DM Embellishments

[W E Ray]

The cliche examples are adding music in the background or speaking in-voice, using handouts or props -- but I came up with a new one a few weeks ago that I absolutely love and would like to share.

We all laugh maniacally when we drop a PC but we never seem to even congratulate a Player when he or she drops our BBEG (because they're suppose to win, certainly, but still...)

Inspired by a reverse of the classic grognardian trick of collecting the character sheet from the Player (as a trophy) when you kill a PC, I decided to hand over the stat-block for the creative and unusual BBEGs to whichever Player gets the final shot. Let the Player have a trophy!
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Community Use Gimmicks / Tricks to Enhance our games....

1) Background Music

2) Speaking in-voice / with varying accents

3) Placing a Skull-n-Crossbones sticker on your DM screen every time you kill a PC

4) Hand over the BBEG or tough-fight stat block to the Player who made the kill (as trophies)

5) Collect the character sheet of the PCs you kill (as trophies)

6) Make a xerox copy of (important) NPC illustrations with plenty of blank space -- to use as a handout -- so Players can write notes (about the NPC) on that handout and keep it for reference.

[williamoak]

I've used # 2 before (played some imps with a high-pitched voice, gollum-esque speach). The others seem like nice ideas.

[Lord_Malkov]

An old Grognard GM of mine would actually take a dead PC's sheet and grin ear to ear as he tore it in half.

He ran a game at one point where the premise was that he was going to kill us. Period. It was just a matter of when. Surviving took a lot of skill and quick thinking. It was not the normal sort of game, but it was very interesting, and usually the people who died simply made mistakes or were too rash.

As a good gimmick though, I really loved the Fate Chip system from Deadlands, and it works really well in PF too.

Any time a player has a great roleplaying moment, you hand them a Poker Chip or some otherr marker, and they can use that chip at any time to either (A)Turn a crit into a regular hit, or (B)reroll any D20 roll after knowing the results.

Its all about promoting roleplaying. Getting a crit in combat, landing a powerful spell etc. are all great, and have their own sense of reward. Its nice to pump up the roleplaying end.

[W E Ray]

I think I like the Fate-Chip better than the Hero Point.

Only trouble I see is not losing the poker chip between now and the next session! Maybe that's why a Hero Point (easily written in pencil on your sheet) is more popular. (Plus, I've known a Player or two over the years who may bring an extra poker chip or two and swear they earned them weeks ago and I must've just forgotten!)

[Kalshane]

Lord_Malkov wrote:

An old Grognard GM of mine would actually take a dead PC's sheet and grin ear to ear as he tore it in half.

One of my players had an old DM who took that one further. He'd actually eat a piece of the torn up sheet.

[W E Ray]

7) Fate Chip / Hero Point

8) Real-life puzzle (chess position, rubik's Cube two-turns-away, riddle, etc.) is what the PCs have to solve

9) Use the big metal D20 to confirm crits instead of the ole plastic d20

[Tacticslion]

Dot.

[W E Ray]

10) Prepare exotic/ unusual food or tea for the Players when meeting an exotic/ unusual NPC. (Won't work if the flavor/ texture is anything like what even 1 Player has had)

[Kayerloth]

I used a variant of #9 above.
The characters encountered a Titan for the first time ... and I dropped a very large d20 onto the table as he attacked.

[Unruly]

I've used music, speaking in character, and in one rare case I burned a dead character's sheet.

Of course, that was a rare case. I usually try not to kill my players, and always have some way for them to come back from death if they do. But that guy, he poked Odin in the eyepatch. Literally and repeatedly. After being told to stop numerous times both in and out of character. So Odin smote him and used his soul to spice the mead in Valhalla.

So I made a small spectacle of it by stepping outside, having the player hold his sheet by a corner, and then I lit the bottom of it. Then I asked if anyone else wanted to poke Odin in the eye.

But it was the very start of a new campaign, so it wasn't like he lost anything other than the time it took to draw up the character.

[Mark Hoover]

The only one I've done consistently is to speak in a voice or occasionally act out something like a twitch, limp or a humped back. But I've done most if not all of these when I was in HS and college.

We had old European coins (no value) that we used as props; we used poker chips as Cool Guy awards; we played music, dimmed lights and once or twice dressed up for a game. We did #10 once for a White Wolf/Mage game but the only exotic thing I could find was homemade hummus (it was new/exotic to the players, so I went for it).

Nowadays we game at a games store or a guy's house with his kids right there. Plus none of my players are really into that stuff. I miss it though. I don't miss the super dramatic stuff like candles or plastic Halloween goblets, but I do miss listening to JUST the right music, or the one time my brother bought a single piece of expensive parchment, washed it with coffee, wrote on it with his calligraphy set and then finally wrinkled and burned portions of the page for a prop.

Why don't I do this stuff any more? It's not because I don't have time - I make time to make my game and my wife is really understanding, so I could squeeze in an extra five min for a prop or handout. Is it laziness? Maybe, but I don't think so. I think it's that my gamers right now would look at me like I'm from Mars if I showed up with The Ring of Mel - a rotating prop for the players when they want to try something cool but if they fail they want to look good doing it.

I have committed to one thing though for my current game: NPC cards. I'm going to have index cards w/NPC pics, names and a few characteristics. I'm toying w/the idea of also doing this for places and things as well. That way when recapping the story so far I can go: So, you started at the Hammered Dragon Inn (throws a card) and met Aldredhein (throws a card) the female half-elf rogue. She took you to the ruins of Flamenwing Castle (throws a card) where you fought numerous kobolds and found much loot including a masterwork spear (throws a card) with Ulfbert's father's maker's mark on it. Now you are headed back to the City of Ravenhurst (drops city map).

[Pupsocket]

W E Ray wrote:

10) Prepare exotic/ unusual food or tea for the Players when meeting an exotic/ unusual NPC. (Won't work if the flavor/ texture is anything like what even 1 Player has had)

Excellent advice. Even a bowl of dates and throwing a rug across the table can make a huge difference.

[tsuruki]

Ive tried BGM but my setup doesnt allow for it, I do have one commodity that I use for added suspence.

The big gold BBEG d20.
I run very dangerous bosses that can very easily run the entire party into the ground if provoked into untimely fights, theres also the odd mini-boss every now and then that can provide a tough brawl, for these guys I roll the big heavy d20 that makes a satisfying THOOM sound whenever I roll it on my rolling surface (the heavy D20 would damage my table otherwise).

I also roll it for some very serious situations or big moments (even when a roll is´nt nessessary, like when a boss character or powerful king type ally walks into the room. Walking doesnt require a roll, but a suddent "THOOM" makes all my players sit upright with ears perked)

[karkon]

11) Using a sound to set the location. e.g. a recording of seagulls and waves to set the scene for a beach or harbor.

I have found it to be very effective when used sparingly.