We were playing a GURPS multiverse game on Halloween night. All of us had been captured and were in the gallows about to be executed by the enemy with no way out. One by one, we got hung, and we all ended up dead. We were just sitting there, quiet and in shock, not really sure what the hell our GM was thinking.
Then he said that we all woke up. We neglected to account for the fact that we were in a technologically advanced enough world that had the capability of resuscitating us even after we were dead for several minutes.
My fighter against an assassin who we suspected killed an NPC in the first session.
We are down in the mud, grappling. I fumbled my sword and he got me good (crit), leaving me quite vulnerable. The other party members were nearby but not in range.
I pulled out a dagger and got a crit of my own, ending his life with less than 5 hp left of my own.
Later that night I realized that dagger I’d killed him with was looted from the NPC’s pack. I’d gotten revenge on her behalf, using her own knife against her murderer.
I think my most intense one was probably from the very first campaign I ever played (after a couple of sessions experience in a kinda ad-hoc fashion). D&D 4th edition.
We were a rather big group of (I think) 6 players plus DM. The main campaign was fairly standard. DM set us up with some prophecy stuff and we set about fulfilling it.
Everything was going pretty normally, until I got the weird sense that there was something else going on. Outside of session I spoke to the DM to have my character try and investigate. It turned out that weird sense was correct. Another player was setting up their own schemes between sessions. So I started setting up my own schemes, and roping other players into them.
It’s the kind of thing that looking back on it now, most would probably consider a major red flag. There was no Session 0 or any out-of-character discussion about doing these kinds of things. It could have been incredibly toxic. But we loved it. It added a whole extra layer to everything we were doing during the sessions, as well as giving us the ability to converse with the DM and each other to play more of the game asynchronously between sessions.
In the penultimate session, we defeat the BBEG on another plane, and then arrive back in our world. Another week of last-minute scheming, before the actual final session was a massive PvP battle where the player openly turned against the rest of the party. One of the other players unexpectedly (to me at least) turned and joined them, as well as some NPCs on both sides. “Intense” is the perfect word to describe that session and the build up to it. That physical, heart-pumping feeling the same as when you’re hyping yourself up for your first time trying a dangerous sport or something similar.
We ended up pushing back and winning the encounter for the good guys, but didn’t actually kill or capture the betraying PC. They fled, and their player took over as DM for our next campaign.
Indeed, when PvP is well done, it can lead to pretty amazing memories, the stakes aren’t the same as the player aren’t trying to let you win. So even though many people would call it a “red flag” it can also be a huge “green flag” and looks like that table was ready for it.
But you’re right, having a short discussion about PvP and betrayal in session zero is worth it. Remember that even something as small as the cliché elves and dwarves teasing each other is a form of PvPcan end-up in a nightmare with the wrong player, while a full traitor within the PC but playing in a “play to lift” Mood can lead to some of the greatest experience.
Thanks for the comment, now I want to discuss the PvP option before my next campaign session zero.
The space between us this has been published during covid as a “larp through webcam” and it was super intense emotionally speaking, I am not going to give any spoiler, but the fact that it started slowly with workshop, and not much happening really helped when the tension started to rise, and the ending was just Waw, don’t forget some tissues, because ninja will be cutting onion
In the same category, with a lot of bleed, the famous Alice is missing which is somehow a hybrid betqween boargaming and TTRPG. The theme isn’t easy (A kid has gone missing), but it’s the theme which trigger a lot of bleed, add the playlist which will put me back in the ambiance if I listen to it again. and again, expect some Ninja to cut onions in the background
I don’t think that an english translation is available but anyway, let me say a couple of word about Shadow island a parlour larp in a lovecratian ambiance, about a disfunctional family making a yearly silent dinner, to commemorate the death of “patriarch”. Expect long character sheet (mine was around 40 pages, only background as there is almost no rules), an afternoon of workshop before the game starts, and the whole “silent dinner” concept creates a feeling of weirdness long before the “supernatural” kicks in. Do not read it if you don’t intend to play it and if it’s run near you, just join.
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