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<blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 3346312" data-attributes="member: 3400">It's natural to want things like this. After all, you spend hours making up your villains, lairs, and diabolical plot under the assumption that the PCs will eventually prevail. Who doesn't want to just cut loose every once in a while?But, ultimately, DMs have to get used to being the primary punching bag. Who's going to lose more characters, the players who make up the party or the DM? The DM. Whose work is more likely to end up unheralded, unknown, and unused in the game? The DM's. The players will almost never fully know and appreciate the motivations of the BBEG and his lackeys or any of their backstory, and yet you have probably made up at least some of that information to make sense of the villain and his plans. Meanwhile, your players just write up some notes (or even an expansive short story or epic poem) on their own narrow little slice of the campaign and, undoubtedly, make sure everyone remembers it by bringing it out every session in their role playing ad nauseum.So you're not alone in your feelings. It's quite alright to want to see the PCs writhe in your BBEG's clutches as everything they hold dear is destroyed in front of their faces. It's OK to want to do the dance of triumph over your players' mangled character sheets just to see the look on their faces.But then, it's also natural for your players to want to get back at you by bringing the pizza loaded with pepperonis that they used as Tuck's medicated pads. And so we come to detente.It's OK and valid to have these feelings. You just have to master the impulses, play the part of monologuing arch villain, and take your lumps. It is, however, still OK to cackle with glee from time to time when you get a good hit in.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="billd91, post: 3346312, member: 3400"] It's natural to want things like this. After all, you spend hours making up your villains, lairs, and diabolical plot under the assumption that the PCs will eventually prevail. Who doesn't want to just cut loose every once in a while? But, ultimately, DMs have to get used to being the primary punching bag. Who's going to lose more characters, the players who make up the party or the DM? The DM. Whose work is more likely to end up unheralded, unknown, and unused in the game? The DM's. The players will almost never fully know and appreciate the motivations of the BBEG and his lackeys or any of their backstory, and yet you have probably made up at least some of that information to make sense of the villain and his plans. Meanwhile, your players just write up some notes (or even an expansive short story or epic poem) on their own narrow little slice of the campaign and, undoubtedly, make sure everyone remembers it by bringing it out every session in their role playing ad nauseum. So you're not alone in your feelings. It's quite alright to want to see the PCs writhe in your BBEG's clutches as everything they hold dear is destroyed in front of their faces. It's OK to want to do the dance of triumph over your players' mangled character sheets just to see the look on their faces. But then, it's also natural for your players to want to get back at you by bringing the pizza loaded with pepperonis that they used as Tuck's medicated pads. And so we come to detente. It's OK and valid to have these feelings. You just have to master the impulses, play the part of monologuing arch villain, and take your lumps. It is, however, still OK to cackle with glee from time to time when you get a good hit in. [/QUOTE]

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