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View Full Version : Gamer Tales What was your best GMing moment?



braveheart
2019-02-15, 12:02 PM
For me, I was running a rules light session using avatar the last Airbender for a setting, during the seige of ba sing se, when Iroh was younger. one of my players had gone a wall from the fire nation before, and they had just captured him. He decided to light himself on fire and torch as much of the camp as possible to help him escape. I had home fight a few people and light some buildings on fire, before I had a young officer actually challenge him meaningfully after he beat the officer I told him
"you watch as you see your flames burn through the core of the officer, life leaves his eyes and everything around you goes calm for a moment before your hear a crackling sound behind you, then feel a cold sensation run from the back of your chest to the front, through your heart. Lightning bursts forth from your chest, you feel your fire fade as your fall over, your last sight is general Iroh weeping, pointing at you with small arcs of electricity arcing across t
His hand."

After that the rest of the table used the opportunity to work with the earth nation soldiers to break the siege of ba sing se.

username1
2019-02-26, 09:08 PM
Every game has greate moments, and I have so many to go through. However one DM moment I was super proud of is when my players solve a well crafted riddle in a dungeon. I have run this adventure twice, and both times my players freak out when they solve it.

Capt Spanner
2019-02-27, 09:07 AM
My favourite moments are when the players do something I had absolutely no plan for and I have to seat-of-the-pants-GM it.

During a D&D game the players are involved in a jailbreak. There's a rather scary sorcerer with the key who I was expecting to either steal it from him or - if they were brake - fight him for.

Now, there was a bit of history with the characters, so the players knew the jailer to some extent. They knew, for example, that he'd had a relationship with the woman who ran the jail (who was an even more powerful magic user, capable of TPKing the party if they took her on directly) but was spurned. They knew he was jealous, and inferred he would love to embarrass her.

So the party negotiated with the jailer.

They came up with a scheme to pin the blame for the jailbreak on the jailer's boss (who also had keys), so she'd get humiliated and he'd get promoted above her. They answered a few of his other concerns: he was largely friendly with the guards, and didn't want them killed; the definitely wanted to make sure he wouldn't get blamed; he didn't want certain prisoners loose.

The players came to an agreement with him. He was convinced their plan to blame his boss would work. They agreed to only free certain prisoners. They agreed to escape without bloodshed, and without resorting to violence if possible. He also got the players to agree that, to keep plausibility, if he caught anyone on the jailbreak he would be obliged to stop it. Likewise if he got reports of violence against the guards.

Players and jailer agreed. He "forgot" to lock certain cells that night. Players sneaked in and out again. The plan worked, and no-one died.

Kaptin Keen
2019-02-27, 09:18 AM
Over a very long campaign, I slowly drew up the outlines, then the details, then the final conundrum of a moral dilemma - and I did this well enough that the players, four in number, decided they didn't agree on it. Enough so that they each felt they couldn't let the others go through with it / let the others stop them.

I'm immensely proud of creating the moral ambiguity. I like the fact that the players invested themselves, that they refused to compromise and back down. I'm ok with them deciding, in the end, that they had to fight it out.

It's just a shame the players who .. well, let's be honest, they lost the campaign to the other two, and that's not usually how RPG's go ... I'm sad they got angry. But it's understandable, I confess.

Does that count as a best moment? Or is that a worst? =)

Seto
2019-02-27, 11:04 AM
Every game has greate moments, and I have so many to go through. However one DM moment I was super proud of is when my players solve a well crafted riddle in a dungeon. I have run this adventure twice, and both times my players freak out when they solve it.

May we know the story?

DMThac0
2019-02-27, 12:13 PM
So far my greatest moment, in my current campaign, was only a little while back now. That moment when the pieces fall together and the players are emotionally charged by the story and the events as they happen. I'm happy to say that there was almost a coup and I almost got throttled by my players, but they enjoyed the moment in the sense that it was very well put together.

TL;DR: A 2 year, real time, build up of secrets and betrayal lead to the players wanting to throttle me but had them all impressed at how they missed all the clues.

---

Almost 3 years ago, in real life, the story starts with my players going through their rite of adulthood and becoming proper citizens of the town they grew up in. One of their first missions after finishing the rite was to investigate a crazed farmer's story about plants stealing his livestock. They find that this farmer has set fire to the forest where he said the plants were running off toward, so they helped stop the blaze. They investigated the forest to find a Dryad who told them of a dark power that she could not find the source of and asked them to keep an eye out for any information. The group finds a cave on the far side of the forest which leads to a hidden shrine to a lost diety and an obelisk with a strange hole in it, the only clue was bone dust in the hole and the name Malar.

Weeks later they are traveling out of town heading toward the Capitol, Whitebridge, and are attacked by dire wolves. After the fight they take shelter in an abandoned bear's den and rest. During the middle of the night they are attacked by dire wolves again, however this time there's a Black Dragonborn Druid who seems to be controlling them. They manage to drive off the Dragonborn however, before he leaves, they are told to stop interfering with his plans or he will surely destroy them. Confused by this threat and what it means, the group continues toward Whitebridge to finish their mission. Before this happens they must pass through the town of Narthen.

In Narthen they found themselves neck deep in trouble coming from two directions. First they had to deal with the Shadow Demon that had been draining the town of it's vitality. After some very dangerous combats they managed to exorcise the demon and save Lilly and her toddler Garnett, restoring them to their rightful place as heads of the town. Soon after they figured out that there was another thread, this being a were-rat that was forcing everyone out of town with threats, disease, and a growing horde of rats. While trying to chase down this were-rat they befriended a dog that had helped them fight off a large swarm of rats. After defeating the were-rat, Jessin, they found information that connected him to a Druid circle following Malar.

After they finished with the troubles in Narthen they continued on toward, and eventually reached, Whitebridge. The dog they'd befriended would join them on this journey, often wandering off and coming back randomly. They finished their mission in Whitebridge and, as they were getting ready to move on, their dog showed up and was acting strange. It lead them to a boarded up house and, once inside, down into the cellar where it began to dig at a wall. With some assistance the group uncovered a strange circlet which they placed around the dog's neck like a collar. Immediately they realized it was a mistake as now they couldn't remove it from the dog's neck. Simultaneously giant skeletal figures started to emerge from the walls of the cellar, the group ran. After fighting with the giant skeletons that emerged, they had to figure out what to do next and one of the party found a job escorting a merchant caravan to Iron Haven, the Dwarven hold North of Whitebridge.

After a very eventful time in Iron haven, the Bard of the group finding out she was heir to an artifact, and meeting a Wizard who wanted to join up with their guild, as well as closing planar rifts in the mines below the hold, things seemed to calm. However, one of the party wanted more information on the artifact they'd been carrying for the past 2 years, and the Wizard offered to help. After a Locate Object spell was cast the group was shocked to see that there were a number of artifacts connected with this one right there in Iron Haven with them. The group feared the worst and went to investigate and their fears were realized. Outside the main gates of Iron Haven they saw the toddler Garnett standing in the main plaza, no guards around, no travelers, just the boy standing eerily still.

After some long distance investigation and a Dispell Magic, the boy was released from whatever it was that was controlling him. This was a very short lived victory as the group watched an Earth Elemental scoop up the boy and start to retreat with the boy in tow. The Warlock of the group tried to touch the mind of the Elemental only to find out that it was a mind she'd touched before....the dog that they'd befriended. She shouted at the dog to let the boy go and the rest of the group went to rescue the boy. Successfully retrieving the boy from the Elemental another surprise awaited them, the Elemental seemed to retreat below ground. When it rose from the earth it shifted form yet again...into the form of the Black Dragonborn that had accosted them so many years ago.

At this point in time the players all stood up and started shouting, arguing and threatening me with bodily harm. It was one of the most emotional reactions I've seen from a group and made everything I'd done so worth the effort.

Pex
2019-02-27, 12:25 PM
Personal bias awesome for me. When players enjoy the concept and adventure for which previous players condemned me. The validation gives me back my confidence in running a campaign again after so long.

Jay R
2019-02-27, 03:00 PM
One of the difficult tasks for a DM is to make critical hits, or critical fumbles, memorable. I don't know how cool you'll think it is, but the players loved it.

The game was Flashing Blades, a musketeer game. The rogue in the party had decided to learn the Etiquette skill. It's that game's equivalent of cross-class for him, so it would take him three months to learn it. He'd spent two weeks on it. To make a successful role, you have to roll your Charm or less on a d20. And he a low Charm of 8.

The party went to a high-status hunting party, and at one point, the rogue decided that he was going to go talk to the duke's daughter, who is surrounded by noble suitors. They tried to tell him that he cannot go introduce himself to her; he needs a proper introduction. But he decided that since he was learning Etiquette, he could do it anyway.

So he barged through a collection of high-level nobles and introduced himself to her, and said, "I want to make an Etiquette roll to impress her."

So, he is attempting to use a cross-class skill he has not in fact learned, in competition with several masters of the skill, having already misbehaved, in a high-stress environment, and would have had to roll an 8 or less (if he had the skill at all).

He rolled a 20. Critical fumble.

I said, "You compliment her beauty, look soulfully into her eyes, take her hand gently, bend over it, raise it to your lips ... and f*rt."

Khedrac
2019-02-27, 03:54 PM
I think my best was the end fight in Return to Castle Greyhawk when I was DMing it for a Living Greyhawk group using the official adaptation guide.
The party was basically a bit too strong for the fight and with one exception (a character with a reutation for being unkillable) were all pretty safe (the one exception was actually also pretty safe as the creatures attacking him had run out of the attack that had got him to low health).

So why was this so good as a GM? - Because the players were seriously worried and thought they were about to lose (as in TPK) which made their satisfaction at their win greater. Knowing I had gotten the experienced players genuinely worried for their characters without using any heavy-handed techniques was a great moment.

NRSASD
2019-02-27, 04:09 PM
There's been a lot, but they've only been great because my players are SO awesome. Behind every great DM is a band of even greater players.

The one moment that comes to mind though, would have to be this one (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?579196-One-of-my-finest-moments-as-a-DM-*Unmarked-Curse-of-Strahd-Spoilers!*&p=23656425#post23656425). As Strahd, I managed to turn a fairly loyal PC into a double agent with one somewhat scary email between sessions.

Jay R
2019-02-27, 05:03 PM
I think that my best campaign was a Champions game, set in the Silver Age. I used information and stories from Silver Age comics for flavor, but it also hid the clues to the main villains. The players, who were mostly Silver Age comics fans, really got into it.

The campaign introduction had the following paragraphs:

The world has always had heroes. Gilgamesh, Achilles, Robin Hood, Scaramouche, Zorro, Phantom Eagle, Tomahawk, the Blackhawks, the Lone Ranger, the Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid, Cheyenne Bodie and Kwai-Chang Caine are all historical figures, well-documented in any history book. The super-powerful ones don’t exist (yet). You may assume the existence of any well-known Golden Age comic hero (except the ultra-powerful -- Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Captain Marvel, Spectre, etc.) if you have a specific need for him or her. (Your character was saved as a child by the Red Bee, which is why he wants to be a hero, for instance.) You may not have an established relationship with any such earlier hero without special permission. Special permission is not hard to get if I like the character design and persona story.

Most of the mystery men are not known to have any actual powers. In fact, most of them don’t have any powers, but it is also true that they are not really public figures. They’ve learned that it’s important that the crooks not know too much about them. Many simple people in masks are assumed to have powers even if they don’t. When designing your characters, remember that a power describes an effect, not a cause. A skills-based stealth hero could have Invisibility (only can be turned on when nobody’s watching). That doesn’t mean he has super-powers, but that his stealth and movement are so good that it’s easier to simulate that way. Similarly, heroes might be believed to have powers that they don’t really have. There are rumors of a half-man, half-flying-predator creature seen flying around the streets of Gotham at night. Don’t assume that that means the creature can fly, or even that it really exists.

Heroes are vigilantes, at least at first. You will all be based in the same town, one in which there are no other current heroes. (I’m thinking of putting you in Metropolis.) There is a certain amount of public fascination with the heroes, especially now that there are so many fewer than there used to be. 1938-1950 is called the “Golden Age of Heroes”. It seems like every city had a masked protector, and some had several. It was a grand and glorious time, in which many gangs, mobs, spy rings and crime bosses were put out of business. Not surprisingly, business got much better, and the United States has pulled far ahead of other countries in wealth and prestige. By the late 1940s, crime was at an all-time low, and the mystery men slowly slipped into obscurity and retirement. No point patrolling all night if nobody’s committing any crimes. For the last ten years, there have been very few heroes, and very little need. But there’s a new breed of teenager with less respect for the establishment, and older criminals are slowly getting out of jail. The crime rate is slowly creeping back up, and rumors of Communist spy rings are flourishing.

Rumors about heroes are also extremely common. In fact, there’s a supermarket tabloid that specializes in them. “The Brave and the Bold” is a source for any rumor about any hero you could ever want to read about, from Forbush-Man to the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. hey are responsible for the rumor that Captain America didn’t really die at the end of World War II. They are currently writing an “expose” about a putative hero team called Sugar and Spike, (who nobody else thinks exists), and are trying to convince everyone that these are merely new costumes and identities for the Golden-Age Fox and the Crow. Nobody takes them seriously, but everybody seems to know what they’re saying, and they outsell the National Enquirer by millions of issues each week."

Between games, I always gave them a few stories from The Brave and The Bold, both for color, and to introduce some plot.

An unknown clown was found beaten to death on the streets of Gotham city. There was no evidence linking the crime to anybody, and the only unusual aspects of the case are that the coroner was unable to take off his white clown makeup and green hair dye, and that his face was frozen in a hideous grin, like the victims in a couple of earlier crimes also in Gotham. The police suspect that his murderer must also be guilty of the other crimes, but no other clues are available. (Of course, Gotham is believed to be a corruption-riddled city worse than anything seen since Chicago in the 1930s, so who knows?)

Meteorologists are unable to explain certain weather conditions in Central City. Blasts of extreme cold, and mini-whirlwinds are being experienced.

There is also evidently a new costumed villain in New York City. The papers there are all talking about the illegal exploits of this “Spider-Man” character, but it’s not entirely clear what crimes he’s committed.

A small town in upstate New York reports that a couple of local crimes have been solved by an “Ant-Man”. A couple of weird weather conditions have been seen in and around Central City (bizarre lightning strikes on a clear day, large amounts of ice in the streets, and whirlwinds that cannot be explained meteorologically).

A small pudgy man in a tuxedo was found cruelly murdered in Gotham City. The name on the handle of his umbrella identifies him as Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot.

People near an air force base in New Mexico claim to have seen a green monster occasionally. The base claims that these are hysterical reports, and says that no such monster could exist. But “The Brave and the Bold” tabloid seems to believe that a really strong hulking brute really exists.

A man wearing a weird suit with question marks all over it has been found with his head caved in at the scene of a Gotham city bank robbery. He has been identified as Edward Nigma, a puzzle editor on a local paper. Nothing in his background explains his presence at the crime scene or his death. He appears to have been beaten severely. “The Brave and the Bold” claims he has been leading a double life as the little-noticed crime fighter “The Question”. (They’ve been running a series exploring the hidden identity of “The Question” for some time, illustrating him as a man with no face.)

In Star City, a modern Robin Hood has appeared, using green arrows with unusual gimmicks.

Each time, there was reference to a brutal murder, or to a half-man/ half-flying-predator vigilante, in Gotham. And there was often an unexplained phenomenon in Metropolis, Central City, Washington, or Coast City. It was primarily just to provide color, but I was also slowly giving them clues.

To keep to the Silver Age theme, the PCs got additional points any time they managed to bring an obscure science fact or lame moral into the story, or any time they praised the policemen and firemen who saved lives without super-powers.

They had a run-in with the Haly circus that had been taken over by the Ringmaster. One member of the circus had escaped his hypnotism – a young acrobat named Richard Grayson. (With no Batman in the world, he never became Robin.) They never could stop the strong man – Fred Dukes.

They occasionally heard about new heroes appearing in other cities – Ant-Man, the Atom, Hawkman, etc. I even included Captain Sprocket. They heard about weird weather patterns in Central City and an unusual green glow sometimes seen in Coast City.

In the second session, the heroes heard reports of a rocket ship landing outside of town. They arrived, and their flame-based character Flamebird flew over the area. She saw the rocket, and also saw a larger-than-life, grotesque, vaguely man-shaped orange alien, who threw a tree at her. The character with the empathic link to a dog saw coils of some plasticine substance wrapping around and around an empty space. He also smelled two humans, but couldn't see them.

The battle was on, and one of the aliens turned out to have flame powers as well.

The battle lasted for over an hour of real-time before they figured out that they had blundered into the origin of the Fantastic Four. (And yes, in the original comic book, the Thing threw a tree at the Human Torch, and Mr. Fantastic tried to wrap his arms around the Invisible Girl.)

They fought Amos Fortune and the Royal Flush Gang, in an episode straight from an early JLA. A man with a strange costume and a green glow coming from his hands stole a weapon from Stark Industries. They tracked him down and almost caught him, but he evidently had a super-fast ally who helped him get away. But they recovered the weapon, as well as a plane that had been stolen from Ferris Industries in Coast City.

They also faced Dr. Ivo and Amazo, who stole their powers at first.

They kept hearing rumors about a man dressed as a nocturnal flying predator in Gotham City. But I never once used the word "bat".

All of this was lead-up to the main villains, and the real reason there was no Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash or Wonder Woman. The PCs eventually faced their evil counterparts, the Crime Syndicate: Ultra-Man, Owl-man, Power Ring, Johnny Quick, and Superwoman.

Mr_Fixler
2019-03-01, 01:39 AM
I ran a Ravenloft game (shameless promotion of campaign journal in my sig) wherein there was quite a bit of awsome moments.

I think my greatest GM moment in the campaign was puzzle wherein the players had to identify locations based on hints in murals, and cross referenced that with the heraldry for the different locations that has been subtly dropped through the game.

I honestly didn't think that the group would remember the colors of the first town, much less the second. When they not only remembered, but figured the puzzle on the first try, I was so proud of them and felt it was worth all of my time for putting those little details in.

Session 24 if anyone wants to read the specifics.

Morgaln
2019-03-01, 11:38 AM
I remember a lot of great moments, but one special case is the scenario where "Bad Company" was introduced.

I needed a break in our regular Werewolf: the Apocalypse campaign to do some creative thinking and plan out the next chapter of the story. So I told my players I'd do a short scenario as intermission.

I gave them a rough outline of what kind of characters would be useful for the story and an amount of exra XP so they could build higher-level characters and let them create whatever they wished. What they came up with was the following:

Ravena, a Black Fury Galliard. A metis, she's the product of a Black Spiral Dancer raping her mother, and has dedicated her life towards revenge on her father. However, the trail has grown cold and thus dying while taking as many foes with her as possible is all she wishes to do. Being both metis and half-BSD, she's barely suffered by other Garou.

T.J., Glass Walker Philodox. An army sniper, retired after getting wounded on a mission. He's still got a bullet stuck in his breast, close enough to his heart that it couldn't be safely removed. He considers himself living on borrowed time until that bullet will shift one day and kill him. Due to that ticking bomb, many Garou consider him no longer fit to be one of them and treat him with a lot of contempt. Hardliners especially point to the part of the litany that says you're supposed to go and die somewhere if you cannot fend for yourself any longer.

Ikaika, Uktena Theurge. He's into iron man and similar sport events, but has been using Garou gifts and fetishes to cheat in those competitions. Considering that is a violation of the litany, he's got a bad reputation and is kept under close watch to prevent him from lifting the veil.

Since all three characters turned out to be misfits and outcasts, it took them about 30 seconds to come up with "Bad Company" as their pack name, deciding they would be throwing the other Garous' contempt right into their face. Unbeknownst to the players, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect group to fit what I had in mind. Realising that, I helped them find an approriate pack totem that would also play into my hands: Iwai the crocodile, a totem of war that asks its followers to aid those seeking revenge.


The story began at a caern near Sydney, Australia. Every available Garou (including the player pack, of course) was called together. They were informed that a high-ranking Garou (one Nathaniel Watermoon) had turned traitor last night, killed two guards and run off with a powerful fetish. It didn't take long for the war party to find the trail. They found the traitor performing some kind of ritual while being protected by a group of Black Spiral Dancers. The members of the war party were still fighting the defenders when the ritual was completed and a portal formed, through which the traitor fled. The players were the only ones close enough to reach the portal before it closed, and they went through without hesitation.
On the other side they found themselves in the middle of a firefight, in a dark, smelly, enclosed environment. After some confusion, they found themselves among a group of heavily armed, mostly quite young Garou who took them to their hideout. There he players found out what had happened: they had travelled about 60 years into the future; the Apocalpse had come and gone, and the Garou had lost, hard, due to the Ratkin teaming up with the Black Spiral Dancers. Since both the Garou and the forces of the Wyrm had been preoccupied fighting each other, the Weaver's forces had taken complete control over the world's surface. The maybe two dozen Garou here were the last ones left, trying to eek out a living in the sewers of Sydney while constantly being hunted by Ratkin and BSD forces. Going upside would be certain death. Reaching the Umbra was next to impossible, as the waver's increased power had thickened the gautlet to where it was close to impenetrable; thus, contact to the spirits had also been lost.
All of the survivors had been born after the Apocalypse, and most of the knowledge and tradition of the Garou had been lost. Thus, when the survivors learned who the characters are, they were hailed as heroes of old, brought to them by the will of Gaia to bring back what was lost and lead the Garou back to glory. You can maybe imagine my players' faces at the idea of Bad Company of all people being thrust into that role.

The characters took up the challenge as best as they could, teaching the survivors some basics about the litany and auspices. In turn, they learned about a BSD base nearby where they suspected they would find the traitor. During one of their forays into the surrounding sewers, the party and several survivors got ambushed by a force of Ratkin and BSD, and after a fierce battle got captured and brought to said base. There they did indeed meet Nathaniel, who said that he couldn't have wished for better company than Bad Company (I couldn't resist the pun). Anyway, he told them that he had not turned traitor. Now that the player characters were here, they had seen the future; they knew they would lose the Apocalypse; but they, together with him, could change this future. The fetish he had stolen was what had allowed them to travel to the future, and it would also let them travel to the past, wherever they chose to go. If they were willing to help him, not only could they prevent the Apocalypse, they could also go back and change everything that went wrong with their lives. He'd let them think about whether that would be a worthy cause to follow, but he'd need a decision soon.

The players discussed this for a while, obviously starting with whether Nathaniel could even be trusted, but considering their backstories, it quickly turned out that they leaned towards accepting the offer. Going back and fixing their lives was just too tantalizing a thought to refuse. Before they met Nathaniel again, however, the survivors started a full-scale attack on the base to rescue their new leaders. A small force managed to get the player characters and get them out of their cell, expecting them to flee back to the survivors' hideout with them. Bad Company however told them to go without them; they would have to find the traitor first, since they had come here to hunt him down. The survivors weren't quite fooled, however, and one of them made a heartfelt plea to Bad Company not to abandon them. She begged them that even if the traitor had a way to get Bad Company home to their own time, they would stay and lead them, teach them everything they had forgotten. I could see in my players face show torn they were; especially considering they had already mostly decided to go with Nathaniel; Ikaika's player later told me that he almost changed his mind at that point. But in the end, they went to find Nathaniel anyway. They found him in the heart of the base, together with the leaders of the BSDs. After a battle, only Bad Company and Nathaniel (who hadn't fought) were left standing, and he asked them whether they had made a decision. So they told him they would go with him, and the scenario ended with the four of them stepping through the portal to a different time.

As you might have guessed, the basic inspiration for the story came from '80ies action movies, with Demolition Man and Running Man as the main sources. I had only intended it as a one-off, possibly not even as canon in relation to my regular campaign, but it was a huge success with my players. We all decided that Bad Company's story couldn't be over at this point and thus this turned into the first chapter of a new campaign that would alternate with my other one. Bad Company's story is now about to go into its fourth chapter, with no end in sight yet. Moreover, the story even spawned a spinoff. At some point I started to think about what happened to the survivors after they got abandoned by Bad Company, and I mentioned to my players that it was possible to turn that story into another campaign, with each player taking over one of the survivors. The reply was a very eager "when do we start," and thus the spin-off took off quickly and will be starting on chapter 3 next time when switch to that story.

Thrudd
2019-03-01, 03:17 PM
I can't say there was one specific moment. The most gratifying part of being a GM is when people are happy and excited to be playing. When I see my players, outside of game time, not even on game day, excited enough about the game that they're talking about their characters and what they want to do in the game and telling other people, who aren't even RPGers, about it and how awesome they think it is.

When players are begging me to hurry up and get ready for the next session: paraphrasing a number of real conversations-
them - "why can't we play again tomorrow after work? Let's just keep going!"
me- "I've got nothing ready, we just finished playing for twelve hours!"
them- "well hurry up and get ready!"

Little things, like when there are people not even playing the game who are watching and getting into it, laughing at stuff I'm doing. I remember one time in my Star Wars game, I was acting as an NPC that was drunk at a bar, with one of my players trying to convince him to join his space-pirate crew, getting the old gang back-together. (This was years before the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I swear! I had that idea first!) It was all spur of the moment, I just invented this character and gave him a weird Star Wars-ish name off the top of my head and decided he'd be a washed-up drunk, after the player asked if he could find any of the old pirate crew his character used to work with (in backstory). They had just commandeered an Imperial patrol ship, and needed extra crew to fly it (most of the PCs did not have the skills for it). We were playing at our usual after-school hang-out, a small book store with a back room and owners who gamed. I didn't really know one of the owners was paying attention to the game, until I heard her laughing as I play-acted the scene and saw she was sitting at the table behind us: I was slurring my speech and passing out on the table as my player tried to shake me awake and get me to agree to come along.

Of course, it is also gratifying when people actually say really nice things completely unprompted. Getting compliments on how good they think the game is, "that was amazing", etc. This is not to say that GMing is for the purpose of ego gratification or that I expect compliments - it doesn't happen all that often. That's why those moments stick out, though. Even though all the effort and prep is as fun for me as the actual playing, it is nice to have that effort recognized and for people to express their joy and appreciation.

hotflungwok
2019-03-01, 04:07 PM
I think the moment I loved the most was at the end of a story arc in a 3.5 game years ago.

The players had to get rid of an artifact, and were going to toss it through a portal. When they activated the portal, the room began to fill with flames, several fire elementals appeared, and the artifact started trying to control the character holding it to prevent it from being tosses through. So the party has to fight the elementals, avoid the flames, and figure out how to get the artifact through the portal. As time passed, it got more and more tense, the players were on the edge of their seats, prodding each other to hurry up and take their turns. It came down to the wire, more elementals were showing up, the area they could stand safely was getting very small, and they finally tossed it through. All the flames went out and the portal closed. When that happened there was an almost audible release of tension from the players, and they started high fiving and congratulating each other.

I liked that they were so caught up in the game, it was more than just some minis and dice, they felt it. I've had moments like that since, but that was the first time.

Toilet Cobra
2019-03-06, 11:34 AM
I'm most proud of my Bureau 13 cases. I have several that I look back on fondly and that my players still reminisce about... I think my favorite of all was when they wound up in an isolated bayou community under the thrall of an ancient, malevolent alien presence. The players were trapped by massive swarms of insects surrounding the area, hounded by possessed locals, plagued by dwindling supplies and faulty equipment. The case had suspense, horror, survival against impossible odds, and a mystery that played out very naturally and satisfyingly (no thanks to me; the players went way off of my basic outline but it worked out very well the way they played it). And in the end they got to have a huge climactic fight, a heroic sacrifice, and a d100 roll that was near-to-perfect, all the makings of a great finale! I've had many cases where the end just fell kind of flat but this one was immensely satisfying the way it all came together.

The whole scenario only lasted two sessions, but we had a blast and my players still talk about that case and in particular that evil alien. Whenever they see animals acting strangely or their phones start to get bad signal, they immediately wonder if he's back to try and get his revenge.

LimSindull
2019-03-06, 04:21 PM
So, one of these is mine, and another is what a DM did for us. Both are for 3.x with some homebrew involved.

The first story is form my homebrewed world. The characters were all secretly working for dragons that were trying to get their bodies back. Through treachery and deceit, one player gave some "soul crystals" (the things needed for bodies) to another player's dragon. Now, none of the player realized that helping themselves alone would help the enemies and create the BBEG. So, they all tried being greedy, and this one worked it out well, except he got in to deep and gave it to the other player's dragon. When that dragon rose up, the other player was so upset that he killed his character destroying the dragon that brought him life. it was a great moment for me, but the players were so upset that the campaign ended soon after. That part makes me sad.

The other story is when our DM created a world based off the Dark Horse (I think) series. We were a terrible band of almost evil characters. We were attacked by pirates and a the leader ended up being a high level rogue. Instead of killing this female captain, we turned her to our cause and he rolled up a character for her. It was one of the funnest things a DM has done for a group. She was extremely helpful and I don't think we could have won without her.

PS. I have liked all these stories previously, thank you all for sharing.

OmSwaOperations
2019-03-10, 10:42 AM
I had an incredibly fun GMing moment last week: more due to the players than me, but still really awesome.

Basically, the party was fighting a bizarre shape-shifting serpent, whose head always appeared to look like the head of whoever is looking at it.

One of the party members has a spell that lets him "cut through the veil of reality" and perceive the true form of things (with a small risk, each time he uses it, that he will discover awful and unbearable truths).

So he cast this spell on the snake's head, and discovered its form to be this protean, fluctuating mass, continually growing the faces of all the creatures looking at it, and reflecting them back at them. He remembers what this looks like, and then casts another spell right in front of the serpent: an illusion of the head itself.

Immediately the snake's head begins trying to copy its own head; which then grows more complex in response; which causes the snake's head to grow more complex still. End result: an exponentially increasing fractal fluctuation of the snake's head... until it explodes in a shower of magical radiation.