Author Topic: Good GM Habits  (Read 32882 times)

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #15 on: November 30, 2009, 05:14:15 PM »
Now, Ross, I'd always thought that drowning the body in acidic liquid, such as vingar, after removing most of the body's own fluids would help to leech calcium from the bones and make them easier to cut or grind, as well as prevent the body from rotting in the conventional manner.

I have to say your method sounds more proactive, but what if I don't have enough bleach to properly dilute the surprisingly large amount of blood and fluids within the human body?

clockworkjoe

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #16 on: November 30, 2009, 05:18:25 PM »
If you want to kill somebody and get away with it, look at the people who got away with it: Jack the Ripper did a fine and dandy job by knowing the neighhorhood well, killing his victims, and just leaving them there. Ted Bundy wouldn't have been caught if he hadn't let Carol da Ronch escape his VW bug: grab your victim, render him unconscious, and transport him to a spot deep in the woods to finish the job, leaving the evidence there. The Green River Killer excelled at body disposal: choose an openly accessible, but too large to patrol all the time, area and dump the bodies there. The key is to kill a stranger, and have only *one* crime scene: murder and disposal in approximately the same place. When you have secondary and tertiary crime scenes, you're just creating more places to leave evidence.

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #17 on: November 30, 2009, 05:25:49 PM »
Well I certainly agree with that. Killing someone you have no connection to in a place you have no connection to would be the best way to go.

Boyos

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #18 on: November 30, 2009, 11:03:36 PM »
not only can ross handel a machine gun hes good at boddie disposal. great things to have knowlage of.

Shallazar

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #19 on: December 01, 2009, 12:09:47 PM »
@ Shallazar - Maybe the last statement was poorly worded, cause I didn't intend for it to come across as such.

No yeah, just clarifying for other weirdos who might also read too much into it.
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ethan_dawe

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #20 on: April 06, 2010, 01:03:07 PM »
If you want to kill somebody and get away with it, look at the people who got away with it: Jack the Ripper did a fine and dandy job by knowing the neighhorhood well, killing his victims, and just leaving them there. Ted Bundy wouldn't have been caught if he hadn't let Carol da Ronch escape his VW bug: grab your victim, render him unconscious, and transport him to a spot deep in the woods to finish the job, leaving the evidence there. The Green River Killer excelled at body disposal: choose an openly accessible, but too large to patrol all the time, area and dump the bodies there. The key is to kill a stranger, and have only *one* crime scene: murder and disposal in approximately the same place. When you have secondary and tertiary crime scenes, you're just creating more places to leave evidence.


Hmmmmmm I think I'll avoid your town :-)

clockworkjoe

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #21 on: April 15, 2010, 03:57:32 PM »
The Best GM

PC: "i determine a number by adding together two numbers. the latter of these numbers is obtained by a mutually agreed method of obtaining a semi-random number between 1 and 20 inclusive"

GM: "the result does not equal or exceed a certain pre-determined quantity. the numerical difference between the integers was not greater than an arbitrary number. i deem it acceptable to give you a small quantity of information."

PC: "this judgement is acceptable to me"

GM: "indeed. let us continue with our merriment"

The Worst GM

PC: "I check the walls for traps!"

GM: "The walls all seem perfectly normal. Too normal."

PC: "I'm not sure i understand the consequence of "too normal walls"? Too quiet in a forest means there aren't any animals around, meaning something scared them. Too quiet in a town means everyone is away/dead/hiding in ambush. Walls can't be "too normal". Either there are traps or there are no traps. saying the wall is normal, too normal doesn't tell you as much as "the woods are quiet, too quiet". too normal walls means you're expecting traps and that there aren't any, too quiet means you're expecting noise and there's none. I mean, "The walls are normal, too normal" shouldn't mean "The walls are hiding traps". Anyway, unless the DM answers the resulting "Too normal how?" question accurately (As in, answers them to explain why the walls look too normal to the character), "too normal" walls doesn't really tell you anything since it could be construed to mean anything from no traps to traps. his sword is harmless, too harmless. Is this a good sword or a bad sword to use? Hell, think about this. "This sword is deadly... too deadly." This could easily mean that the sword is dangerous, more so than a normal sword, and to the point where it is harmful to above and beyond the "normal" deadliness. Therefore, this could be a sword that hurts the user or perhaps his friends or, perhaps, thirsts for blood. It could mean a lot of things, all bad. "This wall is normal... too normal" can mean some things, it can mean there are no traps where traps are usually found, it can mean they have been recently built or repaired. The problem is, most of these scenarios are probably easier to discover than the cryptic "too normal". If you find that the wall is recently built, it's not "too normal", because a recently built wall in an old castle is not normal at all. If the wall has no discernable traps when there usually are expected to be traps, it's merely "normal, as far as you can see". If it's "too normal", it's not fucking normal at all, by any stretch of the word. "too normal" is an oxymoron. Look, "the walls are too normal" is a fucking oxymoron and doesn't tell you anything. The only kind of DM who would use it (that is, just tell you that and not elaborate, as in the situation that was presented) is the kind that would pull the "Well, you said you looked at the water, not that you looked for piranhas." thing. Walls being too normal is nothing like the woods being too quiet. Walls that are "too normal" are either normal or not normal. They can't be "too normal" because it's not normal for something to be "too normal"."



ArtfulShrapnel

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #22 on: April 15, 2010, 04:16:41 PM »
Those kinds of GMs are dicks. One at my FLGS:

PC: Wants to swing on a rope to ambush someone on a bridge. "I take the rope, tie it to the bridge, and tie it to myself so I can swing down and get the guys under us."

GM: Okay. Roll Use Rope DC 15.

PC: 27, got it easy.

GM: The rope seems sturdily attached to both yourself and the bridge.

PC: Okay, I swing down now.

GM: You swing down on the rope and slam into the ground. Take 4d10 damage from falling.

PC: What? Did the rope break? It was silk, it should have held me.

GM: Oh, the rope held. But it was a 50 foot rope and a 40 foot bridge. You never said you shortened the rope.

No perception check. No reflex save by anyone to realize something was wrong. No intelligence roll to catch the "mistake". No room for discussion. The character, now seriously wounded and lacking the element of surprise, was then murdered by bandits.

:[
« Last Edit: April 15, 2010, 04:18:53 PM by ArtfulShrapnel »

Boyos

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #23 on: April 16, 2010, 12:30:19 AM »
haha! now thats a Dick!

Mckma

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #24 on: April 16, 2010, 12:54:45 AM »
Those kinds of GMs are dicks. One at my FLGS:

PC: Wants to swing on a rope to ambush someone on a bridge. "I take the rope, tie it to the bridge, and tie it to myself so I can swing down and get the guys under us."

GM: Okay. Roll Use Rope DC 15.

PC: 27, got it easy.

GM: The rope seems sturdily attached to both yourself and the bridge.

PC: Okay, I swing down now.

GM: You swing down on the rope and slam into the ground. Take 4d10 damage from falling.

PC: What? Did the rope break? It was silk, it should have held me.

GM: Oh, the rope held. But it was a 50 foot rope and a 40 foot bridge. You never said you shortened the rope.

No perception check. No reflex save by anyone to realize something was wrong. No intelligence roll to catch the "mistake". No room for discussion. The character, now seriously wounded and lacking the element of surprise, was then murdered by bandits.

:[

To be honest though, I can imagine something a bit like this being fun in a one-shot, where everyone tries to be as dick-ish as possible and has to think everything through very thoroughly...

ArtfulShrapnel

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #25 on: April 16, 2010, 08:56:48 AM »
To be honest though, I can imagine something a bit like this being fun in a one-shot, where everyone tries to be as dick-ish as possible and has to think everything through very thoroughly...

See, that could work. This was an ongoing campaign situation, and one in which told them it would be "lighthearted and fun fantasy adventure".

Social contract anyone?

Mckma

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #26 on: April 16, 2010, 11:17:09 AM »
To be honest though, I can imagine something a bit like this being fun in a one-shot, where everyone tries to be as dick-ish as possible and has to think everything through very thoroughly...

See, that could work. This was an ongoing campaign situation, and one in which told them it would be "lighthearted and fun fantasy adventure".

Social contract anyone?

Oh, totally understand your point, would irritate me if my GM just pulled that one out of me out of the blue.  It just struck me as a funny game concept...

ArtfulShrapnel

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #27 on: April 16, 2010, 01:28:38 PM »
To be honest though, I can imagine something a bit like this being fun in a one-shot, where everyone tries to be as dick-ish as possible and has to think everything through very thoroughly...

See, that could work. This was an ongoing campaign situation, and one in which told them it would be "lighthearted and fun fantasy adventure".

Social contract anyone?

Oh, totally understand your point, would irritate me if my GM just pulled that one out of me out of the blue.  It just struck me as a funny game concept...

I would play in it. :D

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Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #28 on: April 16, 2010, 01:36:11 PM »
Good all around advise: never be a player if your GM is a language student.

malyss

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Re: Good GM Habits
« Reply #29 on: April 16, 2010, 02:04:38 PM »
Good all around advise: never be a player if your GM is a language student.

I'm pretty nit-picky with semantics, but I also always allow the "Oh, maybe I misunderstood, let's just go back and say you shorted the rope."

I also usually ask "The bridge is only 40', so I am assuming you are not using the full length." Then if they say they are, it's all fair because I gave them a chance :)

I'm a dick, but I always give you a chance. Everyone else at the table usually laughs when these situations come up, as the player had fair warning if they were paying attention...