Surprising the GM

[SoulDragon298]

You're up against impossible odds. The GM thinks he has you. But then you or another player does something or uses some obscure rule to bypass the problem,frustrating the GM.

So do you have any funny or awesome moments where you surprised the Gm?

[thenobledrake]

This one time, the GM had set up this ridiculously hard encounter that our characters had no chance of surviving... so we surprised him by never letting him run another session ever again, and explaining for the Nth time that impossible odds are only fun when our characters have made a choice to be in that situation, that the GM trying to "have us" is not remotely fun, and that his frustration at every time we previously managed to escape his encounters is a giant red flag indicating that he is an adversarial GM, and thus near to the worst sort of GM.

[BigDTBone]

Big bad had see invisible up so I cast invisibility on a tower shield and hid behind it. Used a wand of magic missiles to take him down a bit at a time.

[Lamontius]

BigDTBone wrote:

Big bad had see invisible up so I cast invisibility on a tower shield and hid behind it. Used a wand of magic missiles to take him down a bit at a time.

what

[Jaelithe]

As DM, I'd override the use of the obscure rule if I deemed it cheese. If instead I thought it brilliant thinking out of the box I'd delightedly watch as my best laid plans squeaked and ran away/blew up.

Back on topic.

Way back, in the mid-80's, my DM had planned an excruciating series of episodes in which my paladin, who'd been bitten by a wolf, would do terrible things as a were-creature—things he didn't remember upon returning to human form—thereby losing his powers through no real fault of his own.

He began describing my first transformation.

"You observe with horror as your fingernails lengthen into claws and ..."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don't. You're narrating my loss of humanity and change into a werewolf, right?"

"Well, you've ruined the mood, but ... yeah."

"Paladins, as you know, are immune to disease. Lycanthropy is a disease. Therefore, my paladin is immune. Nice try, though."

"I'm going to interpret it as a curse."

"In other words, a magical disease. Still immune."

The other two players were also split, one agreeing with the DM and the other with me. Little did we know that we'd stumbled on a serious bone of contention within the game, one that would divide participants for decades.

As I recall, that game session ended abruptly, as he wouldn't back down and I refused to play a compromised paladin simply because he didn't like the character class and had searched high and low for something with which to be childishly punitive.

(Interestingly enough, I believe Paizo's paladins are expressly immune to lycanthropy.)

[BigDTBone]

Lamontius wrote:

BigDTBone wrote:

Big bad had see invisible up so I cast invisibility on a tower shield and hid behind it. Used a wand of magic missiles to take him down a bit at a time.

what

I could see him to target him with MM because the shield was invisible. He has see invisibility spell up so he could not see through the shield.

[Fraust]

I think if one of my players essentially told me "no I don't, nice try though" I'd wave good bye to them. "I thought paladins were immune to that?" is one thing, but the other, is another.

[Drejk]

Fading Suns.

Enemy faction fleet is approaching the planet we are on. Our allies flee on neutral faction ships. Another player wants to pointless waste lives of members of secret order she belongs to fighting impossible odds while my character is unwilling to die pointlessly (he was ready to die a few different times when it actually mattered). During the heated argument (and being accused of cowardice) I noted that if we only could take the planet with us and push through the stargate to deny it to enemy faction... That thought was followed by another thought that we could deny the planet to the enemy faction by convincing current ruler to sell it to neutral faction present (with whom enemy faction was unwilling to start a war, yet).

We followed with negotiating sale of the whole planet - the current ruler was on the execution list of the incoming enemy faction anyway and not much possibility of fleeing. Also, I managed to get a cut for myself and my companions as a middleman.

[Silent Saturn]

DM: "You're in the market square. Make a Perception check."

Me: *rolls mediocre check*

DM: "A cutpurse has stolen your gold! You see him dart off through the crowd!"

Me: "I didn't have any gold."

DM:"...what?"

Me:"I spent it all last time, remember? I'm a druid, I can live off Survival checks."

DM:"So... what did you have?"

Me:"Uhh... I collected some moss?"

*beat*

DM:"A cutpurse has stolen your pouch of moss! You see him dart off through the crowd."

Me:"Okay." *beat* "Boy, is he in for a surprise."

DM:"Aren't you gonna chase him down?"

Me:"For a pouch of moss? Why would I bother?"

DM: *headdesk*

[Drejk]

That's why I like my Vow Of Poverty Favored Soul in D&D 3.5 game.

[Aelfborn]

Silent Saturn wrote:

DM:"A cutpurse has stolen your pouch of moss! You see him dart off through the crowd."

Me:"Okay." *beat* "Boy, is he in for a surprise."

DM:"Aren't you gonna chase him down?"

Me:"For a pouch of moss? Why would I bother?"

DM: *headdesk*

That was great. Funniest thing that I have heard all day!

[Rubber Ducky guy]

We all failed on a sense motive check on an illusion pretending to be Pharasma. The illusion orded us to leave our weapons behind and continue into the next room as penance for my earlier misdeed.

The other room we walked into was the lair of NBBEGBBBE, who was hanging from the roof.

The GM was expecting a TPK until the ninja placed a feather token [Tree] directly beneath it.

The GM quickly consulted the rule book, made up a reflex save DC (which it then failed), and ruled that the foe was impaled.

Impending TPK to one hit win in a single round.

[Jaelithe]

Fraust wrote:

I think if one of my players essentially told me "no I don't, nice try though" I'd wave good bye to them. "I thought paladins were immune to that?" is one thing, but the other, is another.

Absolutely correct, Fraust. I was being obnoxious.

I was nineteen, and we were roommates in the Air Force—pretty tight, actually. He and I had some great exchanges over two years.

One day, he and I were arguing, and I told him, "You know, I'm done. As a friend used to say, 'Let the @$$h0|e have the last word.'"

Before thinking, he growled, "What did you say?!"

I just grinned and shrugged.

He roared and stormed out.

Later, he told me he'd burst out laughing about five minutes after the exchange, and filed it away for future use.

Great guy. He put up with a lot of crap from me as a kid. I'll always respect him.

[TriOmegaZero]

The party had been ambushed by archers while traveling a river before. When they arrived on shore to fight, they found the dastards had melted into the jungle rather than stand and fight.

Some levels down the road, they had cause to return to that river, and I decided to give them a chance to get revenge. So they were attacked once more!

The bard looks at me and asks what the distance is. "Is it within 440 feet?"

I answer in the affirmative, wondering "Why so specific?"

Then the bard dimension door's the fighter and cleric behind the archers. One failed Perception check later....

[Sah]

The very first game of d&d I ever played, the dm started with "So you guys are lost on the woods-" and I interrupted him saying no I'm not. He had let me play a minotaur, and they have a racial ability that says they can't be lost. One sentence into the first game and I had surprised and won an argument with the dm.

[DrDeth]

Fraust wrote:

I think if one of my players essentially told me "no I don't, nice try though" I'd wave good bye to them. "I thought paladins were immune to that?" is one thing, but the other, is another.

We have a rule, we call it “no challenging the DM’. So, you can’t say “No I am not, I am….” But you can say “Umm, have you forgotten that paladins are immune to disease?”.

Now whether or not you want to continue with a rule debate after that is another thing, but sometimes a polite phrasing goes a long way.

[MrSin]

So we were walking along a trail to a city and the GM says to roll a reflex save. Everyone rolls pitifully. The highest roll on the dice was a 3, no one got above a 10 on the save. The GM is grinning in that way all GMs do and we go into this

GM: "And you all fall into a pit and-"
Me: "No I don't."
GM: "What? Why not?"
Me: "I fly."
GM: "What!? How!"

Everyday we played I had a list of buffs I had running all day and would tell him about that he tended to forget(he never read it.), and the last week we leveled up and I just learned overland flight! His face was great. He then ruled I didn't see what happened to the others to get revenge on me though. There was a 50% chance in any game where he just ignored what I did. he regularly forgot to add the damage I dealt... Not the best game ever, but it was still awesome to get to tell him that.

[Thomas Long 175]

GM surprised us with a mimic and jumped one of the players (wizard).

I used to diplomacy by bating it with fresh meet suddenly and the gm told me that a mimic couldn't have diplomacy used on it. I revealed to him that it spoke common and had the same int as a human. At which point he told me the check would be incredibly hard. I rolled a natural 20 (we were using the +10 rule) and was a face focused bard. The total came out to the low 40's and the mimic let everyone pass in exchange for bringing him a good bit of food later.

[Jaelithe]

Did you live up to your bargain, or do we have yet another disillusioned mimic in the world?

[Thomas Long 175]

I SIR HAVE NEVER BEEN SO OFFENDED.

I went to town and told multiple people in the jail that if they helped us clear a dungeon chainmail style they could have a share of a rather large treasure if they survived. I brought them back and fed them to the mimic.

[Avatar-1]

I don't think anyone else has ever made a honest and solid ally out of a mimic before.

[TOZ]

You never met my Shackled City group then. 'Chesty' was a beloved companion.

[mkenner]

Jaelithe wrote:

(Interestingly enough, I believe Paizo's paladins are expressly immune to lycanthropy.)

OD&D - Paladins weren't immune to disease.

1st Ed - Paladins were simply immune to diseases (no mention of lycanthropy).
2nd Ed - Paladins are immune to diseases but specifically not curses like lycanthropy and mummy rot.
3rd Ed - Sorry, can't find my PHB.

Pathfinder - The most unclear rules ever. Paladins are explicitly immune to disease including supernatural and magical diseases. No mention of lycanthropy.

The Lycanthropy page in the bestiary names the ability "Curse of Lycanthropy" and only uses the word disease when it says "Afflicted lycanthropes contract this ability like a curse or disease from another lycanthrope" and when it later says "remove disease or heal cast by a cleric of 12th level" will remove the affliction.

I have no idea how it's meant to work in pathfinder.

[Jaelithe]

Thanks for the clarification. I do remember 2nd specifically mentioning that ... but, then again, the paladin was largely emasculated between the first two editions, much to my extreme indignation.

From what I can see from checking the PRD, it's considered a curse.

If Remove Disease will cure something, though, immunity to disease should, logically speaking, protect you.

You're right. Clear as mud.

[MrSin]

mkenner wrote:

Jaelithe wrote:

(Interestingly enough, I believe Paizo's paladins are expressly immune to lycanthropy.)

OD&D - Paladins weren't immune to disease.

1st Ed - Paladins were simply immune to diseases (no mention of lycanthropy).
2nd Ed - Paladins are immune to diseases but specifically not curses like lycanthropy and mummy rot.
3rd Ed - Sorry, can't find my PHB.

For 3rd edition you can always look it up on the srd. Paladins were definitely immune to disease unless they traded it out. Its refered to repeatedly as a disease in the write up, including in the attack section. I always presumed its still a magical disease.

[El Baron de los Banditos]

Paladins in PF are immune to Mummy Rot and other curse/disease combos.

[Jaelithe]

Sweet! In this case, SKR is the man!

[Bill Dunn]

Jaelithe wrote:

Thanks for the clarification. I do remember 2nd specifically mentioning that ... but, then again, the paladin was largely emasculated between the first two editions, much to my extreme indignation.

??? How was the paladin emasculated between 1e and 2e?

[Jaelithe]

Loss of his Protection from Evil aura, and the powers garnered from the cavalier class of which he was a sub after Unearthed Arcana. That first especially still rankles me to this day.

[Bill Dunn]

I'm looking at the 2e paladin and that aura of protection is still there. Is the complaint that it went from imposing a -2 to a -1?

And, if you ask me, the paladin should never have gotten powers off the cavalier subclass classification. That was a ridiculous upgrade in power. If losing them counts as emasculation, he never should have been hopped up on 'roids by Unearthed Arcana in the first place.

[Jaelithe]

Bill Dunn wrote:

I'm looking at the 2e paladin and that aura of protection is still there. Is the complaint that it went from imposing a -2 to a -1?

No.

The complaint is that in 1st Edition, it functioned as Protection from Evil, as the spell. In 2nd, it gives a niggling bonus and identifies you as something evil should despise but not particularly fear.

Quote:

And, if you ask me, the paladin should never have gotten powers off the cavalier subclass classification. That was a ridiculous upgrade in power. If losing them counts as emasculation, he never should have been hopped up on 'roids by Unearthed Arcana in the first place.

I didn't ask you, but I appreciate your opinion anyway. It's certainly not the first time I've heard something of that sort.

I obviously don't agree with your take on the cavalier and the paladin sub-class. In my opinion, it's perfectly OK for such a character to be immune to fear and 90% resistant to powers that affect the mind in a reality where other characters change form, hurl massive blasts of energy (recall that back then a 22nd-level magic-user did 22d6 with a fireball), drain levels permanently, regularly twist the minds of others, summon demons, and alter reality at a whim.

It was, indeed, a controversial class—one that remains my favorite to have played in three decades plus of gaming. I liked the idea of my character toeing the line as strict lawful good in exchange for abilities the morally compromised didn't possess. There were many things he or she couldn't do that more than compensated.

We all have our preferences, after all.

[Humphrey Boggard]

Silent Saturn wrote:

... DM:"So... what did you have?"

Me:"Uhh... I collected some moss?"
*beat*
DM:"A cutpurse has stolen your pouch of moss! You see him dart off through the crowd."
Me:"Okay." *beat* "Boy, is he in for a surprise."
DM:"Aren't you gonna chase him down?"
Me:"For a pouch of moss? Why would I bother?"
DM: *headdesk*

Something similar happened to my g/f's friend in NYC. She was dog sitting an older dog. The dog dies and the owners tell her to take it to the vet (either to dispose of the body or figure out how it died). She doesn't have a car so she puts this dog into an old suitcase and takes the subway. She gets to her stop, starts lugging this fairly heavy suitcase up the stairs when a pleasant stranger offers to help. He gets to the top of the stairs and takes off with the luggage, dead dog and all.

[Jaelithe]

That guy's got a really annoyed little hell hound just waiting for him to pass on.

[Silent Saturn]

For the record, my party-mates did eventually persuade me to chase the guy down, if only because they wanted to see the look on the guy's face when he realized what he'd stolen.

Also because they seem to hate the very idea of being stolen from, and will jump on any opportunity to fight an NPC thief.

[Reshar]

Dotting for later.

[Spastic Puma]

I already posted this in a thread a while back but I can't help but throw it in here too.

"My friend created this funhouse of a dungeon, run by a Gnome trickster. It was laden with traps and illusions of all kinds. Because the Gnome had committed some crimes and was causing trouble, the town sent us adventurers in to get him out/kill him if need be.

Before they even get inside, the party becomes annoyed by the front-lawn traps/illusions and decides that THEY SHOULD JUST BURN THE WHOLE PLACE DOWN TO GET HIM TO COME OUT. A few alchemist's fires and some torches later, the DM's awesome dungeon was circumvented, and I believe he left the room in disgust.

While we have vowed never to "burn down a mansion" again, it gets brought up every now and again. I personally make my dungeons fireproof when I run that group as well, just in case."

[FlySkyHigh]

So, this was back in 3.5, and we were playing an ABSURDLY epic game. Game had gone on for 8 years playing 2-3 times a month, and we were all roughly 40th level. This custom race the Gm had created was attempting to take over the world, and was sacrificing commoners en masse to power up these Obelisks that were essentially creating a giant field across the world that anyone who teleported within it would get re-directed into a giant kill-box. With a few knowledge checks we were informed that the only thing capable of destroying it would be a Sphere of Annihilation. Now, the wizard in our party, being a smartass, immediately uses a wish to wish that the next save that the obelisk made was a 1. The GM, being amused but confused, says OK. The following round, the wizard uses Cone of Oblivion, an epic level spell he had invented that essentially replicated the effects of a sphere of oblivion temporarily.

The GM, flabbergasted, goes back through his notes on what is supposed to happen if that is encountered, since he hadn't told us due to his total belief that we couldn't pull it off. So we are then told that all 10,000 or so spell levels that had been stored in the obelisk through sacrifices were now igniting and was going to explode. Our cleric immediately Miracles us all to the home plane of his diety, and then plane-shifts us back home, just in time for us to all turn and see the really big flash of light.

Afterwards the only thing the GM could say was "Congratulations, you have created the world's first tactical nuke."

[Ellis Mirari]

The group had to enter an abandoned winery and eliminate the gang of criminals with minor magic talents that had been hiding out in there.

Cleric and Magus prepare to storm in the front.
Rogue sneaks around to the rear and enters through there unseen.
Summoner breaks in a side window and ends up in a storage room that connects to the front hallway.

Cleric and Magus storm in the front entrance and start engaging the one guy standing watch. He starts yelling, but he starts getting really wounded before help arrives, so he successfully casts vanish and starts running down the hall.

Meanwhile, three of the guy's buddies heard him yelling and are running toward the sound.

While all that is happening, the Summoner is listening from behind the storage room door and hears both the sound of the approaching guard and the more distant sound reinforcements. He holds his action to kick the door open as soon as the guard crosses in front.

Now, by the luck of the dice, the three allies coming to save their guard buddy all decided to take the same door, which happened to be on a wall adjacent to the storage room door. They also, naturally, had no idea that their friend was invisible and running to that exact place.

They collided, and as soon as they did, the Summoner kicked the door open and sent them all sprawling on the ground.

[Arnwyn]

I'm the surprised GM in question.

Many, many years ago, the party are a bunch of resistance fighters trying to free their city from an evil organization. After multiple sessions of infiltrating, sabotaging, and rabble-rousing, they get enough allies and resources to get to the end-game and are able to raid 'city hall' (a massive tower) and gank the BBEG.

I design the whole tower, multiple soldiers and archers, and envision a great big running battle to the very top.

One of the PCs happens to be a ninja. He essentially runs up the tower in a couple of rounds with some ropes, and helps everyone up in short order.

I sit there, slack-jawed... and then burst out laughing at the pure awesomeness of it, and him using his abilities to the fullest (which he otherwise has inconsistently used in the past).

[Mythic Evil Lincoln]

Speaking as a GM, I cherish these moments above all else.

I try my hardest to really challenge the players, especially in final confrontation type scenes. For those final scenes I pull out all the stops and really try to (fairly) win.

When they succeed against all odds, that's the best possible outcome of an RPG. I would never walk it back, no matter how much work I had done on an imagined outcome.

If it's really bad, I'd rather end a session early so I could go plan around the new circumstances.

Player creativity and involvement is the best part of the game. Otherwise, I'd just go off and write a third-rate fantasy novel.

[Deadalready]

My character had his soul sucked into the body of another person and was forced to masquerade as them throughout a base. So I was trying to get past a blockade of sorts and the suspicious guards began interrogating me.

Guards: "You know you've been acting very odd, you told us we would attack the city and reclaim the throne for our mistress"

Me: "You are far too impatient, preparations must be made and we are not ready for such an attack yet."

Guards: "What happened to our leader? You sent her out on a mission and she hasn't come back yet!"

Me: "I don't know where she is, perhaps she got herself killed for being tardy"

Guards: "Also what happened to those magical shields your promised us?"

Me: "All rewards come to those who wait."

Guard: "Who are you! We were never promised shields!"

Me: "I mentioned nothing of shields, merely rewards for those with patience..."

Guard: "..."

Me: "..."

Guard: "Prove you are who you say you are, we want to see your supposed power"

At this point I finally used a spell I had been keeping secret for multiple levels but never had the opportunity to use.

Me: I use Blistering Invective *Rolls 18+8 intimidate*

GM: What does that do?

Me: All my enemies are shaken, take 10 points of fire damage, catch on fire and continue burning for 1d6 fire until they can make a 15 reflex save.

GM: The guards roll around for floor failing their saves for multiple rounds.

Guard: "I am sorry for doubting you mistress... you may pass"

[MagusJanus]

This was an early campaign I was in.

We were out to stop a necromancer from gaining an orb that would allow her to raise all dead on the continent as her minions, and we had an NPC regularly aiding us. Partway through one adventure, my wizard figured out the guy was working for the necromancer and would betray us. So I had made a necklace of fireballs that was disguised as another magical necklace (had a completely different useful magical enchantment to aid in the disguise) that had the fireball beads designed to detonate if "Unleash" were said in Abyssal. My character was the only one in the party that spoke Abyssal, which was a nice way of guaranteeing no one would set it off by accident. Then I gave it to the NPC.

I kinda figured that if it did get off by accident while the NPC was away from us, he was up to something nefarious and deserved what he got. I didn't bother to inform the rest of the party, mainly because I didn't want to get complained at by the paladin.

Anyway, the time has come. The party is captured, brought before the necromancer, and I'll give you three guesses who is standing right beside her. And, once we saw them, it was obvious why the NPC was working with her; they were twins. The necromancer is in the middle of some speech she's giving about how horrible we are as heroes, all the while managing to not tell us anything of what she's actually doing, and leans over to give her brother a hug. At that moment I hold up my finger to indicate my character is about to act and slide the DM a note.

My note: Is he still wearing the necklace I made for him?

DM's note: Yes.

My note: Please consult your notes on it.

Me, aloud: "I shout 'Unleash' in Abyssal."

The DM consulted his notes, looked at me, grabbed a d20, and proceeded to roll a 1. His next few rolls were similarly low.

DM, sighing: "The necromancer leans over to hug her brother, grinning wickedly, and then suddenly Illysandra shouts something demonic and the brother explodes. The fireball obliterates the necromancer, her brother, and the minions they had standing next to them."

Paladin, to me: "Did you just kill him with demon magic?"

Me, bluffing: "Yep. Good thing I memorized it more than once."

The vampires guarding us decided fleeing would be best. The paladin spent the next six weeks using Detect Evil whenever he looked at my character.

[Hogeyhead]

BigDTBone wrote:

Lamontius wrote:

BigDTBone wrote:

Big bad had see invisible up so I cast invisibility on a tower shield and hid behind it. Used a wand of magic missiles to take him down a bit at a time.

what

I could see him to target him with MM because the shield was invisible. He has see invisibility spell up so he could not see through the shield.

clever, but you can still see through invisible objects with see invisibility, you see both the reality and the fiction, as with all illusions. Also the shield would have only given the guy 50% miss chance as a part of you was visible, or at most +8 ac, as you cannot actually shoot mm through a shield invisible or no.

[Jaelithe]

Hogeyhead wrote:

BigDTBone wrote:

Lamontius wrote:

BigDTBone wrote:

Big bad had see invisible up so I cast invisibility on a tower shield and hid behind it. Used a wand of magic missiles to take him down a bit at a time.

what

I could see him to target him with MM because the shield was invisible. He has see invisibility spell up so he could not see through the shield.

clever, but you can still see through invisible objects with see invisibility, you see both the reality and the fiction, as with all illusions. Also the shield would have only given the guy 50% miss chance as a part of you was visible, or at most +8 ac, as you cannot actually shoot mm through a shield invisible or no.

I think it's reasonable to assume he himself remained completely behind the shield hidden, but stuck the wand out for line of ... ahem ... sight. That's one of those instances where common sense has to trump the rules, if they contradict.

That was clever.

[Hogeyhead]

Jaelithe, According to the rules the best advantage you can get is +8 ac, better is basically cheating, also because your hand would still need line of sight he could still disintegrate you via the hand, touch ac isn't hard to hit even with cover. Rules sometimes have to contradict common sense for balance purposes, after all after getting sliced the first time in combat you should start loosing blood, but only special attacks do that, and somehow cure spells can cure bleed damage without the spell regenerate. None of that makes sense, but for the game to function we need to make certain concessions to playability.

[Jaelithe]

I hear and understand, but don't necessarily agree.

But like I said, Hogeyhead, in my opinion common sense should trump rules, especially in a situation where a player's employed his cleverness—even if it entails saying, "Hey, you're not going to be able to do this consistently after we clarify, but ... nice job on getting over this one time."

[Phneri]

High end game where our 20th level characters are attempting to hold off the tides of evil to allow the last mortal survivors to escape. Everyone else builds their crazy geared-up paladin/sorceror/etc.

I make a rogue. Who's taken a vow to never take a life.

As we're beginning our defense the great wyrm red dragon approaches, scoffing from a distance at the mortals who prepare for battle. I dimension door on top of his head (cloak of the mountebank) and begin explaining how badly things may go if he decides to attack us.

Of course things go as expected. I managed to distract the dragon by standing (with an acrobatics check in the low 50s and in full defense) on his head while the paladin gets into a flanking position on his flying steed.

Then I full attack him.

My rogue won't take a life, but he will defend himself. With his two +5 merciful light clubs. And the sap master feats. As I was dual-wielding and hit five of 6 times, I wound up rolling 115d6 + 100 nonlethal damage. Plus strength and enchantments.

And 10 points of strength damage.

As the rest of the party blinked at me I maneuvered the (now very unconscious) red dragon into the recovery position and left instructions with my hirelings to place him with the other refugees.

The DM then wound up considering the quite humbled dragon's potential shift in his life's outlook, and he became a recurring NPC.

[Backfromthedeadguy]

This happened in a Vampire: Dark Ages game.

My Bruja character Agusto Galla came to Venice to seek revenge against Augustus Giovanni (head of clan Giovanni) for the murder of his sire. Knowing that there was no way to pull off a direct attack against the powerful clan, Agusto decided to strike at their most precious asset: their mortal family (anyone who has played OWoD should get the significance). But being that their mortal ken where protected by powerful vampires made the plan seemingly impossible. Over the course of a month Agusto began buying up run down property around the city. Under the guise of renovation he then hired a couple of hundred mercenaries, disguised as common laborers. These "laborers" were instructed to pretend to work at these sites until the signal was given. But Agusto knew that his men would be torn apart by the Giovanni vampires as soon as anything happened, so he was forced to time the city wide attack minutes before dawn. So just as Agusto and every other vampire in the city fell into their daily torpor, mercenaries attacked Giovanni mortal relatives and retainers until everyone was dead--men, woman and children--anyone with an once of Giovanni blood or loyalty. When the Giovanni vampires realized what happened while they slept there was open weeping in the streets (to be called the Night of Bloody Tears forever after). Agusto didn't survive very long after that, but that was fine, because nothing could ever top that moment of pure vengeance.

[Zerombr]

Palladium. Ninjas and Superspies. I'm playing a Tinker Gizmoteer and my friend is an Operative agent. We're in the fight of our lives on a train. Shadowlaw is on it, and has a nuke that's being carted into Denver. We both get shot up, the Operative nearly dies trying to keep an innocent from falling off the train's roof. We get to the front of the train, both beaten and battered.

And from the front of the train comes a Russian kickboxer. I look over at the Op and point to the nuke that he can disarm, "You take care of that....and I'll take care of this."

Initiative, I win.
I kick him in the stomach. The kickboxer takes it (he has an ability to help soak damage called chi gung) I look in surprise at the GM, "He takes the kick?" "Yeah, he's tough." I take a moment to assess the situation and say, "Uhm...I pull the trigger." He replies, "You lost your gun two cars back, remember?"

I shake my head, and tap my foot, "Not my bootgun."

Two shotgun slugs at point blank range. I stamp out my foot on fire, the Russian slumps up against the wall bewildered and bleeding out, and I look over at the Op and say "I can't believe that worked!"

[Timblewith]

While there have been plenty of fun ones at the mid and high levels in some of my games, the one I enjoyed the most was recently in the Wrath of the Righteous ap. We had just recently started the game, and i was new to the group, having been brought in by a friend to fill up an open spot and bring a new outlook to the table. Since it had been a while since i had gotten to play, and I never get to play casters, I decided to play an abjuration wizard with a compulsion to be heroic (The group uses an old Central Casting book for character backstory quirks, you get to decide how they are applied but you have to put them in somehow)

So for the first situation, we're making our way out of the caverns we've been trapped in for a while, slogging our way through room after room of his altered encounters for our increased acl thanks to party size, when we come across a large iron door with a bar in front of it and an ornate lock. We check it over, I detect magic, and it is set up to automatically trigger a summons upon opening or interacting with the door. In the meantime, our meathead barbarian and our dwarf ranger are making a racket removing the bar and trying to batter down the lock, with our paladin exhorting them to do so because he can sense a great evil presence on the other side. So right before they trigger the summons, i tell them to knock it off for a second. Our paladin, being the reasonable chap that he is, asks me for a reason to delay charging through the door to slay the evil beast on the other side that has been approaching the door this entire time.

I look at him, and say "Look, the entire time we've been down here all we've encountered from the people guarding this place are inexperienced lackies and their bullied native henchmen. Even the demons that are here to support them are insignificant compared to those that attacked the city up above, because the people down here aren't a threat. So the thing behind the door logically shouldn't be too much stronger, or it would be up above slaughtering all of the civilians and our friends."

Paladin "Ok....but why shouldn't we open the door"

Me "Simple, if you remember the training we went through we were taught a lot of basic information on demons and devils. They tend to have certain abilities to summon things and cast arcane magic. Following me so far?"

Paladin "Yeah..."

Me "So if a weak demon with arcane spells summons up a few friends behind that door, it'll be a challenge for us fighting it now that its been able to magically protect itself, and bring in a few friends to help out. BUT, if we put that lovely bar back on the door, go back down the corridor a bit, and have something to eat and drink before we open the door all of their abjuration magics durations should have ended, and the extra demons should be returned to their native plane and won't bother us further. It will allow us to conserve our resources, and give us time to prepare for finally leaving this damnable cavern."

Paladin "Put the bar back on the door"

The look on the GMs face was priceless, it turned out that there was a second summon i didn't catch that was the big bad behind the door, but as a summon it only stayed for 20 minutes with how he planned out the dungeon. So an hour later there was no demon to slay and we could proceed safely on, escorting our wounded npcs back to the hellscape that was the city.