In my first serious horror-themed campaign(Ravenloft), I had 2 players make a pair of rogues modeled after Jay and Silent Bob. All the tension and suspense; gone. Just. Gone.I'd have thought that'd be easy to deal with. They'd simply be the first to die.Things got serious real quick when one of them(the Jay one) got afflicted with Lycanthrope, and failed his save to get rid of it(in Ravenloft, you get once chance to be cured, and if you fail, the Lycanthrope is permanent). The player completely freaked out and it made for one of the most awkward, bad vibes game sessions ever.
The player left the game, the character got retired to an asylum in hopes of learning how to contain "the beast," and Silent Bob player retired his character as well to help his friend.
That's exactly the kind of situation where the GM goes--and hopefully you tried, Josh M--"Uh, guys, I can see you're trying to have fun with this, but you're aware this is a horror game, right? Maybe you should save that idea for another game."
'Course some people won't listen, but still.
I've based characters and NPCs on silly things or just on other fictional characters (one of my recurring NPCs actually has her origins in Janine Melnitz from Ghostbusters of all things) but it's all about the tone you want to set...
That's exactly the kind of situation where the GM goes--and hopefully you tried, Josh M--"Uh, guys, I can see you're trying to have fun with this, but you're aware this is a horror game, right? Maybe you should save that idea for another game."
'Course some people won't listen, but still.
I've based characters and NPCs on silly things or just on other fictional characters (one of my recurring NPCs actually has her origins in Janine Melnitz from Ghostbusters of all things) but it's all about the tone you want to set...
I did. It was honestly my first real long-term campaign, and maybe I didn't address things as clearly as I should have. But, by the time these players introduced these characters, the campaign had been well underway and the tone was firmly set; we had started at level 1, and by this time they were level 7, the game had been underway for almost a year. The players had came up with the idea while playing in a different campaign, and weren't able to change characters in that game, so they shoe-horned them into mine.
I expressed some concern and uncertainty about the characters, but they insisted they wouldn't ruin anything. In short, they turned a David Lynch movie into a Scooby-Doo cartoon. I was too much of a pushover/doormat DM at the time to stand up and say something about it.
But, a random encounter with a werewolf solved that problem, you could say. I had no intentions of things turning out as bad as they did, I had simply rolled up a random encounter in the woods of a werewolf-infested domain. I was going to offer up a magical cure for lycanthrope via a short quest, but things had spiraled out of control so fast and turned so ugly, it was a moot point.
Well, that's how we learn. And I think it was a big learning experience for them--hopefully they became better players because of it.
Well, that's how we learn. And I think it was a big learning experience for them--hopefully they became better players because of it.
"Silent Bob" did, but "Jay" hasn't grown much. I haven't seen an outburst quite as volatile as that one since then, but he's still very short-fused and abrasive. I haven't gamed with him in several years, though we still hang out and talk gaming.
I'm not a big fan of xorn and other creatures that can borrow through solid rock at the speed of a man walking (sometimes much faster)
I also don't like creatures that seem to come directly out of a horror/sci-fi movie.
Dude, I'm a monster who seems to come directly out of a horror/sci-fi movie, who can burrow directly though solid dirt and rock at the speed of a man walking.
ALL OF YOUR GAMES ARE RACIST AND UNREASONABLE!!
(Sorry, I had to.)
Landsharks come out of a horror/sci-fi movie? Which one? I want to see it!
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Weird. I can't understand why a) someone would want to make a couple of disruptive characters in the group like that in the first place or b) why you'd get so upset by something that's just an aspect of the game.
Admittedly, though, a 'Jay' afflicted with Lycanthrope is kind of funny.
But hey, this brings up something else I don't like in fantasy games: PCs modeled after non-fantasy characters. That's not an all-inclusive statement. I don't mind an Indiana Jones type character but don't try to play Robocop, please.
Hey! One of my best characters was a LN warforged who was pretty much robocop. He also had flashes of someone else's memory (in game reasons) and used a greatsword.
Now I'm envisioning Robocop with a greatsword...
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That looks right, doesn't it?
But does he flip it around before he sheathes it?
Well I never cared for the warforged either.
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Landsharks come out of a horror/sci-fi movie? Which one? I want to see it!I'm not a big fan of xorn and other creatures that can borrow through solid rock at the speed of a man walking (sometimes much faster)
I also don't like creatures that seem to come directly out of a horror/sci-fi movie.
Dude, I'm a monster who seems to come directly out of a horror/sci-fi movie, who can burrow directly though solid dirt and rock at the speed of a man walking.
ALL OF YOUR GAMES ARE RACIST AND UNREASONABLE!!
(Sorry, I had to.)
It's been about thirty years since I saw Gamera vs, Guiron/Attack of the Monsters, so my memories were a bit hazy, but Guiron is very landshark-ey IMO.