Ever gotten 'emotional' over a game event?

[Dingleberry]

A few years back, we had a character death in a Star Wars campaign we had played for nearly three years. It was a sudden, almost random death (a lucky gaffii stick hit to the head by a Tusken Raider) that stunned the entire group (including me as DM) for several minutes. Then we continued - barely. The rest of the session was filled with denial, anger and, of course, shock - from both the players and their characters.

We collectively decided that the next session would consist only of the funeral, which was attended by many NPCs they had met over the course of the campaign. Each player - in character - wrote and read a eulogy for the fallen comrade (including one sent in by a player who had left the campaign the previous year when he moved away). The deceased's player and I then surprised the others with something special we'd cooked up during the week: the character's pre-recorded will, which bequeathed parting words and personal effects upon his closest friends. We spent a LOT of that session choked up, and I suspect a few tears were shed but hidden. Hands down, the BEST role-playing I've ever seen, and the most rewarding DMing experience I've ever had.

At first I felt a little ridiculous about getting so emotional over the "death" of a fictional character, but then I thought about it. I figure we'd spent nearly 300 hours with this character. If I can get choked up by the death of a character I've "known" for less than 2 hours of a movie, it's only natural we would feel at least that much for a character we'd "known" for 150 times that. In fact, I'd consider the whole campaign a failure if we didn't feel something.

 

[GMVictory]

I think you just summed up, very eloquently, one of the reasons it is fun to be a DM. I could not have said it better.

Thank you very much.

 

[Dr_Rictus]

Well, I once hauled off and cuffed a guy in the head at a Call of Cthulhu game at GenCon.

Truth be known, as much into the part as I was, I had only meant to mock strike him, but he leaned the wrong way in his surprise. Thank goodness he took it in the spirit it was intended!

We laughed about it later.

 

[pawned79]

Yes. I had an emotional experience just the other day. Going into all the details would be too lengthy and no one would read it to the end, so here is the short of it...

My character Balak, a young wise but naive boy, with the help of his sister and village friend (the other PCs) and numerous NPCs including our leader, Balak's master, the old man Feyd, have trekked across our desert land in hopes of finding wondrous weapons on the cursed black mesa, which we can use to rescue our people from enslavement. We are in the throws of combat at the base of the tower that is believed to shelter these great arms against an unknown demon-like creature that guards the tower. After a dozen rounds worth of combat, Balak catches an image out of his eye of a shadowy figure rising from nothingness behind his beloved master Feyd. An assassin that we have longed feared has struck. Within a few seconds, the assassin is overwhelmed by the men and is killed at the moment that the demon is finally slain. Master Feyd died shortly there after. I, player Patrick Damiani, nearly broke down into tears. I honestly had to hold them back. I took that emotion and gave it to Balak who fell into an uncharacteristic daze for many hours until Feyd's pyre was prepared and his spirit was sent to god. Balak, having only two levels in cleric and could not stop the deadly poison from the assassin’s blade, made a secret vow that day that he would concentrate his strength into the healing arts to ensure that no one he loves will ever be taken from him. So, that's my story.

Patrick

 

[Mystic_23]

This is the story of the most emotional I've gotten when gaming:

This was in a 2nd ed DND FR game. Throughout the game there was rumors of a plague that was spreading. Eventually, we found the source of the plague. He was a gunpowder dealer who's ship full of gunpowder blew up in Baldur's Gate and killed a favored priest of the goddess of disease (forgot her name). So, she cursed him with this plague in such a way that 1) he spreads it to whomever comes within a certain distance from him, 2) he cannot be killed and 3) the plagues effects do not advance as long as you remain within a certain distance from him.

So, we met him...his name was Farren. He was found to have the plague (he had the look of a plaguebearer but it didn't kill him like others) in a small town. They staked him out with other plaguebearers and burned him alive. Of course, he didn't die, he was just burned severely and in pain. Eventually, because we were (for the most part) kind to him (exept for a couple of characters who didn't like him from the getgo) he told us about his problem and, because we had the plague, and it didn't advance when he was about, we kept him around.

Eventually we went to Silverymoon because we heard that the "Moon Pools" would cure us of the disease and could ultimately stop the plague all together. So, after several months of gaming, and battling our way to a moon pool, we finally were able to go into them and get healed by Selune.

The only caveat to this is we found out that Selune couldn't help Farren to get rid of the plague. The best she could do was make it so he could actually die, thereby stopping the plague from spreading further. It was a VERY emotional moment when the DM described Farren walking out of the moon pool and going off alone pulling out one of his handguns, and then hearing the report of the gun as he shot himself in the head. Not only did he sacrifice himself for the greater good, but he had also become a trusted ally and a good friend. I think it effected all of us.

 

[Pielorinho]

Long ago, I had a brilliant DM that could really evoke emotion in his players. Two examples:

1) In a modern, X-Files-ish game, one of the PCs was a fifty-year-old owner of a used bookstore who got swept up in supernatural events. Like all good PCs, he was gleefully ignoring his home life as he went on adventures, feeding little white lies to his wife so that he'd have excuses to be out of town. He thought he was protecting her.

Eventually, the wife invited all her husband's new friends over to dinner and was polite and gracious to all of us. But then she asked her husband (the PC) to help her in the kitchen. The DM described her as she chopped vegetables, told her husband how much she loved him, and how she understood that she was losing him now. She didn't know what she was losing him to, but she wanted him to know that whatever he had to do, he had her love.

Chop. Chop. Chop.

Great stuff!

2) When I went to college, I moved across the country, and we had to find a way to resolve my Werewolf PC's plotlines. An NPC told my character that if he participated in an upcoming battle, two outcomes were certain: first, my participation would be the only chance our group would have of not being annihilated; and second, I would die in the battle.

I spent two or three sessions playing through my PC's coping with his own death. He ran away at first, did everything he could think of to lose himself, before finally showing up, unannounced, mid-battle with all the armaments he could possibly find. Sure enough, he died in the battle, in a scene that turned the tide of a war. When we played through his extended death scene, I had tears in my eyes; it worked both on a story-level and as some sort of weirdly appropriate farewell to my friends as I moved away.

Daniel

 

[ForceUser]

One time, many years ago, while playing in a Star Wars campaign my GM and I roleplayed a very touching scene between my male PC and a female NPC wherein, after months of drama between them, they finally came out and admitted their feelings for one another. There was this long dramatic pause at the end where they (meaning, he and I) stared into each others' eyes and held hands before the "scene" faded.

What can I say? It was a great campaign. But as soon as the moment was over we both realized what we were doing and kind of went "Ew! Dude!" and that was pretty funny.