I'm really curious, because I'm currently playing in a Winters Reign campaign with what has to be the most insane group I've ever had. We have
Faierie dragon wizard- NG. Easily the most normal person, unfortunately he's so physically weak that he's gone uncocious every hit he's ever taken. He's also so terrified, justifiably, of the anti paladin that he generally just hides.
Dwarven Forgemaster cleric- N. He's an alcoholic prophet of Gozreh, who's convinced that a storm is coming to end the world, which he tells everyone he can and uses as an excuse to overindulge in alcohol and drugs.
Half elf Antipaladin- CE. He's an paladin of Callistria and has a soft spot for helping women, and he pretty much just kills anyone who messes with prostitutes. He's also slaughtered every elf we've ever met, and become the party leader because he's stronger than anyone else, and keeps pushing ahead and not giving a f+&+ when we're dying.
Dhampir monk- LE. Pretty quite, we're all fairly certain he's doing terrible things when nobody is watching, but nobody is good enough to catch him.
Goblin Rogue- CN. He steals shiny things, and generally eats anything that we kill or find dead. He's become the Anti paladins minion.
Human Feral child druid- N. She was raised by Warcats in the tusk mountains, rides a warcat with a bow, and is convinced she is a warcat. She talks to cats more than people.
Elf fighter (dead) - LG. He was killed by the anti paladin the moment we met him. It was an abrupt end.
Android armor master fighter- NG. Possibly the most insane, he's convinced that he's actually the reincarnation of Aroden. The scary part is that knowing our DM, if the player had a good enough explanation for how I'm betting this will end up being entirely true.
Somehow we've made it through almost three of the Reign of Winter books and come out alive. Mostly. The group social dynamics are beyond crazy. So what are some really crazy groups you've either run games with or been a player in?
This is from a Kingmaker group I was in a while back. Our kingdom was a collection of city-states, each ruled by a member of the party.
Dwarf paladin of Torag-LG: He was a paladin that only focused on defense, going to an extent that he didn't really participate in combat. He also broke the paladin code multiple times, such as wanting to kill an innocent awakened wolf and refusing to let refugees into his city.
Half-elf ranger-NG: Fey-touched ranger, abandoned in the wilderness and raised by fey. Probaly the least insane member of the group, but would always charge in first and ask questions later.
Kitsune ninja-LE: She was obsessed with money and becoming a crime lord. Needless to say, her and the paladin didn't get along.
Goblin alchemist-CG: Fairly typical goblin alchemist, liked blowing things up, managed to become a celebrity in the kingdom.
Aasimar wizard-LN: Peri-blooded aasimar who thought he was the son of the spawn of Rovagug known as Xotani the Fire-bleeder. Kinda crazy but by far not the most crazy.
Strix alchemist-CN(my character): He was a human strix fighter from Cheliax, but got reincarnated as a strix. It kinda drove him insane. Managed to found a philosophy about driving yourself insane in search of knowledge and ruled one of the most successful city-states. Also turned to wizard into a test subject when he has to leave the campaign early.
So far, it's shaping up to be my RotRL campaign.
Dwarf Cleric (Separatist)-CG: He is a cleric of Sarenrae who occasionally devotes himself to Caiden Caylen on certain holidays (read - he drinks a lot). Charges into the fight a lot and boasts about how (after he gets X item/spell) he is now impossible to kill. Frequently stands behind other party members due to using a reach weapon. Has Breath of Life written in his spell list in ink.
Human Fighter/Ranger-NG: The strong silent type. Probably the most sane of everyone in the party, also he keeps notes so the party would be totally lost without him. Apparently he is also from the future (rolled this on his background gen) and other weird time stuff.
Goblin Rogue/Monk-LN: Without a doubt the least sane party member, but also the most eloquent. Usually the voice of reason. Loves shiny things/fire/biting. Hates reading with a passion. Trying to start his own super-goblin tribe of monks. Worships a preserved dead monkey head he calls "Bababooee."
Elf Rogue/Witch-CG: Typically racist elf. Not so typically involved with the mob. Spends the most amount of time dead. Likes to fly. Will occasionally try to sleep party members to enforce cooperation (usually fails due to high saves).
Aasimar Inquisitor/Cleric-LG: Inquisitor of Ragatheil who really, really hates evil stuff, and really, really likes treasure; insists that he is very fair with the loot (which justifies his greed?). No backstory (read: player is lazy).
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Oooooh boy.
We had 3/4 players elect to play females despite all the players being male. Then the people playing females declared their characters had ages ranging from 13-15.
Male Halfling magus. Declared his age was "Really old" and then took the feat Childlike. Began the campaign wanted for so many crimes due to his backstory. Named his character Pakistan.
Female Elf wizard. Didn't buy armour and didn't want clothes, so she went around around naked. Almost died after decided running right through the hoard of zombies to escape was a great plan. Named Afghanistan.
Female gnome alchemist. Had 4 strength. Tried to solve everything with bombs. Was called Uzbekistan.
Female crocodile skin walker Barbarian, who multi classed to pack lord druid on the basis that with the barbarian abilities that let you use creatures as weapons and then throw melee weapons, and a bunch of pet crocodiles, he could throw crocodiles at people. Was called Kazakhstan. Named his crocodile Kyrgyzstan.
They all decided to worship Stan (all hail). The adventure included lynch mobs, almost getting sacrificed, breaking out of jail by murdering all the guards, and the unfortunate quote "I'm going to help Pakistan with my bombs" and also "You are under arrest for being associates of the wanted criminal Pakistan".
My Way of the Wicked group is pretty out there.
LE Human Antipaladin / Oracle - Nominal Party Leader. Started as an urge driven killer, developed into a black knight, lord of a fortress, and advocate for freedom from the "Tyranny of Mitra". Speaks passionately about religious freedom and against oppression while simultaneously keeping hundreds of slaves. Uses a merciful weapon these days and almost never kills. Devote worship of both the Four Horsemen (particularly War, that he names Conquest) and Asmodeus.
NE Human Alchemist - Cerebral, antisocial, and reserved. Hates the king and church because they sentenced his family to death, and has spent his life taking care of them. Willing to do awful things like use unholy weapons against goodly people in pursuit of his goals, but surprisingly gentle outside of it. Keeps candy on hand for children, tries to mitigate suffering even as he throws entire country into civil war, plague, etc.
LE Human Witch (Scarred Witchdoctor) - High Priestess of Belial. Genuinely believes that slavery, torture, discipline, and so forth makes the world a better place. People need that firm hand, and pain to grow. Focused almost entirely away from any sexual aspects of the Lord of the Fourth, into pain and domination. Recently worked at turning a captured Lillend into a Broken Soul. The power behind the throne for the Blackguard.
LE Tiefling Samurai - Flavored as a knight that thinks himself a paladin. Mentally ill. Extreme masochism and sadism. "The Paladin in Chains". Violence as art, himself as a church reformer for Mitra.
They've captured almost every single named NPC they've encountered, and a fair number of unnamed ones as well. It's been interesting to explore a group of people that largely do terrible things and worship terrible gods, but do so out of genuine belief that it is a better world they are making than a Lawful Good kingdom.
Two chapters in they literally have hundreds (over 400 at last count) of prisoners / slaves. Recently assaulted the abbey in book 2 with a force of over 300 undead and turned minions night under the cover of darkness, after slipping in to capture the leader of the abbey.
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Let's see...the craziest group I was involved with was a Pathfinder/3.5 hybrid game. The breakdown was as follows:
LG Human Paladin/Vassal of Bahamut - This person was the single most worthless paladin to ever serve the dragon god. Routinely forgot his paladin abilities.
LN Tiefling Ninja - Was responsible for the assassination of several party members and NPCs who irritated her.
LN Warforged Limit Knight (3pp class) - Basically Robocop with a sword, ended up going insane after spending the equivalent of several centuries alone in an extraplanar space. Also got crucified by gnolls. Twice.
TN/CE Human Fighter - Started out as N, but a series of poor choices and a few accidents involving the Book of Vile Darkness, a fiendish grafting machine, and a cursed belt eventually resulted in him becoming crazy and evil. Was burned to death by friendly fire (pun intended) while fighting a pack of winter wolves.
NG Half-Elf Warmage - Had an issue with area of effect spells and teammates. Accidentally burned the fighter to death with a wall of fire.
CN Gnome Bard - Killed by the ninja for being a disreputable cad.
TN Halfling Rogue - Killed by a kraken after having equipment sabotaged by the ninja after she (the ninja) discovered he'd been stealing from the party by pocketing more than his share of loot.
LG (I think? It's been a while and they died early) Aasimar Monk - Killed in single combat by the ninja after insulting her honor.
CE Human Rogue/Mountebank - Spent the majority of her time masquerading as a LG cleric of Pelor, the party was unaware of this. She was a serial killer, a sadist, and a monster; she also was fiercely loyal to her party members, even the paladin.
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Played a one-shot where there was only one NPC going into the dungeon. The players all played one of the many intelligent items the NPC carried. NPC had a weak ego, so the items had a field day. Being egoist themselves, the items did not cooperate very well.
/cevah
During one I'm in currently, we have...
-a Gnome oracle of heavens who lived underground all her life, and upon reaching the surface, came to the conclusion that the roof was clearly missing and had been stolen. Considers herself on a quest to get it back.
-A grippli monk specialising in flying kicks and ripping people's hearts out of their chest. Keep in mind, this is a 2-foot tall frog doing this.
-A kobold alchemist with dangerously resolute optimism despite being (by the agreement of the rest of the party) Neutral evil under the belief he's still chaotic neutral.
-A gnoll who dabbles in cannibalism, and is somehow actually the responsible member of the group.
For bonus points, the campaign is taking place in a region where dwarves are the only common race, with the group mostly recruited simply because they weren't dwarves. At this point, the hirer probably wishes they'd settled for dwarves.
Currently my adventuring party, although interchangable with different characters includes:
- a Kobold Rogue who struggles to assert his adulthood to the rest of the party after they learned he was 15 years old. He tries to sneak a sip of whiskey whenever they aren't looking.
- A Vanara Monk who can knock down any obstruction or barrier! Just never the one he intends to....
- An Elven Mesmerist "Clint Rickson" who is essentially the bad qualities of every American president incarnate. His personality draws heavily on George Bush.
- A Grippli investigator who isn't all that crazy but brings images of Kermit in a trenchcoat to mind. His most reliable source of information is a bugbear with blue fur. Sadly this source also has a terrible drug problem referring to many drugs as "cookies".
A crazy trans-dimensional game where we were in the dumping ground of the Multiverse. Our party consisted of:
Mario
A Halfling Monk with a magic tree growing out of his head
A Warhammer 40k Eldar Harlequinn
An Anubite Paladin
A Wild Mage whose spellcasting was entirely determined by the RNG.
A Druid in Pikachu-Hide Armor whose Animal Companion was a Magicarp (until it evolved).
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I DMed this party:
otterfolk bard: Small-sized tank and primary healer.
tengu fighter: 6 Str, 8 Con, crossbow specialist.
snakefolk magician: homebrew skill-based magic-user, did not max out Spellcraft. Used pistols.
Empowered Awakened parrot wizard: 3d6 x 1.5 = Int 27. Used all that potential to scream "BANANA PANTS!!!" and then summoned bananas in her opponents' pants.
Some kind of druid clad in skintight black leather and pretending to be a ninja. And yes, of course, she was played by a dude. But really good at using Quick Draw to switch-hit.
I DMed this party:
otterfolk bard: Small-sized tank and primary healer.
tengu fighter: 6 Str, 8 Con, crossbow specialist.
snakefolk magician: homebrew skill-based magic-user, did not max out Spellcraft. Used pistols.
Empowered Awakened parrot wizard: 3d6 x 1.5 = Int 27. Used all that potential to scream "BANANA PANTS!!!" and then summoned bananas in her opponents' pants.
Some kind of druid clad in skintight black leather and pretending to be a ninja. And yes, of course, she was played by a dude. But really good at using Quick Draw to switch-hit.
Huh, for some reason I never thought of the possibility of empowering an awakening before, despite maximizing one being on my spell shenanigans radar for months now. Neat.
In reply to the OP, my parties have all been fairly tame for the most part, although two games I'm in currently are worth mentioning. In the first one we're all dragons with class levels. We have a Bard obsessed with creating musical instruments out of enemies he's slain, a necromancer Mystic Theurge who only wants to use undead as a free labour force to increase the percentage of STEM jobs in his country, a Lore Oracle who's horde is his personal library, a Paladin of a fallen Elder God and a couple inconsistent party members who can only manage to show up every approx. 3 sessions (close friends that try to play but work and life get in the way a lot, luckily the type of campaign we're playing makes it easy to sub in or out as need be)
In the second one we're using a Bloodborne inspired mythos/insight system, where half of the party knows enough to know what each other's true forms are, one party member knows enough to know what they are but no one else, and two party members still think that they're just part of a regular adventuring party. We have a "human rogue" (I actually have no idea what his class combo is and his racial template for being the emissary of the Big Bad Elder God doesn't help with figuring that out. He plays like a Bloodrager/Arcane Trickster gestalt) a "halfling" Arcane Trickster (he actually was a halfling until he failed enough sanity checks that his cursed robe from said Big Bad Elder God's plane grafted itself onto him and turned him into one of its thralls) a "half-elf" monk (read half celestial/half clockwork, she only knows what her true form is) a "human" druid (actually the avatar of an elemental god, has no clue) and a "half-orc barbarian" (actually a half-orc barbarian).
I forgot, in 2nd Ed. days, I was running an urban campaign of CG vigilante types against a LE regime. One of the players approached me before the game and asked if he could be a double-agent, and I said yes! Then another one of the players approached me before the game and asked if he could be a double-agent, and I said yes!
So in a party of 4, 2 were secret spies, and they didn't know about each other.
Of course, they were all some kind of weird were-creature that dressed like the Crow, because 1994.
Basically anytime I play here in hometown, the parties are crazy. I will only mention the ones not intended for min-maxing, because those characters were crazy because of the min-max requirements, not because of the players.
Played an entire campaign with nothing but bards as a DM. The list of characters are as follows. Note some names are listed, some are not. Sadly because some names were just forgettable:
A CG Wayang Shadow Puppeteer, who eventually decided to use 3pp to play a White Necromancer. Would constantly raise mindless good aligned undead, which sadly had to be halted temporarily due to the amount of power it brought to the game due to lack of HD limits (Thanks 3rd Party). Went out of their way to save the bones of our dead party members in order to raise them again, and as such had a ghostly gunslinger helping him. Was a tiny bit crazy.
A CG Halfling bard by the name of Tithero of the Purple Hills. Would sit on top of the largest party member and cast supporting spells. Somehow came into possession of two different flaming magical weapons, whose activations were "Fuego Tempestrus" and "LIGHT THE FUSES B******"! Needless to say, he chose the first one usually.
A CN Half-Elf Shadowdancer/Bard/Fighter/Rogue. While they were a beastly character when flanking, they were so badly optimized that if they did anything but stealth or sneak attack they had a bad time, more so then rogues already have. Came a bit late into the game, but was good to have against certain creatures.
A CN Half-Orc bard. Probably the most aggravating character, but could not hit the broad side of a barn if it was the size of a Tarrasque. Weaponized Intimidate and Mind Spells to really cheese their way through combat scenarios, with a large heaping of Lesser Geas. Memorably drowned a Lich in a sea of crocodiles until it died, which while cheesy was quite funny.
A CG Skald named Bard. By far the most fun of all the characters, they were the pure muscle of the group and was the group favorite. Notably had no indoor voice so everything they said was a literal bellow, barring some important exceptions. Was perhaps the most good-conscience member of the group, was also a great beast in melee combat, and memorably was the one to keep some of the more chaotic characters in line.
A NG Cleric of Sarenrae whose race had female elves and dwarven males with antennae. Naturally they chose the female portion of the race. Was a telepath, but not a psyonic so it was K. Was prone to using quite a number of sun related spells, including 3pp crazy good stuff. Was a great player though, and the only one to remember that people needed to eat. Was not really a support due to fire = good.
The final player is what was interesting, as they were the only one to have their character die. 5 times. Oh boy kiddies, time for a story.
All of their characters were CN and had a penchant for doing things at their own pace, with varying levels of crazy. Mainly it was a mix of bad luck, bad rolls, and general stupidity that caused their deaths. So lets run down the list shall we?
First character was a Kitsune bard that took the shape of a creature to not be known that they were a Kitsune. Their first action when entering the main city was to start pickpocketing as many people as they could, eventually getting caught before they could really steal anything of note. Was not immediately punished, but when the captain of the guard greeted the party he asked blatantly to his face where he could find drugs. Particularly opiates. Naturally he was detained, but then tried to escape, which if this were any other campaign would have been his death right there. But no he survives, and is eventually released on the promise that he will be good. Proceeds to dunk his head in a barrel of recreational acid. Stuck in a Coma instead of outright dying due to a Natural 20 saving throw, and after recovering from all of that is eventually killed off in grand fashion...by a stag. Just gores him so hard he breaks.
Their second character was a sylph musketeer, who actually survived for quite some time, and dealt a killing blow against a very powerful boss. However, after the party discovers a plot Knucklebone of Fickle Fortune, he rolls enough times to reduce his level, and then take enough damage to one shot kill himself.
Their third character was an undine sorcerer, and lasted a grand total of 1 round. Popped up against a powerful enemy and shot a grand total of 8 magic missiles to them in grand fashion. Unfortunately this particular enemy had a item to combat that spell, and killed the squishy caster with one well rolled fireball.
Their fourth character was a sylph ranger, who specialized in repeated crossbows, and was the brother of the gunslinger, who was resurrected by our Wayang party member. Was the only one to fail their roll against a save or die spell against a lich, and well died. They decided not to resurrect themselves.
Their fifth and final character was a half-elf spymaster, who showed up ominously. He flash stepped to kill a BBEG, except that one turned out to be a decoy. Flanked on all sides by Hobgoblin commandos and the true BBEG. Technically did die, but feeling merciful I retconned some of the Hobgoblins coming over to flank them, and he was saved via more flash steps. I never intended to kill their characters so fast, but it turned into the running joke that I still get flack for to this day.
Generally, a very memorable campaign.
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Oh, I'm currently running a Runelords game where the party isn't too crazy, but we do have a (slightly modified, obviously) AD&D era wild mage (who is now a mystic theurge). So far some of the wild surges have resulted in uncontrolled dire bears at level 3, a prestidigitation spell accidentally becoming chain lightning, and all the trees in a 1 mile radius screaming endlessly...to name a few choice examples.