Your guilty pleasures (in relation to D&D)

[atemu1234]

Mine personally is, as a DM, making a horrifying, both emotional and mentally, encounter through which my PCs will have to work. From the players and DMs out there, what's yours?

[Nibbens]

Mine personally is, as a DM, making a horrifying, both emotional and mentally, encounter through which my PCs will have to work. From the players and DMs out there, what's yours?

As a DM, I like making my players make hard decisions. For example: PC's find a baby monster in a dungeon where the monsters they just slain are. Greaaaaat, now they are definitely mother killers, lets find out if they are baby killers too! lol.

Or the old cliche of saving the life of someone they know (and the party has grown attached to) or saving a group of people they don't know. Etc etc. Watch the hair pulling commence! lol.

Another guilty pleasure of mine is "haunted houses." lol.

[atemu1234]

As a DM, I like making my players make hard decisions. For example: PC's find a baby monster in a dungeon where the monsters they just slain are. Greaaaaat, now they are definitely mother killers, lets find out if they are baby killers too! lol.

Or the old cliche of saving the life of someone they know (and the party has grown attached to) or saving a group of people they don't know. Etc etc. Watch the hair pulling commence! lol.

Another guilty pleasure of mine is "haunted houses." lol.

These are all things I can respect. Personally (This is less of a guilty pleasure and more of just something that's good for the game) I enjoy describing everything in detail. They don't walk into a room and see a body, it's "As you enter the room, the sanguine and overpowering scent of blood washes over you. Beneath it is a scent of decay, strong and relatively recent. Inside the room is a long table with six chairs, one at each end, two on either side. Lying dead and rotting is a man at the far end of the table, lurched over the table, dressed in the fine clothes of a noble."

[Vizzerdrix]

As a player- using non magical items in creative ways to upset DMs (No joke. I got ladders banned from a game once :smallsmile:)

As a GM- Scaring my combat oriented players into avoiding all combat. (my current Shadowrun group is terrified of some shipping containers with nothing in them. And they know nothing s in them)

[Red Fel]

As a DM, my guilty pleasure is triggering a double-take. Particularly by inverting villains. Take an affable, warm, well-loved NPC and reveal that he's an affable, warm, well-loved genocidal monster. But he really likes you guys, and doesn't want to fight, so why don't you just leave and he can get on with the End of All Things, thanks? Alternatively, taking a feared, monstrous, brutal enemy, and revealing that he is in fact a feared, monstrous, brutal altruist, doing horrific things to prevent an even more horrific thing, and now look what you idiot heroes have done, you broke it, how will we stop it now?

He'll eat you later.

As a player, my guilty pleasure is the Crowning Moment of Awesome. (Usually entails going out in a blaze of glory, when my characters are involved.) Basically, just doing that one thing that's truly epic, usually involving a one-liner. For instance, the party telling my illusionist he can't go out there alone, before he smiles and says "I already did," the illusionary image fading. Or the half-celestial, who's been ineffectual and conflicted throughout the game, finally breaking down during the last battle and calling out for the person with whom he's been on the poorest terms since his backstory - his father, who arrives at the head of a small army of celestials. Concepts like this almost always require a DM who's on-board with the idea, and willing to take it to wicked extremes, but the payoff is like sweet, sweet candy.

[Telonius]

My guilty pleasure is building adventures with loads of hidden cultural references.

For example, in the campaign I'm running right now, they started out in the village of Brightstone (okay, no puns there...).
Several of the minor supporting characters they encounter:
Jarya Sparklehands, female Gnome Wizard (Pseudodragon familiar) and owner of Ye Olde Magick Shoppe.
Jacqueline Cooper, Human female Ranger and owner of an apple orchard outside town
Iris "speedy" Ritter, Human female Barbarian and town sports star
Diane Copperwing, Half-Elf female Bard and regular performer at the local inn
Octavia, Elf female Expert and owner of Octavia's Rare Finds, the local fashion boutique
Fiona Lightfeather, Elf female Druid and animal caretaker

After some adventuring in Brightstone, they pursue a Falxugon to the capital, Talis. Talis is ruled by Queen Elaine du Calion. After more adventuring, the queen's sister, Selene, is to be married to Lord Hector. Unbeknownst to everyone, the Falxugon has captured Hector and is impersonating him. When the players uncover this, he teleports them underneath the castle, where they have to defeat a covey of hags that are guarding Hector.

It was about ten sessions in that they finally got it, and there are several My Little Pony fans in the group. The expressions were absolutely priceless.

Another guilty pleasure: giving NPCs names that are puns or references to ancient or fictional languages. For example: du Calion - double pun, on "Tar-Calion" ("Son of Light," original name of Ar-Pharazon) from the Silmarillion, and Deucalion from Greek myth.

[Kazudo]

As a DM, I really like putting my players in positions where there are romantic encounters. There's one guy who, whenever he plays, gets into a romantic encounter once per game. Which usually doesn't do anything mechanically and when it's him I rarely use the old "your friends and family are plot devices eventually" clause. I will do it occasionally though, sometimes to introduce an important NPC so that the players won't just murderhobo them.

An even more fun thing I do is create homosexual encounters too, sometimes between players. Thankfully they're good sports and I've only taken the DMG to the skull once.

As a PLAYER, I can't help but enjoy being a wizard, and I always figure Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil in there somewhere, usually playing the wizard as a cagey individual who's hard to penetrate emotionally and read mentally, usually a woman (playing in a group full of men is usually the way things go whenever I'm not made to DM. For some reason women like to play in my games) who will be strangely open to one of the party members for little reason.

In short, my guilty pleasure in D&D is romantic subplots and encounters. Players are seldom prepared for that to come out, and I really like the kinds of plot openings that allowing romantic situations into a game creates.

[weckar]

As a DM, I LOVE making every action the PCs have taken somehow interlinked to the final confrontation, no matter how unrelated they seemed beforehand.

As a player, I enjoy having a character surf the social classes a bit.

[atemu1234]

Another guilty pleasure: giving NPCs names that are puns or references to ancient or fictional languages. For example: du Calion - double pun, on "Tar-Calion" ("Son of Light," original name of Ar-Pharzon) from the Silmarillion, and Deucalion from Greek myth.

I prefer naming my NPCs with bastardized latin or celtic. Sometimes I give them names from actual myths and legends, like when they ran into an archer named Scathach.

[DigoDragon]

Another guilty pleasure of mine is "haunted houses." lol.

Oh I Love creating haunted houses for my players to venture in. And they're so versatile that they'll work in any genre. Even in space settings, the seemingly derelict colony ship that was a home for several hundred colonists and they all suddenly vanished. :smallbiggrin:

[atemu1234]

Oh I Love creating haunted houses for my players to venture in. And they're so versatile that they'll work in any genre. Even in space settings, the seemingly derelict colony ship that was a home for several hundred colonists and they all suddenly vanished. :smallbiggrin:

I did a few campaigns set in the future once. Another guilty pleasure is references to Doctor Who. A race of people that travel through time? Check. I even cribbed Jack Harkness' gauntlet thing for common use. Of course, in the future.

[dysprosium]

As a DM I try to encompass a couple of things:


the Deck of Many Things: sometimes my players ask when (not if) it will appear in a campaign
worlds colliding: mash up of different genres or games, especially if the players are familiar with the others
all of my campaigns are connected: references to earlier campaign worlds, even if the world they are on now has absolutely no connection to the previous one

[sakuuya]

Trap monsters - mimics and cloakers and gelatinous cubes, all those dumb, ecologically-questionable monsters that could only ever be encountered in a dungeon. Love 'em. They only really work against new players, but one of my non-guilty pleasures is introducing new people to the game, so that suits me fine.

Except rust monsters. Boo on those.

[atemu1234]

As a DM I try to encompass a couple of things:


the Deck of Many Things: sometimes my players ask when (not if) it will appear in a campaign
worlds colliding: mash up of different genres or games, especially if the players are familiar with the others
all of my campaigns are connected: references to earlier campaign worlds, even if the world they are on now has absolutely no connection to the previous one


I spent most of my time as DM making a coherent world. I even drew up a world map. Even though I'm sure we'll never get through all I want to do, it's fun knowing that so much still exists to do.

[Kazudo]

On the subject of making games connect through sheer absurdity

In one game we played in a kind of Burning Sands trek through the desert Egyptian like game. It was great fun and ended up with the group (nearing epic level) actually solving the Blood Feud and causing the lower planes to invade the upper planes, then completely decimating all outer planes. Long story short, stuff that blatantly shouldn't have happened, but it was certainly fun.

Then in the next game I ran, it took place in kind of a Frozen North After the End Post-Apocalyptic Paranoia setting in the same game world, where the world has sort of started hard-resetting. That game lasted for a while until the group started finding "glitches" in the world. Beautiful stuff.

Then they managed to wake themselves up from a comatose sleep and found themselves aboard a prison freighter in which they were (theoretically) the only living (theoretically) people (theoretically) aboard, and the freighter was actually on a crash course with a star, being guided and helped along the way by a prisonkeeping AI (theoretically) who was attempting to save the ship (theoretically). It was actually a Mutants and Masterminds game, but they had to fill in their character sheets as I told them what they had since, well, they were waking up after a weird simulation of a fantasy world and a mind wipe upon entering. They found out all kinds of awesome stuff about the way things were and how they were going and what they were getting themselves into. Long story.

Well, one of the things that I like to bleed over between my games is the concept of the Everlasting Erase Button, a creature sometimes called the Black Beast, The End, the Dark Abyss, etc. It's essentially a black oozing substance the size of a small nation that sleeps until the ritual to awaken it is performed, at which point it ascends to Elder Evil status and gets up and starts consuming the planet, evolving after every huge batch of souls it's consumed, etc. The notion is that this is the same game world, but it is so drastically changed every time someone hits that reset button that it's unrecognizable. Some of the old hands at my tables over the years have learned that when the Beast comes out, it's pretty much a signal that I'm tired of the game and that they'd either better get used to things drastically changing or step up to run a game for a while because once this one's done I'm probably back on hiatus.

[ArqArturo]

As a DM, I like making my players make hard decisions. For example: PC's find a baby monster in a dungeon where the monsters they just slain are. Greaaaaat, now they are definitely mother killers, lets find out if they are baby killers too! lol.

I tried this once. Turned out to be a huge mistake due to the CoDzilla training and setting his little monsters in his Grove (I gave the players a small HQ that they grew little by little into a small kingdom).

My DM guilty pleasure is to describe the architecture of the cities, in detail :/. As a player, I go with mercy to everyone, except undead and fiends.

[Alikat]

Except rust monsters. Boo on those.

Last campaign I killed a rust monster by weaponizing a folding boat. One of my prouder D&D moments. :smallcool:

[Honest Tiefling]

Giving areas different customs. Some NPCs won't mind that the crazy foreigners are acting a bit off, through the nobles or others might be a bit huffier...Oh, and stealing them from different real world cultures.

[Eldan]

Building characters that I will probably never play. High powered ones, too. I've probably a dozen level 30 gestalt character still lying around on google docs. That's what I'd call a guilty pleasure. THe rest are just things I like putting into games.

[The Insanity]

Supporting my RP with optimization.

Optimizing my character to be awesome, but then holding back to the point that sometimes the other PCs think I'm a weakling.

Inserting my older PCs as NPCs or reusing my favorite NPCs, making them recurring characters that are known by my players.

Using DMPCs (but they rarely do anything useful).

[jjcrpntr]

As a DM I enjoy finding ways to work the players back grounds and choices into the game.

In the game I'm running the party was given 3 hooks they could go off. They choice option C. One player said "That's fine lets just do this, then we'll come back and do the other 2.I've told him several times. This isn't a video game. Stuff will happen while you guys are away. What they do/don't do will effect things.

As a player. I enjoy creating characters with high survivability. Not necessarily high HP, or high AC, though those can be nice. I'm talking about a gestalt wizard/cleric with abrupt jaunt class feature, that has taken a bunch of hesitates, and stay the hand type spells. It's not super optimal but it's fun to see the dm get frustrated when I go entire games without being hit more than once.

I also enjoy coming up with a back story for my character. My first character was a charismatic, friendly cleric that got along well with just about everyone, except his deity for the first few levels. Second character was a wood elf who didn't trust humans and hated barbarians. Fun part about this was of the 4 other players 3 were humans and one was a barbarian.

[Faily]

As a player, I like giving my characters backgrounds that tie into previous characters I have played (or other PCs or NPCs they were involved with).

Even if they are on different worlds, it amuses me. :3

[Tibbit Tamer]

There are two things I always do when I DM:

1. Make 7 dwarf NPCs. The players will encounter them all over the world, but it turns out they are all brothers.

2. In the first or second dungeon, I will have a locked room. A player will go into the room and I will show them a picture of a monster they saw in the room. It is always a Beholder. Cue player running out of the room screaming. It turns out however that the Beholder is dead. Cue hilarity. It's happened twice now to the letter.

[hymer]

I guess as DM it is listening to four or six grown people talk about the campaign world I created, discussing what could happen, what the NPCs are up to, etc. I take a wee bit too much pride in that.

As player, I think it's being shapeshifted into a bird as a druid during combat. There's such wonderful freedom, and the enemy can hardly attack me. So they tend to focus on the melee guys instead.

[9mm]

Putting players into a spaghetti western.

[VoxRationis]

Probably setting up intrigue and plots with numerous different players and factions at work. My father just prefers kick-in-the-door play, but I enjoy putting the "role-playing" in "role-playing game."

[Zaq]

I like making characters with really high Knowledge checks. This is mostly because I tend to know more about the game than is usually healthy (what? Monster books are fun to read!), so if my character also knows everything, I don't have to play dumb, and I can get away with suggesting or commenting on just about anything. This becomes frustrating when I go about making backup characters, because I'm torn between my inclination toward Knowledge-monkeys and my desire to not just play the same basic character over and over. (Let alone the desire not to get typecast by the group!)

[atemu1234]

Another old favorite is making one of the PCs get Dominated and force them to fight their comrades.

[Jeff the Green]

I like putting in pop (or not) culture references in the names of secondary characters in my PCs backgrounds. Things like Abdullah al-Hazred, the half-janni the PC suspects tried to murder him in a tomb containing a strange spirit being, or Mikko Janinpoika (i.e. Michael, son of Jack) the dirgesinger.

[jjcrpntr]

Another old favorite is making one of the PCs get Dominated and force them to fight their comrades.

I had my PC's carry two cursed items from one town to another. But each day the person holding the bag had to roll a d20 and get one of 20 different effects. Being terrified of dying alone and therefor they HAD to stay within 5 feet of a friendly character (which was fun when the wizard had to follow the barbarian into melee).

The best one was when the wizard got the "effect" that put him under the effect of greater rage and he had to do a will save or attack the nearest creature. Just so happened he was close to the barbarian. So the little elf wizard took out his rapier and started attacking the barbarian and nearly killed him! The barbarian was getting annoyed but everyone was laughing so hard they almost didn't care how the fight ended. Eventually the barbarian remembered he could do non-lethal damage and in one shot knocked the wizard out.

[Vaz]

Contingent Spells. They really help with 'oops' moments, like when I forgot to protect against Death Effects, and the. BBEG got caught in its effects.

I left him doe, and then had him resurrected a few turns later while they were mid looting.

And Shadow pouncing. It is quite simply the most amazing ability for a meleer I believe.

[atemu1234]

I had my PC's carry two cursed items from one town to another. But each day the person holding the bag had to roll a d20 and get one of 20 different effects. Being terrified of dying alone and therefor they HAD to stay within 5 feet of a friendly character (which was fun when the wizard had to follow the barbarian into melee).

The best one was when the wizard got the "effect" that put him under the effect of greater rage and he had to do a will save or attack the nearest creature. Just so happened he was close to the barbarian. So the little elf wizard took out his rapier and started attacking the barbarian and nearly killed him! The barbarian was getting annoyed but everyone was laughing so hard they almost didn't care how the fight ended. Eventually the barbarian remembered he could do non-lethal damage and in one shot knocked the wizard out.

We have a barbarian (Half-Giant with two levels of fighter) and they were fighting minotaurs. He sees the leader and tries to punch him, runs up to him to do so, and rolls a miss, because it was a Legendary Minotaur. The minotaur (which can fly) literally floats up above his head and looks down at him. You should have seen the player's face.

[Brookshw]

Chuckling to myself when I know my players are barking up the wrong tree. Sure I'll drop more hints, ask if they want me to repeat anything. But when I listen to them brainstorming and knowing they're off target I get a chuckle.

[atemu1234]

Chuckling to myself when I know my players are barking up the wrong tree. Sure I'll drop more hints, ask if they want me to repeat anything. But when I listen to them brainstorming and knowing they're off target I get a chuckle.

Another one of mine, as well. I also enjoy getting them to like a NPC and then either kill the NPC or have him betray them.

[jjcrpntr]

Chuckling to myself when I know my players are barking up the wrong tree. Sure I'll drop more hints, ask if they want me to repeat anything. But when I listen to them brainstorming and knowing they're off target I get a chuckle.

As a newer dm this is really hard for me. But I told my players no railroading/handholding. They said that's what they wanted.

[NichG]

The cooking episode. There's always one.

[Snowbluff]

Oh I Love creating haunted houses for my players to venture in. And they're so versatile that they'll work in any genre. Even in space settings, the seemingly derelict colony ship that was a home for several hundred colonists and they all suddenly vanished. :smallbiggrin:

I can't do it. Making something really scary is hard for me, and I can't top the scariest piece of gaming I've done.

So, Read Dead Redemption's haunted house... during the day. Chair tips over. I get launched 400 feet into the air through a hole in the ceiling, and fall to my death.

See? You really had to be there. :smallfrown:

As for a guilty pleasure, I like picking on monks. Also, being inappropriately overpowered in already broken/busted campaigns.

[Arbane]

Another one of mine, as well. I also enjoy getting them to like a NPC and then either kill the NPC or have him betray them.

Don't worry. Eventually they'll learn they need to kill all NPCs on sight.

That IS what you want, right?

[Angelalex242]

As a player, I like hooking my up Paladins with Celestials. (Being Paladins, often with Trumpet Archons or Astral Devas, sometimes even Throne Archons, this is almost always a lawful marriage.) Because Half Celestials have to come from somewhere, so they might as well come from my character, right? :)

Yeah, I dig chicks with white feathery wings. Sue me.

On the DM side, running games where the Book of Exalted Deeds is mandatory. Which, of course, results in 'you must be good' and 'you start with an exalted feat.' I don't think much of Servant of the Heavens/Favored of the Companions/Knight of Stars feats, so I assign them to players for free based on their alignment. And away we go, with team noble smackdown, wherever even the barbarians and rogues are holy.

[Azoth]

As a DM I have two most notable guilty pleasures.

The first being to slip in NPCs based on characters from some of my favorite fantasy novels/mangas/video games/movies/ect... into my games. Doesn't matter if they are helpful, BBEGs, shop keepers, whatever. I usually award bonus XP if someone notices and slips me a note about it.

The second is making combat into a puzzle for my players. I will use the environment, class levels, magical gear, and spells to make a fight as strategically complex as possible. Some of my (and my player's) more beloved battles have been mind boggling and nerve wracking with the layered affects and hazards strewn across the battlefield.

As a player it would probably be having an item (or three) for ANY concievable occassion in storage on person. It fascilitates my need to have plans A-ZZ prepaired and ready to go at a moment's notice.

Another is playing in incredibly low op games, where the pressure to perform to a certain threshold is removed. You aren't worried about multi-classing around to make your trick come online at the earliest level, you aren't getting flack for learning fireball before haste as a wizard, the kind of game where human Monk20 can not only survive but do well.

[Chester]

I like to add tiny details that I know the players will obsess over.

"You notice faint ripples in the water . . . " for example.

At least one person in the party obsesses over it for an extended period of time.

Sometimes, when the group decides that there really is nothing in the water . . . something jumps out of the water.

:amused:

[atemu1234]

Don't worry. Eventually they'll learn they need to kill all NPCs on sight.

That IS what you want, right?

I said that I enjoy it, not that I do it too often.

[prufock]

I like to use these three, often in concert.

The Twist: This is where an expectation gets inverted, an NPC turns out to be other than he seems, what they'd been working for all this time is not what they thought, etc.

The Hard Choice: The PCs have to choose between two options, neither of which is ideal, but have their pros and cons.

The Win/Lose: The PCs have completed the game, and are now discovering that there is no perfect ending. Some endings are better than others, and the ending one PC would prefer is less desirable to another. Winning and losing isn't binary. No matter what they do, both some good and some bad will come of it.

I also like

The Self-Referential: Characters from previous games, maybe even set in entirely different worlds and systems, appear as NPC cameos as do well known "Named Builds" from charop boards.

and

The Throwback: Remember that thing you guys did months and months ago when you were level 2? Yeah, we haven't mentioned it since, but it has repercussions in the end game now that you're level 19.

[Alex12]

In my head, the average adventuring party is made of oddballs, each with their own story. And I like having the players encounter other adventurers. I love making up the histories and group dynamics of those parties, and how you get, say, a medusa sorceress, a Goliath Crusader, a Master of Many Forms, and a Favored Soul working together. It pretty much never comes up, but I've worked out how those party members relate to each other just in case it does.

[Regissoma]

As a DM my guilty pleasure is always having an NPC named old man Jenkins who always has an interesting puzzle they must solve with the most obvious answers for a good magic item. Its just so fun watching my fellow PCs overthinking about the puzzles.

[SolitonMan]

Building characters that I will probably never play. High powered ones, too. I've probably a dozen level 30 gestalt character still lying around on google docs. That's what I'd call a guilty pleasure. THe rest are just things I like putting into games.

I like this as well. I played a warlock (3.5) from level 1 to 17 in a Shackled City campaign a few years back that eventually petered out due to DM fatigue. But I wanted to get to epic levels to get some of the cool epic feats, so I calculated him up a few into the epic range. And then on to divine ascension. And after reaching ridiculous levels of power with the spamming of epic spells and the alter reality SDA, I started calculating a divine messenger character based on a simulacrum of the deity - with the sim being a wizard 60/druid 40. And boosted with spells and abilities made permanent via alter reality. Just a silly way to waste some time.

Though I've wondered if there's anything fun that can be done in a realistic game setting with such a powerful character, that wouldn't just reduce every choice to something trivial.

[Platinum Piece]

The cooking episode. There's always one.

One game, my party and I entered a cooking contest that was part of a festival in a small kingdom. After making the right knowledge and craft checks we invented grilled cheese. Turns out the judge was one of the princes and he loved it. Paid our level 3 party 10,000 gold in order to teach the palace chefs how to make it.

[winter92]

My DM's guilty pleasure: not pulling punches on stupid player choices. There's essentially no railroading, but if you make a choice that dooms you, you're doomed.

Suffice to say, his last two TPKs didn't involve dice rolls. We calmly and happily made arrangements that turned out to lead to one zombification, and one round of public beheadings. It's a lot of fun knowing that we can **** up dialogue not just by starting a fight but by getting ourselves executed outright if we make a bad choice.

[AvatarVecna]

Building characters that I will probably never play. High powered ones, too. I've probably a dozen level 30 gestalt character still lying around on google docs. That's what I'd call a guilty pleasure. THe rest are just things I like putting into games.

I do this a lot, in multiple systems, for no reason whatsoever. I just get an interesting/powerful idea for a character and build to my heart's content.

[Svata]

I like to add tiny details that I know the players will obsess over.

"You notice faint ripples in the water . . . " for example.

At least one person in the party obsesses over it for an extended period of time.

Sometimes, when the group decides that there really is nothing in the water . . . something jumps out of the water.

:amused:

Reminds me of when I had a dragon crash-land in front of the party, dead in a gestalt game I was running. Took them forever to realize it was dead, then they spent a while arguing over if they should skin it or not, with the party's half-dragon getting progressively more annoyed. It was honestly just meant to set the mood.

[NichG]

One game, my party and I entered a cooking contest that was part of a festival in a small kingdom. After making the right knowledge and craft checks we invented grilled cheese. Turns out the judge was one of the princes and he loved it. Paid our level 3 party 10,000 gold in order to teach the palace chefs how to make it.

In a Planescape campaign, I had one where the PCs were hired by the Jade Emperor (the deity) to prevent the contestants in a competition to replace the palace chef from cheating/poisoning the various worthies who were tasting. One of the PCs ended up getting called in as a judge and had to give Iron Chef-esque descriptions of the various foods.

[The Insanity]

Occasionally allowing my high level PCs to show off their power by curb-stomping (or just playing with) some low CR encounters.

[VariSami]

Well, here is a thread to which I can subscribe. Oh, so many guilty pleasures...

as a DM:

- Meaningful names. Both geeky references like the slaymate Nina Tucker and her necromancer father John Tucker and meaningful words in foreign languages, such as my aspiring Cabinet Trickster Changeling Bev Eidis ("beveidis" means "faceless" in Lithuanian). Actually, the latter applies both as a DM and as a player.

- Custom encounters. I literally attempt to provide stats for each named NPC the players will encounter. Most of the encounters I design are also built around custom monsters.

- On that note, exotic races. Planescape has been heaven to me in this regard although I might have overdone it at times. At the moment, the regular cast of NPCs includes a Curst knight, a Pygmy Troll informant, a Farrow cook, a Kender researcher, a Jaebrin jester, a Synad shopkeeper and his Warforged and Dvati assistants, et cetera.

- Neutral intelligent undead. I just like my liches dry rather than bloodthirsty. Expands to other sorts of undead as well, including the aforementioned slaymate and her awakened zombie companions.

- For that matter, ghosts. Such as the ghost of the aforementioned slaymate's father. He was still evil, though.

- Dwarves.

- Paladins.

- Villainous characters who may prove useful to the PCs. Although their motivations may be despicable, they also offer benefits which may allure some.

as a player:

- Theurge classes. There are too many cool things I want to try. Binding and magic? Check. Incarnum and psychics? Oh yeah. Incarnum and divine magic? Yes. You probably get the gist of it...

- Templates.

- Regional Feats. They provide decent power and some fluff in one package which is often more interesting than other choices. I almost have to have one.

- Alternative class features. Even when they are not that good, I often want to indulge in the possibilities.

[heavyfuel]

I like to add tiny details that I know the players will obsess over.

"You notice faint ripples in the water . . . " for example.

At least one person in the party obsesses over it for an extended period of time.

Sometimes, when the group decides that there really is nothing in the water . . . something jumps out of the water.

:amused:

Maaaan! I love doing this... Maybe a bit too much, and I've been accused of metagaming by my players because it seems like everytime they decide it's nothing there's an enemy.

Statues are the best things to do this with. "Ok, so in this room there are 3 statues, one of a dragon, one of an orc, and one of a human. The dragon has small saphires for eyes, the orc is holding a greatsword and the human is armed with a longspear." and let the players spend the next 30 minutes determining whether or not the statues are going to screw them in any way.

[BWR]

I guess it would be adapting stories I like (from whatever medium) to whatever game I'm running at the moment. Sometimes this works ("Dead Space" adapted to Star Wars worked ok). Sometimes it doesn't ("Ringworld" adapted for Dragonstar was not well received. Nearly 4 years later I'm still getting earfuls from my gf if anything reminds her of it).

[atemu1234]

I guess it would be adapting stories I like (from whatever medium) to whatever game I'm running at the moment. Sometimes this works ("Dead Space" adapted to Star Wars worked ok). Sometimes it doesn't ("Ringworld" adapted for Dragonstar was not well received. Nearly 4 years later I'm still getting earfuls from my gf if anything reminds her of it).

Basically I run whatever D20 material I can find in D&D if I can. Running a pathfinder or Arcana Evolved enemy in 3.5 is sure to broadside a few PCs.

[Brookshw]

Maaaan! I love doing this... Maybe a bit too much, and I've been accused of metagaming by my players because it seems like everytime they decide it's nothing there's an enemy.

Statues are the best things to do this with. "Ok, so in this room there are 3 statues, one of a dragon, one of an orc, and one of a human. The dragon has small saphires for eyes, the orc is holding a greatsword and the human is armed with a longspear." and let the players spend the next 30 minutes determining whether or not the statues are going to screw them in any way.

Of course the statues will
:smallbiggrin:

Red herrings are just fun sometimes, even if you end up having to dodge dice (why do you think dm screens are a thing? To keep your rolls secret?)

And one for my players: making fun of names. Dear lord do they make fun of names.

[Raimun]

Do I have guilty pleasures? Does solving things with violence count?

Sure, nine times out of ten, it is the best solution but I can't help feeling a bit giddy whenever there's a promise of a good fight.

Of course, I'm only resorting to violence when it's use is clearly warranted. For example:

Scenario 1: We're in enemy territory. A big, scary demon (or something else Obviously Evil/Enemy/Trying to Pull a Fast One/etc.) stops the party. It merely guards stuff/wants to talk but won't attack. Result: I will attack it, before it does, claiming the surprise round. :smallcool:

Scenario 2: A king/town elder/regular joe is just minding its business but is still acting counterproductively against the party. Okay. Time for negotiations, sneaking or good ol' "Accept the quest to make them helpful".

Solving Scenario 1 with violence does lead to trouble sometimes (one time out of ten) but I think it has always been dramatically more interesting than a "reasonable" solution would have been. Sometimes you wreck the interiors but score a spaceship out of the deal or you score cool loot but also score a recurring enemy. It's a win-win. :smalltongue:

[Nibbens]

Maaaan! I love doing this... Maybe a bit too much, and I've been accused of metagaming by my players because it seems like everytime they decide it's nothing there's an enemy.

Statues are the best things to do this with. "Ok, so in this room there are 3 statues, one of a dragon, one of an orc, and one of a human. The dragon has small saphires for eyes, the orc is holding a greatsword and the human is armed with a longspear." and let the players spend the next 30 minutes determining whether or not the statues are going to screw them in any way.

My whole group has this thing... and it seems to be common with more and more groups I hear about. There could be 8 level 25 characters, all armed to the teeth and optimized out of their minds, but if they see a door in a single dungeon and you've just made a 20 minute detour of varying arrays of dungeoneering checks, detect magics, perception checks, scrying, trap-searching, and arguing about how deep the dungeon goes and whether of not the use of a Trueseeing spell would be applicable at the door.

The whole time I have my head in my hands even wondering why I ever placed the door in the dang dungeon anyway. It's just a normal wooden unlocked door!

Anyone else have this problem? lol.

[Xaroth]

One of mine as a DM is that Lawful Evil NPCs are generally alright guys, but Lawful Good characters are complete douchebags.

Also, most devils are being made to fight against their will and you won't have to fight them if you come across them in a dungeon if you just talk to them beforehand.

[Alex12]

Making enemies/potential enemies not meet expectations.

In a campaign setting I made up, the most powerful figure and more-or-less ruler of the frozen northern wastes was a powerful and enigmatic individual known as the Frost Lord, who lived in a giant icy castle he made with his icy powers. It was said he was so powerful he had enthralled a white dragon to be his enforcer. Everyone in the group was making Adventure Time references to the Ice King. The party sorcerer had made a dragonpact with a red dragon named Vermicorax.
The Frost Lord was Vermicorax. When he had to go out, he painted himself white. Most people aren't going to storm the icy castle of the Frost Lord, with his white dragon minion, and bring countermeasures against a red dragon.
Admittedly, this never actually came up in-game, which ended before anything could come of that particular setup.

[DMMerthasMalkir]

ooooh, this is wonderful. some times, as a dm, i like to give the entire party epic gear, and put them against low level scrub bosses. the party trounces about slaughtering everything, gaining levels, unaware of the fact their gear is actually sentient, gaining xp as they go, and then one day, boom, their gear betrays them, sapping half of their levels, and then the party must fight their gear, without any gear. (only the monk was able to fight back)

[DMMerthasMalkir]

sometimes, i convince dms to let me play crazy characters with three personalities, all with different classes. i then make the character with them so that they think that there is no way its broken. Then talking them into having it be every hour the personalities change, but only in a set order. then they grind. A lot. and boom i have character who if they get stressed changes personalities between an epic level "for the king, country, and the gods" fighter, mentally touched soul knife, or ****-all Pyromancer. (and then become king within a single month.)

[heavyfuel]

ooooh, this is wonderful. some times, as a dm, i like to give the entire party epic gear, and put them against low level scrub bosses. the party trounces about slaughtering everything, gaining levels, unaware of the fact their gear is actually sentient, gaining xp as they go, and then one day, boom, their gear betrays them, sapping half of their levels, and then the party must fight their gear, without any gear. (only the monk was able to fight back)

HA! And people say monks suck! This is clearly a prime example on why you should always take VoP for them (that is, if the DM allows it given its OPness)

[DMMerthasMalkir]

HA! And people say monks suck! This is clearly a prime example on why you should always take VoP for them (that is, if the DM allows it given its OPness)

ikr? i feel like posing more stuff, but there are soooo many things. xp

[Starchild7309]

Wow there are so many things here that I love that you guys have posted. For me there are so many things I love about the game, but I will just put a few.

As a DM most of my players have DMed at least once and a few are even like rules compendiums so I love search for new or stranger encounters for them that they have never read about. Things that make them have to figure out what's going on not just smash the baddies.

Also, as a DM, I love puzzles and riddles. I get more enjoyment out of watching my players work through a problem that has nothing to do with what's on their sheets and more to do with logic and having listened to the hints I have left for them.

As a player, personally, I love back story and r/ping and at least one or two of my DMs were great story tellers, bringing in the back story I came up with and filling it out to where it comes around to a OMG How did I get here moment.

I always used to get a kick out of a DM using a previously retired character from our group as an NPC, be it in passing or actually important to the story...Its always so hard when the LG newly made lord ex PC is preaching about something and I am like yeah preach on, but remember when you did this really stupid thing...oh wait, I technically don't remember that.

[Malphite]

My overall guilty pleasure? Personally gimping myself. Was playing a Paladin once had to save my buddies from instant death and the baddie linked our lives together so he was at like 5 hp and they couldn't hurt him until I was dead or knocked out. So I stabbed myself through the heart and died killing the big bad, safe to say I got better(DM revived me thought I was a bro for saving the 5 other party members from certain doom), although my DM ruled it as suicide so I lost all my powers fine I can dig it.

Decided I can't use my Greatsword anymore(was my god's favored weapon and all so I felt unworthy to use it until I could get my powers back) so I bound my sword in holy chain only my returning to good could break. All for fluff of course so I went around punching people with Gaunlets for about four sessions until I got my powers back for saving the party again.

I like doing this in most games since it adds flavor makes things more interesting. Also good role playing experience.

[Alex12]

My overall guilty pleasure? Personally gimping myself. Was playing a Paladin once had to save my buddies from instant death and the baddie linked our lives together so he was at like 5 hp and they couldn't hurt him until I was dead or knocked out. So I stabbed myself through the heart and died killing the big bad, safe to say I got better(DM revived me thought I was a bro for saving the 5 other party members from certain doom), although my DM ruled it as suicide so I lost all my powers fine I can dig it.

Decided I can't use my Greatsword anymore(was my god's favored weapon and all so I felt unworthy to use it until I could get my powers back) so I bound my sword in holy chain only my returning to good could break. All for fluff of course so I went around punching people with Gaunlets for about four sessions until I got my powers back for saving the party again.

I like doing this in most games since it adds flavor makes things more interesting. Also good role playing experience.

Out of curiosity, how is sacrificing yourself to save your companions and take out a bad guy a bad thing? Self-sacrifice is practically the definition of Good. That seems like exactly the sort of thing Paladins are supposed to do.

[Malphite]

Out of curiosity, how is sacrificing yourself to save your companions and take out a bad guy a bad thing? Self-sacrifice is practically the definition of Good. That seems like exactly the sort of thing Paladins are supposed to do.

You know what I never really asked him that. Never came up just thought I'd roll with it, and worked out pretty good well one party member claimed it was pretty dumb since I had no like big numbers damage or seemed stupid I wouldn't use a weapon but hey, was pretty fun I enjoyed it :).

[Alex12]

You know what I never really asked him that. Never came up just thought I'd roll with it, and worked out pretty good well one party member claimed it was pretty dumb since I had no like big numbers damage or seemed stupid I wouldn't use a weapon but hey, was pretty fun I enjoyed it :).

Well, that's the most important thing, anyway.:smallsmile:

[Kid Jake]

As a DM I usually can't help but making a crapsack world out of whatever I prepare. Nobody's particularly altruistic, most people are openly terrible, everything's dog-eat-dog and when something goes wrong it continues going wrong in a (darkly hilarious) variety of ways until people are dead, everything's on fire and everbody's a little worse off than they used to be. For some reason I just get a kick out of everything sucking.

Not a D&D related example, but when I ran a short Pokemon campaign I started things off with a comic book ad that read something like: "Congratulations, on turning ten years old! Since you're now old enough to drink, start a family or join the military you're old enough to drop out of school and fight monsters for fun and profit! Just send in $9.99 and proof of purchase to receive 6 Party Balls and an official Pokemon League survival kit. Pokemon League is not liable for death or injury that results from purchase." They received a couple of crappy plastic balls, a fake; cardboard trainer I.D. and a giant map that basically just led to Pokemon League souvenir stands around the country. I played Pokemon as little more than animals, and they got mauled by so many damned Pokemon before they started just carrying knives and mugging officially sanctioned trainers for their Pokeballs.

[atemu1234]

As a DM I usually can't help but making a crapsack world out of whatever I prepare. Nobody's particularly altruistic, most people are openly terrible, everything's dog-eat-dog and when something goes wrong it continues going wrong in a (darkly hilarious) variety of ways until people are dead, everything's on fire and everbody's a little worse off than they used to be. For some reason I just get a kick out of everything sucking.

One of my favorite campaigns was D20 modern, and the players were capable of using psionics (this was a world without magic). Of course, the government (who they were helping) wanted to either kill them, dissect them, or vivsect them. The dissect group was the most friendly one. It turned out... interestingly.

[Snowbluff]

Whenever someone is tied up or whenever someone is looking for someone who has been kidnapped, I say:

"Was it you?" or "Did you do it?"

It works about half of the time, with increased success in PFS.

[atemu1234]

Whenever someone is tied up or whenever someone is looking for someone who has been kidnapped:

"Was it you?" or "Did you do it?"

It works about half of the time, with increased success in PFS.

Are they asking or the NPCs?

[Darth Paul]

One of my favorite campaigns was D20 modern, and the players were capable of using psionics (this was a world without magic). Of course, the government (who they were helping) wanted to either kill them, dissect them, or vivsect them. The dissect group was the most friendly one. It turned out... interestingly.

For some damn reason, I am usually the Token Normal Human of our group, whether it's D&D or otherwise. We once played a Modern setting in which I, a freelance journalist, and my friends (a vampire wielding Charlemagne's sword, a man who could shoot electricity from his fingers, a woman who could burn minds, and a guy who could... I can't remember now, but he had some wierd power) had to break up a human sacrifice ritual at a football stadium. (Evil bikers were involved.)

Round 1- We began our attack. I moved into position and pulled out my carbine, opening fire on the nearest enemy. Dropped him like a bad habit. The rest of my party- prepared their abilities for use the next round. Net result: every single damn biker turned toward me, pulled their guns, and started shooting. We won, eventually, but I felt like the Lonely Ranger for the next 6 seconds.

Where this becomes a reply to the above is that we later found a video from the cameras in the press box above the field (where we had never checked). There was a complete video of the battle, with running commentary describing each of us and our actions, from the enemy's boss' point of view. My friends were "a vampire, who must be eliminated; an unregistered mage, who must be eliminated; a psychic warrior, who must be eliminated;" and so on. I, however, had "an unknown ability to attract our mens' attention, so that his companions could then attack unnoticed. He must be dissected to learn his powers."

As the only 100% non-powered human in the party, I took this "dissecting" talk personally.

Guilty pleasures:
As a DM, I like using intelligent monsters. Not so much with an INT score, but monsters that act with cunning. I had a blue dragon living in a cavern with an underwater lake, approachable only by a water-filled tunnel (unless you were a flying creature, that is). His strategy was to lurk underwater, holding his breath, when he heard adventurers fighting the monsters in the cave outside the tunnel; then when the heroes came paddling in, the dragon would sink their boats, take to the air, and then shoot his electric breath weapon at the lake. My logic was that the current through the entire lake should mean there would be no saving throw. They hated me, but agreed.

[Averis Vol]

I would have to say mine as a DM make me seem like kind of a bad person, but only because my players don't do a terrible amount of their own forward thinking. an example is that I like to intentionally feed my players false information, like, so false that it completely turns them around plot wise, just so I can hear the collective "Awwwwwwwwww..." from my players.

another one of my guilty pleasures is the Mercenary company system. I don't know why, but every country has 4 or 5 mercenary companies that make up about half the countries army. They're a good source of information, side quests and potential aid.

[DigoDragon]

I did a few campaigns set in the future once. Another guilty pleasure is references to Doctor Who. A race of people that travel through time? Check. I even cribbed Jack Harkness' gauntlet thing for common use. Of course, in the future.

I used to have a guilty pleasure of every campaign at some point finding the PCs in orbit over the planet. Didn't matter the genre either. In D&D the PCs find themselves in the celestial realm and down under the clouds they see the world slowly rotate. Modern day super hero? PCs get launched up to an alien ship to fight super-aliens. I stopped doing it a while back, but my players were generally amused by it so it was all good.




all of my campaigns are connected: references to earlier campaign worlds, even if the world they are on now has absolutely no connection to the previous one


The backup GM of my last group loved doing that too. I didn't mind it, but he would tend to bring in the most annoying NPCs from other campaigns to the current one and that part got a bit frustrating at times (they were usually powerful NPCs that would steal the spotlight).



Using DMPCs (but they rarely do anything useful).

I have a guilty pleasure of using my DMPCs as 'Motivation Insurance'. If the PCs stop feeling motivated to fight the BBEG, I'll have the DMPC killed off and make it personal for the players. Worked every time. :smallbiggrin:



I can't do it. Making something really scary is hard for me, and I can't top the scariest piece of gaming I've done.

What works for me is playing the right mood music in the background. Stuff from creepy video games such as the Silent Hill series helps set the atmosphere and get the PCs thinking.

[Snowbluff]

Are they asking or the NPCs?

I'll ask it. :smalltongue:

[Telok]

As a player I often use DwarfFortress descriptions for my characters when appropriate. I also have an unhealthy love of magical trinkets that chande what I can do. I'll gleefully take a cloak that lets me turn into a snake over one that just adds numbers to some stat.

When I DM there are always other adventuring parties. These parties are polite to royaly, don't level a city block to catch a pickpocket, hire bards to manage public relations.

[atemu1234]

When I DM there are always other adventuring parties. These parties are polite to royaly, don't level a city block to catch a pickpocket, hire bards to manage public relations.

Me too. I always assume that these people aren't the only ones.

[Droningbass]

I'll have to admit, my guilty pleasure as a player/DM is probably focused on making spellcasters... I have a bunch of experimental builds of various cleric, wizard, and other spellcasters level 1-40 on my computer. I've wasted hours creating characters that I'll probably never play, and I love it!

I'm also a sucker for a good fantasy fiction novel, even the ones that don't involve D&D... as long as there's some magic!

[atemu1234]

I'll have to admit, my guilty pleasure as a player/DM is probably focused on making spellcasters... I have a bunch of experimental builds of various cleric, wizard, and other spellcasters level 1-40 on my computer. I've wasted hours creating characters that I'll probably never play, and I love it!

I'm also a sucker for a good fantasy fiction novel, even the ones that don't involve D&D... as long as there's some magic!

Reminds me of one of mine: Viewing everything I see or do in terms of D&D. Don't get me started on SAO, please.

[Snowbluff]

Don't get me started on SAO, please.

Meh, SAO is bad. The guy cheats. (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13741.msg238053#msg238053)

Try watching Adventure Time sometime. The person who wrote is an obvious fan. :3

[atemu1234]

Meh, SAO is bad. The guy cheats. (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13741.msg238053#msg238053)

Well, I spent the first half of the first season (which I watched at three in the morning, don't ask) equating it to D&D, and it fit very well. But Alfheim (shudder). And also, that post isn't exactly accurate. The only "transferrable" bit from one game to another was basically a sprite. It isn't exactly game-breaking. He never bluffed on his attacks, and it is very very separate from D&D. I was more referring to combat style.


Try watching Adventure Time sometime. The person who wrote is an obvious fan. :3

To quote a friend of mine, it's a kid's show that got a better writer than it deserved. I agree.