I would have allowed the players to find a peaceful solution as well, but the reaction of your players, the way they seemed horrified by what was happening, is very interesting and, all things considered, I think it was a good idea :)
True, it always comes to knowing your players!
Jolanda you are raising a good point here. It certainly would have been better to take some more "artistic licence" and cushion the fluffy war a bit for the players. They genuinely did not enjoy being surrounded by suffering cavies, and I can’t blame them.
Concerning deviating from the game’s railroad story: Well yes, you have a point. It may well be the prudent approach to just use the rich lore of Sunless Sea as a tapestry and inspiration for my own story-telling genius. I could just add loads of gold, food and supplies to the ship via savegame editing (monsters are already set to neutral), and be the master of my own story, that I can develop freely in unison with my players, falling back to some ingame inspiration whenever needed. Maybe I will switch to this approach soon, we will see. :)
I will try to explain my current approach: I do try to instill this Lovecraftian sense of cosmic horror, by clearly communicating that I myself am not the omnipotent master of my story, but merely a mediator for an essentially heartless entity (the game engine), bound to obey its commands as much as they do. I may be their empathetic friend, and try my best in storytelling, but when push comes to shove, I can’t help them. I can only deliver the bad news.
I may well be overthinking this, and it is too soon to draw a solid conclusion here, but I certainly enjoy myself in the role of the mediator. If it also works for the players - we will see.
I also have some plans for the future, like delivering more and more relevant ingame information via dreams (foreshadowing) etc. directly to individual players, and maybe sow some mistrust between them.
I always find that the best approach is to ask your players what they thought of the game. Perhaps they don’t mind the lack of food, the lack of money and the Lovecraftian horror at all - but maybe they did take issue with the fluffy massacre or with the lack of agency. I find that players might enjoy the goriest and most desperate of settings (asking them will let you know if they are this kind of players). However, nobody enjoys "railroading" - a predetermined outcome, no matter their actions or reactions.
Again, you know your players better. But you definitively don’t have to stick to the SS script - it is a different medium, and no matter how hard you try, you can never conjure your exact experience as a PC gamer for a group of TRPG players. And you don’t have to!
edited by Jolanda Swan on 9/17/2019