How to know your DM’s a Rat Bastard:

[Pbartender]

That's just being a good DM.

Rat Bastard refers to a whole bunch of techniques that use vague loopholes and inconsitincies within the rules (or the DM's head) to aggravate, frurstrate, and destroy players and their characters.

While some DM's take 'rat bastard' as a compliment as you described above, I use Rat Bastard to refer to people who constantly make the player's lives miserable in the way they abuse the rules in order to come up with some sembelance of a challenge they lack the mental capacity, time, of ability to do within the framework of the actual game provided.

Thus, while must of this list is for fun, several of those posted by me and other are all too horribly true.

And that is the truly disappointing part for those of us who are members of El-remmen's (aka Nemmerle), Rat Bastard DM's Club.

You see, killing players is easy. Anyone can do it, and they don't even need a rule book to do it. What you describe, Vraille, has nothing with Rat Bastardry. No DM exhibiting such behavior would ever even be considered for membership in the RBDMC.

As far as we're concerned, Rat Bastard DMing is all about providing an interesting game through uniquely challengeing and innovative encounters. The goal is never to kill characters, though occasionally it is an unfortunate consequence. We endeavor to give the players every chance of success, but at the same force them to work for that accomplishment so it becomes something important and meaningful to them.

If the RBDM is doing his job properly, the players are taring their hair out and grinding their teeth finding the solution to the current problem... But at the same time, they look forward to the next set of challenges with the greatest anticipation, and fondly reminisce and even brag about the tricks the RBDM has played on them before. Every trick the RBDM pulls on his players should encourage them to rethink new and innovative tactics to deal with the situation.

It is really difficult to explain without seeing it in action, but suffice it to say that the members of the Rat Bastard Dungeon Master's Club do not consider arbitrary character death, total party kills, ignorance of rules, willful maliciousness, bad puns or goofy sight gags to be the apotheosis of Rad Bastard DMing.

In light of that, I hope you change your definition of Rat Bastardry. There are better descriptor for many of the scenarios suggested in the thread, but very few of them would held in very high esteem by Eric's Grandmother.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Yes, there seems to be two sets of opinions what is "rat bastard":

One camp thinks that being rat bastard means that you challenge the players, make them come back for more. Not doing that is lazy, and being a, well, bastard, is things that we may not name here for sake of the elderly population.

The others think that challanging players just means that you are a good DM, not doing it means you are lazy, and being a "rat bastard" means that you are a rat bastard, doing horrid things to the characters, but not arbitrarily killing them. If you just kill them, you're a lousy DM who apparently needs that kick.

I am in the second camp. Pbartender: If I read you correctly, I think your club has the wrong name. If you challenge the players like you claim to do, you're no rat bastards, but just Good DM's

BTW: you're a bit too obsessed with the removal/addition of garments based on crit hits...

Funny thing: he allows no longswords or the like for player characters, only axes, maces, scythes. But the enemies always have a rapier or the like, keen, with improved critical and level in 3.0 weapon master.

 

[Pbartender]

The others think that challanging players just means that you are a good DM, not doing it means you are lazy, and being a "rat bastard" means that you are a rat bastard, doing horrid things to the characters, but not arbitrarily killing them.

Well... actually, we do do horrid things to challenge the characters without killing them arbitrarily, but we do it in a way that the players haven't seen before, and we do it in a way that has them wanting to come back for more. By your definition, our club is made up of both Rat Bastards and Good DMs... We're Good Rat Bastard DMs?

It's kind of like be able to dip into both the Light Side and the Dark Side of the Force, but without letting it turn you into a cackling totalitarian dictator wearing a black robe and shooting lighting out of your fingertips.

 

[Hypersmurf]

One camp thinks that being rat bastard means that you challenge the players, make them come back for more. Not doing that is lazy, and being a, well, bastard, is things that we may not name here for sake of the elderly population.

Well, there's the good DM, whose players have a great time and come back for more.

There's the bad DM, whose players don't have a great time.

And there's the rat bastard DM, whose players glare at him, groan when they realise how much trouble they're in and that they did it to themselves, mutter "I hate you" on a regular basis... and nevertheless have a great time and come back for more.

-Hyp.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

and that they did it to themselves

Think that's definitely the key point to rat bastardliness...

Giving them enough rope to hang themselves.

Wish I could get more of that in my games, I'll get there eventually.

 

[hrafnagud]

You see, killing players is easy....The goal is never to kill characters

Damn, you run a brutal game!

 

[Pbartender]

Damn, you run a brutal game!

Yes. Yes I do.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

And there's the rat bastard DM, whose players glare at him, groan when they realise how much trouble they're in and that they did it to themselves, mutter "I hate you" on a regular basis... and nevertheless have a great time and come back for more.

-Hyp.

Sounds like a friend of mine's reaction to our DM for pulling lots of stuff on his cleric character.... his mantra is "Wendell, I hate you..." for which Wendell (the DM) just grins. Basically the player brings part of it on himself. The rest of us certainly don't help matters any...

 

[BLACKDIRGE]

Every monster you EVER encountered has BlackDirge name tags sewn into its clothes/armour/scales/feathers.

Why do I always seem to get mentioned in these kind of threads?

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Here is Part 3.

I also went back and edited the first post to combine all mine into 1 big list. Hope everyone continues to enjoy it.

Also, based on opposing views as to what a 'Rat Bastard DM' is, I changed the title to 'Cheap Rat Bastard'. That should solve everything.

72. DM claims he’s soooo good, he can’t keep track of all his players. So he’s started branding them by campaign. He asks you to drop your pants and present your left buttock so he can stamp a big FR on it.

73. “No. I don’t know why you’re calling here. I DON”T CARE. I’M NOT DOING ANY OF THAT. LISTEN, BIT**, I DON’T CARE YOU THE F*** YOU THINK YOU ARE BUT I’M TELLING YOU TO F*** THE F**** F**** OF BEFORE I %^$#@^ YOU & YOU’RE *%$@#$ DOG TOO!!!!!!!”
“Who was that?”
“Some bi***. Your wife I think. Thinks I should stop this game just because she went into labor. I told her where to stick it. She should be in labor for a good 6-8 hours longer, more than enough time to finish this game before the kid pops out”

74. DM insists on running naked. (Should you have the good fortune of having Shakira or Richard Simmons be your DM, move this to that fantasy list).

75. D20 modern. Everyone’s a mime & must stay in ‘character’.


76. You find out he’s been selling your ‘deceased’ characters on Ebay.


77. Curling: The RPG.


78. Every time you use Commune, you get Buddy Hackett


79. He believes Millli-Vanilli were the greatest role-players of all time (which, while correct, is a cruel thing to tell a player he has failed compared to Rob & Fab.


80. When playing any Japanese Anime game, guess who gets to be Hentai victim?


81. Your only Animal Companion is a hyper active Skunk with a ‘hair-trigger’.


82. Every Monster has enough rogue levels to gain Evasion.


83. Only spell your wizard ever finds is the touch spell ‘Repair Prostate’.


84. When you screw up any of his plans, he calls the drug squad & leaves a tip about which orifice you are hiding your ‘weed’ in.


85. Pink Floyd’s the Wall RPG. He won’t share the acid that comes with it.


86. Karaoke Night! You may choose from the greatest hits of Michael Bolten, Celine Dion, or the Barry Manilow.


87. You’re captured by pirates & forced to be their slaves. The Captain’s OK, but watch out for that Tennille bi***!


88. In order to get any XP from the session, you have to sing acapella a random nation’s National Anthem. You can sing Zimbabwe’s anthem from memory.


89. He sells you naked pictures of Paris Hilton. You get home and find out two things. 1. EVERYBODY has naked pictures of Paris Hilton. 2. You have naked pictures of Dom Deluise.


90. DM taughts you with cries of ‘Whose you daddy?’ over and over and over until you scream out ‘I DON’T KNOW WHO MY DADDY IS’ and curl up in the fetal position in the corner, sucking on my thumb whimpering ‘I want my whubbie’