Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Mock26 12-21-05, 10:52 PM	This thread is about those times when the group does something that totally ruins or botches or whatevers all your meticulous hours of preparation, all by doing something that you never thought of! Here's one of mine. The group had found a drow temple complex underneath a thief's guild. The entire place, except for the first couple of rooms, was panelled in wood, with wood floors and wood celings. The group tested the wood by knocking on it and even prying up a few boards and they saw rock underneath. They did this in the first wood panelled room. Well, every room after that was built on pylons over an underground lake and the wood was thick enough that it didn't sound hollow when the group walked along. At the first major intersection they see some drow who shoot hand crossbows at the group and pull a door shut behind them. The door blends in with the wall. It is obviously a secret door. There is a real door opposite the secret one. The thief checks it and they discover the secret door is locked. The group is supposed to follow the drow through a series of bloody encounters that should leave them weak enough that when they walk into the temple it will be a very hard fight, one they stand a 50% chance of losing. I mentally rub my hands together and say to myself, "Excellent!" Then, everything goes to hades in a handbasked! They don't even try to pick the lock. They go for the regular door! I was shocked! Players nor characters are allowed to ignore a secret door once they find it! It is against the rules of being a DM! :D The go down this hall and after a couple of small, minor rooms, one of the players declares, "I'm taking my spiked warhammer (think of a larger version of Thor's hammer with spiked ends instead of blunt ones) and smashing the wall!" He goes at for a couple minutes and punches a hole through it. They see they are on what is basically an enclosed pier and they then climb up on top! Once up there they fight off some giant, nasty spiders and wander on over to the largest section. They notice a small ledge, climb down to it, and they mage casts disintigrate on a section and they charge into the main temple and kick some serious drow butt! Most of the other drow fled when they saw their priestess cut down in a matter of rounds. All my long hours of planning were gone. They died quicker than a crippled kobold in a room full of epic-level dwarves. And, here's the best part, I thought it was GREAT! Sure, I put a lot of time into the adventure, and they did finish it (just not in the manner I imagined they would), but it was so great to see them do something totally unexpected. To this day that player still can't come up with a reason as to why he smashed the wall. "It just seemed like the right thing to do." None of them had seen the adventure, which was a password guarded file on my laptop that I created, and I had never talked about this particular idea before. That is what I love about roleplaying D&D vs. playing in on a computer. If the computer game hadn't been coded to allow them to break through the walls then they wouldn't have been allowed to. I expected them to get out on top of the complex, but the only place to do that was after passing through the main temple area, and there was only one way into the temple. Well, at least I thought there was only one way into the temple and I designed it! Take care and have a great day.... ciao, john.
green_yawgmoth 12-21-05, 11:17 PM	And that is the secret door always leads to where you don't want them to go. That's why it's a secret. :P Mine: The past couple sessions the party had spent going through a circular maze. At the center of this maze was a boneyard (libris mortis). CR 14ish, they fly, they improved grab, they drain con, and they turn you into a boneless chicken if they get a pin. I figured with all the other encounters they'd had, it'd be a tough combat, and possibly even a TPK if they weren't careful. Here's how combat went: DM (Me): roll init (boney gets a 19 total) P1: sweet! nat 20! P2: 16. DM: 'kay, go ahead, you got the highest. P1: Okay. I'll prismatic spray it. *rolls d8* 8! What's that get me? DM: 2 more rolls. P1: 3 and 7. DM: *rolls saves; get a 2 and 3* Okay, it takes 80 lightning damage from the initial yellow blast, and then winks out of existance as a second wave of purple light cascades over it. Congrats, you just soloed a creature That would have eaten you, had you not rolled that 7. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v91/yawgmoth/kittyjig.gif
Duncs 12-22-05, 10:15 AM	Heres one from not long ago: My 3 players were leading an army of liberated peasants to a city in order to free it from oppression, too. (Helped by elves). So they go up to the walls, leaving the elves in the woods as backup. Andy (An elf who had taken command of this army) marches up to near the walls in order to parley with the commander of the guard, who had mustered a force about twice as big as Andy's (Big city, this). They talk, Andy offers the people salvation etc. Commander tells him to leave or he will order his men to fire. Andy: The first 7 of you to fire will be killed. The rest of you, i cant do anything about. Now, this would be a good tack to take (I am a Terry Prattchet fan, and this is textbook Prattchet, so i would allow it) were it not for the fact that he had no weapon drawn, was quite a way away on a lower level, they were able to hide behind battlements and they had a commander who was so much closer than Andy. So, twenty men opened fire, taking him down to about half hitpoints. This showed Andy that they meant business. Commander: I am impressed! Stuck with arrows, you still stand firm. I shall give you this last chance to leave this place (quite a heavy hint here for Andy to get the message and save his character - i am not into unnecessary PKing) But no, Andy stood there until he was struck down by a second volley of arrows. That was when he got angry at me for killing his character :P Seriously, left me rather speechless that he would be that stupid
AlphaSquirell 12-22-05, 11:09 AM	This happened in the Star Wars RPG, but it's one of our best moments EVER: Note: This is the start of the Star Wars mission "Talnar's Rescue" which is found on the WotC website. We are hunting down a guy who's ship crashed. We're trying to find him and his cargo, and we are going to pick them up before the Imperials get him. We land, find his ship, and he's not there. Well, the guys spend just enough time in the ship to draw some attention. 4 Scout troops ride up on speederbikes. They then park them, and creep up a hill at about the same time as the party leaves the crashed ship. Here's how it goes down: Party: All level 4; Kushiban Scout (me the GMPC); Nautolan Soldier (think Kit Fisto); Tranii Jedi Consular (cat with a prehinsile tail); and a Geonosian Soldier (wielding a shotgun-like Golan Arms) GM: You see 4 white helmets cross the line of the hill in a square formation (2x2). They get to where you can see them from the knees up before one shouts, "Halt, state your business here." Roll initiative. Nautolan: "19" Kushiban: "18" (note, the Kushiban has a freakishly high Dex mod, and is size small, but now Tiny due to errata; in other words, he had an AVERAGE of a 21 initiative...) Geonosian: "14" Jedi: "12" GM: "Okay, Nautolan, you go first." Note: Nautolan is dual-wielding a shock whip and a sword, with horrendous modifiers to hit, he is usually a distraction. Nautolan: "I, um, throw the Kushiban at the first one!" Everyone laughs. Long story short, the battle was ended quite fast when the Kushiban unloaded his two blasters into the sides of 2 of the Scouts from ON TOP OF THE FIRST SCOUT'S HEAD! We actually did all the rolls for the throw and everything, he nailed it. Kushiban got a reflex save to grab the head and stay on. Next round, 2 of them are down from his multiple attacks. (and high damage rolls)
Rhomphaia 12-22-05, 12:10 PM	This happened in the Star Wars RPG, but it's one of our best moments EVER: Note: This is the start of the Star Wars mission "Talnar's Rescue" which is found on the WotC website. We are hunting down a guy who's ship crashed. We're trying to find him and his cargo, and we are going to pick them up before the Imperials get him. We land, find his ship, and he's not there. Well, the guys spend just enough time in the ship to draw some attention. 4 Scout troops ride up on speederbikes. They then park them, and creep up a hill at about the same time as the party leaves the crashed ship. Here's how it goes down: Party: All level 4; Kushiban Scout (me the GMPC); Nautolan Soldier (think Kit Fisto); Tranii Jedi Consular (cat with a prehinsile tail); and a Geonosian Soldier (wielding a shotgun-like Golan Arms) GM: You see 4 white helmets cross the line of the hill in a square formation (2x2). They get to where you can see them from the knees up before one shouts, "Halt, state your business here." Roll initiative. Nautolan: "19" Kushiban: "18" (note, the Kushiban has a freakishly high Dex mod, and is size small, but now Tiny due to errata; in other words, he had an AVERAGE of a 21 initiative...) Geonosian: "14" Jedi: "12" GM: "Okay, Nautolan, you go first." Note: Nautolan is dual-wielding a shock whip and a sword, with horrendous modifiers to hit, he is usually a distraction. Nautolan: "I, um, throw the Kushiban at the first one!" Everyone laughs. Long story short, the battle was ended quite fast when the Kushiban unloaded his two blasters into the sides of 2 of the Scouts from ON TOP OF THE FIRST SCOUT'S HEAD! We actually did all the rolls for the throw and everything, he nailed it. Kushiban got a reflex save to grab the head and stay on. Next round, 2 of them are down from his multiple attacks. (and high damage rolls) LMAO...that is the best use of a kushaban I have ever heard...by the way, what color was his fur after it was all over? Anyway, I have none of my own, but I will point ChimericPhase to this thread. She will be able to give you a lot more stories than I can.
Orcboss 12-22-05, 12:54 PM	This thread is about those times when the group does something that totally ruins or botches or whatevers all your meticulous hours of preparation, all by doing something that you never thought of! To be honest, meticulous hours of preparation are for people writing books. People who know what their characters are going to do. A DM is not one of those people. You've got 4-8 creative people, all thinking at the same time, and most of them are not going to come up with the same ideas you did when writing the adventure. The only way to work around this is to modify how you prepare. Its good to have pre-planned stuff ready, but its more important to know how the NPCs (and the world in general) will react and change as the PCs do what they do. What are the opponent's goals? How does he make decisions? What resources does he have available? You've got to be able to put yourself in the bad guy's head and say WWTBGD (What Would the Bad Guy Do?). It'll keep your games flowing and make the situations seem more realistic. And when you get good at it, the players will think that's what you planned for them to do all along. ;)
DMDaddy 12-22-05, 01:18 PM	My players always mess up things. But that's what I love. Because I don't even know what's going to happen. One of my players is into bending rules and trying unusual tactics. Attacking an Ogre Magi with a weapon or magic item is not one of his first choices of actions. The other day, the party encountered 3 1/2 orc Barb10. It was suppose to be a fight. One of the party members made a truce and paid the 1/2 orcs money to be hirelings for the dungeon. I had to change all the ELs in the whole dungeon. This player continued making friendly gestures to the 1/2 orcs through out the dungeon and at the end, one 1/2 orc survived. The player now has a pact with the 1/2 orc and this will lead to many other adventures. This was a Random Wandering Monster encounter. All I had was Barb10 stats.
Mock26 12-22-05, 01:55 PM	To be honest, meticulous hours of preparation are for people writing books. People who know what their characters are going to do. A DM is not one of those people. You've got 4-8 creative people, all thinking at the same time, and most of them are not going to come up with the same ideas you did when writing the adventure. The only way to work around this is to modify how you prepare. Its good to have pre-planned stuff ready, but its more important to know how the NPCs (and the world in general) will react and change as the PCs do what they do. What are the opponent's goals? How does he make decisions? What resources does he have available? You've got to be able to put yourself in the bad guy's head and say WWTBGD (What Would the Bad Guy Do?). It'll keep your games flowing and make the situations seem more realistic. And when you get good at it, the players will think that's what you planned for them to do all along. ;) I've been playing D&D since 1981, and been a DM since 1983-84. I consider myself very good at being able to anticipate the actions of my players. That is one of the reasons I had two drow run through a secret door and close it behind them. My group would always fall for that. This time they didn't. While I can think quickly "on my feet" and some of my best adventures have been made up on the go, if the group out thinks me and it isn't integral to the campaign (ie Finding the BBEG's secret lair before they are "supposed" to) I'll reward them for it by letting them do it. I personally enjoy spending 6+ hours creating a single adventure. It is one of the aspects that I truly love about the game. I can spend the time doing it, so I do. Sure, they may have "ruined" the grand plan for the adventure, but they had fun playing it, and I had just as much fun DMing them through it. Maybe the term "ruin" shouldn't have been used, but that doesn't matter. I don't consider the hours spent designing the dungeon a waste because, like I said, designing a dungeon is just as much fun as running it, for me at least. This thread is about those times when the DM doesn't anticipate the actions of the group. It is impossible for any DM to fully anticipate everything that the group does. I could have quickly "flipped" the entire dungeon around at that location and they would have gone the way I wanted them to go. But, since they caught me by surprise I wanted to see what they would do. And, I am glad they did what they did! This is one of my all time favorite stories as a DM. Take care and have a great day.... ciao, john.
Stryfeshadow 12-22-05, 04:52 PM	Ok, here's one case where I burned my DM; usually I DM and my players can never really pull a fast one on me, do as much to my quick thinking as their lack thereof. We were playing Star Wars and, like I said, my friend is usually a player, so he was kinda new to all this (he's usually a good roleplayer; his one fault is that he always demands Experience in an annoying manner). Apparently, for whatever reason, some warlord had commandeered a Capital Ship and had it crewed with the bare minimum of troops and whatnot. My companion and I; he was a Bounty Hunter and I was a Scoundrel, were to sneak aboard this ship and steal some information from the captain or some such. We get on the ship and blast some storm troopers (this was after the Emperor died...so...whatever). After some amount of fighting, we realized we couldn't sneak all the way to the leader's quarters (we were both injured). I, then, came up with a brilliant idea which I didn't share with my DM. We headed to the launch bay all casual-like, and voila, there's the second-in-command. We take him out and all the guards and seal ourselves in. I then proceeded to make a fake distress call ordering all hands to report to the launch bay to abandon ship. My DM, who, I must stress, was pretty green, wasn't sure where I was going with this, and soon, over 200 stormtroopers and whatnot were in the launch bay, very confused. Most DM's wouldn't let me do this. Now, I believe that the total number of stormtroopers aboard was a complement of something like 250; very small, and we'd already killed maybe a dozen. Now, a little over 200 more were gathered. My Bounty Hunter ally grinned; he knew what I was going to do. We locked the doors to the interior, sealing these 200+ troops in the launch bay. I look over at my DM, grin ear to ear, and say, "I open the launch bay doors." I could tell he was stunned. Even as his mouth mechanically narrated the incredible force that sucked the 200+ troops into a vacuum of death, he was stunned. With the pull of a lever, I had maimed the crew of the ship, killing almost everyone. I looked at my Bounty Hunter ally, back to our DM, and simultaneously we asked, "Experience?"
mythSSK 12-22-05, 05:18 PM	"Experience?"I would have loved to be DMing that. That's just awesome. You rock.
Mock26 12-22-05, 06:08 PM	But I thought that Storm Trooper suits were supposed to be pressurized and allowed for the wearer to be safe the vacuum of space? At least, that is how the Special Effects people behind the making of the Star Wars and Empire explained it years ago (and, in Star Wars, you can see StormTroopers outside the hangar bay when they bring the M. Falcon in). Regardless, still a great move!
ubernex 12-22-05, 06:30 PM	But I thought that Storm Trooper suits were supposed to be pressurized and allowed for the wearer to be safe the vacuum of space? At least, that is how the Special Effects people behind the making of the Star Wars and Empire explained it years ago (and, in Star Wars, you can see StormTroopers outside the hangar bay when they bring the M. Falcon in). Regardless, still a great move! Even if they could survive, the explosive decompresion from opening the bay doors would have doomed a great many of them. I think one of the better experiences that happened recently in my game was this: I was running Heart of NightFang Spire (the WotC adventure), and the party found the tower. Now do they do what the book assumes and go to the top and assult it top down? Nope. They start digging their way into the tower. At the base right? I mean at least the ground floor is oriented and mapped in such a way that this would be fine. In fact it might actually be considered the logical move, and I was more or less prepared for them to try it. Nope. They climbed halfway up and stone-shaped / tunneled their way in. I love those guys :dancin: Honestly though the best plot-shivin' I've ever seen was in an old shadowrun game. Since this isn't the place for it... another time.
Veritas_Vates 12-22-05, 08:42 PM	The only way to work around this is to modify how you prepare. Its good to have pre-planned stuff ready, but its more important to know how the NPCs (and the world in general) will react and change as the PCs do what they do. What are the opponent's goals? How does he make decisions? What resources does he have available? My aunt is really good at that.(that is who I play with. My aunt is the DM and I RP with my uncle and one of their friends) My uncle's friend plays a half-orc that despises goblinoid creatures, more than anything else. So my aunt, instead of playing the origonal module, decided to make it a little more interesting right in the middle of the module, and changes all the Orcs in the are to goblinoind type creatures... P. S. How funny do you think this is... I am a Moon Elf in a party with a Dwarf, and a Half-Orc. You can't tell me that we wouldn't stick out in most taverns... hehehe
Milandros 12-22-05, 09:05 PM	Not one of my games, but one I was told about... The players were attacking an evil temple. It was supposed to be a subtle infiltration followed by stealthily decimating the temple's inhabitants from the inside without raising the alarm. This is how it was presented to the players - the temple was almost inpenetrable, and it would be hard to get inside. The DM had warded the temple well - there were explicit spells to stop all sorts of approaches, teleportation blocks, alarms, watchers, guards, traps and so on. The players approached the temple, cautiously. The players rode up to the front and knocked on the door. Wha? Yup, they knocked on the door to the evil temple of horrible doom. As soon as an acolyte opened it a crack to see who dared, they charged in and started butchering everything in sight. They killed most of the temple's inhabitants in small groups, always on the offensive, moving straight from room to room without a break, making sure the temple forces never got a chance to rally or respond to an alarm. Classic assualt tactics, and it worked brilliantly.
Loren Pechtel 12-23-05, 12:31 AM	But I thought that Storm Trooper suits were supposed to be pressurized and allowed for the wearer to be safe the vacuum of space? At least, that is how the Special Effects people behind the making of the Star Wars and Empire explained it years ago (and, in Star Wars, you can see StormTroopers outside the hangar bay when they bring the M. Falcon in). Regardless, still a great move! Who is going to pick them up before their air runs out?
Caine_The_Unholy 12-23-05, 12:47 AM	My players have a tendency, ecspecially in the wee hours of the morning during an all-nighter, to do unexpected, and very bad things to my games. I've had assassins who found the easiest way to deal with the duke of a city, is to burn his house down. During a training course in a man-made dungeon I've had an entire group of adventurers sit down, and wiat for everyone else in the dungeon find the traps and monsters, and then follow the trail of blood to the boss. I've had a player say "yes" to a phony traveling performer/vampire when he asked him to step inside a box with him on stage at night, with the entire crowd being transfixed by his spell. And the worst moment ever, would be the players, hired during an age-old war to take care of a messenger from Lloth herself, which would mean a quick end to the war if the drow joined the opposing side, misconduct themselves, get fired from their job, and start an independent milita force which destroyed several towns before they were killed. This, of course, completely ruined the campaign.
The_EvilDungeon_Master 12-23-05, 01:22 AM	Aight, so my PC's were in a Floating Castle, which was spawning forth demons to attack the city it was flying over. The idea was that they were supposed to disable and destroy the castle. Positioned around various places were these tall spires being powered by live Air Elementals, which then powered the flying device of the castle. Destroying these would cause the castle to spin out of control, and in to the ground, having the players get out of it before that happened... (DM/Me): Aight, so in the middle of this room is a tall spire-like object with a sphere at the top. This appears to be what is controlling the flight patterns of the castle. The sphere looks fragile. (PC): Ok, I'm gonna go check out the next room. (DM/Me): Wha... what? Wait, what about the sphere? (PC): We'll come back later. I promise. And he was a god damned liar...
Yak of Darkness 12-23-05, 03:08 AM	[Me] You're up. You're still inside the belly of the tyrannosaur. [Arcane Trickster] I activate my folding boat. Full ship size! FIN
Always-Late 12-23-05, 03:10 AM	See, there's always, always, always something terribly wrong with creating things inside of people, whether it's water, celestial animals, or Instant Fortresses.
Morbid 12-23-05, 03:52 AM	Once my friends and I had pulled an allnighter and had the giggles, so when the Dm would say something we'd add our own pieces. Drow Matron Mother: "Allow me to introduce you to everyone. This is my daughter..." Me: "Gargamel!" DMM: "And my name is...." Fantazar: "Fat retarded little chunk!" We laughed a lot. Then once I was playing a vampire and had been turned human (don't ask) and we had to collect pieces of a crystal to make me a vampire again. Well, near the last crystal we had to leave the Underdark, and there was a gate with guards by it. They didn't want to let us through we being Above Ground Elves. They had a pit with Driders and said if we went in and killed them they would let me through. Fantazar wanted to plot, but I wanted my vampirism back so I hopped in myself and destroyed them. Also there was a time I was extremely sick and passing out from cold medacine, as I was rolling, the DM was calculating for me because my head was on the table. I had killed a Druid and he said it died but I kept explaining my next attack. The next day they had to explin to me what happened.
ChimericPhase 12-23-05, 04:13 AM	:rofl: Okay, I've got a whole campaign that totally threw my hand, Rhomphia might remember these. I was DMing a homebrew game and the group was in a desert region, in a series of events the players wreak havoc on every encounter. -- The players find a rod of wonder. The command word: Chicken. -- the destruction of a lair of yuan-ti eggs where the yaun ti are planning to expand their control. . . . Chicken! Chicken! Chicken! Chicken! Chicken! Chicken! -- A mummy lord slays, then raises one of the PCs. The cleric promptly turns undead and rolls so high the corpse just explodes. -- The fighter drowns an entire tribe of werejackals with the use of one well-thrown bead of water (from dust of dryness) -- The entire group investigate a city and drive themselves to paranoria thinking its werewolves (was actually Jackal Lords) -- The cleric prays for a miracle (not the spell, but a real miracle). We decide to roll on it. He wins. What does he ask for? "I want it to rain fish!" And lo, there in the desert of sand and bitter wastelands, fish fell from the sky in great number. Fish! . . . Yeah so that was a pretty fun campaign.
Coren 12-23-05, 04:25 AM	Probably the worst one was in a spur of the moment dungeon. The rogue missed a trap and the ceiling started lowering. Everyone was rushing to the door. Fighter, "I disbelieve the illusion" rolls a 2. DM, "Looks real to you" Fighter, "I try again" rolls another 2. By this time the rogue opens the lock on the door and everyone rushed out, exept the fighter. The fighter is slowly crushed screaming "I'M DISBELIEVING THIS." Sadly he never rolled higher than a 5. One of my favorites was a one on one turniment with my lvl 15 ranger againts a lvl 18 cleric which was being played by a buddy of mine (not the DM). I was down to three hps but the cleric whips out some crazy spell that incased my character in a stone coffin. He then levitates me up about 500'. Mr Cleric thought that a ranger would sufficate in the coffin but in a lucky roll he was able to break open the coffin and climb to the top. The cleric's standing on the ground bowing to the crowd when I pass a note to the DM. He gets this shocked look on his face and tells me to roll it. Imagine this, your standing in a stadium cheering at the victor when, all of a sudden, something green streakes out of the sky swords first and impales itself into victor breaking him in two.
ChimericPhase 12-23-05, 04:49 AM	Probably the worst one was in a spur of the moment dungeon. The rogue missed a trap and the ceiling started lowering. Everyone was rushing to the door. Fighter, "I disbelieve the illusion" rolls a 2. DM, "Looks real to you" Fighter, "I try again" rolls another 2. By this time the rogue opens the lock on the door and everyone rushed out, exept the fighter. The fighter is slowly crushed screaming "I'M DISBELIEVING THIS." Sadly he never rolled higher than a 5. . :rofl: Okay, having read that I've got to post this one. It wasn't my game, but another game one of my players played in and he told us about it. DM: You see a great red dragon at the end of the tunnel. PC: I disbelieve! It isn't real! DM: The dragon's mouth opens and flames engulf you PC: I still don't believe it! Its not real! Its NOT real!! DM: (rolls dice) Okay, you dissapear. PC: Really!? DM: No, stupid. Its real. You take 8 points of damage. Oh we laughed so damn hard. :rofl:
Caine_The_Unholy 12-23-05, 03:39 PM	I forgot one: I had player in a large city, go to magic shops and spend all of his gold so he could do this: Put a bag of holding, in a bag of holding, put those in a portable hole (or whatever it's called, I'm not about to look it up) and put that in a Heward's handy haverysack, put that in Daren's instant fortress, and blow up the fortress. I had to end the campaign on the grounds that the time-space continum was gone.
tharivol266 12-23-05, 05:39 PM	im the main dm for my campaign but one of my players wanted to try his hand so i humored him and he made this massive maze and one room was full of dopplegangers(like 50 of them or something. he really likes ridiculus numbers in situations where if i let him go my character(i was playing a changeling warlock) would be the only to survive. 20' ceilings and no range weapons equal me using spider climb and shrinking to my shortest and just continual blasting) but neways we enter this room and the dopplegangers all change into duplicates of us so i drop the disguise i was in at the time and yelled "FAMILY" and watch it dawn on the dm that i outsmarted him. he didnt have them attack and we were on our way.
phelanarcetus 12-23-05, 06:16 PM	:rofl: Okay, having read that I've got to post this one. It wasn't my game, but another game one of my players played in and he told us about it. DM: You see a great red dragon at the end of the tunnel. PC: I disbelieve! It isn't real! DM: The dragon's mouth opens and flames engulf you PC: I still don't believe it! Its not real! Its NOT real!! DM: (rolls dice) Okay, you dissapear. PC: Really!? DM: No, stupid. Its real. You take 8 points of damage. Oh we laughed so damn hard. :rofl: Early in the game I am currently playing, I disbelieved a party member. Rolled a 19 on the Will save, too. Petr, that lying scum wizard/rogue who told us he was the party cleric (DM was in on it, of course), ceased to exist for me for a little while. Actually, my party has done some pretty good short-circuits to the DM. Thanks to a couple of the most powerful items we have (The Mirror of Loki, a scrying-based artifact, and the Armor of the Fire Sultan, a pretty damn impressive suit of armor for a cleric), we managed to finish off one of the big bad evil guys. We had just come back from annihilating the bulk of the Mongol horde, and my grandfather, the great wyrm silver dragon with epic levels of wizard casting had been fighting this BBEG. He had told us he wasn't sure he could win. Well, we scryed him, and he was lying there bleeding, stable but in need of help, it seemed. The BBEG nowhere in sight. So we scryed him. Flying, dripping blood, in bad shape. The cleric triggers the biggest power in the armor, for something like 20d6 positive energy damage, and blows the BBEG out of the sky. Scryaport ganking, we called it. That, and the time that we had to undo an entire session because we suddenly remembered that at the end of the previous session, we had bought several dozen pounds of garlic (we were hunting vampires, and one came for us... before we undid it all, I was dead, the sorcerer was baleful polymorphed but safely away... as a sheep in a butcher shop, and the other two party members were dominated by the vampire's master). We still carry garlic everywhere, 10 levels or more later.
Chosen of the Dark Sun 12-23-05, 06:24 PM	This is actually something I did once as a PC recently. I know a few people in another local gaming group, most of them a year or two older than me (I'm a high school freshman). Well, their original DM had been a senior the previous year, had graduated, and so two of the PCs had started making there own campaign settings. Now, all of these people are in my schools sci-fi club (which I rarely attend) with me, and one guy in the group I know tells me that they're doing D&D in sci-fi club, and since I'm the only experienced DM in the whole school, they want me to sit in and give the newbie some tips. I say sure, why not, and after school, I go up to the room and get ready to watch. Its a Norse-like CS, with a few homebrew races. They then find out one of their PCs is not going to be there, and ask me to play his character. Sure, why not? So I get had a Aerolian (homebrew race the DM made) rogue. From the personality they tell me, he's essentially a toned down kender. But he's also quite smart (16 int.). We're in a norse town, and we've just gone into the local tavern and find a troll (another homebrew) mulling over his beer. He tells us that he's a diplomat from a local troll tribe trying to work out a deal with the norse, who have been performing unprovoked raids on them. He isn't having any luck, so he asks if we'd help him and his tribe kill the whole town in order to stop the raid. Now, the Norse hadn't been particularly friendly to the party, so everyone else is all for it. I however don't want bloodshed, so I wrack my brain for a non-violent way out of this while they talk. Then the bar tender (not Norse, but another humanoid race), speaks up and begs them to stop, since he's got a substantial amount of buisness in town, especially since his stocks are well protected so that they aren't spoiled. Then I have my idea, and I give my lucrative buisness proposal to the bar keep. I alone (no one else doing this with me, so that the townsfolk only suspect me), go out in broad daylight, act insane, and spoil all of the towns food supplies, except the bar keeps, supposedly because it is well defended. I then run out of town so that I don't get killed and take refuge with the trolls. Then, as you can suspect, everyone in town has to get food from the bar keep, since winter is only a few weeks off so there is no time for hunting. He gets a huge amount of money off of this. Then, after his food is gone, the trolls (who, being superb hunters, still have plenty of supplies) come in and give the villagers an ultimatum: stay hostile and starve, or become peaceful and live. So I pull off the plan perfectly, and we end the gaming session. I was told afterward by the DM that he was really surprised I'd come up with a sensible non-violent solution to what he'd meant to be a bloody battle.
Edymnion 12-23-05, 06:36 PM	Patrick, the Anti-Plot
tsuyoshikentsu 12-24-05, 01:28 PM	My PCs have a habit of messing things up. They try to subvert the nobles, kill the guards, pretty much anything you can think of. Their favorite thing to do, however, is break out of prison. So one afternoon, I turned the tables on them. They'd just arrived in a very paranoid little town that hated outsiders, and lo and behold, there's a murder that night. Of course, they're blamed for it. And get thrown in prison. So of course, they break out again... and discover that ANOTHER muder had been committed, THAT NIGHT. Needless to say, the Eastern European peasant mob grabbed their torches and pitchforks, and ran them out of town. Why am I saying this? Because it was originally planned that they'd solve the mystery of their killings, and that their innocence would be established by them being in prison at the time of the killing.
Anodai 12-24-05, 05:56 PM	My Pcs Were in a dungeon full of kolbolds who were smuggling a vodka- like alchohol. The rouge pulls out her crossbow, and shoots a flaming arrow at a vodka keg. It Blows up. so do all of the other 464 barrels. The cave blows up. they die in a cave in. they gat ****** at me (?)
Taim Kelrathos 12-24-05, 06:27 PM	I recently finished a story arc in my campaign (Eberron setting) at college that ended with a big climantic battle with the BBEG, an abolteth named Natharlotep. Well eight or so rounds in he has the party Psion crying in pain, and then the Druid/Master of Radiance goes. He's pretty angry that this aboleth is being the usual BBEG and uses his prepaired Baleful Polymorph. It should've been an easy save, but my aboleth just ahd to roll a 4 on his save. So my Huge, evil, class level weilding aboleth named after one of the Elder Ones...becomes a freaking gecko. Lukily I had a Contingency (literally) in place, so he lived on to be a reoccuring villian, but I don't know if he can show his face in pubilc, or in secret, after that humiliating defeat.
MistWolf 12-25-05, 01:19 AM	We had found an alien space station built by a previously undiscovered race, who all were in stasis. We had the whole station to ourselves- until the Ursines (intellegent bears) approached us in their frigate and hailed us with the ever typical "Heave to and prepare to be boarded!" They had us out-numbered & out gunned as the station was strictly a commercial design, and the only folks up & about was the party. We radioed back the coordinates to the docking bay, which was designed to allow passangers access to waiting ships much like an airport. Between the lobby and the bay was a double set of clear walls with sealed doors. We quickly found vacc suits, cable, extra furniture and piles and piles of loose papers. The furniture and papers were stacked by the walls and emplaced radio detonated shaped charges. We got in our suits, cabled ourselves to the support pillars and sat on the floors facing the glass walls and the attaching cables stretched tight. And waited while we increased the interior pressure. The Ursines floated over form their ship in their EVA suits, and began walking across the bay which was open to the hard vacuum of space. Just as they reached the glass wall, we blew the explosives. The Ursines blew out of the docking bay and into the coldness of space in a storm of office chairs and paper. The GM took the game notes he had and tossed them over his shoulder- The Ursines had place their ship on auto pilot and sent the entire crew over as a raiding party. I guess it was more than they could.....bear
Lord342 12-25-05, 03:54 AM	My first time as a DM was interesting because it was my PC's first time in Faerun and the previous DM had liked backwater burgs as settings. The PCs were a little overwhelmed with the Realms and when they discovered that "my" city (The one I had created for the plot) was near to Athkatla, the one Baldur's Gate II veteran in the party ignores the generous job offer of the city manager to go to Athkatla so he can chase a long-wrecked Spelljammer on some shoals in the middle of nowhere. I try to think on my feet but end up with the PC's owning and automated salvage ship (Gotta love magic), the Gate Zeppelin Lady Elaine, AND the wrecked spelljammer. The character's life's ambition was to own a Spelljammer. It was never supposed to be owned; it was just an adventure area... And to think I almost got that adventure back on track. Then we actually had one guy utter the immortal words "I attack the darkness"... Actually it was "Second attack, on the darkness" but it was just as good.
Anathema 12-25-05, 01:24 PM	My players had more habits of not getting in to trouble when I intended them to, I guess it was my fault for the kind of NPC's I ran :D One time they were back in Sigil after just completing a two-night (real time) adventure to recover a lich eye for a wizard they were working for, almost dying a couple times in the process. Well, due to the rough landing of the portal they came out of near a monk who was until-then in secret opposition to the party, they 'lost' the prize to this monk. Naturally they gave chase, but when he vaulted up to the top of one of the buildings and shouted back at them that he'll 'Never let them complete their master's evil plan' .. and then jumped out of the side of Sigil (which just teleports you to the Outlands) .. instead of giving eager chase as I had expected them to, what do they do? "Ah, lets go get a beer." :eek: Another time they were supposed to have a big final showdown with this monk, though he wasn't the BBEG, he was the one who was the most in direct conflict with the party. All they had to do was get past him, though I loaded him up (legally) with a bunch of cool tricks that would make it really difficult to get past him; weapon with reach, standstill feat, combat reflexes, sun school tactical feat, etc. Even if they started to push back they would have had to make it through a room that you have to stand on 1' poles (forgot the balance DC) to make it through as well. Well, being a LG monk he of course emplored them again to not go through with their master's plans, and with only a gut feeling agreed to not press further and just went back to attack the wizard that they were working for. :( Who just plane shifted them all to Carceri .. but he really wasn't evil, he was just careless with a spell beyond his power.
door_goblin 12-25-05, 08:03 PM	I wasn't DM in this case, but it was an amazingly fun game... We were in an underground lair for a quick bit of D&D fix since a friend was leaving for college the next day. Wandering down inside the underground cave we found some undead, that got slaughtered easily thanks to our handywork...feeling pretty good about our skills we barged into the next room to find...glowing, nondescript mushrooms... Being a pyro (psion class thing...) and my friend being a chaotic rogue, we started giggling. Why? Because we wanted to burn every mushroom there, which we told our DM "We're doing it...to protect the party from any hidden creatures..." So, I sent some fire right into a patch of mushrooms..low and behold, BOOOM! The whole cave collapsed in on us, and we died. Well...this was all after I started to dance around with the stalks of two mushrooms like glowsticks at a rave...which had all my friends rolling on the ground because I was actually dancing around, and my rogue pal booted up some techno on the comp really fast...sure, it pulled us out of that world, but it was a riot. later on, when more people joined us, there was a giant lich thing at the end of the hallway...near a HUGE patch of these mushrooms, and once again we giggled, whilst the rest of the party had no clue what was going on. I thought I'd share that, after hearing all of the wonderfull stories :)
swirlyrat 12-25-05, 09:06 PM	First I would like to say that I have enjoyed the stories you all have shared thus far. The particular story I would like to share with you all is one I still cant get over. The party meets up with a cleric who tells them about this evil kobold wizard plaguing the country side and asks them to take care of him. They reach the outside of where the lair is rumored to be. I had designed the beginning area as follows: There are 12 "rooms" in this area each about 20' by 20', and there is a correct path to navigate this area. There aretny any doors, just open doorways. Each wrong room they step, they get hit with a fire ball. When the PCs open the door from the outside they would find a lone kobold in the area. The kobold would then get scared and run away, leading the PCs that pursued him along the right path with out getting hit with a single fire ball. But..... Heres what really happened. Dm: When you open the door you spot a single kobold. He looks at you and runs in fear. Barb: I shoot my bow at it. Dm: The kobold gets hit with the arrow and falls dead. I think to myself "Great there goes there key to get through safely!". I'll be darned if they got through with only get hit with a single fireball! Only stepped in one wrong room. Still can't figure out how they managed to pull that off. :confused:
Caervel 12-29-05, 02:00 PM	I'll note that none of these happened while I was playing in this DM's campaign, but they all came flooding back as I read these stories: 1. Characters are underground, searching for an evil Drow city. They might be able to get to it, but won't have a clue how to fit in or where to go without help. So the DM creates a 'good Drow' who knows the PCs are coming (I don't recall how he knew this). Anyhow, the party hears him, readies missile weapons. The Drow comes out, no weapons drawn, hands lifted and says, "Hi guys, I'm here to.." They shoot him. Ok, the DM knew his party. He kinda expected this, so he'd given the Drow a necklace that would raise him from the dead after a short bit (not sure why it wasn't confiscated by the party, maybe it was invisible, it's been awhile...) So after a bit of skulking down the tunnels, the party hears, "But guys! I'm just here to..." They shoot him. He dies. Again. They keep going.. Third time, "Wait!" They shoot him. They find the necklace. They take the necklace. They hack off the head and dump the body, weighed down by heavy stones, into an underground lake. After the campaign was over, the DM asked them about this and got the response, "Oh, we figured he was probably there to help us after he came back the first time, but he annoyed us. I mean, when we kill something, we expect it to STAY dead." 2. Because they have no guide, they're forced to decide how to sneak into the city. They ambush a Drow scouting party, steal the robes that everyone wears. This gets them into the city, but they notice that only the Drow with better made, special color robes, seem to be able to enter sensitive buildings and move around without suspicion. So they ambush a few of these guys, Clerics it turns out. They start walking down the street towards the temple they want to infiltrate where they think the BBEG is. They hear murmuring. They notice Drow falling into step behind them. Pretty much the entire population of the city ends up following them to the temple. Apparently the DM, to help them out after their lapse of judgement with the guide they killed, set a special religious event in motion in which the entire population was expected to attend. Therefore, they would all be at the temple except for a few scattered guards, allowing the party to explore at their leisure and get some clues as to what to do next. Instead, the populace saw their religious leaders (the robes were worn by the higher level clerics) going to the temple at around the right time, and so followed them... I think they basically had to stay through the whole ceremony to avoid giving anything away. 3. I think this one is within the Code of Conduct as I won't be overly descriptive. Same party, much higher level. The DM wanted to do something 'special' for a Thief type, female PC who always went into any room first, stole what she could before the other PCs could get there, etc. As part of his world, a prophecy was created that an avatar of a goddess would be born, heralding a new age. His PCs were in a temple to this goddess, and there was a long, pink tunnel to a room that opened up and contained an egg like gem (and that's as detailed as I'll get). The upshot was, _anyone_ who crawled through the tunnel and touched the gem at a certain time, would become pregnant with the goddess's avatar. The Thief didn't do it. The Warrior Monk did. The athiest Warrior Monk. The MALE athiest Warrior Monk...
jeffv 12-29-05, 04:13 PM	I think I may have posted this one before, but I'm not sure and it fits in so well. :) I wasn't the DM for this one, but it was one of those that just sticks with you forever... this was a somewhat rules-lite homebrew campaign. Party was trucking through an abandoned mansion infested by demons of some sort. We peeked into the kitchen and there was one of the demon guys chowing down on something at the table, with his staff sitting next to him. Floor is so debris-ridden that it would be nearly impossible to traverse, even for the rogue. We pull back, rogue tells the wizard to pull out his wand of levitate and zap him with it. We all stare at him for a second, but the wizard does as requested. He says he's going to hover a few inches off of the ground, pulls out his bow, loads it, and tells us to give him a shove towards a corner of the counter. Demon is very intent on his dinner and completely misses the rogue sliding along the floor behind him. He pulls himself around the corner slowly, takes aim at a window on the opposite side of the room, and lets loose an arrow. Natural 20. Arrow pegs straight through the glass, shattering it. Demon pops up to investigate, leaving his staff at the table. Rogue pushes off of the counter, zips over to the table, grabs the staff, and books it back towards the rest of the party, who are standing completely dumbfounded at the door to the kitchen. By this time, a couple of the players are humming the Mission Impossible theme, and the DM's jaw is hanging down somewhere around his knees. The demon, wary about the window breaking for no apparent reason, shrugs and heads back to his dinner. He quickly notices the missing staff, starts searching around for it, eventually finding the party. Turns out that staff was not only his primary weapon, it had some pretty nasty magic in it that he was going to use to make that encounter pretty ugly. Needless to say, we made short work of him and then sold the staff off later on for a nice little pile-o-gold. :)
BrutalMisery 12-29-05, 04:31 PM	I spent almost two weeks creating, fleshing out, and filling with monsters, a very large barge sytle airship. The characters, jumping out of thier falling airship, lands on this one. After dealing with the few guards on top, the party decided the 'haunted airship' was too spooky. They jumped off (one had wings, the others had one shot items of feather fall). Another occasion, a different party was chasing vampires through Sharn's sewers, when they ran amuck with a famiy of trolls (a barbarian female and her three husbands). The battle waged most delightfully until the female went down, and the husbands surrendered (sparing their abusive wife). The trolls just wanted the party to leave. THe party, however, was heavy into diplomancy and the intimidate skill. Next thing I know, the party gained the employ of on 3rd level troll barbarian and her husbands. Super end ot the story arc fight...not so tough when you have regenerating back-up. But I encourage out of the box thinking. If they come up with a do-able plan, or catch me by surprise, I grant exp bonuses.
LugWrench 12-29-05, 04:49 PM	The group I played with managed to wreck a whole chapter of a module. One of our spellcasters, Monty the Mage, had been abducted by a Phase Spider and taken to Parts Unknown. With some divinations and some aireal recon by my druid, we managed to pin down Monty's location. We decided that half the group would make their way up the tower where Monty was, and the other half would knock on the front door and distract the denizens of the tower. The ground group, led by Wynicole the Wizard, knocks on the door, and proceeds to proseletyze (sp) the inhabitants, a'la the door to door Jehovas Witnesses. (with less than entheusiastic results). The second group proceeds to fly/climb/Air walk their way up the tower and rescue Monty. We get our Mage back, the party cleric vanishes (found a Gate the hard way) and the DM is suddenly unable to hit us with what would have turned out to be a rather nasty slugging match.
Mock26 12-29-05, 05:27 PM	Back in an old 2nd Edition Campaign the group, which was made up of 2nd and 3rd level characters, was hired by a town to take care of a tribe of orcs that had been raiding the town. The group shows up and right off the bat the DM decides to have some fun. As the group is having breakfast in the inn a town guard comes running in screaming about an army of orcs coming down the road. The group orders the town militia to assemble at the edge of town. The group is astounded to see a group of orcs approaching with a white flag, so they go out to meet them, along with the captain of the guard. What we didn't know was that these orcs were a race of good orcs who were farmers and such and were fleeing form the Zhentil Keep area, seeking new lands to settle. My character, a CN dwarf fighter was the only person who spoke orc, so I was naturally nominated as interpreteur. The exhange went something like this: Captain (to dwarf): Ask them why have raided us and now brought this army against us? Dwarf (to orcs): Captain Orc Killer here says to surrender now and you will be given a fair trial. Orc (to dwarf): Surrender? We have done nothing! We are peaceful farmers and worshippers of Chauntea. We only seek to pass through. Dwarf (to captain): We demand that you human scum surrender! If not we will defile the lands of Chauntea with the corpses of your children. Captain: This is your last chance. Surrender or die horribly! Dwarf: We promise a horrible death to your wives and children. Orc: Can we not go back the way we came and leave you alone? Dwarf: Your wives will bear a new generation of our children. Well, the captain attacked right then and there, and the slaughter that followed was quite bloody. The poor orcs were fighting a desperate battle to stay alive and the humans were fighting to protect their families and town. My dwarf loved every minute of it! He didn't care if the orcs were good or not, he HATED orcs! In the end there wasn't much left of the town militia, nor any able bodied males in the town who joined in the fight, but the orcs were ultimately destroyed. Of course, the evil orcs in the area soon came in and instead of raiding the town completely destroyed it! Our group eventually tracked down that tribe and killed them all off. The best part is that when we got to the treasure room it contained not only the treasure of the orcs, but a sizeable amount of loot from the city they had destroyed! It was great as the DM told what the guard said, and I translated it into something completely different. Half the group just sat their in shock and the other half were laughing. The DM was also shocked, but he quickly adapted and played along. Even though it was player knowledge, every time I ever volunteered to translate the group turned me down. They claim that I was bad luck. I even started learning more and more languages just to play up this running joke. Take care and have a great day.... ciao, john.
Arak the mighty 12-29-05, 08:34 PM	I had a campaign in 2nd Ed where I ran a 2 player party. A wizard and a Paladin. These guys were fantastic role players, and excellent thinkers/problem solvers. They were CONSTANTLY throwing wrenches in my diabolical plans, so after a while I had to pretty much give up on deep, intricate plans hatched by the bad guys. I can't give any specific examples, just that they were always messing stuff up!
ShadowyFox 12-29-05, 11:28 PM	Ok, so this is about the worst thing I've ever heard happen, in my life. :eek: :D At least, as far as games I was involved in, personally. So, the party, 2 elves (1 ranger, 1 sorc), 1 halfling rogue, and a dwarf fighter, haven't even entered the dungeon yet. We're all looking into this ravine. We hear noise at the bottom, but even with my dwarf's darkvision, we can't see to the bottom. So, we figure that there's either something in our line of vision, or the hole's deep. So, :rolleyes: the sorc and his ranger buddie get a bright idea. :eek: They just tell the DM that they're grabbing the rogue, tying him up with the chain they have, and using him as a "halfling yo-yo"; their theory was that, "if he dies when he hits bottom, then we need to get out the ropes". Well, needless to say, :rolleyes: :D he died; since our DM was so nice :cool: (and we didn't have time to build the guy a new character), on top of not even having started the adventure :eek: , we got a "DM rewrite" and had no record of the incident in the game. :D To give two other examples of the hijinks of this game... :cool: We let this nasty troll loose from its sarcoffogus (not a mummy yet; just been kept in storage, you might say), by accident, and only barely were managing to keep it away from us. The dwarf ( :eek: the least intelligent of the bunch) manages to come up with the great idea of throwing a whole pint jar of oil in the sarcoffogus, followed by a heavy dose of alchemist's fire. :rolleyes: Not only did we get creative points for burning the things legs off, but we also managed to stuff it back into the still blazing sarcoffogus. Finally, the 2 elves get into a racial epithet shouting match with the dwarf over something trivial, and it ends up escalating into a physical fight involving all 3. Sadly, the dwarf perished, not at the hands of the ranger, but at the hands of the sword-wielding sorc. :eek: Naturally, since that left 2 players in a game scaled for 4 (more like 5), the dwarf ended up getting replaced by a hastily put together blade elf. :rolleyes: How strange... Let's just say that I've learned my lesson on doing stupid stuff in my DM's games; even though there's usually a warning about doing something stupid, I really do prefer not to be in a situation where doing something stupid actually is the best option. :D
NinjaE 12-30-05, 09:19 AM	Well, this is from my ill-fated D20M UA game: The players are at the home of one of the players (a former terrorist extraplanar human), when the doorbell suddenly rings. Since one of the players ordered takeout (tawanese? I can't remember), they just send out the guy who owns the place to open. It is, indeed, the takeout, but delivered by a guy that looks more like "Bond, James Bond" or "The Chosen One" than "Average Joe who decided to flunk out of grade school" (NPC). This is exacerbated by the fact that he just leaves without asking for any money. However, the owner of the apartment throws the stuff out because, and I quote "Dis is an insult to my cooking!". Then the doorbell rings again, but when they open, all that's there is a note saying "The declaration of content is not accurate." The owner, just ignores it. A few minutes later, the doorbell rings once again. The owner opens again, and is, this time greeted by a swift punch in the face, and a very ticked off deliveryman/psychic agent, who outright tells them to CHECK THE FRIGGIN' TAKEOUT BOXES. Then he walks up the wall and disappears. The note in the takeout boxes (that they nearly blew up the apartment whilst getting) tells them to check a hollow tree in a nearby park. The Strong/Tough Hero reaches in, and finds a few hundred in cash, along with a note. Now, instead of pulling it out, he just said there wasn't anything in there, which leads the bomb expert to think that there's something hidden under the tree. He promptly pulls out a bomb, but the others (the strong/tough had secretly told the smart/fast that there was money in the tree) convince him that the explosion would attract too much attention, and one of them go looking for a shovel. To make a long story short, the two at the tree end up shooting each other. I had to retcon that one, and it was unanimously decided that the strong/tough had told them that there was money in the tree. The note had an adress to a large house in the upper class area on it, and they went there next. The doors opened by themselves, allowing them into a large conference room where there was a long table with a pentagram in the center. Suddenly, an image of a woman pops out of the pentagram. The smart/fast hero immediately, without looking, jumps out of the window. However, the plan I had drawn up of the house had a garage situated beneath the conference room, so he fell two meters onto the driveway pavement, which knocked him down to -3. Then the shattered window fell on top of him. We decided to start a new campaign about then, since two of three players dying in a single session due to own stupidity was considered a bad omen.
Burrie 12-30-05, 10:10 AM	For the record, this is from a DMed Neverwinter Nights game... The group had gone into an old, lost abandoned crypt underneath a town after learning about it from a spirit (http://rooc.offtopicproductions.com/QFG/GhostlyTales.jpg). They had been tracking down a thieves guild, and it seemed that they had been captured by the remaining cultists. These cultists were actually survivors from a failed experiment to create eternal life a long time ago, and for all intents and purposes were 'neither dead or alive, they simply were'. Someone had recently released them again, and let them continue their experiments to create eternal life. The results were usually always undead creatures, which is not what they wanted. Anyway, the group managed to enter the cult while the wizard had managed to pose as their new master. Overall, they learned the true backgrounds of the cultists, and were at a bit of a quandry. On one hand, they wanted to remove the cult completely. On the other hand, they weren't sure on wether they could take them, and some were kinda opposed to simply striking them down. For the record, I had prepared a few scripts in advance in case they should attack. It would make for quite a nice and tough battle, with the priests properly buffing themselves, undead creatures arising to grab the party, and quite a few other neat special effects that I had in store. Coupled with the right music and the couple of tests that I had run, this seemed like it would've been a memorable encounter. As always, the group surprised me. They went to the cultists, got a few bits of information from them, and then they gave them a very nice plea as for wether what they were doing is the right things. They had some bloody good arguments, they made some nice rolls... overall, they RPed their characters very convincing. There was very little than I could do than to have the priest agree, and actually ask the party to release them (http://rooc.offtopicproductions.com/QFG/Redemption01.jpg). With a single stab from the priest in the group (http://rooc.offtopicproductions.com/QFG/Redemption03.jpg), the cultists were removed from this existance. It might've not been what I had planned, and if the priets had gone down fighting, there would've been some reprecussions later on. Now that they managed to peacefully remove them without any fight, the bad guys were severely back-tracked.
MistWolf 12-31-05, 12:50 PM	It was pivitol to my near future campaign that I capture the party without killing anyone. Capturing them meant facing them down with overwhelming odds they couldn't take on, as the players were very aggressive, intelligent and worked well together. They were in a conference room with no windows and a single door. The plan was to force them out with hand grenades and into the waiting muzzles of the thugs outside armed with full automatic HK G3s in 308. This was a very deadly campaign where two hits from a rifle will kill you and grenades are deadly unless you take cover. The 5 thugs approach the door, pins pulled on three grenades and all armed with the G3s set on full automatic. They are in a semi circle a few feet from the door, ready. The first thug kicks open the door so three others can toss the grenades inside to force the characters out. The pins are pulled so they cannot be used against the thugs. The characters have all been disarmed. A cakewalk. The fly in the ointment? One character stands by the door. Me: The door is violently kicked open- Player (interupting me) I kick shut again Me: What? Player: Knowing you, the door will hit me in the face and bloody my nose or something. I'm not going to let that happen. As soon as the door pops open, BANG!- I kick it shut The thugs tossed the grenades as soon as the door was kicked open. They didn't wait to make sure the door stayed open. Me: You kick the door shut. You hear the thuds of three heavy objects bouncing off the door Other players: Oh no! We hit the floor! Player: Huh? Me: Cat hits you from behind and throws you to the floor- Player: Why? If he bloodies my nose- Me: There is the sound of cursing from the other room cut of by three very sharp explosions. The door is blown off it's hinges The door was kicked shut so fast the three grenades bouced back at the feet of the thugs, killing all 5. Now the characters are armed with full automatic HK G3s. It changed the entire course of the rest of the campaign
Veritas_Vates 12-31-05, 02:38 PM	Two others and i are playing. Im a moon elf cleric, there is 1 Half-Orc Barbarian, and 1 Dwarvish Rogue. We go to a small village on our way to Grimmor, and over hear hunters talking about the lodge where they were staying and huntng some game. So we get them drunk so they can't go out to the lodge and they tell us about a man named Phillip that is claiming the lodge since the previous owner disappeared. We forge a deed to the lodge and go see Phillip the next day. we show him our deed and he says that his is in the lodge and we can go get it if we like. I think that he is leading us to something, but we go anyway. So we are in the forest... Dwarf: What was that?? Did you hear that Me: No Orc:*shrugs* Dwarf: *freaks out* "Ahhhh the VOICES!!" So we catch up to him and tie him up, then we each take our turn hearing the voices and freaking out. Turns out there was a Windigo in the woods and we killed him. Of coarse there is no deed, and we burn the lodge down with the windigo in it. Now we are back in town and go see Phillip again. Me: "We never found your deed Phillip." Dwarf: "But we have been approved by our client to sell you the proper deed" (this is the forged one) DM (Phillip): "How much are you asking." Orc: "500 gp" DM: goes inside and comes out with a chest. "Here, it's all there, count it if you would like" Orc: "Thats all right, if it isn't there, we know where you live." DM: Phillip is scared and hurries back inside. The moral of the story is that we forged a document to claim the lodge. Then when we got there we burned the place down with the evil windigo in it. Then went back and told the guy we would sell him the deed and he didn't know that it was burnt to the ground!! It was great!!
AlphaSquirell 12-31-05, 06:44 PM	Last night, the ninja attacked a dead body with a spear. He plucked a spear off of a wall (pinning a Goblin's body to the wall). He then went into the secret chamber which held 3 skeletons. These 3 were supposed to rise and attack people. Problem is, he attacked one and almost killed it before it even showed a hint of being alive. So as it stands up, he got an AOO and killed it. (kinda neat, as he simply thought it "might" be alive, and was right)
DMDaddy 12-31-05, 09:12 PM	Here's another continuing story of my current players. One player is always trying to do actions that I don't plan for. Last time, they found a quest item. She (the player) had her character bury the quest item: "let's just bury it." Not a problem for me. I had an NPC dig it up several hours later and use divinity to track down the PCs. He wanted to know the secret of the quest item and was willing to kill the PCs for info.
hollow_ghost 08-03-06, 06:52 PM	My first 3.5 DnD game. I'm a multiclass cleric/wizard of about 5th level. My party and I are trapped in what we think is the Underdark by Drows and come upon a room with a big Black Dragon in it. We are mostly good-aligned (first time with alignments for everybody. We had LG, CEs, CN, CG...) me: "I go up to it and say 'Hi!' in Draconian." :lightbulb DM and most of the party: :uh-huh: :mymy: :shocked: :gah: :thumbsdow :eek: The part of the party played by those who knew anything about DnD quickly jumped on me. :D
Demon Lightfoot 08-03-06, 08:35 PM	One of my fave "WTF" moments: The party (2e, Spelljammer) has been going through a hobgoblin settlement (tunnels in canyon walls that lead to a series of underground rivers), fighting a runnng battle using various forms of Spelljammer firearms, trying to 1) Rescue the Alchemist/Gunsmith that the hobs had kidnapped and pressed into service designing superior (aka repeating) firearms, 2) rescue his family members who were being held hostage in order to force him to work, 3) recover as many of the advanced firearms as they could and 4) kill as many hobs as they could. The battle goes against the hobs, so they strategically withdraw to one of the underground rivers and attempt to escape, with hostages and guns, down the river, on barges. The party follows, by flying and also on a hastily-made raft; as they close, the PCs note that they hob chieftain has surrounded himself with the hostages, so one player gets the brilliant idea to cast a fear spell to get the hostages out of the way, so that they had clear shots at the chief (n 2e, that spell caused the targets to flee in mindless fear for a whole one-minute round). "Are you sure?" sez I. "Of course I am!" "OK just checking..." None of the hostages made their saves (they were all 0-level npcs) and they fled away from the caster at full speed until they went over the side of the escape-barge. Oh, and they were all manacled, so they sank like stones in the underground river.