You see, I generally am the one running the show as a DM, GM, or whatever. I'll brag for a second and flat out say that I can weave a pretty good yarn and can keep a group of people on task, making me quite suited for this role. Occassionally, though, somebody else wants to take the reigns and that's where things get a little weird.
In the past my behavior as a character in role-playing games has been checkered at best. I've been known to participate in heroic acts of selfless sacrifice and engage in plans involving some real teamwork but if I'm being honest, more often than not I get bored off my ass and embark on plans and actions that can only be described as disruptive.
After the jump are the top 5 worst things I've ever done to a role-playing campaign. I'd love to hear what the dumbest, most disruptive, most underhanded, etc thing you've ever done to a campaign is, so please leave a comment.
1. During a Marvel Super Heroes campaign, in which I was a villain, I got tired of dealing with another character's completely uninspired Tony Stark ripoff character. To spice things up-and here is where it's a little fuzzy as this was a long time ago- I bankrupted his company by either some kind of electronic bank fraud or through hostile takeover. I then used all of his assets to launch such schemes as filling the center of the Pentagon with green jello using a fleet of blimps and using a biplane to shoot a giant King Kong balloon full of explosives on the empire state building.
2. For some reason I decided to play a pacifist wizard in a D&D campaign. I used only blunt weapons and specialized in illusion spells. Those few spells in my book that could cause damage were only used as an extreme backup and were only capable of causing stun damage. Needless to say things went tits up for my entire party during one adventure where I tried to cast "friends" on a beholder. Nearly 16 years later, this is still talked about in my circle of friends.
3. While playing in a quite excellent Shadowrun campaign (meaning I had no real motive to "shake things up"), I found myself in possession of a car. Most of the rest of my group was in this car with me as we were fleeing the authorities after a botched run. My plan of escape was so ludicrous that one of the other players actually shouted "you'll kill us all!" My reply was simply "or die trying."
4. In a Vampire campaign set in the middle ages run by possibly the worst GM ever, I could barely even keep myself entertained with my own antics. And believe me, as a Tzimisce, I had plenty of antics at my disposal. Having gotten bored of trying to graft villagers to various things and perhaps having even gotten myself in trouble on account of this, I hired sappers to dig me an escape tunnel at the castle I was living in. While that might not sound so bad, I do need to point out that the castle belonged to one of the other players and that I failed to inform him of my remodeling.
5. I recently got the opportunity to play a guest spot in a Shadowrun campaign that I was running set in Chicago, the bug city. One of the players had an idea for an adventure, so we resolved to let him GM for a night while I would play a new character who would become temporarily entwined with the existing runners. Unfortunately, my choice in characters was a Polish immigrant named Ladyslaw who was running a failing detective agency. Were his alcoholism and proclivity for speaking only in terms of references to 1980s American network TV not enough to make this appearance both hilarious and highly disruptive of play, my insistence on delivering all of his lines "in character," fake accent and all, sealed the deal.
Well, I've showed you mine, now you show me yours. Share something in the comments, why don't you.
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