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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 3630410" data-attributes="member: 2020">(chuckles)  Adversarial DMing?  I know a little bit about that.  Let me tell you what Adversarial DMing truly is.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  I was a player in the following examples:  - DM's NPC:  'I am the devil, and offer everyone a ton of (insert magical items and other goodies) for a favor of my choosing.  Accept?'  (Party generally accepted, most lost their souls including party paladin.)  - DM:  'You kill the 2 orcs.  The noise of the battle has aroused ALL the monsters in the entire dungeon, and they are all approaching.  Way off, you hear a series of thunderous growls as something really big starts moving.  What do you do?'  (1st level party of two, B1, TPK.)  - DM:  'No, you can't take pre-gen higher level characters into I6, Ravenloft.  You go, with what you've earned, and since you've earned nothing, you go with 1st level characters.  Except you.  You can take your 10th level druid.'  (13 1st level characters, 1 10th level druid, TPK.)  - DM:  'No, you can't take pre-gen higher level characters into S3, White Plume Mountain.  (11 1st level characters, TPK.)  - DM:  'The 4 orcs come around the corner.  No, there is not time for the mage and thief to switch places with the fighters.  The fighters are trapped against the door, while the orcs attack the thief and mage.  Since they surprised you, they obviously get free attacks.  (4 1st level characters, TPK.)  - DM:  'The 50 pixies, invisible and armed with sleep arrows, surround you and demand all your good and items.'  (4 1st level characters, all items of worth lost.)  - DM:  'Nobody EVER makes it through my PC's castle!  So just how do you think you're going to do it?'  (We did it ...)  - DM:  'The six giant spiders attack!'  (4 1st level characters, we survived thanks to that old first edition tactic called Burning Oil.)  - DM:  'The town guard ready their magical bows with Morganti Arrows, aiming them at you.'  (For the crime of causing a barroom brawl.  Called the winged unicorn, got away.)  - DM:  'Acererak shows up personally, and puts a demon army between himself and you.  You're hiding in that spell, but you know what will happen the moment you leave.  And Acererak can chase you anywhere:  you know that.'  (result still in question.)  - DM:  'Vecna is coming after you personally.  No, you can't leave his Domain, for he is the Domain Lord and has blocked it.  Now, you are pinned against the wall, and Vecna is leering at you as he prepares his titanic magic.  There is no escape.  Your action?'  (Edena the PC killed.)  - DM:  'A 10,000 hit dice monster?  That's nothing.  This creature has duplicates of itself through all the times, and every one of them is coming.  In 5 rounds, every version of this 10,000 hit dice monster in time (countless millions) will appear.  What do you do?'  (5th level party, result not relevant)  - DM:  'The Test of the Tower of High Sorcery.  You shall pass through Shoikan Grove.  Since you agreed to the Test, you cannot turn away now, for the penalty for doing so is death.'  (6th level alone, passed the Grove and the Test - and the spectres, death knight, and dracolich.  The worst part is:  the Test is SUPPOSED to be that difficult.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  )  - DM:  'The creature fires an 18th level spell at you, and it hits'  (character vaporized)  - DM:  'The ceiling rigged by the party barbarian to kill the party collapses, and this kills most of the party.'  (most of party killed, barbarian got away with all the treasure and our paladin as prisoner, in final battle all of party killed by barbarian except paladin prisoner.)  - DM:  'The High Clerist's Tower is a cakewalk, a treasure hunt, nothing hard like what you've already been through' (large party of 8th - 11th level characters after long campaign, TPK)  Now, tell me more about Adversarial DMing ... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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