Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 jon_oracle_of_athas Sep 27, 2003 11:15:08	I just have to share this with you. Last evening was supposed to be a regular gaming session, but due to some fallouts, we ended up doing some mock fights instead. PCs vs PCs and PCs versus NPCs, single battles. I wanted to test an NPC judged by me to be roughly the same strength as the mul fighter/gladiator/weapon devotee PC. Of course, I didn't reveal the identity of the NPC or any characteristics that would give it away during later play. In the middle of the battle the player suddenly said: "That sounded like 2d4 behind the screen", which was correct. That was pretty impressive! And the conclusion: "He's using a scythe!" I won't reveal whether that's the weapon used, seeing I have a player lurking on these boards, but regardless - the phrase "that sounded like 2d4" is going to be as legendary in our gaming circle as the infamous "140 hit points?!" exclaimed by a player walking behind the seated GM on his way to the fridge. Never underestimate the ears of a veteran gamer!
#2 zombiegleemax Sep 29, 2003 3:53:56	We had similar feelings when we played d6 Star Wars. The GM announced we are being shoot upon, then started to shake his head full with dices. A LOT of dices... Cost us a ton of character points to save our precious a**es... Famous last sentence: "Oh my, how many dice you roll with?!?!"
#3 zombiegleemax Sep 29, 2003 4:11:41	Heh, I like to make my players nervous by picking up a mass of dice for damage, then rolling only one or two of the handfull. Gets 'em sweating every time. I think every group developes a few 'in game jokes' like that. WE had a few like 'The Man in the Hooded Cloak' who made cameo appearences in every game. He was a nameless on the fly NPC I added to a slew of tavern patrons. There was a few others that the PCs 'should' have interacted with, but they chose to interrogate the nobody. I changed the whole adventure around because of that. Figuring the PCs would likely do it again, I reintroduced him in another campaign setting alltogether. They interrogated him again (harshly, both times). Now, he appears in every setting, plotting his revenge aginst the PCs for ruffing him up. Originally a 0-level NPC, he remains such to his day. He's been killed no less than 4 times, but now plots behind the scenes using pawns and such. Of course, the players are still entirely baffled by him, and so am I for that matter. Of course, there's also my tried and true threat of a den of tembo.
#4 Grummore Sep 29, 2003 16:15:05	Yeah... :D IGJ Inside Game Joke. My players had begin to fear, each time I was telling them that they would pass by some kind of mound if they continued on the same path...
#5 overelemental Sep 29, 2003 20:47:18	I'm always picking up a handful of die whenever I roll during battles, but one the correct number of the actual dice I'm rolling.. the rest is just filler for scaring the players.. Like.. I'm rolling 2d6 as weapon damage.. I pick up and roll ie 4d10 2d4 3d8 1d20 + 2d6 and count only the result from the d6s.. It's quite effective
#6 xlorepdarkhelm_dup Sep 29, 2003 22:05:05	Yea, to keep my players guessing, I roll all of their "detection" type rolls (spot, search, listen, sense motive, etc.), as well as am constantly rolling, stacking and otherwise playing with my dice through the game - they don't know when a roll I'm making is important, or what combination of dice is a bad thing. Of course when my leaning tower of mini six-siders begins to climb over the GM screen, they begin to ask if I'm bored or something... (They can take literally *hours* to deliberate over a simple problem, especially since one of my players can never make a decision).
#7 jon_oracle_of_athas Oct 08, 2003 15:34:32	I also use a random number of dice to confuse the veterans. I also use fake names for my adventure modules, in case someone catches a glimpse of my papers. Player quote: "Where was the frog that was supposed to croak at midnight?" Same player quote: "Shhey, right, like there's a conspiracy going on." If anyone played this year's StarWars d20 module at ARCON, it was named "The Bantha roars tonight", which was the name of the most hated song in the galaxy, played constantly by an R2 unit PC with a Jawa-tech radio receiver. Performed by the Funky Tractor Rodian Mamas, the song combined elements from Aqua's "Barbie Girl", Los Del Mar's "Macarena", Peaches' "Rosa Helikopter", and "The Ketchup Song" - sampled with the mating call of the Bantha. What's worse, it was an 8/10 chance it was playing, regardless of radio station. Truly malicious GMs would make the radio-receiver's off-switch shortcircuit.
#8 zombiegleemax Oct 08, 2003 22:42:53	Barbie Girl and the Ketchup Song? And I once thought I was as evil as they come. Truly, I am humbled by your sheer insidious and malicious nature, Jon.
#9 jon_oracle_of_athas Oct 09, 2003 7:15:43	And that's Star Wars. You don't want to know the things my players are put through in Dark Sun.
#10 zombiegleemax Oct 09, 2003 15:50:42	Originally posted by Jon, Oracle of Athas And that's Star Wars. You don't want to know the things my players are put through in Dark Sun. But yes! I'm a sadistic being at the deep of my heart...
#11 jon_oracle_of_athas Oct 09, 2003 18:04:28	I'm not telling. Mwahaha. That's how evil I am.
#12 zombiegleemax Oct 10, 2003 5:51:01	Have an eggroll...
#13 jon_oracle_of_athas Oct 10, 2003 8:11:05	I bet one of them fell out and you put it back in. Besides, NytCrawlr is the egg-roll fantast. You've got the material component for the summoning spell.
#14 nytcrawlr Oct 14, 2003 17:49:55	When I hinted at how long it took to work up a suitable Ancient Green Dragon Dracolich challenge for my group, one of the players quoted Star Wars: "That's no moon....I have a bad feeling about this..." Pretty classic, too bad the encounter didn't go as planned, I will be re-running it though.