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A Tad Insane
2012-11-08, 11:30 PM
It could be insane, silly, terrifying or just weird, but what is the one thing where you just need to mention it once to get a huge negative reaction from your players?

My was in a grim dark homebrew. I had a black haired 14 year old with freckles named Isaac. When the party was heading to the BBEG,a fort, he asked if he could join them, because hia mother was kidnapped. He was very helpful, sneaking along ledges and generally being that kid trope of helping just when they're needed. I even had a quickly made character sheet for him, making him almost as much a part of the party as everyone else. Everyone loved him. When they got near the end of th dungeon, the BBEG had them fight a black knight mini boss. The knight was hard to kill and hit like a truck, but rarely made rolls, like a certian wizard from the oots series. The paladin then deals the killig blow, cutting through the magic shoulder armor and, guess who, Isaac's shoulder. My words were as followed "The wizard (BBEG) laughs like he heard a hiliarious joke, and Isaac mumbles, more to himself than anyone 'I just wanted my mother...'"

Later, when the party happened across a pile of corpses, I said "You noticed one of them looks familiar, a teenager, with soot black hair and blazing freckles, a massive slice runs from his shoulder-" I stopped there because half the party was crying

Dr.Epic
2012-11-08, 11:46 PM
I don't feel like going into all the details, but it involved a goat.

Alaris
2012-11-08, 11:49 PM
I don't feel like going into all the details, but it involved a goat.

And now I simply MUST know.

Acanous
2012-11-08, 11:55 PM
Steve the Aboleth.

Dr.Epic
2012-11-08, 11:57 PM
And now I simply MUST know.

Well, it also involved a Cult of Dionysus.

A Tad Insane
2012-11-08, 11:59 PM
I don't feel like going into all the details, but it involved a goat.

Why do I have a random persian going "gooooaat..." looping in my head now?

Craft (Cheese)
2012-11-09, 12:09 AM
Once in a solo game with my SO, I introduced a crippled, old, and very obese halfling woman, who immediately began to hit on the player in a very disturbing way. Respectfully, he declined. She was a recurring character who appeared several more times to hit on him again.

At the end, he's rushing into a vault to find the magic tool to repair the city's energy core to stop it from falling (it was a vaguely Bastion-inspired setting), and finds the halfling woman there, with the tool. He asks her to hand it over, to which she responds "Come and get it, big boy." Dropping it into her panties in the process.

After the ordeal was over, he said "Let's never do that again."

JohnnyCancer
2012-11-09, 01:27 AM
Once in an evil Pathfinder game our DM had the villainous warlord we served punish us for our destructiveness (when it didn't suit him) by escorting a manure caravan across his lands. That was humiliating.

Jeff the Green
2012-11-09, 02:02 AM
I'm running Expedititon to Castle Ravenloft, with the twist that all the characters were brought to Barovia from various universes. One player, who was playing a Healer from Eberron that had been snatched from his wife and two young daughters, had to drop, and so I killed the character off in the boss fight that they were about to face. Before he fell he was infected with the zombie virus, and so 1d4 rounds later he arose as a zombie. Cue two rounds of trying to destroy the zombie with positive energy so as to spare his corpse from mutilation (the characters and the players had grown fond of him).

Then, before they can kill him, he's teleported away, and they can briefly see the destination: the inn room where his wife and daughters are sleeping!

Totally Guy
2012-11-09, 05:11 AM
The Big Bad and matriarch of the Orcs - Herzog Gawrok had sold her soul to a demon in exchange for power and committed to move the horde to fight in the demon's war.

The Player - the Orc "chosen one" Drodush wanted nothing more than to kill her and take over the island. When he finally got to the the room where he was to have his climactic battle the demon stood outside and explained that it didn't matter who was in charge he would always have the the soul of the leading orc so if Drodush won he'd come calling.

And that's how I got a player to sell his character's soul.

valadil
2012-11-09, 09:12 AM
Raped a PC. It was my first campaign and I never really figured out why I did it. The player is still bitter though and I can't say I blame him.

On a lighter note, the most scarring thing I did to my PCs was Lucien. He was a noble's charming idiot son, who had a little capital and a lot of get rich quick schemes. He got the players all hyped up to work with him and then promptly died. When the player's went through his gear they found a log of Lucien's Outstanding debts, which logged which criminals he'd borrowed money from and how badly he'd get reamed if he didn't pay up. Oh and that those people would hold the PCs responsible for Lucien's debts.

Naturally the players tried to resurrect Lucien so they could kill him, raise him again, turn him in, and be on their way, but the bastard stayed dead. Turned out he'd already been resurrected elsewhere, having given a cleric a large sum of money, a piece of his thumb, and instructions to try and resurrect the thumb on a weekly basis. Nearly two years of campaign followed, fueled by their hatred of Lucien.

The game ended with the players taking a break from their main plot so they could capture Lucien, teleport to the Fugue plain, and personally offer him to Kelemvor.

Lvl45DM!
2012-11-09, 10:20 AM
Oooo i made them kill kids. I had a faerie homebrew that charmed the kids of the town to fight for him but he cast an illusion that made them look like other faeries. Then dispelled the illusion. Heh, the paladin nearly committed seppukku

Lvl45DM!
2012-11-09, 10:23 AM
Raped a PC. It was my first campaign and I never really figured out why I did it. The player is still bitter though and I can't say I blame him.

On a lighter note, the most scarring thing I did to my PCs was Lucien. He was a noble's charming idiot son, who had a little capital and a lot of get rich quick schemes. He got the players all hyped up to work with him and then promptly died. When the player's went through his gear they found a log of Lucien's Outstanding debts, which logged which criminals he'd borrowed money from and how badly he'd get reamed if he didn't pay up. Oh and that those people would hold the PCs responsible for Lucien's debts.

Naturally the players tried to resurrect Lucien so they could kill him, raise him again, turn him in, and be on their way, but the bastard stayed dead. Turned out he'd already been resurrected elsewhere, having given a cleric a large sum of money, a piece of his thumb, and instructions to try and resurrect the thumb on a weekly basis. Nearly two years of campaign followed, fueled by their hatred of Lucien.

The game ended with the players taking a break from their main plot so they could capture Lucien, teleport to the Fugue plain, and personally offer him to Kelemvor.

Hahah! thats evil!

...the Lucien thing.

Andreaz
2012-11-09, 11:32 AM
I am probably a monster for saying this but...nothing there fazed me in the least. I don't think I have ever felt bad about something done to my character, only to me as a player, but those aren't really game constructs.

North_Ranger
2012-11-09, 11:37 AM
I didn't do this; it was actually one of the players.

The female player - whose character is a gay half-elf rogue who used to work at a male brothel - offering to pay for her passage upriver by doing "services" to the barge crew.

The looks on everyone else's faces every time she said she rolls Diplomacy... and then Stamina...

Vknight
2012-11-09, 01:32 PM
I don't know but I have some stories of horrid things I've done to different groups.

Terry found out from a book documenting his life, that his mother hates him and is secretly being drugged by a government conspiracy to keep her with his dad whose a mad scientist that works with the M.I.B

A different group; meet Agatha. She is a 70+ human with minor magical talents, has in her possession the familiar of the Lord of Autumn, makes a incense which is psychedelic, and sells various nick knacks.
She talked in a high shrill voice. Claimed to be the wife of a Archmage. Acidently drugged half the party. Beat a pig to death with a wooden spoon, well the party were suffering from said drugs. Wore a cat on her head. She terrified them from day 1 with her manic frantic and almost crazed manner.

Grod_The_Giant
2012-11-09, 02:30 PM
I was running a game for my brother... he's playing a wizard, trying to discover this magical ruin thing before a rival team, it's not really important. Anyway, he gets there just as the enemy leader slips inside. He duels the lieutenant while other baddies keep going inside and never coming out again. Then there are screams. He beats the lieutenant, she staggers back against the doors, and a giant red arm reaches out and snatches her inside. Cue scream, shower of blood, etc.

He goes in. There's a big, classic demon inside. He rolls a knowledge check, I tell him how big it is. He asks "how do I kill it?" I instantly replay "you don't, you die," then elaborate how it can be defeated with a challenge of threes.

My brother succeeds on a riddle. He challenges the demon to a magic stunt it pulls off easily. Then the demon tells him to close his eyes, raise his chin and turn his head to the side. Just for a minute. I make my brother do the same in real life.

Then the demon begins to threaten him. Easy stuff at first, but working up to nastier and nastier threats. I get up and start pacing around my brother, leaning in close, occasionally scratching his neck lightly as I continue to threaten. My brother squirms, starts asking if it's been a minute yet. Finally, after I start running out of nasty-talk, I have the demon congratulate him on his bravery and depart.

My brother took a LONG time to fall asleep after that. :smallamused:

Alejandro
2012-11-09, 02:58 PM
I didn't get a negative reaction from the players, they thought it was horrifyingly entertaining, but:

I had a (Star Wars Saga) crime boss, to whom one of the PCs is in debt, give the PC a large hourglass as a present. The hourglass was filled with the ashes of the PC's uncle (and prior debt holder) whom the crime lord had incinerated himself. It came with a warning about being prompt with payments.

Black Mage
2012-11-09, 03:21 PM
Not something I did, but one of my players did in my current game...

After brutally slaughtering an entire keep worth of soldiers in a single night, he crafted a tree out of the corpses of the slain in the keeps courtyard. :smalleek:

My players have also grown wary of pillars... Did you ever realize how many pillars seem to deal damage in published modules? Especially in 4th edition...

Slipperychicken
2012-11-09, 03:55 PM
After brutally slaughtering an entire keep worth of soldiers in a single night, he crafted a tree out of the corpses of the slain in the keeps courtyard. :smalleek:


Like this?

http://wickedprops.com/albums/userpics/10001/normal_Tree_of_the_Dead.jpg

In terms of disrespecting the dead, it's not much worse than stripping a still-warm corpse bare, tossing every salable item in a sack, then shaking down a pawn broker five hours later because he won't pay you full market price for the barely-usable dagger you stole from a dead man.

Black Mage
2012-11-09, 04:16 PM
Like this?

http://wickedprops.com/albums/userpics/10001/normal_Tree_of_the_Dead.jpg

In terms of disrespecting the dead, it's not much worse than stripping a still-warm corpse bare, tossing every salable item in a sack, then shaking down a pawn broker five hours later because he won't pay you full market price for the barely-usable dagger you stole from a dead man.

Exactly like that. Except there was about 120 corpses. And the party was only 4th or 5th level. And they used the heads as fruit hanging from the branches.

TechnoScrabble
2012-11-09, 05:18 PM
Spoilered for length.

It's d20 modern, no magic. The players are caught up in the beginnings of a zombie apocalypse, and one of the first symptoms of the disease is hallucinations. One PC has a little brother NPC with him that he loves dearly, and after a week surviving inside a city that is quickly becoming zombified by hiding in a panic room in another PC's neighbor's house, they get news that another evacuation attempt is coming. They manage to fight their way to the evacuation area, but it is there that they learn that the zombie condition can be spread through so much as contact, but that very few people have a resistance, so that they only turn if bitten, or if they die of something other than head trauma after contact with a zombie.

They've all had contact with zombies at some point or another, but a blood test reveals that the NPC kid brother is resistant, the only resistant person to make it to the evacuation center so far. The soldiers have orders

And a horde of zombies is charging towards the evacuation.

The PCs offer to fight off the horde to let the brother make it to a helicopter and get away. All but one, who is a selfish bugger and only wants out, believing that she can find someone with a cure to treat her.

So the other four PCs fight off the zombies, dying one by one, until the older brother PC, wounded and losing ground, is forced to retreat back to the helicopters, which haven't taken off yet for some odd reason. He's hallucinating at this point, corpses are moving, zombies that aren't there attack him, his recently dead mother calls out from just around the corner. He gets to the helicopter, and all he sees inside is corpses of soldiers, shot instead of bitten. And then a zombie lunges at him from inside the heli, and he shoots it in the gut.

He stares for a moment, clears his head, and realizes he just shot his brother dead, and that the other PC who sneaked off is trying to get the helicopter to take off, and doesn't know how.

Figuring there's nothing left to lose, the older brother helps her get the heli off the ground, and they take off towards the safe zone, all the corpses still in the back, and the both of them sweating profusely and hallucinating now and again. It's just as they get over Chicago, the nearest safe city, that they hear a small child growling from the back seat...

And then there was the time they had to kill a crippled little girl's dad in front of her because a Balor had possessed him (he was an innocent man, but he had been wounded with a demonic blade). A few minutes later, they learned that most of the village had been wounded by the blade, and had to kill the villagers off one by one as they were possessed and no attempt to safely exorcise them worked. They try to explain things to the little girl, but she runs off and they never find her.

Years later, an entire country is being ravaged by demons and disease, and the PCs have to confront the source of it all-the little girl, all grown up, her missing arm replaced with a skeletal graft, sitting in a throne suspended over a volcano, staring hatefully at them through her one good eye while she ignores the burns the heat is causing her and summons one certain Balor...

Ninjadeadbeard
2012-11-09, 06:21 PM
I've screwed with my players before, but this one time...

The party were evil assassins living in a major port city. They'd had a bunch of adventures already (found and killed an ancient lich, torched the docks, and led an elf mob into battle), and had secured the love and adoration of the local Elf mafia after a major boss battle against their common foe. And then they got smashed on scrumpy and experienced a little "Hangover" adventure.

Except for the Sorceress, who woke up after the celebration in the Mage's College. She was greeted by a kindly old man named Hieronymus XVI, the Archmage of the College (the party knew about him because they fought his ancestor, a powerful Lich called Hieronymus I). He started off very nice, very sweet... and then he asked, "Where is my book?"

See, Hieronymus the Vile had a magic spellbook that detailed how one can transfer their soul into another body. And he wanted it back, because he still needs it to work the spell as a focus. The lich they had killed before was like a sentry spell, explaining how it was so easily killed.

The Sorceress' Player wasn't very experienced, so she mostly just answered him truthfully when he asked. "I think my friend has it," (the Druid in the party). When Hieronymus asked where he was, the Sorceress caved. She told him about the elves.

The rest of the Party was furious. Her player, as said, is immature for her age, and didn't quite grasp that she should have kept quiet (it was hinted that Hieronymus wouldn't have hurt her, and she would get ample opportunity to escape).

So later, once the party re-united, they were all set to head to the Elves and start building an army to take down Hieronymus (in an E6 game, he's by far the most powerful thing they've seen around) when they noticed a fire burning in that direction. When they got there, every single elf was dead. Their homes were flattened and their corpses were crucified throughout the district on any wall that survived, and a few on pavement. At the center of the Market Square, their favorite little elf, a young elf maiden who led her people in the city and who had won the Player's trust and admiration as a kind, just and compassionate ruler, was eviscerated, completely turned inside out. And her blood had been used to scrawl a single message on the ground:

"I want my Book!"

We had to stop for a few minutes so everyone could collect themselves. We barely got any further in the game because the Sorceress was so distraught and the other players were yelling and screaming about whose fault it was.

Karnius
2012-11-09, 07:32 PM
I was recently in a game where I somehow managed to freak out the other player and the GM. It was essentially a slightly Steampunk world in which we were hunting down a mechanical machine that seemed to include human body parts. The other player was playing a police detective and I was playing a civilian attached to the police, mostly to take photographs of crime scenes with a fancy camera. I should stress at this point that the game was one which rewarded players for playing to a particular genre, and my genre was comedy. I took this as a license to act in a slightly wackier way than I normally do (NB: this doesn't mean that this is funny, just that I wasn't being very serious).

At one point in the story we were attacked by a huge pack of large sewer rats, which we managed to kill without too much difficulty with explosives. My character promptly went about collecting the rats up, hoping to sell them for some kind of profit to make up for the loss on the explosives. I wasn't sure what I was going to sell them for but I wanted to give it a go. On closer inspection, my character discovered that the rats were incredibly acidic, and so he immediately proceeded to acquire acid-proof gloves and an acid-proof sack to fill with the rats. The rats were useful for a variety of purposes, from burning through locks to fending off thugs that were attempting to assault the other PC. At one point the character decided to throw one of the rats at a thug that he thought was about to rape the other PC, reasoning that it wasn't any worse than shooting the man - something the other PC had already done in the campaign. The rat horribly burned the man and killed him, and from that point on the sack of rats was mainly used as a blunt object (until I decided that it could be used to a) melt the big bad cyborg we eventually found, and b) dissolve the stairs when running away from said cyborg so that we could make an effective escape).

To this day I can't mention 'acid rats' without getting a negative reaction. I didn't think it was particularly horrifying, but it's the biggest negative reaction I've ever managed to provoke during roleplaying.

Actually, that may not be strictly true. In a game of Geist that I'm currently playing in, my character has the Stillness Shroud ability that allows him to turn invisible and combines this with a canister of mace. When an interview with a vampiric businesswoman went awry my character (who was invisible at the time) maced her bodyguard, Steve, and proceeded to steal his keys and walk right past him to help out the other PC against the vampire. Later we returned and somehow managed to persuade the vampire to reveal important information so that we would never return: this was going well until the other player apparently decided to deliberately provoke the vampire by waving a lighter right in her face. Combat ensued once again: the vampire and the other PC fought whilst I locked the door to keep Steve out of the fight. When Steve eventually broke the door down, my character froze for a second before smiling widely, shouting "Happy birthday!" and disappearing into thin air, leaving him with the chaotic scene of his employer tearing open the other PC with her fangs. A few seconds later, he once again got maced and eventually had a bit of a breakdown regarding invisible and baffling foes. 'Happy birthday' now has a bit of a negative connotation as well.

vasharanpaladin
2012-11-09, 08:13 PM
Potion of inflict light wounds.


Remember, kids, always have someone check your baskets before you dig in! :smallcool:

RandomNPC
2012-11-10, 12:18 AM
My one players character had a mentor for 30 years before he went adventuring on his own. When the mentor started to feel old age he began looking for a remove curse, but was poor, an Ogre Bard offered up the money but it was refused, so the Ogre gave it to the student, who offered to pay for his masters remove curse while he got a remove blindness. Here's how it went:

Remove Blindness.
First thing you see: Remove curse, master turns into a woman, and throws the belt of gender changing into the fireplace.
Second thing: The Ogre Bard slaps her behind, welcoming her back as the Warrior.
Third: The Warrior throws the Bard into the fireplace.
What everyone missed: The Rogue taking the belt out of the fire.

kieza
2012-11-11, 05:24 PM
The party druid once insisted on getting totally blacked-out drunk in one of my early campaigns. So, he woke up the next morning wearing only a spiked leather collar in a kennel with a bunch of traumatized-looking female dogs.

kemmotar
2012-11-11, 07:43 PM
Somehow I've never managed to scar anyone but I've been scarred by my players and DM more than once.

As DM:
One of my players playing an awakened rabbit decided it was a good idea to pass water on a drow matriarch.

In a different 3 barbarian campaign where only one person could read, they found a quest to help out a wizard. The other two ask the barbarian that could read what the paper said to which he replied: "we have to kill a wizard". They then proceeded to accidentally terrorize a village, giving an old woman a heart attack, reviving her via CPR, tried to kill the wizard, convinced an injured miner that he was poisoned (rat bites on his feet) and the only way to cure him was to break his knees and breaking everything in sight while checking for traps by throwing their horses down the hallway...

As a player:
I was playing a wizard with leadership, all his followers, his cohort and he rode camels. His cohort was killed in battle by a yakfolk, his followers were trampled by said yakfolk when it ran out and right before he decided to end his career as an adventurer he was in possession of 4 cursed books.

The first was made by a mad dragon and permanently drained 1 wisdom per day. The second was a book containing a sealed demon that used to wreak havoc in the material plane until he was sealed and made constant attempts to possess the holder of the book and generally gave him an unresistable desire to kill everyone in sight. The other two were 2 artifacts meant as decoys for grave robbers and made him want to go hide in the mountains until he died and the other one made him want to kill everyone on his way to hiding inside a cave until the end of his life.

He was then beaten up by the party barbarian who burned the books and put the demonic book back on the sealing pedestal. When he came to he retired and became a camel breeder. Never played a wizard since.

hiryuu
2012-11-11, 08:16 PM
Here we go. I'll post this again because my players still tell me that one of them is still creeped out by packages of meat at the grocery store and still has dreams about this campaign.

So I'd been without gaming for a little while and I had a solo player. No big deal, I've had solo players before, and he was still good for it, so I had him made a d20 Modern character, ex-SEAL, did tours in Iraq, pretty standard stuff for that character archetype. Anyway. He got involved with some pretty bad stuff, a few civilians killed, a court martial, he got home and discovered his wife left him. He's free on the wind and takes the bus out to Arizona.

So he wakes up in a room, a rusty, blood-stained room in a small chair. There's a lot of stuff on the walls: charcoal and chalk drawings, blood, little symbols. This guy, dear as he was, noted everything down that he could until a man in a nice suit enters the room. The guy turns and pulls his pistol, and the guy asks “Are you sorry?”

After a brief exchange, the guy only manages to get questions out of the guy, like “Are you sorry?” and “Do you cry?” and eventually shoots him and the dead man bleeds orange. He escapes, finds some stairs to the surface, and discovers he's in a small town called “Irokis,” somewhere in upstate New York. The place is busted down, a shambles, there's a few burned buildings.

He explores a bit, discovers there are snake statues that whisper things, some of them right in the front of doorways that he can't move (he eventually resorts to busting the wall next to one so he can get into the house because the statues are even blocking the windows). The statues all say the same thing: “I am here because of what was once done. Are you sorry?” All the houses blocked by statues all have the same sort of scrawling that the room did.

I'm keeping track of starvation rules. By day two the guy's trying to steal from the stores just to get food. He leaves town a couple of times, of course, but he finds out that if he goes to sleep, he wakes back up in the “chair room.” No corpse of the suited man, but there is a statue there now, that same cemetery snake statue. It says the same thing when he gets up and starts repeating it. “I am here because of what was once done. Are you sorry?” He's at the point where he just about ignores them. This one has a deep voice. After a bit of trying to engage it in conversation, he leaves.

The player is honestly starting to get a little creeped out and tells me so, but he has two friends he wants to bring in because apparently “you guys -have- to play this.” So he brings them by. Before they get their characters really done they watch a little and ex-SEAL guy makes his way into the good graces of the cut lady who runs the local bed and breakfast and is going to get a room in exchange for some handyman work. He goes through a few rather nice, calm days with nothing untoward happening. Well, you know, except for a few statues here and there, and there isn't much food. Still taking nonlethal, of course, but getting the DCs dropped here and there because he's eating sometimes (using D&D's nonlethal rules as opposed to d20 Modern's).

Things are actually going ok. Then he wakes up in his room with two other people. They get into some arguments, there are a few shots fired, but they do the Player Character thing and decide to team up to figure out what's going on. One is a cute blonde cop from New York City struggling with her sexual identity and coming up short and the other is a college student who's trying to figure out his major, since his dad wants him to go into business and he wants to get into a science career.

Science guy has all kinds of tests to run. They leave town, they hop a train, they drive to a nearby city, they always end up, now, back in the bed and breakfast and nobody remembers them leaving. They ask around about the statues and try to chip them. Nobody else can hear them, says “they've always been there” and they can certainly be pulverized. They come back the instant someone isn't looking at them.

By day 7 it starts to rain. Fatigue rolls on top of starvation rolls now. Day 9 they trade the cop's gun for food. They discover there's a woman on the north end of town who claims she can make elixirs that fend off the starvation, and they discover she has a sort of cult going , and is trading real food for drugs that just make you feel full. They decide to kill her. Science guy is killed in the ensuing fire, but wakes up the next day in the bed and breakfast room (with some more nonlethal damage). They're walking around with maybe 10% of their health left and Fatigued. At this point they're all trying to steal food.

Eventually SEALguy sends Science Guy off to get something for them to eat and maybe try to track down some animals or something. He's good at that. I run a side thing where Science Guy almost dies and even recovers some food. I mix in some dinner table conversation with the lady who runs the bed and breakfast and have her flirt with Blondiecop a little. They end up sleeping together and Science Guy comes back with more food. I manage to not have to make bed and breakfast lady react because she's with Blondiecop in her room and wants the other two to watch.

The three of them eat. I make some notes and attack the bed and breakfast with some kids wearing plastic Captain Kirk masks and get some numbers thrown around in the air involving some diseases to cover for the fact that I haven't adjusted the starvation Con check. Blondiecop is killed and wakes back up in the bed and breakfast room.

The players, down to around 5% of their health, go ballistic. They move out into town the next day and kill the convenience store clerk. They steal everything in his store and go back to the bed and breakfast. Next day, the convenience store is run down and covered with ARE YOU SORRY and snake statues. They break every snake statue they can find. They start stabbing people in the street. DO YOU CRY

ARE YOU SORRY

DO YOU CRY

It's everywhere. The only person spared from their wrath is bed and breakfast lady, who is getting more sexually aggressive the whole time. She's slept with all three and had them all watch. Never all three at once. Just one at a time, one a night.

The rain gets worse.

YOU NEVER CRY starts appearing in the signs. YOU DON'T CARE. SEALguy finds pictures of the people he killed in Iraq lying around. Blondiecop's parents come in on the bus and start hunting her down to talk to her and force her to fellate random men at gunpoint. She kills them a lot. Science Guy's dad is stalking all three of them with the ability to seemingly make people follow him just by showing them the inside of a briefcase.

They team up and kill him, mostly by luring him close to a big statue and pushing it over. They traded their guns and armor for food already. The statue breaks open and a giant snake that breathes poison gas emerges. They spend two days tracking it and killing it.

They find the dead kids from Iraq inside.

SEALguy has a breakdown. The player literally starts crying. Finds himself on an empty road, haggard, tired, and halfway between Colorado and Arizona. He hitches a ride. Nobody pays any attention to Science Guy and Blondiecop. He arrives in Arizona, and they spend a few days hanging around, paranoid about everything, and SEALguy is eventually jumped by cops and dragged off to an asylum.

He spends time in the asylum. Blondiecop and Science Guy are actually free to come and go. Nobody stops them. They never have to check in at security. They have trouble talking to him or interacting with things when he's taken his meds, you see. Eventually he figures this out and gets off his meds and plans a breakout. He does break out when Science Guy drives a car through the wall. They get about thirty miles before SEALguy is suddenly back in his room at the asylum and getting injected.

He starts taking his meds, I start focusing the game entirely on him.

Up until he's released and he meets this college kid and an ex-detective from New York and the three of them discover that the asylum is performing illegal anti-psychotic research and get SEALguy (and most of the other inmates) released by the courts and some licenses revoked.

That's not the end of the campaign. That's just where I started, mind you. The level 3-7 adventure.


L5R, not spooky: My group was assigned to build a road between Unicorn and Lion lands, and while scouting, encountered a village that, at night, was filled with people and had perfectly normal buildings, but was burned down and ruined during the day. They thought this was odd and stayed in town for a few days with a painter who didn't disappear during the day, until they recognized someone the Dragon shugenja knew, but who was dead. After some investigation, they discover that these are all people who could not find their way to Meido, and they remain stuck in Ningen-do, vanishing as the sun rises. They determine that the way to do this is to have someone as a guide take them along the trail created by the moon. So, they ask for volunteers, and one of the ronin they hired to help with the road volunteers, despite having a son. They used a favor with the Scorpion to get him adopted and get permission for him to commit seppuku. I described the adoption ceremony and the sunset and subsequent full moon in high detail, read a death-poem and played this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrIfY9YQ-Cw) while a horde of ghost peasants followed him on a silver trail into the valleys. One of the players broke down. Half the group actually still cries when I play that piece.

Dr.Epic
2012-11-11, 09:57 PM
Throw a rust monster at a bunch of low level players. Easiest way to make the barbarian/fighter/paladin/cleric hate the DM at that level.

Urslingen
2012-11-11, 10:02 PM
*Disregard, I suck at posting*

Slipperychicken
2012-11-11, 10:26 PM
Throw a rust monster at a bunch of low level players. Easiest way to make the barbarian/fighter/paladin/cleric hate the DM at that level.

Yeah.. Going from your 2d6+(1.5xStr) Greatsword to 1d4+Str makes a lot of difference at low levels, even before you consider that weapon cost like half your WBL, and you provoke AoOs for trying to kick the Rust monster because you probably don't have a backup.

So that's why Clubs exist! Free and non-metal, so you can fight Rust Monsters! I know what my next melee character is going to have at all times...

Dr.Epic
2012-11-11, 11:27 PM
Yeah.. Going from your 2d6+(1.5xStr) Greatsword to 1d4+Str makes a lot of difference at low levels, even before you consider that weapon cost like half your WBL, and you provoke AoOs for trying to kick the Rust monster because you probably don't have a backup.

I once had the idea to add templates to a rust monster so this annoying creature can annoy the party at any level without the wizard just nuking it with one spell they can cast a few more times each day: rust monster half dragons FTW!!!


So that's why Clubs exist! Free and non-metal, so you can fight Rust Monsters! I know what my next melee character is going to have at all times...

Yeah, I thought of this. That's why I once made a dwarf barbarian who carried...

-a goliath greathammer
-a great axe
-a club
-about 30 daggers

So I'd be ready for just about any combat situation.

Slipperychicken
2012-11-12, 12:20 AM
-about 30 daggers


Why not javelins or spears?


EDIT: Well, okay, 30lb of carry capacity can make a difference if you go all-out looting.

Pokonic
2012-11-12, 12:37 AM
Well, there was the Screaming City:

A city in which a madman fleshcrafted a entire city out of a already-existing cities population, resulting in "normal" buildings under a living carpet of meat. Now, unlike most meat-carpets, you could still see individual people. You might see a exposed half-a-face, or get your legs grabbed by a arm. Sometimes someone would try to talk to the party, but they mostly sang and screamed.

Of course, when the party killed the freakesh abomination in the center, the place died.

But then they had to come back ten levels later because a necromancer was taking advantage of the place, but they later found out the original gestalt abomination sorta-lived in the sewers, meat living and all. They managed to convince it to help, but only after getting a powerful mind-altering magical item in the cities former magical center before it could attempt to take back its dead flesh.

The necromancer was killed by the party on the way to the magical center, but not before dealing with a living sea of undead, leathery flesh. They never did give the old fleshy sewerbound monstrocity the magical object, but that's what it wanted. Because opening the gates on old magical school was never breached by the beast even in the old days, and thanks to the party it can slither up from the sewers and have access to enough magic to basicly spread itself across the world. The party does not know this yet.

And, yes, I have played Maddness Returns.:smallwink:

Urslingen
2012-11-12, 03:37 AM
Well, there was the Screaming City:

That is pretty messed up. I like it. Nice work!

I think the best, scarring scene I have held was during the prologue-session of a campaign of Werewolf: The Apocalypse.

It's a bit long, but I don't think I could have done the scene any justice otherwise. The PC sure made an awesome job of playing along.

This scene took place before the PC:s First Change. The PC was a young, streetwise gal from Southern Bronx. Her mother was a low-end stripper, and the PC mostly kept out of home due to her mothers often violent boyfriends. Her closest friend was this little red-haired, thin limbed girl, Sasha. She was a bit younger and loyally followed the PC wherever she went, making the PC something of a bigger sister for her.

One early evening they were doing some urban exploration near one of many abandoned warehouses around Harlem. The PC easily navigated fences and other obstacles, but Sasha often lagged behind and finally they had to stop since Sasha couldn’t make the jump from the warehouse roof to the next building. They climbed down into the alley. A few mattresses and empty needles lay strewn among the trash which the PC:s excitedly examined. After a few minutes Sasha scraped her foot against the ground and asked, with a hesitant and a little bit embarrassed voice if the PC “… have ever been… you know… in love, before…”.
“Well, like… I don’t know. I guess so. I mean, I don’t know… how the hell do you tell, really?” The PC answered, trying to her best to keep her street-smart image intact.
“Well…”, Sasha was now visibly trembling, and her voice became a bit shaky, “… I think I might be… you know…”. She turned around towards the PC and took a tentative step towards her.
“Yeah...?”
Sasha took another, nervous step forward. She looked at her shoes as she continued.
“I… I like you… and I hoped that maybe you… that maybe… you liked me to… but it’s okay if you don’t because I… I…”

This rather self-conscious proclamation of love was interrupted by footsteps, and a faint chuckling. A man in a slick, black suit and a grey turtleneck emerged from behind the corner further down the alley. His wore a fancy, silver watch on his wrist, his hair was meticulously combed and a big grin of likewise obviously bleached teeth covered his face. He was certainly not a local.

“Well hi, girls… surprised to see you here. You shouldn’t play around with those needles and stuff, you know. Never know where they have been…”. His grin broadened even more as he pulled out an expensive cigarette box from his pocket. “Any of you girls want a smoke? ”. The PC warily took the cigarette while Sasha nervously peeked from behind her back.

The man introduced himself as “Mr. Spitz”. He was waiting for “a few buddies” of his who should show up any minute now. “We’re going to have a little get-together, nothing big; a little party with pals is all. Say – you girls wouldn’t be interested in tagging along? There will be plenty of drink, and the guys sure would appreciate the company. The more the merrier, right?”

“Well… Sure, why not?” The PC said, a little hesitantly, trying to sound older than she was. “Where’s the party going to be? Your place?”

Spitz grin broadened even more, looking like he was trying to swallow his own face. “Oh, I was thinking we could have the party right here. Guys!”

Out from another alley, behind the PC, came two new figures, pushing garbage cans and kicking trash out of the way.

“Hi, guys! Great you could make it! Girls, these are my friends: Mr. Daniels and Mr. Blue.”

“Mr. Daniels” was a short, wiry man in a jet black suit, red tie, and prickly, black hair. His face was pale and lean to the point of being skull-like. He giggled girlishly, frequently interrupted by some kind of facial tic, while constantly fiddling with his hands. “Mr. Blue” was a big, slightly overweight, man in a grey suit and green tie. His face was red as a tomato and he breathed heavily trough his nose, staring at the girls with wide-open eyes.

Before the PC had time to look back to Spitz he had darted forward, nailing the PC to the brick wall. Daniels and Blue launched themselves at the stunned Sasha, easily pinning her to the ground.

“Now you just be real quite, girl… No need to get all wound up, we’ll get to you soon enough...”

The PC could hear Sasha cry and scream for her, the sound intermingling with Mr. Daniels frenzied giggling while he tore at her clothes. Mr. Blue pinned her arms to the ground, his breathing even heavier as a big, worm-like vein started to throb at the side of his neck.

Spitz leaned in and whispered into the PC:s ear.

“I can tell you want it. I know you want it. Don’t worry; I’m going to give it to you when they’re finished with your little girlfriend. Tell you what; let’s watch it together, eh?”

He forcibly turned the PC around, locking her head with a throat-hold. He chuckled softly when the PC screamed and clawed at him, all the while Sasha begged the PC to save her.

When the PC woke up it was pitch black. The alley was covered in darkness and she lay naked on the ground amongst trash and something wet foul-smelling. The character had gone trough her First Change as a werewolf and massacred everyone in the alley. The PC blindly fumbled about in the alley until her eyes adjusted to the dim light, at which time she saw the tattered remain of a pair of jeans and an unmistakable scalp of red hair.


The player in question were not at all used to my "style" (if it can be called that) of Storytelling, but she picked it up quickly. To this day I don't know if I took things to far or not far enough. What do you guys think?

Peace Out.

- Urslingen

Sith_Happens
2012-11-12, 04:36 AM
-snip-

You already posted this word-for-word back at the top of the page.


The player in question were not at all used to my "style" (if it can be called that) of Storytelling, but she picked it up quickly. To this day I don't know if I took things to far or not far enough. What do you guys think?

If she knew beforehand what she was getting into when she signed up for your Chronicle, then I'd say you hit the notes just right.

North_Ranger
2012-11-12, 05:41 AM
Some pretty good stories here! Nice one, hiryuu!

I think the best, scarring scene I have held was during the prologue-session of a campaign of Werewolf: The Apocalypse.

It's a bit long, but I don't think I could have done the scene any justice otherwise. The PC sure made an awesome job of playing along.

This scene took place before the PC:s First Change. The PC was a young, streetwise gal from Southern Bronx. Her mother was a low-end stripper, and the PC mostly kept out of home due to her mothers often violent boyfriends. Her closest friend was this little red-haired, thin limbed girl, Sasha. She was a bit younger and loyally followed the PC wherever she went, making the PC something of a bigger sister for her.

One early evening they were doing some urban exploration near one of many abandoned warehouses around Harlem. The PC easily navigated fences and other obstacles, but Sasha often lagged behind and finally they had to stop since Sasha couldn’t make the jump from the warehouse roof to the next building. They climbed down into the alley. A few mattresses and empty needles lay strewn among the trash which the PC:s excitedly examined. After a few minutes Sasha scraped her foot against the ground and asked, with a hesitant and a little bit embarrassed voice if the PC “… have ever been… you know… in love, before…”.
“Well, like… I don’t know. I guess so. I mean, I don’t know… how the hell do you tell, really?” The PC answered, trying to her best to keep her street-smart image intact.
“Well…”, Sasha was now visibly trembling, and her voice became a bit shaky, “… I think I might be… you know…”. She turned around towards the PC and took a tentative step towards her.
“Yeah...?”
Sasha took another, nervous step forward. She looked at her shoes as she continued.
“I… I like you… and I hoped that maybe you… that maybe… you liked me to… but it’s okay if you don’t because I… I…”

This rather self-conscious proclamation of love was interrupted by footsteps, and a faint chuckling. A man in a slick, black suit and a grey turtleneck emerged from behind the corner further down the alley. His wore a fancy, silver watch on his wrist, his hair was meticulously combed and a big grin of likewise obviously bleached teeth covered his face. He was certainly not a local.

“Well hi, girls… surprised to see you here. You shouldn’t play around with those needles and stuff, you know. Never know where they have been…”. His grin broadened even more as he pulled out an expensive cigarette box from his pocket. “Any of you girls want a smoke? ”. The PC warily took the cigarette while Sasha nervously peeked from behind her back.

The man introduced himself as “Mr. Spitz”. He was waiting for “a few buddies” of his who should show up any minute now. “We’re going to have a little get-together, nothing big; a little party with pals is all. Say – you girls wouldn’t be interested in tagging along? There will be plenty of drink, and the guys sure would appreciate the company. The more the merrier, right?”

“Well… Sure, why not?” The PC said, a little hesitantly, trying to sound older than she was. “Where’s the party going to be? Your place?”

Spitz grin broadened even more, looking like he was trying to swallow his own face. “Oh, I was thinking we could have the party right here. Guys!”

Out from another alley, behind the PC, came two new figures, pushing garbage cans and kicking trash out of the way.

“Hi, guys! Great you could make it! Girls, these are my friends: Mr. Daniels and Mr. Blue.”

“Mr. Daniels” was a short, wiry man in a jet black suit, red tie, and prickly, black hair. His face was pale and lean to the point of being skull-like. He giggled girlishly, frequently interrupted by some kind of facial tic, while constantly fiddling with his hands. “Mr. Blue” was a big, slightly overweight, man in a grey suit and green tie. His face was red as a tomato and he breathed heavily trough his nose, staring at the girls with wide-open eyes.

Before the PC had time to look back to Spitz he had darted forward, nailing the PC to the brick wall. Daniels and Blue launched themselves at the stunned Sasha, easily pinning her to the ground.

“Now you just be real quite, girl… No need to get all wound up, we’ll get to you soon enough...”

The PC could hear Sasha cry and scream for her, the sound intermingling with Mr. Daniels frenzied giggling while he tore at her clothes. Mr. Blue pinned her arms to the ground, his breathing even heavier as a big, worm-like vein started to throb at the side of his neck.

Spitz leaned in and whispered into the PC:s ear with a wet, hot breath.

“I can tell you want it. I know you want it. Don’t worry; I’m going to give it to you when they’re finished with your little girlfriend. Tell you what; let’s watch it together, eh?”

He forcibly turned the PC around, locking her head with a throat-hold. He chuckled softly when the PC screamed and clawed at him, all the while Sasha begged the PC to save her.

When the PC woke up it was pitch black. The alley was covered in darkness and she lay naked on the ground amongst trash and something wet foul-smelling. The character had gone trough her First Change as a werewolf and massacred everyone in the alley. The PC blindly fumbled about in the alley until her eyes adjusted to the dim light, at which time she saw the tattered remain of a pair of jeans and an unmistakable scalp of red hair.


The player in question were not at all used to my "style" of Storytelling, but she jumped on the train quickly. To this day I don't know if I took things to far or not far enough. What do you guys think?

Peace Out.

- Urslingen

... That... That is probably some of the scariest, mind-breakingest s*it I've ever read. Kudos, sir. Kudos.

Morph Bark
2012-11-12, 05:48 AM
My players (well, two of my current ones) once fought a couple of golems, including an emerald golem that could make green teleportation circles. One of the players accidentally fell on one and was teleported to another location, with the rest of the party soon following.

To this day, one of them (well, the other too somewhat) still have bad reactions when I just say "green circles".

The others have mainly encountered some small things, but nothing major that causes such reactions.

Dr.Epic
2012-11-12, 11:08 AM
Why not javelins or spears?


EDIT: Well, okay, 30lb of carry capacity can make a difference if you go all-out looting.

My dwarf barbarian could have carried it.

Karoht
2012-11-12, 11:17 AM
Steve the Aboleth.
You mean Steve the Aboleth AND his initial lesser incarnation in a swamp full of "Tucker's Kobolds" inspired Orcs.
Which the party still complains about, what, 3 years later?
And has an unnaturally paranoid fear of all things related to swamps?
Yeah.

lerg2
2012-11-12, 11:42 AM
Not yet, but I'm planning a terror campaign for next halloween. However, I suck at picking music, so help would be appreciated. Anyway, after my campaign they will be terrified of small pieces of RL paper.

*edit, I need to work on my paragraph structure*

Grim Portent
2012-11-12, 04:01 PM
I haven't tried this yet but I'm planning a shameless rip off of James Herbert's novel Rats, going to start by making the PCs choose to try and defend a marketplace full of innocent NPCs or run to avoid a risk of death, the screams of the innocent ringing in their ears (with suitably gory death descriptions for any character, player or otherwise, who is killed by the rats). Followed by a claustrophobic search through rat infested streets and sewers to help the rat-catchers guild and city guard find out why the rats are swamping the city and are being so aggressive. Final boss will be a were-rat Vermin Lord.

Sample of the sort of descriptions I'll use follows:

'As you proceed through the dank sewer tunnels, the light of your torches casting unpleasant shadows upon the walls, you come upon a scene of carnage. Bodies clad in the tattered uniforms of the city guard litter the ground, shredded and gnawed, in places the pale white of bone pokes through their torn flesh. Slumped against the far wall you see a figure in the clothing of a rat-catcher. His left leg is severed below the knee, a mere trailing scrap of tissue. His eyes have been plucked from their sockets, his cheeks chewed away. His body twitches and writhes as if in agony. With a wet rip a hole opens in his abdomen and a pointed, bloodstained head pushes it's way out. The rat glares at you, a hunk of it's victims flesh still clutched in it's teeth. It swallows and pulls itself out of the ruined corpse. More follow from the hole it left in the body and yet more rats pour from the other corpses. As the tide of rats swarm forward you hear distant screams echo through the tunnels, a sign that yours is not the only patrol to be facing such peril.'

While I still have details to work out before doing this, I would appreciate any tips on making it more unsettling.

Fates
2012-11-12, 04:56 PM
When my players were searching for a tavern, I had the paladin find the Throbbing Rooster, a gay bar full of Spellscales, who immediately began hitting on him. I was worried it might offend my homosexual players, but they laughed hardest of all. We all had a good bit of fun, though the paladin was wary of any spellscales he met thereafter.

Pokonic
2012-11-13, 12:13 AM
Also, there was that one time the players entered the Balelands.

Now, before I actualy discribe the balelands, one needs to learn about bale crystal: a green, jagged substance, wounds gained by it do not heal right. Now, the subtance is highly, highly tied to the negitive energy plane, and creatures who die of it tend to revive as a zombie.

The Balelands are a miles-wide stretch of land covered in jagged outcrops of the stuff. Also, it's volcanic.


Now, no one can say that the nameless crag in the earth was opened by demon worshipers (Orcus is the usualy suspect). No matter the cause, no one can say that the place is not something out of the lower planes: the unbearable heat, the constant flickering blue-green flames just out of reach, the undead, the ground itself....


To put it bluntly, even Undeath is twisted to it's natural conclusions here. Zombies, after shreding there feet in patchs of bale crystal, tend to have chunks stuck to them: this empowers them to nigh-immortality thanks to the shear necromantic energy the rock gives off. Sentinent undead are even worse, with ghouls having makeshift weapons made solely of the stuff. Magic users can even use the ambient energy to power there spells, and the rock proper gives spells Vile damage when used in it.


That's not even getting to the Baleflame Beasts. As it turns out, Fire is still a viable way to kill undead in these cursed lands. However, the crystal heals undead. The result is a few bones floating in mid-air, bathed in a rich yellow-green flame that does nasty things to those who would dare to so much as touch it. One such creature, a former Stone Giant who ended up being a semi-molten mid-boss for the group, nearly killed the party by itself.



But oh, thats not getting to the Dragon.


You see, there was a dragon around when the lands where created, and it shows the signs of it. You see, shards of the crystal embeded themselves into it's scales, and it's former acidic breath turned into a horrific necromantic brew that literaly ignites souls. That, combined with it living in a cave filled with terrible lungs-distroying smoke, makes it the most feared creature in the wastes.


Then it was learned that the creature was brooding over a batch of eggs. That, and the beraggled undead creatures slowly orginizing themselves, with a potent lich at there helm, forced the party to make a trip into a place where there is literaly no hope.

Sudain
2012-11-14, 01:25 PM
Spoilered for length.
And then there was the time they had to kill a crippled little girl's dad in front of her because a Balor had possessed him (he was an innocent man, but he had been wounded with a demonic blade). A few minutes later, they learned that most of the village had been wounded by the blade, and had to kill the villagers off one by one as they were possessed and no attempt to safely exorcise them worked. They try to explain things to the little girl, but she runs off and they never find her.

Years later, an entire country is being ravaged by demons and disease, and the PCs have to confront the source of it all-the little girl, all grown up, her missing arm replaced with a skeletal graft, sitting in a throne suspended over a volcano, staring hatefully at them through her one good eye while she ignores the burns the heat is causing her and summons one certain Balor...

I love you for this story.

hymer
2012-11-14, 02:40 PM
@ Portent: After that little speech, the jaded player, impatiently holding up his d20, ask "So now can I roll for initiative?" and another chimes in "I already rolled mine, I'm just waiting to lift the shaker."
These guys would be listening to the descriptions of the innocent NPCs being killed in the market square, thinking it's a pat on the back for getting the hell out of there, not something meant to affect them.

@ Pokonic: I'm still waiting for how this was supposed to scar the players.

@ the both of you: I guess I'm just jaded.

Tengu_temp
2012-11-14, 04:07 PM
Semi-military/law enforcement game in a world operating on Reverse Clarke's Third Law*:
The PCs are in the middle of a tough fight and it looks like they're going to lose. Suddenly, a mysterious figure comes to their help, and judging by the magic it uses, it's very likely it's a certain canon character beloved by both the players and their characters! Everyone is elated.
Nope. When the dust settles, it turns out to be their creepy middle-aged commanding officer whose main hobby seems to be stalking and vaguely hitting on the PCs (most of the characters are female). And for extra "fanservice", his combat armor is topless. The players threaten to kill me. I laugh. Good times.

* - or Nanoha, if you're familiar with the show/setting.

Admiral Squish
2012-11-14, 08:47 PM
My DM is quite cruel. We're playing a Percy Jackson-based game, where each of us played as a demigod. In one of our adventures, we were eaten by chronos and sent back to December 6, 1941, the day before pearl harbor. We ended up foiling this nazi guy's plans and got pulled back to our own time. It was then revealed that because we had foiled his plans, we inadvertently caused the worst part of the holocaust.

Sith_Happens
2012-11-15, 12:33 AM
My DM is quite cruel. We're playing a Percy Jackson-based game, where each of us played as a demigod. In one of our adventures, we were eaten by chronos and sent back to December 6, 1941, the day before pearl harbor. We ended up foiling this nazi guy's plans and got pulled back to our own time. It was then revealed that because we had foiled his plans, we inadvertently caused the worst part of the holocaust.

For the life of me I can't decide whether that sort of occurrence is befitting the source material. It's definitely befitting the source material's source material...

Admiral Squish
2012-11-15, 12:54 AM
For the life of me I can't decide whether that sort of occurrence is befitting the source material. It's definitely befitting the source material's source material...

Oh, and while we were in the past, we got sworn on the river styx to let what has to happen happen. So, we were forced to let this DMPC's girlfriend, who was the original oracle at camp, be cursed and then die. Which explained why said DMPC, our counselor, kinda hated us since we first arrived.

Also, I don't know if this counts as 'scarring', but my brother joked about his character peeing himself in fright without noting he was OOC (the rule is you have to touch your head in some way with your hand to speak OOC) and now he has to make a fortitude save every time he is frightened... or sleeps... or is struck in the stomach. There was a memorable moment where he crit-failed after getting hit in the gut with a dodgeball and explosively evacuated his bowel and bladder, spraying a good 10 foot area around him with waste. RIGHT after that a boss fight started, his pants still fouled. His first action in combat was to fall to his knees and plead, weeping, to apollo, begging for his divine father to, and I quote, "CLEAN MY PANTS!" When asked why he would ask for that and not aid in the coming battle, he replied "I DON'T WANT TO DIE WITH CRAP IN MY PANTS!"

DigoDragon
2012-11-15, 08:36 AM
One of the most scarring things I did to my players occured in a Shadowrun campaign. They were hired by a Mrs. Johnson to investigate the murder of her father, a retired surgeon named Dr. Gregory M. Lucky.
He retired to a nice comfy mansion on a private island. Being the middle of winter, it was difficult getting there with the weather going sour and a snow storm coming through.

Upon arrival, not only did the runner team find that the doctor was still alive, but that several runners, Johnsons, and even a Lone Star cop were invited. The doctor treated everyone to dinner, whereas the power went out in the middle of dessert and something murdered the old man before the runners got out their flashlights.

The players were quite sure I just set them up to a game of "Clue".

Naturally the runner team began listing their suspects among the ranks of everyone here at the mansion, trying to find motive. However, one by one these people were getting picked off and whoever the murderer was began defying explanation, such as disappearing at dead end halls.

Now it's turning less Clue and more Silent Hill to them. They wanted to just leave the mansion, but the blizzard passing through wouldn't make that a comfortable prospect.
Finally the players started piecing things together when they managed to dig up their past files through their commlinks and digging through Dr. Lucky's personal computer--

These other invited guests all worked with Dr. Lucky years ago on a classified Ares Space project called "Zazoo".

Then the team street sam got a wiff of what was attacking them when it went after one of the Johnsons. It was small and furry and was using the air ducts to get around the mansion. Ah ha! It has to be Dr. Lucky's dog! They lured it out with a trap and using Dr. Lucky's maid as bait.
Then got hit with a shock.

They only found the dog's skin.

"It" was something not of this planet.

It was too fast to properly identify, but it was something like a small snake with hind legs, two flexible tails, big glossy black eyes, and teeth. Oh gawd the teeth! It attacked the party and the remaining guests, trying to physically dig into one of the NPC via his gut.

The Street Sam threw a grenade at it, blowing it up (and the master bedroom. and the victim), but that did save the few remaining people and the team.

Cops showed up after the storm lifted (The runners called them to report the murders and had enough evidence to NOT implicate themselves to anything. I know, big shock). Turns out all these other invited NPCs were wanted by Ares for various criminal charges. The PCs left and hooked back up with their original Mrs. Johnson to complain about the mess they were involved in. Johnson doubled their pay and gave them an encrypted data chip.

After hacking it, the Players later learend that Project Zazoo was research into extra-terrestrial life. The project ended on the line "Inconclusive, but we are not alone."

No player ever liked running at mansions since then.



Throw a rust monster at a bunch of low level players. Easiest way to make the barbarian/fighter/paladin/cleric hate the DM at that level.

I had an evil wizard once enlarge a normal cockroach to Rust Monster size and then glue some antennae to it. Chased the PCs down half the dungeon before they figured it out XD

Orsen
2012-11-15, 11:02 AM
The thing I have done that I'm not sure my players will ever forgive me for is kill dogs. It wasn't my choice. Paizo keeps killing off dogs in their adventures and I just read what I'm told to. Sometimes we have moments of silence for them, especially if some of the players real dogs are in the room.

Sith_Happens
2012-11-15, 01:00 PM
Paizo keeps killing off dogs in their adventures

Surely this evil cannot go unpunished.

PJ Garrison
2012-11-16, 01:12 AM
Paizo keeps killing off dogs in their adventures

Oh man, I had a girlfriend chew my ass out because I killed her character's pet cats. I needed something to die, and I figured they'd be expendable...

I was wrong.:redface:

Dread Angel
2012-11-19, 07:12 AM
I was running a solo game for a buddy of mine a couple years back. We were both 20 years old at the time, and have known each other for years.

For plot reasons, he was following a rather uniquely cool undead NPC, without his knowledge.

He ended up entering a small village, and it promptly went Silent Hill on him. Nothing at the edge of town...just an endless abyss. I began flexing my long-unused horror-game muscles, and I was in fine form that night.

He ended up finding various pieces of a child's skull in various places....after dealing with all kinds of rather disturbing ****. The whole point of that minicampaign was for him to test a build he'd come up with, and we used it as an exercise to see how well I can improvise an entire game with no notes, preparation beforehand, and still keep the plot intact and logical.

There were many, many unpleasant Silent Hill type things for him, but nothing got to him quite as much as having to tote around bits of a four year old's skull, then piece them together, slot the skull into the space where the rest of the child's skeleton was embedded in a fountain...which promptly starting flowing with the child's blood while revealing the stairwell down.

He had to slog through an inch-deep flow of child's blood down into a dungeon.

And his character had an aversion to shoes.

He STILL talks about that.

Grimsage Matt
2012-11-19, 11:49 AM
My players know one thing about me (my RL players anyway). They would rather face something from the lightless depths of Kyber, a Ancient Demon lord from the bottom of the abyss, a Primevil god-Monster, then face my favorite monster.

Fear the Pugs, it won't save your life, but it might just erase your mind first....

Noedig
2012-11-19, 01:49 PM
More along the line of 'done to me' than done to my players, but one time a DM had my guy's limbs sawed off with a hacksaw. That was unpleasant.

Diarmuid
2012-11-19, 03:11 PM
I dont have a lot of DM experience so I havent done much scarring, but my DM has scarred me pretty badly.

Worst example was in a GURPs Supers game where out group was being mentored by Batman to become a supergroup based in Philidelphia. This was occurring during the GM's Hush storyline.

I managed to piss Hush off pretty bad so he made it his maniacal goal to ruin me in every way possible. The worst was to have Clayface pretend to be a hottie I seduced and collected my "specimen". Clayface then used that "specimen" while pretending to be me and raping this same girl. After having his way with her, they then set the building on fire knowing I would come to help (it was my apartment building and Hush had figured out my identity due to some bad moves on my part). So I go in, see her in that state and of course save her...and a week later my real identity is being brought up on Rape and possible Arson charges,

Throughout the rest of that game, my character only trusted his one friend (a Daredevil type guy with radar) who could identify people by their heartbeat.

PairO'Dice Lost
2012-11-19, 06:47 PM
I haven't done anything particularly scarring to my players in terms of horror, but I do have a few running themes in my games that really get to my players.

One example is the chanting spellcasters: In the first campaign I ran with my college group, one particular NPC faction had lots of caster minions and their schtick was that they all had some means of increasing their spell power by increasing casting time--the channeled X line of spells, stacking Delay Spell'd or Repeat Spell'd spells for a big boom, spelldancing, storing up spell levels and releasing them all at once, and so on. Whenever they did this, I just described them as chanting, as in "Okay, next up, the man in the red robes. He...begins chanting. Next!" Since every time the party ignored one of those chanters resulted in some serious pain on their part, they got to the point where whenever I described someone as chanting they immediately prioritized them as a target.

The next campaign involved the same faction at one point since they were a multiverse-spanning organization and had a presence on practically every plane. Again, the few times the party ran into this organization's groups, they focus-fired the chanting mage or else they'd be in for a world of hurt.

Next campaign. The party is high level, they walk into a fairly low-level city, the town guard has a priest there asking travelers their business, and when the priest starts casting zone of truth I said "He begins chanting the words of a prayer, asking his deity to reveal the truth of your words." This guy had no relation to the organization whatsoever, but I didn't get past "He begins chanting" before the party blaster opened up on the poor 3rd-level cleric with a meteor swarm followed by a belt of battle'd second meteor swarm, yelling "CHANT THIS, MOTHER******!!"

Goodbye cleric, surrounding guards, and entire gatehouse. Goodbye party's warm welcome in the town. The best part? That city didn't actually have any members of that particular organization in it and they actually had a fairly small presence on that Material Plane, but they were known to be particularly good at killing or capturing casters, and a bunch of the people in the city had just seen a crazy caster murder an innocent, so their recruitment for that quarter went up several hundred percent. :smallwink:

Another running theme:

When my players were searching for a tavern, I had the paladin find the Throbbing Rooster, a gay bar full of Spellscales, who immediately began hitting on him. I was worried it might offend my homosexual players, but they laughed hardest of all. We all had a good bit of fun, though the paladin was wary of any spellscales he met thereafter.

I like to include a tavern in more cosmopolitan cities called the Flaming Dwarf, complete with rainbow lettering on the sign, suggestive drink names, the logo of a dwarf with golden-skinned bare muscled chest, the whole bit. When the PCs walk in, they find the bartender is...a gruff azer, a literal "flaming" dwarf. He's been running his bar for a while but he never did get the hang of Material Plane humor--he doesn't see why people find the drink names amusing, he thinks rainbow colors are perfectly sensible for decor (burning different metals is a good way to brighten up the Plane of Fire, after all), he doesn't understand why groups of men and women will drink together instead of hanging out with the opposite sex, and so on.

Darth Stabber
2012-11-19, 07:53 PM
Running L5R, and decide to run a "christmas special", with the homemade adventure "samurai save santa". Santa's sleigh is brought down over the shadowlands by Iuchiban's forces (this was about 4 sessions after the rain of blood). The characters have to go to the shadowlands, locate and rescue santa. There is an NPC in the party, a ratling raised by the hiruma, in possession of a magic bag of unrevealed properties, containing amoung other things his pet rabbit.

After walking for a few hours through the shadowlands they arrive at small castle, and defeat a flying oni. After about two hours of crawling through tunnels, hiding in latrines, poorly forged identification, drawing ogre pornography to distract the ogre secretary, and finding out that the ratling's bag contains everything, and everything is inside the bag the players (not the characters) have shed several points of sanity, and they manage to find santa. Santa grants them each a christmas wish, and the ratling wishes for girlfriend for his pet rabbit.

The characters wake up the next morning and find that the mission had been a dream, they ask the nezumi to grab the scroll containing the days orders. He reaches into the bag and pulls out a rabbit, then reaches in again and pulls out another rabbit, then another, then a bottle of scotch and an "I <3 New York" t-shirt, and the players also find their christmas presents in their footlockers, and there was much groaning. One of the players, to this day, still quivers in fear when a ratling shows up.

It got really bad a couple of months ago when, during a D&D game, a ratling showed up carrying a big bag asking if any one had seen an old pocket watch. Only one of the players from the l5r game was in that group, but he nearly pulled his hair out and almost started crying. I have decided that the ratling is now the running gag that ties my games together.

Grelna the Blue
2012-11-29, 11:44 AM
It is absurd that this was apparently the most scarring thing I've ever done to my players--I was barely even trying--but after having quite a few hardfought battles with ogres in which I had tried to depict the creatures as being as horrific as they are described in the Pathfinder Bestiary, with some success, the encounter that left the greatest mark was in a relatively easy encounter involving only two ogres, one of whom was out of armor because she had been breastfeeding an ogre infant. It seemed to be the detail of the milk runnels cutting through the grime on her filthy, obese, and grotesque upper body that squicked them out, and even now the players plug their ears and do the "la la la, can't hear you" routine when their past history with ogres is referenced, just because of that. Of course, most of the players are guys, but still, really? Really?

ReaderAt2046
2012-11-29, 02:12 PM
The next day, the three are provided with horses and the messenger leads them out of town. The first couple of hours are uneventful, but round about 11ish, a mysterious figure smashes out of a nearby copse of pine trees and starts shambling towards the group. At a distance, it looks human, but closer examination reveals something from a nightmare. The creature’s left arm is a long, fleshy club, oozing some kind of clear pus. The creature’s right foot has been replaced with some sort of claw, and its flesh, visible beneath the tattered black rags it wears, is mottled crimson and white.
It stumbles up to you, babbling incoherently, “Oh great fire defrind me! Turn back the weave of the seven-pandered fist!” It briefly sinks into some sort of muttering that you can’t catch. Then it spots Von Pinn, and seems to recognize her!
“Oh, sister, unspeak what was said! Speak back the words that unweave me, that I might be broken and free! Oh sister, aid me!” It’s almost on top of you by now, and is staring at Von Pinn with a desperate fascination.


Before you can really start the search,
You are escorted down to the dungeons, and to a specific cell. A pair of guards are in fornt of the cell. One is panting and has a nervous look in his eyes, while the other is sitting down and unnaturally pale. The cell itself contains a bloody mess of flesh. It is (just barely) recognizable as the human parts of the thing you took prisoner. Its demonic parts seem to have vanished entirely, and by so doing caused the entire body to fall apart. Partial organs pulse wetly within the ruined frame, three fingers and several arm muscles are all that seem to remain of the thing's left arm, and the entire upper half of its face has been removed as with an ice-cream scoop, making visible a mish-mash of gray matter that might, perhaps, be appetizing to a mind flayer, but is merely nauseating to anyone else.



The following two quotes are from the adventure I'm running. Read it and barf!

Grim Reader
2012-11-30, 09:33 AM
It was a bodyguarding the King thing...

I was stationed on Badger Duty. Thats the most remote post, where there is an evil badger. It roots around in the dark, making noises that are really hard to tell from a human trying to sneak up on you (or the Crown Prince trying to find his way home from his first real drunk).

Some of my mates had decided to try to mess with me. One in particular. Things can get quite terrifying when you are in a small circle of light, its pitch dark outside it, and you're quite convinced of your own importance in protecting the royal family...and someone is really trying to make it sound like your being snuck up on...



Long story short, I shot him.



Not too badly, luckily, and he made a full recovery, during which he became my player. So most scarring thing I ever did to one of my players was gutshoot one.

Thialfi
2012-11-30, 09:55 AM
Let's just say getting captured by evil humans and humanoids in our campaign is a very bad idea. We run a a gritty campaign that doesn't pull any punches. I am by far the kindest of our DMs.

I have had several characters, both male and female, gang raped, branded, sold into slavery, etc.

My all time favorite character, a cleric a Gilean from the Dragonlance campaign, who I have been playing with since 1986 was captured by humanoids and made to fight in gladatorial style games in Sanction. A couple of the guards took turns abusing him. It didn't get better after he tried to cause light wounds them and failed to take them out. Rough start for a character.

Kid Jake
2012-11-30, 11:23 AM
The most scarring thing I've ever done to a player, coincidentally is also the most scarring thing a player has ever done to me. It was my first attempt at DMing a game and I was trying to run a solo adventure for a friend of mine, we were about 15 and neither of us had any real experience.

I'd set up a murder mystery so that he could be slowly introduced to the social skills and then have a scrape or two without being overwhelmed all at once, although it didn't really work out like that.

It opens up with there only being one witness to the killing-spree, an elvish nobleman who's carriage driver had been killed and who intended to return home the moment he found a replacement. The player, a dwarven rogue/fighter gestalt was suspicious of the nobleman immediately, although I pointed out after a Gather Information check that he didn't seem to be in town for the first handful of murders.

Deciding he should probe this some more, he pays the nobleman a visit at his room and finds that he's freshening up in his bathroom. I figured he'd take this opportunity to do some sleuthing, but...he surprised me. He immediately begins stealing the man's clothing. All of it. As much as his stubby little dwarven arms can carry, he stuffs into his pockets; his pack; his bags; and everything else he carries. He stashes it in the room across the hall and then runs downstairs to rent the room. I'm perplexed by this point, but I want to see where he's going with this.

He comes back and the nobleman's out of his bath, buck naked and trying to find something to cover himself with. He asks the 'kindly' dwarf in the hallway if he's seen anything and the player responds by drawing his handaxe and threatening the elf back into his room. The elf asks what's going on and the player replies 'I have your clothes, and now you're exactly where I want you.'

Not liking the unpleasant innuendo in that, the nobleman shouts for his bodyguards in the next room. They enter and see their naked boss being threatened by a well armed dwarf, and still have the decency to ask what's going on instead of jumping to conclusions. The player, still thinking that this is a valid strategy, shouts that he has this man's pants and if anything happens to him, they'll never see them again.

Initiative is rolled and the guards win. They draw their crossbows and ready an attack if he tries anything towards the elf and ask him calmly to please step away from their boss. The dwarf (crazed look in his eye I imagine) responds by running towards the 10th floor window and leaping out. I asked him several times if he was sure about that and he just responded that he needed to regroup.

Needless to say, the fall dropped him. He hit 0 hitpoints and I figured I'd have the guards come down, patch him up and chalk it all up to a misunderstanding. Instead he uses his last movement to crawl into a ditch and hide. Once again I asked him if he was sure and he said he couldn't afford to be taken by 'the enemy'. He follows through with is plan and rolls a 20 to hide. The exertion drops him to -1 and he passes out. The guards come out and search fruitlessly, all the while he's bleeding to death under a pile of leaves.

Ultimately he dies in his ditch with me never having made a single attack roll against him, and is found by a group of halfling children playing ball about a week later. His only response is: 'This game is hard.'

Mono Vertigo
2012-11-30, 01:36 PM
'This game is hard.'
Makes the whole story. *giggles like an idiot* :smallbiggrin:

nedz
2012-11-30, 03:50 PM
His only response is: 'This game is hard.'

The ground is hard certainly. :smallbiggrin:

Amusing read, may be we should have a PC Ignoble award thread ?

Doorhandle
2012-12-03, 07:18 AM
Not something I did, but one of my players did in my current game...

After brutally slaughtering an entire keep worth of soldiers in a single night, he crafted a tree out of the corpses of the slain in the keeps courtyard. :smalleek:

My players have also grown wary of pillars... Did you ever realize how many pillars seem to deal damage in published modules? Especially in 4th edition...

Well, this is barely traumatizing by any standard, but that reminds me of when our mouse guard characters killed a shrike, and tried to make a boat out of it's corpse, because their old one was annihilated by the pirates we were chasing.


Originally Posted by kidjake

'This game is hard.'

Heh, missed that story. Something you should teach to new players is that while you can attempt anything, many things are not good ideas.

Grimsage Matt
2012-12-03, 09:30 PM
In my PTA game, the players just found out what happens to anyone who makes Nurse Joy mad. Turns out, she has a orbital strike team.

First, her Metagross (Called Hubert), goes into high orbit carrying her Blissy (Called Jane). Metagross uses Lock On on the poor sap, and fires the Blissey at them at 50 KM a Sec. Blissey uses Banzi Egg Bomb at the last second. Blissey walks away and uses recover.



Now..... I need to show them the one guy who can survive that like it was nothing...........

Phoenixguard09
2012-12-04, 09:09 AM
Alrighty then, let's see if I can adequately set this down.

I have been running a solo game of a homebrew Warhammer system for a mate of mine for over two years now. This wood elf has been through a lot.

The scary story, in all it's glory. It might be gory. :smalltongue:

Recently, Korlian led his kinband, most of whom were burnt and otherwise injured and two unconscious, from Athel Loren to the Halls of the allied Wolfhide clan in the Forest of Chalons after an altercation with a powerful Loren noble. (I've really tried to play up that elven politics can be deadly. Since the player inadvertently insulted the noble in a council meeting, I had the noble swear revenge, causing not inconsiderable amounts of grief.

So at any rate, the Wolfhide Halls, which Korlian had left with his kinband over a year ago in real time where discovered at night, completely abandoned. No signs of devastation or conflict, just completely abandoned. The kinband set up a camp in the darkened main hall while Korlian went to the other side of the settlement to where the rival Darkarrow clan dwellings were situated.

These two were completely abandoned. I made some rolls and informed the player of a shadow he could see flitting around in the corner of his eye, the faint keening moan of the wind through the boughs overhead. He began to get really worried, halting behind a tree and hiding for at least fifteen minutes, making listening checks the whole time. I kept feeding him information, the longer he stayed there, the more his character began to imagine things that weren't there till he was under the impression he was surrounded by several silent watchers. The player himself was jumpy as all hell.

After some time, he decided to quell his fears, carefully making his way towards the Darkarrow main hall, staying concealed in the darkness. I informed him of the wind growing just a little stronger, building in intensity.

He finally reaches the halls, the main doors of which are left slightly ajar. He peers inside carefully, but sees nothing but the empty room. The player takes a deep breath and then steps inside. I describe the high creak of the doors being opened just a little for the nimble elf to sip through. Now horribly on edge, he draws his long knives (Waywatcher, not so much Legolas) and peers aorund in the darkness, not venturing any deeper into the hall.

After some time gathering his nerve, he turns and comes face to face with a tall, scarred and exceptionally pale elf, with long, unkempt hair. The elf's eyes appear black. After threatening to hit me, the player has Korlian attempt to initiate conversation but the elf is uncommunicative, not giving any indication of acknowledging Korlian's presence save for his unnerring black stare.

Korlian attempts to leave the hall, thinking to brush past the strange elf when he speaks.

I used a very raspy voice and spoke completely out of the blue.
Not that way.... - Strange elf.

My player stands up, shakes his head, thanks me for the session and asks if we could stop there.

And so I learnt I could do scary stuff.

More of the story, in case you're interested.

Since then, I had Korlian's home Halls, those of the Greatbow clan, pillaged and destroyed while he was heading home.

The short story: He came home to find the dismembered corpses of most of his family and all the elves the Forest of Chalons could muster as part of an armed force. His brother, whom Korlian had sent ahead a few weeks prior as a messenger to his father was amongst the slain, therefore adding just a little bit of guilt to the proceedings.

You see, Korlian has become too strong to threaten physically in a realistic manner. Once I witnessed him bring down a minotaur in single combat with nothing but a great axe. It was at this stage I realised that I needed to start hurting the things he cared about rather than aiming for him.

1. I had the Loren noble accuse Chalons elves of being uncivilised and primitive.

2. I had the same noble almost kill Korlian's lieutenant, the player's favourite NPC.

3. I finally killed off all the contacts he had in the Forest of Chalons, specifically his love interest, her father, the Lord Wolfhide and most of his family, including his father, the Lord Greatbow, who was the designated Marshal of Chalons, and arguably the most powerful lord in the forest. At the same time I destroyed his home.

All in all, a job well done, so now we have a small kinband of skilled, hardcore, insanely vengeful Waywatchers who are going to, hopefully if my plans stay on track, engage in a guerilla war with, what can only be described as Beastelves. But don't tell Dev. :smallwink: