03-13-2020, 04:43 PM | #21 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: What's the worst DM bad habit you've encountered
Well, you have to have something that gets the PC going and that keeps the interest of the players. Of course, red herrings are fun, but they often end up becoming the main story. For example, I had a Dragon-Blooded character in a Exalted game who decided to free 100 Ghost-Blooded girls from slavery who were going to be sold to the Deathlords (something I had tossed in as a bit of flavor) and the game quickly turned into figuring out how to take care and protect the supernatural girls because the players realized the potential inherent in having 100 potential necromancers under their authority.
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03-13-2020, 05:59 PM | #22 | |||
Munchkin Line Editor
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: What's the worst DM bad habit you've encountered
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Session 1: The PCs run around town putting out smaller fires (literally, in a couple of cases) and fighting scouting parties while trying to learn more about what we're going to be facing when we Go Inside. Session 2: We Go Inside. The choices we made in session 1 had a profound impact on how session 2 played out, both in acquiring allies for the fight and in how much advance warning the bad guys had about our abilities and plans. When we got to the final battle, we recognized that it was going to be very challenging, fighting our way through the mooks and the greater mooks to try to prevent the Big Bad from completing his plan. TPK was definitely on the table for this one. We made several smart tactical moves, had a couple of lucky rolls, and were in decent shape but certainly not out of the woods. And that's when our choices in session 1 started paying off, as some of the people we had helped and rescued showed up to lend their bows and swords to the cause. They didn't dispatch the Big Bad or even have much of an effect on the greater mooks, but they DID take the pressure off us to fight everything in our way so we could concentrate on the most dangerous enemies. And we won, thanks to their help. Well, we mostly won. The Big Bad was defeated and killed but he finished what he was trying to finish before we got to him, and that has given this part of the campaign more urgency than it might have had otherwise -- we're on a clock and we know it. OTOH, after the game the DM told us that we really couldn't have done much better. Part of that was timely assistance from NPCs but it was our actions that brought them there and they weren't overshadowing ANYONE in the game; they were there to cover our backs while we did the job we were there to do. It was a very satisfying adventure.
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Andrew Hackard, Munchkin Line Editor If you have a question that isn't getting answered, we have a thread for that. Let people like what they like. Don't be a gamer hater. #PlayMunchkin on social media: Twitter || Facebook || Instagram || YouTube Follow us on Kickstarter: Steve Jackson Games and Warehouse 23 |
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03-14-2020, 08:23 AM | #23 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: What's the worst DM bad habit you've encountered
Allowing PCs to make friends with NPCs can be quite useful. For example, I had a group of PCs in a Pathfinder campaign run into an Advanced Half-Dragon Medusa. It was meant to be a really challenging fight, but the PCs decided to try diplomacy first, and the bard managed to charm her into letting them pass by seducing her. Long story short, she ended up tagging along with the group and was capable of doing aerial scouting for them on occasion. At the end of the campaign, the player of the bard PC retired his character so that he could marry and have children with the NPC, and the two of them became NPC characters who would occasionally help the party (they ended up the rulers of a petty kingdom that the party had liberated from a vampire coven in a previous adventure).
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03-14-2020, 06:30 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
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Re: What's the worst DM bad habit you've encountered
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I'd like to repeat; GMs. Half the time I try being a player I get screwed over because the GM and I aren't on the same page. Yeah, another example of a DM I just wouldn't play with again. I know someone made the point about righting a book if you want an exact story, but similarly make a video game if you want to punish the players and make it a competition. |
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03-15-2020, 02:33 AM | #25 |
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Re: What's the worst DM bad habit you've encountered
Hack much?...
Google "terrible-GM stories" and wonder why this thread hasn't already been closed, just like me... Last edited by namada; 03-15-2020 at 03:29 AM. Reason: missing hyphen |
03-15-2020, 10:13 AM | #26 |
Munchkin Line Editor
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: What's the worst DM bad habit you've encountered
Changing the rules in the middle of a game because the PCs are too effective is practically malpractice. If that screws up your game so badly, call a halt and discuss it; don't make a unilateral decision that drastically affects people's characters.
__________________
Andrew Hackard, Munchkin Line Editor If you have a question that isn't getting answered, we have a thread for that. Let people like what they like. Don't be a gamer hater. #PlayMunchkin on social media: Twitter || Facebook || Instagram || YouTube Follow us on Kickstarter: Steve Jackson Games and Warehouse 23 |
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