Has your GM shocked you lately?
Henry said:We're the only gaming group I know that swore an oath to hunt and string up a teenager.
Nah, we had the same reaction after seeing Attack of the Clones ....
AuraSeer said:Ha! Bonus points for any DM who successfully borrows a plot point from Superfriends.
I was thinking more of MoJo JoJo... "Heroes shall not enter my dungeon. You are the heroes of the town. Being the heroes of the town, you are thus forbidden to enter my dungeon. This is the dungeon therefore that you shall not be entering. "
frankthedm
First Post
DM-Rocco
Explorer
Barendd Nobeard said:Not any one thing, but every time we act honorably and trust someone, our Eberron DM ends up screwing us over.
He's turning our PCs into cynical, bitter, vigilantes, despite our best efforts not to be so.
That's funny cause I too play in a game where our DM screws us with every NPC he throws at us. There is one who we have dubbed the 'Best NPC ever,' cause he actually helps the party, but I am sure it is only a matter of time before he turns on us.
On the plus side, our DM has announced that 'someone will die next session," hmm, I think I am busy that day.
gribble
Explorer
The best shock I've ever had was actually in a Star Wars game run by Lancelot... it was a little unusual in that we were imperials during the early stages of the rebellion.
Anyway, in a climactic module we were chasing down the big bad, who was trying to destroy a large part (maybe all - my memory is a little vague) of a major imperial planet. We had various clues, that the big bad was an imperial officer, very good at diplomacy and a good pilot being the main ones.
Now the ISB agent in the party (a force adept) had a weird implant that channeled a dead sith lord that we pilfered from some cultisits, and now and then (when he rolled a 1) he'd be taken over my the sith lord and, frankly, go a little insane.
I was convinced it was him behind everything, and almost had the party fall in line behind me, but boy was I wrong...
Lancelot can probably give a much better perspective on this, but in the end it turned out the big bad was... MY CHARACTER (a female imperial officer/pilot)! In one of the early modules of the campaign, she had seduced the son of a famous retired imperial officer, in the hopes of advancing her career/status. It turned out she was infected with some sort of alien parasite that had been controlling her ever since (and it wasn't just a GM-fiat thing, we had plenty of clues as to what was going on - including a saving thorw I had to make after seducing the son - that we all forgot at the time).
I have very fond memories of the campaign (it also had one of the funniest scenes I've ever experienced in my life - I've never seen so many grown men reduced to tears and unable to speak for laughing), but I think it ended at just the right time, even if it was due to real life interferring. I'm not sure what else Lancelot had planned, but it would have been hard to top the session where it was revealed my character had been behind all the rebel shennagins!
Anyway, in a climactic module we were chasing down the big bad, who was trying to destroy a large part (maybe all - my memory is a little vague) of a major imperial planet. We had various clues, that the big bad was an imperial officer, very good at diplomacy and a good pilot being the main ones.
Now the ISB agent in the party (a force adept) had a weird implant that channeled a dead sith lord that we pilfered from some cultisits, and now and then (when he rolled a 1) he'd be taken over my the sith lord and, frankly, go a little insane.
I was convinced it was him behind everything, and almost had the party fall in line behind me, but boy was I wrong...
Lancelot can probably give a much better perspective on this, but in the end it turned out the big bad was... MY CHARACTER (a female imperial officer/pilot)! In one of the early modules of the campaign, she had seduced the son of a famous retired imperial officer, in the hopes of advancing her career/status. It turned out she was infected with some sort of alien parasite that had been controlling her ever since (and it wasn't just a GM-fiat thing, we had plenty of clues as to what was going on - including a saving thorw I had to make after seducing the son - that we all forgot at the time).
I have very fond memories of the campaign (it also had one of the funniest scenes I've ever experienced in my life - I've never seen so many grown men reduced to tears and unable to speak for laughing), but I think it ended at just the right time, even if it was due to real life interferring. I'm not sure what else Lancelot had planned, but it would have been hard to top the session where it was revealed my character had been behind all the rebel shennagins!
Varianor Abroad
Explorer
Rafael Ceurdepyr said:
Nor should you.
If you try to shock them all the time, it gets harder and harder. No, this thread has some really good examples. Most of them work because you've invested in the game heavily. Then when something off-kilter happens, it throws you.I was shocked recently when the DM threw a rust dragon at our group. It ate my armor. Being an Armiger (Iron Heroes class) meant that I was screwed. But I wasn't shocked at him, just that it actually destroyed the stuff. To my own delight, I didn't mind. I thought of it as a great roleplaying moment.
As to shocking my players? I did that in a game about two years ago. The PCs found some members of a strange cult of the North that were sacrificing their own wives to summon something up. Although maybe it was the guy whose intestines were tied to the door as an "alarm" signal. Either way, they were shocked.
awayfarer
First Post
Three character deaths (not mine) due to lightning bolt traps. ZOT! Nothing left but greasy smudges. But thats not what we're really talking about is it?
In an urban campiagn we were asked (read:forced) by a half-orc crime boss to retrieve something from a mages mansion. He promises to let us know what happened to an associate of ours (bard by the name of Gugeno) who went missing, if we get back.
The break in is a bit rough (One character was torn to shreds by a demonic scorpion, can we say -50 hp?) but we manage. Upon getting back to the crime boss, we sit down and he places a pair of boots on the table. We're all thinking, "okay, you have Gugenos boots."
Turns out those weren't his boots, they were him. A halfling gang we had crossed earlier had decided to send us a message. I'd say bardskin boots is a pretty effective message.
In an urban campiagn we were asked (read:forced) by a half-orc crime boss to retrieve something from a mages mansion. He promises to let us know what happened to an associate of ours (bard by the name of Gugeno) who went missing, if we get back.
The break in is a bit rough (One character was torn to shreds by a demonic scorpion, can we say -50 hp?) but we manage. Upon getting back to the crime boss, we sit down and he places a pair of boots on the table. We're all thinking, "okay, you have Gugenos boots."
Turns out those weren't his boots, they were him. A halfling gang we had crossed earlier had decided to send us a message. I'd say bardskin boots is a pretty effective message.
Merkuri
Explorer
awayfarer said:
Yeah, that was shocking. My character couldn't progress as a cleric any more after that (voluntary choice on my part). She switched to ranger and took halflings (her own race) as her favored enemy. She became my favorite character after being emotionally scarred like that. Shame that the campaign didn't go for too many more sessions after the boots.
WayneLigon
Adventurer
Probably the biggest shock came in a Call of Cthulhu game. We were, as players, a little jaded. The GM had thrown innumerable cosmic horrors and devious plot twists at us long-timers and while our characters behaved appropriately, the edge was perhaps off for us, a bit.
Right up until the Baskerville case. Yes, those Baskervilles. We were thinking the infamous Hound was a hound of Tindalos or somesuch, and so we didn't pay all that much attention to how creepy the family was. My character at some point needed to look up some family history and found a couple fundamental disconnects in the last generation. "Wait.. these.. OK, these are misprints. Huh. Usually you don't misprint something like death and birth dates...."
Then, in a wheezing interview with the old maiden aunt who lived in the attic we found out how Roger Baskerville was spurned at the altar by his bride-to-be, and she raced out into the moor only to trip and drown in the swamps. Roger, though, was determined that there be a wedding.. and so there was. And nine months later, Roger Jr. was born...
That realization sent the players up out of their chairs, shaking heads, rubbing eyes, going to the kitchen, out for a walk, etc.
Right up until the Baskerville case. Yes, those Baskervilles. We were thinking the infamous Hound was a hound of Tindalos or somesuch, and so we didn't pay all that much attention to how creepy the family was. My character at some point needed to look up some family history and found a couple fundamental disconnects in the last generation. "Wait.. these.. OK, these are misprints. Huh. Usually you don't misprint something like death and birth dates...."
Then, in a wheezing interview with the old maiden aunt who lived in the attic we found out how Roger Baskerville was spurned at the altar by his bride-to-be, and she raced out into the moor only to trip and drown in the swamps. Roger, though, was determined that there be a wedding.. and so there was. And nine months later, Roger Jr. was born...
That realization sent the players up out of their chairs, shaking heads, rubbing eyes, going to the kitchen, out for a walk, etc.
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