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Most people seem to agree a good Gamemaster's job is to run a memorable campaign the players enjoy. This entails a good mix of suspense, humor, intrigue, preparation, improvisation, and a little acting. What many GMs mistakenly leave out is Trauma. Not blunt force trauma like hitting someone in the head with a lead pipe. No, Trauma with a capital T. Trauma is, in a nutshell, doing something so horrible to someone's character that they start laughing. Until they realize you are serious.

Several years ago I ran a Shadowrun campaign for a trio of players that took place in the Amazon. One of the players was the head of security for a small research facility owned by Aztechnology. His character was a high-powered street samurai, and could carve up most opponents before they even knew he was there.

Imagine his surprise when he awoke to the sound of screams, and realized someone had cut the primary power to the whole facility. By the time he got his gear and got into the hallway all he could hear was the occasional distant scream. I let him wander around, and used some good description to build up the tension. The player made his way lower and lower into the facility, and things became more and more creepy.

Everyone had been slaughtered. Ripped apart. But there was no trace of whomever, or whatever had done it (Now for those who have played Shadowrun- the player in question was new to the game and no idea what Insect Spirits were). Out of the darkness three giant wasp-like things attacked the player. He did fairly well in the fight, but they overwhelmed him.

When he woke up he was chained to the side of a wall. His gun was still in its holster, and none of his equipment was missing. The door slid open, and a researcher the PC knew came in. He demanded to know what was going on. I used cryptic answers, and the player eventually got frustrated. He threatened the researcher by pulling out his spurs (claws much like Wolverine in X-Men). The researcher was an insect shaman, and using one of his spells took control of my PC's arm.

Very slowly the claws rose closer and closer towards his eyes. The player fully expected something to intervene. Nothing did. The claws plunged into his eyes, and he was suddenly blind. The character's reaction was priceless. It was the first session of the game, and I had maimed his character? Was I mad?

The next day a group of Shadowrunners invaded the facility, and stumbled on the hapless PC. They carried him to safety, and describing the escape using only sounds and smells made for one of the best scenes I have ever run. The PC made it back home, and his new Shadowrunner friends agreed to purchase him a pair of cybereyes.

So in the end the player didn't actually lose anything. He gained nice pair of cybereyes; they were even something he had considered buying during character creation. So why did I do what I did? Because my poor PC had no idea how things were going to turn out. He had no idea things would eventually be ok.

To this day he tells that story over and over again, and the character remains his favorite. Why? Because I broke the rules. I did things he didn't expect, and that put him on edge. I used Trauma.
Don't get me wrong. Trauma should never be used lightly. You only want to do it when you know how the player is likely to react. Some players would have flipped out the moment they lost their eyes, and I would never have tried anything like that on them.

Trauma can come in a variety of ways, and some of them may even be perceived as a blessing by the PCs. At least at first. In one of the early playtest campaigns for my RPG Faelands one of the PCs was a mid-level Shadowalker. This, for those who haven't played, is a stealthy assassin type. His character found a locked door in a ruined city the party had been exploring for several sessions. He was almost certain the lock had a trap, but decided to try picking it anyway. The mechanics of the game use percentile dice, and you can only critically fail on a 00.

Guess what he rolled. A little needle poked out and injected him with a lethal poison. His character failed the body check. Fortunately for him another PC was playing a Wandering Healer, and saved his life. Barely. He was in a coma for several days while the rest of the party further explored parts of the city. Eventually the character woke up. The first thing he wanted to do was try picking the lock again. The other players begged him not to, but none of their characters were there and so couldn't stop him.

Guess what he rolled again. Yes, another critical failure. Out comes the needle. This time there was no healer close by to save him. By all rights I should have let him die. His character had done something horribly stupid, and pretty much deserved what he got. But I also knew this was his favorite character, and the PC had been playing him for almost a year at this point. So I decided to use a little Trauma.

The rest of the party happened on an ancient temple guarded a by powerful wraith. Initially I had planned to have them fight it, but with the Shadowalker's death I had a new idea. When the PCs entered the temple the wraith approached the party's Knight of the Dawn, and offered him a deal. If he would agree to bring knowledge of the temple back to the world, then the wraith would give him an artifact that would save the Shadowalker's life.

The Knight agreed and was presented with a black sword. They rushed it back to Solomon, and it brought him back to life. Or unlife anyway. The sword made him into a flesh eating undead. Further, it required control of the Shadowalker's body for one hour a day during the hours of darkness. So the PC got to keep his character, but was twisted into a much darker version of himself.

The rest of the party was appalled by what had happened, but also felt guilty since they had been partially responsible for bringing it about. This one event helped to set the tone for the rest of the campaign. Party infighting, the Shadowalker coming to grips with his new appetites, the Knight's guilt.

As the years have passed and the campaigns have come and gone I have gained a reputation for excessive use of Trauma. Yet my games are always talked about years later, and I never lack for players. I have become the GM that players ove to hate. I wouldn't have it any other way.