Being double-crossed is a pretty common campaign trope. We recently had to off the oracle sending us around to collect the five elemental widgets we needed to get to the god-killing/god-making engine because--surprise--he was just using us to get the widgets and planned on feeding us to a gated tentacle thing and becoming a god himself. None of us were terribly surprised.
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You'll love this one.
Many many years ago playing 1e AD&D I had a player try & trick me. I figured out his scheme & had a nasty surprise waiting for him at the end. :)
Once upon a time Brian read some article about how to become a Lich in a Dragon Magazine issue. He decided that he wanted his next character to become a lich.
He made two assumptions.
1) That whatever he read was automatically in play. (wrong!)
2) That I'd never agree to let him become a Lich if he just asked. (wrong!)
So from day one of this campaign he set about making that secretly happen.
He made a Cleric of Thoth (Egyptian god of knowledge)- presumably so that he wouldn't have to find anything out about the process during play. Because you know, cleric of knowledge.... Thus avoiding asking me if he could eventually become a Lich.
He carefully planned out at what lv he'd MC into Wizard (he needed some spell or other) & how many lvs he'd sink into it.
He did everything he could in game to slowly amass the requisite spells, materials, & ingredients for the Lich potion and a phylacerty.
And he rose through all the desired Cleric/Wizard lvs. (It's AD&D, do you have any idea how much XP that is???)
This took nearly 3 years of weekly play (about 5 hrs per session).
And in all that time he never once mentioned his grand plan to me, the DM.
That was a mistake.
For a good long while (about 1/2 the campaign)I had no idea what he was up to. I hadn't read that issue of Dragon. I just knew that he was collecting some weird components.
Well, eventually I got a "Best Of Dragon" compilation. And one of the articles in it detailed the steps to become a Lich. Steps & components that seemed really familiar....
And so I decided that that WASN'T how liches were made in my world. But I'd let Brian continue down his chosen path as long as he liked & if he ever said anything about his plan only then would I let him know the truth.
He never said anything.
And so after almost 3 years of gaming the big day arrives. Brian's Cleric/Wizard finishes all his prep, retreats to his secret & warded lair, mixes his potion of super lich poison, drinks it, chooses to fail his save.... And dies.
All this time, all this effort, all this secrecy, millions of xp - and his character essentially commits suicide.
Boy I wish I'd had a camera handy. Because to this day I can't properly describe the stunned look of complete surprise + rage.
But damn it was funny.
And on that day Brian learned a valuable lesson: TALK to your DM.
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You'll love this one.
Many many years ago playing 1e AD&D I had a player try & trick me. I figured out his scheme & had a nasty surprise waiting for him at the end. :)
Once upon a time Brian read some article about how to become a Lich in a Dragon Magazine issue. He decided that he wanted his next character to become a lich.
He made two assumptions.
1) That whatever he read was automatically in play. (wrong!)
2) That I'd never agree to let him become a Lich if he just asked. (wrong!)So from day one of this campaign he set about making that secretly happen.
He made a Cleric of Thoth (Egyptian god of knowledge)- presumably so that he wouldn't have to find anything out about the process during play. Because you know, cleric of knowledge.... Thus avoiding asking me if he could eventually become a Lich.
He carefully planned out at what lv he'd MC into Wizard (he needed some spell or other) & how many lvs he'd sink into it.
He did everything he could in game to slowly amass the requisite spells, materials, & ingredients for the Lich potion and a phylacerty.
And he rose through all the desired Cleric/Wizard lvs. (It's AD&D, do you have any idea how much XP that is???)This took nearly 3 years of weekly play (about 5 hrs per session).
And in all that time he never once mentioned his grand plan to me, the DM.
That was a mistake.For a good long while (about 1/2 the campaign)I had no idea what he was up to. I hadn't read that issue of Dragon. I just knew that he was collecting some weird components.
Well, eventually I got a "Best Of Dragon" compilation. And one of the articles in it detailed the steps to become a Lich. Steps & components that seemed really familiar....
And so I decided that that WASN'T how liches were made in my world. But I'd let Brian continue down his chosen path as long as he liked & if he ever said anything about his plan only then would I let him know the truth.
He never said anything.And so after almost 3 years of gaming the big day arrives. Brian's...
So... why?
I mean, why did you NOT let him have what he was planning? Why didn't YOU talk to HIM since you figured out his plan?
I don't mean to be inflammatory here but speaking as a player who got burned similarly by the same GM... TWICE... basically for deciding to play good characters in dark worlds, it really ruins the game.
Both games were 1e. The first I was a female elf fighter/wizard. I was even made a minor noble in the game. My "secret plan" was to unite the elven clans but I knew I couldn't do it outright since a demon lord was running about mucking things up. I used as much subterfuge as I could muster.
My GM was (I found out later) cheesed off that I was playing some of the players off one another to accomplish my goal. The other players figured it out and played along. Basically I think my GM was just mad that I was monopolizing his plot, however as the game got up close to double digit levels he got things back on track - by plucking out one of my character's eyes, replacing that with a magic gem, but then letting the magic gem be a curse that fed info back to the demon.
So by the end of the game I've got a demon-killing artifact sword, all the players who were aligned with me have all been coerced or outright dominated into serving the demon so I've had to fight through my own party, and I finally go toe-to-toe with the demon, who I defeat.
Then... the saving throw. Demon's about to die, I'm about to strike the final blow, and I blow a save triggered by the artifact that NO ONE, not even the greatest sages in the world, knew was in the sword.
When I failed I came to a thousand years into a dystopian future. The elf forest kingdoms had been obliterated to a desert, all elves were either hunted down or marked as pariahs, and my own character's name was a curse word.
... and one of my legs had been replaced with a combat tail.
That's just one of 2 stories I had from this GM. The second one involved me learning my lesson, going to him hat in hand and spelling out the custom character I wanted to make (combo of wizard and thief called a Barrier Mage), getting permission for it and some new spells from this GM, and even getting enthusiasm on how much my ideas would bring to this game, only to be the target of a succubus' charm ability IN MY SLEEP on the very first game session.
What followed was 6 levels of my character being the secret proxy of the main villain without any ability for me to stop it or even know in character it was happening. My "plan" in the game was to go after a dragon of legend but miraculously the dragon seemed informed at all times of every move our party made.
At one point we bugged out into the wilderness without any supplies. We were caught unawares and had to flee. However in "secondary skills" my barrier mage just happened to roll exceptionally well: TWO skills - Hunter/Fisher and Leather Worker. So with some skills in the wilds I get to roll an Int check and NAIL it! First good roll in a few sessions so I find a big, beautiful pond of potable water near a cave, a stream babbling through the rocks that's crystal clean...
...except for the freaking HORDE of xvarts hiding inches below the waters' surface and just inside the cave entrance.
I'm instantly grappled and am being choked (no spells now), then I'm targeted by the others who drag me into the cave. My party comes to bail me out, melee ensues. I'm tossed down a slanting vertical shaft with the intent of putting me in their dungeon but I cast one of my unique barrier spells, make a baton between the walls of the shaft and grab it as I'm sliding under to stop myself.
Hooray! I'm saved!
... until 7 xvarts who, currently engaged in combat 20' away up the vertical shaft notice me and decide "HE'S the one we should be focused on, not this dwarf fighter in front of us!" They descend down the shaft, beat me unconscious and I end up in the dungeon anyway.
So in the end my party nearly dies coming to save me. We escape the xvart dungeon, everyone with 1 HP, and race into the forest at night. Still no supplies. No treasure. The entire party is angry and they're all pointing their fingers at ME for bungling into the pool.
We run through the dark for hours, no sign that we're being followed by the xvarts. The DM lets me make another Int roll to make and camouflage a campsite out of branches in the middle of the night but HUZZAH! Another good roll for ME! We have a camp, it's hidden under brush and leaves, we set a watch, we lay down to rest without ANY evidence that the xvarts followed us...
...and they were on us seconds later knowing exactly where we were.
Now we eventually survived the xvarts but that was how the campaign went for almost 9 levels until I threw up my hands in defeat. The dragon was nowhere in sight, none of my barrier spells seemed to ever work or, like in the case of the xvart lair when they worked they made me an instant target for every monster in the scene. I died twice and the second time they left me buried in a pine box but the DM spontaneously resurrected me - didn't get me out of the ground, just made me alive in my coffin from which I spent an entire game session escaping.
So after ALL of that I got bitten by a vampire and died a third time, so I quit. The DM raised me as a vampire under his control. One of the other players comes to me: "Man, why didn't you ever actually USE any of those spells?" I ask him what he's talking about. It seems that, in my absence, all the obstacles the DM had put around my barrier spells all came off and they were working as intended all along, much to the chagrin of the other PCs.
When that campaign wrapped I was left, stranded on an island (can't cross water b/c vampire), at the bottom of a semi-active volcano, guarded by the red dragon of legend that I'd vowed to steal from at the outset of the game.
I don't know WHY my DM did these things to me, other than we were kids and his ego may have been hurt or something. I wasn't actively trying to derail things in either game and in fact with the barrier mage went out of my way to work WITH the DM from the beginning.
So I guess the moral of MY story is: DM's/GM's - talk to your players
ccs,
You should call your story, "You might be a Dick DM if..."
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I was running a game in 3e (or 3.5 I don't remember). The group had killed a witch in the city to rescue her daughter. Afterward, they traveled out about a week away to clean out some caves. When they got back, the heard rumors of a mysterious stranger on a silent horse asking about the killers of Cariole (the witch). The group had just gotten back into town so they were going to relax and investigate tomorrow... except one guy. He decided that his monk/sorcerer/rogue would go ahead and investigate that night. I set this encounter up for the group. It was a Fey'ri sorcerer on a Phantom Steed spell.
So... this guy goes out looking. Now, I could have just saud he doesn't find anything, but two reasons I didn't do that. First, if a character goes looking for something, I hate to disappoint. Second, I hated this character. He was working toward a Shadow Dancer and his character was already just about useless. I told him multiple times that he was crossclassing too much (he was still about to take a level of fighter too, I think) and he still wasn't a shadow dancer yet. I'm all for role-play and not power gaming, but I already had to nerf a few encounters because his character wasn't much help. Now... I never planned to kill his character but I just wanted to show him, in one on one combat, how under powered his character was. (by the way... he ended up abandoning his character a while later because... you guessed it... he "couldn't even do anything", as he put it.)
So, there he was, on patrol, when he saw a dark figure on a dark silent horse. After a short discussion, the Fey-ri found out he was one of the ones who killed the witch. A fight started and he ran. The Fey'ri flew after him. Their speed was almost matched due to his increased speed, but the Fey'ri still caught up and critical hit him in the back. When he stumbled out into the well lit street, he only had a few hitpoints left. He started screaming for help and the Fey'ri (being me) suddenly had a brilliant idea and it used it's Dust of Disappearance to become invisible and perched up on a roof to watch. A group of guards were nearby and they came to his rescue and brought him back to the guardhouse. The Fey'ri watched it all. After taking his statement, they escorted him back to the inn where he went right to bed.
The next morning, just as the sun came up, a sergeant showed up. Of course, it was the Fey'ri. He even made himself a a woman so as to keep them off guard.
She had the innkeeper wake them up and introduced herself, saying she was there to take an official statement from everyone about last night. So, I took each player aside into my computer room and interviewed them. I wrote down all the answers they gave me. I asked, "What's your name?, Where are you from?, Where do you live?, How long have you known Chryton?, Is he prone to lies?, What sort of abilities does he have?" Some of the questions should have no bearing on the investigation, but they happily answered everything. Finally, the monk was questioned last.
After asking all the standard questions, she (he) asked for him to remove his shirt so she could see his wound. He complied, then never said he put his shirt back on. I knew he wouldn't. The the "sergeant" asked his she could cast detect lie on him and he agreed. Now, in 3e, detect lie was a spell you can to know if anyone lies, not something you cast on a person. He didn;t know this and he never asked to make a Spellcraft check. Sometimes, I'll ask for a roll, but this was the crack of dawn and he was really sleepy after a late (rough) night, so I wasn't going to press him for one. He said she can cast it and he allowed her to cast a spell on him. She cast polymorph other and turned him into a Fey'ri. He felt off balance and a little dizzy, but as I said, "You've never forgone a save before". He was fine with that and still never made a spellcraft check. Suddenly, she looked past him with a concerned look and quickly cast another spell. He turned to look and saw the image of the fey'ri as it started to fade out. She cast minor image (or was it phantasmal force? I don;t remember when the name changed) of herself (himself) 'turning invisible'. He got ready to fight while the investigator ran for the door, then cast obscuring mist and opened the door, ran out of the clouded room in a a panic and said, "It's in there!" and ran down the stairs. The others were outside the door talking about stuff and were surprised at this, so they took a bit of time figuring out what to do. A couple had to retrieve weapons. The druid (they had no cleric) had a ring of spell storing with a Truesight spell. He used that, but still couldn't see through the mist. When the poor monk stumbled out of the room, he was met by a handfull of arrows from the Order of the Bow Initiate and I will tell you... the player of the archer was so mad when he only hit once and for minimal damage. LOL The druid saw (via truesight) that the fey'ri was actually their buddy and quickly saved his life. The spellsword immediately ran after the investigator only to run outside to realize the fey'ri got away... with a whole lot of information about the party.
They had to smuggle the monk out of the city and then procure a scroll to reverse the polymorph spell.
That was one of the best game sessions I ever ran and everyone had a blast... and were pretty worried about the fact that the fey'ri and his boss, whoever that was, knew everything about them, including where Lady Anthea's keep was hidden. LOL
I have never tricked a player directly as a GM, but I have played some NPCs who tricked player characters. And my players pulled off two wonderful tricks against their enemies in the Jade Regent adventure path.
I run adventure paths, but the paths don't rely on tricks. All the tricks occurred in extra missions and derailed plots.
Rise of the Runelords
In the D&D 3.5 version of Rise of the Runelords, the PCs defeated the boss sorceress at the end of the 2nd module. She escaped alive and the module said she would never return. One module later, the party returned to the town of Sandpoint after an adventure in another part of Varisia. The six-person party had four new members who had never visited Sandpoint before, and the next module began with them defending the town. I added a side quest to let the new party members learn their way around town and earn more money.
Introduce Deedee Baythorne. In the middle of the 2nd module, the party had investigated a haunted manor house. Ms. Baythorne hired them to de-haunt the house. She had a plan that would concentrate the spiritual influence in one place where the party could destroy it.
Except that Ms. Baythorne was the leftover sorceress in disguise, out for revenge. The disguise was mundane: she had worn a mask in their previous encounter, so dyeing her hair and casting Youthful Appearance (for vanity Ms. Baythorne said) and putting several skill ranks in Disguise skill was enough to fool the party's Perception checks. The house was haunted because decades ago a necromancer had failed his attempt to become a lich. Ms. Baythorne knew this. Her suggestion would manifest the lich right in front of the party.
Ms. Baythorne had not realized that the party had gained three levels since she was defeated and was more formidable than ever. The party figured out that something dangerous would manifest, so they planned an ambush. They had no trouble. And the lich carried several valuable magic items in addition to the stolen money that Ms Baythorne paid them.
Ms. Baythorne realized that the party was strong enough to eliminate her boss so that she could move into his job later. She became a double agent feeding information on her boss's weaknesses to them. They figured out her ruse about eight game sessions later, but kept her as a double agent.
Jade Regent
My players derailed the campaign in the 5th module, Tide of Honor, of the Jade Regent adventure path. Thus, I invented new material to fit their plan. As they were trying to defeat the vast conspiracy of oni, an ally decoded a message to some oni they defeated. The oni were having a war gathering in the Sankyodai Mountains. The party disguised themselves via a Veil spell as the medium-sized oni who had received the message and went to the meeting place inside a vast auditorium in a hollowed-out mountain. The ninja asked, out of character, "What would it take to cave in the roof of this place?" I figured it out, told them, and they made a plan. They did collapse the roof via spells and massive damage, throwing fireballs, too, so that the oni would not regenerate. They killed 100 oni. That was the first trick.
Meanwhile, the enchanter in the party dominated and kidnapped the speaker of the meeting, the imperial oracle Meida Renshii, a major character from the next module making a guest appearance. The party made a secret deal with her to betray her allies in exchange for more status and legitimacy than the oni could offer her. They had ordered Meida to negotiate a deal she would agree to when not dominated, so she stuck to it when released. They essentially won the adventure path right there with that trick.
Iron Gods
One fighter in my Iron Gods party had a bad habit of wandering through the wilderness as if he were invulnerable. After defeating the Lords of Rust in Scrapwall in the module Lords of Rust, the party hung around the area for a few weeks. When the fighter was traveling alone, an orc woman came begging him for help. He failed his Sense Motive, followed, and was ambushed by ten 2nd-level members of the Lords of Rust. He fought them all off, since he was 7th level with good armor, and did not learn any lesson about traveling alone.
The reason the party spent those extra weeks in Scrapwall was that I let them salvage a small crashed spaceship buried there (The module declared it irreparable, but I changed that). I had made clear that the evil intelligent computer Unity had taken control of that ship and crashed it.
Three modules later, they finally flew the ship near the city of Starfall while making a hasty departure from Starfall to slip away from the Technic League. Unity is based in Silver Mount next to Starfall, so it took took control of the spaceship. Heh heh, I had warned them, long long ago.
And the gunslinger/rogue technical specialist disabled the autopilot long enough to pick up her passengers, and then let Unity take control again. When Unity flew them to Silver Mount, the skald bluffed that they were a repair crew trained by Unity's missing minion Casandalee and were looking for work on Silver Mount. Unity was not fooled (high Sense Motive) but pretended to be fooled so that Casandalee would return. The party is still working for Unity, slowly learning his secrets and befriending his minions. I rewrote the 6th module from its "Continuing the Adventure" suggestions to find work for them. With their help, Unity is almost ready to enact his evil master plan. I am not sure who is tricking who.