While running a Vampire: Dark Ages game many years ago, the group came across a mentally, emotionally and physically broken human child. The child had been part of a Baali conversion cult, but ended up being rejected as too weak to be claimed as a vampire. The boy became a vital clue to the group for tracking down the Baali culties and vampires. The characters managed to get the boy to talk and talk he did! I became so close to the boy’s psyche and brokenness in my preparations that when it came time to role play out the child’s anguish, pain, warped mentality and horrors he had seen and experienced that I actually broke down and cried while screaming in a high-pitched voice like the child did. My intent was to not get that far into character, but it just felt so natural to me that it flowed well. (Perhaps that says a little too much about me, eh?)

The players around the table actually got so concerned for me that they broke character and asked me if I was doing OK and used my real name in the process. It took me a few moments, but I snapped out of the broken and battered head of the boy and managed to compose myself. It was at that point that the players realized how powerful and evil the Baali were. They prepared extra carefully and applied additional caution when attacking the evil cultists on their home turf. Because of my method acting, I feel they were much better prepared for the encounters and, therefore, had a greater level of success against the Bad Guys than they would have otherwise.

It was also a great deal of fun to scare the bajeezus out of the players sitting around the table.