Curve-balls and left-field stuff

[Wolf1066]

Forgive me if this has been covered already but I did a search and couldn't find anything close:

 

It is the function of the GM to keep the players on the hop, but occasionally the boot is on the other foot and the player comes out with something that is so left-field that all the GM can do is blink.

 

What are some of the surprises you've inflicted upon GMs or have had players inflict on you?

 

By way of example, I'll share a few:

 

One was a girl I knew playing in a Cthulu game who stymied the GM by having her character, wearing a long black evening dress, stand up on a table in the middle of the cafeteria of Miskatonic University in the 1930s and sing "Love Me Tender". She's a great singer so she didn't tell the GM, she demonstrated.

 

Then there was the first Drow Elf I ever played. A female. As a first level character, the only magic I had was Darkness, Fairy lights and Fairy fire. We were in some village full of yokels and the dwarf in our party was accused of murder and arrested. They came for the rest of us - myself and a male Drow. He cast his only spell in the room in the inn - Darkness - and hid under the bed under the cover of the pool of darkness he had cast. I did the same in my room and the yokel who was trying to capture us starts freaking out because we're magic users and they are simple folk who fear magic users. I cast fairy lights out the window and most of the village chases after them because they thought we'd escaped but the yokel outside the door isn't convinced and only pretends to leave, he jumps out at me when I exit the room. I was physically outclassed - puny Drow vs huge human yokel - so I cast fairy fire on him, giving him that lovely green glow, and yelled "I curse you!"

 

The GM just sat there stunned, she had never expected to see fairy fire - normally a way of marking an object you want to follow - used as an offensive "weapon".

 

I was grinning quite evilly as I asked her what the yokel was doing since the GM, an intelligent woman, was flabbergasted and the yokel was supposed to have a room-temperature IQ...

 

Eventually she had to concede that he was running around in circles screaming "I'm cursed, I'm cursed" and the other Drow and I legged it.

 

And, saving the best for last, there was a character called Boris in one of my cyberpunk games played by THE player/GM from Hell. He's one of the two most fiendish gamesmasters I've ever played under but at that moment he was roaming around my universe.

 

The team is being hassled by the mafia so Boris decides he's had a gutsful and packs his cyberarm full of C6 ('coz C4 just don't cut it, baby) and heads for the Corporate Plaza that is controlled by the local Don and barges in. Aha! "Alarms go off everywhere" says I, "Corporate guard rushes up with a gun."

"Dead-man switch," says he, holding up a clenched fist. So I figure the guard elects not to shoot but keeps him covered, calls for backup and keeps an eye on him Meanwhile, the plaza is rapidly being evacuated as people realise the danger.

 

"Do I see the Don?" "Yep, he's beating it outta here." So Boris races after the Don, catches him and wraps his C6-packed arm around the mafioso's neck.

 

A conversation ensues of the "leave my mates alone" variety and the Don doesn't want to die so he cuts a deal - he'll call off the goons and leave the team alone etc. "Anything else?" "Just this," says Boris, holding up his clenched hand, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5" - he counts off on his fingers, finishing with an open hand...

 

"Boom!"

 

I was just flabbergasted. I'd been operating on the premise that the player would want his character to come out of it alive once he had successfully negotiated a truce, I thought I had acheived the understanding that would have him and the Don living to see another day and suddenly I'm having to calculate what sort of damage a large quantity of C6 would do to a mostly glass plaza...

 

Later that same player used his replacement character to murder most of the rest of the party but at least he warned me before he did that.

[austenandrews]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

I pulled a self-destruct ploy on a Champs GM many years back. Didn't actually do it, but only because the GM knew I really would, and had the villain acquiesce.

 

The biggest surprise I can recall as a GM was when all the PCs in my pulp game decided they didn't want to go adventuring. Not one of my prouder moments...

[Wolf1066]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

The biggest surprise I can recall as a GM was when all the PCs in my pulp game decided they didn't want to go adventuring. Not one of my prouder moments...

Ouch. That's gotta smart.

 

Closest we came to that was when our GM in a Traveller game wanted us to go to a planet where there were some creatures that were going to cause us problems in the long term. He gave us (an interstellar trader) the planet list and said, "you could go here [2-jump trip, agricultural planet], it looks interesting" and was surprised when one of the crew consulted the list and said "F*** that, if we head to [1-jump trip, high tech level planet] we can load up with cheap tech and jump to [1-jump trip, lower tech level planet crying out for tech] and make a massive profit" - the GM couldn't convince us that there was any benefit in going to the planet he wanted us to go to so we missed out on a whole mess of problems (and made a huge profit). With that crew, "interesting" was not nearly as interesting as "lucrative".

 

Of course, the logical GM fix (*roll* "You have misjumped and you are now approaching this planet; you will need to stop and refuel to get home" *cue problematic creatures*) hadn't occured to him so his plan was well and truly thwarted. He told us later what he had planned for the party and we just laughed.

 

The other week I put a proposition to the characters in my Cyberpunk game (accept overseas contract) and they took it then one of the players said "I wonder what he'd do if the whole party said "Nah, not interested in that, we're not going"." Another player said "something really nasty is likely to happen to the party here..."

 

I love perceptive gamers!

[Wolf1066]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

I pulled a self-destruct ploy on a Champs GM many years back. Didn't actually do it' date=' but only because the GM knew I really would, and had the villain acquiesce.[/quote']

My villain acquiesced quite nicely, I thought. Still didn't stop "Boris" from laminating them both on the walls, though. s'funny, could've sworn the game was "surrender or I'll blow us both up" not "surrender and I'll blow us both up."

 

Trying to remember the bit from the same campaign when the game was interrupted for ten minutes because I was laughing too hard to continue GMing. Probably wouldn't be as funny if I quoted it here, though.

[yamamura]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

The one time that comes to mine was when I was playing a Mana-Nymph* thief. the GM had planned for the party consisting of a wizard a fighter and my character to be ambushed by a bunch of amateur bandits. As they stepped out on the road with bows at the ready, I did the first thing that came to my head and walked up to one of them acting as if I knew him. This totally threw the GM and so he decided that the bandits were equally thrown and allow us to gain an upper hand:D

 

*Mana-Nymphs are formed at concentration of magic (mana-pools) and have the ability to aid wizards by allowing them to draw up the Mana-Nymph's mana reserves as if they were his own. The were considered to be valuable property and were handed down by teacher to students or kept within cabals. Now there are two ways for a Mana-Nymph to form. One is that mana of the pool gains a level of self awareness and is form into a Mana-Nymph. The second is a girl-child is placed by a pool on a particular night and the proper spells are said over her. She then will grow up into a Mana-Nymph.

[Lamrok]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

Probably the most infamous instance of this in our group occurred in Zornwil's game, when we were presented with a situation in which an NPC who had been with us for years (and who sort of worked for one of the other PCs, and sort of was a GM plot device to scare up various story leads) was in trouble with the law more than usual. It looked like we were going to have to find some way to clear his name. It occurred to me, though, that if we got him drunk, my character could just swap his brain with a border collie we had in the basement for some medical experiments. The NPC got to avoid jail, and the dog got to go hang out in the mental ward where he would be well fed, exercised, and cared for (which was a much more upbeat future than he would have had in the basement.) The subplot was summarily bypassed. The NPC got his vengeance later, but that's another story.

 

On the other side, I do have to say that I was pretty surprised when Zornwil had my character's left hand suddenly become sentient and free-willed. It could detach and run around like "Thing" from the Addams family. It became a DNPC. Nowadays, "Lefty" is going to school at Prof. Xavier's New School for Mutants.

[Wolf1066]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

As they stepped out on the road with bows at the ready' date=' I did the first thing that came to my head and walked up to one of them acting as if I knew him. This totally threw the GM and so he decided that the bandits were equally thrown and allow us to gain an upper hand:D[/quote']

 

Stylish!

[Wolf1066]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

On the other side' date=' I do have to say that I was pretty surprised when Zornwil had my character's left hand suddenly become sentient and free-willed. It could detach and run around like "Thing" from the Addams family. It became a DNPC. Nowadays, "Lefty" is going to school at Prof. Xavier's New School for Mutants.[/quote']

I think you might have possibly supplied me with some nasty ideas for what to do if one of the characters buys a cyber-arm with modular removable hands...

[Pogo]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

Mana-Nymphs are formed at concentration of magic (mana-pools) and have the ability to aid wizards by allowing them to draw up the Mana-Nymph's mana reserves as if they were his own.

 

Please tell me I'm not the only one thinking the Irish version of this is Nymph O'mana.

[Wolf1066]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

Please tell me I'm not the only one thinking the Irish version of this is Nymph O'mana.

Sorry, you're on your own, there...

[Basil]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

Please tell me I'm not the only one thinking the Irish version of this is Nymph O'mana.

Not to be confused with Nymph O'maniac.

[UltraRob]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

*Mana-Nymphs are formed at concentration of magic (mana-pools) and have the ability to aid wizards by allowing them to draw up the Mana-Nymph's mana reserves as if they were his own.

 

Very cool idea! Consider it..err...borrowed!

 

Rob

[UltraRob]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

So, I was running this game where there was this amulet that contained a dead villain's soul I was using as a plot device. One of the PCs half figured out what it was, so they decided to turn it into the authorities. Since I didn't want it out of play, and since the character was telepathic, I said that when the character touched the gem to give it to the authorities the villain took control of the character. (There was a context of EGOs and the PC actually really did lose badly, it wasn't even a GM fudge.)

 

I took the player aside and explained the situation to her, and she elected to play the posessed version of her PC. I though the idea of having a PC villain might be cool for a while (stupid me), and so I said okay and let her do what she wanted.

 

What I did not expect to experience was one of the nastiest campaigns of psychological warfare I have ever seen in my entire life. While I sat there and watched, the player proceeded to screw with the entire group exactly as one would expect a manipulative villain to do. There wasn't a thing I could do but watch in horror as she took the entire party apart emotionally, and they never caught on for a second while she did it.

 

It literally derailed the entire campaign, but actually led to a new and even better ending that I hadn't planned that resembled the end of the Dark Phoenix saga. (Death and all.)

 

Rob

[ThothAmon]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

Player: We need to discuss this 'Riding' skill and the Transport Familiarities.

 

GM: Yes? What do you have in mind?

 

Player: My characters 'Riding' should have 'Transport Familiarity - Women'

[Susano]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

Player: We need to discuss this 'Riding' skill and the Transport Familiarities.

 

GM: Yes? What do you have in mind?

 

Player: My characters 'Riding' should have 'Transport Familiarity - Women'

 

Uhmm.... uhhm....

 

...

 

Words fail me.

[yamamura]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

Very cool idea! Consider it..err...borrowed!

 

Rob

 

 

Always nice to have an idea "borrowed".

[yamamura]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

Uhmm.... uhhm....

 

...

 

Words fail me.

 

What Mike didn't say....

[sinanju]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

Star Wars-style game. The PCs in their small but well-armed vessel are hailed by a much larger imperial warship and ordered to surrender. They meekly allow themselves to be drawn into the warship's docking bay--at which point, the Captain of the PC vessel demands that THEY surrender, pointing out that "All of our guns bear--and none of yours do. Surrender or be destroyed."

 

The GM was left speechless.

[Wolf1066]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

Star Wars-style game. The PCs in their small but well-armed vessel are hailed by a much larger imperial warship and ordered to surrender. They meekly allow themselves to be drawn into the warship's docking bay--at which point, the Captain of the PC vessel demands that THEY surrender, pointing out that "All of our guns bear--and none of yours do. Surrender or be destroyed."

 

The GM was left speechless.

 

Literally hooted with laughter at that. That's priceless! The scary thing is, it'd work quite nicely.

 

Star Wars would have been a far shorter movie if Han Solo had half the smarts of those PCs...

[Susano]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

Literally hooted with laughter at that. That's priceless! The scary thing is, it'd work quite nicely.

 

Star Wars would have been a far shorter movie if Han Solo had half the smarts of those PCs...

 

You have to admit, if a Rebel Blockade Runner opens up with all guns inside of a Star Destroyer -- it's gonna get messy.

[austenandrews]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

Star Wars-style game. The PCs in their small but well-armed vessel are hailed by a much larger imperial warship and ordered to surrender. They meekly allow themselves to be drawn into the warship's docking bay--at which point, the Captain of the PC vessel demands that THEY surrender, pointing out that "All of our guns bear--and none of yours do. Surrender or be destroyed."

 

The GM was left speechless.

The Phantom Menace showed that's not always the case, when a turret popped out from from the ceiling of a hanger bay and blew up a ship therein.

 

However this tactic makes sense if it's a Mutually Assured Destruction ploy. Because blowing up a ship that you're inside is not good for your own health.

[Lethosos]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

AKA the Deadman Switch.

 

Yep, it's a brilliant, stupid, desperate play on a PC's part, but... as someone once said, "Sometimes, stupid works."

 

That being said, the GM should occasionally threaten to call their bluff.

[AlHazred]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

At which point I-as-GM would have said, "Ah-HA! But my ship is made of corbomite!"

 

Not because it would have been terribly effective, but in the pause (due to laughter) maybe I'd have been able to think of something...

[Wolf1066]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

The Phantom Menace showed that's not always the case' date=' when a turret popped out from from the ceiling of a hanger bay and blew up a ship therein.[/quote']

They'd better hope their landing bay is well constructed because blowing up a ship inside it is likely to do almost as much damage as the ship would do by opening fire...

However this tactic makes sense if it's a Mutually Assured Destruction ploy. Because blowing up a ship that you're inside is not good for your own health.

Scotty, give me maximum sheilds and all weapons at my command...

 

Or if you're down to getting MAD: Rig your reactor to go boom, soften 'em up with a few non-energy weapons - torpedoes and the like - then go critical on their hides.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Curve-balls and left-field stuff

 

The most famous curve ball tossed at me was during a Cyberpunk 2020 campaign when a player running a Techie decided to build a mecha and actually started stealing equipment to try to make the project happen. Fortunately, the mecha project got scotched when rumors on the street (he'd said too much too often) started fingering his workshop for high dollar value high tech stuff, and a bunch of boosters broke in looking for loot...

 

My famous curve ball was during a secret agents game (I forget which) when my character was recovering from a bullet wound in the leg from the first combat scene. The mission was to recover a new signal encryption device that these baddies had stolen from a rival government. The other two players were all gung-ho about dispatching the enemy agents we encountered in the first scene, and had spent time tracking them down to a hotel while my character was under sedation. Eventually, my guy got the news, and set up surveilence at the hotel, discovering which car the bad guys were using. When the bad guys arrived, I took the time to plant a radio-triggered explosive on the steering linkage, then sent the other two into the hotel to flush the bad boys out.

 

Well, the good guys got ventilated (taking one of the bad guys in the process), and the one remaining (with encryptor in tow) jumps into his car and I give chase, forcing the bad guy to go faster, making the wreck I cause when I blow the linkage via a radio detonator all the worse. A quick coup de grace, and another painfully quick dodge of the local authorities has me back in the home office with the objective, but short 2/3rds of the team. The GM complimented me for my utter ruthlessness in accomplishing the mission, and helping him dispose of two thouroughly annoying characters...

 

Matt "Just-call-me-the-dustman" Frisbee