I am lvl 5 with a +1 dagger... 20 dex(+5 mod)...So my attack bonus is 3 for dagger with a +1 magic dagger=4 +2 for half a lvl= 6+5 for dex. =11+ 2 with attack of opportunity= 13 and then +1 for the cleric's blessing... So I had a +14 to hit!
That being said after the fight the DM told me that the mobs had a 19 AC.
I missed 5 out of 6 attacks. On a d20 the chances of rolling a 4 or lower 5 out of 6 tymes is astronomical. I also got dropped to zero HPs. It was one of the worst sessions I had ever had.
I know I am not the only person to ever have a bad session... So please feel free to share your bad experiences...
This surpasses my last bad experience in which I fell asleep during a session and awoke with Chessy Puffs stuffed in my nose and ears... all in good fun eh?
He allowed me to make an incatatrix wizard (14th level) using a highbrid of 3e and 3.5 rules. Basically the most broken stuff from the two.. the incantrix PrC with 3e's haste. My wife was running a necromancer, and was allowed a vampire cohort which if played as a PC would have worked out to a 19th level character. It was a monk/sorcerer. Next to me was a guy running an inept rogue. The DM interpreted the chaotic alignment to mean that the rogue's player rolled to determine what he did randomly. And every so often the DM would roll on his "chaotic" chart to see what the guy did. (mostly when he got bored.) Next was someone playing a skeleton. I have no idea were the states for it came from, but other then being undead, a skeleton, and waring full plate nothing else is really note worthy. After him came the DMs best friend, playing a dwarven defender with 200 odd HP, again not very not worthy. And finally was the guy who bought me to this trian wreck, playing a golem-which looked like cylon, who sold his soul to the devil the get a choker which negated any magic effect which had an area of effect that included it...including my light spells whenever the illuminated his character. The stats were modified, poorly, from a d6 game whose name escapes me.
We spent half the session getting to his dungeon, and the rest in said dungeon. The encounters leading up to the dungeon were all the same. 10 choas marines (warhammer 40k) and some Sargent guy. The marines were CR 10s, and the sargent a 20. Not that it really matter because we just hammered on them untill the DM decided they took enough punishment and fell over, usually after about 6 or so hits. The marines never moved more then 5ft (one square) regardless if they were exchanging fire with ranged characters, or mixing it up in melee with the dwarf or rogue, or cylon.
The dungeon repeated itself like so: 1st room Trap, 2nd room nothing, 3rd room More chaos marines, and a Sargent guy. We went through maybe 12 or so rooms, and each followed that pattern. The traps featured either some form of cannon coming out the wall and shooting, or lightning bouncing back and forth off the walls, until it's 100ft spell length was expended. Again battles went on until he figured they should end, and mostly consisted of his marines blasting with the judge dread weapons - we couldn't even pick them up let alone use them. And DM muttering about "having to do something about that vampire." Or arguing that we didn't get XP untill everymone in the encounter was dead, nuetralising them in a force cage wasn't good enough.
The session ended when his wife turned on lord of the rings and everyone turned around to watch it. But that wasn't much of an issue because it gave him a chance to finish explaining to me that there were jedi in Fariun because General Akbar crashed there. (somewhere in the great dale region I believe.)
Nitpick: You forgot your rogue talent which gives you an additional +1 with daggers so you auto be attacking at a +15. I also recommend picking up nimble balde and weapon expertise which would increase you attack to +17.
Nitpick: You forgot your rogue talent which gives you an additional +1 with daggers so you auto be attacking at a +15. I also recommend picking up nimble balde and weapon expertise which would increase you attack to +17.
I actually only had a 19 Dex at the tyme of the fight so only a +4 mod and I had added in the rogue dagger +1 bonus. Sorry I was going off the top my head not lookin at my sheets. So yea still only had the 14.
Thanks for the tips, but I already had them on my list of things to get next. I just didnt think I would need a +17 at lvl 5... guess I was wrong.
As for your session yes that does sound pretty much like a horrible tyme. Good fantasy movies seem to end bad DnD sessions... Ive never had a bad story or lead in. Our DM usually works on that to make sure the game goes well. However a bad roll can kill the fun. Especially when i can only do things when I hit
lolI too have wondered how it is possible that my d20 can consecutively roll so many single digit numbers.
The prince and princess wanted us to get on a raft with them. The dwarf refused as he hated water. now our DM at the time was not the best at thinking outside the box. if you tried to do anything contrary to what he had written for the adventure, he would just summon a dragon to kill you for not doing what he wanted. So when we tried to compromise that we would escort them down the river, but we would have to go on foot, it must have put a wrench into his river raft adventure or whatever he had planned. The Prince and Princess refused, and simply got on the raft and flipped us off. I drew my bow and told them to stop, that we were in charge here and not them. words were exchanged and i shot them. Keep in mind that we were all neutral or chaotic in some form. after they died, because they were 0 level npc's the "goddess of the river showed up" and threw me off a waterfall, which may or may not have been there before.
his intent was to kill me for screwing with his plot. i was reduced to zero hp from drowning and was taking -1 per round until i died. except that i had a ring of regeneration on that healed me 1 hp per round. So, there i sat, churning at the bottom of the waterfall, in an endless loop of drowning, being regenerated. I know there is probably some rule that it should not have worked that way, it was 10 years ago, but i do remember us researching this result extensively before coming to that conclusion.
The dwarf, happened to be proficient in mining and stone masonry. He decided that if they couldn't get me out of the water (they tried and the DM kept having them fail) they would Dam the river. the dwarf did some quick math, and figured out how much stone they could quarry and shape per day, and how much of a stone "wall" he could build per day.
Suddenly the river was now the size of the mississippi river and the waterfall was like niagra falls. after calculating how long it would take, it was determined it would take over one hundred years to build a dam large enough to divert the river, with the manpower available. well, since all of us were demihumans in some form, we all could live that long, so they did it. So for the rest of the adventure -they- role played building the hoover dam, and i did nothing, because for a century i was just floating at the bottom of the waterfall, unable to free myself, unable to die.
As it turned out it was the statue of a local goddess. Had we cleaned it up we would have received a miracle/ wish/ healing. I asked my team mates almost immediately to clean it after being dumped right next to her. None of them could see the point :-)
Lol the goddess shows up to toss you over a water fall...lol.
...threw me off a waterfall...
Rafts and waterfalls do not mix.
Oh, and On_the_wings_of_TPK, be advised: when correcting people, check that you're not also making similar elementary errors.
The herb to which you refer is thyme; note the "h". "Tyme" is simply bad spelling.
Rafts and waterfalls do not mix.
yeah, my memory is a bit fuzzy on how it happened exactly, i think we may have traveled downstream before i was cast away. or its possible the waterfall only existed after we screwed up his plot.
One, measly, lower level, unarmered, not invisible, goblin rogue before he got to the castle and exploded.
Never saw so many arrows, spells, servants, summons, and swords fail.
Of we could have killed it, but no one wanted to waste their good spells and abilities on a stupid goblin with 20 HP.
So the castle fell over.
the real worst session
One session, our party (at level 1-2, for that session), our party was meant to get captured, then break out and free the rest of our village. I can live with that, classic plot tropes. We gave a good account of ourselves, after all.
Then one of the other party members got tortured and then our captor forced himself on my character physically.
I was bitter for a while. To say the least. Almost up and quit right then and there. I had put a lot personally into that character.
Then one of the other party members got tortured and then our captor forced himself on my character physically.
I was bitter for a while. To say the least. Almost up and quit right then and there. I had put a lot personally into that character.
As I somehow make it to land, I encounter a black square in the middle of a field. As I approach it and try to examine it, my hand is stuck inside the strange thing, and a Reaper-like skeleton approaches me and cuts off my hand ( no rolls, just pure DM fiat). When the session ends, the DM tells me I have fallen as a paladin.
If I wasn't such a nice and polite person, I would have told him that he was the worst DM I've ever encountered, when taking account for his self-proclaimed years of experience.
Needless to say when I was resurrected I had a few choice words to say ;)
Although I don't know if that's the worst session I've had. My character is now very superstitious about demanding payment (even if its 1 copper piece) which is fun to roleplay. Plus I quite enjoy telling that story ;)
The DM has us make characters before the first session starts (good sign) and takes a little time to cover backgrounds of the characters to ensure the characters will be compatible with each other (another good sign).
Night of the first session rolls around and we all show up, eager to play. This is where the fun stops.
Problem 1: Background music. I hate background music, I find it distracting and, typically, annoying since it's usually some kind of music I don't normally listen to. Now, if it was just me that was annoyed by the music, I would keep my mouth shut and ignore it as I'd rather play then bicker about the tunes. The real problem was that one player had a nice headache going and the music was really bothering her. She asked for the music to be shut off, or at least turned down, but the DM refused since doing so would ruin the "mood" he was trying to set.
Problem 2: Mood lighting. The DM had lamps arranged around the room and would turn them on and off depending on where we were and what mood he was aiming for. The problem: at times lights were so low that we couldn't read our character sheets or angled so that the bulb was uncovered so you would get a face full of unfiltered light.
Problem 3: Charisma. Not personal charisma of the DM, the actual Charisma stat. The DM was of the school of thought that Charisma = Beauty (especially applicable to elves) and would describe how an NPC looked by telling us their charisma score rather than providing an actual physical description. Very hard to be into the game when you ask what the "beautiful elf paladin" looks like and are told "charisma 25".
Problem 4: Beautiful elf paladin. Apparently the "hook" for the adventure was that the PCs were going to join the king's secret guard. This would have been nice to know ahead of time since I don't remember having that ambition when I worked up my character, but whatever, I can roll with a little railroading in the name of party togetherness. The issue was it wasn't a little railroading, it was railroading with DMPC Mary Sue the paladin as conductor. We were given our mission and ol' Mary would come along to observe us, but not interfere (unless things got bad). So, at one point things go south during a fight and Mary jumps in and saves the day. At this point my roommate and I realize that not only are we being railroaded, but we are also the DMPC's sidekicks.
Shortly after the fight where Mary the Paladin jumped in the session ended. My roommate and I decided that we had had enough and jumped ship. In an entertaining sidenote, we later learned that the 3 other players had bailed on the game as well.
I too have wondered how it is possible that my d20 can consecutively roll so many single digit numbers.
Lopsided dice.
Lopsided dice.
Or the dice gods were just in a bad mood. Fickle beings, they are.
Worst session from a DM's perspective for a change:
The party of four (cleric, wizard, fighter, and bard/swordmage) sneak into an enemy camp during the night to kill the leaders, sow chaos, and generally muck up the enemy army as much as possible before the great bloodbath of a battle that'll occur in the morning. Everything goes pretty well until they reach the tent of the leaders. The leaders themselves are nasty foulspawn types, but I put some human mercenary bodyguards (about 7 and their leader) outside to slow the party up. These guys are supposed to be strictly pushovers; they've got swords to hit people with, but no special abilities, and they're all either the same level or lower than the party. They exist merely to tire out the good guys a little before the big fight with the foulspawn.
But then the dice gods intervene. And in a most terrible fashion.
See, not only does the party begin rolling terribly (the cleric alone missed something like 6 attacks in a row), but I began rolling great. I seriously could not roll lower than a 16. Starting to fear my own D20, I borrowed every other D20 on the table, but again, no lower than a 16. This went on and on and on, for about three times the amount of time it should have. The only reasons it didn't result in a TPK were 1) The cleric, fighter, and wizard triple-teaming enemies one by one, 2) The bard/swordmage drawing off half of the bodyguards to buy time, and 3) the player and myself both misreading the Cape of the Mountebank's ability as an I. Interrupt instead of an I. Reaction, which saved the bard/swordmage's life.
This not only left everyone cranky, but completely drained the actual boss fight of any sense of dramatic climax or danger.
Or the dice gods were just in a bad mood. Fickle beings, they are.
Get a micrometer and grab a d20. Then measure the thickness of the die between the various sides. On most dice there will be discrepencies. If the 20-1 axis is shorter than that of others than the die will tend to roll 20 or 1 more often than other numbers. Sadly the vast majority of the dice sold to gamers are lopsided and thus do not roll impartially.
If the 20-1 axis is shorter than that of others than the die will tend to roll 20 or 1 more often than other numbers. Sadly the vast majority of the dice sold to gamers are lopsided and thus do not roll impartially.
Godless heathen! Tis the dice gods, we say! No more of this blasphemous science you so brazenly promote! :P
Thankfully, my few 'worst sessions' seem like blessings compared to these. I have nothing that comes even close.
The knights each had different colored armor and their weapon did damage of the same type as a dragon of the same color, but if you killed a night you couldn't pick it up. The adventure was so bad, but the DM so new, that the party all spent time RPing amongst ourselves between knights, to try to create some sort of...point.
The DM tried to join into this but that caused us to end up recruiting a few of the knights to our own cause.
After we got through 2 full ranks of the entire array of chromatic and metallic dragon colors, we found ourselves in a long hallway making saves to dodge the occasional fireball. We got to a certain point and found a Green Great Wyrm sitting on a large bridge (we were all level2) and a hatchet shaped lever behind him. The cave was too small for the dragon to fly, and when we realized where we REALLY were, the thief ran across the bridge, past the dragon, and flipped the lever. The dragon fell into the lava and mysteriously we all appeared by the thief.
When the little mushroom-man at the end gave us the chance to "parlay, attack, or leave" we chose leave, everyone got up from the table, and left. Even if the princess WAS in another castle, screw that ho, she could stay there.
Show
So we have a very basic plot set up: frontier town with a rampaging Orc band heading our way. My character is the son of the nobles in charge of the town so at least I have a reason to want to do this, but the DM provides no reason for the other players to want to be there.
Oh well, at least we get to play. They rolled with it. The Orcs attack and we, along with the town guard, begin fending them off. Suddenly we hear the Orcs are attacking from a second side (smart tactic).
Before we can get there they have grappling hooks over the wall. We all assumed they were gonna scale it.
They pulled down the wall. In one round. With no checks made. Apparently foundations are for wusses.
So we finally beat the Orcs and are catching our breaths/healing when we hear a scream from my families estate. I, of course, run off. The others follow, having no reason to go, but they want to keep the session going.
Apparently the whole attack was a ruse, a dozen Orcs died to draw our attention so that another Orc could (unbeknownst to us) break into my family estate and kidnap my sister.
Now, heres where I added to the trouble. I ran off to go after her, which probably rushed the rest of the party. They had no motivation to go with me; The Druid didnt care about a noble family, the Rogue was to selfish to care, and the Rangers family gets taxed by mine so yeah. Still, they want to play D&D, so they followed.
We find the Orc, running ahead with my sister over his shoulder (in the opposite direction the Orcs had come from). He's on foot and is somehow to fast for our horses to catch. We had some ranged power, but not a lot. I (Bard) end up throwing my sword at him, the Ranger plunks him with his bow, the Rogue with his cross bow. He wont go down. The Rangers player tallies up the damage we did to him in the chase/fight, something around 50 or 60. We ask the DM "How?"
"Well he's a Barbarian/Cleric multi class. Clerics can cast Cure spells spontaneously in 3.5"
I'll just leave that one to you guys.
So he gets away (somehow) into his underground lair. By this point the Rogues player has figured out that his uber selfish thief has no reason to be going as their is no benefit to risking his neck here. The other two follow me down. The dungeon is poor, which makes sense seeing as he is making it all up as he goes since he lost the map that was drawn up for that session. So we trudge through a boring ass dungeon and find the Orc. He has my sister tied to a Demonic altar (remember, he can spontaneously cast cure spells) and is about to sacrifice her. We bust in and rescue her, killing the Orc.
BUT WAIT, THE HORRIBLE DOESNT STOP THERE!
The Orcs blood hits the altar, completing the ritual. So heres a question, why did he need my sister at all?
The DM goes into this classic rant about the Earth splitting open, fire and brimstone, the whole nine. I grab my sister and book it. The Ranger, in and out of character, says "No. I went through all of this, Im not leaving till I get some satisfaction." The Druid agrees. They arent leaving till they see how this all ends DAMNIT!
So out of the smoking pit comes... NOTHING! The DM choked. Nothing happened.
The DM left the table and went to go play WoW. We, still in character, get together and agree to "never discuss this again.
Oh well, at least we get to play. They rolled with it. The Orcs attack and we, along with the town guard, begin fending them off. Suddenly we hear the Orcs are attacking from a second side (smart tactic).
Before we can get there they have grappling hooks over the wall. We all assumed they were gonna scale it.
They pulled down the wall. In one round. With no checks made. Apparently foundations are for wusses.
So we finally beat the Orcs and are catching our breaths/healing when we hear a scream from my families estate. I, of course, run off. The others follow, having no reason to go, but they want to keep the session going.
Apparently the whole attack was a ruse, a dozen Orcs died to draw our attention so that another Orc could (unbeknownst to us) break into my family estate and kidnap my sister.
Now, heres where I added to the trouble. I ran off to go after her, which probably rushed the rest of the party. They had no motivation to go with me; The Druid didnt care about a noble family, the Rogue was to selfish to care, and the Rangers family gets taxed by mine so yeah. Still, they want to play D&D, so they followed.
We find the Orc, running ahead with my sister over his shoulder (in the opposite direction the Orcs had come from). He's on foot and is somehow to fast for our horses to catch. We had some ranged power, but not a lot. I (Bard) end up throwing my sword at him, the Ranger plunks him with his bow, the Rogue with his cross bow. He wont go down. The Rangers player tallies up the damage we did to him in the chase/fight, something around 50 or 60. We ask the DM "How?"
"Well he's a Barbarian/Cleric multi class. Clerics can cast Cure spells spontaneously in 3.5"
I'll just leave that one to you guys.
So he gets away (somehow) into his underground lair. By this point the Rogues player has figured out that his uber selfish thief has no reason to be going as their is no benefit to risking his neck here. The other two follow me down. The dungeon is poor, which makes sense seeing as he is making it all up as he goes since he lost the map that was drawn up for that session. So we trudge through a boring ass dungeon and find the Orc. He has my sister tied to a Demonic altar (remember, he can spontaneously cast cure spells) and is about to sacrifice her. We bust in and rescue her, killing the Orc.
BUT WAIT, THE HORRIBLE DOESNT STOP THERE!
The Orcs blood hits the altar, completing the ritual. So heres a question, why did he need my sister at all?
The DM goes into this classic rant about the Earth splitting open, fire and brimstone, the whole nine. I grab my sister and book it. The Ranger, in and out of character, says "No. I went through all of this, Im not leaving till I get some satisfaction." The Druid agrees. They arent leaving till they see how this all ends DAMNIT!
So out of the smoking pit comes... NOTHING! The DM choked. Nothing happened.
The DM left the table and went to go play WoW. We, still in character, get together and agree to "never discuss this again.
I missed 5 out of 6 attacks. On a d20 the chances of rolling a 4 or lower 5 out of 6 tymes is astronomical.
Actually it's only about 1 in 2600*. Frustrating, yes, but not astronomical.
I remember the first time I ever played the Star Wars miniature game. My entire Imperial force ended up with a clear shot on Lando, the other player's core figure. I combined fire on all figures. All I had to do was hit and Lando was cooked and the only way I could only miss to roll a 1.
Any guesses what I rolled?
*Warning: Given my math skills this could be totally wrong. ;)
Just to nitpick a bit further...."tyme" is what you roast your chicken with. "time" is the stuff measured with minutes, and seconds.
Just to nitpick a bit further...."thyme" is what you roast your chicken with. "Tyme" is not a word.
There were 8 of us. Huge fricken party.
I need to give some background here. One of the players was our friend TJ. He has a long career of playing playing melee characters, on top of that he almost always plays "brooding loners" with a mysterious history.
This time, not only is he playing a Sorcerer, but he's a happy go lucky thrill seeker out to see the world and have adventures.
So what does the DM do. First session starts up and the DM turns to TJ and says "Your character wakes up in the smoking ruins of your families house. You lost control of your magic powers in the night and burned it down, your parents are nowhere to be found."
Later in the same session: Our party is walking through a canyon when a group of Orcs attacks us from a ledge just above us using javelins. While this is a good tactic, he only used 3 basic MM Orcs on a party of 8 people.
Im playing a Wizard, I pop a Grease spell on the Orcs, they fall off the ledge and die. Interesting ruling, but heres where it gets wrong. I went first. 7 other people never got a chance to attack. He could have just had more Orcs come out of the woodwork, no one would have questioned it, but nope. Seven other people with nothing to do, back to walking, no more combat the entire session.
3 5th level PCs.
1 18th level DMPC.
Typical encounter level: About 10.
Guess who was the only useful character in the adventure.
Had an encounter where to hit the Sith attacking us we had to roll a natural 20. Those that had AoE weapons (everyone but me) had no problems with doing half damage every shot and whittleing the BBEG down.
The problem came when the BBEG did anything. The other 3 players said "He can'd do that!" and gave reasons, or said "HE can't! I'm behind the wall;" "He can't, I'm too far away!" "I'm not there! I said I was here!" (Even though this character is always stealing/getting anything that anyone else discovers instantly somehow...).
So, after 5 hours of rules lawyering a battle which should have been impossible to win (but we won because the DM always followed what the other three "bully" pc'd said), the BBEG finally died. (I did roll a 20... but did 0 as the damage was negated by the BBEG's negate energy ability). At the end... I had had enough of said group's constant bickering rule laywering etc.
I've been working on a 4e (Which they dispise) game ever since, and was thinking about just going as a 2 pc group, me (Dwar Warlord) and my wife (Dwarf Hammer Fighter) and just scaling the encounters. Perhaps we'll be able to recruit some other players who won't argue and will.. you know... roleplay other than "I TAKE THEIR STUFF!"
I had rolled well creating my character and came up with a fairly muscular brawler-type but basically good natured. Just a good ol' boy. The other players were similar locals, just a bunch of working slobs waiting for more work to crop up. I think it was Star Wars d6.
Anyway, the DM goes out of his way to describe the stranger in town who is sitting alone at the end of the counter. (Aha! The hook!) I wander over, but not too close. My character was a guy and I didn't want the stranger to think this was a gay bar! ;) I ask in a friendly manner if he's got any work for a pack of local drunks. No matter what we did to try to bite at this hook, the response was always the same. The guy ignored us. (Red herring?) We went back to our end of the bar to discuss what to do when the DM told us that the guy paid his tab and stormed out of the bar, complaining about not being able to enjoy a drink in peace. (Aha! There's the hook!) We followed on the pretext of trying to see what this stranger was all about.
We lost him as soon as we cleared the bar door. Nobody saw him. No sign of where he went. No vehicles, nothing. Searching the small town turned up nothing. (Jedi tricks?) OOC, I asked the DM if this guy was a jedi. All he'd say is "You'll have to find out." We searched...and searched...and searched. Not even a clue. Okay, we went back into the bar and continued drinking, thinking the DM would send something our way. Nothing. (Not even a die roll, he just told us that we couldn't find anything.)
We shrugged, took out our D&D sheets, and started a new game.
I asked him later (after his hissy fit that we'd abandon a game that wasn't doing anything) what we were supposed to have done. All he'd say is "You'll never know, will you?"
He never DM'd for us again.
He never DM'd for us again.
He didn't DM for you that time, either.
Cutting to the bare bones of the Worst Session I ever had ...
3 5th level PCs.
1 18th level DMPC.
Typical encounter level: About 10.
Guess who was the only useful character in the adventure.
It's people like that who give DMPCs a bad name. Yuck! As soon as he brought out that character, I would have set my dice and pencil down and asked "So how does the story end?"
So, we were hired by a Bard to kill what she called "An absolutely insane Silver Dragon."
On the first Encounter in the Dragon's cavern, we noticed something was wrong. We fought two Undead Dragons in a Pool of Raw Negative Energy. The encounter took awhile but we won. Then, the DM told me that I had to go into the next room first. I went in first and guess what attacked me?
Two Rustmonsters!
I threw my falchion back to wizard and prevented the Rust Monsters from destroying it. My armor wasn't so lucky. Then, I used by Ranseur as a Quartstaff to kill the Rust Monsters, with help from some other party members.
In the next encounter, there was a silver Rust Dragon. I hated it. So, I hid my falchion in the corner and charged the beast. It seperated our party with Walls of Iron. Then, guess what happened? Five other Rust Dragons popped out of the ground. We fled and the wizard teleported us back to the town. But, my falchion was teleported back with us, despite the fact that the wizard said he teleported all of our equipment back with us. I told the DM I was mad about the fact that I did nothing and lost my equipment, so he gave my stuff back to me....
...then killed my character with a Red Dragon living in Freezing Temperatures on a mountain during a blizzard.
Cutting to the bare bones of the Worst Session I ever had ...
3 5th level PCs.
1 18th level DMPC.
Typical encounter level: About 10.
Guess who was the only useful character in the adventure.
lol i remember when playing keep on the shadowfell, the Dm's deus ex machina was a level 33 dragonborn paladin flying around on a griffin. we were all around level 3 at the time
I've mentioned this one elsewhere. One of the few times since 1983 that I've gotten to be a player, and it sucked.
I had rolled well creating my character and came up with a fairly muscular brawler-type but basically good natured. Just a good ol' boy. The other players were similar locals, just a bunch of working slobs waiting for more work to crop up. I think it was Star Wars d6.
Anyway, the DM goes out of his way to describe the stranger in town who is sitting alone at the end of the counter. (Aha! The hook!) I wander over, but not too close. My character was a guy and I didn't want the stranger to think this was a gay bar! ;) I ask in a friendly manner if he's got any work for a pack of local drunks. No matter what we did to try to bite at this hook, the response was always the same. The guy ignored us. (Red herring?) We went back to our end of the bar to discuss what to do when the DM told us that the guy paid his tab and stormed out of the bar, complaining about not being able to enjoy a drink in peace. (Aha! There's the hook!) We followed on the pretext of trying to see what this stranger was all about.
We lost him as soon as we cleared the bar door. Nobody saw him. No sign of where he went. No vehicles, nothing. Searching the small town turned up nothing. (Jedi tricks?) OOC, I asked the DM if this guy was a jedi. All he'd say is "You'll have to find out." We searched...and searched...and searched. Not even a clue. Okay, we went back into the bar and continued drinking, thinking the DM would send something our way. Nothing. (Not even a die roll, he just told us that we couldn't find anything.)
We shrugged, took out our D&D sheets, and started a new game.
I asked him later (after his hissy fit that we'd abandon a game that wasn't doing anything) what we were supposed to have done. All he'd say is "You'll never know, will you?"
He never DM'd for us again.
after reading this i am just as mad as you are.is there anyway to find that DM and see if he will tell you guys whetehr the dude was a jedi or not because i really wanna know now
Actually it's only about 1 in 2600*. Frustrating, yes, but not astronomical.
I remember the first time I ever played the Star Wars miniature game. My entire Imperial force ended up with a clear shot on Lando, the other player's core figure. I combined fire on all figures. All I had to do was hit and Lando was cooked and the only way I could only miss to roll a 1.
Any guesses what I rolled?
*Warning: Given my math skills this could be totally wrong. ;)
Throwing a 5 or lower 5 out of 6 times with a d20:
1/(0.25^5*0.75*6) -> A change of about 1 in 228
To compare, rolling 2 d20s after eachother is 1 in 400.
And we've all seen that happen.
Throwing a 5 or lower 5 out of 6 times with a d20:
1/(0.25^5*0.75*6) -> A change of about 1 in 228
To compare, rolling 2 d20s after eachother is 1 in 400.
And we've all seen that happen.
yeah, all that probability crap doesn't matter because with each roll of the die, the odds of rolling the same number as before is exactly the same. few weeks back i rolled 4 nat 20s in row followed by 4 nat 4s
yeah, all that probability crap doesn't matter because with each roll of the die, the odds of rolling the same number as before is exactly the same. few weeks back i rolled 4 nat 20s in row followed by 4 nat 4s
The odds of each die roll are the same ever time you roll the die. The odds of any particular sequence or run or numbers is not. The odds of rolling four 20s in a row is 1 in 160,000. The odds of rolling four 1s in a row is also 1 in 160,000. The odds of rolling that particular combination of four 20s and four 1s is 1 in 25,600,000,000.
I was a Fight who relied on a +4 Falchion and some +1 Mitheral Full Plate. My backup weapon was an MWK Ranseur
So, we were hired by a Bard to kill what she called "An absolutely insane Silver Dragon."
On the first Encounter in the Dragon's cavern, we noticed something was wrong. We fought two Undead Dragons in a Pool of Raw Negative Energy. The encounter took awhile but we won. Then, the DM told me that I had to go into the next room first. I went in first and guess what attacked me?
Two Rustmonsters!
I threw my falchion back to wizard and prevented the Rust Monsters from destroying it. My armor wasn't so lucky. Then, I used by Ranseur as a Quartstaff to kill the Rust Monsters, with help from some other party members.
In the next encounter, there was a silver Rust Dragon. I hated it. So, I hid my falchion in the corner and charged the beast. It seperated our party with Walls of Iron. Then, guess what happened? Five other Rust Dragons popped out of the ground. We fled and the wizard teleported us back to the town. But, my falchion was teleported back with us, despite the fact that the wizard said he teleported all of our equipment back with us. I told the DM I was mad about the fact that I did nothing and lost my equipment, so he gave my stuff back to me....
...then killed my character with a Red Dragon living in Freezing Temperatures on a mountain during a blizzard.
wow that sounds awful
did you insult the dm or his family before the game? :D
wow that sounds awful
did you insult the dm or his family before the game? :D
No kidding....next time bring some magnesium ribbon?
wow that sounds awful
did you insult the dm or his family before the game? :D
That's the funny thing. The adventure was obviously made to punish me, yet I had done nothing and had been nice to him before the game. He uses DMing to get him anger out.
That's the funny thing. The adventure was obviously made to punish me, yet I had done nothing and had been nice to him before the game. He uses DMing to get him anger out.
I would stop playing with the DM after that. There's no excuse for that kind of attitude. Even if you had insulted him, there's no excuse to take your anger out on a player's character.
As for rust monsters, ouch. As a DM, they scare me. That's the kind of monster that needs to be used exceedingly sparingly, as in once in a very great while and you intend to reward the player very soon.
I would stop playing with the DM after that. There's no excuse for that kind of attitude. Even if you had insulted him, there's no excuse to take your anger out on a player's character.
As for rust monsters, ouch. As a DM, they scare me. That's the kind of monster that needs to be used exceedingly sparingly, as in once in a very great while and you intend to reward the player very soon.
Yeah, I wish I had stopped after that, but I didn't. I didn't have enough money to get raise dead cast on me, so my brother (the wizard) told me to cheat, because I was only 100 GP away. I did, because I was ****** at the DM. I'm happy that my brother is the DM now, but our previous DM is a Munchkin who got a ton of ranks in Diplomacy. He tries to convinces our characters to do stupid things, but the DM overrides it (Thank God).
I had a similar guy here i town, who DM'd a mixed campaign. It was D&D basic...
just some quote:
- my first game whit him as DM, i played a female cleric of Thor (god present in mystara). I planned to do a sort of Valkyrie born and raised in a monastery, as bastard child of a noble.
Once I reached the 2nd level, I told him that my memorized spell was -guess- cure light wounds.
He replied that I can't memorize spells.
..."Why? I'm a cleric, whit a church behind (I ever talked to my bishop during my first adventure). I do not understand."
"Because Thor does not exist in my world."
"And why there is a Thor's church??"
"It does not exist too. You are crazy and deluded."
(starting to be pi**ed.) "So... How can I obtain my cleric powers?"
"I am not the one to tell you how. Do it by yourself."
"Well... Is there some church I can join?"
"You know nothing of religion."
- I left. It turned out that the invisible monster that near TPK the party during the adventure was a minotaur whit a ring of invisibility and a magical sword. We was 1st level...
- Clearly not satisfied by the first, masochistic game whit him as DM, I and a friend tryed it again. We played a chaotic fighter/avenger and a neutral fighter/knight, starting at level 6.
...Looking for some adventure, we traveled to a city. Along the road, at night, the sky turned black and lightnings start to fall around us, while 4 men used them as rope to descend, like in the chinatown movie.
"We are ManOWar, FightingTheWord, ManOfSteel and HolyWar"
(those was their names.)
"We are looking for Kurzunarak! If you ever see him, report to us, or you will die by the most painful death!"
...And they left.
The following 3 sessions we asked around about Kurzunarak, doing our business in the meantime. Nobody have ever hear of him, or about the four lightning metal guys.
We left the game out of pure no logic in it.
- I however, have witness some of his adventures as spectator. That DM was so absurd, clueless, logic-absent and stereotype-ridden, filled whit leftover custom material from his years that I truly do not know if he was a genius (crazy one) of sort or if he just s**k badly.
- He had in his campaign the "seven sword of destruption".
The first, once thrown in air, kill a monster (no roll).
The second sword, once thrown in air, kill a room of monsters (no roll).
The 3rd, an hexagon of the map.
the 4th, 10 hexagon radius.
the 5th, a region.
the 6th, a continent.
the 7th, the world.
- One npc, a stupid clueless young boy, was whit the group whit no apparent reason.
He followed them for like 10 levels, until in a random chest in pointless dungeon, the rogue stealed a letter. He was unable to read it, and so the wizard.
The npc boy taken it, read it, and turned into a 30th level paladin whit extra powerups, named "Defender". (If your like metal, look for the Man'o'war song whit the same title).
- One dungeon turned out to be the following series:
"Beholder."
fighter: "1st sowrd of destruption."
"door."
"kick in."
"undead beholder"
Fighter "smash ground whit the Odin's Fist. -lot of dices- 250 damage." (turn out that at least Odin exist.)
Wizard "spell pool, insert four fireball, cast! -180 damages."
"Dead. Door."
"Kick in."
"gargantuan beholder."
Fighter "I jump, use the -forget the name- sword. -roll a d30- i killed him."
"door."
rogue "look for traps."
"one, you deactivate it."
"kick in."
"gargantuan undead beholder."
wizard "disintegrate."
"Killed. Door."
"Kick in."
"Trap, 15 damage. Brown Dragon."
Fighter "Dragonslayer sword. Attack... missed!"
Wizard "Spell pool. four disintegrate. Cast!"
"Dead. Door."
"Kick in."
"gargantuan brown dragon."
I was unable to sustain the sight of this thing anymore.
- This is also the kind of guy fr what an enjoining puzzle from a sphinx is:
"What am I thinking?"
after 30 minutes of trials, the group resolve whit
"spell pool. four fireball. Cast!"
My character is lvl9 (1Aasimar 2Winged (savage species template) 1monk, 5 cleric) and was going to fight the elite of some monastary. At first I fought a lower level monk who could only hit me if he rolled 19 or 20, which he did two times, while I just did nothing and let him try and hit me. Then I challenged a elite monk who would turn out to be a lvl16 monk. This was a typical monk-styled duel, so besides my buffs, no magic or weapons. Now my character is pretty powerful but a lvl16 monk is very strong. Still, I had a decent chance considering my insane AC against his pretty high attack bonusses. This time the DM decided to show me the dice exactly what he rolled, and I kid you not, he rolled natural 20s 7 times in a row, while I kept rolling 3s and 4s. I did hit him a few times, but at the point when I was almost dying he was still in pretty good shape.
Now this would have been bad, if not for the last session.
The rogue decided to run away, laughing, while we were in the middle of a combat. We all dropped -1 at some point, but not at the same time. So I went down, the fighter rushed in, healed me, and dropped to -1 in the same round, while the Wizard was already running low on his False Life.
I was determined to kill the rogue for that, until the player said that it was his last session. And all I kept thinking was: Noooo! You can't quit! I still have to kill you~!
But probably the worst 'session' ever was when I was scouting a dungeon two years ago, ran into a meduse and got turned to stone. No big deal, you'd think, except it took them 4-5 sessions to find me, and even then, they just figured 'hmm.. so here he is, but we can't lift him, and we can't do anything about it. So in that same session, just around the corner, they pressed one out of four buttons that would summmon an elemental. They killed it but were damaged in the proces. Apparantly there were also crocodiles in the water nearby so they fled, climbing up a wall. Then they argued who was going to fight and how. The fighter pushed the wizard off the wall, who was already at around 4 hp, so the fall would have killed him. He casted featherfall and threw a fireball at the fighter. The fighter made his reflex, but the cleric, did not. The cleric died and the fighter was upset. Because the wizard was not going to win against the fighter, he pushed two other buttons, summoning two elementals. The same kind they could only barely kill with the three of them. I was looking at this disaster I had no control over, killing the chance of my character coming back to life.
In the end, the cleric and the fighter died, the wizard was able to get away. The fighter's body was taken by the crocodiles, only his head and torso being in part, the wizard considered it 'too dangerous' to get it. I eventually got my character back after two months (a local demonic minotaur collected the statues, so it took them a real long time till they found me).
Let me get this straight...you sat through 4 or 5 sessions of being a stone statue!? Why did you bother showing up?
No kidding....you're a ******* trooper. Though I would suggest that next time, talk to your DM about rolling up your own rescuer.
Yeah, I wish I had stopped after that, but I didn't. I didn't have enough money to get raise dead cast on me, so my brother (the wizard) told me to cheat, because I was only 100 GP away. I did, because I was ****** at the DM. I'm happy that my brother is the DM now, but our previous DM is a Munchkin who got a ton of ranks in Diplomacy. He tries to convinces our characters to do stupid things, but the DM overrides it (Thank God).
PCs are normally immune to diplomacy, bluff, intimidate, and sense motive. (when the PCs roll to determine if something is outwardly a lie) only very certain effects can do anything to you, and that's only Bluff as a feint, epic level suggestion via bluff(which you can't even get a success with until you hit 21st level,) and intimidate can give you morale penalties with some abilities that NPCs may have.
No kidding....you're a ******* trooper. Though I would suggest that next time, talk to your DM about rolling up your own rescuer.
I did at one point. I got to play a pseudodragon who lived in the dungeon and helped the wizard find a way out. But after 6 sessions without action a pseudodragon does not make up much and it sucked at making (combat) difference in a lvl 6 party.
Perhaps the worst part is that we never finished the campaign.
He didn't DM for you that time, either.
Ha HaaH!!!
My worst as a player:
AD&D... My Gnome Illusionist, 3 HP, died in the first encounter after getting bitten by a brownie.
Rifts... My human Headhunter, SDC, died in the first encounter after having a tree fall on him.
Cyberpunk... My Nomad, a badazz, died in the first encounter after a gang decided they didn't like me.
Superworld... My flying superhero, super, died in the first encounter when the Paralyzer paralyzed him. He flew for one mile until he hit a building, which collapsed on top of him.
Ah... good times.
This was actually fun - for me - but one of the players flipped out a bit towards then end due to our ineptitude...
3.5
Me - Banjax - (CE Bard), Bokk (Half orc barb) and Fred (cleric)(both played by same person), Dana (monk) and Wolfgar (a LG dwarf fighter)
Me, Book and Dana had already made a right mess of the first part of an adventure that was about investigating disturbances in a mine. Previously, my insane (or is he?! :P ) bard had given the other characters nicknames (which they accepted with good humour) and when Wolfgar turns up to help out I decide to call him 'Aunt Petunia'. Not only that but with my high Bluff skills I convince the others that I have a very strange family tree! ('She isn't blood you know! She married into my uncle's side of the family for the money!')
(btw - I'd already discussed with the others the fact that I thought the player behind Wolfgar was incapable of playing a LG character as he isn't much of a RPer and had made up my mind to tease him!)
So off we trott, ten feet into the dungeon.
'After you, Aunt Petunia!', says Banjax impishly.
'Call me that again and I'll cut out yer tongue', growls Wolfgar.
'Go on then, do it!' , declares Banjax and sticks out his tongue.
Wolfgar strikes!
DM sighes and says 'Attack roll then'
Off goes my tongue!
I'm happy because I got the reaction I was looking for, but I did feel a wee bit bad as the cleric hunts around for my tongue and then sews it back on and keeps having to cast cure spells to staunche the bleeding.
Off we go again. Wulfgar falls down a twenty foot pit trap.
'Don't worry Auntie! I'll save you!' (or whatever came out of my mangled mouth) I say as I push to the front.
I then empty my bladder on the dwarf.
Next Bokk pushes me in as well, and then threatens to do the same to both of us unless we calm down. Banjax, by some bizarre backstory coincidence, has an umbrella which he then unfurls, much to everyone's amusement.
All good fun, but when we did finaly meet the BBEG, most of the cleric spells had been used on my tongue and general nonsense later on. He was pretty annoyed (in-character mostly :P ) with our tomfoolery.
He should see what I have planned for the next session!
I too have wondered how it is possible that my d20 can consecutively roll so many single digit numbers.
Mine go a step further and roll single digits only on certain rolls. For instance, every time I use the Cleric power Command I roll below a 10. I think I've had it hit one time since I've gotten that power.
Back on topic. The worst sessions are the ones where we start playing at 9 or 10 pm and end at 2-3am and have only actually played for 15 minutes. Our group is so easy to get off-topic that it isn't even funny.
The worst sessions are the ones where we start playing at 9 or 10 pm and end at 2-3am and have only actually played for 15 minutes. Our group is so easy to get off-topic that it isn't even funny.
True, true.