Ghill
2008-10-03, 09:51 PM
I have a number of friends who are into DnD, or just RolePlaying in general. At one point we had a group of more than twelve members, mostly due to our primary DM's (here after reffered to as The DM) general charisma and popularity. We had some stunningly dysfunctional group dynamics, managing to hit all the alignments, with two evil mages, three or four clerics (only one of which was good), and a pair of power characters (one with a mysterious 18.00 str, and a half-celestial with bad luck), and a BUCKET of fighters. (We played 2nd Edition due to the fact The DM favored it). Though the course of our first campeign we destroyed three airships, two airship towers (one of them twice), nearly started an undead-leaden plague with a wand of contagion, got half of our party turned into vampires, and sentthe vampire we were hunting to hell without killing him by breaking a wood-warped wand of power. I have an interesting DnD group.
Anyway, here are some of the funnier/more interesting play styles I discovered when we were setting up for a later campaign.
The Winged GM
A bit of an inside joke, TWGM was the half-celestial mentioned above and is famous for his ability to get in trouble with the law through no fault of his own during ALL campeigns (his character became known as an international terrorist). He is a master of interlaced plots, all of his characters (he has something like six now), are related through a bizzare family tree with a tradition of exterminating each other, resulting in a CR 20-something rival-cousin out to kill him.
His current campeign (involving only four players, two of which not from our large group) has some elaborate plot which we are as yet unaware of. We were originally sent cross-plane to deliver a potion to the mayor of a small town, but the planar-travel-device(PTD) 'broke' and we 'lost' it. We got stranded in a Sharn, recovered part of a forge hidden in the sewers for an important Lady of house Canith (probably misspelled). We also managed to get on a lightening rail which 'went the wrong way' after being explicitlytold which way it went by two different people. The rail was hijacked, our memories erased several times and elaborate dissapearances of entire cars without our knowing, and our warforged member (a powergamer) intimidated the people to the point of them hating us, in a vain effort to retain calm. After encountering the hijackers, (everyone but me had their memory wiped several times), and we still had no Idea what was going on!
Next we followed the tracks to a small village, which is the home of a Blood thirsty cult who are 'dissapearing' people who had been on the train from the ramshackle tent-camp set up outside. At this point we picked up another player (who rarely makes a session) and another has decided to leave (our only cleric, which I would usually have played as except that we needed a rogue and had a cleric. We no longer have any healing...) There are Ten houses in the village, and a festival is happening in two days. That is where we left off last time. He is nuts.
I checked, most of the plot is made up on the fly, all I know is that apparanetly everytime I mention planar travel TWGM rolls some percentiles. Also, he swore we had an Astral Stalker after us. We are all third level.
The Power Gamer
The Power Gamer GM is a powergaming player, who carried over his habits to DMing (he mysteriously rolled an 18.00 str for all three of his character so far).
He only prepares the first five of six rooms. Thats as far as you make it before you die. Our ranger stuck a knife in the floor to listen for sounds (indian style), and we zapped by electricity under the floor and in the walls. There was a number of spike pits, an organ (the instrument) that caused damage when played, and a room walled with Wall-mart smiley faces the shot out toxic gas. To cap it all, when we reached the end (surprisingly all alive, our risk taker was very lucky), when we stupidly shot a blast from a wand we found at the sword in the center of the room, the sword exploded and the rest of the treasure was unfindable. Not a great long-term DM
The Fail
The Fail GMwas our LE mage in the party, but he didn't play his alignment particularly well, and I was thankful to that.
He wasn't a particularly dangerous, or skilled GM either. Our mission was to guard a small oracle-child and a relic along a road through a Ancient, Evil, Forest. We had some trouble. A tree was toppled into the road, blocking our progress, and when we stopped arrows began to come over the far side. However that was where the risk ended. TFGM had counted on us standing there and getting shot so that the monsters would be a challange when they flanked us. Half our party (Ironically including the mages), grabbed weapons and climbed over the tree, destroying the ambushing enemy in three rounds of combat. Unfortunately I was left alone to guard the oracle child. Did I mention I was a CN cleric from an unrelated temple? Yeah. I was blinded with a flash of light and someone went after the child. I grabbed them and beat them senseless with a my mace, before realizing I was blind and that I didn't know who I was hitting. Fortunately the child was unharmed, and I had driven away the attacker.
Later, I prayed to Gonzo (my diety, get it?) for my sight returned, but it only came back black and white. In the end we arrived a travel-domain temple and stopped in. Me and a few other waited outside, figuring that the temple would be boring-our prescense would interfere. In the end the rest of the party sacked the place making over a thousand Gp, getting a chime of interruption, along with several other equally powerful items that I can't remember, and ended up leaving before they took everything of value. The were not caught. We stayed and the play that night. We were not caught.
No reward for a combat, loads of reward for pilffering a temple. Maybe he was evil.
Anyway, put up any interesting or unique DM styles or stories. This is fun!
Anyway, here are some of the funnier/more interesting play styles I discovered when we were setting up for a later campaign.
The Winged GM
A bit of an inside joke, TWGM was the half-celestial mentioned above and is famous for his ability to get in trouble with the law through no fault of his own during ALL campeigns (his character became known as an international terrorist). He is a master of interlaced plots, all of his characters (he has something like six now), are related through a bizzare family tree with a tradition of exterminating each other, resulting in a CR 20-something rival-cousin out to kill him.
His current campeign (involving only four players, two of which not from our large group) has some elaborate plot which we are as yet unaware of. We were originally sent cross-plane to deliver a potion to the mayor of a small town, but the planar-travel-device(PTD) 'broke' and we 'lost' it. We got stranded in a Sharn, recovered part of a forge hidden in the sewers for an important Lady of house Canith (probably misspelled). We also managed to get on a lightening rail which 'went the wrong way' after being explicitlytold which way it went by two different people. The rail was hijacked, our memories erased several times and elaborate dissapearances of entire cars without our knowing, and our warforged member (a powergamer) intimidated the people to the point of them hating us, in a vain effort to retain calm. After encountering the hijackers, (everyone but me had their memory wiped several times), and we still had no Idea what was going on!
Next we followed the tracks to a small village, which is the home of a Blood thirsty cult who are 'dissapearing' people who had been on the train from the ramshackle tent-camp set up outside. At this point we picked up another player (who rarely makes a session) and another has decided to leave (our only cleric, which I would usually have played as except that we needed a rogue and had a cleric. We no longer have any healing...) There are Ten houses in the village, and a festival is happening in two days. That is where we left off last time. He is nuts.
I checked, most of the plot is made up on the fly, all I know is that apparanetly everytime I mention planar travel TWGM rolls some percentiles. Also, he swore we had an Astral Stalker after us. We are all third level.
The Power Gamer
The Power Gamer GM is a powergaming player, who carried over his habits to DMing (he mysteriously rolled an 18.00 str for all three of his character so far).
He only prepares the first five of six rooms. Thats as far as you make it before you die. Our ranger stuck a knife in the floor to listen for sounds (indian style), and we zapped by electricity under the floor and in the walls. There was a number of spike pits, an organ (the instrument) that caused damage when played, and a room walled with Wall-mart smiley faces the shot out toxic gas. To cap it all, when we reached the end (surprisingly all alive, our risk taker was very lucky), when we stupidly shot a blast from a wand we found at the sword in the center of the room, the sword exploded and the rest of the treasure was unfindable. Not a great long-term DM
The Fail
The Fail GMwas our LE mage in the party, but he didn't play his alignment particularly well, and I was thankful to that.
He wasn't a particularly dangerous, or skilled GM either. Our mission was to guard a small oracle-child and a relic along a road through a Ancient, Evil, Forest. We had some trouble. A tree was toppled into the road, blocking our progress, and when we stopped arrows began to come over the far side. However that was where the risk ended. TFGM had counted on us standing there and getting shot so that the monsters would be a challange when they flanked us. Half our party (Ironically including the mages), grabbed weapons and climbed over the tree, destroying the ambushing enemy in three rounds of combat. Unfortunately I was left alone to guard the oracle child. Did I mention I was a CN cleric from an unrelated temple? Yeah. I was blinded with a flash of light and someone went after the child. I grabbed them and beat them senseless with a my mace, before realizing I was blind and that I didn't know who I was hitting. Fortunately the child was unharmed, and I had driven away the attacker.
Later, I prayed to Gonzo (my diety, get it?) for my sight returned, but it only came back black and white. In the end we arrived a travel-domain temple and stopped in. Me and a few other waited outside, figuring that the temple would be boring-our prescense would interfere. In the end the rest of the party sacked the place making over a thousand Gp, getting a chime of interruption, along with several other equally powerful items that I can't remember, and ended up leaving before they took everything of value. The were not caught. We stayed and the play that night. We were not caught.
No reward for a combat, loads of reward for pilffering a temple. Maybe he was evil.
Anyway, put up any interesting or unique DM styles or stories. This is fun!