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Post by chronovore on Dec 13, 2016 22:27:22 GMT -8
The groups I've played in have, by and large, been utterly fantastic. It's only looking back at the few exceptions that I can recognize that I've had it really good. Still, there have been those exceptions. We had one player who was driving about 90 minutes (San Rafael to Santa Cruz) to participate. Actually, this is the "crazy" (fantastic, awesome, inspiring) player, Fred, that Stu Venable has mentioned a few times. After several months of making the commute on his own, he met a young woman, K, who came down with him "to observe," but on arrival the very reasonable suggestion of having her take over one of the NPCs came up. "Sure, no problem." I actually had a fighter-mercenary the players were traveling with, so it was easy. K continued to play with us for several months. We tried to make her welcome, but she was surly and stubborn most of the time. I should have swapped out the NPC's Disadvantages for Stubborn and Bad Temper, so she could roleplay effortlessly. In the fight which was the culmination of months' worth of adventuring, the party faced down an ogre (ST 30 or something) wielding a custom, massive, 3 meter sword. K determined to parry that monstrosity with a shortsword. I said, "Really, a shortword? It's an incredibly heavy weapon you're trying to parry. It may damage your sword." "Yeah," K said, "I parry with my shortsword." She made the roll, it was successful. I rolled some dice and said, "OK, well, the sword doesn't break this time, but you barely made the parry so it's a jarring strike." Hearing that, all of the other players used Dodge, or stayed entirely out of melee combat with the creature. We did this for another 4 or 5 turns, and finally the sword ended up breaking. K was utterly shocked and inconsolable, turning beet red and being unwilling to speak or play any further, despite what I thought were a series of clear warnings that her weapon was in danger. She didn't speak again, stayed silent until the end of the session, and didn't come down for any further games. PS: I can't remember if I made the rolls for her sword or if I had her make the rolls. PPS: Yeah, I suspect there weren't rules in GURPS (3rd) at the time for breaking a weapon on a successful Parry. I wasn't trying to be a dick GM, I was trying to paint a picture of overwhelming strength.
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Post by chronovore on Dec 13, 2016 22:37:31 GMT -8
One other story comes to mind: In the first session of a low-fantasy game, I explained to the player group that I would run a fair game where danger was ever-present but death would not be a casually delivered consequence as long as no-one did anything utterly stupid. I stick with this philosophy to this day.
I had let it slip to one player that his character had some connection to the Big Bad Guy in the story. Somehow the player got it in mind that he was being thrown into a "He is The One!" or Darth-Vader-and-Luke situation, and he was really not feeling like being the pawn of fate.
So at the introduction of the Big Bad Guy, which was meant to be a "look how scary I am" moment, that player had his character run headlong into the full retinue of the BBG's bodyguards. "Really?'
"Yup."
"Okay, roll initiative."
One turn, eight spear attacks, and one dead PC later, we had defined at least one point on the graph of "don't do anything utterly stupid."
However, it was a positive experience both for me as a GM and for the player, because he felt the consequences of his own choices and realized that he had player agency, even in the face of whatever story arc I'd had planned was.
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Post by Malex on Dec 18, 2016 18:15:37 GMT -8
I was GMing Shadowrun 4e for a group of old friends. Three of them kicked off the campaign and a fourth joined halfway through, we'll call him John. John created a wizard character that rubbed the other players the wrong way, and in game picked a fight with the team's Face/Hand-to-Hand fighter. This led to John's PC being knocked out cold. When John's PC awoke, he began calling upon spirits to throw the other PC into Pugent Sound; which at that point was several miles away. This led to John's PC being shot several times by the whole team and dying.
John immediately grabbed his things and left. We did not hear from him for 2 weeks.
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Post by ericfromnj on Dec 18, 2016 18:25:50 GMT -8
I had a player grab me by the throat because I would not let him convert that character he always played in every game into my game (it was one of those overpowered guys with a signature weapon).
I was holding all my books and thinking "shit. I am going to have to drop my books and damage them to fight this guy" when one of my other players put the guy in a full Nelson and threw him off the porch we were standing on.
The throat grabber never played with us again go figure.
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Post by chronovore on Dec 18, 2016 19:16:24 GMT -8
I had a player grab me by the throat because I would not let him convert that character he always played in every game into my game (it was one of those overpowered guys with a signature weapon). I was holding all my books and thinking "shit. I am going to have to drop my books and damage them to fight this guy" when one of my other players put the guy in a full Nelson and threw him off the porch we were standing on. The throat grabber never played with us again go figure. Holy shit. That is, without a doubt, the biggest tantrum I've ever heard. Assault? That's crazy. Never played with him again, or never saw him ever again? Because anyone who assaulted one of our group... well, they'd never be able to be in the same place with us again. How did it escalate to throat grabbing?
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Post by ericfromnj on Dec 18, 2016 19:19:04 GMT -8
I had a player grab me by the throat because I would not let him convert that character he always played in every game into my game (it was one of those overpowered guys with a signature weapon). I was holding all my books and thinking "shit. I am going to have to drop my books and damage them to fight this guy" when one of my other players put the guy in a full Nelson and threw him off the porch we were standing on. The throat grabber never played with us again go figure. Holy shit. That is, without a doubt, the biggest tantrum I've ever heard. Assault? That's crazy. Never played with him again, or never saw him ever again? Because anyone who assaulted one of our group... well, they'd never be able to be in the same place with us again. How did it escalate to throat grabbing? The guy was a bit of a spaz and I said "I'm sorry but I am not going to let you play Red Cap. You have to make up a new character," and it went straight to the throat grabbing. I was a bit shocked at how quickly it escalated.
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Post by ilina on Dec 18, 2016 20:18:20 GMT -8
worst Tantrum i personally performed in public. there was this 600 pound guy named Aaron who never bathed, always reeked and had a habit of Sexually harassing Women and Showing Underage Girls his Hentai Collection. i literally got fed up with him showing some 12 year old girl he ran into a hentai image on his laptop for the millionth time since 2005 back in 2013. so i literally picked up his laptop and smashed it across his head.
i didn't even get punished for it, the Store Owner Cheered and Aaron got a 6 month ban from the game store. lots of women were proud of me for beating down a creep with his own device. he threatened to sue me for the price of his laptop, and the Game Store owner backed me up, pointing out that we have lots of proof of the existence of his animated kiddy porn collection on camera so he dropped the charges because he didn't want to be marked as a sex offender.
i mean, he is back, but he is more wary about flaunting his animated pornographic images of underage female fictional characters. he could at least be discreet with that stuff and not brag about it at a friggin comic store.
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Post by Yeoman Colubris on Jan 16, 2017 2:28:36 GMT -8
Running a Star Wars game, my player felt he was being railroaded. He wasn't; we were near the end of the session and I just didn't have anything for them to do. I let them drift instead of calling it for the night. He was playing a Twi'lek Sith wannabe and pulled a ship down into a heavily-populated city.
We ended with a grown up conversation. Next session was a manhunt and escape from burning city.
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dnddad
Journeyman Douchebag
They're bullywugs aren't they Pat...
Posts: 200
Preferred Game Systems: WEG D6 Star Wars, Shadowrun 2nd, Battletech 3rd, Mechwarrior 2nd, AD&D 2nd, AFMBE rev, Savage Worlds Deluxe, Usagi Yojimbo, Marvel Super Heroes Advanced
Currently Playing: Frostgrave & Boltaction
Currently Running: from my problems
Favorite Species of Monkey: Spong
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Post by dnddad on Jan 16, 2017 12:39:39 GMT -8
I was playing Warhammer Fantasy Battles;my orcs and goblins vs a chaos warrior army. The chaos warrior army was beautifully painted and the guy had a reputation for being ruthless at using "cheesy" army lists. Anyways something was off as soon as we started our game and he came out of left field with some crazy "made-up sounding" rule. I knew what rule he was inferring to, but had to point out that is was basically opposite of the way he said it worked. He yelled at me, and the store where we were playing, "I've been playing this list a year and no one ever told me about that rule!" Eventually after his army fell apart because he was confused on the rules, he started throwing every model that died on the field. He threw them on the grown, on the table, against the wall, etc. It was the very definition of a temper tantrum. I never played with they guy again, sadness.
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