GM Cruelty Scale

This was mostly taken from the Interactive Fiction Cruelty Scale, but I thought something to apply to GMs would make sense. When creating a campaign, you should declare where you sit on the scale. There is no "right" answer, but each player will likely have a preference as far as what kind of campaign they want to play in. Thoughts? Let me know in the comments.

·         Tutorial- The party cannot fail. This is either because an NPC travelling with the party will solve all the challenges, or because dues es machina will save the party to prevent failure. NPCs and the world at large will largely ignore ridiculous things the PCs do. (A necromancer PC with undead followers who were once townsfolk will get no more than odd looks or comments from NPCs).  Characters will not die in combat because they will be resurrected/healed by an NPC or NPCs will suddenly start missing characters, or spread their attacks up so that characters cannot/will not be killed. (NPCs may all target the regenerator for instance, or use ineffectual attacks).

·         Merciful- The party cannot fail the mission, except by dying in combat. Combats are not designed to kill party members, but critical failures may cause characters to die. NPCs will stop attacking characters who are unconscious, even if they are evil killer NPCs. TPKs will generally be avoided by dues es machina or NPCs.  If the party does fall, they will be captured and allowed to escape, either by NPCs or other players. A mission the party is about to fail will become easier or solved by NPCs. NPCs will ignore any weirdness for party members, though there may be an upper limit to this. (People will still not believe in magic despite seeing a flying rapist fly off with a possessed succubus whilst throwing fireballs, but there will be a reason given as to why). Characters who are purposefully disruptive may have trouble with NPCs. (A demon walking around in the church is okay, but not with a bunch of mind controlled thralls.)

·         Polite- It is possible to fail missions if the characters are complete idiots, but each mission will have 3-4 ways of success, custom built to the skills of each team member, so the players will never not have one of the ways at their disposal. If PCs don’t show up, and NPC with that skill will be made available. Combat will be difficult, but usually not deadly. NPCs will react to ridiculous characters, though they will generally be understanding and willing to work with people they don’t like. TPKs are possible but very unlikely. NPCs are available to solve the missions if the PCs ask them to and are willing to give up a portion (or all) of the mission rewards.

·         Tough- Missions are possible if the PCs behave intelligently, though can potentially be failed if the PCs miss a vital clue or act suboptimally. A mission will generally have 2-3 ways to succeed, but those ways may not be immediately apparent and may require skill rolls to identify those ways. Combat may be deadly, though if handled appropriately may be easy (there may be ways to bypass or make combats easy- though those means will need to be discovered and may not be apparent). Character death is possible but most combats do not include character death unless the party is acting sub-optimally. TPKs are possible but rare. NPCs will often have pre-written goals/motive/prejudices which may make it difficult to play characters that are not the norm (such as metahumans, females, elves, etc). Character choices will have far reaching consequences, both positive and negative, based on how they interact with NPCs.

·         Nasty- Missions will generally end with the mission parameters met, though complete success will be difficult to obtain, and will require the PCs to work intelligently and/or together, or use resources to accomplish. There will usually be 1-2 ways to complete a mission, and those ways will be difficult to accomplish, as well as sometimes be non-obvious. Characters are not expected to always get 100% completion. Combats are deadly and difficult, and the players must actively avoid TPKs, though they will be easily avoided if the party makes effort. NPCs will not be assumed to be helpful to the players, and there are generally some level of obstacle to most interactions- any NPC you want help from may have a side mission or need a diplomacy check rather than starting helpful. Villians will act intelligently/efficiently. Unconscious characters will still be targeted by villains who wish to kill the party, especially if a healer is present. Characters will find consequences for virtually all their actions, positive or negative, even if it’s not clear. Characters will have to make choices frequently without having all the information.

·         Cruel- Missions are very difficult to complete, either because they require so many steps that the whole campaign is trying to overcome this one mission, or because the challenge rating is so high that only via super rolls, or especially clever play can it be defeated. The missions are generally challenges, so completing the mission may not be necessary to continuing the campaign. NPCs are generally non-helpful, either because they’re weaker than the PCs and have nothing to offer, or because the PCs are generally distrusted by the world, or because every NPC requires special handling to get help out of. TPKs are common. Players need to make their characters together and all show up because the mission won’t be adjusted for lack of players. NPCs helpers may be available, but they will come with obstacles as well as assistance. Characters will find that all their actions have consequences and that they are generally negative. Do not expect that familiars, animal companions, houses, businesses etc to survive unless they are in your sight at all time, and sometimes not even then. Usually your immediate equipment is safe from GM theft, but not always. Players may have to go to ridiculous lengths to defeat enemies, as the enemies are made to be as smart and powerfull as the player with the same genre savvy player creation thoughts. (Half red dragon trolls with acid immunity, for example).

·         Evil- These are generally considered one-offs or similar because everything the characters touch either explode or attack you. The tomb of horrors is a great example, the Gygax setup. Every NPC is secretly out to betray you, or use you, and the PCs are often pitted against each other directly and on purpose. The missions are so difficult you are not intended to win: winning means you literally beat the GM at his own game by making characters that he could not destroy with his pre-written module. TPKs happen more than surviving the mission does (though TPK may not mean death- players may be transformed, teleported away, have all their stuff stolen, dropped down to 1^st level, or any means of ridiculousness). PCs will generally be at massively different power levels due to character replacement or XP rules, and critical hit/fumble charts themselves cause massive turnover. Characters who do not die will have extremely powerful magical items, but also likely be maimed in some way (such as missing arms/legs/or being cursed by dark gods). The party constantly meets characters more powerful than them and must often tread lightly in an attempt to sell the NPC on not killing them.

Things the Players Are No Longer Allowed to Do

This is a partially funny list- but it's should give a GM things to think about when approving characters. These are all real-world examples from my games.

• Players can not attack anywhere on the earth by ricocheting blasts off the moon.
• Players can not hide in other dimensions while blasting enemies in this one.
• Players can not disintegrate Pluto or other planets.
• One player should not solo-attack any major group, even if they don't have powers. This includes the Yakuza or any national government.
• Players should not abuse time travel plots to undermine previous campaign history and paradox shut-down the campaign.
• Players should not attempt to brutally destroy Disneyland with telekinetic powers, even if it looks like they might be the bad guy.
• Players should not buy the 1 point immunity: Immunity to [insert villain's name here]'s powers.
• Players cannot put innate on teleportation.
• Players cannot make character who's "niche" is boosting all their rank 1 powers or skills with a single massive boost power.
• Player's alternate powers should legitimately stem from the primary power. Example: Teleportation is not a good alternate power of mind control.
• Players should not make characters who's goals are evil: this includes players who worship evil demons, intelligent apes who want to destroy humanity, characters who's primary motive is the death of another PC, and Yakuza Crime Bosses.
• Players should not make characters who are clones of Celebrities. This includes Jesus and Good Hitler.
• "Fuck Earth, let's go live on another dimension" is not a valid response to anything.
• "Fuck Earth, let's go live on an alternate earth where this event isn't happening" is also not a valid response to anything.
• When a power is banned, that ban extends to other powers which have the exact same effect, even if the framing is different. If postcognition is banned, using communicate:objects to emulate postcognition is also banned.
• "This is not my problem" is not an appropriate response for Super Heroes.
• "This is above my pay grade" is not an appropriate response for Super Heroes. (Rorschach stood up to Dr. Manhattan after all- even if he DID lose).
• Postcognition is not as accurate as actual time travel- no pause, rewind, etc.
• Players cannot use "precious metals" as the only item that blocks X-ray vision, and then spend their time collecting precious metals.
• Players cannot buy off their weaknesses immediately after they become relevant.
• Player's cannot open teleportation portals on the autobahn so that cars crash into the villain. Teleportation portals to the sun also create bad effects for the planet.
• Players cannot open teleportation portals that are restricted to only specific items to get around the previous rule- for example, a teleportation portal to the sun, selective to only enemies and not solar radiation and heat to protect this end of the portal.
• Players cannot spend down time using inventor/ritualist/etc to amass a stockpile of every power to use whenever.
• Players can no longer kill John Travolta when he's doing nothing to the party.
• Players can no longer attack the pope just because he's around.
• Players can not come to a special session with one other player just to arrange that player's death.
• Players cannot stretch all believability and change character's personality so that the character can learn something the player is already aware of and act on things he shouldn't know.
• Players cannot ricochet a blast off the moon to hit someone on the other side of the world.  

Just a bit, but as you GM you see those power gamers trying to go all "mechanics first" on you. Thought a humorous post on some of the goofy things that players have done in the past would prepare a new GM on what to expect.

Building Your World

Below are some steps for the first timer GMs based on issue's I've had and seen while playing and running. Hopefully it helps.

1) Make Character Creation Rules:
Don't let one guy play Superman next to Mr. Furious. Have group character creation sessions when possible. It's important for not only having characters not overlap each other, but also to make sure some characters aren't all-powerful compared to others.

I had one session where I played a thief who would phase through doors, teleport objects out of people's hands, and get away. Another player had a thief who had massive stealth and open lock type skills. Way too much overlap, and mine was just built better because it used powers instead of skills.

In another campaign, my wife played a robot scientist with max knowledge skills, data link, the ability to talk to objects, and a robot sidekick (similar to the metal gear mk ii from MGS4). Another player had a person with max knowledge skills and not much else. Again, way too much overlap.

In a third campaign, one of my players had a mimic who copied everyone's powers, while another was playing a flash style character. Player 1 mimicked the flash powers (and a bunch of others) making that character basically a god while the other character was just trying to keep up. I've literally had superhero plans where it was "Let's all get there and watch Paul win." Not much fun for everyone else.

2) DON'T over make your Campaign World

Can't stress it enough. Too much stuff, and you have no missions. Put in any weird social things the characters need to know about (are there super police? is there a main bad guy we're aware of?) and the rest, develop as the characters get through missions. Tell them what they know when it's relevant. Otherwise you can too easily paint yourself into a corner.

Think about Iron Man 3. Where were the rest of the avengers? We established that the Hulk is staying with Iron Man at the end of the Avengers, and he has contact info on all the rest. No one could help him fight the bad guys?

You can paint yourself in a similar corner if you put in too many details. Why isn't [insert other hero group] handling this? Or you've left no room in your city for a new villain.

Leave it open ended so you have room to grow.

3) Missions should develop through the plot, not be cookie-cutter

Why are they robbing the bank? (How often is THAT one used?)

Have the missions derive from things the characters have already done if possible. If the characters discovered a drug that gives people powers, have that drug make an appearance later, or have new villains trying to uncover that formula.

If the world advances through the player's efforts, they feel more involved in the world. If aliens attack- what happens to their world later? Is the government launching a counter-attack? Even if it's not the player's mission, they might know about it.

Maybe the players have to testify at a trial for the old villain (and that trial might be during another mission to make it a hardship for the players).

4) Know the villain's powers and motives

That should be enough for stories. If your villain is just there to have cool powers, he's not worth it. His motives can create the plot. He should be willing to flee from battles that are going south.

Also, why are people robbing the jewelry store? To have jewelry? Jewelry store robberies don't happen all that much NOW, because the gems can be traced. Mr Freeze stole diamonds to power his devices- that makes sense, but why are millionaire villains stealing anything? Don't have your villains all be Dr. Evil, who makes billions of dollars with his front company but then hijacks the world for millions.

5) Tell the PCs the campaign flavor

Are you going to be dark and sinister like Sin City, or wacky like Aqua Teen hunger force. We've played with superhero teams that model Planet Express, and others that model Alphas. We've also played as literal gods going to high school together. But the PCs need to know the style if they're going to make the correct characters and play correctly. Batman as played by Adam West is way different then Batman from Justice League: War.

6) Right place, right time is not really for this system

The heroes just happen to be at another bank robbery? With teleport, flight, and speed, they can quickly get to any crime that's happening, they don't always have to be present. Think about what obstacles the heroes are likely to get involved in. Do they have police contacts? They might be called to look at a crime scene. Are they illegal vigilantes? They might get their leads from police scanner or a precog. Superheroes tend to be reactive as it is- but proactive enough to hunt down villains "just because", they don't need to be further reactive to have to solve crimes just because it's happening while they're present.

7) Mention other happenings in the world

For every crime the superheroes thwart, there should be another crime somewhere in the world that another superhero team thwarted, and the heroes can hear about. That way they don't feel like they're the only ones stopping the world from falling apart. If they ARE the only thing, then maybe some police get lucky and bust a super villain by accident or something.

Also, this isn't Elder Scrolls. In elder scrolls oblivion gates don't open until you get to Kvatch, and Dragons don't come back until you kill the first one by Whiterun. In an open RP system, things happen behind the players backs sometimes. The crime they stop means that another crime didn't have their attention. Sometimes you can have multiple happenings and make them choose what to stop.

8) What is failure?

Death isn't failure- death means they need to regenerate or resurrect, and the villain got away. The villain getting away isn't failure- they just need to chase them. Every failure should create new obstacles. Sometimes the players can blow something big: the bomb goes off, the hostages die- but it's not a video game- the consequences happen and the game continues. Give them hero points and other opportunities to get back at the villain, but the best stories aren't the ones where the heroes always win. Final Fantasy 6 has Kefka wreck the planet, and may be the best final fantasy story of them all.

This isn't a "trophy" or "achievement" game- players and GMs alike should understand that. You can make your character godlike very easily- it's not like D&D where it's about getting that +5 holy avenger, this is about telling the story and having the heroes overcome obstacles. Mechanical development is secondary to story development. Have multiple ways for the heroes to WIN, but it's really not possible for the heroes to LOSE- since losing just introduces more obstacles.


Hopefully this helps in creating your campaign world. Feel free to reply with any questions or advice of your own.