Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > Roleplaying in General

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 10-06-2017, 09:28 PM   #1
Ransom
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Default Share Your Game Master Panic Moments

Share times a session did not go as planned.
__________________
GURPS Self-Improvement:
Recent gains: Scaling (default+1) [2], Immunity (COVID-19) [1]
Current goal: improve Mandarin from Broken/None [1] to Accented/Broken [3]

Last edited by Ransom; 03-20-2018 at 05:04 PM.
Ransom is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-11-2017, 05:42 PM   #2
thastygliax
 
thastygliax's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Lexington, KY
Default Re: Share Your Game Master Panic Moments

When I was running a silly holiday-themed adventure from Polyhedron Newszine, the half-elf enchanter's player gleefully immersed himself into the role of effete, smarmy charmer (and only incidentally an actual spellcaster) "Fabio the Fair, of the Fey Folk." When they reached the final room, and burst in on the chief bad guys--who, naturally, were expecting them--Fabio immediately launched into his usual splashy self-introduction, and improvised from there. Everyone at the table was soon laughing so hard that none of us wanted to stop him. When he wound down after a couple of minutes, I said, "Well, that surprised them. You all go first. Roll initiative."
__________________
Tim Emrick / my blog: Studded Plate / my gaming site: Thastygliax's Vault
thastygliax is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-17-2017, 09:20 AM   #3
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Share Your Game Master Panic Moments

You know, I don't think I find this sort of thing to be a rare surprise. It's actually nearer the truth to say that's what I call "game mastering." At least, I run a lot of sessions where I confront the PCs with something, see how they react, and make something up.

If I want to make sure that the PCs deal with X, I have them assigned or hired to deal with X. That's what bosses and clients are for.
__________________
Bill Stoddard

I don't think we're in Oz any more.
whswhs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-17-2017, 12:34 PM   #4
sjard
Stick in the Mud
 
sjard's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Rural Utah
Default Re: Share Your Game Master Panic Moments

Phone rings: "Hey, we've decided to game tonight, can you make it?" "Short notice but sure." Great, we start in 15 minutes, and you're the GM!"
__________________
MIB #1457
sjard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-17-2017, 12:46 PM   #5
MIB.6361
 
MIB.6361's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Phoenix, Arizona, USA, Earth, Sol, Milky Way, Infinity.
Default Re: Share Your Game Master Panic Moments

Quote:
Originally Posted by sjard View Post
Phone rings: "Hey, we've decided to game tonight, can you make it?" "Short notice but sure." Great, we start in 15 minutes, and you're the GM!"
LOL, that's most of my high school era GM'ing. I'd wake up to one of my players sitting on my bed, calling the others on my phone "Hey, get over here, we're gaming today."

That's usually how I found out I'd be spending my day GM'ing.
__________________
Jessie/MIB 6361
Arizona Men in Black Cell Leader

Last edited by MIB.6361; 10-17-2017 at 12:47 PM. Reason: reasons
MIB.6361 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-17-2017, 12:55 PM   #6
sjard
Stick in the Mud
 
sjard's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Rural Utah
Default Re: Share Your Game Master Panic Moments

When D&D 5e came out, there happened to be one of the sadly usually very short lived (4-6 months, almost always due to mismanagement*) LGSes nearby.

Anyhow, I bought the PHB (the rest weren't out yet), and went home. I went back to hang out later that evening because why not it was close by, and the owner asked "So, you ready to run a game in 10 minutes?" I just looked at him and snorted "Maybe next week, but I haven't done more than flip through the book yet."
__________________
MIB #1457
sjard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-18-2017, 07:22 AM   #7
robkelk
Untitled
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
Default Re: Share Your Game Master Panic Moments

"Two of you took Weirdness Magnet?"
__________________
Rob Kelk
“Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.”
– Bernard Baruch,
Deming (New Mexico) Headlight, 6 January 1950
No longer reading these forums regularly.
robkelk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-18-2017, 10:34 AM   #8
Celjabba
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
Default Re: Share Your Game Master Panic Moments

"Hey Jabba, Could you run a demo game for begginers tonight ? "
Sure !
I only started GMing half an year before (but had been playing for 5 years), and I had just bought WEG Star War a couple day before, so I decided it would be good for a beginner game, instead of my usual CoC or RM.
Star war is well know, I can get a tape with the movie music for background, and a simple mission scenario for rebels agents is quickly written ... I sketched down an outpost on a jungle planet, some stormtroopers, a jail, a prisoner, more stormtroopers, and a shuttle conveniently close for escape... more than enough.
I only read the rules twice but who cares... it is Star War for beginners, lets roll and shout.
Except it soon became obvious that
-none of the players were begginers, they just had never visited the place we were playing.
-in fact, 2 of them were Star War GM...
-they were used to and wanted a simulationist kind of play.
I begged for 20' to actually pen down some more notes, and deputized the players to answer any rules calls, and fun was had by all, in fact I still sometimes play with a couple of them 25 years later, but for a while I was in full GM panic mode.... (And I got lucky that the players didn't try to tear down the scenario or engage in a spacebattle but played along ...)

Last edited by Celjabba; 10-18-2017 at 10:51 AM.
Celjabba is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-25-2017, 07:17 AM   #9
Gnaskar
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Share Your Game Master Panic Moments

Superhero game: Giant world ending ritual with 666 demons in attendance going on in a city park downtown. The players' weather mage has just gotten divine powers from being infused with angel blood (the last of the players to receive a power upgrade from a "radiation accident"). Quote: "Can I make it rain holy water?" After a thirty minute break I throw away the rest of my plans, and improvise a new and different boss fight.

...

Dark Sci-Fi: The players are deep in the bowels of an arcology, on a mission to exorcise a demon in the city's main computer. The computer controls the whole city, including giving orders to the police. The police show up with a SWAT team and order the players to surrender. To my complete surprise, they do. The computer shuts down life support in their cells, and they repeatedly fail to escape. Eventually, the group's mage tries to open a tear in reality to break the cell and loses control of it, effectively ending the campaign with a TPK.

...

First game I ever ran. DnD 3.5. No limits on source books to use. One player lists half his items as being from [BoEF]. Takes me a while to find that particular book, since you generally don't expect players to browse through the Book of Erotic Fantasies for utility items. Next campaign, there were a few limits on which source books were available.
Gnaskar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-25-2017, 07:54 AM   #10
Kromm
GURPS Line Editor
 
Kromm's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
Default Re: Share Your Game Master Panic Moments

Whenever I've ruled, "Okay, you can try . . . but you'll have to roll [game system's equivalent of a difficult-to-achieve critical success] to pull it off." It should no longer surprise me that this works like, "It's a million-to-one chance, but it might just work!" on the Disc. But it does surprise me. Every. Single. Time.
__________________
Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com>
GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games
My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News]
Kromm is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:21 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.