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rubycona
2008-12-26, 04:18 PM
Hey, all.

It's the day after Christmas, and in celebration (albeit a bit late) of the season, I thought it'd be nice to start a thread celebrating the best players, DMs, or just game experiences you've ever known.

I'll start it off with Sexy Chris (there were 2 Chris's in the game, one was "evil Chris" since he played a chaotic evil wraith, and one was "sexy Chris" since he was, well, sexy...). He's the most incredible roleplayer I've ever seen. Tactical genius, and lover of interesting and overpowered builds.

But the best part about Sexy Chris is that he brings the Whole group into the world, as a player. Whether he played a widowed mother of seven (which was hilarious), or the evil and cunning Calif Busch, necromancer of the eastern deserts, he always managed to draw everyone together, make every breath of wind seem real and compelling. With his almost hypnotic gaze and tone, apt and subtle gestures and movements, he really made you feel like you were there. I scarcely remember talking to him, the player, but instead remember the mountain pass our characters walked down a few hours before sunset.

Rum and eggnog cheers for Sexy Chris :D What about you?

Merry Christmas, everyone!

UserClone
2008-12-26, 04:38 PM
Well, I'll actually have to vote for...well, I'll just call him Lostsole31, since that's his GitP name. IRL, he was a really good dedicated GM, though he tended to micromanage, it was for the sake of compelling us to think in terms of world and character, rather than rules and stats. Never before or since have I experienced such immersion in a D&D game. Cheers, Lostsole31.

Oooo...Except for the rules blunder know in our gaming group as "you feel great remorse." That one was OUCH.:smallwink:

Rinzy
2008-12-26, 06:02 PM
One of the players in my current game (He recently joined GiTP as Alaxi) is probably the best role player I've ever seen. He's also pretty much the only one in the group who can ever throw me for a loop anymore, he's got tremendous creativity and his characters have awesome depth.

rubycona
2008-12-26, 06:04 PM
Oooo...Except for the rules blunder know in our gaming group as "you feel great remorse." That one was OUCH.:smallwink:

That IS an "ouch" XD. Though it reminds me of a "hypothetical" exchange between me and a player... a pleasant bout. He "jokingly" suggested a rather campaign breaking course of action next game (between sessions), and I "jokingly" responded with, "The heavens open and a single, great ray of Divine light pours down on you. The sheer, holy power suffuses your being with such intensity that it drives the soul from your body. Such power, indeed, that the single most eternal of all things, your very soul, is shattered into the cosmic dust that once was the foundation for the universe, the barest of building blocks for the Gods. As the pain passes into oblivion, your eyes open and you realize this was a vision of the future, as you contemplated said path."

He responded, "I take that as a subtle hint that you wouldn't appreciate that, huh?"

I'd never actually DO that, but it was gratifying to suggest it anyway. :P

arguskos
2008-12-26, 06:11 PM
That IS an "ouch" XD. Though it reminds me of a "hypothetical" exchange between me and a player... a pleasant bout. He "jokingly" suggested a rather campaign breaking course of action next game (between sessions), and I "jokingly" responded with, "The heavens open and a single, great ray of Divine light pours down on you. The sheer, holy power suffuses your being with such intensity that it drives the soul from your body. Such power, indeed, that the single most eternal of all things, your very soul, is shattered into the cosmic dust that once was the foundation for the universe, the barest of building blocks for the Gods. As the pain passes into oblivion, your eyes open and you realize this was a vision of the future, as you contemplated said path."

He responded, "I take that as a subtle hint that you wouldn't appreciate that, huh?"

I'd never actually DO that, but it was gratifying to suggest it anyway. :P
Clever comeback, to be fair.

Anyhoo, best player/DM I've ever had? Gotta say my friend John. The man is just a master of Roleplaying. Once, he was playing a race that I'd never used before, and knew little about. He turned to me (I was the DM), and asked where his village was. I said it was around 3 days to the south of where the party was. He turned to them, and convinced them to come and take part of his village's hospitality (I'm sitting there going "uh... what?"). This story ends with me creating his race's society on the fly, everyone having fun, and John being truly, truly awesome. I love players that work that way, it makes the game far better for us all!

Alaxi
2008-12-26, 06:12 PM
This is going to be a compliment-fest IMO. The best DM in my whole experience is known on GiTP as Rinzy. She is by far the most dedicated, intuitive, innovative, creative, knowledgeable, hardcore "I'm gonna kill you if you are retarded but reward you blowing up my dungeon crawls" DM I have ever had the pleasure of playing under. I have played two characters under her in one campaign, both of which are pre-existing character personalities for me, just different class builds. She allowed some very out-of-the-box developmental issues happen to them, and ran with it like a champ.


She is also the "guinea pig" for my solo campaign I am creating. It sucks compared to her stuff, but I am working on it. lol


She is also the one I have the most fun with as a DM myself. Her play style is not like everyone else. She has a personality for any character she plays, and sticks to it. She doesn't change, even if her "metagame" knowledge tells her otherwise. Also, when there is a puzzle/riddle that arises in my campaigns, she won't give up in a few minutes, calling it "too hard" or saying "I don't know what to do!" She tries, no matter what. It may take her a few minutes to decide on what her answer may be, but she never gives up. I like perseverance in a player.

Rinzy, I tip my hap, nod my head, and grovel at your greatness. Cheers Milady! You win.

Altair_the_Vexed
2008-12-26, 06:15 PM
Best DM I ever had the pleasure of playing with was Unspeakably Violent Tim.

He's very good with the rules, very fun and funny, very serious and clever, not averse to killing characters when they (not their players) deserve it, entertaining, engaging and imaginative.

I can't give specific examples, there are too many fabulous moments to list. But an example of his sort of thinking: As his DM, I once confronted his high(ish) level cleric with his church's inquisition at the end of a long quest that uncovered enormous corruption in that church's hierarchy, expecting him to fight a long battle to purge the heretics from the holy order. No, not him - he turned the head inquisitor into a frog, and marched out of the country with his followers, taking them to forge a new kingdom in the wilderness, becoming a D&D Moses in the process.

I miss him.

Baxbart
2008-12-26, 07:03 PM
I'd have to say... an online friend of mine from over on Rpol.net called Mike, or as I usually know him; Ceredyn. I've been playing in his GURPS games since... well... its been about 8 years - and he never fails to amaze and astound me with his writing skill. He's drawn me into so many worlds and convinced me of so many colourful characters that I've been inspired myself to greater heights.

Were it not for his high high standards, I wouldn't have sought to better myself, and I wouldn't be the writer or player I am today.

A raised glass to all those who help us grow and enjoy the hobby all the more.

evil-frosty
2008-12-26, 08:05 PM
i have a few stories (cant decide on best player/DM just 2 many) first off in 2ed we were just fighting some skeleton when the fighter with the sun blade (i have no clue how we got this) fumbles and it is teetering on the edge of a bottomless chasm (to this day his nickname is chuck-a-sword) later on in the same session we were fighting some juju zombies and the guy with the sun blade fumbles yet again and then rolls a 20 so he just critically hit my character doing max dmg next roud i fumble roll a 20 and do max dmg to him. we werent really into killing the zombies i guess.

in a different campaign in 3.5ed my dwarf fighter broke his leg being dropped by a wyvern does that and later on as we are traveling we are ambushed and the cleric in the party dies because i was in a litter just firing my crossbow the player who was running the cleric has been thru 3 characters now i beleive.

in the same campaign the partys thief was certain there were no traps so i took a step forward fall 2 floors in the basement where there are 7 ogres i took down 2 then became a pincushion was saved by the NPC who then raised me, then the thief walks ahead and he falls thru a chute and falls down the mountain, later he had to be stuffed in his own bag of holding and raised.

very fun times

TheCountAlucard
2008-12-26, 09:46 PM
Best DM I've had yet? I'll call him "Wash."

If you have a concept of what you want your character to do, he'll try and help you with it. He is fairly knowledgable about the rules of almost every game he plays, yet he does not let himself become chained to them like some GMs. His characters are interesting, and his improvisational skill is to be commended. He doesn't demand you to know every rule of the game, but he does expect you to know what your character can do.

xanaphia
2008-12-26, 11:21 PM
My little brother deserves an award for persevering through all my verbal, effectively rule-less games which are mainly governed by Rule of Cool. His mind is so hilariously unexpected.

In one game, he was a Chaos cultist in the 40k universe, trapped on an ork planet, helping them against a Dark Eldar invasion. He had a rocket launcher and jetpack. So he flies through the sky above the battle and shoots through the door of a Dark Eldar dropship, hijacked it, and crashed it into the dark eldar commander. Crowning moment of awesome.

Or the time when he was a chicken in a police academy, and turned rogue and started taking "grass".

Thank you, James.

Greengiant
2008-12-27, 03:22 AM
I have this current DM now, (as for you that have seen my threads about me DM'ing, I run my own campaign also) the DM's name is Alex. He is the most creative and interesting plot-writer I know so far.

He has this way of seeming sneaky, like there's always something going down. I'd say, "My character does this." and he'd say, "Yes... okay... this happens.." It's quite amusing, and certainly keeps you interested.

His stories are always amazingly entertaining, even when you suspect them to be trivial. A crossing of the ocean between continents, seems like a little "time passes, you arrive at X", but noooo. He made it into its own story. With little investigation, and questions to why every crew member was male, even the barmaid, we found out that it was, in fact, a gay pirate ship. The captain turned out to be such a flamboyantly gay half-orc that we had to make a fortitude save to not be nauseated.

Anyway, time passes, and near the end of the voyage, the pirates decide to do a musical for us, which is sort of a running joke between Alex and I. He's in the musical theater program at our school. The pirates do a version of Pirates of Penzance (sp?), and at the climax of the plot, WHAMMO, near 50 lesbian ninjas board the ship, for they are the sworn enemies of the gay pirates. A battle ensues, with the cleric, monk, and warblade down on deck, and me, the fragile wizard, and the bow-wielding ranger climb up to the crows nest.

This turns out to be my salvation because of the large numbers of ninjas down on board quickly swarm the melee classes and I obviously would not have survived. With some quick thinking, and applications of Grease to the mast as ninjas try to climb saves us.

Fun eh?


Another time, my friend didn't like his character, the warblade, and wanted him killed, so he went down into the town square, and started a fight with the town guard captain. Hilarity ensues, and I end up casting summon monster III to help him, from the privacy of my own room, overlooking the town square. His character is almost dead, and this is when he decides, "this is so much fun! only now in fierce combat for my life do I realize this." so he tries to run into a building.

The DM, Alex, surprises us all by saying, "A-Ha! You didn't check for traps!" and the mighty warblade falls 20 feet into a pit full of raptors, and is subsequently torn to pieces.

After everything dies down, my character goes to check on him, and decides he wants his plate armor to sell for spell-money. So I jump down, tumbling expertly, only to be surrounded by 6 raptors. I barely make it out alive, without the body.

Best DM I've known, and I plan to stay with him as long as possible.

Satyr
2008-12-27, 05:48 AM
The best player I know is Hanno, a guy whose dedication to a good game is remarkable. He can completely lose himself in the representation of the character, change his personality to the requirement of the character and his sociual status within seconds (most players couldn't play anyone else but themselves with a sword in their hand) and can occupy himself for weeks to improve a character, a game or a setting, writes extremely cool insetting fiction (no fanfiction, props of tales that play within the setting) and brews beer for gaming groups. He brew his own beer and shares it with other people.
Besides, he is a completely reliable guy. That's very helpful. And great.

Deepblue706
2008-12-27, 03:58 PM
Vin Diesel.