Satisfying (but sad) DM Moments

[DayTripper]

Last week we had a new guy join our group. The players seemed so into roleplaying meeting his character they didn't even ask him what he class was! They were far more interested in where he came from, what he looked like and how to get him interested in joining their group.

As DM I thought this was a small victory of fluff over crunch for a change. I'm more used to players immediately asking new players what their class/level/hit points/powers/magic items etc are so it was nice to see some genuine roleplaying.

Anyone else had a moment in the DM's chair where you just give yourself a little smile for some sad, game-related reason?

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Player 1: "Maybe we should go see Mayor Deverin."
Player 2: "Yeah, we can tell him..."
Power Gamer: "Her."
Everyone: "Huh?"
Power Gamer: "You mean 'her,' the mayor is female."


Our resident power gamer was actually paying attention to story elements instead of just skirmish tactics!

 

[darjr]

A recent RPGA game. The players were investigating an illegal drug gang by pretending to be interested drug buyers/peddlers. They found their way to a 'lab'. One of the players just up and decided that his character could and would buy the lab outright. I thought, "What the heck, lets see where this goes."

The game went to a beautiful chaotic mess.

 

[blargney the second]

I had an awesome moment in my Eberron Savage Tide game last Friday.

The PCs inadvertently released a quori that had been trapped alone in an adamantine dreamcatcher for 40,000 years since the giant-quori war. It was insane and believed that it was hallucinating the entire experience, refusing to believe it was actually free. The quori lashed out at the party, hoping to destroy the visions that tormented it.

Meanwhile, the party realized how old it was and finally connected to the fact that the ancient quori were actually chaotic good creatures. So they weathered its attacks, doing everything they could to convince it that they were real and on the same side. The xeph swordsage even handed her sword to the outsider - an intelligent blade crafted long ago by quori to slay giants. They managed to calm it down enough to stop attacking them.

That's when both it and they noticed that the quori was fading, becoming more transparent by the second.

The plane it originated from had undergone a cataclysmic rebirth many thousands of years ago, and consequently its tie to the universe was also destroyed. Not wanting to see a good creature pass away, the adventurers suggested that it go back inside the dreamcatcher, but it refused. "I would rather cease to exist than return to the hell of eternal imprisonment."

"Then possess me," said the xeph Izera. (stunned looks around the table)

When their minds merged, the holes and fissures in its cracked psyche were filled and healed by her. A new breed of kalashtar was born!

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Yes! At GenCon, when a character died, four of the players at the table (all the PCs were litorians, a leonine race), all caterwauled together. Eerie and rewarding all at once.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

Player 1: "So I took the Leadership feat, I'd like to check out the local tavern for a potential cohort"
Player 2: "I'll follow, just in case"
Player 1: "I order whatever's on special as I look arround, do I see a potential cohort?"
Potential cohort: "Oh man, I loves me some Mutton pie, yer gonna eat that? I'd do anything fer yer mutton pie"
Player 2: "I LOVE your NPCs!"
Half ork, hitting on player 2: "Mongo like elf, Mongo buy elf drink!" *He hands you a glass of liquid brown, theres chunks of somthing in it, there seems to be a fork suspended in the liquid, as well as a cockroach whos legs are moving frantically... The foam on the drink is also hairy.*
Player 2: "Your NPCs RULE!"

This happened on tuesday of this week, just a small example of life in one of my cities. So sad, its AWESOME!

 

[Goonalan]

In the Pyramid of Shadows (adapted), ghostly dead dwarves keep appearing and shouting out warnings of apocalypse and worse- dire threats to the PCs. Queue strange looks from the players- where are these guys from?

And on it goes for an entire session, obviously one of the players knows what this is all about- he wrote his backstory afterall. This goes on for some more of the next session, and gets nasty when the screaming ghostly Dwarves bring on the next encounter. The players are peeved to say the least, and then Farkill stands up, the silent Dwarf follower of Moradin- not the most chatty of players, clears his throat and speaks...

And it was a side of A4, about the depths he sunk to in his youth, the things he'd seen and done, the mistakes he had made; and it ends in almost shouted declarations of faith and atonement- fantastic because in the 50 or so sessions before this he'd not let anything much slip, nor had he made any speeches of any real length.

Silence follows for a while, then whispered "Wow!"s, followed by nervous chuckles- it was just great. Stopped the show.

 

[Goonalan]

Then there was the time in KOTS when Lucan, the nastiest Thief in the kingdoms, broke into Ninaran's shack- leaving the rest of the players outside fighting for their lives against Ninaran's Shadow Wolves, Guard Drakes etc.

Anyway he manages to KO Ninaran, so she's out cold and sat in a wing-backed style chair.

Lucan rifles the room, takes everything worth stealing and then wonders what next, I- your friendly DM ask just that question-

"Err... Err... I teabag her."

We're on Skype, and listening in from at least 100 miles away, a majority of the players a 1,000 or more miles away- so you're bound to miss things.

Four other players and one DM (me) ask, in chorus-

"What did you say?"

Unashamedly the reply comes again-

"I teabag her..." Deadpan, not even the hint of a smile in Lucan's voice.

There follows the noise of international schoolboy style giggling (Jack is the youngest of the players, 20 years younger than me). You have to remember the players on the outside of the hut are mad at Lucan, once again he avoids the fight, once again he has his paws on the treasure, once again they're fighting for their lives while Lucan swans around- what use is he etc?

Gold.

Famously Lucan went on in Thunderspire to Teleport (Breaching Armour) into Paldemar's bedchamber- when Paldemar was out of it, and snooze on the bed, after picking the chest and taking all the money (Bag of Holding), while the rest of the PCs fight for their lives in the climax of the entire adventure. And when we talk about Thunderspire, reminiscing, what story always gets told- Lucan's snooze, every time.

I hated Lucan.

I loved Lucan.

 

[Wolf1066]

OK, not "sad" as such:

The Mean Streets of Hamilton, New Zealand, 2070 and the fairly cybered-up team are out and about for the evening.

Little did they know I, as GM, had a nasty surprise up my sleeve - they were about to get mugged.

Pretty normal state of affairs, except the mugger is 11 years old, armed with a stolen pistol (the "Great Equaliser").

I'd designed the situation as a moral quandry for the characters - the kid was a clear and present danger, an indisputable risk to life and limb and clearly justifying the use of lethal force. Except they are adults and he's only a kid - they kill him and, although the law would uphold their actions, the kid's family would be able to raise merry hell about how their sweet and innocent little babe was taken from them, the media would have a field day and the characters would probably feel rather stink at having killed a child, anyway. They handle it wrong, and there's a chance the kid could kill one or more of them.

I was interested to see how they would handle it.

So they come abreast of the alley, the kid makes his challenge with pistol already drawn and covering them.

And one of the players hands over a wad of money and then tells the kid that if he wants to get more, then [the player] has a job offer for him.

Cue surprised team members and an extremely surprised GM.

The crafty sod recruited the kid as his sidekick and - knowing that the kid's morality was questionable, proceeded to enlist his help in some clandestine illicit actions of his own devising.

And I pretty much had no reason not to let him do so - the kid's motivation for his behaviour was pure survival, hence he was mugging people for money. The player offered him a lot less risky means of survival and the fact that some of that work was less than legal mattered not a jot to a kid who'd been prepared to threaten, possibly kill, people in exchange for money.

Excellent role-playing on the part of the player who instantly saw in that shady little urchin the means to fulfil his own nefarious plans without the knowledge of the rest of the party.