I could forgive you for thinking my games are hell and that I hate my players. You'd be right but it's okay, my players hate me too and they were forged in hell.
What is GMvP
It is, in simple terms, an RPG in which the GM tries to kill the players and they try to stop him.
It's always demonstrably your fault if you lose (on either side).
Campaigns are disposable.
 |
| Another successful campaign reaches it's denouement |
What GMvP is not
It is not 'More Hardcore Than You'. One of my players runs games as merciless as any I've played. But they are not GMvP as he works within constraints GMvP can't support. Notably a plan. This guy toys with us in ways you just cannot do without a plan.
If a TPK (Total Party Kill) would be annoying to the GM for any reason it's not GMvP.
The payoff for the players is transformed. If there isn't one then you're just a sadist and it's not GMvP.
I don't expect many GMs have unloaded an entire dungeon level simultaneously on their party because clearly you are going to TPK those players.
Or not. How many GM's players have slaughtered an entire dungeon level simultaneously. The payoff is glory. A glory bought with corpses but glory nonetheless. Stories other players cannot tell. GMvP players achieve things that other games rightly dare not make them do and that they rightly should not try.
The side effect is that your players become acutely aware of just how much they are actually capable of once they open themselves to more risk than would be strictly sane. You can't rein them back in either; once you are prepared to kill your game for a TPK you can't expect them to play it ultra-safe to keep your precious game alive either. That bond of trust you used to have is broken.
But fuck me it's fun. Even when I lose, and I mostly lose. You'd be surprised what players are capable of.
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