"Game Master! Why have you forsaken us?!"

[Slipperychicken]

I strongly disagree. If, however, you amend your rule to say "Never let a DM you don't trust cutscene you" I'd come along.

I've had the fortune to play in some wonderfully climactic adventures that would have been really diminished had we not willingly trusted the DM and let him monologue/cutscene on occasion. Of course, there were no twin dracoliches involved...

- M

I don't suppose your DM was the type to shout "Cutscene!" at least twice a session to cordon off parts of the game as non-interactable, then.

[Vknight]

I don't suppose your DM was the type to shout "Cutscene!" at least twice a session to cordon off parts of the game as non-interactable, then.

Note to self start shouting cutscene at players until they stop talking

[Tanuki Tales]

My story isn't as long or explosive as some of the other ones here, but it does illustrate my belief that if you want to know if someone will be a good GM, see if they are a good player.

Well, that's not necessarily true. Some folks are terrible at one but terrific at the other.

And pardon my question, but how exactly was she cheating in your two examples?

The grenade situation was a little cheap of her to do, but wasn't what I'd call cheating per se. I mean, was the grenade taking her out plot significant at all? If it wasn't, I'd personally let it slide but make a point that she needs to say those kind of things before hand next time.

The Harrowed one, well, she was the GM. She may not have had an actual reason for that bit of apparent railroading, but that doesn't mean she didn't and I know I personally don't enjoy folks correcting the GM in the middle of a game.

I don't know either Shadowrun or Deadlands mechanically to any intimate level, so I apologize if there are exact rules that make what she did flat out cheating.

[atomicpenguin]

The problem with the grenade thing was one of mechanics and choice. The point of the grenade was to reinforce that not every pathway is safe and a smart player should be cautious and check for traps like this. By saying "I just hold my breath" after springing the trap, she was trying to avoid the consequences of her actions despite her character knowledge not being enough to allow her to do so. I can see what you're saying, though.

As for the Harrowed story, that was another example of using player information instead of character information. The agent character had no way of knowing that the player character was Harrowed, yet she decided that she did anyway with no justification, which not only compromises the story that is being told but hamstrings his character and forces the party as a whole to follow along this path that they perhaps didn't want to follow. I don't have a problem with this kind of railroading per se, but I have a problem with how it was executed. If he had been acting foolish and flaunting the fact that he was Harrowed, then the agent taking notice and controlling our adventures from there on would be justified in story and the result of poor decisions of the player. Without that, though, all she was doing was punishing a player for doing nothing and dragging us through a plot that we didn't have any real reason to play.

[Tanuki Tales]

As for the Harrowed story, that was another example of using player information instead of character information. The agent character had no way of knowing that the player character was Harrowed, yet she decided that she did anyway with no justification, which not only compromises the story that is being told but hamstrings his character and forces the party as a whole to follow along this path that they perhaps didn't want to follow. I don't have a problem with this kind of railroading per se, but I have a problem with how it was executed. If he had been acting foolish and flaunting the fact that he was Harrowed, then the agent taking notice and controlling our adventures from there on would be justified in story and the result of poor decisions of the player. Without that, though, all she was doing was punishing a player for doing nothing and dragging us through a plot that we didn't have any real reason to play.

I'm not arguing that what she did was right or that she handled it correctly, so let me just clarify that:

Is there a way to determine someone is a Harrowed if they are actively hiding it? A way open to government agents?

[Arbane]

Is there a way to determine someone is a Harrowed if they are actively hiding it? A way open to government agents?

Well, they're essentially smart zombies. I don't think they bleed when injured, for one thing.

[atomicpenguin]

I'll try to explain without spoiling much. Those who plan to play Deadlands and don't already know about Harrowed should look away.

Spoiler

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In Deadlands, Harrowed are essentially corpses reanimated by demons known as the Manitous. The person still retains full cognitive capacity and their personality; they simply have a passenger who sometimes takes control for a while. As far as how to spot them, Harrowed have a unique wound that will never heal: the wound that caused them to die in the first place. Fortunately, these wounds are typically in places that are covered by normal clothing. Apart from that, the only ways to spot a Harrowed are basic ways to spot a corpse, namely the smell and the fact that the body is cold. But, by not touching anyone and covering the smell with alcohol, it is practically impossible to spot an unwounded Harrowed from a glance. While an agent would be more likely to be aware that Harrowed exist, they are no more likely to spot one than any other person.

[Tanuki Tales]

How do animals react to them? What's the tech level? Is there magic or anything similar?

[atomicpenguin]

There's nothing in the books about animals reacting to them. I'm not sure what you mean about tech level. The harrowed are

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possessed

, so technology doesn't enter the equation at all. If you're talking about the setting, Deadlands is the wild west but with cool steampunk technology, including automatic guns, steam tanks, steam-powered helecopters, etc. Magic is all over the place, though it isn't publicly acknowledged or accepted by anyone except the Indians.

Look, I'm really not interested in arguing about this. This is board to post GM horror stories. I had a story about a GM doing something I didn't like and I posted it. If you don't think its legitimate, that's fine. I'm even willing to argue it to a point. But I'm not interested in laying out every aspect of the setting for you to dissect and determine whether there was any way the agent could have spotted the Harrowed character. Whatever reasons you can come up with, the GM didn't use them. I didn't approve. If you did, then you have every right to, but I'm not interested in having a full blown debate about it here.

[Lost Demiurge]

I'm not arguing that what she did was right or that she handled it correctly, so let me just clarify that:

Is there a way to determine someone is a Harrowed if they are actively hiding it? A way open to government agents?

There might have been, but by the story she hadn't rolled anything for it, done any legwork in game to find it out, or anything.

The PC was metagaming.

It's like playing a superheroes game, going through great lengths to protect your secret identity, then having another player join in who says "My guy knows your secret identity because he's a mentalist! And I'll use this knowledge in-game to get you to do stuff!"

[Tanuki Tales]

-Snip-

There's no need to get bent out of shape, I was just trying to understand the context of your additions to the thread.

The PC was metagaming.

She was the Game Master in the Harrowed example. Her automatically determining the player was a Harrowed and then having the party dragged around by the Agent on that premise was the submitted GM Horror story.

[Lost Demiurge]

There's no need to get bent out of shape, I was just trying to understand the context of your additions to the thread.



She was the Game Master in the Harrowed example. Her automatically determining the player was a Harrowed and then having the party dragged around by the Agent on that premise was the submitted GM Horror story.

Ah, I misread that. My bad.

[atomicpenguin]

There's no need to get bent out of shape, I was just trying to understand the context of your additions to the thread.

Sorry. I missed the comment earlier about not questioning the story and thought you were just derailing the thread. My bad.

[Tanuki Tales]

Sorry. I missed the comment earlier about not questioning the story and thought you were just derailing the thread. My bad.

Just a simple misunderstanding. No harm, no foul.