Cowardly ranger?

[Rich H]

I honestly didn't think about SP's while it was happening. It didn't hit me until after the group had ended for the night and everyone had gone home. Maybe not any SP's this time, but I think bringing it back up later (dwelling in it for the character) would be a good basis for SP's he might get later on while doing other things. PC's get SP's while they do things, and for him an easy way for explaining them would be his memories of this event, and how those memories keep haunting him

I think that would constitute a roll under the Anguish rules, and therefore not automatically awarding Shadow. Shadow Points for misdeeds such as cowardice should really be awarded when the deed is committed and the rules state the player of the character should 'usually' be warned that their character's actions will result in a gain in Shadow. Personally I'd advise LMs to pretty much always warn a player in advance of such an award as misdeeds are very subjective - eg, cowardice may be seen as some as prudence, etc. This avoids potential feelings of unfairness, victimisation, etc that a player may feel if they disagree with the LMs ruling. At least warning him upfront would allow a player to reconsider his character's actions.

[Majestic]

I agree that the warning should be given before the player takes the action. But then I also understand how it's hard to go back on something like this.

The Star Wars RPG (the old WEG D6 version) is the exact same way for Dark side points. And I learned that one as GM the hard way, as I didn't warn the player up front (then reread the rules and saw that I was supposed to). Fortunately my player was cool and said that he would have gone ahead and done the misdeed anyway, and fully expected to take a DSP (the equivalent of taking some SP). Your player might end up being the same way.

[FWIW, the event from SW was that the PC - who really hates the Imperials - took an ISB spy (that the group had captured) and snuck him away while the rest of the group wasn't looking (he was being held in a cargo container); he then deposited him into a sun, killing the NPC!]