GMs - Little "oopsies" you had to roll with


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

1 to 50 of 98 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>
Shadow Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Last game I GM'd, I miss-pronounced a key NPC's name (originally Skeribar) to something a little too close to "Scarebear". The party collectively perked up their ears. lol.

Scarebear countdown....

As a result, it's his new nickname and the camp makes fun of him with it.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

I once made a "lengenary Sword" I had a awsome back story and Quest to search for it planed a 3 sessions to find it. I came up with the name: "the Sword of Johndise" I was so excited, I thought it was awsome name and i was siked. I droped the hook and the whole table burst into laughs. the player to my right said does it turn your skin yellow.

Best layed plans of mice and men.

Shadow Lodge

Liongold wrote:

I once made a "lengenary Sword" I droped the hook and the whole table burst into laughs. the player to my right said does it turn your skin yellow.

Best layed plans of mice and men.

Bwahah, I nearly burst into tears myself!


I "accidentally" used an overpowered custom monster to TPK my group, but they did "accidentally" forget to use the custom magic item i had given them for the purpose of killing it.


Admittedly, I'm terrible with names IRL, but it gets particularly bad when I'm running a campaign that has no set story (I presented the players with a scenario and they're the ones who decide what they're gonna do and how they're gonna go about doing that, I just make the encounters and try and keep up).

Numerous times so far I've made more-or-less plot critical characters that either:

A) Have really stupid names (I had a few people laugh at the name Grant Bartol)

B) Have a name that I keep forgetting between sessions, so it ends up changing once or twice. Or more...


I accidentally had rolled critical hit damage wrong.

Instead of rolling multiple dice, I rolled one die and multiplied the result.


Icyshadow wrote:

I accidentally had rolled critical hit damage wrong.

Instead of rolling multiple dice, I rolled one die and multiplied the result.

My group is guilty of this. All the other GMs refuse to do it the correct way, though.

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

That's the way we do it at our table (for no other reason than time saving).


1 person marked this as a favorite.
CFet wrote:
Liongold wrote:

I once made a "lengenary Sword" I droped the hook and the whole table burst into laughs. the player to my right said does it turn your skin yellow.

Best layed plans of mice and men.

Bwahah, I nearly burst into tears myself!

yea... years later I still get greaf from that. "The great and terible sword of yellow skin."

i spun it and caused 1 temp con damage every week carryed. cured on a week off (non carryed).


Icyshadow wrote:

I accidentally had rolled critical hit damage wrong.

Instead of rolling multiple dice, I rolled one die and multiplied the result.

this is how i've always done it. x2 means x2


A DM I play with accidentally called a very mighty wizard "F$%!ie". He never thought about it until we started laughing.
Now he is giving strange names to his charaters as much as he can. It's awesome.

Shadow Lodge

In the second session I GM'd, I misheard a player in the middle of a tense social situation and as a result decided he'd botched his diplomacy attempt. Luckily the group thought of a very clever way to regain the advantage and since everyone had fun they forgave my error.


only sorta connected, but every time I mention the "Ass-piss Consortium" several of my players snicker.

Shadow Lodge

FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!!
FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!!
FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!!
FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!!
FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!! FIRE THE GM!!!

Sczarni

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I have a habit of when a player asks for a name of an NPC that I haven't given one yet, I will assign the first Russian sounding name not in use, always starting with Boris (short for Boriskinski). I ended up with an entire region that was essentially Russia.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I am notorious for my terrible memory.

***

I once had the misfortune of a pirate captain NPC trying to bolster his crew before attacking a merchant vessel known for trading in exotic livestock.

"Ready yerselves ye scallywags! It's time to fill our hull with extravagant meat!"

The table heard "hole" not "hull." We didn't get anything done after that for all the laughter.

It doesn't help that we are now running Skull and Shackles and are now wholly unable to stow away anything on-board our ship without the continuation of what has long since become a running gag.

***

I skipped an entire encounter in a module once by mistake. Without it, the PCs were wholly unable to proceed. It wasn't until they were stuck that I realized that I had some how forgotten to run the entire encounter.

***

In a homebrew game, the PCs were supposed to fight a bunch of punks in a factory with a conveyer belt system in hopes of stealing a quest item from them. During the fight, the punks were going to drop or throw the quest item onto the conveyer belt and half the battle would be chasing it down as it goes all over the place, repeatedly exchanging hands and what not as it did so.

It turned into a humdrum fight and basic treasure recovery as none of the NPCs bothered putting the quest item on the conveyer belt when I FORGOT MY OWN PLAN.

***

I've skipped players' turns by accident multiple time. We now have MULTIPLE tracking systems to aid me, and I still occasionally mess it up.

***

I let my players record me GMing a game. I look like a complete idiot in the video (at least I think so) and they now use it as leverage against me on occasion by threatening to post it online for all to see.

***

I tried GMing while drunk once. The players asked me if I was okay as it was clear that I couldn't even read the module due to my inebriation. I insisted that I was perfectly fine, stood up to prove to them that I was, and fell flat on my face sending dice and minis as flyin'. Worst part of it all? My mother entered the room just in time to witness the whole thing. I don't really drink anymore as a result.

Despite all these and more, I keep on rollin' wit' it.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

My worst screw up is deciding that I could homebrew a campaign. I had a great backstorys planned out for each of the PC's, and it all went down the toilet when the Efreet ran though a tavern wall scooby-doo style screaming "They're after me luckycharms!"

It's been all down hill from there.


Stupid double post XD sorry about that.

Sczarni

I tried DMing drunk once. Temple of Elemental Evil. The PCs were in the dormant volcano portion of the adventure and I was drawing out the next portion of the dungeon as they were progressing.

There's a path along here...

xxxxxxx

And a lake out here...

xxxxxxx

000000000
0000000000
00000000000
0000000000
000000000

And right here is the wall...

xxxxxxx
---------
000000000
0000000000
00000000000
0000000000
000000000

PC: Wait a minute, if there's a wall there how can we see the lake?

Me: ...... awkward pause.
"It's a low wall..."

I have yet to live it down.

In one of the first campaigns I ran I threw a vampiric dragon at the party in the later levels.

PC: What time of day is it?
Me: I dunno, about mid-aftern...crap.


Sloanzilla wrote:
only sorta connected, but every time I mention the "Ass-piss Consortium" several of my players snicker.

Bumscags?

Is that you?


A long while ago, running my first major dragon fight, I misused the fly rules and thought that the result of a fly check I rolled meant the dragon would fall from it's strafing run way up high to the ground, which caused it both to take falling damage(lots) and with my players arguing successfully be prone after the fall. One charging cavalier later it was wiped off the map in a rather lackluster way for a dragon. Later I read over the rules and the dragon carefully and realized I had screwed up what maneuvers it was doing in the air and the DCs for the checks.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

Let's see... there was the wizard Sarothane, whose name I had come up with by putting together various old english words for the effect/meaning I wanted. I thought it sounded cool.

Then one of my players immediately began to sing, "Sarothane, Mr. Sarothane, shoulda been my name, Mr. Sarothane..."

Another character, a horse-shaped outsider referring to herself as the Epona (as in the Celtic goddess, but "the" to differentiate her from the planar creatures known as epona) got nicknamed "the E-pony." She was meant to be someone's cohort, and the PC's player himself insisted on her having another name instead. (I then went for the Welsh goddess Rhiannon, but then they had to put up with me singing the Fleetwood Mac song, but that was apparently more acceptable.)

I am sure there are others, stuff like that happens a lot.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

I once created a race o fierce reptilian humanoids called lizard mongers. Which would be silly enough, implying that they sold lizards, but then the players started calling the, lizard bongers. I was trying for a name that implied barbaric Mongol types along with hybrid mongrels.


Not as a GM but..

My last (and recently deceased) character was a witch named Grogai... intended to be similar to Groggy, but ended up Grow-Guy... for a nature oriented character cackling away in the back, I really came across as an always high hippie. Doesn't help that I'm rail-thin and always hungry

Shadow Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
DeathQuaker wrote:
Another character, a horse-shaped outsider referring to herself as the Epona

Where were Link and Zelda? Was the BBEG a were-boar eldrich knight named Ganondorf?

Shadow Lodge

I had concocted an encounter where, believe it or not, a bag of flour would be an extremely useful item. The PC found the bag of flower in the cargo hold of a ship. I completely forgot the encounter and the PC was left carrying it around for the next few levels looking for ways to use it.

PC "Maybe we can tie my bag of flower to a stick and swing it around to find something invisible!"


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

In a homebrew I had the PCs explore the mysterious ruin of Algorath hidden away deep in the mountains. The ruins were large enough to be a small city and had numerous classic RPG elements. There was a shadowy caretaker/guardian, traps galore, ancient technologies, rival resident factions complete with turf wars. There was even an ancient library that the part came upon and discovered the origins and downfall of this great city. But when I revealed that the city's first and last ruler, Algore had been the cause of his city's destruction, the players burst out laughing. I didn't get it until one of them managed to draw enough breathe between guffaws to ask whether it was because of the Republicans or Global Warming.

--------------------------

Another story has to do with a particular descriptive phrase that I sometimes use and occasionally see in prewritten modules. The phrase "wailing cries" always gets at least one person at my table to shout, "Thar she bloooows!!!"


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Most of these seem less like mistakes and more like players with a sense of humor.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

True. But I was fully aware of their propensity for mocking or punning proper nouns. Algore, ruler of Algorath was not a set of names I should have chosen. Though they seemed perfectly innocuous fantasy style names at the time.


Ravingdork wrote:
Most of these seem less like mistakes and more like players with a sense of humor.

Therein lies the mistake.

Allowing your players even a tiny shred of individuality is a mistake.

Liberty's Edge

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

My biggest unconfessed oops:

One time I accidentally used the same name for two very different NPCs. The players jumped all over it and were really involved in the "mystery." They were so into it that I couldn't just admit that I'd made a mistake, so my mind was racing trying to come up with a logical conspiracy theory that could explain the whole thing.

Of course, the more they investigated, my weak explanations began to sound a bit fast and loose, so I began to hint at the idea that perhaps I had simply made a mistake, but I did it in such a way that I knew they would reject that idea, thinking that I was just trying to throw them off and keep them from uncovering the real mystery.

It's been five years and they still discuss it from time to time. And I still haven't admitted my big oops. I plan to take the truth to my grave.

Shadow Lodge

Corren28 wrote:

PC: What time of day is it?

Me: I dunno, about mid-aftern...crap.

Clearly the vampiric dragon was under a powerful magical effect protecting it from sunlight.


I ask players to take notes because I am always forgetting the name of all but the absolute most important NPCs... they don't though, so I frequently just say "He gives you his name, but I'm not even gonna bother making it up." when it comes to non-essential NPCs.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

One of my players named his fighter Rander (I've forgotten his last name its been years.) I immediately bit my tongue and worked it into the story to get him knighted.

Sir Rander never lived that down.

For my GM oopsie, early in a homebrew campaign (4th level), I gave a player a mind control potion. They drink it they become utterly infatuated to the point of suicide to the first person they lay eyes on. The potion only worked if there was sexual attraction.

1.5 years later IRL and at level 14 we're near wrap up time. BBEG of the whole thing was a friend of the party betrayal yata yata sounds cliche but spum very well. No one in the party realized yet except the rogue. I've got an epic battle planned out to finish the game. My rogue makes a slide of hand and slips something in her drink. I'm not worried as I assume its poison and have contingencies in place. She fails her perception and drinks it, I asked what it was, he hands me my magic item back. The color drains from my face as I had forgotten about it. He commands her to confess everything she did and kill herself. The most anticlimactic end to a campaign ever.


I forgot the thing I had to mention here.


Icyshadow wrote:

I accidentally had rolled critical hit damage wrong.

Instead of rolling multiple dice, I rolled one die and multiplied the result.

The groups I game with do it this way, saves time and is high risk (you may get a 10 or a 1 on a d10).


naztek wrote:
I have a habit of when a player asks for a name of an NPC that I haven't given one yet, I will assign the first Russian sounding name not in use, always starting with Boris (short for Boriskinski). I ended up with an entire region that was essentially Russia.

Demons is great for character names, as are some authors of gigantic works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demons_%28novel%29#Characters


Mama Loufing wrote:

My biggest unconfessed oops:

One time I accidentally used the same name for two very different NPCs. The players jumped all over it and were really involved in the "mystery." They were so into it that I couldn't just admit that I'd made a mistake, so my mind was racing trying to come up with a logical conspiracy theory that could explain the whole thing.

Of course, the more they investigated, my weak explanations began to sound a bit fast and loose, so I began to hint at the idea that perhaps I had simply made a mistake, but I did it in such a way that I knew they would reject that idea, thinking that I was just trying to throw them off and keep them from uncovering the real mystery.

It's been five years and they still discuss it from time to time. And I still haven't admitted my big oops. I plan to take the truth to my grave.

Guilty. It happens.


I'm hesitant about using the name for one location in the third Kingmaker book, for fear of the players starting to laugh.


Icyshadow wrote:
I'm hesitant about using the name for one location in the third Kingmaker book, for fear of the players starting to laugh.

Which one, I just double checked my book I don't see it.


Whatever was the "ancient" name for the "Valley of the Dead".


Icyshadow wrote:
Whatever was the "ancient" name for the "Valley of the Dead".

I don't see what's so funny about it, other than it kinda sounds like you're saying hello.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

The Kaka part.

Kakka is poop in Finnish.

And two of my players are weak against crude humor.


My save to crude humour is also low.

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I DMed a 2nd ed campaign set in the Forgotten Realms. I wanted it to be a bit different, so I set up a situation where fighting makes them lose!

The six PCs were about level 12, and the patron was a diplomat sent by Silverymoon to gain an alliance with a strategically important town. Their job was to protect her and do whatever was needed so that the mission would be successful.

Just before the PCs set off on their mission, I told them that a guy called Morben had disappeared presumed dead. What they didn't know was that he had turned traitor. I based him on Morden from Babylon 5.

The mission started badly! The party were ambushed teleporting to a secret surveillance area, teleporting to an area where the floor gave way to a pit with blade barrier. They were ambushed by some members of an evil party I had made to mirror the player party. Each of the party members had a counterpart equal in ability.

The party survived and travelled to the town in question. They thought that all they'd have to do was turn up and watch the diplomat persuade the leaders of the town to become allies FTW! When they arrived they were told that there was a rival delegation representing the Zhentarim! The Zhents were an evil trade empire who'd stop at nothing to expand their sphere of influence. The party entered the chamber where negotiations were to take place, only to see the enemy party that had ambushed them! They were the Zhent delegation! What's more, one of them was none other than Morben! Not dead, but traitor! He always wore an Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location; that's why they'd no information regarding his fate .

The diplomat made it clear (so did the town leaders) that anyone committing violent acts would be expelled from the town, and that would lead to the alliance being made with the other delegation. The party really, really wanted to kill the evil party, but just trying would mean mission failure and would condemn this town to eventual Zhent rule and the increase of Zhent influence in the area, with a corresponding decrease of Silverymoon influence.

Anyway, the campaign continued with lots of intrigue, and attempts by the Zhents to goad the party into starting something violent. This came to a head when the party's duelist type was goaded into a duel by the Zhent duelist in a crowded tavern. Our hero had a sword of sharpness and amputated the vilains leg, but the villian made some saves and continued fighting with penalties, and his vorpal blade chopped off our hero's head! He got better-Ring of Regeneration.

Right after this the party decided it had had enough. They would take out the Zhent delegation with extreme predudice! They made their plans, slept on it, prepared the spells they wanted, regenerated any missing heads, and scried the Zhent's location.

I described what the scrier could see, and started telling them where each baddy was. When I told them where Morben was, one alert player said, 'Hey, that's the first time we've been able to scry him!'

Damn! I'd forgotten all about the Amulet! What could I do? I couldn't just go, 'Er... no...that's someone else!' and then Morben would be there anyway! Quickly, and with a straight face, I said yeah, there he is. But they could only scry five of the six villains; their duelist was missing. I had them make spellcraft checks to realise that the spell that restored missing limbs took days to work if the limb wasn't available to be re-attached.

So the party teleported in, only to find the duelist there with both legs and wearing Morben's Amulet. The baddies were smart, the leg had been recovered so the spell worked in hours not days!

Almost a huge boo-boo, but I managed to turn it into an interesting and logical wrinkle. I'm proud of that!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Well, I accidentally used the same name for two different Koopa Troops in my Shroompunk game and the players picked up on it-- so the Koopa they captured after assassinating one of the Koopa Princes was the same Koopa that had allowed them to enter the Seven Kingdoms in the first place, assuming that they'd run into a Koopa patrol and find themselves enslaved.

His subsequent honor suicide gave them the map they needed to get home.

---

And in my Spelljammer game, a couple of social-minded players tag-teamed the NPC mayor of the town they were in (delivering a cargo of sheep) and convinced him to offer them everything the town had if only they would "save" them from a single, damaged, Neogi ship in orbit. As a joke about how effective the tactic had been, I had him offer his daughter's hand in marriage.

They ran with it. They asked if she was pretty, and I described her as looking like a cross between the St. Pauli girl and a kuo-toa. So now her name is Pauline, and she's married to the minotaur. She's also a PC now, because my friend who was watching the campaign decided to join.

The minotaur's player missed last session and doesn't know about this yet.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

The one I remember that keeps popping up with my group is my poor choice of pause while describing an NPC.

I was going over his description, and one of the features he had was "oiled-back" "hair". Due to my pause it came out as "oiled" "back hair".

Periodically, I get asked when describing NPC's if they have oiled, back hair.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Kthulhu wrote:
DeathQuaker wrote:
Another character, a horse-shaped outsider referring to herself as the Epona
Where were Link and Zelda? Was the BBEG a were-boar eldrich knight named Ganondorf?

There's a character named Epona in Zelda? Of the three games I've played (the first 2, and then one I can't remember the name of for the DS with the ship), I never encountered that, although it's been so long I could have easily forgotten.

Like I said, Celtic goddess. I think I heard the name first when watching the British documentary series "the Celts" (with its eponymous accompanying tune by Enya... epon-ymous, get it? Ha!). Though nice when game franchises look to mythology for inspiration.

IIRC the only intentional pop culture reference invented for that last campaign was a mummy lord called Ra the Everliving. He cast righteous might on himself with a familiar litany...


I've skipped players' turns by accident multiple time. We now have MULTIPLE tracking systems to aid me, and I still occasionally mess it up.

>> I make one player be responsible for it.. Keeps me on my toes, and it's easier :)


AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
I ask players to take notes because I am always forgetting the name of all but the absolute most important NPCs... they don't though, so I frequently just say "He gives you his name, but I'm not even gonna bother making it up." when it comes to non-essential NPCs.

We call that guy "Blah"..

As in.?.
PC: "What's his name?"
DM: "Sir Blah, defender of the faith" xD

1 to 50 of 98 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / General Discussion / GMs - Little "oopsies" you had to roll with All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.