated them 1.0111 bandits would get away that is above the quota of 1 bandit, 1.1 bandits being decimated would leave you with 0.99 bandits which is as close as you can get without going over the quota.

Decimate is to destroy one tenth. Therefore, if there is exactly 1 bandit remaining, there must have been 10/9 of a bandit to begin with, or 1.111... in other words.

Veeky Forums is autistic as fuck today

Or we're just bored.

Pretty sure it is bored.

Maybe he is The Redeemer.

Sorry, I have to agree with the other guy here. Half of TRPGs is literally surprising the players. Otherwise, what the fuck is the point of the DM then? You're pretty stupid.

Boredom brings the autism

Isn't that the same as 1 and 1/9?

Idle hands are the devil's play things.