Add your GM Anecdotes, please [March Fo(u)rth for GM's Day!]
- Thread starter Mark CMG
- Start date
Joshua Randall
Legend
My first and best DM was my friend Daniel, whom I met in nursery school (although we didn't start playing D&D until later 
). We were born on the same day, and that seemed to create a special friendship between us.
In addition to being a great friend, Daniel was a great DM. With nothing but his imagination and some dice, he could create amazingly detailed, memorable adventures that evoked powerful emotional responses. (I'll never forget how scared I was of the dreaded Witch Tree, even though we were playing in my parents' dining room with sunlight streaming through the windows.)
Over the years I've moved several times and lost track of Daniel, but I'm sure he's out there somewhere, and I'll always remember and appreciate his DMing prowess.
). We were born on the same day, and that seemed to create a special friendship between us.In addition to being a great friend, Daniel was a great DM. With nothing but his imagination and some dice, he could create amazingly detailed, memorable adventures that evoked powerful emotional responses. (I'll never forget how scared I was of the dreaded Witch Tree, even though we were playing in my parents' dining room with sunlight streaming through the windows.)
Over the years I've moved several times and lost track of Daniel, but I'm sure he's out there somewhere, and I'll always remember and appreciate his DMing prowess.
Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
The game board from Outdoor Survival that is shown above was used in those early games by our DM as his local area map (and he didn't have a world map at the time). We'd use tokens (or chits!) on the board to represent the adventuring party members and would move around the board with one hex equaling five mile (IIRC). I think that they even suggested using the Outdoor Survival board in the original rules. We'd use a grid off to the side when we would get into combat.
Gerry would then use the random encounter charts from the third booklet of the original boxed set (The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures) to generate random encounters such as monsters or castles/towns.
I know that in those days we'd spend as much time running away from things as fighting because the game was meant to promote status quo rather than scaled encounters. Still, it was certainly a lot of fun.
I'll dig into my memory further and see if I can dredge up some more "old time" stories from then and the intervening years (nearly three decades now!) about the game and the GMs who made it all so much of a blast!
Gerry would then use the random encounter charts from the third booklet of the original boxed set (The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures) to generate random encounters such as monsters or castles/towns.
I know that in those days we'd spend as much time running away from things as fighting because the game was meant to promote status quo rather than scaled encounters. Still, it was certainly a lot of fun.
I'll dig into my memory further and see if I can dredge up some more "old time" stories from then and the intervening years (nearly three decades now!) about the game and the GMs who made it all so much of a blast!
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
My first DM was a blonde woman named Darlene who wore leather pants and hung around with lots of biker-type guys. I was... twelve, I think. My pal Martin and I (we still game together) joined what was, as far as I know, the only gaming group in our hometown in northern Canada. And it was this group of adults, with handlebar moustaches and lots of crazy ideas, led by Darlene (who didn't have a handlebar moustache). I got killed a million times, played a million characters, and it wasn't until I had moved away and was much older that it even occured to me there was anything strange about a couple of twelve-year-olds gaming with a group of adults.
It seemed perfectly normal to me. I don't know what they thought.
But Darlene was GREAT. She always had cool handouts with weird calligraphy or maps or whatever, she let you try anything you wanted and she'd kill you without a second's hesitation.
Plus she wore tight black leather pants all the time. I got a lot of experience points at those games.
It seemed perfectly normal to me. I don't know what they thought.
But Darlene was GREAT. She always had cool handouts with weird calligraphy or maps or whatever, she let you try anything you wanted and she'd kill you without a second's hesitation.
Plus she wore tight black leather pants all the time. I got a lot of experience points at those games.
Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
I remember in one of the early campaigns with Gerry that in his Dungeon of Tantalus there was a tribe of Kobolds on the first level (of seven or more). They were a tenacious and resilent tribe that would bounce back whenever we least expected it.
After a time we got tired of hacking through their numbers and took to burning them out by dousing them with oil during battles and even laying fire traps for them with many small kegs of oil.
There then came a day when we had been deep within the dungeon, delving for great treasures (as we were now very experienced as 4th and 5th level characters! ) On our way back out as we were licking our wounds from a particularly tough mission, we found that the Kobolds had adapted and laid several fire traps for us! As we struggled to carry the lifeless, charred corpses of those who sprung those traps, a small band of the Kobold tribe flung flasks of the fiery mixture at our remaining party members. It was perhaps the first time I ever felt we might experience a TPK of beloved characters...and they were only KOBOLDS!
Ah, yes, some things come full circle, don't they?
After a time we got tired of hacking through their numbers and took to burning them out by dousing them with oil during battles and even laying fire traps for them with many small kegs of oil.
There then came a day when we had been deep within the dungeon, delving for great treasures (as we were now very experienced as 4th and 5th level characters!
) On our way back out as we were licking our wounds from a particularly tough mission, we found that the Kobolds had adapted and laid several fire traps for us! As we struggled to carry the lifeless, charred corpses of those who sprung those traps, a small band of the Kobold tribe flung flasks of the fiery mixture at our remaining party members. It was perhaps the first time I ever felt we might experience a TPK of beloved characters...and they were only KOBOLDS!Ah, yes, some things come full circle, don't they?
Gargoyle
Adventurer
I usually GM, but I was lucky enough to get to play in James Wyatt's Oriental Adventures game at GenCon 2001 - just before Oriental Adventures was released. (btw PA was there as well, playing a human shaman)
The pregenerated character I got was a monkey hengeyokai rogue 2, which I named "Sum Dom Goy" (and was promptly beaned with a koosh ball by James W. for the not-so-serious name). You can find a good description of the game, and quotes on James' site: http://aquela.com/roleplaying/OA/gencon.html
The part I remember best was the final battle against a yuan ti monstrosity. The whole encounter had an "Aliens" feel about it. We were convinced that we were all going to be killed one by one. Everyone contributed to the fight, and I remember getting a sneak attack in that almost finished the thing off before some brave soul finally killed it. None of us died and we all had a blast.
After years of GMing and only playing ocassionally, the game reminded me how important it is to have a good GM. Players rely on the GM for just about everything. The GM has to give time to everyone while keeping track of every other detail. At the end of the adventure, James was mentally and physically exhausted, just like I am after GMing. We were tired too, from the late hour, but the experience made me realize just how tough GMing is. Don't get me wrong; good players are important too (I also remembered that day how hard playing can be!), but a great GM is necessary for a great game of D&D, and much harder to pull off.
Kudos to James Wyatt for running such a great session, and to the other players for the fun memory.
The pregenerated character I got was a monkey hengeyokai rogue 2, which I named "Sum Dom Goy" (and was promptly beaned with a koosh ball by James W. for the not-so-serious name). You can find a good description of the game, and quotes on James' site: http://aquela.com/roleplaying/OA/gencon.html
The part I remember best was the final battle against a yuan ti monstrosity. The whole encounter had an "Aliens" feel about it. We were convinced that we were all going to be killed one by one. Everyone contributed to the fight, and I remember getting a sneak attack in that almost finished the thing off before some brave soul finally killed it. None of us died and we all had a blast.
After years of GMing and only playing ocassionally, the game reminded me how important it is to have a good GM. Players rely on the GM for just about everything. The GM has to give time to everyone while keeping track of every other detail. At the end of the adventure, James was mentally and physically exhausted, just like I am after GMing. We were tired too, from the late hour, but the experience made me realize just how tough GMing is. Don't get me wrong; good players are important too (I also remembered that day how hard playing can be!), but a great GM is necessary for a great game of D&D, and much harder to pull off.
Kudos to James Wyatt for running such a great session, and to the other players for the fun memory.
Last edited:
Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
I remember a time when Gerry decided to mix genres but use our D&D characters for a little experiemnt of his. Somehow or other, after finding our way into a circular metal room with several tables full of dials, levers, buttons and knobs, we determined that only good could result from manipulating the mechanisms, in as many variations as possible. Soon the entire room began to shake. All of us were pressed to the floor as if by some great unseen hand. Before long, the entire party blacked out.
When we awoke we were informed that we needed to reduce our characters' current hit points to a very low level (3, 4, 5, something.) Making our way out of the room, we found it no longer exited onto the strange metal catwalk upon which we had once tread. Dropping a rope down the outside of the monolith, we descended to a landscape with which we were unfamiliar. In the distance we heard the roar of a great beast, and it was not long before we saw the long-necked, long-tailed giant lizard moving across the horizon. Seeing no sense in staying out in the open, we made our way to a nearby cliffside to seek shelter in a cave complex. Unfortunately it was occupied by a tribe of uni-browed proto-humans who proceeded to slaughter the majority of the party. The remainder of us bolted back toward the monolith only to arrive just in time to watch it lifting off into the sky, along with our hopes.
For the life of us, we never figured out how to return to our characters' present. Those lives weren't very long, in any event and I believe we spent most of the week between that session and the next deciding on our next characters and vowing to one another next to push buttons, pull levers or go into any rooms made entirely of metal ever again...
When we awoke we were informed that we needed to reduce our characters' current hit points to a very low level (3, 4, 5, something.) Making our way out of the room, we found it no longer exited onto the strange metal catwalk upon which we had once tread. Dropping a rope down the outside of the monolith, we descended to a landscape with which we were unfamiliar. In the distance we heard the roar of a great beast, and it was not long before we saw the long-necked, long-tailed giant lizard moving across the horizon. Seeing no sense in staying out in the open, we made our way to a nearby cliffside to seek shelter in a cave complex. Unfortunately it was occupied by a tribe of uni-browed proto-humans who proceeded to slaughter the majority of the party. The remainder of us bolted back toward the monolith only to arrive just in time to watch it lifting off into the sky, along with our hopes.
For the life of us, we never figured out how to return to our characters' present. Those lives weren't very long, in any event and I believe we spent most of the week between that session and the next deciding on our next characters and vowing to one another next to push buttons, pull levers or go into any rooms made entirely of metal ever again...
Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
Well, it does fall on a Tuesday this year so I imagine there will be fewer gaming groups getting together than on a weekend. It may be that some will choose to celebrate on the nearest gameday they happen to have, while others might choose to take their favorite GM out to a dinner at fine restaurant, perhaps even upgrading by "Super-Sizing" said meal!
Ziona
First Post
Well, I was thinking that it might be fun to play some games that don't require a set GM (games like Talisman or Hero Clix) and then some food, of course. I just don't know how many of our players / GMs are up for Tuesday night. (Buffy is on & is new, but we usually get together for that anyhow).
I have this great cakepan that is in the shape of a castle, so that could be fun. I'm also thinking up other recipes that might be related to gaming...dice shaped cheese squares & crackers decorated like dice maybe...geez, I'm a geek...but I love entertaining & throwing parties!! (which is part of the reason why i'm so eager to move out of our apartment & into our house...)
Any other ideas out there?
I have this great cakepan that is in the shape of a castle, so that could be fun. I'm also thinking up other recipes that might be related to gaming...dice shaped cheese squares & crackers decorated like dice maybe...geez, I'm a geek...but I love entertaining & throwing parties!! (which is part of the reason why i'm so eager to move out of our apartment & into our house...)
Any other ideas out there?
