Scotley
Hero
Um yeah JA I hate to break it to you, but you are in fact a Rat Bastard DM. The semi-official definition is a DM who is a master of the law of unintended consequences. This is accomplished by allowing the players to do what they want only to discover they didn't think of all the ramifications and thus take themselves from the frying pan and into the fire on a regular basis.
Exhibit A. Royal Marriage, the players thought marriage into the Royal family was the ticket to wealth and happiness. We quickly discovered the kingdom and the Royal family was in constant peril and we were now responsible for protecting both. I expect we spent way more in time and personal resources than we ever got from the royal coffers.
Exhibit B. Okay Royal Marriage isn't exactly a bed of roses. So one player, I'm looking at you Mowgli, decided to bail. Turns out Royal divorce ain't no picnic either.
Exhibit C. Player x finds the opposition has placed a price on his head. Thinks I and my trusty companion, let's turn the tables on them and pretend player y kills player x and goes to collect the reward. We'll find out who the bad guys are and enrich ourselves as we go. Turns out we are both Syons of fairly important families in the kingdom whose support is vital to the continued success of the kingdom. Said families being at odds practically results in civil war. Oh so smart players did too good of a job of faking the death using the latest and most powerful magics thus making it very difficult to stop the runaway train even when player x resurfaces seemingly alive and well.
Exhibit D. JA never or very rarely bothered with planning and game design in those days. He'd just show up and toss out a faceless threat. The three stooges (the players) would promptly start waving theirdicks swords, wands etc. around and making trouble trying to figure out who the bad guys were and in the process either create some international incident, wake up some long sleeping ancient evil, or (in my personal case being the Rat Bastard player that I was) accidentally nearly kill the crown prince while trying to show off a creative use of telekinesis during a training match with the lad (who was having way too much success against the old pro and protector of the crown that I was) which triggered some ancient protective magics laid on the Royal family in an inverse way and ended up bruising the Royal spine.
Those are just a few examples that spring readily to mind.
I rest my case.
Exhibit A. Royal Marriage, the players thought marriage into the Royal family was the ticket to wealth and happiness. We quickly discovered the kingdom and the Royal family was in constant peril and we were now responsible for protecting both. I expect we spent way more in time and personal resources than we ever got from the royal coffers.
Exhibit B. Okay Royal Marriage isn't exactly a bed of roses. So one player, I'm looking at you Mowgli, decided to bail. Turns out Royal divorce ain't no picnic either.
Exhibit C. Player x finds the opposition has placed a price on his head. Thinks I and my trusty companion, let's turn the tables on them and pretend player y kills player x and goes to collect the reward. We'll find out who the bad guys are and enrich ourselves as we go. Turns out we are both Syons of fairly important families in the kingdom whose support is vital to the continued success of the kingdom. Said families being at odds practically results in civil war. Oh so smart players did too good of a job of faking the death using the latest and most powerful magics thus making it very difficult to stop the runaway train even when player x resurfaces seemingly alive and well.
Exhibit D. JA never or very rarely bothered with planning and game design in those days. He'd just show up and toss out a faceless threat. The three stooges (the players) would promptly start waving their
Those are just a few examples that spring readily to mind.
I rest my case.
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