Night of the Living Dead....Chipmunks
RvK
It was a perfectly crafted mission. I had taken all the scenarios into
account, I was ready, it was gonna be the best one yet.
Then the stupid players groused it all up.
Now when I create a adventure, I place most of the encounters, patrols, traps,
etc ahead of time, based on what i think the chief Big Baddie would do, that
way if the players overcome the defenses or whathaveyou, its more of an
accomplishment, because they know I'm not just making stuff up to throw at
them.
So there they are, attempting to sneak into the ruins of the city to ambush the
bad guys, and what do they do?
They avoid EVERY SINGLE FRAKKIN TRAP PATROL ALARM SENTRY TWIG LEAF BLADE OF
FRAKKIN GRASS I SET UP.
That was the one scenario I hadnt taken into account, that they would
infiltrate the place perfectly (not easy with the defenses I had set up, I
never seen so many natural 10s in my life dammit - i swear they fixed the dice)
SO the adventure that was supposed to last us the whole weekend was over in
about an hour.
I then did what any GM in my position would do
I unleashed my trademark Giant Mutant Cyberlemmings.
"What??"
"I said, the door to the vehicle compund smashes open, and with a roar what
appears to be a giant grey cyborg lemming charges you."
"No seriously man, whats happening?"
"I just told you, that giant lemming is getting close, what are you doing?"
"um...I'm...shooting it?"
"well roll then."
they lost a couple NPCs to the undead chipmunks, and you wouldnt believe how
many clips they tore through when the squealing meemees attacked. They seemed
to be having a good time after they cleared out the nest of zombie tadpoles
tho.
RvK
v^v^v Join the Mad Scientists of America Local 357: Building your future,
one hideously deformed mutant at a time! v^v^v
Brandon Cope
> It finally happened. I just absolutely snapped.
>
> It was a perfectly crafted mission. I had taken all the scenarios into
> account, I was ready, it was gonna be the best one yet.
>
> Then the stupid players groused it all up.
>
> Now when I create a adventure, I place most of the encounters, patrols, traps,
> etc ahead of time, based on what i think the chief Big Baddie would do, that
> way if the players overcome the defenses or whathaveyou, its more of an
> accomplishment, because they know I'm not just making stuff up to throw at
> them.
That's not really true, because you're making up stuff to throw at
them either way. The key thing is that, when winging it, not to punish
the party for making good rolls and good tactics.
> So there they are, attempting to sneak into the ruins of the city to ambush the
> bad guys, and what do they do?
>
> They avoid EVERY SINGLE FRAKKIN TRAP PATROL ALARM SENTRY TWIG LEAF BLADE OF
> FRAKKIN GRASS I SET UP.
This is why I don't work up adventures in great detail any more. You
either (a) do a lot of work for nothing or (b) give in to the
temptation to railroad the characters.
> I unleashed my trademark Giant Mutant Cyberlemmings.
I would have had these on patrol outside the city ...
A generous and sadistic GM,
Brandon Cope
B&D
ca4d1755.03050...@posting.google.com, "Brandon Cope"
<cop...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Now when I create a adventure, I place most of the encounters, patrols,
>> traps,
>> etc ahead of time, based on what i think the chief Big Baddie would do, that
>> way if the players overcome the defenses or whathaveyou, its more of an
>> accomplishment, because they know I'm not just making stuff up to throw at
>> them.
>
> That's not really true, because you're making up stuff to throw at
> them either way.
Well, he probably should have said that he had planned the first encounters
so it was not a spontaneous "winging it" kind of thing. The chipmunks were
so ridiculous the players *knew* it was made up on the spot.
> The key thing is that, when winging it, not to punish
> the party for making good rolls and good tactics.
But if they want a fight, you have to give them one. I think this is
brilliant - they knew they defeated the enemy in the scenario, so he was
helping them to have the fights they wanted, too, without ruining the
scenario.
Only thing I would do it to have a few unavoidable encounters and puzzles,
etc, so they won't "get lucky" and "win."
RvK
>so ridiculous the players *knew* it was made up on the spot.
i think the mad glint in my eyes during the first wave of cyberlemmings gave it
away long before the chipmunks :)
RvK
>the party for making good rolls and good tactics.
Normally they have excellent tactics and very good rolls, and they come away
more often than not wayyy on top in my adventures, which is fine, its all about
the story and storys are no fun if you lose all the time, i just make it enough
of a challenge that there is a real possibility of losing if theyre stupid.
the whole point in this case was they were making EVERY SINGLE FREAKIN roll,
missing every trap, getting inhumanly insanely amounts of perfect rolls, and
the only way around it would have been to "cheat" by tossing in more baddies
after I had already set up the scenario, which kinda defeats my whole style.
rock an a hard place, somethin had to give, it just happened to be my thread of
sanity ;)
hence the cyberlemmings and company :)
gotta love them cyberlemmings