When rocks falling becomes passe.

[xroads]

When players press a DM’s nerves to the breaking point, sometimes Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RocksFallEveryoneDies). But while still a classic, some DMs might decide to go with different flavor of ultimate doom. If you’re such a DM, what form of destructor do you choose for your hapless players if the time comes?

I’ll start off with an example. For the ToA campaign I just finished running, I did consider having them face down a terror* of tyrannosaurs at some points. And by terror I mean hundreds of T-rex.

*Fun fact, apparently “terror” can be used as a collective noun for T-rex. Much like “murder” can be used to describe a flock of crows.

[Ganymede]

Definitely the Nameless King. Every time the players kill him, he just comes back a week later with even more bad formatting.

[Unoriginal]

Does "stopping the session and eithervaddressing the problem, hopefully when the nerves are less heated, or stopping playing with those people" count as an ultimate doom?

In my experience, players who piss the DM that much don't care about or won't be intimidated by their characters being slaughtered arbitrarily.

[username1]

Im running storm kings thunder so I can just use Rock Falls whenever I want. The adventure starts with a village that was destroyed by cloud giants dropping rocks. Now I can just claim it happens to the players. I know its a trope, but it works.

[Grear Bylls]

Definitely the Nameless King. Every time the players kill him, he just comes back a week later with even more bad formatting.

It truly is the best single class coffelock

[xroads]

Does "stopping the session and eithervaddressing the problem, hopefully when the nerves are less heated, or stopping playing with those people" count as an ultimate doom?

In my experience, players who piss the DM that much don't care about or won't be intimidated by their characters being slaughtered arbitrarily.

Obviously ending the session earlier and letting things cool off is the best way of handling things. I've even done it from time to time.

But I can't say I didn't consider bringing the doom. There have been times where somewhere in my mind's eye, the puddles of nearby water started rippling. :smallwink:

[KorvinStarmast]

Definitely the Nameless King. Every time the players kill him, he just comes back a week later with even more bad formatting. I had to chuckle. Thanks. :smallbiggrin:

Im running storm kings thunder so I can just use Rock Falls whenever I want. The adventure starts with a village that was destroyed by cloud giants dropping rocks. Now I can just claim it happens to the players. I know its a trope, but it works. The village was not destroyed, it was damaged. It can still be lived in, albeit some places are in need of repairs. If the
cloud giants had wanted to destroy it after they took back the rock, they could have since the people had already fled. They didn't finish the destruction because they got what they wanted.

[username1]

I know the village wasn't totally destroyed. But almost every building was smashed.Yes I can be lived in, I know. I was just saying I can use cloud giants to drop rocks on people.

[smcmike]

When players press a DM’s nerves to the breaking point, sometimes Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RocksFallEveryoneDies). But while still a classic, some DMs might decide to go with different flavor of ultimate doom. If you’re such a DM, what form of destructor do you choose for your hapless players if the time comes?

I’ll start off with an example. For the ToA campaign I just finished running, I did consider having them face down a terror* of tyrannosaurs at some points. And by terror I mean hundreds of T-rex.

*Fun fact, apparently “terror” can be used as a collective noun for T-rex. Much like “murder” can be used to describe a flock of crows.

Our group has only ever used it as a joke, but our traditional threat of mass death due to DM irritation is “BOLTS OF LIGHTENING,” said in a particular way.

The terror of T-Rexes is pretty good. I imagine them as they are sometimes imagined nowadays, with feathers, looking like a bunch of gigantic chickens.

Actually, this is fantasy. My answer is a flock of T-Rex sized chickens, pecking the characters apart in that stupid beady-eyed alien way chickens have.

[ImproperJustice]

In a non-serious GM has just had list of fantasy campaign enders:

“You all wake up, it was just a dream and you are still on the airplane”.

Teleport the party to the world of Rifts.

“And then the mothership from Independence Day appears over “Hub town”.


“Yes, you have killed my last plot related NPC. Good job. Meanwhile on the other side of the planet the bad guys won, the dark portal has opened, and the ultimate evil is now loose to rule this part of your universe.”

Or my personal favorite from a Mutant Future / Omega World game.
As you ride into town, everything vanishes in a brilliant burst of white light. Turns out that fusion cell you found, and that everyone failed to identify was unstable.

Let’s go make new characters!

[Sigreid]

All our DM has to do is give me a Deck of Many Things.

[1Pirate]

It truly is the best single class coffelock
No, that would be Steve Carrell.

[KorvinStarmast]

I was just saying I can use cloud giants to drop rocks on people. Oh heck yeah! B-1 bombers may be cool, but the cloud giant bomber is cool at a whole new level! :smallbiggrin:

[Grear Bylls]

No, that would be Steve Carrell.

My bad. Completely forgot about that legit guy

[Blacky the Blackball]

Does "stopping the session and eithervaddressing the problem, hopefully when the nerves are less heated, or stopping playing with those people" count as an ultimate doom?

In my experience, players who piss the DM that much don't care about or won't be intimidated by their characters being slaughtered arbitrarily.

Hey - it's not always the players that are at fault!

I've been on the receiving end of "A dragon flying overhead has a heart attack, falls from the sky, and lands on the party. Everyone dies" as a campaign ender before - and that was entirely on the terrible DM, not the players.

The only "crime" of the players was that we had tried - and failed - to follow the DM's railroad plot because he had unreasonably blocked every attempt that we made to do so. We eventually gave up on the plot (and told the NPCs that we were giving up on it due to having come across nothing but dead-ends in our investigation) and left town to see if there was any adventure to be had anywhere else.

After passive-aggressively blocking even that, the DM realised we weren't going to complete his adventure (again, this was not through lack of trying - we'd tried everything we could think of to progress) and dropped the dragon on us.

[Bobbyjackcorn]

Aside from the Carrell, Scion of Michael Scott?

But in all seriousness, I've never had a reason to *want* to kill all of the players. I had two one-shots I've run in the past that resulted in a TPK- one in which a flock of Grippli-Vargoyles overwhelmed the party, and one in which a hoard of nine zombies cut the party off both sides of a long narrow hallway after they'd lost a lot to ability drain from traps and a shadow.

[Sigreid]

Aside from the Carrell, Scion of Michael Scott?

But in all seriousness, I've never had a reason to *want* to kill all of the players. I had two one-shots I've run in the past that resulted in a TPK- one in which a flock of Grippli-Vargoyles overwhelmed the party, and one in which a hoard of nine zombies cut the party off both sides of a long narrow hallway after they'd lost a lot to ability drain from traps and a shadow.


I've run a Beyond the Supernatural game where the whole point was the characters were in a horror movie situation getting picked off by the monster one by one. It was fun.