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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1052026" data-attributes="member: 812">Okay, I've had it with these macho "Rat Bastard" DMs.Er, rather, I've had it with envying these "Rat Bastard" DMs and their tough-as-nails ways, their TPKs and their crying 8-year-olds. Clearly I'm never going to make my players devour their own character sheets in horrified frustration, I'm never going to gloat as I slaughter one hapless PC after another, I'll never know the thrill of hearing a player say, "I brought three characters tonight, just in case." These joys are not for me. These pleasures will never provide me with hours of amusement.I'm a Spineless Puppy DM. It's like being a Rat Bastard, only different.My characters pout and I give them everything. They keep their characters through thick and thin. I never put them in "save-or-die" scenarios because what if they die? I'd cry. I get anxious when PCs get down to single-digit hit points and you know what? I fudge a lot of die rolls. Funny circumstances pop up when things are getting dire.I'm a Spineless Puppy. I'm kind of cute, and I make people laugh, but I'm not to be taken seriously.This isn't a self-pitying thing. Spineless Puppies don't feel bad -- they can't -- they're puppies. Puppies are always happy except when they're lonely. I'm a happy DM. I'm just grateful my players show up. Maybe I worry sub-cousciously that if I get all rat-bastardy that they won't come back. Maybe I don't want to get all weepy because I killed a PC that I've come to care about more than the player.I've come to the conclusion that Spineless Puppy DMs can run games just as exciting as Rat Bastard DMs.  The thrills in a SPDM game are different, however. In an SPDM game players don't fear death -- they fear that they won't figure things out. Or that their ally won't survive (NPCs tend to suffer a lot in SPDM games since they have to take on all the tragedy PCs would otherwise provide). Or that the evil cousin will take over the throne and turn the kingdom into a nightmare of desolation. Not that that would hurt the PCs any, but it would sure be hard on the NPCs (see above).An exciting SPDM game demands that the players care about things beyond their characters -- they can probably figure out that their characters are at low risk, but if they care about NPCs they'll still get all worried and enthralled and all that.Maybe being an SPDM means you get practice in involving players in the larger campaign world. It lets players relax a little, stop worrying about their precious character and let their imagination wrap them up in the campaign itself.So Spineless Puppy DMs (I know I'm not the only one) unite! Stand proud! Say it with me:I'm Spineless, I'm Cute, I'm a Fat, Wiggly Puppy and I Can STILL Make My Players Freak Out!Inside each of us there's a Spineless Puppy, isn't there? And a Rat Bastard. Good DMs, I reckon, need a little of both. These days I'm just embracing my inner Puppy.He's cuter than my inner Rat.</blockquote>

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