No GM or player is immune to moments of monumental dumbassness. (Is that a word?)
They range from the GM giving a back door to ending the campain in one swoop ("What do you mean you can control the sphere of annillation? But that..that..stupid 3rd party spells!)to players who "suicide" the whole freaking team ("you killed the dragon you are all sitting on the back of at an altitude of 20,000ft?...um, the wizard didn't prep feather fall or fly today so let me roll 20d6 for damage...)<note--I forgot the actual amount of damage dice I ruled on that one--please no one correct me>
We will change the names to protect the stupid...
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Years ago, we were playing an old spy-based RPG (can't recall the system name) and our GM had us called to a meeting aboard a submarine.
When we arrived at the dock, there was a rather non-descript fellow dressed as a concierge waiting to courtesy direct us into the submarine. As soon as we entered, one of our group decided that we shouldn't have any witnesses, so he shot the man in the head as soon as he turned around.
The player rolled well, and the man died, falling into the water beside the sub.
At this point the GM sighed, and closed his notebook. "Well, that was fun," he said.
We were confused by this remark, until he explained that we just killed the villain of the story before the plot even began.
Oops!
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In a Shadowrun game, a combat scene was set up in an old, abandoned movie theater. I drew out a map... the game wasn't really set up for miniatures to the map I drew was just for reference. I put lines through the walls to indicate the exits. Somehow, the players didn't get that those lines were doors. I didn't get that they didn't get it. They spent quite a bit of time blowing up a wall to get out of the theater rather than using a door a few meters away. I thought it was part of some plan they had worked on... until it was obviously not... Dumbass me should have said something sooner... but dumbass them should have asked, too.
Same Shadowrun campaign, the PC's were going into a corp enclave to break into an exec's house. The entire reason for them being there was a set up. It was a published module and they were supposed to deal with snipers as they escapped. When they used a garbage truck to get in, I thought, "Wow... nice accidental planning... the metal container will protect them all nicely and deny LoS to the snipers." So much for that... one of the players decided, for no apparent reason, to hang onto the outside... as the only visible target. Purely a dumbass him situation.
In an ooooooold Star Trek game, the players were on an adventure exploring a Klingon battlecruiser. The entire crew had been split up by the same transporter accident that split Kirk in a TOS episode and, by the time the ship crossed into Fed territory, there were few survivors. One player had no character so while the others were exploring, he spent about 2.5 hours making the Chief of Security. As a black belt, the player looked for every opportunity to make his PC a martial artist. Well... the players were looking to sneak on a klingon at an auxiliary control console. The player finally finished his character so he asked to be beamed nearby where he would sneak up on the klingon. The klingon heard the sneak attempt, turned in his chair and fired a disruptor set to kill at the PC... hit... he failed his Luck roll... 2.5 hours of character creation, roughly 1 minute of play and he was disintegrated. It was about 25 years ago so the idea that I should do anything other than what the dice indicated was foreign. It wasn't a dumbass move at the time but, in retrospect, it definitely was. But, it was worth it. That event is STILL talked about.
Many years ago, back in early 1e.....
I played a lot, but once I let a non-player friend "run" an on the fly game for me.
Of course, I get attacked by a dragon.
He says "The dragon opens its mouth a a bunch of swords fly at you."
Me: "What???"
"DM": "It says 'breath weapon'".
We stopped there.
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Many years ago, back in early 1e.....
I played a lot, but once I let a non-player friend "run" an on the fly game for me.
Of course, I get attacked by a dragon.
He says "The dragon opens its mouth a a bunch of swords fly at you."Me: "What???"
"DM": "It says 'breath weapon'".
We stopped there.
I am so designing that dragon ASAP.
Years ago, we were playing an old spy-based RPG (can't recall the system name) and our GM had us called to a meeting aboard a submarine.
When we arrived at the dock, there was a rather non-descript fellow dressed as a concierge waiting to courtesy direct us into the submarine. As soon as we entered, one of our group decided that we shouldn't have any witnesses, so he shot the man in the head as soon as he turned around.
The player rolled well, and the man died, falling into the water beside the sub.
At this point the GM sighed, and closed his notebook. "Well, that was fun," he said.
We were confused by this remark, until he explained that we just killed the villain of the story before the plot even began.
Oops!
Ah the dangers of introducing important villains early.
Its a real struggle sometimes. You want to make the villain visible, but players have this nasty habit of killing things that are near them that they can observe. I once ran a star wars game where an evil jedi was setting up the party for a very public battle that would cause havoc in the republic. She wasnt there to hurt the party, just start the fight and bail. I was confident her defenses were sufficient to withstand anything they would try. What I forgot, they were several miles above the ground, and though her defenses were near impenetrable to the lower level party members, her speeder was not.
As she fled a player asked me, 'how far does she get in the first turn?' 'Um 300ft i think' 'I blast the speeder', *quick glance at the stats for said speeder* 'Well crap, she plummits to her death'.
I think the biggest mistakes I ever made were the same ones so many of us make when we're just starting out DMing. Whenever there was an encounter, I'd throw just one really beefy monster at the party. They would beat it and then move on to the next area, where yet another single monster awaited. In this manner, they would progress through an entire dungeon. While it sounds good in the planning stages, it makes for a very boring adventure. Also, not using carrying weights, I found to be a bad idea as my party of PC's would just loot everything they could touch to sell later, and I mean everything. Ever try to find a way to have your party sell off a castle? How 'bout stone by stone? Now that was a dumb mistake.
I was DMing for my brother, part of his quest was to gather some gather some iron, so he goes into the nearest mine... he then proceeds to look for... chests.
The mistake I usually made as beginning DM was that I was always forgetting the size of rooms. So I sometimes made small rooms with huge monsters in it. I only noticed this while DM-ing, when my players commented on it.
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A friends Planescape game had this classic.
A PC had lost his character whilst the players were on the first layer of Hell so he generated a new psionicist character and was introduced by falling through a portal that he had accidently triggered.
The PC described himself as a short balding guy in a hawaiian shirt and shorts. A brief discussion ensued during which it was revealed that said surfer dude was an accomplished psionicist who could shapeshift into virtually anything. Deciding this was a useful skill the party agreed to travel with him.
The game continued and the GM rolled a random encounter with the result coming up as "Bel's Legion". For those not in the know Bel's Lgion is a massive army of devils that obtains new recruits on the first layer of Hell. Obviously not something you want to fight...
So when the horizon was suddenly filled with devils, the players panicked a bit until one of the PC's turned to the new psionicist and said "Quick, turn into a rock!"
The player meant "large lump of granite"
The psionicist heard "big enormous bird"
Which he promptly turned into and flew out to engage the few devils who had noticed the PC's. Eventually after an epic fight between devils and said psionicist/bird the surfer dude was victorious, slamming the last flying devil into the ground.
He stood up, brushed hiself off and proptly died from the poisons in his system in front of a shocked collection of players who had hardly moved in all this time.
Tales of this are still told in taverns across the planes, usually starting with the phrase "do you remember that weird guy who..."
I was on the end result of a "brilliant" DM's encounter.
1st level rogue, about a 10 or 12 strength. (This is back during 2nd edition) Our party was in this dungeon and my rogue walks into a room where the door shuts behind him. Next the walls start closing in. Needless to say, I was smashed.
The DM "thought" I would use my strength to get out.
In 2nd edition, if I remember correctly I believe you needed a +1 weapon to do any kind of damage to gargoyles. We were 5th level characters with one magic weapon. It was a room full of gargoyles.
Needless to say, we were smashed.
Oh and there were also golems in this same complex. Still with one magic weapon.
Same DM by the way.
If you check the CR today, (for the closing walls)I believe it's a 10.
Of course, I could just chalk it up as he just liked killing characters. But I choose to go with the OP. :)
When just starting out my cousin and I would run solo games for each other (I think this helped my RP, since I had to distinguish which of the 5 PC's I was playing did what).
In one dungeon I had passed a statue in the hallway and noticed a secret door behind it. I proceeded to try every trick I could think of to open this door.
Pushed, pulled, poked, prodded, turned, twisted the statue. Searched for levers, switches, hinges, compartments, command words.
All the while after every action, my cousin would laugh and say "Oh, man, it's SO obvious". After about 45 mins of trying every trick I could think of, I got mad at my cousin and told him my wizard is smart enough to figure it out.
His answer "It's so obvious, push the nose, duh!"
At that point I was like "This dungeon is stupid, I'm going outside"