From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:38 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!europa.clark.net!4.1.16.34!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsserver.jvnc.net!newsserver.uri.edu!not-for-mail From: ron poirier Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Times you scared your players... Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 22:04:39 -0800 Organization: toll gate high school Lines: 44 Message-ID: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: 131.128.23.118 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (Win95; I; 16bit) Have you, as a DM, ever had a memorable incident where you really FREAKED OUT your players? Here's one I'll share now: The PCs had found a map to a pirate's stash, hidden on an island far outside the well-travelled shiplanes. This island was inhabited by a variety of beasties, the nastiest of which was probably the chimera that had killed all of the pirates (and was now guarding their stash). One of the critter types that inhabited the isle (besides huge spiders, a clan of cyclopskin, and "the great sea-beast") were large packs of roche, a sort of bizarre combination of beetle and wolf. They are found in one of the obscure monster manuals (forgotten realms?); there are several varieties, but the ones on the island had about 1 hit dice each and ran in packs of 10-100. The roche are nocturnal, so the PCs walked across the island all day and never saw any. The lair of the chimera was hidden on a cliff face, but was also accesable by walking under a thundering waterfall and into a natural passage behind it. This was the pirates' "back door" in times gone by. After invading the chimera's lair and slaying it, the (beat-up) party needed some rest. They slept the night in the lair, behind the roaring waterfall. That night, I rolled for an encounter, and it came up roche. A pack of 89 or so. Now, they PCs were pretty safe, being behind the roaring waterfall and all; but they had left their mounts (and a cute little war dog pup) outside, tethered to the trees. I had them all make "awareness" rolls to see if anyone heard the screaming horses above the roar of the waterfall. No one made the roll. The next morning, they woke up and left the waterfall cave to load up their horses -- and found that all five of them (and the poor pup) had been PICKED CLEAN TO THE BONE while they had slept. The only clue that they had regarding what had done this were the devoured carcasses of two or three roche who were kicked by the horses; and these were merely piles of odd-looking bones and chitinous plates with oneor two wicked mandibles nearby! I never saw a party rush to leave an island so fast after that! - Ron ^*^ From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:38 1998 Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!europa.clark.net!128.230.129.106!news.maxwell.syr.edu!streamer1.cleveland.iagnet.net!qual.net!iagnet.net!198.6.0.87!uunet!in4.uu.net!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!oucsboss!oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu!gbernath From: gbernath@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (Gregory Bernath) Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... X-Nntp-Posting-Host: oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (gbernath) Message-ID: Sender: news@boss.cs.ohiou.edu (News Admin) X-Nntp-Posting-Date: Mon Feb 9 01:18:34 1998 Organization: Ohio University CS Dept,. Athens References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 06:18:35 GMT Lines: 15 I had some fun with The Mother, that slimy life-sucking blob worshipped as a god by the Lerara on Greyhawk. It's all in the atmosphere. I put together a cute little chamber, using some copies of HR Giger artwork to illustrate what was there. The "Wall of Dead Rotting Babies" prints were a big hit. (Giger. Whew. Some really disturbing stuff in there. The Aliens are among the milder examples.) They didn't stop running until they reached daylight in The Yeomanry, and that's 60 miles away. At least they knew enough to run :-) -- Greg Bernath gbernath@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:38 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!europa.clark.net!204.59.152.222!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!news.he.net!news.iquest.net!not-for-mail From: Chad Lee Calvert Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 10:05:33 -0500 Organization: Purdue University Lines: 19 Message-ID: <34DF1B3D.6333@iquest.net> References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> Reply-To: gcalvert@iquest.net NNTP-Posting-Host: laf-0000-6.iquest.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0Gold (Win95; I) Chad wrote: Dragonlance Darken Wood.. The Plains of Dust... My personal favorite Neraka's Temple of Darkness, the maps would say it all, during the Dragonlance War. I'm getting ready to try Skull Cap. I occasionally put a tuff monster in the Dungeon or some place that the party must run away from or die. --Warning Label-- This Has Killed Stupid Party's!!! In Darken Wood an undead dragon fly bye was working well, everyone missed their fear checks and hit the floor except the Knight and the Kinder. The Kinder was about to see if the Dragon liked to eat flying spoons, he thought he had a kinder spoon of turning, when the knight had no option but to tackle the kinder to save the party. -- Chad Lee Calvert Purdue University Cary Quadrangle W339 West Lafayette, Indiana 47906 From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Message-ID: <34DF256D.4B00@wizvax.net> Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 10:49:01 -0500 From: Sea Wasp Reply-To: seawasp@wizvax.net X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: pt6.wizvax.net Lines: 21 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!uninett.no!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!209.78.65.16!newsfeed.yosemite.net!newsfeed.wizvax.net!news.wizvax.net!pt6.wizvax.net ron poirier wrote: > > Have you, as a DM, ever had a memorable incident where you really FREAKED > OUT your players? Probably the single most frightening incidents for the players were: 1) Discovering that the Wanderer, (an upgunned version of the character I played in the campaign I wrote up as "An American Gamer in Gondor" -- an NPC who acted as an occasional mentor/advisor for many of the great and wise, a legend in their world) who had been their guiding light in the current campaign, had gone utterly evil. 2) Running into a lifeform rather like the Alien, when playing a space travel campaign. They didn't even realize what they'd run into until people started dying. -- Sea Wasp /^\ ;;; From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!news-raspail.gip.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!204.71.1.51!spamkiller.internetmci.com!news.internetMCI.com!not-for-mail Message-ID: <34DF37B0.6882@mci.com> From: Bill Lewis Organization: MCI Telecommunications Corp. X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.04Gold (X11; I; SunOS 5.5.1 sun4m) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> <34DF256D.4B00@wizvax.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 18 Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 17:07:41 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: sage.mcit.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 12:07:41 EST Sea Wasp wrote: > 2) Running into a lifeform rather like the Alien, when playing a space > travel campaign. They didn't even realize what they'd run into until > people started dying. > > -- > Sea Wasp > /^\ > ;;; This happened to me once as a player, during a Space Opera session. When the blood ate through the armor, The whole group was like "runaway! runaway!"... it WAS scary, considering the deadly aspect of the combat system.. man. -- Bill Lewis, Unix System Administrator MCI Telecommunications Corp. email: Bill.Lewis@mci.com From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Message-ID: <34DF7BA9.1A8E@wizvax.net> Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 16:56:57 -0500 From: Sea Wasp Reply-To: seawasp@wizvax.net X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> <34DF256D.4B00@wizvax.net> <34DF37B0.6882@mci.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: pt8.wizvax.net Lines: 28 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!news-raspail.gip.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-feed2.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!ulowell.uml.edu!newsfeed.wizvax.net!news.wizvax.net!pt8.wizvax.net Bill Lewis wrote: > > Sea Wasp wrote: > > > 2) Running into a lifeform rather like the Alien, when playing a space > > travel campaign. They didn't even realize what they'd run into until > > people started dying. > > > > -- > > Sea Wasp > > /^\ > > ;;; > > This happened to me once as a player, during a Space Opera session. > When > the blood ate through the armor, The whole group was like "runaway! > runaway!"... > > it WAS scary, considering the deadly aspect of the combat system.. man. I use Space Opera myself. The neat thing was that the "eggs" didn't look like eggs, but rather like very large gemstones, so they'd loaded the things onto the ship voluntarily, with nary a thought of danger! -- Sea Wasp /^\ ;;; From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!europa.clark.net!4.1.16.34!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-feed4.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!sc.edu!VM.SC.EDU!I1700004 From: look@my.sig (Phase) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: Mon, 09 Feb 98 18:24:53 EST Organization: PhaseWorld Lines: 13 Message-ID: <17EF8102F8S85.I1700004@VM.SC.EDU> References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> <34DF256D.4B00@wizvax.net> <34DF37B0.6882@mci.com> <34DF7BA9.1A8E@wizvax.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: vm.sc.edu Sea Wasp writes: > I use Space Opera myself. The neat thing was that the "eggs" didn't >look like eggs, but rather like very large gemstones, so they'd loaded >the things onto the ship voluntarily, with nary a thought of danger! Oh, this is wonderful! My players have more gems than they know what to do with. -- PHASEFX @ VM.SC.EDU - http://www.cs.sc.edu/~jason-e "I can be a bitch though when people forget to remember that I am a sweet person." - Corinne Schmehl From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!news-raspail.gip.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!csn!nntp-xfer-1.csn.net!news.acsu.buffalo.edu!srv1.drenet.dnd.ca!crc-news.doc.ca!nott!cunews!wabakimi!nburgoin From: nburgoin@chat.carleton.ca (Nathan Burgoine) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: 9 Feb 1998 17:07:39 GMT Organization: Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada Lines: 26 Message-ID: <6bnd4r$4gd$1@bertrand.ccs.carleton.ca> References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> <34DF256D.4B00@wizvax.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: wabakimi.carleton.ca NNTP-Posting-User: nburgoin X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] My party Paladin, the city under seige, and the sewers opening up undead (skelletons and zombies), coming across a lovely lady he'd been sharing lunches with weekly, and trying to save her. She asks him mildly if he'd mind leading a significant portion of the army to the north wall. The player looked at me, "She's not afraid?" "Nope," I said. "But you're willing to do the north wall thing. It's sounding like a good idea, after all, she's a good friend." The look on his face was amazing. And when he got to the north wall with his army, and saw that archers were cutting them down, even though he'd made his second saving throw (I decided that seeing that would certainly give him another chance to break the charm person she'd used), he was terrified... people the party had trusted were in on the invasion - and more than that, a woman he'd been falling for was a priestess of a passion and lust goddess - who had charmed him. He'd never thought to detect evil around her (and she was smart enough tou se undetectable alignment, and, being fluent in Dwarven, prayed to her goddess in dwarven to charm the paladin, then told him it was dwarven for 'Good friends often share better meals.') 'Nathan ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A passage that describes exactly what I think of you, Nathan: 'In him was life, and the life / was like the light of men. / And the light shines in the / darkness, and the darkness / did not comprehend it.'" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!europa.clark.net!204.59.152.222!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!ix.netcom.com!news From: StephenJ Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 17:08:19 -0600 Organization: Evil Empire Lines: 32 Message-ID: <34DF8C63.5617@ix.netcom.com> References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> <34DF256D.4B00@wizvax.net> <6bnd4r$4gd$1@bertrand.ccs.carleton.ca> Reply-To: sjaros@ix.netcom.com NNTP-Posting-Host: btr-la6-51.ix.netcom.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-NETCOM-Date: Mon Feb 09 5:14:29 PM CST 1998 X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01Gold (Win95; I) Nathan Burgoine wrote: > > My party Paladin, the city under seige, and the sewers opening up > undead (skelletons and zombies), coming across a lovely lady he'd been > sharing lunches with weekly, and trying to save her. She asks him mildly > if he'd mind leading a significant portion of the army to the north wall. > The player looked at me, "She's not afraid?" > "Nope," I said. "But you're willing to do the north wall thing. > It's sounding like a good idea, after all, she's a good friend." > The look on his face was amazing. And when he got to the north > wall with his army, and saw that archers were cutting them down, even > though he'd made his second saving throw (I decided that seeing that would > certainly give him another chance to break the charm person she'd used), > he was terrified... people the party had trusted were in on the invasion - > and more than that, a woman he'd been falling for was a priestess of a > passion and lust goddess - who had charmed him. He'd never thought to > detect evil around her (and she was smart enough tou se undetectable > alignment, and, being fluent in Dwarven, prayed to her goddess in dwarven > to charm the paladin, then told him it was dwarven for 'Good friends often > share better meals.') > > 'Nathan > That's a good story! As for me, my players get scared any time i pick up my dice! ********************************************************* "..i'm an asshole" - Terry (the idiot) Austin "..and you're a Cowardly hypocrite as well" - StephenJ ********************************************************* From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!europa.clark.net!208.134.241.18!newsfeed.internetmci.com!205.216.12.228!hyperion.nitco.com!not-for-mail From: ckern@junkmailnetnitco.net (Chris Kern) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 00:11:33 GMT Organization: Northwestern Indiana Telephone Co. Lines: 16 Message-ID: <6bo5vv$nuf$1@hyperion.nitco.com> References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> <34DF256D.4B00@wizvax.net> Reply-To: ckern@junkmailnetnitco.net NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.217.15.23 X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 Sea Wasp wrote: >ron poirier wrote: >> >> Have you, as a DM, ever had a memorable incident where you really FREAKED >> OUT your players? I put Mord-Sith (from Terry Goodkind's books) into my game world. They were laughing about something, then a character described the way the Mord-Sith were broken, and they stopped dead in their tracks and stared at me. They were horrified that anyone could think something like that up. It was great. :) -Chris Remove "junkmail" in my return address to reply. From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!europa.clark.net!208.134.241.18!newsfeed.internetmci.com!152.163.199.19!portc03.blue.aol.com!audrey01.news.aol.com!not-for-mail From: bezerk01@aol.com (Bezerk01) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: 10 Feb 1998 22:10:17 GMT Lines: 12 Message-ID: <19980210221001.RAA23659@ladder03.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder03.news.aol.com X-Admin: news@aol.com Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com References: <6bo5vv$nuf$1@hyperion.nitco.com> Those are great books and I think those of my friends that have also read them would also be scared if I pulled that one on them. Bezerk "But don't cut your losses too soo, because you'll only be cutting your throat" - Dream Theater "Take the glory, steal the prize, Only the hunter survives" - GTR From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!europa.clark.net!4.1.16.34!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!su-news-feed4.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!journal.unify.com!not-for-mail From: "Chris Anderson" Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 17:12:01 -0800 Organization: Unify Corporation Lines: 19 Message-ID: <6bo9si$mdr$1@journal.unify.com> References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> <34DF256D.4B00@wizvax.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: hecate.unify.com X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2106.4 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 Every now and then, the muse is with me. Probably the most memorable was an evening 15 years ago, when the party was exploring an abandoned city in my world -- the Crystal City. This was one of those adventures where you throw out what you had planned and start winging it in a big way because nothing was working with what you had planned. By the time the adventure ended, I had scared the group to death. To the point where two of them involuntarily screamed when a dog barked just outside the living room windows where we were playing. Chris |ron poirier wrote: |> |> Have you, as a DM, ever had a memorable incident where you really FREAKED |> OUT your players? From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!europa.clark.net!208.134.240.140!newsfeed.internetmci.com!164.67.42.145!awabi.library.ucla.edu!132.239.1.220!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!nntp.ucsb.edu!ulehme00 From: ulehme00@mcl.ucsb.edu (Eric W Lehmann) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: 10 Feb 1998 06:09:14 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Barbara Lines: 22 Message-ID: <6boqua$pa@yuggoth.ucsb.edu> References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> <34DF256D.4B00@wizvax.net> <6bo9si$mdr$1@journal.unify.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: mcl.ucsb.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] : |ron poirier wrote: : |> : |> Have you, as a DM, ever had a memorable incident where you really FREAKED : |> OUT your players? This is wrong here, but I cannot resist. As a DM for Shadowrun, I had the players complete a relatively simple recovery mission that went off without a hitch. They were all AD&D vets with no real understanding of the Shadowrun universe. So they finished and retired for the evening to the richest player's luxury condo. I (pretending to ad lib) described it as being on the third floor in a gated community with big bay windows. They blew a time honored AD&D rule by not posting a guard. I gave them perception checks, which they missed, to hear the corporate SWAT team on the roof. The corp team blew in all the bay windows with an autocannon from a nearby condo with one prolonged burst. The team on the roof blew a 20' by 20' hole in the roof, causing it to fall on a PC. Then they lobbed in 5 grenades and rappelled in. Another team beat down the front door. I announced this as I whipped out an elaborate hex diagram. What a kodak moment. -Eric From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!news-raspail.gip.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!news.voicenet.com!nntp.upenn.edu!not-for-mail From: "William J. Altman" Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 11:25:53 -0500 Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 27 Message-ID: <34DF2E11.32B97B2E@force.stwing.upenn.edu> References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: fallenspire.stwing.upenn.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 [en] (Win95; I) ron poirier wrote: > Have you, as a DM, ever had a memorable incident where you really FREAKED > OUT your players? well nothing quite so long or intricate as what you detailed, but this happened at our last gaming session. One of my players is running a big orc and decided to be cute. He brought a large robotech model of a excalibur to the session and wanted to know if he could use it for his character's figure. I proptly plucked it from his hands and replied "That's perfect for what you're going up against tonight, thanks". The jaws in the room dropped. for those who don't know, the Robotech Excalibur is the same as the Warhammer from Battletech and the Tomahawk from Macross, the model stood a little under a foot tall. -- The churning green waters give way embracing a new form >From the froth beyond the darkened garden it rises Piercing ochre framed in midnight, methodic, purposeful The beast shifts, stillness remains Falen the Fallen From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!news-raspail.gip.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!ais.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!ux6.cso.uiuc.edu!jayv From: jayv@ux6.cso.uiuc.edu (verkuilen john v) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: 9 Feb 1998 17:57:02 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Lines: 31 Message-ID: <6bng1e$kna$1@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> <34DF2E11.32B97B2E@force.stwing.upenn.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: ux6.cso.uiuc.edu "William J. Altman" writes: >ron poirier wrote: >> Have you, as a DM, ever had a memorable incident where you really FREAKED >> OUT your players? >well nothing quite so long or intricate as what you detailed, but this >happened at our last gaming session. >One of my players is running a big orc and decided to be cute. He brought a >large robotech model of a excalibur to the session and wanted to know if he >could use it for his character's figure. I proptly plucked it from his hands >and replied "That's perfect for what you're going up against tonight, >thanks". The jaws in the room dropped. Something similar happened in a campaign I was in although not quite so good. The GM was setting up figures for a battle we were in that was mostly orcs as far as we knew and he put down this huge bat-winged demon. We were all sitting there gulping back the bile (characters were about level 3-4), when he announced that "This is the orc chieftan." Whew! It was a nasty fight but definitely not with the bat-winged demon. Jay -- J. Verkuilen jayv@uiuc.edu "Things are not as bad as they seem, they are worse than that. They are also better than that. We do not see life as it is, but as we perceive it to be." --Robert Fripp From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!news-raspail.gip.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!204.71.1.51!spamkiller.internetmci.com!news.internetMCI.com!not-for-mail Message-ID: <34DF3899.DC@mci.com> From: Bill Lewis Organization: MCI Telecommunications Corp. X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.04Gold (X11; I; SunOS 5.5.1 sun4m) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 25 Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 17:11:34 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: sage.mcit.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 12:11:34 EST ron poirier wrote: > > Have you, as a DM, ever had a memorable incident where you really FREAKED > OUT your players? > well actually, in an old 1st editon Greyhawk campaign the group was sent to find/contact the Mage of the Valley in the Valley of the Mage. Just as the group was about to enter the valley, they were rather high level characters at the time, the Mage pops in. Everyone was pretty much overwhelmed by it, stunned actually, plucked a few hairs from the most paranoid person inthe group and then popped out. For the next hours, the character just kept spouting off ideas about what the Mage could do with those hairs of his...I just kept writing down the ideas he came up with, some of them were awesome! The rest of the party wouldnt even travel close to him. Nothing ever happened but man what a fun paranoid time I had.. -- Bill Lewis, Unix System Administrator MCI Telecommunications Corp. email: Bill.Lewis@mci.com From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!news-raspail.gip.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!18.24.4.11!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!nntp.neu.edu!lynx01.dac.neu.edu!yglina From: yglina@lynx01.dac.neu.edu (Yan Glina) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: 9 Feb 1998 19:34:25 GMT Organization: Northeastern University, Boston, MA. 02115, USA Lines: 31 Message-ID: <6bnlo1$ls2$1@isn.dac.neu.edu> References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: lynx01.dac.neu.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] A couple years back I was forced to run a one nighter. I chose Ravenloft as the setting without informing the two players. They made up their characters (a fighter and a thief if I remember correctly) and headed out of the town they were staying in. The first day of travel went fairly well, but on the second day a storm moved into the area. By dusk they had managed to get extremely lost. It was at some point during their wandering that Ravenloft drew them in. They came to a rather swampy area and decided to go around it. This led them to an abandoned road. Using a bit of cheese I told one of the players that his character heard what sounded like branches breaking somewhere off the road. Not knowing where they were he decided to investigate. Looking into the dark bushes he really didn't see anything (they were both humans). That is until a flash of lightning illuminated the hungry maw of the wolfwere that was standing a mere foot or two in front of the character the entire time. The look on the players face was priceless. I chose that particular moment to remove the normal DM screen, revealing the Ravenloft one behind it. The rest of the evening was one that the players still talk about (and yell at me for). Being humans without magic in Ravenloft scared the hell out of them. The real fun began when, in their haste to outrun the pursuing (and unknown number of) wolfweres they came to the small keep that the road led to. The players involved have never sprung the idea of a one-nighter at the last minute since. /--------------------------------------------------\ | "The universe began with a word you know... | B A B Y L O N | But which came first?... | F I V E | The word...or the thought behind the word?" | <*><*><*> \--------------------------------------------------/ <*> Lorien, The First One (In a more lucid moment) <*> From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 From: "William J. Leary Jr." References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 17:26:02 -0500 Lines: 32 Organization: Paralyn Associates X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2106.4 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 Message-ID: <#dTQ1maN9GA.197@upnetnews03> Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!news-raspail.gip.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!207.68.152.12!upnetnews01!upnetnews03 ron poirier wrote in message <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu>... >Have you, as a DM, ever had a memorable incident where you really FREAKED >OUT your players? I see that most (if not all) of the other messages are about the player characters getting scared. I've got one about actually scaring the PLAYERS themselves. The group has been hired to recover a critical component of a library from a far off dimension. In order to get there, they have to travel through ANOTHER dimensional place to get to the gate that leads there. So, they're in the almost normal world going down this almost normal road. It gets dark, so they look for a place to spend the night. They happen upon a house which I describe as looking like the house we're sitting in. They feel safe and go in. Turns out the place is haunted. So, I go through the rest of the game session describing how things are happening, the ghosts, undead, and so forth giving them a hard time, and what not. The game session ends, it's close to midnight real time. They have to go out to their cars to leave. I didn't think much of it at the time, but next session they all mentioned that it gave them the absolute creeps to go out to their cars in the back yard after "just having fought" all those nasties out there. They still, as you say, talk about that one. - Bill From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!europa.clark.net!208.134.241.18!newsfeed.internetmci.com!209.89.75.15!News.Toronto.iSTAR.net!news.istar.net!NewsRead.Toronto.iSTAR.net!not-for-mail Message-ID: <34DFBB27.55D@fox.nstn.ca> From: Dave X Reply-To: Xodragon@fox.nstn.ca Organization: None X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (Win95; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 101 Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 02:24:42 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: ts8-10.ott.istar.ca NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 09 Feb 1998 21:24:42 EST Not often that the characters in this group, as one, get awed, but one time I did manage it was with in Myth Drannor. They were underground and found a scroll with some words they did not recognize written in Elven. They couldn't get through a door, so figured they'd try the words on the scroll hoping for command words. With no reaction from the first few they finally got one that they got a reaction from - a low rumble throughout the structure and a barely audible roar from somewhere overhead. When they ran outside they were not immediately aware of what happened. Then the followed the sounds of battle to a group of hobgoblins and humans (led by the Wizard Thagdal - see the Arch Enemy thread) getting shredded by a winged beast that they did not recognize. Well, after watching for a few seconds the beast stops fighting and turns and locks his gaze on the elf who read the scroll - at which point it dawned on the players that one of these words was the true name of this creature (a Nycadaemon as they later discovered.) If that wasn't bad enough, the Druid immediately disappeared to a low roof and began a Call Lightning spell. While everyone else played cat and mouse with this monster the Druid kept casting. They survived the ten rounds and when he yelled they jumped clear and Mr. Daemon got a face full of lighting. After the thunder died down and the dust cleared their jaws hit the table when the now hairless Daemon just walked out of the blackened area no worse for wear. That's when good, fast, desperation playing begins. odragon ron poirier wrote: > > Have you, as a DM, ever had a memorable incident where you really FREAKED > OUT your players? > > Here's one I'll share now: > > The PCs had found a map to a pirate's stash, hidden on an island far > outside the well-travelled shiplanes. This island was inhabited by a > variety of beasties, the nastiest of which was probably the chimera that > had killed all of the pirates (and was now guarding their stash). > > One of the critter types that inhabited the isle (besides huge spiders, a > clan of cyclopskin, and "the great sea-beast") were large packs of roche, > a sort of bizarre combination of beetle and wolf. They are found in one > of the obscure monster manuals (forgotten realms?); there are several > varieties, but the ones on the island had about 1 hit dice each and ran > in packs of 10-100. The roche are nocturnal, so the PCs walked across > the island all day and never saw any. > > The lair of the chimera was hidden on a cliff face, but was also > accesable by walking under a thundering waterfall and into a natural > passage behind it. This was the pirates' "back door" in times gone by. > After invading the chimera's lair and slaying it, the (beat-up) party > needed some rest. They slept the night in the lair, behind the roaring > waterfall. > > That night, I rolled for an encounter, and it came up roche. A pack of > 89 or so. Now, they PCs were pretty safe, being behind the roaring > waterfall and all; but they had left their mounts (and a cute little war > dog pup) outside, tethered to the trees. > > I had them all make "awareness" rolls to see if anyone heard the > screaming horses above the roar of the waterfall. No one made the roll. > > The next morning, they woke up and left the waterfall cave to load up > their horses -- and found that all five of them (and the poor pup) had > been PICKED CLEAN TO THE BONE while they had slept. The only clue that > they had regarding what had done this were the devoured carcasses of two > or three roche who were kicked by the horses; and these were merely piles > of odd-looking bones and chitinous plates with oneor two wicked mandibles > nearby! > > I never saw a party rush to leave an island so fast after that! > > - Ron ^*^ -- ----------------- Give me ambiguity or give me something else ----------------- From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!europa.clark.net!206.229.87.25!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!newsfeed.internetmci.com!152.163.199.19!portc03.blue.aol.com!audrey02.news.aol.com!not-for-mail From: pest23@aol.com (Pest23) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: 10 Feb 1998 19:33:00 GMT Lines: 41 Message-ID: <19980210193301.OAA20393@ladder02.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder02.news.aol.com X-Admin: news@aol.com Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com References: <34DFBB27.55D@fox.nstn.ca> >Well, after watching for a few seconds the beast stops fighting and >turns and locks his gaze on the elf who read the scroll - at which point >it dawned on the players that one of these words was the true name of >this creature (a Nycadaemon as they later discovered.) If that wasn't >bad enough, the Druid immediately disappeared to a low roof and began a >Call Lightning spell. While everyone else played cat and mouse with >this monster the Druid kept casting. They survived the ten rounds and >when he yelled they jumped clear and Mr. Daemon got a face full of >lighting. After the thunder died down and the dust cleared their jaws >hit the table when the now hairless Daemon just walked out of the >blackened area no worse for wear. >That's when good, fast, desperation playing begins. This reminds me of the time when the party's half-ogre was escorting a halfling lightning priest back to a friendly elven village to get a cure for the halfling's recent Lycanthrope-inflicted wound. Running (literally) into a Shambling Mound in the forest, the characters panicked: the Half-Ogre pounding the Mound with his fists, the Mound hitting right back. The players around them (the party had split up at the time) started shouting advice, a practice I discourage, but I couldn't help chuckling to myself when the two players began listening to a particularly pompous rules-lawyer, who called out "Shambling Mounds have something against lightning! Call Lightning as hard as you can!" Ten rounds later, the Half-Ogre staggered away from the mound, glad that the Lightning Priest was now going to be able to finish the creature off. I'll never forget the looks on their faces when I told them that as soon as the lightning struck, the Mounds wounds closed, and the creature actually GREW! They started running again, after that. Andrew _________________________________ It was Jean-Paul Sartre who said "Hell is other people," Which is remarkably perceptive coming from one so French. From jlynch@pioneer-net.com Thu Feb 12 11:16:39 1998 Path: news.tuwien.ac.at!03-newsfeed.univie.ac.at!newscore.univie.ac.at!newsfeed.ecrc.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!bullseye.news.demon.net!demon!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!xs4all!not-for-mail From: nobeard@xs4all.nl (nobeard) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: Times you scared your players... Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 09:46:41 GMT Organization: XS4ALL, networking for the masses Sender: @asd17-29.dial.xs4all.nl Message-ID: <34df782c.9053013@news.xs4all.nl> References: <34DE9C77.6CD3@uriacc.uri.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: asd17-29.dial.xs4all.nl X-XS4ALL-Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 09:47:22 CET X-XS4ALL-User: nobeard@xs4all.nl on asd17-29.dial.xs4all.nl X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/16.230 Lines: 42 On Sun, 08 Feb 1998 22:04:39 -0800, ron poirier wrote: >Have you, as a DM, ever had a memorable incident where you really FREAKED >OUT your players? At least once every session, I'm known as the 'deadly DM', if it's player ignorance I'll turn a 0 into a twenty if need be, but if it's plain stupidity.... die sucker. I have an hour-glass that times 30 minutes, it's big and made of copper and glass (obviously), if this one is introduced on the table experienced players cringe.... it's death if it runs out. Tell ya; they work together FINE when that thing's on there. Once they were in a dungeon, and they knew if they didn't find a certain code, the ceiling would come down dungeon-wide..... I had given them my books on Assembler and HTML (none were computer-literate , or at least, THAT computer literate) and a set of ASCII characters. Half the code was filled in already in HEX.... man, They nearly tore the pages trying to find clues and tables. (Ofcourse this wasn't AD&D that particular day we were playtesting Invictus, a gamelet soon to be available from Fractal Dimensions) Greetz. DD. PS: They loved it. David Dylan; Head ed of TRIBE MAGAZINE, MS-DOS based E-zine. Music, Strategic (Role-Playing) games, computerfun, =======================][================================ http://www.xs4all.nl/~nobeard || the TRIBE MAGAZINE page! =======================][================================ E-mail me with the word SEND in the body for a list of examples of artwork I could send you.