General Category > RPGs

Anecdote Megathread

<< < (51/66) > >>

edwardian_adventurer:
Today I finished session two of a game based on Marble Hornets using nWoD/Changeling rules. For this game, I have made the Slender Man an exile of The Shadow Court. He feeds off the souls of children, turning them into Black Eyed Kids, which he then manipulates like puppets so he can find more souls to consume. I decided to make The Operator Symbol a summoning symbol.

The characters (Diana and Alexa) were exploring a wooded area, looking for the masked figure that had chased them out of Alex’s apartment. Diana decided to take a stick and draw The Operator Symbol into the dirt. Alexa, who was a Fetch, immediately sensed Slender Man’s arrival. She began to panic, telling her companion, who sensed nothing, they needed to leave. Diana refused to leave and a brief scuffle ensued. Diana managed to pin Alexa to the ground. Slender Man, sensing that Alexa was a Fetch, instantly killed Alexa by causing her to spontaneously combust. Both players were completely shocked. Diana succeeded in a composure roll, so she didn’t lose consciousness. She immediately erased The Operator Symbol.

In fairness, prior to the game I had discussed the concept of Fetches and Changelings with Alexa’s player, and she knew at some point the real Alexa would be returned (with no memory of the events up to her return). But the opportunity to shock both players with a sudden, unexpected death was too good to pass up. It would also teach Diana to be a little more cautious with arcane symbols.

Setherick:
The Anecdote that Almost Happened

I haven’t spent the time to write out this anecdote because there is not much to tell, but it does point to something that could have been glorious. In the spring of 2007, shortly before Karee and I left Springfield, Jason decided to run a Forgotten Realms game. We had so many players that Jason decided to break us into two groups – team good and team evil – and bring us together at the end of the campaign for an epic battle royale. I forget who was on team good, but team evil consisted of Karee, Dan, Ross, and myself. For a number of complicated reasons that were not Jason’s fault, the game only lasted one session, but, oh, what a session it was.

A bit of a back story first. Ross and I rarely played PCs at the same time. The only time that we played PCs together in an extended campaign was a Mage game where we ended up separated from the rest of the players, presumed dead, and returned from a surprise trip to the moon on a space airship.

In the Forgotten Realms game, Ross had decided he was going to play an undead sorcerer of course – Ross is fairly predictable with his undead and fantasy games. I was torn on what I wanted to play, and then I stumbled upon the Duskblade. Here was a character that met my particular play style, melee and combat caster, a hybrid I could live with that was not a Paladin or a Fallen Paladin.

Then things got interesting. I proposed to Ross, without Jason’s knowledge, that my character be Ross’ character’s bodyguard. Ponder that for a minute, the most evil RPPR PC maker and the horrible monster AS A TEAM. Team evil just got more evil. How better to justify metagaming when two PCs have been working together for several years before teaming up with another couple of evil doers.

For an example of how evil the undead and his body guard was, in the one session we played, Ross cast flesh-to-stone on a guard. Rather than just leaving the guard as a statue, I decided that we might as well crucify him and drove pitons into his hands and feet. Ross then cast stone-to-flesh, allowing the guard to return to living form, writhing in pain of course.

Occasionally, Ross and I still consider what team evil would have been like. But, the point for you, dear reader, is that every time you think that you have the worst pair of PCs in a game consider an undead sorcerer and his Duskblade body guard running around your game with the intent to be as evil as possible.

clockworkjoe:
team evil = best team

Wooberman:
We have a very small gaming community where I live and since we are all friends just rejecting a player/GM isn't often an option. Call us care bears if you will but we don't want to hurt feelings.

One of our GMs is a Shadowrun Nut. He loves Shadowrun. The rest of us are pretty indifferent but the thing is that he only wants to play Shadowrun 3.0. I've got nothing against dice pools but when you have to roll a minimum of 7 on a D6, no matter how many you have in your pool, it sucks. You don't feel awesome in the slightest. That coupled with the acquisition system of waiting in-game weeks to receive your new rifle and having the GM turn to the rest of the party and ask them what they're doing during that time when all everyone wants to do it just do another mission again sucks. Don't get me started on the Decking while everyone else sits and looks bored minigame.
This isn't necessarily the fault of 3rd ed Shadowrun and more the GMs love of minutiae.

The group is adamant that we don't want to play Shadowrun anymore. This isn't as bad as Caleb's experiences with World of Darkness but its starting to go that way.
Its difficult when we mention moving on to a different game and his face lights up "Hey I've got all these things we can do with Shadowrun, I can draw up pregens for you to play and...".
*Collective shuffle of feet and change the subject quickly*

We've decided an intervention is in order, This weekend before we start up our next session we're going to ask him to sit down, tell him clearly and carefully how much we respect him as a friend and pass him a copy of Eclipse Phase with the words "We love you but we don't want to play Shadowrun ever again".

crash2455:
To be fair, Eclipse Phase can take equally as long if this guy loves minutiae. Having played Shadowrun 4e, I know that it's very possible to deal with a contact and have your stuff pretty much instantly. Maybe discuss the root issue with him and how his play style does not mesh with that of the rest of the group.

Greg Stolze has a name for these kinds of people: meanderers. They are the type of people for whom roleplaying the act of going out and buying a rifle is just as fun as using that rifle. It's not a bad play style by any means (our group is composed almost wholly of them) but if you want to get down to the mission at hand, I can see how it would be frustrating.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page