PC's Top 5 evil moves, How did you make the GM sob? Options

[Smiley]

I been looking around and i've seen a few anecdotes that made me guffaw but i know we can do better. I'll start.

Myself and Cap'n Dave were in a run raiding a small-to-middling corp bunker. The GM was being a pedantic MUDWHISTLE so we, of course, had to get even somehow. Both he and I had previously procured large quantities of C-12 (don't ask). While the MUDWHISTLE was off pedant-ing with another player about dice rolls or sump'n, we proceeded to hide small bundles allll over the facility like highly-explosive Easter eggs. We lifted up potted plants, we rubbed it into the carpet, we put it into file cabinets, and so on and so on. As we dusted off (and were greeted by the biggest street gang EVER, i might add) we asked HIM to roll perception. As you might have guessed, the target number for percieving a large explosion and the resulting rain of charred office equpiment is pretty miniscule. As i remember, Dave had to detonate the dashed thing from a DocWagon stretcher, after the ensuing gang war. I was leaning on a lamppost (the only one left), smoking a cigarette, sharpening my katana and whisting REM's "It's the end of the world as we know it."

The GM subsequently developed a small eye twitch. They're working on his dosage.

[Capt. Dave]

Good times...good times. That GM is now a ghoul in my campaign. (yes, willingly)

[Kagetenshi]

I really hope that wasn't a nice katana. You know you aren't supposed to sharpen those things, right? It screws them up something fierce.

~J

[Smiley]

Meh. It was mostly for effect, anyway. The thing was Di-Koted.

[Austere Emancipa...]

How much of the C-12 was there, exactly? To make an office building, let alone a bunker, blow to pieces with such small bundles would take shitloads. Plus the bundles would have to be really close to each other, as in low 2-digit centimeters, unless you also had shitloads of detonators (possible, of course).

I'm far too pedantic a mudwhistle (whatever that is) to let that kind of thing to happen in my games. ;)

Of course, my group has used a quarter-ton car bomb once, and blew up a large liquid gas container on another occasion, and I didn't think there was anything wrong with that. *Shrug* It happens.

[Squire]

Hmm.

Based on that story I am given certain perceptions that lead me to suspect that neither the players nor the GM understand the GMs role in a RPG.

See, if you want your character to do something, it doesn't happen unless you tell the GM about it.

Most RPGs (including SR) are not GM vs. Players, they're the GM telling a story to players and presenting them with challanges. The GMs measure of success is whether or not (s)he and the players had a good time, not "beating" the players.

Now don't get me wrong, play it anyway you like- it's a game and if you prefer to modify the rule or the spirit of the game to suit your groups preferences, feel free.

[Capt. Dave]

Well... it was on the order of 25 kilograms, which makes for a 60D blast at -12/m (not including the Demolitions:5 roll I made).
It wasn't that the whole building was destroyed...but that part of it was. I applaud our actions as creative.

[Capt. Dave]

[TheScamp]

[kevyn668]

I think he's saying they were rebeling against a GM that railroaded them. I suppose that's one way to go about dealing with it....

So tell me, was this GM new?

This post has been edited by kevyn668: Mar 23 2004, 09:00 PM

[ShadowGhost]

I agree with Capn' Dave - a GM should guide players to where he wants them to go, but not shoehorn them into a tight little script that gives them only True/False or choice of A, B or C only.

As a GM I learned long ago with my chummers that trying to plot a tightly scripted scenario was nearly useless.


If I said, "Do you go in the front door, rear door, service entrance, or delivery entrance?"; one player will decide to climb to the nearest open window/balcony on the third floor while another levitates to the roof, and a third will enter from the sewers.

Trying to force square pegs into round holes kills half the fun of a game. Ya always want to give players lotsa rope to play with... preferably enough to hang themselves :D

[Smiley]

[Austere Emancipa...]

For almost any application, it's better to use bigger chunks of explosives. My group often carries satchel charges (10kg C-12 with detonators) into "hot" runs that they can use for whatever purpose. They're especially fun when levitated around.

I've never even been "shocked and awed" (since making the GM sob isn't really the right term, like Squire implied) by that sort of thing. I mean, it's just explosives. Boom. When it's really big, or when it kills dozens of people, that's different. But you got to keep your perspective: For example, I'm sure you've all seen pictures of the train car ripped open in Madrid. IIRC, that was done by a large backpack full of what passes as "Commercial Explosives", maybe 20-40kg. The buses you see torn to shreds in Israel are generally done with 10-40kg of "Commercial Explosives".

It's not the size, and all that.

[Edit]And while I completely agree that the GM has to be able to deal with new situations and PCs that don't act like he thought they would, not telling me what your characters do wouldn't fly in my games. If you tell me you carry that 25kg of C-12 on the run, and then tell me you rig it up in the target building, that's fine. But if you tried to tell me afterwards "Yeah, I set up 25kg of C-12 in the building, I just didn't want to tell you about it" you wouldn't get to stay in my group for long.[/Edit]

[Kagetenshi]

I'd hate to meet someone capable of carrying around a backpack with 40 kilos of explosives who was able to do it casually enough that no one paid attention to him or her.

~J

[Smiley]

OK. Let's back up.
Game terms:
25 Kilos = 60 Deadly
Chunky salsa, people.

Also, there was someone wondering what a pedantic mudwhistle was. If you look closely, you can find one very very near this post.

[kevyn668]

[Smiley]

[kevyn668]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: welcome to Dumpshock. :)

[Capt. Dave]

[Smiley]

Another example:
The disappearing wall.
Why don'cha share THAT little gem?

[Austere Emancipa...]

[kevyn668]

[cykotek]

The closest I've ever come to sobbing was when I had a player decide to spread 5 kilos from the trunk of his car while speeding down I-5 at over 170kph with Lone Star in hot pursuit. I believe the death toll from that one action was a "mere" 87 people in a 61 car pileup. They made the news real fast with that one.

Also the "I'm going to jump out the rear door of a stopped elevated train onto the tracks. Then hang by my fingertips in broad daylight from the tracks while transit cops shoot at me" event didn't exactly thrill. He thought he could run and hide when he was the only one with a balance tail in a 9 square block area.

[Capt. Dave]

As to the C-12 - Oh, he knew we had it.

[Smiley]

You're right, you see right through me.
What i REALLY want is a GM just like you.

So... can we move on now?