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This is about the fifth time I've told this online, and this time I'm going to keep what I wrote somewhere so I can just cut-n-paste it next time.
My Vampire Experience.
I'm an avid pen-and-paper role-playing gamer. Original D&D, a bunch of different supers games, Paranoia, Call of Cthulhu, what-have-you. At college, I joined the local game club and was introduced to Vampire the Masquerade. All the "popular" gamers were playing. And I was bored. It was dull and the players were pretentious. Eventually, I made my way to various game conventions (Origins, Marcon, GenCon, and various local conventions around the Cincinnati/Dayton/Columbus area) and each time I'd see these people running around in full goth gear with their arms crossed. After asking what the hell was going on, I discovered they were playing Vampire as a LARP. Alright, I'd give it a try. I'm told to go make a character. So I do, I guess. I grab a book and fill in some circles and then I'm done and hand in my character. And then I'm told to go play. But I don't know how. And no one is about to teach me. So fuck it, a half-hour wasted trying to come up with a character and another hour spent trying to get people who have their arms crossed and their mouths closed to talk to me.
Through observation at a few conventions, and a couple additional cracks at the rulebook, I twig to what's going on and what needs to be done. I locate a Vampire LARP that takes place weekly in downtown Cincinnati at a Goth Club, which happens to be a male strip joint on the weekends. I pal up with some guy I had started hanging out with who I met at the comic store, and I give it one more go. Nope. the Vampire LARP thing isn't happening. The comic guy knows some people, but he's really not helping out with the game and I'm just not getting into it. Everyone is too into themselves and being their own outsiders to actually let an outsider play.
Fuck it.
So, out of college now, I get on the internets and various other means, and advertise to start a local role-playing game. I get some responses and 4 very nice players, and after a few one-shot game sessions, we agree to play a modern super-hero setting for a campaign. We make up characters (MEGS / DC HEROES) and the next game session, everyone will drop by and I'll make it all work.
That's the toughest part about being a GM; the first adventure. You all meet in a bar. You all have to solve the same crisis simultaneously. I call bullshit. Super-hero team-ups should feel natural. So here's what I got:
- An amnesiac background who thinks he's some sort of Green Lantern.
- A mutant who made a name for himself saving a schoolbus with his telekinetic and psychic powers.
- Another mutant who has showy shadow powers who wants to make a name for himself.
- A world-famous witchy-sorceress, "Morganna, Mistress of the Night"; Elvira meets Zatanna.
I decide to base the team-up adventure around a crisis at a public appearance of Morganna's; specifically, her being a "guest of honor" at ConCON XXVI. Yep; placed it at a game convention. Long story short (I can dictate the adventure for you in a later post), after a couple of blatant red herrings, the "antagonists" end up being the people in charge of the Vampire LARP and "White Wolf" in general; turns out they really are vampires and their appearances at game conventions are "round-ups" to get faithful servants and meals. I mean, who'd miss a few gamers?
The heroes take down the mob, but the big baddies get away. And it was getting late and we had to stop for the night. So that's when it hits me. I make some arbitrary rolls for ideas, clues, etc. Then I inform the group that we'll meet outside the Vampire LARP later that week, a half hour after it starts. I told them to... dress as your super-hero character, if he or she was dressed as a Vampire LARPer.
I dress up in a full purple/gray tweed pimp outfit that I snagged for a "Pimps n Hos" party from the prior year. At the established time, everyone shows up except one guy, but that's fine. Outside the club, everyone is dressed up nicely; dark and spooky. "Morganna" is sluttified to the max (and she's hot, normally), "Psychic Dave" is wearing leather studs and a maroon snap-button shirt with a black t-shirt and black jeans, and "Shadowman" (Morganna's husband) is in a dark trench and hat with black shirt underneath and black pants.
I explain that tonight, I am still their GM, no matter what goes on inside the club. They will be playing AS their super characters. None of their characters ever had experience with the game except Morganna, and her only in a passing sense. We are here investigating leads into the actual-Vampires-posing-as-LARPers case. Our goal for the night is to get into a back room of the club that I knew physically existed, and that all the Vampire gamers seemed to be able to "get to", but only if you were really high on the gaming totem pole. Meaning, if you weren't in "the clique, you weren't getting in". Once we get in there, I'll call time and we'll decide what to do then.
"From this moment onwards," I say, "I will take the role of 'Jimmy'" a "Jimmy Olsen" gamer NPC they befriended in the prior game. A "sidekick" if you will, who is supposedly the most "experienced" player. And yet, all three of these people played a hell of a lot more Vampire than I ever had, did, or will.
I explain (as Jimmy) that we'll all be playing Malkavians, the "crazy clan" and we're first time-gamers from out of town; say Atlanta, looking for some "hot gaming action". Shadowman tells me that we're better off just saying we're college students from a somewhat out-of-town university, probably Miami (Ohio) and amateur Vampire LARPers. I frown (in-character) and say "fine!" and mentally give Shadowman some bonus XP.
I pay everyone's $5 entry fee and we're in. We meet up with the GM and everyone lets me handle it. I explain that we're malks and looking for some hot.. get interrupted by Shadowman who takes over with the background he proposed earlier. (more XP for shadowman). We fill in our characters; I'm a pimp, Morganna's my ho, Shadowman is my enforcer, and "Psychic Dave" who is using his TK on the dice (roll 2d10.. success; XP for RP, XP for attempt, XP), is my druggie/cohort/#2.
We lurk around the club and chat up various gamers. I listen in to the conversations and I hear Morganna trying to find "real" vampires (XP++). "Psychic Dave" gets Shadowman to rough someone up (rock-papers-scissors!) and eventually, we charm our way towards the back room.
On the way there, we're accosted by some frumpy guy in gray. Not all dressed up or anything; more like half-assed goth college student outfit. He looks at us and smiles. "I heard, but I didn't know it was true! Malkavians! I have an actual clan!!!!!!!!"
For those of you who don't know, Malkavians in Vampire are like, umm, Kender in Dragonlance, for lack of a better analogy. Played right, they're downright evil, but in general they're (dis)regarded as "that annoying goofy shit group". Which, us "being" Malks, would certainly account for any weird activity.
So this guy. This poor sap. I feel for him. All alone. Gaming by himself; a clan of one. And then suddenly he has 4 instant-friends. Then-again, he has 4 instant-friends he, as a high-level malk, can "push around". So instead of getting anywhere on his bad side, I tell him some people were looking for him outside (where the Werewolf players were hanging out, no seriously; no werewolves allowed inside!), so he goes. *whew*
We get to the back where some sort of huge Prince shit is going down. And this short fat girl is trying to push through our group screaming "Majesty, majesty" and waving her hand in front of her face; I think it's a magic Vampire power, but she just looked ridiculous. And she was rude. No "excuse me", just shove shove shove through us. So we mocked her. Openly. She looked annoyed.
So we sit back in the back room and watch the group chat and Shadowman presents a list of names and likely vampires and he says Morganna and Psychic Dave have added to the list... it's long. (XP XP XP) We've been there all of 4 hours now, goofing around and having fun, but it's a work night and it's late, which is enough for all of us. So I round us up and say "Follow me" and I walk right up to the vampire meeting. And listen in close. Close... close... I'm right up to the prince. And I see what they're doing.
It's about 12 people, half with their arms crossed, surrounding 4 people who are all playing rock-paper-scissors and debating rules. Nothing ground-breaking here at all. Just mindless. MINDLESS. Where's the ROLE in ROLE-playing? This was the big fun I was trying to get to months earlier? Forget it.
At this point I yell "Time out! OK, XP time!" and start openly allocating experience to my players, "You get 30 Hero Points for this, you get 25 Hero Points for that..." right then and there.
The LARPers are puzzled. And watch.
Then I'm all, "you guys want to hang out?" to my players. "No, we're good". OK, let's go. Psychic Dave turns and says "One more thing..." then he rips open his button-snap shirt and on his black t-shirt, he must have done it in white-out, but on his black t-shirt is a huge stylized "PD" and he hollers "Psychic Dave to the Rescue!!!" and we walk out of there never to come back.
Coda: Several months later, I'm in a bar at a CON relating this story and one listener eyes light up and he says, "That was you??!!! I was so happy to have a clan and you guys were gone!" It was my malkavian friend. A really nice guy. He and I became friends and we played a few Pen-n-Paper Cthulhu with him since. Neither he nor I had been back to the Vamprie LARP since that night.
edit And yes, I know it's Hero Points/HP not XP in MEGS, thanks. "XP" flows better when telling the story.
That...was awesome. I've dreamed about being able to pull off some sort of LARP situation, sending my players out to be their characters at an arcade or the mall or something. Wow. Reminds me of the infamous Vampire LARP storyline in Knight of the Dinner Table.
This thread is for posting the craziest gaming story that you've been involved in or witness to that actually happened.
I really shouldn't do this, but... check the Creepiest Person You've Gamed With thread over at rpg.net. I personally find the story about the D&D-gaming Brazilian death squad the coolest, but there's plenty of bad crazyness to go around. Warning: The thread is currently at 4.500 posts and counting -- and reading it all will give you a 2d100 SAN loss. The horror, the horror...
VacuumJockey on
PSN: VacuumJockey
"Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!"
~ Dr. Emilio Lizardo
0
INeedNoSaltwith blood on my teethRegistered Userregular
This thread is for posting the craziest gaming story that you've been involved in or witness to that actually happened.
I really shouldn't do this, but... check the Creepiest Person You've Gamed With thread over at rpg.net. I personally find the story about the D&D-gaming Brazilian death squad the coolest, but there's plenty of bad crazyness to go around. Warning: The thread is currently at 4.500 posts and counting -- and reading it all will give you a 2d100 SAN loss. The horror, the horror...
This thread is for posting the craziest gaming story that you've been involved in or witness to that actually happened.
I really shouldn't do this, but... check the Creepiest Person You've Gamed With thread over at rpg.net. I personally find the story about the D&D-gaming Brazilian death squad the coolest, but there's plenty of bad crazyness to go around. Warning: The thread is currently at 4.500 posts and counting -- and reading it all will give you a 2d100 SAN loss. The horror, the horror...
The color-scheme on that site is awful. Hillarious stories though.
This thread is for posting the craziest gaming story that you've been involved in or witness to that actually happened.
I really shouldn't do this, but... check the Creepiest Person You've Gamed With thread over at rpg.net. I personally find the story about the D&D-gaming Brazilian death squad the coolest, but there's plenty of bad crazyness to go around. Warning: The thread is currently at 4.500 posts and counting -- and reading it all will give you a 2d100 SAN loss. The horror, the horror...
Where is the Death Squad post? :O
311, just found it.
Last Son on
0
INeedNoSaltwith blood on my teethRegistered Userregular
This thread is for posting the craziest gaming story that you've been involved in or witness to that actually happened.
I really shouldn't do this, but... check the Creepiest Person You've Gamed With thread over at rpg.net. I personally find the story about the D&D-gaming Brazilian death squad the coolest, but there's plenty of bad crazyness to go around. Warning: The thread is currently at 4.500 posts and counting -- and reading it all will give you a 2d100 SAN loss. The horror, the horror...
This thread is for posting the craziest gaming story that you've been involved in or witness to that actually happened.
I really shouldn't do this, but... check the Creepiest Person You've Gamed With thread over at rpg.net. I personally find the story about the D&D-gaming Brazilian death squad the coolest, but there's plenty of bad crazyness to go around. Warning: The thread is currently at 4.500 posts and counting -- and reading it all will give you a 2d100 SAN loss. The horror, the horror...
This thread is for posting the craziest gaming story that you've been involved in or witness to that actually happened.
I really shouldn't do this, but... check the Creepiest Person You've Gamed With thread over at rpg.net. I personally find the story about the D&D-gaming Brazilian death squad the coolest, but there's plenty of bad crazyness to go around. Warning: The thread is currently at 4.500 posts and counting -- and reading it all will give you a 2d100 SAN loss. The horror, the horror...
The color-scheme on that site is awful. Hillarious stories though.
It could be worse, it could be white text on a blue background...
(See what I did there? Eh?)
But, I think it just grows on you. It's one of the few forums who's layout doesn't hurt my eyes after reading a mega-thread.
PMAvers on
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
I love threads like these... there should be more of them. It's only through vicariously living all of your experiences that I will ever be able to come close to having my own D&D experience.
I guess I will just have to mention my brief GMing to the brazilian police death squad.
Everything begun at my local gameclub (by local I mean the only one in a 4,000,000 people city) some five years ago. This club was run by a fellow hobbyist on weekends, was located at a big avenue and had a large 'Camelot' plaque hanging over the door with the picture of a knight. Needlessly to say it attracted a lot of curious people. Well, at the end of a saturday afternoon of particularly intense WEG Star Wars playing I was approached by this timid skinny guy in his late twenties. He had been watching the entire session and was almost apologetic about coming forward to talk to me. Anyway he lived just 3 blocks away and he loved "games", so he wanted someone to GM a game for him and his "work colleagues". They had never roleplayed before. He seemed a nice, clean, eager-to-play guy, so I invited him and his buddies for a AD&D game in the club, the following night.
Nothing would have prepared me and the other player (the club owner) for the cast of foul characters arriving at the club the next night. Just to contextualize the many non-brazilian readers in this thread, there are two kinds of police in Brazil: the semi-illiterate oppressive superviolent military police, and the corrupt immoral wiseguy detective/mobster types from the civilian police. These guys were the second type.
These four men (the skinny guy only showed up later) were villain prototypes and had intimidation skill points worth entire 20th level characters. Even when they nicely said hello they had menace written all over their foreheads. It was night, but they were dressed like beach tourists, wearing soccer team t-shirts and sandals. There were so much male jewelry as to make Mr. T look like a girl playing child´s bijouterie. All of them had pistols attached at strategic holsters in their bodies, at least one of them had knives, and all of them were anxious to play the nice "game of dice".
I should see the size of the problem when a huge black man put two bottles of smuggled whisky on top of the table we would play. He seriously asked me if that was booze enough for all of us (two bottles for 7 people). I replied I didn´t drink. He said he would freeze the liquid for me to eat it and his mouth opened in a big smile filled with golden teeth.
Anyway the quarreling began when I showed them the pre-gen characters. All of them "wanted to be the master". There were also quarreling about who would get which character (they were choosing by the pictures). But that was mild quarreling and they calmed down as their heavy drinking and joint smoking ensued. Oh, and they also loved the dice.
The game finally began at the tavern where I had planned the characters to meet and the players to familiarize themselves with the blessed and (to them) newly-perceived freedom a player has in a RPG. They caught on fast enough with IC dialogue, and besides the incessant joint passing and abusive drinking the players were concentrated, with cellphones turned off and all.
That´s when the prostitutes arrived.
Unknowingly to me and the club owner, skinny guy had arranged for two prostitutes, old acquaintances of these guys, to meet at my friend´s gaming club. Things went downhill from there, with the women disrupting the game and the telling of IC mixed with OOC murder stories. By this point my friend made the second mistake of the evening, trying to stop the game by telling me he was late and had to close the club and stuff. The murderous cops didn´t take his intentions well, and started to get all serious and quiet, trying to intimidate my friend. After all, he wasn´t being a nice host, since they had brought the booze, the girls, the drugs and the guns, and they were not going to leave before knowing "who won" anyway, since everyone of them had (of course) bet 50 bucks his character would "win".
So I wrapped things up by having an all-out combat between the characters, while a detective banged one of the girls against a wall 4 feet away. The winner got 200 bucks and a knuckle-duster, they all had a blast and left me and my shaking buddy glad we were left alive . We never saw any of them again, not even skinny guy.
Maybe not too creepy, but then again my experience is limited.
It's only through vicariously living all of your experiences that I will ever be able to come close to having my own D&D experience.
Hmm... couldn't you hook up with some netgamers over ScreenMonkey? Real, hardcore 3.5 ed. D&D with all the options might not play so well over the wire, but something lighter, like say, Barbarians of Lemuria might.
Just a thought.
VacuumJockey on
PSN: VacuumJockey
"Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!"
~ Dr. Emilio Lizardo
It's only through vicariously living all of your experiences that I will ever be able to come close to having my own D&D experience.
Hmm... couldn't you hook up with some netgamers over ScreenMonkey? Real, hardcore 3.5 ed. D&D with all the options might not play so well over the wire, but something lighter, like say, Barbarians of Lemuria might.
Just a thought.
Hmmm.... this needs some serious looking at, thanks!
You're welcome. I'm looking into it for Trollbabe, and it seems like it could handle rules-lite games no problemo. But if you're talking full bore 3.xE D&D, you may also want to look into this bad boy.
VacuumJockey on
PSN: VacuumJockey
"Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!"
~ Dr. Emilio Lizardo
This is more creepy than crazy, but what the hell.
I was in high school, and myself and about 6 other guys played Warhammer 40,000 regularly at this local hobby/CCG store. The terrain wasn't that amazing, but the group was pretty spectacular, and usually a good time was had by all. Two of the guys in our group worked at the store, and one weekend they had to clear out all the security tapes and decided to watch them.
They discovered that the owner of the shop (an avid Settlers of Catan player) was having sex with female employees on the table we usually used to play Warhammer.
Shortly thereafter, we found a different store to go to...
They discovered that the owner of the shop (an avid Settlers of Catan player) was having sex with female employees on the table we usually used to play Warhammer.
:^::^: if they were hot.
Squashua on
0
INeedNoSaltwith blood on my teethRegistered Userregular
You're welcome. I'm looking into it for Trollbabe, and it seems like it could handle rules-lite games no problemo. But if you're talking full bore 3.xE D&D, you may also want to look into this bad boy.
Fantasy grounds looks awesome but hell if it isn't heck of expensive. >>
They discovered that the owner of the shop (an avid Settlers of Catan player) was having sex with female employees on the table we usually used to play Warhammer.
:^::^: if they were hot.
No, they were pretty average to ugly, and most of them were 18 or 19. He's in his fifties and married with a kid.
LibrarianThorne on
0
GoslingLooking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, ProbablyWatertown, WIRegistered Userregular
edited April 2007
Is... is there a "brain bleach" smiley? Because I'd like to use it now.
Gosling on
I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
After all, he wasn´t being a nice host, since they had brought the booze, the girls, the drugs and the guns, and they were not going to leave before knowing "who won" anyway, since everyone of them had (of course) bet 50 bucks his character would "win".
I'm not sure why, but this had me on the verge of tears. That is SUCH an excellent story.
Grundlterror on
0
JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
I really shouldn't do this, but... check the Creepiest Person You've Gamed With thread over at rpg.net. I personally find the story about the D&D-gaming Brazilian death squad the coolest, but there's plenty of bad crazyness to go around. Warning: The thread is currently at 4.500 posts and counting -- and reading it all will give you a 2d100 SAN loss. The horror, the horror...
Jesus. I'm only at page 15 (of 451) and it's like mainlining pure distilled bad crazy, from the mostly innocuous (gamer/warlock who threatens to cast a real life spell on you!) to the sad (guy who claims to be Phelan Kell for reals! and also a ninja!) to the freaky (guys who follow you from home to work and vandalize your house) to the brain-blasting ultra-WTF (guy shits himself during games, guy date-rapes GM's sister!).
So yeah. Ironically enough, it seems a large chunk of the gaming population should have been re-rolled straight out of the womb.
I really shouldn't do this, but... check the Creepiest Person You've Gamed With thread over at rpg.net. I personally find the story about the D&D-gaming Brazilian death squad the coolest, but there's plenty of bad crazyness to go around. Warning: The thread is currently at 4.500 posts and counting -- and reading it all will give you a 2d100 SAN loss. The horror, the horror...
Jesus. I'm only at page 15 (of 451) and it's like mainlining pure distilled bad crazy, from the mostly innocuous (gamer/warlock who threatens to cast a real life spell on you!) to the sad (guy who claims to be Phelan Kell for reals! and also a ninja!) to the freaky (guys who follow you from home to work and vandalize your house) to the brain-blasting ultra-WTF (guy shits himself during games, guy date-rapes GM's sister!).
So yeah. Ironically enough, it seems a fantastically small chunk of the gaming population should have been re-rolled straight out of the womb.
I was at college, and one of the more respected members of the RPG club was running a Nightmare on Elm Street game using CoC. I decided to play a tomboy pothead, Geebs' character was based on a Stephen King character. Other characters included the school slut, a cheerleader, and a transfer student from a British Boarding school. About half the players were nearing thirty, and they were all playing 15-17 year old female characters. The creepiness was minimal at first. Then The slut started being a little more detailed about her personal activities, the cheerleader decided she was borderline-slutty, and the transfer kid was bringing up a "sexually repressed upbringing" as a major part of his character. According to them, they figured the groups "bad girl" would get killed first (that's the way it tends to happen in NoES movies, apparently). Some of the players liked to see how quickly and how creatively they could die in CoC.
I had left the school after this, so the rest is all taken from Geebs' half-mad ramblings. Apparently these fat, greasy thirty-year-olds were trying to outdo one another in describing the sexual escapades of their underage female characters. They started out with boyfriends, then random guys. I gather that the exchange student's player was trying to plan a lesbian orgy when Geebs finally left with several weeks of the game still left. I'm not in communication with any of the players, and Geebs purposely cut himself off. I can only guess it eventually devolved into a buch of greasy, smelly thirty year-olds jerking off all over each other.
Ab3's rants are only tangentially related to crazy gaming stories, as they contain a large dose of fiction -- but they speak a lot about the soul-traumatizing gamers that actually cause craziness to occur in games.
WARNING THE FOLLOWING MAY OFFEND THE EASILY OFFENDED, FANS OF HIGHLANDER 2 AND PEOPLE WHO THOUGHT I WAS DEAD.
I always loved CHILL, there was a kind of elegant simplicity to it that appealed to me. The problem was I could never seem to get a game going. This is an example of the kind of thing that always seemed to happen.
We were in El Disgusto’s basement. I was going to be running the game- Psycho Dave, El Disgusto, Weasly Crusher and Blobert Smith were playing.
Me: "Really? They're going to Gen Con?"
Psycho Dave: "Yeah Deviant Boy his pookie-pie are there right now."
El Disgsto: "I don't think much of his taste in women but I gotta admit the man knows romance."
Weasly Crusher: “What more could you expect from someone that has memorized all the Gorean slave positions.â€
Blobert Smith: "Bah! Romance! What is romance but a call to propagate the continuity of blood? And don't all lovers turn to dust in the end?"
Weasly Crusher: "Didn't you used to be in A-V Club with us?"
Blobert Smith: "In my youth I threaded many a projector. I walked among the students but did they ever see me?"
Me: "Didn't you used to be a lot less… Goth?"
Psycho Dave: "And a lot less… large?"
Me: "Dave!"
Psycho Dave: "Well look at him! He's huge! That's no gamer- it's a battle station!"
Me: "I'm sorry about this Blobert, Dave thinks he's funny."
Blobert Smith: "I am not insulted. I wear my girth as a badge of honor. You see the doctor's told me I was diabetic, they told me that if I did not change my dietary habits I would die."
Weasly Crusher: "Wow."
Blobert Smith: "But I ask you… is life without the Nutty Buddy bar truly living? I say to you no! Death or sweets? I say let Poppin' Fresh be my Grim Reaper."
El Disgusto: "Testify brother!"
Me: "Well you're living your dream I respect that… kinda. Let's make characters shall we?"
It was fairly easy to coach them through character creation but when it came time to equip the characters Psycho Dave started to become skittish.
Psycho Dave: "What the Hell kind of a weapon's chart is this?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Psycho Dave: "It's one chart, it covers all firearms damage! It's blasphemous. It's like Rolemaster gone retarded."
Weasly Crusher: "It looks ok to me."
Psycho Dave: "One chart for all kinds of firearms? One chart for revolvers and automags? One chart for rifles versus assault weapons? What about buckshot and armor piercing rounds?"
Me: "Well the game doesn't get into that much detail."
Psycho Dave: "Then how can you expect me to role play my character properly."
El Disgusto: "This is one of Ab3's games. You play by sneering at the mind-numbing lameness."
Weasly Crusher: "Ouch."
Blobert Smith: "Can we not accept the fact that we game because we are the floatsam and jetsam of society? That the very gravity of our personal pain has drawn us together?"
Psycho Dave: "I think I liked you better when you spent all your time dubbing tapes of ‘Mystery Science Theater’ on school equipment."
Me: “Lameness? You dare accuse me of lameness?â€
El Disgusto: “You ooze lameness.â€
Me: “Ok why don’t you tell us why you hated my D&D campaign?â€
El Disgusto: “Because it was a stupid dungeon crawl.â€
Me: “Ok then. By the way what was the plot for your STAR FRONTIERS game?â€
El Disgusto: “Some guy you met in a bar on a space station wanted you to recover a lost device from a long- abandoned underground complex that had been overrun by mutants.â€
Me: “I see. Now what was the plot for you BOOT HILL game?â€
El Disgsto: “An old prospector met your characters in a saloon and asked you to help him get some gold from an old abandoned mine that had been overrun by Lovitar worshiping Apaches.â€
Me: “And lastly, what was the plot for your SHADOWRUN game?â€
El Disgusto: “An old wizard hired you guys to steal some data from an underground complex guarded by a dragon.â€
Me: “And you hate dungeon crawls?â€
El Disgusto: “With a passion.â€
Me: “But you love irony.â€
El Disgusto: “Irony is for losers Ab3, losers like you.â€
How much truth these yarns contain is debatable, but Ab3 insists that he didn't just make them up out of the blue. Having been to a Con once in my life, I believe him.
VacuumJockey on
PSN: VacuumJockey
"Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!"
~ Dr. Emilio Lizardo
Are those the stories that contain the phrases 'like getting a handjob from a pterodactyl' and 'I put my nuts in a ziplock bag and hold them in my mouth while I climb down the mountain'?
I was at college, and one of the more respected members of the RPG club was running a Nightmare on Elm Street game using CoC. I decided to play a tomboy pothead, Geebs' character was based on a Stephen King character. Other characters included the school slut, a cheerleader, and a transfer student from a British Boarding school. About half the players were nearing thirty, and they were all playing 15-17 year old female characters. The creepiness was minimal at first. Then The slut started being a little more detailed about her personal activities, the cheerleader decided she was borderline-slutty, and the transfer kid was bringing up a "sexually repressed upbringing" as a major part of his character. According to them, they figured the groups "bad girl" would get killed first (that's the way it tends to happen in NoES movies, apparently). Some of the players liked to see how quickly and how creatively they could die in CoC.
I had left the school after this, so the rest is all taken from Geebs' half-mad ramblings. Apparently these fat, greasy thirty-year-olds were trying to outdo one another in describing the sexual escapades of their underage female characters. They started out with boyfriends, then random guys. I gather that the exchange student's player was trying to plan a lesbian orgy when Geebs finally left with several weeks of the game still left. I'm not in communication with any of the players, and Geebs purposely cut himself off. I can only guess it eventually devolved into a buch of greasy, smelly thirty year-olds jerking off all over each other.
that was seriously the worst thing ever and I blame fuzzball for talking me into joining that game
Thank you internet for letting me know that while I was a bad husband, I wasn't the worst husband. 1st freaking post man.....
My crazy gaming experiences...well, playing random group of people in the dorm on their twin OxBox's mocking someone by saying, "Thou shalt not use the Lord's name in vain." When I got them in the back, and then laughing my ass off when I yelled fuck and someone tried to use it against me.
being at pax08, getting one more match in on freeplay TF2, sticky jumping, and taking out the entire enemy team as they out of the gate.
I'm so glad someone else raised this to the top few pages, so I don't get accused of necroposting, but I have to share what happened tonight.
Dresden Files RPG. I'm GMing. My party is a mixed group of mortals and minor talents with some fun character concepts. Setting is a Dresden-ized version of our town (basically, just "the supernatural stuff is real but under the surface", for those who don't know the setting). The party is investigating some leads on a recent attack and discovers a suspicious group of high schoolers has been asking a lot of questions and generally causing trouble in local occult shops.
The plan, thinking I know my party (amateur GM mistake), was for them to confront the group, talk to them, and figure out that they're small fries being manipulated by the guys the party is after. I figured they might even become npcs allied with the group who could help them gather information, and maybe even show up every so often.
Instead, my party assumes these guys are the source of all the trouble. They decide to set up an elaborate stakeout on all the local occult shops (after grilling people for information to get the kids' descriptions). One of them spots the group, and even after overhearing them and the next guy up the chain talk and plan the next meeting, decides the teenagers are the ones to follow, not the shady guy. After making several ridiculous stealth rolls, he manages to follow the leader of the highschoolers all the way home. Having figured out where he lives, the two science-geeks in my group decide that with their skills and resources, they should be able to construct a laser-microphone to listen in this kid's window to see if they can figure out what he's up to.
After they spent 10 minutes arguing about how one would go about building a laser-mic from parts, I finally go "Alright. Fine. You guys build it. What now?"
"We pull up on the street one house down from his, and I point the microphone at his window to listen in."
"Tell me, how did you all get here? Same way you left the last meeting?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Alright. *I make a roll* The man who lives in the house you're in front of notices that someone in a white unmarked van is pointing a strange device out the window towards the window of his 17 year old next door neighbor, and begins approaching you out his front door."
Oh, we have one of these threads? Alright, here goes:
Back in high school (Way back in the mists of 6 years ago), I was a GM without a flock. (Still am, but it's not been so bad finding groups these days) The rest of my friends were starting to blossom into full-on geeks and started to ask me about roleplaying. Other than D&D, the only RPG I had consistent access to was my much loved WotC Star Wars book which I had had (Still have) since I was 10. Episode 3 had just come out and everyone was incredibly fired up to play around in the universe. After some discussion, we decided it was going to be a Rebellion era game. I wrote up a story and people wrote up characters.
The first session went off without a hitch, the players acquiring an artifact by pilfering an ancient, long forgotten reliquary. They wanted to play a bit more, so I decided to throw a scare into them by letting them meet one of the campaign's big bads, Inquisitor Tremayne. I started doing the villain thing when one of the girls goes.
"I attack him."
What?
"I attack him. I want to kill his [bitch ass]" (not the exact wording, but about the same feeling)
The players were level 1. A TPK was imminent. (Tremayne's a level 15. He'd make mincemeat out the heroes) I tried to dissuade her, telling her that he was horrifying gaping maw of evil compared to her budding mastery of the Force. (She was a level 1 Force Adept) Nothign could stop, she was adamant she could fight Tremayne.
"I'm going to use Force Grip on him, and I'm going to call on the Dark Side to do it."
I knew she'd been leaning towards playing a dark character, so this wasn't surprising. She could try, Tremayne had Will Save to spare. She rolled. I looked at the die. I blinked, I looked again.
The woman rolled a natural 20, plus her Dark Side dice. I smirked. This would be all the better when Tremayne made his will save. I rolled the dice behind the screen. I looked like a landed fish. It was the player's grail. I had critically failed the Will Save. Tremayne's pants were down. She dropped him like Vader weeding out Executor's command crew.
Needless to say, since then, I have not underestimated the ability for players to fight their way out of a situation.
Matev on
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
I wish we had done that when certain members of our D&D party decided to badmouth Bargle the Magnificent (THE most powerful, and evil, wizard in the Mystara setting) to his face. While spying in the country he was working for. While peddling turnips as a cover story.
Oh, we have one of these threads? Alright, here goes:
Back in high school (Way back in the mists of 6 years ago), I was a GM without a flock. (Still am, but it's not been so bad finding groups these days) The rest of my friends were starting to blossom into full-on geeks and started to ask me about roleplaying. Other than D&D, the only RPG I had consistent access to was my much loved WotC Star Wars book which I had had (Still have) since I was 10. Episode 3 had just come out and everyone was incredibly fired up to play around in the universe. After some discussion, we decided it was going to be a Rebellion era game. I wrote up a story and people wrote up characters.
The first session went off without a hitch, the players acquiring an artifact by pilfering an ancient, long forgotten reliquary. They wanted to play a bit more, so I decided to throw a scare into them by letting them meet one of the campaign's big bads, Inquisitor Tremayne. I started doing the villain thing when one of the girls goes.
"I attack him."
What?
"I attack him. I want to kill his [bitch ass]" (not the exact wording, but about the same feeling)
The players were level 1. A TPK was imminent. (Tremayne's a level 15. He'd make mincemeat out the heroes) I tried to dissuade her, telling her that he was horrifying gaping maw of evil compared to her budding mastery of the Force. (She was a level 1 Force Adept) Nothign could stop, she was adamant she could fight Tremayne.
"I'm going to use Force Grip on him, and I'm going to call on the Dark Side to do it."
I knew she'd been leaning towards playing a dark character, so this wasn't surprising. She could try, Tremayne had Will Save to spare. She rolled. I looked at the die. I blinked, I looked again.
The woman rolled a natural 20, plus her Dark Side dice. I smirked. This would be all the better when Tremayne made his will save. I rolled the dice behind the screen. I looked like a landed fish. It was the player's grail. I had critically failed the Will Save. Tremayne's pants were down. She dropped him like Vader weeding out Executor's command crew.
Needless to say, since then, I have not underestimated the ability for players to fight their way out of a situation.
Oh man, I would love to hear how you rolled with this and made the story go after the fact. As a newbie GM, dealing with player-innovation is simultaneously the most fun and most difficult part.
Oh, we have one of these threads? Alright, here goes:
Back in high school (Way back in the mists of 6 years ago), I was a GM without a flock. (Still am, but it's not been so bad finding groups these days) The rest of my friends were starting to blossom into full-on geeks and started to ask me about roleplaying. Other than D&D, the only RPG I had consistent access to was my much loved WotC Star Wars book which I had had (Still have) since I was 10. Episode 3 had just come out and everyone was incredibly fired up to play around in the universe. After some discussion, we decided it was going to be a Rebellion era game. I wrote up a story and people wrote up characters.
The first session went off without a hitch, the players acquiring an artifact by pilfering an ancient, long forgotten reliquary. They wanted to play a bit more, so I decided to throw a scare into them by letting them meet one of the campaign's big bads, Inquisitor Tremayne. I started doing the villain thing when one of the girls goes.
"I attack him."
What?
"I attack him. I want to kill his [bitch ass]" (not the exact wording, but about the same feeling)
The players were level 1. A TPK was imminent. (Tremayne's a level 15. He'd make mincemeat out the heroes) I tried to dissuade her, telling her that he was horrifying gaping maw of evil compared to her budding mastery of the Force. (She was a level 1 Force Adept) Nothign could stop, she was adamant she could fight Tremayne.
"I'm going to use Force Grip on him, and I'm going to call on the Dark Side to do it."
I knew she'd been leaning towards playing a dark character, so this wasn't surprising. She could try, Tremayne had Will Save to spare. She rolled. I looked at the die. I blinked, I looked again.
The woman rolled a natural 20, plus her Dark Side dice. I smirked. This would be all the better when Tremayne made his will save. I rolled the dice behind the screen. I looked like a landed fish. It was the player's grail. I had critically failed the Will Save. Tremayne's pants were down. She dropped him like Vader weeding out Executor's command crew.
Needless to say, since then, I have not underestimated the ability for players to fight their way out of a situation.
Oh man, I would love to hear how you rolled with this and made the story go after the fact. As a newbie GM, dealing with player-innovation is simultaneously the most fun and most difficult part.
Say it with me: "Always two there are...a master, and an apprentice."
If the players kill the Big Bad, he was automatically and retroactively the apprentice of the true Big Bad. :P
Posts
My Vampire Experience.
Through observation at a few conventions, and a couple additional cracks at the rulebook, I twig to what's going on and what needs to be done. I locate a Vampire LARP that takes place weekly in downtown Cincinnati at a Goth Club, which happens to be a male strip joint on the weekends. I pal up with some guy I had started hanging out with who I met at the comic store, and I give it one more go. Nope. the Vampire LARP thing isn't happening. The comic guy knows some people, but he's really not helping out with the game and I'm just not getting into it. Everyone is too into themselves and being their own outsiders to actually let an outsider play.
Fuck it.
So, out of college now, I get on the internets and various other means, and advertise to start a local role-playing game. I get some responses and 4 very nice players, and after a few one-shot game sessions, we agree to play a modern super-hero setting for a campaign. We make up characters (MEGS / DC HEROES) and the next game session, everyone will drop by and I'll make it all work.
That's the toughest part about being a GM; the first adventure. You all meet in a bar. You all have to solve the same crisis simultaneously. I call bullshit. Super-hero team-ups should feel natural. So here's what I got:
- An amnesiac background who thinks he's some sort of Green Lantern.
- A mutant who made a name for himself saving a schoolbus with his telekinetic and psychic powers.
- Another mutant who has showy shadow powers who wants to make a name for himself.
- A world-famous witchy-sorceress, "Morganna, Mistress of the Night"; Elvira meets Zatanna.
I decide to base the team-up adventure around a crisis at a public appearance of Morganna's; specifically, her being a "guest of honor" at ConCON XXVI. Yep; placed it at a game convention. Long story short (I can dictate the adventure for you in a later post), after a couple of blatant red herrings, the "antagonists" end up being the people in charge of the Vampire LARP and "White Wolf" in general; turns out they really are vampires and their appearances at game conventions are "round-ups" to get faithful servants and meals. I mean, who'd miss a few gamers?
The heroes take down the mob, but the big baddies get away. And it was getting late and we had to stop for the night. So that's when it hits me. I make some arbitrary rolls for ideas, clues, etc. Then I inform the group that we'll meet outside the Vampire LARP later that week, a half hour after it starts. I told them to... dress as your super-hero character, if he or she was dressed as a Vampire LARPer.
I dress up in a full purple/gray tweed pimp outfit that I snagged for a "Pimps n Hos" party from the prior year. At the established time, everyone shows up except one guy, but that's fine. Outside the club, everyone is dressed up nicely; dark and spooky. "Morganna" is sluttified to the max (and she's hot, normally), "Psychic Dave" is wearing leather studs and a maroon snap-button shirt with a black t-shirt and black jeans, and "Shadowman" (Morganna's husband) is in a dark trench and hat with black shirt underneath and black pants.
I explain that tonight, I am still their GM, no matter what goes on inside the club. They will be playing AS their super characters. None of their characters ever had experience with the game except Morganna, and her only in a passing sense. We are here investigating leads into the actual-Vampires-posing-as-LARPers case. Our goal for the night is to get into a back room of the club that I knew physically existed, and that all the Vampire gamers seemed to be able to "get to", but only if you were really high on the gaming totem pole. Meaning, if you weren't in "the clique, you weren't getting in". Once we get in there, I'll call time and we'll decide what to do then.
"From this moment onwards," I say, "I will take the role of 'Jimmy'" a "Jimmy Olsen" gamer NPC they befriended in the prior game. A "sidekick" if you will, who is supposedly the most "experienced" player. And yet, all three of these people played a hell of a lot more Vampire than I ever had, did, or will.
I explain (as Jimmy) that we'll all be playing Malkavians, the "crazy clan" and we're first time-gamers from out of town; say Atlanta, looking for some "hot gaming action". Shadowman tells me that we're better off just saying we're college students from a somewhat out-of-town university, probably Miami (Ohio) and amateur Vampire LARPers. I frown (in-character) and say "fine!" and mentally give Shadowman some bonus XP.
I pay everyone's $5 entry fee and we're in. We meet up with the GM and everyone lets me handle it. I explain that we're malks and looking for some hot.. get interrupted by Shadowman who takes over with the background he proposed earlier. (more XP for shadowman). We fill in our characters; I'm a pimp, Morganna's my ho, Shadowman is my enforcer, and "Psychic Dave" who is using his TK on the dice (roll 2d10.. success; XP for RP, XP for attempt, XP), is my druggie/cohort/#2.
We lurk around the club and chat up various gamers. I listen in to the conversations and I hear Morganna trying to find "real" vampires (XP++). "Psychic Dave" gets Shadowman to rough someone up (rock-papers-scissors!) and eventually, we charm our way towards the back room.
On the way there, we're accosted by some frumpy guy in gray. Not all dressed up or anything; more like half-assed goth college student outfit. He looks at us and smiles. "I heard, but I didn't know it was true! Malkavians! I have an actual clan!!!!!!!!"
For those of you who don't know, Malkavians in Vampire are like, umm, Kender in Dragonlance, for lack of a better analogy. Played right, they're downright evil, but in general they're (dis)regarded as "that annoying goofy shit group". Which, us "being" Malks, would certainly account for any weird activity.
So this guy. This poor sap. I feel for him. All alone. Gaming by himself; a clan of one. And then suddenly he has 4 instant-friends. Then-again, he has 4 instant-friends he, as a high-level malk, can "push around". So instead of getting anywhere on his bad side, I tell him some people were looking for him outside (where the Werewolf players were hanging out, no seriously; no werewolves allowed inside!), so he goes. *whew*
We get to the back where some sort of huge Prince shit is going down. And this short fat girl is trying to push through our group screaming "Majesty, majesty" and waving her hand in front of her face; I think it's a magic Vampire power, but she just looked ridiculous. And she was rude. No "excuse me", just shove shove shove through us. So we mocked her. Openly. She looked annoyed.
So we sit back in the back room and watch the group chat and Shadowman presents a list of names and likely vampires and he says Morganna and Psychic Dave have added to the list... it's long. (XP XP XP) We've been there all of 4 hours now, goofing around and having fun, but it's a work night and it's late, which is enough for all of us. So I round us up and say "Follow me" and I walk right up to the vampire meeting. And listen in close. Close... close... I'm right up to the prince. And I see what they're doing.
It's about 12 people, half with their arms crossed, surrounding 4 people who are all playing rock-paper-scissors and debating rules. Nothing ground-breaking here at all. Just mindless. MINDLESS. Where's the ROLE in ROLE-playing? This was the big fun I was trying to get to months earlier? Forget it.
At this point I yell "Time out! OK, XP time!" and start openly allocating experience to my players, "You get 30 Hero Points for this, you get 25 Hero Points for that..." right then and there.
The LARPers are puzzled. And watch.
Then I'm all, "you guys want to hang out?" to my players. "No, we're good". OK, let's go. Psychic Dave turns and says "One more thing..." then he rips open his button-snap shirt and on his black t-shirt, he must have done it in white-out, but on his black t-shirt is a huge stylized "PD" and he hollers "Psychic Dave to the Rescue!!!" and we walk out of there never to come back.
Coda: Several months later, I'm in a bar at a CON relating this story and one listener eyes light up and he says, "That was you??!!! I was so happy to have a clan and you guys were gone!" It was my malkavian friend. A really nice guy. He and I became friends and we played a few Pen-n-Paper Cthulhu with him since. Neither he nor I had been back to the Vamprie LARP since that night.
edit And yes, I know it's Hero Points/HP not XP in MEGS, thanks. "XP" flows better when telling the story.
edit: Spoiler'd to save space.
"Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!"
~ Dr. Emilio Lizardo
Where is the Death Squad post? :O
The color-scheme on that site is awful. Hillarious stories though.
You used to be able to pick your own CSS color-scheme for rpg.net ; not sure if you still can, but it's worth a look in your profile.
311, just found it.
woah
Top of page 32 if you're viewing as default.
That´s when the prostitutes arrived.
And that's when I couldn't stop laughing.
It could be worse, it could be white text on a blue background...
(See what I did there? Eh?)
But, I think it just grows on you. It's one of the few forums who's layout doesn't hurt my eyes after reading a mega-thread.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Why have the thread? You've likely already won it. :P
I hate this town...
STEAM
I copy/pasted the story below so noone has to miss the awesome.
Just a thought.
"Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!"
~ Dr. Emilio Lizardo
Hmmm.... this needs some serious looking at, thanks!
STEAM
"Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!"
~ Dr. Emilio Lizardo
They discovered that the owner of the shop (an avid Settlers of Catan player) was having sex with female employees on the table we usually used to play Warhammer.
Shortly thereafter, we found a different store to go to...
:^::^: if they were hot.
Fantasy grounds looks awesome but hell if it isn't heck of expensive. >>
No, they were pretty average to ugly, and most of them were 18 or 19. He's in his fifties and married with a kid.
I'm not sure why, but this had me on the verge of tears. That is SUCH an excellent story.
Jesus. I'm only at page 15 (of 451) and it's like mainlining pure distilled bad crazy, from the mostly innocuous (gamer/warlock who threatens to cast a real life spell on you!) to the sad (guy who claims to be Phelan Kell for reals! and also a ninja!) to the freaky (guys who follow you from home to work and vandalize your house) to the brain-blasting ultra-WTF (guy shits himself during games, guy date-rapes GM's sister!).
So yeah. Ironically enough, it seems a large chunk of the gaming population should have been re-rolled straight out of the womb.
"A +11 Deathdealer blade with full HellStryke capabilities?! I shit my pants!"
"Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!"
~ Dr. Emilio Lizardo
Mmmmmm...Gackt-licious
I had left the school after this, so the rest is all taken from Geebs' half-mad ramblings. Apparently these fat, greasy thirty-year-olds were trying to outdo one another in describing the sexual escapades of their underage female characters. They started out with boyfriends, then random guys. I gather that the exchange student's player was trying to plan a lesbian orgy when Geebs finally left with several weeks of the game still left. I'm not in communication with any of the players, and Geebs purposely cut himself off. I can only guess it eventually devolved into a buch of greasy, smelly thirty year-olds jerking off all over each other.
Flavor quote:
How much truth these yarns contain is debatable, but Ab3 insists that he didn't just make them up out of the blue. Having been to a Con once in my life, I believe him.
"Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!"
~ Dr. Emilio Lizardo
"Laugh while you can, monkey-boy!"
~ Dr. Emilio Lizardo
that was seriously the worst thing ever and I blame fuzzball for talking me into joining that game
My crazy gaming experiences...well, playing random group of people in the dorm on their twin OxBox's mocking someone by saying, "Thou shalt not use the Lord's name in vain." When I got them in the back, and then laughing my ass off when I yelled fuck and someone tried to use it against me.
being at pax08, getting one more match in on freeplay TF2, sticky jumping, and taking out the entire enemy team as they out of the gate.
Dresden Files RPG. I'm GMing. My party is a mixed group of mortals and minor talents with some fun character concepts. Setting is a Dresden-ized version of our town (basically, just "the supernatural stuff is real but under the surface", for those who don't know the setting). The party is investigating some leads on a recent attack and discovers a suspicious group of high schoolers has been asking a lot of questions and generally causing trouble in local occult shops.
The plan, thinking I know my party (amateur GM mistake), was for them to confront the group, talk to them, and figure out that they're small fries being manipulated by the guys the party is after. I figured they might even become npcs allied with the group who could help them gather information, and maybe even show up every so often.
Instead, my party assumes these guys are the source of all the trouble. They decide to set up an elaborate stakeout on all the local occult shops (after grilling people for information to get the kids' descriptions). One of them spots the group, and even after overhearing them and the next guy up the chain talk and plan the next meeting, decides the teenagers are the ones to follow, not the shady guy. After making several ridiculous stealth rolls, he manages to follow the leader of the highschoolers all the way home. Having figured out where he lives, the two science-geeks in my group decide that with their skills and resources, they should be able to construct a laser-microphone to listen in this kid's window to see if they can figure out what he's up to.
After they spent 10 minutes arguing about how one would go about building a laser-mic from parts, I finally go "Alright. Fine. You guys build it. What now?"
"We pull up on the street one house down from his, and I point the microphone at his window to listen in."
"Tell me, how did you all get here? Same way you left the last meeting?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Alright. *I make a roll* The man who lives in the house you're in front of notices that someone in a white unmarked van is pointing a strange device out the window towards the window of his 17 year old next door neighbor, and begins approaching you out his front door."
"....Uh, whoops. We get the fuck out of here."
The first session went off without a hitch, the players acquiring an artifact by pilfering an ancient, long forgotten reliquary. They wanted to play a bit more, so I decided to throw a scare into them by letting them meet one of the campaign's big bads, Inquisitor Tremayne. I started doing the villain thing when one of the girls goes.
"I attack him."
What?
"I attack him. I want to kill his [bitch ass]" (not the exact wording, but about the same feeling)
The players were level 1. A TPK was imminent. (Tremayne's a level 15. He'd make mincemeat out the heroes) I tried to dissuade her, telling her that he was horrifying gaping maw of evil compared to her budding mastery of the Force. (She was a level 1 Force Adept) Nothign could stop, she was adamant she could fight Tremayne.
"I'm going to use Force Grip on him, and I'm going to call on the Dark Side to do it."
I knew she'd been leaning towards playing a dark character, so this wasn't surprising. She could try, Tremayne had Will Save to spare. She rolled. I looked at the die. I blinked, I looked again.
The woman rolled a natural 20, plus her Dark Side dice. I smirked. This would be all the better when Tremayne made his will save. I rolled the dice behind the screen. I looked like a landed fish. It was the player's grail. I had critically failed the Will Save. Tremayne's pants were down. She dropped him like Vader weeding out Executor's command crew.
Needless to say, since then, I have not underestimated the ability for players to fight their way out of a situation.
Oh man, I would love to hear how you rolled with this and made the story go after the fact. As a newbie GM, dealing with player-innovation is simultaneously the most fun and most difficult part.
Say it with me: "Always two there are...a master, and an apprentice."
If the players kill the Big Bad, he was automatically and retroactively the apprentice of the true Big Bad. :P