When the GM Smiles...
When the GM smiles, run for your life! He's up to no good. If he flashes you a grin and starts to fold his GM screen, it's over! You might as well start picking up the pizza boxes and those 2 liter bottles of soda with just a thin layer of backwash on the bottom. This article is going to be a "top 5" signs of a cruel GM.
When the GM smiles, run for your life! He's up to no good. If he flashes you a grin and starts to fold his GM screen, it's over! You might as well start picking up the pizza boxes and those 2 liter bottles of soda with just a thin layer of backwash on the bottom. This article is going to be a "top 5" signs of a cruel GM. Submissions should be sent to stillb0rn@gamegrene.com.
5. You're playing Wrestlemania 2000 on the N64 to pass the time, while the two surviving party members are trying to escape the ruins you were exploring, in order to drag the five deceased party corpses to a temple.
4. While your group uses standard sized miniatures, your DM has a demonic miniature that actually peaks over the GM screen.
3. Your GM goes into depression when the monsters are on a missing streak, or actually starts to cry.
2. The GM states that this next adventure is inspired by pokemon. He's just a loser when he states it was inspired by Magic:The Gathering.
1. You're not five minutes into a new campaign with first level characters and already you hear "Make a saving throw vs. Death please."
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As an AD&D player for hmmmm? well over 20 years now ( am i that old ?)well anyway the number one sign of the cruel DM for me was always when that wry grin arrived and you here the statement havent we got anymore dice ?
I've only been playing for about 3 years now, but the most terrifying phrase I've heard is: "How many hit points DID you have?"
What about the question: "Did you guys made your extra characters for today, your gonna need them"
Or a gamemaster with the following songtext on his screen: "why dont you trust me when Im smiling, is it a sin to have some fun?"
Most memorable one was in HERO (kinda like Aliens-type Space Marines). Character hit by mortar shell. "So, what's your BODY?"
Unlucky PC: "20" (since we were all normals,this is the maximum possible value)
GM: (barely a second after UPC):
"You're Obliterated!"
Asked GM later exactly how much damage that mortar did. "oh..42d Killing".
"So..why did you even ask? Just to give him false hope that he COULD have survived?"
"Give me every 6-sided dice in the room."
"What for!!!!!" *panicking*
"Because you fumbled your demolitions disposal roll and set off the nuclear warhead."
"CRAP!"
Yes, this actually happened. Chi-Town was never the same again...
As a GM for various D&D adventures over 13 years, newer players often whinced whenever I would start describing anything in great detail. I dubbed it, the "Scooby Doo Effect", because I remember watching Scoob and Shaggy cartoons as a kid, and always knowing when a false panel or an object that would move suddenly was on the screen by the slight discoloration it had compared to the background.
Rookies in the group of players on D&D night would not be used to the level of description I would insert into every aspect of what they interacted with. I would often describe something so fully, such as the effects of a drafty building (i.e. slamming doors, whistling wind, scratching sounds, creaking), that half of the players would be scared out of their wits that something was about to go down at any moment. It usually took them two or three game nights to ease into the "verbal immersion" of my gameworld.
Now, veteran players learned early on to fear those NPCs that never met their gaze, or the solitary NPC walking alone in the desert. They feared the potential of every interaction with strangers out in the countryside. Never for a moment did my players take anything for granted while out in the bush. They set up predetermined responses to most potential encounters. They moved as a team and communicated their thoughts in character.
I prided myself on the teamwork and survival skills of my veteran group for quite some time. They learned to respect the world in which they roamed, due in part because of the fear that I created and harnessed on occasion. They never really got shell shocked or overstressed, because I always allowed room for whimsy and sitautions in which their dilligence and discipline paid off.
I always enjoyed the look on player's faces when a plan of response goes off flawlessly in a dangerous situation, or when simple discipline like a "no talking while hiking or moving" (use only hand signals or tugs on a signal rope) policy allowed them to suprise an opponent or two.