How to Ruin Your Campaign

[Berandor]

I don't fudge, I roll all my dice in front of the players. Hasn't ruined the game yet. Some PCs die from unlucky rolls (eg Ettin staggered at 0hp made 1 last attack, Critted and killed the PC heroine), others from bad choices. Likewise villains succeed, die, or fail but escape as the dice fall. I think this gives the game much more interest, and a more heroic feel, than a fudged game. I would actually think a combat-oriented game like D&D is much _less_ amenable to fudging than is a storyteller game like Vampire.

That's why I mentioned the roll frequency. I equate fudging with cheating on die rolls. In Vampire etc., some things just aren't rolled for, and thereby leave no room for fudging

All I know is that I sometimes wish for a DM I play under to fudge sometimes. He rolls all important rolls in the open, and invariably sucks at them. It's no fun anymore

Berandor

 

[Helspar]

Ruining your campaign, meathod #45623:

Let Nylarathotep play.

 

[Christian]

RVs are generally good, if they have a point. But I'm having serious pain at the thought of one badly named RV from a past campaign I played in who would pop in from nowhere at random times, pop off a few major spells and vanish. Hitting him below -10, grappling him, *nothing* we did could get rid of this guy. We finally had to tell the GM that we weren't playing anymore if this guy didn't stay dead.

Was he called 'The Purple Marauder', by any chance?

(500 experience points to anyone who can identify the source ...)

 

[Black Omega]

Recurring Villain:
I feel that a strong villain is a plus in a good campaign. Sometimes they have to come back. I agree that players start to hate the villain, and sooner or later he'll have to die. But the players invest far more in his death than in some nameless slub.
When the RV gets away, that doesn't mean the players lost. Imagine Blofelld from the Bond movies - he was thwarted everytime. Still, when you saw the chair, the hand and the white cat, it added excitement to the film

I think there is a misunderstanding here on recurring villains. It's no so much someone the character's hate. It's the 'God, not -him/her- again....' type of RV. A good example was already given. Another good example I can recall was a GM's favorite villain who would show up and thrash PC's. He was so annoying and loathed that one time when he showed up the PC's just turned away and left.

A good RV is someone the PC's want to kill. A bad RV is someone the PC's don't ever want to see ever again.

 

[Celtavian]

Re

I pretty much let the dice do their job the majority of the time. I have found that often the dice rolls are far more entertaining than trying to control the flow of the action.

Just yesterday there was this great combat where my barbarian/rogue/fighter (aka Conan..hehe) ran through this door, made a 26 tumble check to tumble through his enemies behind this evil priest. Then he struck the priest for a critical hit with his Greatdsword. Then the next round finished him off with another critical hit and then a regular hit. It was a great series of lucky rolls on a key encounter.

Though it does suck when the opposite happens such as when my bard died to a random encounter of ankhegs..(

 

[Sulimo]

Of course, I think that in all ten "methods," we have to assume an unspoken "more than your players like" tacked to the end of it.

My plots are always complex, even convoluted. But I've never had anyone fail to enjoy them, because I make sure to leave enough clues and drop enough hints that if the players miss one, they'll find another. In fact, they enjoy figuring out the plot more than they do actually playing their characters.

And sometimes even the simplest of plots go right over the heads of players.

Its even worse with puzzles...