Shackled Slayer
2019-11-07, 07:31 PM
I have a story and want to share, but i cant seem to find any threads dedicated to sharing player/GM stories. So i figured i'd start one! Friendly banter seemed like the best forum for it.
So tell me; have you ever accidentally de-railed an entire campaign on accident? Became a god through a devil's wager? Appointed your horse as a member of the senate? Stole the declaration of Ba-Sing-Se? Tell me you stories of madness!
I'll start with my tale:
I'll preface this by saying we were all new to the system, including the GM, and had only had one campaign under our belts prior
My friends and i were playing our second campaign of mutants and masterminds (I forget the edition) and i conceived of a character based off of a Duel Masters card called explosive dude joe. Explosive dude joe, according to the flavor text on the card, has a problem with frequent exploding. He's talking about how he's gotten down to only exploding twice in a given day, and is beginning to thank his wife and friends for the support when he explodes mid-sentence.
Comedic gold, if i do say so myself.
So i have my character concept, but there's a few problems. First of all, i need to take some supporting abilities to make sure my superhero concept isn't just i explode ONCE and have to roll up a new character. Second, "explosions" isn't a pre-made superpower with points per rank figured. I knew this could get broken but the GM isn't understanding me when i say he needs to help me set the limits. He puts it at a single point of exp per rank of explosions, tells me to frame out what the power does at higher ranks. This was before i knew how the system calculated magnitude of powers, too.
So i make it so that around the power's 5th rank he can make explosions in a space or centered on a target, instead of self-detonation, and 10th rank he can precisely control the space the explosion detonates within; containing the kinetic and thermal energy within that space. I also bought back a drawback he started with where the explosions were uncontrolled to an extent, mostly because it was being disruptive to play and the other players were getting annoyed. he laster also gained above human strength, speed, and reflexes. But the main powers were the explosions, conditional immortality (heart is encased in ashell that can withstand damage equal to the power of his explosions) and regeneration that basically meant that after he exploded he near instantly reformed.
Now.
I realized later that the way power ranks and determinations work that by the time i had already hit explosions 30, the force of his all out blast was equivalent to a supernova. I gravely misunderstood how the math worked on that, otherwise i would have stopped at nuke strength. So i've basically got the power of GOD of EXPLOSIONS. I could end solar stars. Entire solar systems even! But im not aiming to, im just bad at math. And so is the GM. I pointed it out to him, and while his eyes bugged out he said it was okay and to just, keep it chill for a beat. And i did. I never exceeded the blast force of a cruise missile, and only did it when we really needed to hurt an enemy. Usually i let my diva best friend do the punchy stuff, other friend do the sneaky tactful stuff, other other friend did... More punchy stuff. And i tried to play the field between political, clever and tactical. I like high concept characters with slightly above human physical abilities and powers that allow them to use that to maximum effect. My previous character, Rift, used portals to attack from strange angles and manipulate physics to augment attacks, like jumping off a building, into a portal, where he would then be launched horizontally at the enemy, maintaining the momentum for a extreme energy melee attack, or launching an object at terminal velocity at the bad guy's face. And that's what i was looking to do with explosive dude Joe; high concept, unorthodox attacks. I was just waiting for my turn in the spotlight...
... Which never came. After 6 or 7 sessions the campaign's momentum petered out, we'd squashed most of the GM's big threats, and the other players were dialed into human relationships without doing any... Super hero stuff! I honestly get playing a social RP about relationships, but i signed on for superhero stuff. The other players were mostly losing interest too. And that's when the mistake was made. After 3 sessions of characters going on dates and watching t.v., i was so bored that i decided to do something. The thing, that this thread is all about.
I was going to take over the world. *super villian laugh here*
The GM and i had spoke prior to this session, and he leveled with me that he didn't know where he was going with this. The one other player i didn't mention with an edge-lord vampire vampire-hunter had bailed more or less and was just there to be edgey for the session. Realistically, this was the LAST session. So I told him i was going to send us out with a bang. He groaned at my pun but was curious.
So we're at his avengers initiative government base, everybody is chilling with their imaginary SOs, it's like watching paint dry waiting for him to ask me what im doing. Turn rolls around to me after everybody answers the question "what are you doing?" With "just chilling with bae i guess". He looks to me.
"I've been watching the news lately, as well as studying how to fly the VTOL jet things we have here. Is there a U.N. meeting happening? He would be waiting to hear about one."
GM pauses, i've got him curious. I also put ranks into a variety of pilot and technology skills prior to the session.
"Why, yes there is, it's going to start in a few hours actually."
"Okay cool." I answer, and wait through another round of hearing about the super buddies hanging out with the speedster NPC face of the orginization. Turn comes back to me. "I excuse myself and make my way to the hangar, is anyone else there?"
"Not really no."
"Great, i jump into one of the jets and begin firing it up."
A silence, and the whole table turns to look at me, and i cant help but form a grinch grin.
"Uh, okay, where are you going?" The GM asks nervously, leaning slightly forward.
"The U.N., as according to you these jets can travel super fast, if i gun it how fast can i get there?"
"Uhm, an hour maybe?" He answers. He still hasn't caught onto what im about to do. Òwó
I get there, land. The jet is part of a black budget operation, i not only have clearance, i hold some degree of authority. "The guard tries to stop you." The GM says, confused, but not for long. "I detonate the inside of his skull with the force of a tomahawk missile, confined to his head." GM blanches, likely in realization that I'm going rogue and I'm too far in to be stopped. There's no roll, no check to make, this was a human whose brain was just flash incinerated. He was dead before he even hit the floor.
The other players are now chittering excitedly about what's happening, and i lay the whole bag of snakes out on the table. I stroll into the U.N. meeting room, hijack the emergency broadcast system, and demand compliance. The nations of the world must now relinquish control to me, I'm in charge, and meta-humans are no longer to be discriminated against. "One world leader stands up and objects" the GM tells me. I invite the man down. He's a leader of a small african nation or something of the like. I'm chipper, cordial as i tell him to repeat what he just said, into the cameras so the fine folks at home Can hear. He does. Then i turn him into a human water baloon from the knees up, making sure it's mostly kinetic energy to the gore fresh and juicy for the camera.
"Does anyone else object?" I call out gleefully, covered in the dead leader's blood and guts.
The GM had promised he wouldn't use any of the powers that completely hamstring a character, like probability or causality manipulation, but then i don't think he was prepared for me to do this.
Long story short he kept himself bound by his word and i took over the world with all but the edgelord vampire, who i vaporized with full power supernova explosion contained to a single vaulted area. I did it by taking the entire U.N. hostage and summarily executing anyone who refused to submit absolutely to me. And now i have a reputation of torpedoing campaigns, even though i have only done so twice. Tell me if you want to here about the other time!
So tell me; have you ever accidentally de-railed an entire campaign on accident? Became a god through a devil's wager? Appointed your horse as a member of the senate? Stole the declaration of Ba-Sing-Se? Tell me you stories of madness!
I'll start with my tale:
I'll preface this by saying we were all new to the system, including the GM, and had only had one campaign under our belts prior
My friends and i were playing our second campaign of mutants and masterminds (I forget the edition) and i conceived of a character based off of a Duel Masters card called explosive dude joe. Explosive dude joe, according to the flavor text on the card, has a problem with frequent exploding. He's talking about how he's gotten down to only exploding twice in a given day, and is beginning to thank his wife and friends for the support when he explodes mid-sentence.
Comedic gold, if i do say so myself.
So i have my character concept, but there's a few problems. First of all, i need to take some supporting abilities to make sure my superhero concept isn't just i explode ONCE and have to roll up a new character. Second, "explosions" isn't a pre-made superpower with points per rank figured. I knew this could get broken but the GM isn't understanding me when i say he needs to help me set the limits. He puts it at a single point of exp per rank of explosions, tells me to frame out what the power does at higher ranks. This was before i knew how the system calculated magnitude of powers, too.
So i make it so that around the power's 5th rank he can make explosions in a space or centered on a target, instead of self-detonation, and 10th rank he can precisely control the space the explosion detonates within; containing the kinetic and thermal energy within that space. I also bought back a drawback he started with where the explosions were uncontrolled to an extent, mostly because it was being disruptive to play and the other players were getting annoyed. he laster also gained above human strength, speed, and reflexes. But the main powers were the explosions, conditional immortality (heart is encased in ashell that can withstand damage equal to the power of his explosions) and regeneration that basically meant that after he exploded he near instantly reformed.
Now.
I realized later that the way power ranks and determinations work that by the time i had already hit explosions 30, the force of his all out blast was equivalent to a supernova. I gravely misunderstood how the math worked on that, otherwise i would have stopped at nuke strength. So i've basically got the power of GOD of EXPLOSIONS. I could end solar stars. Entire solar systems even! But im not aiming to, im just bad at math. And so is the GM. I pointed it out to him, and while his eyes bugged out he said it was okay and to just, keep it chill for a beat. And i did. I never exceeded the blast force of a cruise missile, and only did it when we really needed to hurt an enemy. Usually i let my diva best friend do the punchy stuff, other friend do the sneaky tactful stuff, other other friend did... More punchy stuff. And i tried to play the field between political, clever and tactical. I like high concept characters with slightly above human physical abilities and powers that allow them to use that to maximum effect. My previous character, Rift, used portals to attack from strange angles and manipulate physics to augment attacks, like jumping off a building, into a portal, where he would then be launched horizontally at the enemy, maintaining the momentum for a extreme energy melee attack, or launching an object at terminal velocity at the bad guy's face. And that's what i was looking to do with explosive dude Joe; high concept, unorthodox attacks. I was just waiting for my turn in the spotlight...
... Which never came. After 6 or 7 sessions the campaign's momentum petered out, we'd squashed most of the GM's big threats, and the other players were dialed into human relationships without doing any... Super hero stuff! I honestly get playing a social RP about relationships, but i signed on for superhero stuff. The other players were mostly losing interest too. And that's when the mistake was made. After 3 sessions of characters going on dates and watching t.v., i was so bored that i decided to do something. The thing, that this thread is all about.
I was going to take over the world. *super villian laugh here*
The GM and i had spoke prior to this session, and he leveled with me that he didn't know where he was going with this. The one other player i didn't mention with an edge-lord vampire vampire-hunter had bailed more or less and was just there to be edgey for the session. Realistically, this was the LAST session. So I told him i was going to send us out with a bang. He groaned at my pun but was curious.
So we're at his avengers initiative government base, everybody is chilling with their imaginary SOs, it's like watching paint dry waiting for him to ask me what im doing. Turn rolls around to me after everybody answers the question "what are you doing?" With "just chilling with bae i guess". He looks to me.
"I've been watching the news lately, as well as studying how to fly the VTOL jet things we have here. Is there a U.N. meeting happening? He would be waiting to hear about one."
GM pauses, i've got him curious. I also put ranks into a variety of pilot and technology skills prior to the session.
"Why, yes there is, it's going to start in a few hours actually."
"Okay cool." I answer, and wait through another round of hearing about the super buddies hanging out with the speedster NPC face of the orginization. Turn comes back to me. "I excuse myself and make my way to the hangar, is anyone else there?"
"Not really no."
"Great, i jump into one of the jets and begin firing it up."
A silence, and the whole table turns to look at me, and i cant help but form a grinch grin.
"Uh, okay, where are you going?" The GM asks nervously, leaning slightly forward.
"The U.N., as according to you these jets can travel super fast, if i gun it how fast can i get there?"
"Uhm, an hour maybe?" He answers. He still hasn't caught onto what im about to do. Òwó
I get there, land. The jet is part of a black budget operation, i not only have clearance, i hold some degree of authority. "The guard tries to stop you." The GM says, confused, but not for long. "I detonate the inside of his skull with the force of a tomahawk missile, confined to his head." GM blanches, likely in realization that I'm going rogue and I'm too far in to be stopped. There's no roll, no check to make, this was a human whose brain was just flash incinerated. He was dead before he even hit the floor.
The other players are now chittering excitedly about what's happening, and i lay the whole bag of snakes out on the table. I stroll into the U.N. meeting room, hijack the emergency broadcast system, and demand compliance. The nations of the world must now relinquish control to me, I'm in charge, and meta-humans are no longer to be discriminated against. "One world leader stands up and objects" the GM tells me. I invite the man down. He's a leader of a small african nation or something of the like. I'm chipper, cordial as i tell him to repeat what he just said, into the cameras so the fine folks at home Can hear. He does. Then i turn him into a human water baloon from the knees up, making sure it's mostly kinetic energy to the gore fresh and juicy for the camera.
"Does anyone else object?" I call out gleefully, covered in the dead leader's blood and guts.
The GM had promised he wouldn't use any of the powers that completely hamstring a character, like probability or causality manipulation, but then i don't think he was prepared for me to do this.
Long story short he kept himself bound by his word and i took over the world with all but the edgelord vampire, who i vaporized with full power supernova explosion contained to a single vaulted area. I did it by taking the entire U.N. hostage and summarily executing anyone who refused to submit absolutely to me. And now i have a reputation of torpedoing campaigns, even though i have only done so twice. Tell me if you want to here about the other time!