10-06-2017, 09:28 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Sep 2013
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Share Your Game Master Panic Moments
Share times a session did not go as planned.
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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. |
10-11-2017, 05:42 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Lexington, KY
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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."
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10-17-2017, 09:20 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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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.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
10-17-2017, 12:34 PM | #4 |
Stick in the Mud
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Rural Utah
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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!"
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MIB #1457 |
10-17-2017, 12:46 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Phoenix, Arizona, USA, Earth, Sol, Milky Way, Infinity.
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Re: Share Your Game Master Panic Moments
Quote:
That's usually how I found out I'd be spending my day GM'ing. Last edited by MIB.6361; 10-17-2017 at 12:47 PM. Reason: reasons |
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10-17-2017, 12:55 PM | #6 |
Stick in the Mud
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Rural Utah
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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."
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MIB #1457 |
10-18-2017, 07:22 AM | #7 |
Untitled
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
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Re: Share Your Game Master Panic Moments
"Two of you took Weirdness Magnet?"
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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. |
10-18-2017, 10:34 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
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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. |
10-25-2017, 07:17 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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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. |
10-25-2017, 07:54 AM | #10 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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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.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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