PDA

View Full Version : Vindictive DMing



Atrelegis
2007-04-24, 05:54 AM
Remember all those funny quote or funny occassion threads? Well, this is a thread about ALL the times YOU as a DM, have been a complete and utter *insert term realted to being a bastard*.

This could be times you killed off players that pissed you off, messed up with their friends or allies, pulled a stunt out of your ass, or messed up their wish spells.

RMS Oceanic
2007-04-24, 05:58 AM
Not me, per se, but in a campaign I was in, my brother was an afflicted wereboar and, to be honest, he was way too powerful for our level four party. Without discussing anything with him, the DM sent in a team of level twelve lycanthrophobic adventurers, hunted down my brother's character and blended him in one round. My druid tried to help, got a confirmed critical in, then got blended too.

Bears With Lasers
2007-04-24, 06:06 AM
...why would I do something like that?

Tengu
2007-04-24, 06:18 AM
Because the player in question was ridiculing your awesome Eberonnian drow sky pirate?

Charity
2007-04-24, 06:23 AM
I'm just busy trying to stop em commiting suicide generally.
I think the DM should avoid vindictiveness and playing favourites, regardless of how tempted he/she becomes. It will mess up your game without a doubt.

Play nice huh.

Bears With Lasers
2007-04-24, 06:23 AM
Naaaaaaaah.

Atrelegis
2007-04-24, 06:39 AM
It's not about the whys, but about the why nots. You will regret it later, but it always makes sense when you're pissed thne and there...:P

Tengu
2007-04-24, 06:40 AM
Well yeah, a good DM should treat all his players fairly, and do stuff that they like in the end (as the players, not their characters of course). If anyone stops having fun, the point of gaming gets lost.

Ranis
2007-04-24, 07:31 AM
PC: Hey, Ranis.
DM (Me): Yeah?
PC: Can I have some bonemeal in your game?
DM: You may not set fire to the atmosphere.
PC: Awww.

Kyrsis
2007-04-24, 07:33 AM
I lost my temper once that I remember. I was relatively new to D&D and DM'ing, but the little group we had in Tech School wanted to play and long story short, I became the DM. They knew I was new as far as creating stories (I knew the rules pretty well though). Two (of the 6) players decided that, knowing I was new to the job, they were going to push against the plot intentionally. I wasn't railroading the plot, I just wasn't good at 'on the fly' stuff yet and they knew that, too, so it was funny to them to frustrate me. I don't take crap from anyone, so finally I snapped, declared everyone dead, slammed my books shut and left them all sitting there. All of us were friends, so luckily we were able to talk it out really easily and go on to have a lot of good games later.
That's my closest vindictive story, leaving them hanging...Does it count?

Latronis
2007-04-24, 09:10 AM
string of bad luck

as in player with a vorpal great getting far to many nat 20's for my liking

headless zombies

EvilElitest
2007-04-24, 09:14 AM
My player have emotional problem because of my DM
"You can't do that to us, were the PCs. Kolbalds are not allowed to play smart"
"The rules changed"
[Shows the relevant goblins comic]
PC "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
from,
EE

Artemician
2007-04-24, 09:16 AM
I don't do things like that, I usually find that a sharp slap of sarcasm or a poke on the head suffices.

However, one of my Friends recently killed off one of his players because he (the player) was being an idiot, arguing rules, and generally being annoying.

Starsinger
2007-04-24, 09:26 AM
One of my cousins likes to switch characters, a lot. Generally he asks about every three or so sessions. Now, in one game, I got frustrated with him constantly switching in and out characters. Which, I need to move aside for a moment to let it be known that I detest resurrection magic, it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. So.. since I hate resurrection magic, generally when a character dies there's either divine intervention or you roll up a new character.

So for the next month or so I went out of my way to keep him alive, purely out of spite.

Knight_Of_Twilight
2007-04-24, 09:47 AM
Oh, I've been so tempted. But i never do it. Its not my job. Though I've joked about it, saying that creatures have damage reduction of 30/not *offending player*.

Catch
2007-04-24, 09:57 AM
See, I've always been a firm believer in dealing with problems out of the game. Back when I DMed regularly, I just kept one of those Nerf gun revolvers in my bag.

"What, why can't I buy a riding rhino with my starting gold! I can afford it. Besides it's right here in this book!"

*thwap*

"Right, then. Is a pony okay?"

silentknight
2007-04-24, 06:45 PM
My way of thinking: It's me against the players. If they mess up my plans, kill the BBEG, turn the uber-NPC I worked two weeks creating into a sack of thinly sliced deli meat, etc... then they are doing their job. If they mess with the game by goofing off or whatever, then they don't get to play until they behave. I don't think I have ever been vidictive.

Yahzi
2007-04-24, 09:19 PM
I was never vindictive as a GM, but as a player... oh yea.

El Idioto, the party idiot, decides to polymorph into an ant so he can crawl into a collapsed cave and find the BBEG Vampire's body.

So I wait until he is halfway in, cast "Message" (the only time I have ever used that idiot spell), and tell the Vampire that an adventurer in the shape of an ant is coming to get him.

Vampire wakes up, sees ant, starts slapping it. Bam! -2 levels. Bam! -2 levels (and this was 2nd Ed, when that stuff hurt). El Idioto is whining to the GM - "Why would the Vampire wake up and attack an ant?" GM is like, "Ya, it does seem suspicious, don't it?" Me and rest of party are like, "Snicker snort snort."

He didn't catch on. I did say he was El Idioto, right?

:D

storybookknight
2007-04-24, 09:24 PM
If you're gonna be a vindictive DM, hit them where they hurt. That's right, the backstory.

MeklorIlavator
2007-04-24, 09:54 PM
I once lost my temper. This doesn't seem that bad, but I'm the guy who seems totally cool, then explodes. See, I was trying to run a campaign, and had decided to first do a one shot, then the campaign. Well, everyone makes their characters, with some new stuff from the PHB2, which by this time I hadn't even read, but I trusted these guys, and really, they didn't do anything to stupid.

Then, at the end of one of the one shot, the winter wolf had turned to the PC's side. Then one PC decides that he needs to kill it. He was a druid. A Neutal GoodDruid. He attack, and by than he was labeled as a problem character(this was our first game with him, but the stories he told of previous ones:smalleek:) Now, I basically said that his character was gone, so he had to make a new one. Then, I went to bed, because we had pulled an all nighter, and I already guessed that a tired DM is bad.

So, everyone, but one, decides to make new characters, and the remaining one got all the loot from the old party. Problem 1: 2(including Problem PC), used Psionic. This was the first time I had ever seen the book, and again no reading. The Players "missed" the rule about limits on manifesting, and broke I don't know how many other rules. The other Player to remake a character made a Knight, but neither of us really knew how its abilities worked, but at least I knew the gist of it. Also, Problem PC, I later found out, had spent more money than the had for equipment.

So, I wake up and was somewhat angry, because I had told them that the original characters were to be used for the campaign, except for the guy who's character got "killed". Plus they had used unapproved materials. But they argued that it wouldn't be unbalancing, that their other character sheets were gone, and that I had told them they could make new characters(remember, I was 3/4 alseep while they were upgrading their original characters).

I relented, because we were here to play DnD, so I start the campaign, which was RHoD. I now, previously a player(a psion now) had convinced me that the back meant the adventure was for 6th level and up, and I had already decided I would tak it easy on them. Big mistake.

They blew through every thing until the forest, and used powers increased to a higher degree + Metagaming that allowed to take out any challenges along the way.

Then they challenged my rulings on several of the knights abilities(the psion is defiantly a rules lawyer) ruled that. Eventually, I lost my temper in the climatic battle in the first section. I yelled at all of them, and that pretty much ruined any chance for a good day.

This ruined RHoD for them(its a euphemism for suck now), and turned me against psions and duskblades for a long time. Plus, they still defend themselves with excuses like "But I wasn't sure about thew rules".

I don't play with the psion or the Problem PC anymore, but the other two are great DNDers, for the most part(the knight was the DM in my good warlock and wizard build advice threads, you know, the one who made the 2d4 permanent Intelligence damage with no save spell that hit me once per week if I was discovered as a non-tower wizard). BUt those are thew exceptions.

At least I have learned to read anything before I accept it.

Indon
2007-04-25, 10:31 AM
You know, I almost did that once a couple weeks ago. I was going to invite someone I really didn't like, and had finally had the last straw over, to my campaign only to kill off his character cruelly, out of spite.

Luckily, it wasn't long before I came to my senses and simply didn't invite the person to the session. I like to think I saved my session's fun for everyone else.

JackMage666
2007-04-25, 10:44 AM
I killed a character with Giant Scorpions. He fought bravely against 3 of them, and killed one, but was killed by the other 2. In his defense, he had some bad rolls, and I had some good ones.

The bad part, was when I rolled for the two scorpions using Improved Grab on him, and ripping his body apart. Literally.

Diggorian
2007-04-25, 02:13 PM
Did a one shot on the Wizard's chat server to test out my homebrewed bunny (http://www.geocities.com/thelorddiggus/vpbunny.JPG). I told them to bring PCs leveled up to the suspected CR ... may they rest in peace. :smallbiggrin:

Our third level party in a 3.0 game investigated the main theatre of a city cause clues led us there. A royal performance was scheduled in a few days so city guards where stationed there. We found this giant psicrystal "prop" that would've enchanted the whole audience. When we moved to crush it EVERY body in the theatre attacked us. All the guards were third level; all the stage hands and actors were third level rogues.

I died covering the retreat.

Roderick_BR
2007-04-25, 03:34 PM
I'm just busy trying to stop em commiting suicide generally.
I think the DM should avoid vindictiveness and playing favourites, regardless of how tempted he/she becomes. It will mess up your game without a doubt.

Play nice huh.
Same here, only that I try to keep them from killing each other.
Never tried to kill a player because of personal grudges. If I had a problem with someone, I'll talk to him after the game.
Now, if the *character* did something stupid, like attacking solo a dragon way past his CR, the sky's the limit.

MaxMahem
2007-04-25, 03:58 PM
Hmm... probably the most evil (I'm not sure if it was truly vindictive) thing I ever did was GMing was in Shadowrun. The PC's happened to come into possession of a Talisman of Tremendous power, and, of course, tremendous evil. The Talisman was basically like a power rating 12 power focus, which the player did not have to bind to use. In SR2 terms this was ridiculously stupid powerful. Of course every time the PC used it they were slightly corrupted by the talisman, a process that would of course eventualy end in there death.

Also typical for Shadowrun possession of the idol caused a whole slew of important powerful groups to start to pursue the PCs. This was years ago, but off the top of my head this included (but was limited to) at least one Megacorp, Lone Star, the Tir, and at least one Dragon. Normally the PC's would have been utterly boned when facing such opposition, but their possession of the idol did give them a fighting chance if the decided to use it.

I can safely say that I never forced any of the PCs to use the Talisman (and ultimately only one did), but it's kind of like the dark side you know? It certainly was the quickest and easiest solution to a number of the dilemmas that kept dropping in there lap. So one of the PCs did end up fairly severely corrupted by it's power. It all ended fairly well in the end though.

Aside from that I don't think to much more evilness went on in any of Shadowrun games, well... except for the time they ended up in Chicago (aka Bug City) or the incident with the Universal Brotherhood before that, or their trip inside the locked down Renraku Arcology. But you know, if you're not being evil to the PCs in Shadowrun, you're not really trying.

As far as D&D goes, this Monday night I had some raptors eat some of the PCs mounts while they were out fighting some bad guy. I guess that was pretty mean and vindictive.

Wizzardman
2007-04-25, 04:17 PM
I'm quite sure if these count or not, but I'll go ahead and list them anyway.

I have a bit of a reputation for being a mean DM. Not exactly vindictive, but... I do have this tendency to swing fate's favor against the PCs just to make their lives more interesting.

For instance: in the first Vampire game I ran, one of my players [an unskilled roleplayer who hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet] decided she was feeling a might peckish, and went hunting for some food. She spotted a convenient human in a dark parking garage, and went after him. At first, she tried a few seductive hints and some social rolls to try to get closer to her meal. I hinted that said parking garage [being a parking garage] probably had more than a few security cameras watching the place, and the NPC-meal mentioned in conversation that he was on his way to see his sick son in the hospital. Well, the PC gets bored, and decides to stop trying to seduce her food, and just jump him.
And through an odd and dramatic series of rolls, involving three good hits on the PC and one good hit against the NPC, it turns out that she was attempting to feast on a hemophiliac prizefighter whose son had cancer.

In an Eberron game I was running, the party was returning to Breland after a successful Tour De Xendrik, when the boat they were sailing on was attacked by pirates. Who were trying to capture the party leader. The poor dude spent the entire time at less than 0 hp [mostly from nonlethal damage]--even when the Druid healed him, the pirates just knocked him back out again. The PCs won, but I still felt kinda bad after that. Especially since, when they got back, they had to deal with the overly-anxious Port Authority. And Riedrans.

A while back, I ran a game that consisted mostly of a dungeon crawl. Because I wanted it to be more realistic than most, this dungeon contained a kitchen and well-stocked meat cellar. And a Meat Golem to guard it--one that looked like a pile of meat until it started moving.

In another Vampire game, one of the characters had just gotten through with a mission for the Prince, and was trying to find a cheap way to change out of his bloodstained clothes. Said PC came up with the brilliant plan to mug random people and steal their clothing, so he finds a quiet alleyway, and grabs the first person to walk past.

Who happens to be the Sheriff. And a Malkavian. Which basically means he's an overpowered crazy vampire with a bad sense of humor. Fortunately, the Sheriff felt pity for the poor PC, and thus donated his underwear. Feeling successful, the PC waits a few minutes, then tries again.

The next person he grabs is the BBEG.

Same game, later time: one of the Vamps has a pet cat [that he really, really likes], who the group has just discovered has amazing supernatural powers [which just makes the PC like it even more]. After doing a bit of research, they discover a suggestion that this cat has been stealing souls and transferring them to some dark spirit. They decide to follow the cat. The cat pulls off a crazy series of tricks, and eventually evades their pursuit. Frustrated, they wait until the next night, and try again--this time with the cat attached to a leash. This works okay--the cat isn't going anywhere, at least--until they notice that the cat is using some form of supernatural ability to draw energy/souls from another, almost identical cat that's prowling the city. Finally, one of the PCs gets tired of following the amazing soul-eating cat around, and decides to end the problem. By tossing the cat out of a helicopter. "Don't worry," he said to the cat's owner-PC, "The cat's ridiculously overpowered. It'll be fine." ....Splat. "...Even if it dies, it'll be back soon. Just watch."

The cat still hasn't come back.

Diggorian
2007-04-25, 04:19 PM
Actually ...

The party's mounts have been the #1 trigger for nature encounters. Several meaty horses tied to a tree is too much for most predators to pass up IMO.

A dragon did win a triva contest against a party once in my games. It was playing for their mounts and ate them, including the paladin's warhorse (3.0). Resolving it with opposed Knowledge checks and letting them aid other, they could have beat the lawful dragon.

I dont think it's vindictive because my players never hurt me personally, is it?

Jack Mann
2007-04-25, 04:21 PM
About the worst thing I've ever done to my players was use their NPC guide as a blunt weapon.

The_Werebear
2007-04-25, 05:20 PM
Last session, I was probably a tad testier than I should have been. Party consists of a Psychic Warrior/Ranger/Rogue monster, a Necromancy Spec Wizard, a Cleric, and a Martial Rogue/Factotum.

1) It had been a month an a half since we last played due to various delays. I had decided we were playing, hell or high water. However, three minutes after he should have been there, I called the Psychic Warrior and he said that he couldn't come because of a band concert he forgot to tell me about. My excuse for why his character wasn't there: He got hit with a firepot launched from a catapult that was filled with cancer and 5 vials of alchemist's fire.

The party was supposed to sneak around onto a ridge, where the enemy forces were battering the army with catapults from. The snuck around the back, and got up to the ridge, where there were five catapults with stacks of firepots, a pair of Giants, and a spellcaster who was in charge of them. The party decides that a distraction would be nice, so they can run in, smash the catapults, and flee. This was not what I planned, but I roll with it because it is clever.
2) So the cleric summons a Celestial Lion to knock over a firepot near the catapult. I rule that they are pretty heavy, and it needs an attack roll to knock one in the right direction. The cleric winds up, and rolls a one. I go for the gusto. The lion knocks a firepot (which is 8 vials of alchemist's fire) onto itself, bursts into flames, and dies. So this lion pops into view, knocks a firepot into itself, bursts into flames, dies, and disappears during the surprise round. SURPRISE!

The party goes into combat. The rogue and necromancer pop up in the suprise round. The spellcaster gets enervated, then filled with arrows and drops before I can even move. Slightly annoying.
3) So, I crack open the rulebook to "bull rush" and rammed the necromancer's pet zombie ogres off the cliff. She only saved one with feather fall.

Ar-Sakal
2007-04-25, 06:10 PM
Hmmmm.... This was in a 3rd edition Lord of the Rings campaign adapted from MERP old books. The chars were investigating a murder in Moria, and I had the intention of putting them in a situation where they would be forced to run from the awakening of the Balrog. Typically, the team's resident idiot started making stupid jokes about dwarves like "Where is Snowhite?" "Can I sing Ayy-hoo with you?".

The rest of the group, who usually is good in letting the guy be entertaining without getting too out of hand, decided to play along. Soon, I was getting very angry that instead of concentrating, they were out to ruin the campaign. I guess they did not find it funny any longer after they were arrested by the local guards and executed for treason, while the bad guys got away with everything...

Dorni
2007-04-25, 06:23 PM
I was once asked to DM for a group for a few sessions until they could find a DM who was willing to run the campaign. Most of the players were pretty good, but there were two problem players. These two were greedy. Not their characters, the players themselves were greedy. Every time the group found treasure they had a reason that they deserved "slightly" more than the others. Early in the game (level 2) they killed an enemy with a composite longbow. The rogue (problem pc 1) realized it was valuable and immediately claimed it as his share of the treasure, but he didn't have the strength to use it. Problem PC 2 argued that since he was a fighter with the strength to use it, he should get it. They spent two hours arguing back and forth over who would claim it. This wasn't the first time they had argued over loot, and I was getting sick of it.

Fortunately for me, the party returned to town. The problem rogue was a member of the theives guild but had lately double-crossed them. Him and the problem fighter went out shopping together, which conviently separted them from the rest of the party. Short story: a member of the theives guild reconized problem pc 1 and alerted the guild. After the problem PCs finished their hour long shopping ordeal, they were greeted by a volley of hand crossbow bolts and thrown weapons as they left the store, most of them fired by rogues. I fudged the damage rolls a bit so that neither died, but then the theives guild tied up the two unconcious PCs and dragged them off to their guildhouse. There they were tortured for days on end as a warning to other theives not to double-cross the guild.

The rest of the PCs decided that since they didn't hear back from the pair after they went out shopping, their characters figured the rogue and fighter had abanoned them. They went off to enjoy the rest of the session adventuring while the problem PCs were safely tucked away and tortured by the theives guild.

Meschaelene
2007-04-25, 09:26 PM
In Cyberpunk 2020, there are these silly gangs called "Posergangs" -- they are so into following their media heroes that they not only not only dress like their heroes, but have radical plastic surgery to look just like them. The books describe "The Kennedy's Posergang", that all have been sculpted to look like John F, Robert or Jackie. Disturbing, but they completely lack crunch. Anyway...

I forget what he did, but it was in a Cyberpunk 2020 campaign, and the group was near the Alps. Naturally, their was a Posergang, and this one was based on the Von Trapp family. The little girl beat the snot out of the guy who was peeving me -- I had given her the equivalent of 4 ranks past master in Choi Li Fut. Oh yeah, and there was a media there filming it for a segment of "Rustic Lifestyles" (Channel 62).

Ninja Chocobo
2007-04-26, 03:38 AM
Did a one shot on the Wizard's chat server to test out my homebrewed bunny (http://www.geocities.com/thelorddiggus/vpbunny.JPG). I told them to bring PCs leveled up to the suspected CR ... may they rest in peace. :smallbiggrin:

Pah. They got the hook wrong. It's supposed to be:
"That's no ordinary rabbit!"

Diggorian
2007-04-26, 10:23 AM
Pah. They got the hook wrong. It's supposed to be:
"That's no ordinary rabbit!"

Ha. Could've also used "What's it gonna do? Nibble my bum?".

The hook I used was from one of the players, a girl gamer that hadnt seen Holy Grail. The dwarf rogue read my flavor text and started running. The bunny moved his PC's all out run distance then jumped to head him off.

Dwarf rogue: "Why is he after me? I didnt threaten him!"
DM Me: "You're fear reeks of elderberries. Sweet ... juicy ... elderberries."
*bunny latches on with Horrific Gnawing*

Daedo daShoegod
2007-04-27, 09:10 PM
This is pretty bad: The party Cleric/Rogue is part of the town theives guild and decides to seduce a member of the guild (who is in fact an evil cultist). He rolls low on his Bluff and she manages to lure him out to a cave in the wilderness (w/another low roll from him- this time w/sense motive). When he grows suspicious that this cave is not in fact filled w/treasure to be looted he panics. The drow cultist lying in wait casts darkness, and the bard grapples him (AND WINS!). He is promptly pinned and the other cultists (they were Sorcerer/rogues) manacle him to a stone altar (he put no ranks in escape artist). They were a cult of Graz'zt (demon lord of darkness and seduction) and I didn't want the player to die by sacrifice, so instead he was "initiated". The funniest thing is the player was xtremely homophobic and I got a real laugh when I told him that there were also male cultists surrounding him. He managed to escape w/the use of Bluff checks but his characters dignity (and virginity) had been stolen.

Sick and twisted, I know