What's the most rat bastard thing you've ever done as a DM?

[omnimpotent]

I subcontracted my worst rat-bastardy to a player.

We were playing Beyond the Supernatural victim-characters (the D&D equivalent of commoners) who were supposed to be loosely based on the players.

The action started with an ever-so cliched ouija board session, which left the characters with the unpleasant suspicion that they had called up that which they could not put down, but no proof.

What they had called was a possessing entity. The next time two characters went somewhere quiet, we went into the next room and the player who I felt was quicker on the uptake got a card with his new stats and abilities on it, with a quick explanation. He messily slaughtered his chum, I swore them all to secrecy, and we went back into the room.

My pet PC then managed to get each of the other PC's alone and butcher them, all the while without any of the survivors catching on, and with the players of the deceased nearly exploding as they sat in on the rest of the session. The last PC's final action was to give my pet PC their shotgun "to hold for a minute" as he barricaded the two of them in a small room.

I lost a lot of player trust, running that session, but in return, I don't trust players anymore, either.

This will lose me some rat-bastard points, but the game was a one shot. I couldn't bring myself to do this to established PCs.

 

[Rune]

Hey, since you're a member of that Rat Bastard DM's Club, PirateCat, could you post the definition that they use for rat bastardry? I think I've seen that before somewhere...

Anyway, I don't know if my example is really the most rat bastardly thing I've done, but it is definitely the most satisfying on the "getting the PCs and players to screw themselves over (in a good way, of course)" scale.

It happened in a Cthulhu game. I was running the game that night for two players, my brother and a religion major who was, as it happened, a devout Christian (I tell you this only because it will be relevant to my tale).

I managed to subtly convince my brother to map the unknown subterranian caverns into which the PCs have fallen. In game, he convinces the religion major's character to yield a page from the concordance of her bible for the purpose, as they have no other real choice. The player of that character is pretty uncomfortable about that, but recognizes that in a game of Cthulhu, you are supposed to be uncomfortable.

So they go about the exploration. See the link above for details. Finally, as they are about to hit the final chamber, something dawns on the religion major and she says to my brother, "Let me see that map."

But it was too late.

He had already drawn most of a sigil very reminiscent of a pentacle, or pentagram. And, in game, that happened on a bible page. This being a Cthulhu game, that, naturally, unlocked some sort of horrible evil. But the really great thing about it was that I managed to get them (that is, my brother) to draw the whole thing out in real life without realizing what he was doing. Ah...

Okay, I have one more example, only because it is the first time I ever did anything remotely resembling rat bastardy. I was running a one shot with my brother (same brother as above) and we were both 15 or so. Maybe 14. He's hunting an ogre and goes into a cave. There's a skeleton in the cave with a rusty ring and two heads. He puts on the ring...and promptly grows a second head. We laughed about that one for a long, long time.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Party is recovering from being captured and losing most everything. The cult they are battling and some political factions in the city have put a rather high price on their heads (well on some of their heads; the other PCs came in after someone collected on their previous characters). The city is essentially in a state of siege; undead have been attacking everything undefended (or lightly defended) outside the city walls and occasionally attacking inside them too.

The fighter/wizard needs to get a spellbook. He's got an apprentice spellbook with some first level spells that he loaned to a friend but he needs more than that. So, he talks to the bard/rogue and they decide to inquire around the city about spellbooks for sale. I have them roll gather info checks and think about it a little bit. The villains have no use for the fighter/wizard's spellbook. So the logical thing for them to do would be to sell it. Hmm. . . .

They get leads on two places: the merchant who they're pretty sure is a major villain (they're right) but haven't been able to prove anything about has one. The other is being sold by an old witch who lives in an abandoned shack down by the river outside the city walls.

Since the PCs don't want to give the first merchant money, they decide to go to the old witch. The paladin has second thoughts about going to visit a witch so he lodges a protest with the other PCs and stays outside. The other two PCs go in.

The Annis hag makes a spot check to recognize the fighter/wizard (the one with the price on his head). They ask about the spellbook. She says she has one and offers them overpriced "healing potions" as well if they want them. Since magic was fairly rare in my game, the bard/rogue jumps at the chance. I'll buy one he says. The fighter/wizard recognizes his spellbook but he can also tell that something's been done to it. He's not sure what though, so he opens it to make sure.

The firetrap goes off. The annis stands up to her full height and rends the fighter/wizard. He grabs his spellbook and retreats and the rogue/bard advances. The rogue/bard gets rended into the negatives. His player: "give me the healing potion." Me: "OK, roll a fort save. . . .right, you take 7 points of con damage. . . ."

The moral of the story: don't buy "healing potions" from your enemies--at least not without doing some kind of test.

 

[Dirt]

The group travels to an underdark city named Jeruport, to bid on one of their captured companions (thereby freeing her from impending slavery). The slaver port exists in null magic (which actually simply surpresses magic, and keeps it from functioning).

They discover that one of the establishments (a place selling body parts and exhumation services) is run by an old nemisis of theirs - a former funeral director named Mivran Delath.

At this point in the game, the group had some information with which they could blackmail Mirvran...and they did so. The mage of the group decided to blackmail Mivran and demanded a mindflayer head (needed for a ritual that he wished to perform). Mivran begrudgingly agreed.

A week later, the group returns to collect the mindflayer head, and they recieve a chest (sizeable enough to contain it). They keep this chest, sitting unopened in the room of a local inn of Jeruport, for the next 2 months.

After finishing the other sidetreks, they pick up the chest, determined to return to the surface world for sometime. They follow the tradeway leading out from Jeruport (which spans an underground river), and cross the end of the null magic zone. As they do so, the delayed blast fireball that had been cast (and supressed due to the null magic), explodes outward.

The majority of the party managed to survive (but were now a little humbled) , but the two individuals carrying the chest were not so lucky. The party spent the remainder of the session fishing their remains from the river.

As an end note, it would be worthy to mention that the party mage wasn't one of the individuals carrying the chest...he had coerced two others to carry it for him (by proclaiming that the chest was too heavy for him).

 

[Joshua Randall]

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like too many of these ostensible rat-bastard stories are really stories of how the DM killed the PCs, or convinced them to kill themselves, or kill each other.

I think true rat-bastardy should be non-lethal. You should be wounding the PCs' pride, putting them in sticky situations, and making them miserable - but not killing them.

So let's hear some more non-lethal rat-bastard moments!

 

[Delgar]

I think true rat-bastardy should be non-lethal. You should be wounding the PCs' pride, putting them in sticky situations, and making them miserable - but not killing them.

Mine was non-lethal.

Delgar

 

[ghettognome]

I haven't dm'd much, but my first campaign was a doozie. It was a 2e psuedo DL campaign. ( I loved the world, but only wanted to use certain aspects of it in my campaign. I had also had my group pick their race and class out of a hat so there would randomness to the game and people wouldn't fall into the same character niche they always do. They had fun with that, though I wouldn't do that again, 3e is too good for that.

My group had stumbled upon a very very small town which was unnaturally deserted. Meals were left half eaten, doors hung open, everything was left as if everyone had just disappeared. The players of course wanted to investigate this, but found no leads until the very last place the checked. (an empty well). They found a tunnel that lead them to a cave that was at the edge of some woods. Out in the clearing they could see a manor, standing all alone with not even a road leading to it. Of course being adventurers they go to check it out.

On the inside, there was a very strong magical feeling to it, and the players felt compelled to go upstairs (though a few made the save a few times at first, though they ended up in some traps in their exploration until then). At the top of the stairs there were two doors, one to the right and one to the left. They heard a lot of screaming from the room on the left and thus went straight there. As soon as they enterred the room they were transformed into elves who were fleeing from some Drow. They had to keep making saves to keep from fleeing with the rest of the elves, but by the time the room was crossed (a door on the other side) only one PC had managed to make it, the rest were fleeing and cowering in fear. On the other side of the door was a Drow controlling a Dragon Orb. (had just read about the Sylvan and Lorac's nightmare, and being the only one of our group to have read all the DL books, I had the advantage of using the info and not being figured out. ) Coicidentally the one PC who had made it through was the only true elf of my group. Because the Drow was so involved with the Dragon Orb and the havoc she was creating, the PC was able to sneak up and get an easy kill.

After all was said and done, the drow and elves in the previous room were transformed back to themselves (the missing villagers). All but one that is. I gave it a 1% chance that one of my players would remain and elf and one of the I actually rolled that. The halfling of the group (the first time this player had EVER played something other than human) was now an elf. (of course a dispell magic of epic level might have turned him back, but the player didnt need to knwo that. ) The elf of the campaign had to give the halfling/elf lessons on how to act like and elf, and speak like one.

To make matters worse, he had to find his halfling spouse and explain what happened, but the road led them through a Gully Dwarf community. Of course the Gully Dwarves begged them to come talk to their leader. The players felt obliged to help these pitiful creatures and followed. Out of nowhere the halfling/elf got hit in the back of his head. A small blue ball fell to the ground and bounced back to the Gully Dwarf guide. He turns around with a toothy grin and says "Magic Ball find evil, where evil?" (the spell that turned the halfing to and elf was evil, and the hafling/elf radiated it under a detect evil spell). The group shrugged and continued on. For the rest of the time in this travelling the ball kept finding the halfling/elf and hitting him. The group laughed endlessly at this all except the one having this happen.

The rest was just the completion, but that was my story of being slightly evil.

 

[ghettognome]

So let's hear some more non-lethal rat-bastard moments!

Mine didn't kill anyone, and did wound at least one PC's pride.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Hey, since you're a member of that Rat Bastard DM's Club, PirateCat, could you post the definition that they use for rat bastardry? I think I've seen that before somewhere...

Hmm, I'm in the club too, so I'll try and answer - and like Joshua Randall points out, just killing the PC's isn't really the point. It's killing them and making them love every second of it that's the point...

But seriously, the Rat Bastard DM's Club definition of rat-bastardry is to put the PC's into situations that are immensely challenging and difficult, oftentimes with no clear solution, and do it in such a way that it is a rewarding gaming experience for all involved. It's easy to screw the PC's, but giving them tough choices that take the game to a higher level is much more difficult. A sort of "Kobiyashi Maru" test, if you will. And if the PC's pull off a Captain Kirk-like solution that confounds the DM, all the better!

 

[WanderingMonster]

The most rat smurfy thing I've done, hmmm...

In a party without much healing, a wand of cure light wounds can be pretty handy when you have a rogue with Use Magic Device. Except when it's a cursed wand that turns the recepient blue ...permanently. You can't imagine how often they went without healing after the first time. Mostly they just blamed the rogue for screwing up the skill roll.