Have you ever put your players through a scene, event, or even an entire campaign where the only proper response any could conjure was simply "What in the blazes was THAT!?" In my group we call this a "WTF!? Moment" or "WTF!? Award". And this thread is for cataloging, sharing, and comparing them. :)
I just got one tonight. I'm running Savage Tide, we're in the latter half of "The Bullywug Gambit": the party's employer's manor is under attack by frogmen and they're rushing to come to her rescue. One room along the path is described as a laundry room, where two Bullywugs are sorting through the silks in the hampers there. The guide says they fight to the death to protect it, but the first person to enter the room simply ran through to the other side and shouted "Sorry for the intrusion!" so they didn't attack. Apparently describing frogmen picking through laundry half-buried in sheets and discarded clothes and with certain garments equipped in incorrect ways was too much for some of my players, and after the laughter subsided I was given my "just" reward.
Next? :)
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Not so much the setting or the monsters, but one player's rather prophetic statement.
While approaching the Sunken Queen at the end of Curse of the Crimson Thone, I had decided to spice up the travel with some fun swamp monsters. Being crazy were-bear tricked out spellcasters, and 6 people strong, I used a few templates.
One player, Paul, who has a DIVINER, of all things, pipe up as I finish drawing the swamp-laden battlemat:
"What, are we fighting like 5 Titanic Toads?"
I couldn't keep a straight face and talk at the same time, so I simply shook my head and held up 6 fingers. I couldn't believe he called it, not only the exact critter but almost the exact # of them.
Remember, he's playing a Diviner, so I chalked it up to Player / PC crossover, kind of like Tron.
-t
I'm not playing curse of the crimson throne, but that looked like a spoiler to me... maybe it's fairly obvious, but...
I had a similar moment of calling it in "memory of darkness" in Second Darkness
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Not so much "WTF?" as "Um, what?"
Big adventure for Eberron by Nick Logue, part one or two of three in the series. (Chimes at Midnight, I think, being the first)
PC's first encounter with what is supposed to be a recurring BBEG (the master of Hell's Heart asylum, in the episode previous to the eponymous Hell's Heart)
Me: "You see *description* and he greets you with a bit of smarm and some slimy pleasantries. What do you do?"
The LE Spy's player: "I shoot him in the face."
Me: "YOU WHAT?!"
Player: "I shoot him in the face with a poisoned crossbow bolt. Natural 20 on the attack. Does this count as a sneak attack?"
Me: "Um, yeah. Roll to confirm..."
BBEG, recurring villain... dead in part 2 of 3. We never did finish that module arc.
Not so much "WTF?" as "Um, what?"
Big adventure for Eberron by Nick Logue, part one or two of three in the series. (Chimes at Midnight, I think, being the first)
PC's first encounter with what is supposed to be a recurring BBEG (the master of Hell's Heart asylum, in the episode previous to the eponymous Hell's Heart)
Me: "You see *description* and he greets you with a bit of smarm and some slimy pleasantries. What do you do?"
The LE Spy's player: "I shoot him in the face."
Me: "YOU WHAT?!"
Player: "I shoot him in the face with a poisoned crossbow bolt. Natural 20 on the attack. Does this count as a sneak attack?"
Me: "Um, yeah. Roll to confirm..."BBEG, recurring villain... dead in part 2 of 3. We never did finish that module arc.
Hahaha!
Similarly, we had a house rule back in AD&D 2ed that a double 20 was an instant kill. Party faces a big, bad, two-headed linnorm. Players win initiative; roll double 20! Frustrated, I ruled that 'it only killed one of its heads'. Next player attacks: double 20! stupid dice...
Also, it makes me think of this
'findel
Not so much "WTF?" as "Um, what?"
Big adventure for Eberron by Nick Logue, part one or two of three in the series. (Chimes at Midnight, I think, being the first)
PC's first encounter with what is supposed to be a recurring BBEG (the master of Hell's Heart asylum, in the episode previous to the eponymous Hell's Heart)
Me: "You see *description* and he greets you with a bit of smarm and some slimy pleasantries. What do you do?"
The LE Spy's player: "I shoot him in the face."
Me: "YOU WHAT?!"
Player: "I shoot him in the face with a poisoned crossbow bolt. Natural 20 on the attack. Does this count as a sneak attack?"
Me: "Um, yeah. Roll to confirm..."BBEG, recurring villain... dead in part 2 of 3. We never did finish that module arc.
In any of the groups I have gamed with, this would not be a WTF over the BBEG dying, it would be a WTF at the player for rolling dice before the DM tells them to. That has always been a big no-no to keep players from fudging their numbers.
In any of the groups I have gamed with, this would not be a WTF over the BBEG dying, it would be a WTF at the player for rolling dice before the DM tells them to. That has always been a big no-no to keep players from fudging their numbers.
Assuming she's talking about the adventure I think she is (in the last issue of Dungeon, right?), the problem isn't that the player randomly killed the BBEG. The problem was that the player just randomly shot a guy. If I'm thinking of the right adventure, they only went there to talk to one of the prisoners.
Really? I'd have a hard time playing with people I couldn't trust.In any of the groups I have gamed with, this would not be a WTF over the BBEG dying, it would be a WTF at the player for rolling dice before the DM tells them to. That has always been a big no-no to keep players from fudging their numbers.
Me: "You see *description* and he greets you with a bit of smarm and some slimy pleasantries. What do you do?"
The LE Spy's player: "I shoot him in the face."
Me: "YOU WHAT?!"
Player: "I shoot him in the face with a poisoned crossbow bolt. Natural 20 on the attack. Does this count as a sneak attack?"
Me: "Um, yeah. Roll to confirm..."BBEG, recurring villain... dead in part 2 of 3. We never did finish that module arc.
Seconded, if I had a player that was problematic enough about that to justify making that a rule, I'd be asking them to leave my group.
@Findel: I did that in an Evil campaign once, except for that game it was triple-twenty, not double-twenty. Alu'Vien, my Tiefling Cleric of the goddess of winter, and her partners got approached by a paladin come to run them out of the town they'd halfway taken over and gave a long speech of how they needed to surrender or die at the hands of justice. She just said "I don't think so", used her Darkness SLA in the surprise round, and rolled really high on initiative. First round - 20, 20, 20. Decapitated the paladin in the dark on the first round. :D
In any of the groups I have gamed with, this would not be a WTF over the BBEG dying, it would be a WTF at the player for rolling dice before the DM tells them to. That has always been a big no-no to keep players from fudging their numbers.
Me: "You see *description* and he greets you with a bit of smarm and some slimy pleasantries. What do you do?"
The LE Spy's player: "I shoot him in the face."
Me: "YOU WHAT?!"
Player: "I shoot him in the face with a poisoned crossbow bolt. Natural 20 on the attack. Does this count as a sneak attack?"
Me: "Um, yeah. Roll to confirm..."BBEG, recurring villain... dead in part 2 of 3. We never did finish that module arc.
Really? I'd have a hard time playing with people I couldn't trust.
In my groups its the opposite. I want combat to move and flow fast and smooth, so once initiative is declared the players start taking their turns in order. First person in initiative says what he's doing, rolls the bones, tells me what he rolls, and we're off and running.
Eh, it really was not a trust issue, so maybe that came out wrong. It was and is more of a "don't do something til the DM tells you to" thing. It the situation Mikhaila mentioned, she sounded really taken by surprise by the player and was not given the chance to come up with a way out of it for the BBEG. Heck, while I have not played this way, I have known some groups where the DM rolls everything and the players don't use dice other than to generate their characters.
I have known some groups where the DM rolls everything and the players don't use dice other than to generate their characters.
... This would drive me mad.
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Eh, it really was not a trust issue, so maybe that came out wrong. It was and is more of a "don't do something til the DM tells you to" thing. It the situation Mikhaila mentioned, she sounded really taken by surprise by the player and was not given the chance to come up with a way out of it for the BBEG. Heck, while I have not played this way, I have known some groups where the DM rolls everything and the players don't use dice other than to generate their characters.
Absolutely the case here. She didn't roll until told to, I just got caught completely flabergasted. It was also totally in character, so I really didn't even MIND. I love that character.
I have known some groups where the DM rolls everything and the players don't use dice other than to generate their characters.... This would drive me mad.
Especially if I were the DM - I already have enough stuff to juggle.
Stefan
Not so much "WTF?" as "Um, what?"
Big adventure for Eberron by Nick Logue, part one or two of three in the series. (Chimes at Midnight, I think, being the first)
PC's first encounter with what is supposed to be a recurring BBEG (the master of Hell's Heart asylum, in the episode previous to the eponymous Hell's Heart)
Me: "You see *description* and he greets you with a bit of smarm and some slimy pleasantries. What do you do?"
The LE Spy's player: "I shoot him in the face."
Me: "YOU WHAT?!"
Player: "I shoot him in the face with a poisoned crossbow bolt. Natural 20 on the attack. Does this count as a sneak attack?"
Me: "Um, yeah. Roll to confirm..."BBEG, recurring villain... dead in part 2 of 3. We never did finish that module arc.
I had a similar experience with the Ars Magica game. A mundane archer shot a mage, rolled really high (the ArM game has a rule that if you roll a 1 on the d10, roll again and double the result, if you roll another, quadruple etc.)and killed him with one shot. The mage had not even a chance due to being surprised.
The same player in another ArM game needed some clues from a certain scene within the adventure. His mage had Herbam (plants) as his speciality, so he tried to get some information from the plants. Coming back to the group, he declared in the driest manner imaginable "I just talked to the bushes over there." Hilarity ensued.
Stefan
My first WTF of this year was the death of the Pixie;
The party was on the road to the keep I was sending them to for the actual mission they were over half way there when I rolled sevre weather (rain / hail). So the Pixie, who was vain, didn't want to get wet and hid under the Wemic's sheild as he was using it to sheild most of himself from the hail, a few rolls later I rolled "Massive Pit Trap." I ask the party to roll a check and only one person fails it...the wemic, so I start to tell them whats going on how deep how much damage is done etc, then one of the players remind me that the pixie was hiding under the sheild and I have her make a DEX check and she criticaly fails. The Pixie is knocked out by the falling sheild, and falls down into the pit under the wemic...she survived all that. So the Wemic picked her up and put her in one of his pouches and then used his folding boat as a ladder to get out of the pit.
And the party starts to go again with the pixie in the wemics pouch, it wasn't until the player of the pixie said, "And I fly up to the trees to enjoy the sun coming out..." Nope sorry you don't you are still in the pouch and *roll, roll roll* you have taken another 15 points of damge due to bleeding and thus Fire Blossom died in a pouch and was buried in the woods.