Blowing of steam in RPGs

[Evil Steve]

Question time!

How do you GMs help your players blow off steam when they're getting a bit rough with the Villans?

For me, I run a long session of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where the only objective for the players is live as aggressively as possible until the police/army/corporation-that-built-them corners and kills them. Its a belt-fed beer and pretzels game, but everyone is more relaxed for the next regular game session.

[Syberdwarf2]

I'd put them through a rifts game. They'd start out on the run form the CS Police, run to the bad side of town, step through some sort of portal and into...
Cyberworks HQ... right in front of A.R.C.H.I.E.

[CourtFool]

Thread necromancy!

I do not remember any of my groups particularly needing to 'blow off steam' but I can certainly see its appeal. I think a typical dungeon crawl would be ideal. Kill things, take treasure, rinse, repeat.

I think if you have goaded your PCs with a particular villian that they have grown to love to hate, you should probably let them have a satisfying victory over them at some point before the end of the campaign. But that is just me.

[Manic Typist]

I'd put them through a rifts game. They'd start out on the run form the CS Police, run to the bad side of town, step through some sort of portal and into...
Cyberworks HQ... right in front of A.R.C.H.I.E.


Sorry, I'm new to RPing in general.

I know this should be hilarious, but I don't get it.

Please explain?

[Trencher]

The Cs police and cyberworks is very powerfull, the players will have their hands full with fighting.
Also both are almost imposseble to negoitiate with,

[tkdguy]

My GM once let me blow off steam by playing the villains. Actually, he gave me a set of villains known as the Geodesics and I came up with a plan for them. The problem was I went overboard and had them go into a killing spree while they were invisible or desolidified. That upset everyone else, so we retconned it so that they scared a lot of people instead of killing them.

But hey, I can at least boast about turning a bunch of third-rate criminals into a force to be reckoned with.

[CrosshairCollie]

I've known far too many players over my gaming career where blowing off steam seems to be their sole purpose in gaming.

Every now and again, I set up a REALLY big fight, and do a cliffhanger in one session, so the next game can be five minutes of recap, THREE HOURS OF WHOOPASS. :)

[Pogo]

I've done it in reverse. I had a bad experience at DC National Airport. The next time I ran Champions, there was a battle royale at said airport, beginnning with the attack of the giant mutant squid. Collateral damage was encouraged and a great time was had by all.

[OneSmallGod]

Every once in a while, it's necessary to present the players with a villain whose sole purpose in the game is to act as a sort of pinata - they whale on him with a stick until he cracks and then get the candy (XP's, bragging rights) etc. Property damage can be fun, in a light-hearted way. (Running gag - the same guy who keeps getting caught in the cross-fire while driving his brand-new car, each of which get destroyed in bigger and funnier ways... It's a toss-up whether this put-upon citizen or his insurance adjuster will be the one to snap and don a villain's uniform to go after the heroes...)

[Diamond Spear]

My players have always found C.L.O.W.N. relaxing. :D

[Manic Typist]

C.l.o.w.n?

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

40th CR godzilla stomp, where the three winners were a 30 headed terrasque, a terrasque with 8 templates, and a hell-worm thingie (and the losers were a taurc dire-lion/drow, a japanese school-girl titan, and a 5 headed 16th lvl monk)

[Susano]

I've done it in reverse. I had a bad experience at DC National Airport. The next time I ran Champions, there was a battle royale at said airport, beginnning with the attack of the giant mutant squid. Collateral damage was encouraged and a great time was had by all.

*chuckle*

I did the same thing. The battlesuited villainess with the autofire explosion micro-missile launcher laid waste to the old CompUSA where I used to work.

[Susano]

40th CR godzilla stomp, where the three winners were a 30 headed terrasque, a terrasque with 8 templates, and a hell-worm thingie (and the losers were a taurc dire-lion/drow, a japanese school-girl titan, and a 5 headed 16th lvl monk)

40th CR?

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

40th CR?

DnD, it means 40 challange rateing (or the equivilent of a 40th lvl PC)

[Onyxclaw]

that was such an awsome game to watch. I still loved diggy. The five headed ice badger that had so many levels in monk he could use demention door. The first time he exploded it was awsome!

Ashton's Wyrm was tricky though...if he had played it better he could have won. But then you should have killed him the first time you tried...so it all balences out. It was fun to draw thouse guys too.

Honestly, a highpowered killing spree is just what the doctor ordered sometimes ^^

[mikesama]

Sometimes all you really need to do is throw them something off theme for the game (works better where the game has a more serrious tone). This is especally good when you have DNPCs that don't know anything.

The introduction of a game "whipping boy/girl" for when you want some fun and less than challenging play for the night. (Bulldozer seems to be perfectly designed for this).

Have a villan do something so increadibly out of character that everyone starts trying to figure out if it's some master plan, a replacement or what. (I'm planning on the GRAB swimsuit calendar episode where the ladies of GRAB get some friends and put out a swimsuit calendar, the PCs actually end up in this because they keep trying to catch a madly teleporting Chesire Cat as he teleports all about trying to find where the photo shoot is (of course the ladies didn't tell him where the shoot is)).

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

that was such an awsome game to watch. I still loved diggy. The five headed ice badger that had so many levels in monk he could use demention door. The first time he exploded it was awsome!


i pasted him with my throwing giraffs

[Onyxclaw]

i pasted him with my throwing giraffs

heh, I remember rolling up the numbers of each animal to see how much you throw at him. That was funny.

[Lethosos]

Roy, Onyx... you two must share those character sheets with us some day. I'll bet they'd be a hoot to read. Especially the 30-headed Terrasque. :lol:

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

i'll post spawn of **** - the terrasque who was...

(not in order of application, in order of i can remember)
3/8 terrasquee
1/8 earth elemental
1/8 troll
1/8 scrag
1/8 celestial
1/8 dragon
monster of legiend (that one was first)

and i think that's it

Volcanos had about a 96 Con and 3000 hit points

[Susano]

i'll post spawn of **** - the terrasque who was...

(not in order of application, in order of i can remember)
3/8 terrasquee
1/8 earth elemental
1/8 troll
1/8 scrag
1/8 celestial
1/8 dragon
monster of legiend (that one was first)

and i think that's it

Volcanos had about a 96 Con and 3000 hit points

Son Goku coulda taken him.
:D

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

who's that? and i have no doubt, but spawn of **** was fun to play

[Susano]

who's that? and i have no doubt, but spawn of **** was fun to play

Son Goku is the main character of the manga/anime epic Dragonball/Dragonball Z. Here's a low-powered simulation for HERO:

http://surbrook.devermore.net/dbzhero/dbzgoku.html

[Onyxclaw]

who's that? and i have no doubt, but spawn of **** was fun to play

too bad Becky's Giant Japanese school girl tried to attack Zod first....
She would have been fun to play, if she lived through the first attack.

[Reneshat]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but what's wrong with getting a little rough with the villains?

[Onyxclaw]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but what's wrong with getting a little rough with the villains?

absolutely nothing...

unless you have a psyc disad or two that says otherwise :P

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

too bad Becky's Giant Japanese school girl tried to attack Zod first....
She would have been fun to play, if she lived through the first attack.

it's like sticking your head in a 20 gallon aquarium of piranas and saying "hi"