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The Neutral Referee, Monty Haul, and the Killer DM: History of the GM and Application to 5e
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<blockquote data-quote="Maxperson" data-source="post: 8708980" data-attributes="member: 23751"><p>I don't think it's revisionism or inaccurate at all. What I think is that we all saw Monty Haul games for a variety of reasons and perhaps didn't see all of them. </p><p></p><p>I personally saw games like [USER=7023840]@Snarf Zagyg[/USER] mentioned in his OP, and I heard about games like you describe in this post, but didn't personally encounter those. However, I also know of two more types. </p><p></p><p>First, I played a lot with one of those killer DMs. He delighted in save or die traps and monsters with save or die abilities. He put monsters that were very hard to defeat and you died if you didn't, but he also gave them powerful magic items including powerful artifacts of his own making or god weapons from the deities and demigods, so we got Monty Haul treasure to use for as long as it took until we eventually TPKd. At one point I had a +6 spear that did 6-60 damage from some god or another. </p><p></p><p>Second, there was a period of time in the '80's where I was Monty Haul. Not because I was a fan of the players, or because I was playing favorites, or even because I was the killer DM who thought killer encounters should have powerful rewards. I was Monty Haul because I thought it was boring for encounters to just have some gold and gems, or maybe some potions and scrolls. It was more fun to roll up real magic items. So I dutifully prepared everything in advance, randomly rolled dungeon levels, dressing, encounters, etc., but put in a ton of real magic items to make things more interesting. It didn't take all that long for me to realize that too many magic items made the game too easy and I stopped being Monty Haul, but I was yet another type that existed in the '80s.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Maxperson, post: 8708980, member: 23751"] I don't think it's revisionism or inaccurate at all. What I think is that we all saw Monty Haul games for a variety of reasons and perhaps didn't see all of them. I personally saw games like [USER=7023840]@Snarf Zagyg[/USER] mentioned in his OP, and I heard about games like you describe in this post, but didn't personally encounter those. However, I also know of two more types. First, I played a lot with one of those killer DMs. He delighted in save or die traps and monsters with save or die abilities. He put monsters that were very hard to defeat and you died if you didn't, but he also gave them powerful magic items including powerful artifacts of his own making or god weapons from the deities and demigods, so we got Monty Haul treasure to use for as long as it took until we eventually TPKd. At one point I had a +6 spear that did 6-60 damage from some god or another. Second, there was a period of time in the '80's where I was Monty Haul. Not because I was a fan of the players, or because I was playing favorites, or even because I was the killer DM who thought killer encounters should have powerful rewards. I was Monty Haul because I thought it was boring for encounters to just have some gold and gems, or maybe some potions and scrolls. It was more fun to roll up real magic items. So I dutifully prepared everything in advance, randomly rolled dungeon levels, dressing, encounters, etc., but put in a ton of real magic items to make things more interesting. It didn't take all that long for me to realize that too many magic items made the game too easy and I stopped being Monty Haul, but I was yet another type that existed in the '80s. [/QUOTE]
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