Show us your Rat Bastardry!

[Rune]

Rat bastardry
Pronunciation: 'Rat bas-t&rd-ry
Function: noun
1: A philosophy that asserts that a role-playing game's capacity for providing enjoyment can be greatly increased by weaving a complex web of psychological challenges, moral or ethical dilemmas, frequent plot twists, and unforeseen consequences to create a gaming environment with verisimilitude that rises above the mundane with the ultimate aim of creating an atmosphere of awed paranoia for the players.

Have you got it?

Prove it!

Tell us about some times that you've put your players in a quandary, had their actions come back to bite them, kept them gnashing their teeth, made them curse your very name--and kept them coming back for more!

 

[Dioltach]

In my D20 Future campaign the party encountered a demonic machine guarding a gate to another dimension. They defeated the machine, stepped through the gate and found themselves in a world where armies of demons were fighting among themselves. A tank appeared, with a patrol of angels keeping tabs on what was happening. As they were talking, the demon from the machine (which had jumped to an item in the party's equipment when the machine was wrecked) took possession of the tank. The demon was happy with its new toy, the PCs ran for their lives, and the angels were quite upset with them.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

In a 3.5 game I once punished a player who missed a session without warning by having his dwarf fighter separated from the party and hunted down in the woods by werewolves -- who chewed off his foot before he could be rescued.

He had a peg leg for a little while, but after a session or two they managed a "polymorph other" that polymorphed him into a version of himself that had his whole leg -- and excellent solution most of the time.

Except.... for one of my favorite moments in the campaign, when he was charging an enemy wizard and he was hit by a readied dispel magic. His charge quickly went from "stomp-stomp-stomp-stomp" to "stomp-squish-tumble-slide" followed by a very dwarven "bugger".

-rg

 

[Bagpuss]

In as Cyberpunk campaign I had one player poisoned with puffer fish venom, which can make you look dead, while in fact you are just paralysed and completely concious. I took him to one side and explained to what happened then asked him to play along, so when he was back in the room he started rolling up a new character in front of the other players.

Then during the rest of the session I dropped clues that eventually lead to the other players realising their friend wasn't actually dead, just paralysed, of course by this point they had scheduled an autopsy to help with their investigation.

Occasionally I would take the guy rolling up a new character outside nominally to discuss how we could fit his new character into the campaign, but in fact I explain what he experienced lying on his back in the morgue, how people would talk over him (about when the autopsy was scheduled) and the while he was trapped in his body unable to tell anyone he was still alive.

I think I slowly tortured him for nearly an hour before the rest of the team arrived to stop the autopsy, just as the Y incision was completed and his skin pulled back. I think he might have just caught a glint of the rib spreaders before they stopped.

 

[Umbran]

So, a little while ago in my Deadlands campaign, the party followed a clue from a dead priest that led them to a "new Elijah" - a prophet, in Denver. They also found one of the BBEGs mining in the mountains, unearthing some large, round stones - reminiscent of eggs.

The party gathered the "eggs", and solved some of the prophet's family problems (for some value of 'solved', anyway). Having seen the party's interest in the guy, they tricket the as-yet-not-quite-believing prophet into their clutches, and set up a trade - the prophet for the eggs. The party took the expected route - they made the trade, and then used their airship to waylay the eggs as they were shipped out of town, recovering them, and taking them back to Dodge.

The prophet, they left in Denver. On his own.

Well, there was only one thing for the BBEG to do! Kidnap that prophet, find out why he was valuable, and then nigh-exsanguinate him and use his holy blood in an unholy ritual to awaken some of the other eggs - and send the resulting giant, fossil-undead, fire-breathing utahraptor to rampage through Dodge, the party's home base, as a present for the wedding of two of the PCs. Along with a note that described the whole thing to them, so they were completely aware of what their thoughtless mucking in other people's business had wrought.

That good enough?

 

[Storminator]

In a 3.5 game I once punished a player who missed a session without warning by having his dwarf fighter separated from the party and hunted down in the woods by werewolves -- who chewed off his foot before he could be rescued.

He had a peg leg for a little while, but after a session or two they managed a "polymorph other" that polymorphed him into a version of himself that had his whole leg -- and excellent solution most of the time.

Except.... for one of my favorite moments in the campaign, when he was charging an enemy wizard and he was hit by a readied dispel magic. His charge quickly went from "stomp-stomp-stomp-stomp" to "stomp-squish-tumble-slide" followed by a very dwarven "bugger".

-rg

heh. A dwarf polymorphed into a dwarf loses darkvision. At least on one iteration of the errata . . .

PS

 

[Rune]

For a while, I ran a game that was a fable (the characters were all animals). During an early game (possibly the first one), the characters were looking for someone in The Woods, when they encountered Crow, who wanted shinies. They appeased him by giving him (the paladin) Dog's collar, which had a shiny tag on it.

Flash forward a few sessions. The characters were once more in The Woods, this time seeking out a Witch who had supposedly stolen Ugly Toad's Beauty. When they finally got to her, Crow was perched upon her shoulder--and she had Dog's tag, which meant she also had his Truename...and knew how to use it!

Hilarity ensued.

 

[Dioltach]

Only six replies? What does that mean: there are very few RBDMs on EN World, or they don't want to share their secrets?

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Perhaps the RBDM is an endangered species. After all, some might feel that mathematically balanced encounters have made it impossible to truly challenge and surprise a party.......or has it?

 

[Umbran]

Only six replies? What does that mean: there are very few RBDMs on EN World, or they don't want to share their secrets?

They are too busy scheming an statting things up, is all...