Troll Lord Games

We've all seen threads on what works the best...

...now, let's hear what works the worst:

At what point, do you find you royaly muck up whilst game mastering...and thusly, what are the mistakes others should avoid?

Help 'pave the way' for future castlekeepers...

I find that thinking the party will find the clues to the way to not die is an issue. Sometimes, you just have to be blunt and straightforward. For example, the party recently forgot something (despite being reminded, subtly) of a lot of importance, a thing that would have kept them alive... but now, they are split, and the forces are amassed against them. They stand about a .0001 % chance of survival. Victory is impossible.

Inviting that teenager who responded to your desperate sign for new players you put up at the gaming store and who calls you constantly and who frequently offers to bring you roast beef sandwiches he makes at his job at Arby's [/true story]

More helpful? Being unrealistic about how often you can run a game, so you're constantly canceling sessions with your players.
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Things to avoid:

Hack-n-slash dungeon crawl campaigns with thesbians, or high political intrigue games with powergamers.

"Eggs-in-one-basket" scenarios. If there is only one way to do something, the players are sure to muck it up (intentionally or not). Always give yourself - and them - an out.

Running any 3E game. ducks

Starting a campaign using an unfamiliar system, and letting a player talk you into a magic item with more plusses than it should have.

Allowing a character into the group that has "party breaker" written all over it from the get-go. In my case, it was a CN Druid (that thought he was a cat) in a group of otherwise good characters.

Quote:
Things to avoid:

Hack-n-slash dungeon crawl campaigns with thesbians, or high political intrigue games with powergamers.

"Eggs-in-one-basket" scenarios. If there is only one way to do something, the players are sure to muck it up (intentionally or not). Always give yourself - and them - an out.

Running any 3E game. ducks

Starting a campaign using an unfamiliar system, and letting a player talk you into a magic item with more plusses than it should have.

Allowing a character into the group that has "party breaker" written all over it from the get-go. In my case, it was a CN Druid (that thought he was a cat) in a group of otherwise good characters.

Rogo on all there!

Also don't forget having a favored gamer that ALWAYS get their way & all the gold/glory/xp - my case was a husband DM & wife player team with me being one of the other 3 players. It gets old quick!
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I definitely second this. I've avoided this pitful as a DM/CK/GM, but seen it at least twice as a PC.

1 - In a Ninjas & Superspies, we ended up being TPK'ed. Why, because we had been hit with the dreaded Dim Mak, and only had so long to live. I didn't make it to where we were supposed to find the cure, but the other PC did, only to find a bunch of rocks that spelled "Dim Mak" in the desert. There were no clues beyond that, and the GM was shocked that he didn't figure out that he had to switch the letters around so that it read "Kam Mid."

2- Another TPK, in AD&D 2e. We were all killed by some sort of homebrewed undead, because we didn't find the one wand hidden away that could actually hurt it.

And if I may add my advice, never rely on a plot point that involves the PCs surrendering. Just about every gaming group of played in would rather die than surrender.

serleran wrote:
I find that thinking the party will find the clues to the way to not die is an issue. Sometimes, you just have to be blunt and straightforward.

Probably the No. 1 method of dooming the party and campaign ...

Have players create their PCs in a mental vacum to create a group of unrelated characters that are suddenly supposed to work as a team. Notice I said, "mental" vacum. Many times GMs assume that since players are in the same room and talking about the game and their concepts that some how it will still gel.

Saddly enough, a GM has to specifically state that the players need to develop a team and provide you with the story hooks and PC connections.

Better yet, restrict what races and/or classes the players can choose and enforce the themes you want right from the start. You want an urban role-playing game, ban Druids, Rangers and Fighters along with Dwarves and and Half-Orcs from the game. You want a straight up hack n' slash game, ban Elves, Halfings and Bards.

A nice side effect, suddenly the banned races can become more mysterious and antoginistic. You can't exactly have Aryan Elves become villians in the game when you have Elven PCs. The PC can either defuse the situation to quickly or be an arrogant fool as well.

My personal one:

Developing a major plot point or prophecy that depends on a player or the original cast of PCs to be attending --- especially if you are playing with a group at the FGLS.

Despite how much players love being the center of attention, they will suddenly be AWOL during the game session that you need them there the most. (Sure once or twice it's been a family crisis, but most of the time it's as if the player loved the idea that they were still the center of attention -- by cause of their absence -- and not have to bother showing up to get it.)

Now a days, I just hook the campiagnto a BDO "big dumb object," whether it be a ship, merchant caravan or organization. I let the big events happen to the BDO (i.e. tropical storm, bandit raids, internal corruption) and the PC can clean up the mess.

I've gotten dangerously close to breaking this rule again recently. In my CnC Ionian one-shot ("John Carter of Mars"), the PCs were all from a fantasy world and the goal was to find a way home. In a campaign, I'd have to nix this since it would be my luck that a year later all of the PC would be Ionian natives and thus already "home."

The clock began ticking on my game when my "random" approach to distributing treasure put a cursed mace in the hands of a character who just had a major altercation with other party members. That player just sent me a note reminding me that he and the mace have bloody work to do before the party sets out to explore Rappin Athuk *gulp*.

Looks like I just gave an in-game sanction for inter-party conflict. Gots to find my thinking-beenie before next Saturday's game!

anglefish wrote:
Better yet, restrict what races and/or classes the players can choose and enforce the themes you want right from the start. You want an urban role-playing game, ban Druids, Rangers and Fighters along with Dwarves and and Half-Orcs from the game. You want a straight up hack n' slash game, ban Elves, Halfings and Bards.

WHy ban half-orcs and fighters in a Urban game? In Lankmar, my character was a Half-Orc Rogue/Fighter(Pugilist) and it worked really well. Half-orcs and similar characters would likely live in slums. Nothing more urban than that.

Similarly, fighters would make up the watch, mercenaries hired by guilds & merchant houses, bodyguards, etc that would be all over a city.
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BASH MAN wrote:
In Lankmar, my character was a Half-Orc Rogue/Fighter(Pugilist)

But he was he truly a Rogue at heart?
CnC is about archetypes a lot of the time and I wasn't thinking of multiclassing at the time.

True, you could make a Half-Orc fighter, an Elven Druid, or any other race/class combo work in an urban/role-playing heavy game with some effort. But on average, some archetypes will fit easier.

In fact, I've had these restrictions work by means of "reverse physicology." It seems that there's always one player who wants to prove me "wrong" by tweaking a concept that still works despite it violating my restrictions. Regardless, they wouldn't have made something in that vein if my "bans" weren't in place.