The Evil GM
From: Leslie Holm
==============================
==============================
My idea of a great GM is the one whose name makes you cringe
when you see it in your e-mail. The good kind of cringe,
mind you, where you shiver in delighted anticipation. Is my
character still alive? What horrors will she face today?
Nothing excites me more in a new game than hearing we have
an Evil GM.
There are Evil GMs and there are bad GMs. A bad GM is one
who spends little time preparing, writes badly, or kills
your character just out of spite. An evil GM creates
thrilling adventures that surprise you at every turn and
keeps you on your toes. Complacency is not an option with
the Evil GM.
So, how do you get to be an Evil GM? Hard work, of course!
Here are a few things I’ve observed my favorite GMs doing:
1) Kill someone!
This isn’t the movies. Good guys don’t always win. When you
have a group of people wandering around looking for trouble,
sometime, somewhere, they are going to come up against
something bigger, stronger, and meaner. If the dice dictate,
let the character die!
2) Shake it up!
At the inn, the PCs either meet someone with a quest or get
woken up by adversaries. On a deserted road, they are
attacked. In the dungeon, they kill monsters and find
treasure. Boring! Seduce a PC in the inn, sprinkle annoying
talking flowers along the road, flood the dungeon with
butterflies.
3) Meet new people!
Don’t let your NPCs become predictable. The man decked out
in black chainmail carrying a wicked looking sword could be
a garrulous paladin, while the young girl in pigtails with a
winning smile could be cursed or possessed. An interesting
way to do this is to create totally stereotypical NPCs and
then switch their characteristics.
roleplayingtips.com