What's the most rat bastard thing you've ever done as a DM?
- Thread starter Piratecat
- Start date
My Entire Campaign is mean (Maybe Too Long to Read)
I built my entire campaign to torture the players. By and large the group is made up of hardcore hack and slash, play by rout, power gaming munchkins. They almost always have the same characters (i.e. Cleric with Luck and Travel who cast persistant buffs, Incantrix Wizard, etc...). My campaign was built to force them to role play.
The campaign takes place several decades after the God's War has ended in a brilliant world-wide flash of energy. The sky is always cloud filled, it never rains (the air is humid enough to support life through condensation), resurrection and raise dead spells do not work, scry is useless unless you have a focus or you scry on a specific place you have been to and communication between cities has all but stopped. The characters only mission is to adventure around the country side checking out all the various surviving cities and going sifting through the destroyed ruins.
The truth is, most of the gods are dead, the few remaining gods are only very powerful mortals and the entire world went with them. All the is dead and they are adventuring around in a world set in the equivalent of limbo (like Forgotten Realms Fugue Plains), where the souls would normally wait to be rescued by their gods and taken to their religions version of heaven..... but no gods exist so "life goes on".
To make it more interesting, each character is an Seedling, possessing a tiny bit of the divine spark that are the remnants of the dead gods. Every five levels or when they find and drink from one of the pools of energy (raw divine power) spread throughout the world the get to roll once on a weal chart and once on a woe chart. Each character is seeded with a god's power, but they have no clue which god is there seed. They are constantly trying to figure out which god they belong to. For instance, the cleric following the god of adventure is seeded by the god of martial skill (a monk/fighter god), the psi warrior is seeded by the god of assassins, etc. They crave the powers ups, but fear the woes.
They have found out that they can resurrect slain party members by dipping them in the pool and sacrificing magic items. The only problem is the more times a character is raised the more likely something goes wrong.
This has led to some hilarious moments of role playing and people playing in character rather than min-max power gaming. The Incantrix Wizard is 13th level and doesn't own any Int adding items because he is hoarding his money due to a woe...the best part is, he is convinced that he is seeded by the god of dragons (you see dragons hoard) but he is seeded by the god of greed and robbery.
This is the basis for the campaign, when I get time I will tell some of the adventure meanness that I have inflicted. I am proud that they no longer play like this is a board game version of Diablo. They are actually starting to get worried about dying as they can no longer just spend money and have the PC instantly resurrected in town like their previous games and they are grown very attached to their characters.
I built my entire campaign to torture the players. By and large the group is made up of hardcore hack and slash, play by rout, power gaming munchkins. They almost always have the same characters (i.e. Cleric with Luck and Travel who cast persistant buffs, Incantrix Wizard, etc...). My campaign was built to force them to role play.
The campaign takes place several decades after the God's War has ended in a brilliant world-wide flash of energy. The sky is always cloud filled, it never rains (the air is humid enough to support life through condensation), resurrection and raise dead spells do not work, scry is useless unless you have a focus or you scry on a specific place you have been to and communication between cities has all but stopped. The characters only mission is to adventure around the country side checking out all the various surviving cities and going sifting through the destroyed ruins.
The truth is, most of the gods are dead, the few remaining gods are only very powerful mortals and the entire world went with them. All the is dead and they are adventuring around in a world set in the equivalent of limbo (like Forgotten Realms Fugue Plains), where the souls would normally wait to be rescued by their gods and taken to their religions version of heaven..... but no gods exist so "life goes on".
To make it more interesting, each character is an Seedling, possessing a tiny bit of the divine spark that are the remnants of the dead gods. Every five levels or when they find and drink from one of the pools of energy (raw divine power) spread throughout the world the get to roll once on a weal chart and once on a woe chart. Each character is seeded with a god's power, but they have no clue which god is there seed. They are constantly trying to figure out which god they belong to. For instance, the cleric following the god of adventure is seeded by the god of martial skill (a monk/fighter god), the psi warrior is seeded by the god of assassins, etc. They crave the powers ups, but fear the woes.
They have found out that they can resurrect slain party members by dipping them in the pool and sacrificing magic items. The only problem is the more times a character is raised the more likely something goes wrong.
This has led to some hilarious moments of role playing and people playing in character rather than min-max power gaming. The Incantrix Wizard is 13th level and doesn't own any Int adding items because he is hoarding his money due to a woe...the best part is, he is convinced that he is seeded by the god of dragons (you see dragons hoard) but he is seeded by the god of greed and robbery.
This is the basis for the campaign, when I get time I will tell some of the adventure meanness that I have inflicted. I am proud that they no longer play like this is a board game version of Diablo. They are actually starting to get worried about dying as they can no longer just spend money and have the PC instantly resurrected in town like their previous games and they are grown very attached to their characters.
Oh, another player reminded me of a small evil thing I did. I don't know why, he got what he wanted.
It seems there was an artifiact that you may have heard about. A book that has spells in it and you can cast the spell the book is opened to.
He found it. He was over joyed. untill he realized that it was interspersed with another artifact. One that when read it can turn the reader evil. Wonderful use of artifacts.
It seems there was an artifiact that you may have heard about. A book that has spells in it and you can cast the spell the book is opened to.
He found it. He was over joyed. untill he realized that it was interspersed with another artifact. One that when read it can turn the reader evil. Wonderful use of artifacts.
Shemeska
Adventurer
Hmm... aside from the BBEG Rakshasa (who wasn't a Rakshasa) who got back up after one PC nailed him with a blessed crossbow bolt on a nat 20 (the player was dancing at that moment). Look on their faces was priceless.
Otherwise I've got a PC who through various means and plain dumb luck has gotten two NPC's in their heads, not knowing how much control they may have, if they know each other are in there, and even the alignment of one of them just that he's OLD, forgotten for the most part, and rather powerful.
One of them is an Arcanoloth who's using the PC like a plaything. Alternately offering much for apparently little cost, subtley undermining them and perhaps their alignment with this tempting, and giving them tasks to perform if they want them out of their head.
The other one appears as a tall, well built, charismatic man in archaic black clothing, with little more than the lower half of his face visible. Always followed by a short, robed companion who has no features visible but has been seen once persuing a fleeing man through a field of tall grass, catching him and leaving little behind but a smear of blood on the ground after itself as it walked away. The taller one rubbed the head of the smaller one like a trained hound returned from a successful hunt.
This being refers to himself as The Jester, or The Holder of the Keys, and has strongly been hinted at as being the original builder and occupant of the The Palace of the Jester in Sigil. (likely the oldest, or one of the oldest buildings in the City of Doors, origin and true age is unknown). He may or may not even be human, or alive for that matter.
Kudos if anyone gets the tribute here to Count Magnus, a short story by M.R. James. *fiendish grin*
But both of these critters have access to a PCs mind, with varying and likely hidden agendas for him. It's driving the player batty, and they're pondering trying to play the two off of each other.
Otherwise I've got a PC who through various means and plain dumb luck has gotten two NPC's in their heads, not knowing how much control they may have, if they know each other are in there, and even the alignment of one of them just that he's OLD, forgotten for the most part, and rather powerful.
One of them is an Arcanoloth who's using the PC like a plaything. Alternately offering much for apparently little cost, subtley undermining them and perhaps their alignment with this tempting, and giving them tasks to perform if they want them out of their head.
The other one appears as a tall, well built, charismatic man in archaic black clothing, with little more than the lower half of his face visible. Always followed by a short, robed companion who has no features visible but has been seen once persuing a fleeing man through a field of tall grass, catching him and leaving little behind but a smear of blood on the ground after itself as it walked away. The taller one rubbed the head of the smaller one like a trained hound returned from a successful hunt.
This being refers to himself as The Jester, or The Holder of the Keys, and has strongly been hinted at as being the original builder and occupant of the The Palace of the Jester in Sigil. (likely the oldest, or one of the oldest buildings in the City of Doors, origin and true age is unknown). He may or may not even be human, or alive for that matter.
Kudos if anyone gets the tribute here to Count Magnus, a short story by M.R. James. *fiendish grin*
But both of these critters have access to a PCs mind, with varying and likely hidden agendas for him. It's driving the player batty, and they're pondering trying to play the two off of each other.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Glorious. Reading these are fun.
I agree that real rat-bastardiness doesn't necessarily come from killing the PCs, but from vexing them by outwitting the players and making them appreciate it afterwards.
Here's one:
The PCs had picked up a rival who was a miscreant con-artist bard named "Fallane Deepleaf." After he sold the PCs' horses to other people staying at the same inn, they vowed to track him down. They soon learned the hard way that the con-man was using an assumed name; the REAL Fallane Deepleaf was a wizard who had trusted the con-man to house-sit his tower, only to come home from planar travel to find it sold out from under him.
In response to the PCs' searching, the con-man charmed four or five dim-witted nobles and merchants before selling them "authentic maps to buried treasure!" Unfortunately, according to the map the treasure was buried under the floorboards of the PCs' private room in their favorite inn. They came back from a tough adventure, wet and bedraggled, only to find four charmed strangers with shovels and pickaxes tearing apart their meeting room floor.
So they decided to get even. Having the hand-drawn map, they went to a diviner who deduced the REAL name of the person who drew it. Once they had that, the party bard wrote an extremely insulting and extremely catchy song about the guy, mocking him up one side and down the other, and taught it to every other bard in town for free. Within a week, it was a tremendous hit, and people were humming it everywhere. The party was tremendously proud of their detective work and innovative revenge.
Then the poor scribe who drew the maps for a fee showed up to complain.
I agree that real rat-bastardiness doesn't necessarily come from killing the PCs, but from vexing them by outwitting the players and making them appreciate it afterwards.
Here's one:
The PCs had picked up a rival who was a miscreant con-artist bard named "Fallane Deepleaf." After he sold the PCs' horses to other people staying at the same inn, they vowed to track him down. They soon learned the hard way that the con-man was using an assumed name; the REAL Fallane Deepleaf was a wizard who had trusted the con-man to house-sit his tower, only to come home from planar travel to find it sold out from under him.
In response to the PCs' searching, the con-man charmed four or five dim-witted nobles and merchants before selling them "authentic maps to buried treasure!" Unfortunately, according to the map the treasure was buried under the floorboards of the PCs' private room in their favorite inn. They came back from a tough adventure, wet and bedraggled, only to find four charmed strangers with shovels and pickaxes tearing apart their meeting room floor.
So they decided to get even. Having the hand-drawn map, they went to a diviner who deduced the REAL name of the person who drew it. Once they had that, the party bard wrote an extremely insulting and extremely catchy song about the guy, mocking him up one side and down the other, and taught it to every other bard in town for free. Within a week, it was a tremendous hit, and people were humming it everywhere. The party was tremendously proud of their detective work and innovative revenge.
Then the poor scribe who drew the maps for a fee showed up to complain.
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Impeesa
Explorer
Mine is completely un-plot-related. This dates back a few years to the earlier days of (drumroll) the high school campaign that wouldn't die!
So the players are tromping through a basic dungeon crawl, when they happen upon a large room. A huge stone door drops behind them as they move into the room. There is no apparent exit. In the center of the room is a column, with a push-button and a mechanical counter. The counter is ticking down, and as it gets near zero they start to hear some ominous grinding noises and such. After frantically determining that there is indeed no obvious exit, they try pushing the button. Noises stop, counter resets to 60. They keep one person on the button while they comb the room for possible exits or anything... I laugh openly, asking honestly if they're sure (as though giving them a hint) when someone proposes letting the counter go down to zero to see what actually happens. After nearly an hour (real-time) of debate, they decide to just let the thing run down. Horrible grinding noises, dust blows out of cracks, room shakes, opposite wall opens. They continue on through the dungeon. They just about killed me for it.
I must admit that I stole the initial trap idea from someone else, more or less, but that's not the most hamster-bastardly part. A few months later, I caught the same group with it again. After another hour or so spent on that room, they were pretty cheesed.
--Impeesa--
So the players are tromping through a basic dungeon crawl, when they happen upon a large room. A huge stone door drops behind them as they move into the room. There is no apparent exit. In the center of the room is a column, with a push-button and a mechanical counter. The counter is ticking down, and as it gets near zero they start to hear some ominous grinding noises and such. After frantically determining that there is indeed no obvious exit, they try pushing the button. Noises stop, counter resets to 60. They keep one person on the button while they comb the room for possible exits or anything... I laugh openly, asking honestly if they're sure (as though giving them a hint) when someone proposes letting the counter go down to zero to see what actually happens. After nearly an hour (real-time) of debate, they decide to just let the thing run down. Horrible grinding noises, dust blows out of cracks, room shakes, opposite wall opens. They continue on through the dungeon. They just about killed me for it.
I must admit that I stole the initial trap idea from someone else, more or less, but that's not the most hamster-bastardly part. A few months later, I caught the same group with it again. After another hour or so spent on that room, they were pretty cheesed.
--Impeesa--
More Meanness
I have been thinking that the coming switchover to 3.5 will be a good opportunity to have some fun with my players. We know that a lot of the spells will be nerfed, so magic will be changed. I was also thinking about dropping the persistant metamagic feat as I feel it allows the balanced cleric to become way unbalanced.
Has anyone got any RBDM ideas for drastically changing the world? If you read my long and boring post a few lines up you can get and idea of what's going on in my campaign.
One little RBDM that I have done is give the players a place to buy pretty much any magic item they want, but the portal only worked once every 28 days. After missing the portal for a few months (they weren't keeping track) they tried to teleport to the underground location several times, each time they took massive amounts of damage and usually wound up dumped in a random ocean. They still haven't figured out that the market is really just a reoccuring pocket dimension that is only there that one day a month and they are too scared to ask any of the residents (the "door guy" is a levelled mind flayer of higher level than them so they are very worried when they go there).
I have been thinking that the coming switchover to 3.5 will be a good opportunity to have some fun with my players. We know that a lot of the spells will be nerfed, so magic will be changed. I was also thinking about dropping the persistant metamagic feat as I feel it allows the balanced cleric to become way unbalanced.
Has anyone got any RBDM ideas for drastically changing the world? If you read my long and boring post a few lines up you can get and idea of what's going on in my campaign.
One little RBDM that I have done is give the players a place to buy pretty much any magic item they want, but the portal only worked once every 28 days. After missing the portal for a few months (they weren't keeping track) they tried to teleport to the underground location several times, each time they took massive amounts of damage and usually wound up dumped in a random ocean. They still haven't figured out that the market is really just a reoccuring pocket dimension that is only there that one day a month and they are too scared to ask any of the residents (the "door guy" is a levelled mind flayer of higher level than them so they are very worried when they go there).
Nightchilde-2
First Post
Three tales from my rat bastard's handbook...
Story #1: I had a long-running Mage: the Ascension game that lasted for about 3 years. The whole point of the campaign was for the PCs to collect seven stones and, more importantly, keep the Nephandi from getting the stones (and dragging everything down into the void). Next, I let one of the PCs play a Nephandi-in-hiding. Guess which PC the other PCs entrusted the stones to. Yeah. You got it right. Campaign ended when he delivered the seven stones to his master.
Story #2: D&D. The party was in a dungeon that was built by a pantheon of gods to trap another god. That's actually beside the point. Anyway, two of the PCs entered this room that was filled with these batlike creatures, jet black. They swarmed the room. There was a candle in the middle of the room. Before entering, a daeva guarding the room informed the PCs that the creatures inside the room were the last of a race of beings. Upon entering, the PCs found themselves stuck within the room by a Wall of Force. The only way out was to extinguish the candle, which they did, intantly killing the last vestiges of this race. To make matters even worse, the trapped god had been whispering into the cleric of Oghma's head that "their blood is on your hands" ever since she entered. Some of the best roleplaying ever in one of my groups ensued afterwards.
Story #3: This one is short. In my Exalted game two weeks ago, in order to get the information they needed, Erembour (third circle demon) made a deal with one of the PCs to call it's name and break a trinket during the next Calibration. 3 guesses what the trinket does... Worst of all, the PC cannot speak or write the demon's name to tell the others who it is.
Story #1: I had a long-running Mage: the Ascension game that lasted for about 3 years. The whole point of the campaign was for the PCs to collect seven stones and, more importantly, keep the Nephandi from getting the stones (and dragging everything down into the void). Next, I let one of the PCs play a Nephandi-in-hiding. Guess which PC the other PCs entrusted the stones to. Yeah. You got it right. Campaign ended when he delivered the seven stones to his master.
Story #2: D&D. The party was in a dungeon that was built by a pantheon of gods to trap another god. That's actually beside the point. Anyway, two of the PCs entered this room that was filled with these batlike creatures, jet black. They swarmed the room. There was a candle in the middle of the room. Before entering, a daeva guarding the room informed the PCs that the creatures inside the room were the last of a race of beings. Upon entering, the PCs found themselves stuck within the room by a Wall of Force. The only way out was to extinguish the candle, which they did, intantly killing the last vestiges of this race. To make matters even worse, the trapped god had been whispering into the cleric of Oghma's head that "their blood is on your hands" ever since she entered. Some of the best roleplaying ever in one of my groups ensued afterwards.
Story #3: This one is short. In my Exalted game two weeks ago, in order to get the information they needed, Erembour (third circle demon) made a deal with one of the PCs to call it's name and break a trinket during the next Calibration. 3 guesses what the trinket does...
Worst of all, the PC cannot speak or write the demon's name to tell the others who it is.
Nightchilde-2
First Post
Oh, and subtle, too...
1st edition Mage.
Character got a Paradox Backlash from a Correspondence effect. His perception shifted six inches to the left.
Over the Edge
If you've never played this game, I strongly suggest you do so. So full of mind-screwing.
The party had just arrived in the airport and were separated out by the customs agents. One of the PCs got an agent who came in, sat down and just stared at the PC. That's it. Didn't say anything, didn't move, didn't blink. Just stared, silently.
By the end of the "investigation," the PC finally cracked and started throwing furniture around the room, screaming at the top of his lungs, breaking whatever he could get his hands on. The agent just...stared silently.
And then there was that time I ran World of Synnibar, but I prefer not to think about that one.
1st edition Mage.
Character got a Paradox Backlash from a Correspondence effect. His perception shifted six inches to the left.
Over the Edge
If you've never played this game, I strongly suggest you do so. So full of mind-screwing.
The party had just arrived in the airport and were separated out by the customs agents. One of the PCs got an agent who came in, sat down and just stared at the PC. That's it. Didn't say anything, didn't move, didn't blink. Just stared, silently.
By the end of the "investigation," the PC finally cracked and started throwing furniture around the room, screaming at the top of his lungs, breaking whatever he could get his hands on. The agent just...stared silently.
And then there was that time I ran World of Synnibar, but I prefer not to think about that one.
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