What's Your Proudest Moment in DMing?

[Loonook]

Just as it says... after reading Wik's thread on DMs and what you have learned, I started wondering: What does it take to make a truly capstone moment? What specific memory, module, or milieu is the one that makes you beam with pride at being the one to actually bring that single thread into your gaming life? I think we all have these moments; those precious little things that just make you see how worthwhile putting it all together becomes.
____


I think my favorite moment came down to a d20 Modern game I was running for a group of friends. They had breached an office building once controlled by a group of men interested in manipulating Shadow markets and planar politics to benefit their own ways, and the building had fallen into disrepair for so long as to be completely abandoned. A mad man, a lifelong veteran with a desire to end the evils of the world by opening the gates of Heaven itself had set out in a dash... the players had failed to collapse his plans in an earlier battle, and having gotten away he had begun to perform the ceremonies necessary to bring his plan to fruition.

The players had made a 'deal with the devil', and along with their Faustian bargain came a few heavies. Pooling their resources, a pretty nice-sized strike team had come together of many of their allies (and a few adversaries) intent on not being judged. They had been betrayed, battered, and bruised for the last 6 sessions, and it was time to get the payback.
To this day, quite a period of time since and all except for a handful of friendly geeks who were around during that time in the scene I still get questions about that game... and I only see the geeks from there maybe once a year. Living a state or two away will do that to ya .

But the moment that still makes me chuckle sometimes that I never hear about except when members of that group get together (sadly, all too rarely) and settle down for a few brews at the local bar of choice in wherever we are was this one.

The final battle; the Gate is slightly open, the military man bedecked in a shining breastplate and a ceremonial weapon braced by two powerful Cherubim and a Seraphim attempting to gain passage through the portal. The players are pounding them for everything they've got . . . . one of their team (an NPC with the party for over a year) has fallen to a curse which turns him into a pillar of salt.

Then, one of my players has his character up in order, and makes an amazingly stupid but heroic decision to take down the leader. He sizes himself up, prepares his attack, and blasts a load of cursed ammunition into Anderson...

And nails him on a critical. Anderson had taken damage for the ritual and attacks, and was down to 32 HP against the blast. The player required a perfect roll, 4d8 off the crit, to put him down into the negatives with the enhancement, and out of the world.

The dice come down 4 8's... which was incredible because if there was someone who couldn't roll a crit (much less a success and full damage) it was this player. All of us look at the dice, then look towards him.

He stands up, grabs his beer off the table beside him, and shouts 'WOOOOO! '

And then, acting on the same initiative, the cherubim drop him with two strong SLAs to -10.

I have never seen a character death, no matter what dramatic point it was, affect the game so deeply. It just... clicked. A quick breather/break, and the action continued.

Player's still one of the best I've seen, but I will always remember that moment as the best moment for the sheer cinematic nature of it. Even if it is a 'you had to be there' moment, it was perhaps my favorite moment at a table (player or DM) in all my years of gaming.

----

Now, let's hear yours .

Slainte,

-Loonook

 

[Grazzt]

One I remember was back when we (including most of my current group) still played 1e. This event was probably around 1985 or 1986.

Party spent a large amount of time and many adventures journeying to the 4 corners of the world basically to assemble an artifact that would vanquish Demodragon (yes- the two-head dragon from hell from the old D&D cartoon).

Objective was to assemble the artifact, journey to some old lost/forgotten altar of the druids when the twin moons eclipsed, place the artifact on the altar which would pretty much weaken Demodragon to the point that the party could slay him (not easily, but basically outright...being part demon, if they killed him without the artifact, he went back to the Abyss, only to return later)

During the final battle, whilst the party was fighting Demodragon and the cleric was assembling the artifact and placing it on the altar, Demodragon positioned himself to unleash his electricity breath weapon on the cleric and the artifact (it could be damaged/destroyed by Demo-). The party's paladin interposed himself between the cleric/artifact and the breath weapon at the last minute (had him make an attack roll or saving throw to jump in the way at the last minute, can't remember which). The paladin took the full force hit from the breath weapon and died. Moments later, the artifact took effect, and the party beat Demodragon. Afterwards, the players all looked at Roger (paladin's player), I guess to see his reaction. He was pretty much smiling from ear to ear, because even though his character died, if it hadn't been for his sacrifice, who knows how the battle would've turned out.

The paladin had said before that his fate was to die at the altars protecting another and protecting the good of the world, and not to raise/resurrect him; even had it in his Will (remember the back o' the old 1e character sheets ).

So- Demodragon gone. Paladin buried at the site where Demo- was vanquished. Paladin lived on in song and tales told around inns and taverns. (Paladin was married in the game and had a son, so when we started another campaign, player played the role of his original character's son and carried on his father's name and stuff)

Players in that game still remember that, as do I, because it was one of the first times (maybe the only time) we'd ever really seen a character truly sacrifice himself for another character (or for the greater cause of good or whatever).

 

[Psion]

This isn't a single moment or session, but I tend to look back on my 3.0 campaign warmly. The campaign itself had several major highlights, but two "master strokes" with that campaign were:

1) My villain Galea. She was originally supposed to be a throw-away villain, but she had a nasty habit of living. I grew up a history around her, which has some interesting implications. She was really a mirror-doppleganger of a good woman; after the party had made public her villainy, the cousin of the real woman came to avenge her honor. Which astonished all the player.
2) My "world locked in ice", a parallel world with a tragic past that the players came to like more than the active campaign setting.

 

[Ipissimus]

My proudest moment as DM? Tough one.

Of all the good moments, I'd have to point to the sheer level of hatred I fostered in my players for the villain of the first adventure I'd ever written for them. He was a pretty standard 'Evil Cleric' but during one session one of my players glared at the table and said "I'm going to find this guy and strangle him with his own entrails." And she meant it.

He:-
- Enslaved whole families and forced them to work the mines.
- Summoned a minor Demon to terrorize the village which was the creature responsible for slaying two young lovers during a romantic tryst right in front of the PCs.
- When the PCs entrusted a McGuffin to the town guards (who lived in a fortress), he slaughtered them all personally and left one of the PC's friends for them to find skinned alive later... just for kicks.
- Fooled them all by successfully disguising himself as one of the PC's main allies.
- Burned down a church.
- Burned down the PC's Inn while they were sleeping in it.
- Used the local merchant as both a spy and to fence the treasure he'd stolen from the PCs during his pyromanic spree.

The atmosphere when they finally confronted him as the McGuffin attempted to break down the ancient elven magic holding a colossal Balor in check was electric to say the least. Every hit was cheered. The earth quaked, knocking both the villain and the PCs prone several times and adding to the general frustration. Finally, the BBEG WON when he knocked the entire party into negatives.

The PCs literally held their breath as the Paladin with the Diehard feat used the last of his healing on himself then poured the party's last healing potion down the throat of the Rogue while the bad guy was still prone. The Rogue Sneak Attacked but the BBEG still didn't die, and knocked the Rogue back into negatives. So the Paladin bull rushed him over the edge of a 100ft. tall cliff, barely managing to grab the ledge as he toppled over as well thanks to the earthquake.

The explosion of cheering after I announced that the Villain had taken 56hp of damage from the fall and was now a black smear at the base of the cliff I definitely count as one of the proudest moments of my DMing career.

 

[Crothian]

Mine has nothing to do with a particular session. This was back in second edtion. I'm gaming with a bunch of friends some I'd known since High School. We're all mid to late 20's in age. One guy, Jeff, was very quiet at game. He always showed up but we had no idea if he was having fun. This went on for almost a year.

Jeff, in the spring, proposed to his girlfriend and over Memorial weekend of that year had an engagement cookout so all his friends could meet his wife to be. Most of us had meet her briefly here and there but this was the first real social get together.

At the party she talks to me with some simple polite conversation and then starts asking me about the campaign I'm running. She is not a gamer but starts offering some very keen insight into our game. It turns out that Jeff for the past year had been telling her all the stories of our campaign and she really enjoyed hearing about it. She never wanted to game but she is one of the few non gamers I ever meet that loved to hear the stories and talk about them. And it suprised me to learn that J?eff was really having a great time and was telling his fiance all about the campaigns.

 

[jdrakeh]

Years ago, I had a group of players practically beg me to drive their PCs mad, strand them alone in the wilderness, and leave them to die run Call of Cthulhu (they actually bought me the core book with the intent of having me run it as I describe above). I figure that if I can make going mad and dying alone in the arctic sound fun, I must be a decent GM. I took it as a compliment.

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

Well, I'm frequently pleased with how things turn out when I'm GMing. My current game, I seem to roll like absolute garbage, but that doesn't bother me because it makes the players all gleeful and over-confident. I have managed to pull out matching natural 20's a number of times, thwarting the players much to their good-natured disgust.

Last game... Hmmmm...

I'm running the group through Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. The game would probably be considered "high magic" by most folks... one of the characters can teleport (self only), and the other can create a dimensional door that covers up to 30 ft and can be used by others.

The got ambushed by a Lurker Above (giant land-manta thingy) and were completely surprised. And then they teleported and portaled out from its loving (hungry) embrace, and the war golem (think "warforge") teleported on top of it and started bashing.

It took off and attempted to scrape her off/crush her against the ceiling.

While this was going on the two others on the ground were ambushed by Displacer Beasts. One character was on the ground and had the DB standing on him. He whipped his magitech gun up over his shoulder and shot it point-blank in the face. An incredible damage roll, he did more than half of its hit points in that single shot.

I decided to make a massive damage check, and rolled a 1.

The other Displacer Beast had taken some damage and between that and the death of the other, it took off.

The golem in the meantime had announced that she wanted to "ride" the Lurker Above, ala Dune and the sandworms. Since I'd described it as looking similar to a manta ray, she said she'd grab it's gills on either side, and steer it that way.

I'm pretty sure most GMs would have choked and said, "No @#$%$ way." or had some massive penalties combined with skill checks at a penalty, and so on.

I said, "Rockin'. You're going to make attack rolls and you can add your Strength bonus. It's going to be defending with its Will and Defense." My game uses opposed Attack/Defened instead of Attack/AC.

The other two cheered her on, and away we went. The Lurker managed to thwart several of her attempts, and even scraped her along the ceiling at one point. "The golem's head snaps back, and sparks fly as her face scrapes along the ceiling. The sound of screeching metal and the keening of the Lurker as she hauls it around by its gills combine to set your teeth on edge, like fingernails down a chalkboard."

She managed to regain control, and steered it back around. With a natural 20 she rammed the Lurker into the fleeing Displacer Beast, and hopped off as it wrapped around its new prey. The party then beat a retreat in the other direction.

Everyone was very jazzed and gleeful at my "dismay" with them having once again managed to beat the snot out of my monsters.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks has been a whole lot of fun. It's a module that still doesn't fit with many people's sensibilities today, but we've gotten some great sessions out of it. Characters managing to barely avoid unnecessary surgery from crazed android doctors, Assasin Vines hauling people over the balcony edge from 80 feet up, Ropers chewing on people, and the entire group leaping into one of the anti-gravity drop tubes that was only semi-functional and plunging towards the ground... all kinds of good fun.

I'd have to say that my proudest moment in GMing is... every time I can get the group to whoop and they get that happy look and their eyes are all shiny.

 

[Brimshack]

My second proudest moment would probably be this one:

http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=3204229&postcount=384

I tell the story more because I just thought it was a great twist than out of any real judgement against the player. He did however say in his own defence that a Paladin should be willing to sacrifice himself for a greater cause, which I gather he had in mind for the other Paladin in that story. Deeming his own character's plotline more important, the player simply assumed that the original source of the sword must have been less critical.

Oh well!

A story I am slightly more proud of would occur in the next campaign.

It's first edition and the players form a party with several characters each. It begins with 2 different groups. I gave each a couple games of backstory before they met up with one another.

One half of the party was a set of humans sent up a tropical river in search of a prophet. The prophet was known to have travelled up the river into evil territory dominated by monsters and such. It was said that he was actually having great success in speaking with the monsters. He had turned many away from evil and was well on his way to establishing a lasting peace thoughout the entire region. But no-one had heard from or about him in close to a year. The party's goal was to find the prophet and either help him or rescue him from whatever had captured him. They were warned in advance that anything powerful enough to have slain or captured the prophet must have been a terrible foe indeed. We played these guys up the river a ways over a couple games, then started the second half of what was to be the total party.

The second half of the party consisted of orcs, giants, and sundry monsters who lived well up the river. The back story was that they were at war with the humans who had dominated the region to the south and just over the mountains to the east. The river system had been the sole land in which any of them could feel safe against the onslought of humans. But in the last few years a great plague had begun to infect the region. It was even resistant to spells and special abilities that would normally remove disease or make one immune. Many were sick and dying from it, and the rumor was it had been brought into the region by a great dragon. The disease was threatening to lay waste to the monster lands from the inside and leave them open to conquest by the humans.

Up the river had come a human, a great warrior who had fought off all their attacks in the lower river, but spared many of his enemies and returned prisoners with words of peace. Eventually all the lizardmen, the orcs, the giants, and even many of the worse creatures had agreed to speak with him and been impressed with his words. He had finally been allowed into the upper river to speak with the great chieftains of all the land, and that is where the monster members of the party had met him. They were all drawn to the prophet for various reasona and served him in whatever way they could.

The prophet had also proven himself to be capable of healing the sick, even those struck by the terrible plague. As it became more nd more clear that the disease was due to the presence of a dragon, there was talk that the prophet might be the one to challenge the great beast.

On a given day, the prophet had arranged to meet with the greatest of chiefs in all the land. They had been discussing terms of peace and it was thought quite likely that an agreement would be reached. The major chiefs would agree to terms and on that very peace and show the prophet the location of teh great dragon. After he slew the dragon, the Prohpet would be escorted down the river with terms for peace with the humans.

And the small party of monsters that had clustered around the Prophet eagerly anticipated the great day to come.

...that morning, his body was found ripped to shreds in the hut where he slept. The prophet was missing his right hand and his sword was nowhere to be found.

 

[Evilhalfling]

In a WhiteWolf game of lycanthorpic house cats, (CATS!: the Apocolypse) most of the game.

The Fat cats first action on becoming human was to rip open the 12 pound bag of cat food and bury his face in it. meanwhile another cat stuffed a can opener and a tin of fancy feast in his pocket, to enjoy later.

Two players deciding that they considered a nap in the sun more important than the quest, and the kitten was directed to pounce on them till they gave up. (all in character the nappers were very involved)

The cats stealing the Animal Patrol car from "two men in black suits and darkglasses, one very tall and thin, one short and fat" ie MIB
all in human form, the center of attention cat used a "look at me" power to immoblize them, The alley cat agressivily drove right at them, the hyperactive kitten lay on the floor and pushed the gas pedal, while the scardey cat shouted directions and panicked while stuffed into the tiny space behind the drivers seat.
The tall one got mowed down and run over, the short fat one was thrown into a tree. Both beagin to stand back up. The only signs of injury wer that Fatman had a slight cut and Thinman's glasses were broken.
But the maneuver gave the cats enough time to get away.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I was running a supers campaign set in the 1900s as might have been reimagined by Verne, Wells, and the guys behind the Wild, Wild West TV show.

Everyone had really gotten into the spirit of things with their PCs, and they were all period perfect- a strongman with club, handlebar moustache and leopard skin tunic, an effite sonic blaster named after a particular opratic piece, a werewolf, an amnesiac Atlantean child with a whip, and even a version of James West named Colt, to name but a few.

Expectations were high.

When they got to the BBEG's stronghold (in an adventure based on The Man with the Golden Gun), they were first hindered by normal agents with conventional weapons, then with supers...

Every player went google-eyed when the last of the super villain agents emerged- a man in a suit of steam-powered armor, equipped with a pair of flamethrowers.

After about a minute of silence, someone finally said, "Aw MAN- that's cool! LETS GET HIM!!!"

That moment of gawping amazement was priceless.

Fortunately, that adventure lived up to the promise, and because the group was so good, I had good adventure after good adventure. As a whole, that campaign was the most satisfying experience I've ever had behind a GM screen. I've only duplicated that quality of experience once since then, in a one shot Dark Sun adventure.