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What sorts of odd and creative things do you incorporate into your GMing style?

I'll start.

Whenan npc has low language skills and they aren't talking in their first language, I usually give them a ridiculous accent, but when they user their native tongue, no accent at all. Cracks my group up every time.

the one time meta plotting its okay: when its funny

i tend to run darker gritty games (not always) but still from time to time i'll toss in something "zanny" and out of place (like 'weird wasteland in fallout 3) and normally have some indication


after sessions (or sometimes at the stat of the next) i'll run trivia on the game for bonus xp


also sometimes i'll just roll dice and smile to watch players get freaked out

I like Bonus Round Trivia!

Something else we'll also do is have the same restaurant chain in ever game, even if it does't make sense, just so our characters can order the same thing no matter the setting.

one thing i always found kinda funny is the GM screen's people use, but then i guess for the most part any notes/characters i have are in a folder or far too cryptic for players to know what the hell i'm doing, (i also allow skill rolls to be done by the player, but if they start metagamming based on their rolls i'll take it out on them after)

but i guess with me in the minority not using screens would be the odd quirk

I don't use a screen generally, and i usually show my players my rolls. suppose that would be a quirk

I dont use screens, never have but I do cover up my rolls. Nowadays I GM from the breakfast bar whilst the players are at the dining table so I have loads of space and they cant see anything. /lucky.

One point, my character was talking to this girl in a bar and the GM was really getting into character, such to the point that he actually batted his eyelashes at me.

Table-wide hysterical laughter.

I try not to have a no in my head
I say you can try. I allow the characters to hang themselves, suffer their consequences, let the dice play as they lay.

Screw game balance. I don't worry about it. sometimes some jerkwads are hassling an old lady for her purse. They don't become super villains just because the players get involved. Its nice to be the big bad ass mo fos.
sometimes it is better to run. If you I have a built in way for you to rid the world of the old one you thought would be cool to summon,... think again.

No meta gaming from the players or from me. You don't get to change your mind based on player knowledge and neither do I. If the players come up with a good idea that the villain hasn't thought of, excellent you found a whole. Villains won't automatically know what the players have in mind. Sometimes the villains won't even know the heroes exist! I won't design villains just to foil the players. You have no idea what is going to happen during game play and the most random thing may happen and destroy your plans. Unless they are specifically arch villains there is no reason to counter powers with tech etc. Well ok another reason is a long standing back and forth battle with a major recurring villain who has witnessed and studied the heroes and has some kind of obsession with them. But just because they can see the abilities being used it doesn't mean they have a guide book or a RPG book to look up what these strange abilities are and what weaknesses they might have. Major villains need to be as fleshed out as the PCs with their own desires, goals and failings.

Don't have anything in your game you aren't willing to have destroyed. That means, NPCs, Agencies, Bad Guys everything is mutable. NPCs should have their own lives that are not stagnant. NPCs should have relationships and troubles of their own, that the players can get involved in or exposed to providing whole other story arcs. villains can be caught off guard, surprised or fumble a skill roll.

Have a mary sues that dooms themselves through rp-ing. Like a superman who seems all good and untouchable, has a thing for crushing women during sex, exploring just how fragile humans can be. The highly skilled martial artist has a drinking problem. A major NPC is secretly battling stage 4 cancer.

Have consequences for actions. You take out a the major baddy, fine. Is there someone who is waiting in the wings? do they have family or friends or lovers who wish to avenge them? What operations are going to go to hell now that they are not in charge anymore? Villains aren't in costume all the time. They might have secret identities who are married, have children, brothers and sisters, etc whoa re going to wonder where they went and begin their investigation, maybe even hiring the heroes to find them.

One hit wonders. Allow them. If they have been fighting up 13 floors of goons to get to the roof and one hit the viallin with a nat 20 fine. But that should clue them in that life is precious and fleeting and that they are vulnerable to it as well.

in the poll about what players you like least a few mentioned 'stinky' as being smokers ..
since me and most of the people i always gamed with are smokers it was the odd ones out who didn't smoke, but since we played most times in the garage we didn't have to worry too much (and any non smoker who didn't like it could leave the game since with 4 smokers the game would never get anywhere with each taking smoke breaks)

we did have one gm though that insisted on no drinking (also common for the rest of us) which i think lasted 1 game
and after that brought a friend over (partly to take my place after i already quit his game but still knew all the players) and nearly as soon as the game started the friend who owned the house we all game at light a smoke, and the gm's friend yelled at him and left (after throwing dice and ripping his character sheet) ...that was th last time the gm ever ran a game in our group and the last anyone ever saw of his friend

so not sure which stands out as the quirk us for drinking and smoking while playing (not getting wasted mind you just having some drinks ...sometimes i'll even add it into the RP when i play or gm) or for the hyper agressiveness against it

KillWatch wrote:I try not to have a no in my head
I say you can try. I allow the characters to hang themselves, suffer their consequences, let the dice play as they lay.

Screw game balance. I don't worry about it. sometimes some jerkwads are hassling an old lady for her purse. They don't become super villains just because the players get involved. Its nice to be the big bad ass mo fos.
sometimes it is better to run. If you I have a built in way for you to rid the world of the old one you thought would be cool to summon,... think again.

No meta gaming from the players or from me. You don't get to change your mind based on player knowledge and neither do I. If the players come up with a good idea that the villain hasn't thought of, excellent you found a whole. Villains won't automatically know what the players have in mind. Sometimes the villains won't even know the heroes exist! I won't design villains just to foil the players. You have no idea what is going to happen during game play and the most random thing may happen and destroy your plans. Unless they are specifically arch villains there is no reason to counter powers with tech etc. Well ok another reason is a long standing back and forth battle with a major recurring villain who has witnessed and studied the heroes and has some kind of obsession with them. But just because they can see the abilities being used it doesn't mean they have a guide book or a RPG book to look up what these strange abilities are and what weaknesses they might have. Major villains need to be as fleshed out as the PCs with their own desires, goals and failings.

Don't have anything in your game you aren't willing to have destroyed. That means, NPCs, Agencies, Bad Guys everything is mutable. NPCs should have their own lives that are not stagnant. NPCs should have relationships and troubles of their own, that the players can get involved in or exposed to providing whole other story arcs. villains can be caught off guard, surprised or fumble a skill roll.

Have a mary sues that dooms themselves through rp-ing. Like a superman who seems all good and untouchable, has a thing for crushing women during sex, exploring just how fragile humans can be. The highly skilled martial artist has a drinking problem. A major NPC is secretly battling stage 4 cancer.

Have consequences for actions. You take out a the major baddy, fine. Is there someone who is waiting in the wings? do they have family or friends or lovers who wish to avenge them? What operations are going to go to hell now that they are not in charge anymore? Villains aren't in costume all the time. They might have secret identities who are married, have children, brothers and sisters, etc whoa re going to wonder where they went and begin their investigation, maybe even hiring the heroes to find them.

One hit wonders. Allow them. If they have been fighting up 13 floors of goons to get to the roof and one hit the viallin with a nat 20 fine. But that should clue them in that life is precious and fleeting and that they are vulnerable to it as well.

I could kiss you.

alrik I do believe that's the kindest thing anyone has replied to me. I appreciate it

KillWatch wrote:alrik I do believe that's the kindest thing anyone has replied to me. I appreciate it

I have no sexual desires for you however I also agree with your post.

You don't find my typing irresistible?

losing my touch

or maybe you don't find me sexually desirable,... YET you don't find me and my fine use of ellipses desirable, YET

Hey, there's nothing sexual about it, but you have to express your passion somehow.

no, I appreciate how comfortable you are in your manly manliness or manhood

Let's get back to GM Quirks before Killwatch asks me for a civil union.

ok quirks.....

quirks....

I don't care for rules lawyer GMs. when a rule just doesn't make sense but they view the game rules as immutable, more akin to a board game

Yeah, GM's who aren't willing to bend on things are...well...even if they're good storytellers, the game still lacks something.

GM's who aren't prepared to just try it all by the straight rules (where that's possible - ie, where the rules don't contradict themselves) even once.

Heh, yeah, though that's not much of a quirk, more of a post for the Annoying GM Thread.

i'm all out of quirks that aren't annoying.

however I did do something I am still kind of proud of myself and players.
They were all playing experiments. In my world there is a single umbrella organization that is behind all kinds of nastiness, collecting DNA, cloning, kidnapping etc. The players were playing experiments who were created by this organization. They woke up in bio tanks, proceeded to escape and then get recaptured and put back into the tanks. I then had them run the heads of the facility; security, research, administration etc. And I had them figure out what went wrong, how they escaped and how to proceed with the test subjects.
Through role playing and some questions to me, it grew tense. It turned out the guy playing the research scientist had allowed them to escape to see what would happen, a live field study. Head of security found the video and confronted him. The administrator agreed with the idea of field study but not to let them completely loose. They were to implant the characters (them) with tracking capable cortex bombs, of their own volition. Each agreed that it would be a good idea. At the end of the meeting the administrator asked if there was any other business to attend to. The security officer said-just one. He took out his 45 and put one into the head of the scientist. With blood pooring out of the new hole in in his head all over the sublimely white table the administrator said meeting adjourned.

I'd be okay with Muppets.

Alrik Vas wrote:Yeah, GM's who aren't willing to bend on things are...well...even if they're good storytellers, the game still lacks something.

That depends on how game-breaking the rule-bend is yes?
Game-breaking players have made me the rules-lawyer GM I am today, just like screwed up GMs have made me the rules-lawyer player.

I am all for rules edits. but then it applies to everyone going forward, PCs and NPCs.
Otherwise victories and successes is meaningless. You might as well say hey you won role playing good for you

and some of the best stories are the ones where the protagonist fails and has to fix something or even dies. I hate deus ex machina stories.

Vrykolas2k wrote:

Alrik Vas wrote:Yeah, GM's who aren't willing to bend on things are...well...even if they're good storytellers, the game still lacks something.

That depends on how game-breaking the rule-bend is yes?
Game-breaking players have made me the rules-lawyer GM I am today, just like screwed up GMs have made me the rules-lawyer player.

I took it more of "in this situation, you an see how rule X would work this way, or rule Y is being abused, so can we get a change so this doesn't happen anymore?" and the GM shrugs at you, says no, then continues to let the rules be abused or to not make sense to the rest of the gaming group.

Or GM's who just can't let certain NPC's die.

That sort of thing.

that's right,... audit me,... audit ME!

didn't know you were bi

GENTLEMEN PLEASE...there is no binary in the GM's forum.

I replace quantitative damage with qualitative damage.

I tell the players to ignore the damage ratings given in the books and when they want to know how much damage a particular weapon does, they get a description of how it compares to other weapons that they are familiar with. If they're not seeing the results with their own eyes, then they're at the mercy of other people's descriptions.

But a good rule of thumb is that for any particular kind of weapon, bigger is better (from a damage perspective). Just like in real life.

--flatline

Very Story Teller of you, sir. You've described various notions before. Playing a game you run has either got to be one of the funnest or must frustrating experiences I can think of.

On the one hand, you really get to stretch your imagination...

On the other hand, you are always wondering what works and what doesn't.

Alrik Vas wrote:Very Story Teller of you, sir. You've described various notions before. Playing a game you run has either got to be one of the funnest or must frustrating experiences I can think of.

On the one hand, you really get to stretch your imagination...

On the other hand, you are always wondering what works and what doesn't.

If it would work in real life, then it will work in-game.

If it would work, given our understanding of how super tech works, then it will work in-game.

If the game mechanics say it should work but the game mechanics don't offer an in-game mechanism, then it won't work.

--flatline

How much of that do you figure out ahead of time? I've done a lot of games where I've had to prepare things that should, but didn't, exist in a setting, then realized i was far underprepared as things went along.

Yeah...okay...when the GM rolls dice a lot like that...yeah. jerk.

Apart from different recurring restaurant chains, I also have a green alcoholic beverage that I've used in many games called Zog's XXX Troll Brew. Among other things the PC usually either get drunk off it, or use it as a Molotov Cocktail.

Also had a reoccurring type of vendor. Not the same person, but the same kind of person. Which I find funny as they dimension hop around 3G, they can usually find a guy selling Cabbages from a kart, no matter the tech level of the planet.

I have been known to use accents and do voices sometimes (like for dragon or demons). For example if some NPC is speaking in High Elven as a native language I will sometimes speak with a higher class English accent when the mood moves me. I had this great voice for a NE sales rep, too bad he got killed, I miss doing that guy.

I also find the describing quickly but in detail, the last seconds and reaction of some opponents when they get vaped, Swiss-cheesed, or sliced in half usually gets a good reaction as well as reminds the PC of their mortality and how dangerous things are as well. Describe a little blood splatter on the PCs now and then. They're not usually keeping their hands clean when they're killing something.

Other than that, through the years, I can roll with whatever direction my players want to go now. I do not railroad. And if they cap my enemy commander in the face with something I didn't count on, even though he had impervious to energy up, that's the way it goes. Let the dice fall where they may. If I need to terrify the PCs I know I can also set up an encounter with some smoke grenades and Altra down the road.

Skull slag, fifteen mj's to the dome, aced, axed, vaped, misted, human torched, two halves with different places to be in a hurry, d-bee puree, hack n' bath, the deadboy grin (slit throat), crimson bouquet (hyper tension decapitation), perforated, two lovers (when a pair of people get melted together by a plasma explosion).

Exactly

PSI-Lence wrote:one thing i always found kinda funny is the GM screen's people use, but then i guess for the most part any notes/characters i have are in a folder or far too cryptic for players to know what the hell i'm doing, (i also allow skill rolls to be done by the player, but if they start metagamming based on their rolls i'll take it out on them after)

but i guess with me in the minority not using screens would be the odd quirk

Not in my opinion, I like the reference data provided on screens but my gaming group stopped using screens to make rolls behind years more like 2 decades ago and it hasn't affected how our games operate other then GM & Players alike all know what the dice rolls come up at the moment they come up no cheating possible. Cheating is why I called a stop to screens of any kind, I personally never used screens to block view of my rolls but I had 2 players and part time GMs that used their screens all the time and I just couldn't believe they were rolling natural 20s as often as they were claiming so I made a new house rule if a screen is stood up on a table for purposes of blocking view of dice rolls or any other activity the screen was subject to immediate death by scissors (1 player didn't believe me and beat me to the scissors so I simply tore up his screen).

Michael Barakofsky wrote:

PSI-Lence wrote:one thing i always found kinda funny is the GM screen's people use, but then i guess for the most part any notes/characters i have are in a folder or far too cryptic for players to know what the hell i'm doing, (i also allow skill rolls to be done by the player, but if they start metagamming based on their rolls i'll take it out on them after)

but i guess with me in the minority not using screens would be the odd quirk

Not in my opinion, I like the reference data provided on screens but my gaming group stopped using screens to make rolls behind years more like 2 decades ago and it hasn't affected how our games operate other then GM & Players alike all know what the dice rolls come up at the moment they come up no cheating possible. Cheating is why I called a stop to screens of any kind, I personally never used screens to block view of my rolls but I had 2 players and part time GMs that used their screens all the time and I just couldn't believe they were rolling natural 20s as often as they were claiming so I made a new house rule if a screen is stood up on a table for purposes of blocking view of dice rolls or any other activity the screen was subject to immediate death by scissors (1 player didn't believe me and beat me to the scissors so I simply tore up his screen).

I use a screen. And I take full advantage of it. Probably 80%-90% of my dice rolls are fair. But sometimes the power gamer needs to be taken down a notch or two. And sometimes I really don't feel like accidentally eviscerating the physically weak character. And the NPC bonuses will shift depending on the PC bonuses so that everyone has a fair chance. No one has caught on because I run a skills-heavy, combat-light game so there isn't enough combat to start comparing numbers. (My power gamer complains that he designed the character to fight and I'm not providing that. Boo hoo, in my opinion.)

arouetta wrote:

Michael Barakofsky wrote:

PSI-Lence wrote:one thing i always found kinda funny is the GM screen's people use, but then i guess for the most part any notes/characters i have are in a folder or far too cryptic for players to know what the hell i'm doing, (i also allow skill rolls to be done by the player, but if they start metagamming based on their rolls i'll take it out on them after)

but i guess with me in the minority not using screens would be the odd quirk

Not in my opinion, I like the reference data provided on screens but my gaming group stopped using screens to make rolls behind years more like 2 decades ago and it hasn't affected how our games operate other then GM & Players alike all know what the dice rolls come up at the moment they come up no cheating possible. Cheating is why I called a stop to screens of any kind, I personally never used screens to block view of my rolls but I had 2 players and part time GMs that used their screens all the time and I just couldn't believe they were rolling natural 20s as often as they were claiming so I made a new house rule if a screen is stood up on a table for purposes of blocking view of dice rolls or any other activity the screen was subject to immediate death by scissors (1 player didn't believe me and beat me to the scissors so I simply tore up his screen).

I use a screen. And I take full advantage of it. Probably 80%-90% of my dice rolls are fair. But sometimes the power gamer needs to be taken down a notch or two. And sometimes I really don't feel like accidentally eviscerating the physically weak character. And the NPC bonuses will shift depending on the PC bonuses so that everyone has a fair chance. No one has caught on because I run a skills-heavy, combat-light game so there isn't enough combat to start comparing numbers. (My power gamer complains that he designed the character to fight and I'm not providing that. Boo hoo, in my opinion.)

Well if the screen is used as an info source only and laid flat afterwards I have absolutely no problem with that what-so-ever. The player I was referring to above had a bad habbit of rolling his dice (when he was in the role of player or GM didn't matter to him) behind his screen calling out a number and quickly picking up his dice and relocating them to his pile before anyone could peak to see what he actually rolled. He did this for combat as well as skill rolls, let me just say that it got old very fast. I have never believed that a player has the right to hide his rolls from the GM/DM/Judge/whatever the system in question calls it, the GM can hide his/her rolls if s/he chooses to for the very purpose you cited (aka on the spot snap adjustments to the lethality of the game) but to me the players MUST always make rolls in the open for God and everyone to witness. In my current gaming group we have been running the same set of characters for 20+ years now and I have a good idea of what their bonuses and abilities are so if I need to adjust bonuses for NPCs I can do so easily enough in my head (but then again numbers have always been easy for me to work with).

Michael Barakofsky wrote:

arouetta wrote:

Michael Barakofsky wrote:

PSI-Lence wrote:one thing i always found kinda funny is the GM screen's people use, but then i guess for the most part any notes/characters i have are in a folder or far too cryptic for players to know what the hell i'm doing, (i also allow skill rolls to be done by the player, but if they start metagamming based on their rolls i'll take it out on them after)

but i guess with me in the minority not using screens would be the odd quirk

Not in my opinion, I like the reference data provided on screens but my gaming group stopped using screens to make rolls behind years more like 2 decades ago and it hasn't affected how our games operate other then GM & Players alike all know what the dice rolls come up at the moment they come up no cheating possible. Cheating is why I called a stop to screens of any kind, I personally never used screens to block view of my rolls but I had 2 players and part time GMs that used their screens all the time and I just couldn't believe they were rolling natural 20s as often as they were claiming so I made a new house rule if a screen is stood up on a table for purposes of blocking view of dice rolls or any other activity the screen was subject to immediate death by scissors (1 player didn't believe me and beat me to the scissors so I simply tore up his screen).

I use a screen. And I take full advantage of it. Probably 80%-90% of my dice rolls are fair. But sometimes the power gamer needs to be taken down a notch or two. And sometimes I really don't feel like accidentally eviscerating the physically weak character. And the NPC bonuses will shift depending on the PC bonuses so that everyone has a fair chance. No one has caught on because I run a skills-heavy, combat-light game so there isn't enough combat to start comparing numbers. (My power gamer complains that he designed the character to fight and I'm not providing that. Boo hoo, in my opinion.)

Well if the screen is used as an info source only and laid flat afterwards I have absolutely no problem with that what-so-ever. The player I was referring to above had a bad habbit of rolling his dice (when he was in the role of player or GM didn't matter to him) behind his screen calling out a number and quickly picking up his dice and relocating them to his pile before anyone could peak to see what he actually rolled. He did this for combat as well as skill rolls, let me just say that it got old very fast. I have never believed that a player has the right to hide his rolls from the GM/DM/Judge/whatever the system in question calls it, the GM can hide his/her rolls if s/he chooses to for the very purpose you cited (aka on the spot snap adjustments to the lethality of the game) but to me the players MUST always make rolls in the open for God and everyone to witness. In my current gaming group we have been running the same set of characters for 20+ years now and I have a good idea of what their bonuses and abilities are so if I need to adjust bonuses for NPCs I can do so easily enough in my head (but then again numbers have always been easy for me to work with).

Ah, I misunderstood. I also agree that a player should never hide a dice roll. And I will admit that frequently if I get a natural 20 that I intend to use, I will allow someone to peek over the screen and witness it.

I open roll all dice.

I almost never roll dice at all after character generation. Most outcomes are determined by GM fiat.

--flatline

I open die roll as well. though they might not always know what I am rolling for and sometimes its just to build tension

I let most dice rolls be open, though sometimes I'm cheeky and hide results, though the only time I've fudged dice as a GM is to let the players win, and that's only because the game would have to reset...

Though I've let TPK happen more than once. I don't cut them any slack for being stupid.

I dont kill pc's stupid players kill pc's. Jussayin. I play characters with over ten thousand mdc. Regularly. And no way would I charge chi town!

say652 wrote:I dont kill pc's stupid players kill pc's. Jussayin. I play characters with over ten thousand mdc. Regularly. And no way would I charge chi town!

Could you please share an example character so we can see how you accomplish such high MDC?

--flatline

say652 wrote:I dont kill pc's stupid players kill pc's. Jussayin. I play characters with over ten thousand mdc. Regularly. And no way would I charge chi town!

Glad that I am not the only one with characters (in my case 2) with health so high.

Norse giant-amaki duelist. Cutter.
Powers unlimited two. Immortal godling. PowerSurge.
Currently playing PowerSurge and kinda retired Cutter at level-5