Ever GMed an intense emotional moment?

[Sir Ironside]

The two that was the best was actually in the same game and fairly close together. We were playing Galactos Barrier and had a pretty good run of about 8 months, every week. (Prior to that I ran Bughunters, to a close that ran about 6 months, every week.) If you know anything about The Amazing Engine, you kind'a play a "alternate" universe of your previous character, kind'a. So for about a year the players had invested quite a long time, with their characters.

The whole game was a ton of fun. I had a player that successfully played a stupid character and had a blast with it. Other players really grasped what it was like to play a non-human character with a different way of thinking and drawing on a different culture.

I won't go into all the nuances, but they had discovered a large battleship, floating in space, obviously dead. Half the ship was normal but the other half was turned to stone. The normal half still had power and most of the ship stuff was operational, gravity, breathable air, etc. (Yes there was a legitimate reason why.) When they boarded the ship they couldn't find even one body. (Though they only searched a very small portion of the ship, but had they had time there were none to be found. Alas a plot that never materialized.)

They did, however ran across an alien presence aboard the ship, and though they were attacked twice, it was quick hit and runs, with only a glimpse of what they looked like. (Scary as hell and no space suits or armour. It is at this point that I will say that the "inspiration" came from the movie Aliens.)

It didn't take them long to figure out that this was dangerous as hell and they felt they were not prepared to deal with the Aliens. Problem was they were quite far away from their own ship and had to again cross through the stone part to get back.

That entire sequence had everyone focused, on the game, and there was real tension in the room.

After a harried retreat to their ship, they had to space walk to their ship as the pilot moved the ship away so the Aliens would have difficulty getting to the ship. The the countdown began, would they get to their ship in time or have to battle and probably die? Most of the crew got across when the aliens were closing in and there was just two characters left that had to cross. Barely escaping the last characters helmet had cracked and he had limited time to get to the ship. Even though this had nothing to do with the battle, it was simply movement across space, everyone was holding their breath. I gave the player, probably more chances than I would have otherwise and he kept blowing his rolls until I just couldn't stave off his death.

There was silence when he died, and no joke the player started to cry over his lost character.

Since, I have never been able to get even close to that kind of atmosphere and consider it the pinnacle of my GMing history.

[Treebore]

Don't know about that strongly, but yeah, numerous times, it is what I strive for. My daughter is good at doing it too. She is actually good at making them cry. I've only gotten tears a half dozen times or so. Usually of joy. Once was when we lost the Cleric of Sune. That had the whole party down, let alone the player. I usually hook them when they win a battle they were sure they were going to lose. I was wondering myself, most times.

[Lurker]

Well I can’t say I’ve ran one with that emotion level (close a few times, but not often)

However, I’ve been a player and sacrificed my paladin in a game at that level of emotion … We were running from some goblins/orcs/ogres etc up a high mountain pass, and there was a demon (don’t remember it’s name, but it is is on the cover of a Dragon mag, in the snow with a hammer thumping a roman centurion). The party did good in whittling down the goblinoids but the demon and ogres, not so much. We had to get word to the towns in the other valley, so someone had to run for it. I stopped at the narrowest part of the valley said this is where I make my stand everyone else needs to run and knelt and prayed. The DM played up the ogres and demon working up the valley mocking me & I played up my prayer and last rites, then the dice flew … I did roll a bit lucky, but even with that, the DM had to fudge some of the rolls, because I held on longer and did more damage that was expected. I killed &/or ran off the ogres and stood toe to toe with the demon. However, I eventually wore down and thump, the demon’s hammer takes me out … Everyone sat in silence as I handed the DM my character sheet and he slowly ripped it in half … I looked around and told the rest of the party to my it worth it … Then wouldn’t make another character until the adventure was finished (towns getting ready to defend against the oncoming monsters etc …

[jdizzy001]

My crew and I are very excited about Character Generation. We get too excited to use all the characters waiting in the dugout. No trauma of the magnitude you described. Don't get me wrong, we've had exciting moments, but I have never seen tears shed. Too many PC's not enough games.

[serleran]

Discounting old moments from Ravenloft and Call of Cthulhu... the most recent one was the death of a beloved animal companion, named Growler (a grizzly cub), who had been bitten by a wererat and failed its save. As the symptoms tried to manifest, the poor thing started to exhibit rabies-like effects and was put down. My wife nearly cried and there was much silence as I had to recount his passsage. The party bard, who would later become a druid, wrote a ballad and we all received a copy of it, in physical form when the players got together the next week. There is still much discussion about that bear... he was more than a mere random encounter turned ally. He was a favorite.

[Go0gleplex]

Yes. A couple of times. One was the recovery of abducted orphans that had clearly been traumatized and mistreated. A couple of the girls in the group were crying at their plight. I must have just been on a roll that night.

[ThrorII]

Yes, in my C&C Greyhawk game. The group was investigating a Sulm tomb in the Cairn Hills (based upon the module DCC15, Lost Tomb of the Sphinx Queen). the dwarven cleric of Moradin jumped from a pier to a reed boat, bobbing on a 'river' of acid. The player (who's dex was 10 or something, and wearing plate mail) was advised that a failed dex check would result in his loosing his footing and falling in to the river of acid. He tried, and failed.

He fell in to the river, and immediately started taking acid damage. To swim back up and pull himself out of the acid, he required a str check at -7 (plate's ac bonus as an inverse armor check penalty, a house rule). He kept failing, and I described to the group how he flailed under the surface, his beard and skin burning off.

No one dared try save him. Then the elven ranger ran to the edge and leaned over the pier, reaching in to the river, in an attempt to rescue him. I ruled that the dwarf sank 1' per round. As his own flesh burned, I had the dwarf roll with a bonus from the elf, in an attempt to be rescued. The dwarf sank out of reach of the elf, so the gnome illusionist held the elf's ankles, as he plunged himself torso deep in to the acd river, in an attempt to pull out the dwarf. Alas, several more rounds, and several more bad rolls, and the dwarf sank to the bottom of the river, dead. The elf suffered severe injuries.

The group was very shaken by this horrid death, and were very quiet for some time, as it sank in.