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RBDM - How?
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<blockquote data-quote="Piratecat" data-source="post: 3923092" data-attributes="member: 2"><p>The best method I've found for being a RBDM has nothing at all to do slaughtering the party. That's not fun; in fact, a DM can slaughter a party of PCs any time he chooses to. As folks have said up-thread, the real joy of rat bastardy is allowing the players to make meaningful choices that both make the game more fun for everyone, <em>and</em> which leave the PCs in horrible trouble due to their own decisions. </p><p></p><p>An example: the first RB trick I can remember pulling was back in 2e. A magicuser PC used a crystal ball in a hostile dungeon and caught a glimpse of a beautiful young girl, chained and miserable. He scried her, as I thought he would, and she explained she was to be sacrificed to release a fiendish princess from captivity. The party rushed to her rescue and obeyed all of her suggestions... and of course, it was a cursed crystal hypnosis ball and she <em>was</em> the fiendish princess being held captive. The rest of the campaign was spent trying to make up for their embarrassing, horrible mistake.</p><p></p><p>So what's the best way to make your players love you and want to headbutt you at the same time? Twist their expectations. Think about what the obvious result of an action might be, then change it so that it catches the PCs off-guard. Does a doppelganger escape? Instead of having him mug the PCs in a dark alley, he kills a politician and makes their families' lives difficult. Are they working for a venerable wizard who might secretly be a bad guy? He isn't, but an evil third party is planting evidence that makes them think he is.</p><p></p><p>The trick here is that all these changes lead to greater adventure, and thus to more fun. A change that becomes "and now the PCs are all dead, ha ha" doesn't turn out to be fun for anyone.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Piratecat, post: 3923092, member: 2"] The best method I've found for being a RBDM has nothing at all to do slaughtering the party. That's not fun; in fact, a DM can slaughter a party of PCs any time he chooses to. As folks have said up-thread, the real joy of rat bastardy is allowing the players to make meaningful choices that both make the game more fun for everyone, [i]and[/i] which leave the PCs in horrible trouble due to their own decisions. An example: the first RB trick I can remember pulling was back in 2e. A magicuser PC used a crystal ball in a hostile dungeon and caught a glimpse of a beautiful young girl, chained and miserable. He scried her, as I thought he would, and she explained she was to be sacrificed to release a fiendish princess from captivity. The party rushed to her rescue and obeyed all of her suggestions... and of course, it was a cursed crystal hypnosis ball and she [i]was[/i] the fiendish princess being held captive. The rest of the campaign was spent trying to make up for their embarrassing, horrible mistake. So what's the best way to make your players love you and want to headbutt you at the same time? Twist their expectations. Think about what the obvious result of an action might be, then change it so that it catches the PCs off-guard. Does a doppelganger escape? Instead of having him mug the PCs in a dark alley, he kills a politician and makes their families' lives difficult. Are they working for a venerable wizard who might secretly be a bad guy? He isn't, but an evil third party is planting evidence that makes them think he is. The trick here is that all these changes lead to greater adventure, and thus to more fun. A change that becomes "and now the PCs are all dead, ha ha" doesn't turn out to be fun for anyone. [/QUOTE]
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