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Some just off the top of my head from GMing:
1) A new player doesn't value NPC life, or his character's own
** spoiler omitted **...
I... I just... what?
What did I just read?!?!
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Some just off the top of my head from GMing:
1) A new player doesn't value NPC life, or his character's own
** spoiler omitted **...I... I just... what?
What did I just read?!?!
Trust me, I know. I lived it!
Those who played Serpent Skull might guess where we were, when we used hours of real time to break puzzle by hunting snakes and trying to arouse them. But we really tried almost everything, before someone realized the right solution.
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Player of a witch sent their familiar ahead to scout. When the familiar didn't come back they went forwards themselves to look for it, and found the poor kitty bleeding and strung up in a dark area of the dungeon, with twisty passages and lots of obvious hiding spots all around.
The unarmed, unarmored witch got the highest initiative and immediately charged forwards to save her cat. She took readied attacks from both of the oni that were waiting to ambush her, which was basically what everyone had expected was going to happen, since the whole situation was a very obvious trap.
A moment later, the oni's turn on the initiative count arrived, and the two of them full-attacked the witch to death before the other PC's could so much as raise a finger to interfere.
I would have done the same thing, except for sending the kitty away from me in the first place. You. Don't. Fxxx. With. Kitties.
Here are some dumb decisions players made for their characters that come to mind:
1. PC walked into enemy territory, delivered a message, and then began to leave. A rider came chasing after him then, but didn't know who he was. So the rider asks a group of people if they saw the person that delivered the message, and the PC stepped forward and said it was him.
2. Same PC as above, gets escorted to meet the leader of the enemy. Enemy leader tries to get the PC to admit to some wrongdoings. PC claims not to know anything about it. Enemy draws his heavy flail and says "This is a nice flail, isn't it?" PC says "Yeah." Enemy draws heavy shield and says same thing, PC answers "Yeah." Enemy proceeds to clobber PC.
3. More of a group dumb moment, I had an entire complex that was elvish-themed. PCs get to a room and get a riddle, I forget the exact text, but it was something like "A thin weapon known to all of our kind, its strike kins that of an arrow." One player says "Rapier," but then the other players convinced him it couldn't be that, and they answered something else.
4. A PC got captured, tied down on a sacrificial alter, and an enemy cleric started bantering with the PC. The PC says something along the lines of "Just kill me, I don't care." So the enemy did.
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We had to sneak into a fortress, and we knew of multiple ways to do it. My character was a master of disguise type of ninja, and was advocating for walking through the front door disguised as a food delivery. If the party didn't like that, he also advised sneaking in through the roof after taking elixirs of hiding and having similar, more short term potions prepared. We went round and round and round in discussion, with the party leader not really liking any particular suggestion.
Finally, we decided to sneak into it from the tunnels. Without a trapfinder rogue. We got to the first door and set off every alarm in the place. My ninja spent the rest of his 'time' in the building running frantically down hallways trying to escape a pair of demons who could teleport at will.
Later, we asked the GM what the best way to get in was. He told us that bluffing our way in as servants would have been the easiest, followed by sneaking. Out of 6 or 7 options, the party had chosen the second worst (right next to walking in the front door pretending to have turned evil).
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I would have done the same thing, except for sending the kitty away from me in the first place. You. Don't. Fxxx. With. Kitties.Player of a witch sent their familiar ahead to scout. When the familiar didn't come back they went forwards themselves to look for it, and found the poor kitty bleeding and strung up in a dark area of the dungeon, with twisty passages and lots of obvious hiding spots all around.
The unarmed, unarmored witch got the highest initiative and immediately charged forwards to save her cat. She took readied attacks from both of the oni that were waiting to ambush her, which was basically what everyone had expected was going to happen, since the whole situation was a very obvious trap.
A moment later, the oni's turn on the initiative count arrived, and the two of them full-attacked the witch to death before the other PC's could so much as raise a finger to interfere.
Now why would you be afraid of messing with kitties? Its not like they are dangerous or anything...*whistles innocently as his catfolk samurai continues to sharper his katana*
I have a player who provides a cornucopia of anecdotes for a thread like this.
One of the earliest incidents I recall was after the party found a village that had been raided and burned down by orcs. They found a pile of charred corpses in a burned down ruin and decided to dig graves for them. The party druid (our player in question) transformed into a dire badger for extra digging efficiency and started carving out an area, when suddenly he just decides to burrow under the burned ruin for no apparent reason. Sure enough the structure collapses on top of him and deals a lot of damage. With a few lucky dex rolls and reflex saves he managed to get out alive.
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A new player doesn't value NPC life, or his character's own
What god did this character worship? If it was a good deity, wouldn't he of lost all of his cleric powers immediately after slaying the two guards?
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A new player doesn't value NPC life, or his character's ownWhat god did this character worship? If it was a good deity, wouldn't he of lost all of his cleric powers immediately after slaying the two guards?
Yes. And he did lose them.
......
... he just... never used them. I think he never noticed.
You have to understand, in the heat of the moment, I was just trying to figure out what was happening - I was struggling to understand what was going on and why, for example, he was attacking the guards at all. He mostly just tried to take over the game, I think. He backflipped and attacked before I could really finish explaining the situation, and did a full-round attack (two attacks at once) without ever rolling initiative... but in part that's because I was trying to make this a non-combat encounter and figure out how much to be lenient with a first-time player, and comprehend what, precisely, was going on.
I was really trying to figure if, somewhere along the way, I had somehow indicated aggressiveness or danger in a manner that he thought his actions were justified. And, because I wasn't coming up with having said anything like that, I was just baffled. The other players were horrified at these events, but they immediately reacted to it like it was happening in-game, so it was really difficult for me to even think of retconning it. The events transpired so quickly and horribly that it was difficult to do anything or think anything outside the game, silly as that sounds, as my mind was just scrambling to come up with methods of damage-control for my players and the NPCs and story more than, "WHAT THE HECK, DUDE?!" which was probably the better response.
He worshiped Labelas Enoreth, by the way, a Chaotic Good deity of "time, longevity, moment of choice, and history" - none of which (except in an absurd way, "moment of choice") could have explained the cleric's behavior. I don't think he knew anything other than the name.
He also went from CG to CE immediately after the farmer incident. In fact, I just kind of forgot he had an alignment until after the farmer incident. It was all too surreal.
(Seriously - they were my dice, and, to make matters worse/unquestionable, they were rolled on the table in front of everyone. I've no idea how he kept getting so many 20s.)
If I had it to do all over again, I might have actually asked if he wanted to completely redesign his character as some sort of insane ranger - it wouldn't have changed the story at all, really, but it would have made more sense for his behavior.
(Of course, if I had it to do all over again, I might just have not let him play... although the kobold-sacrifice to the tree of darkness might be worth it... eh... I'd have to think about it.)
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Just last week, my party and I are in a dungeon filled with demonic apes and clerics of Demogorgon. We finish an encounter and then decide to move on. My party leader tells us all to move very quietly and carefully (Stealth checks). I immediately call out, "I start singing to 'inspire competence, +4 everyone.' My whole group just stared at me for like 10 seconds waiting for some sign that I'm joking. Sadly...I'm not. Then it hits me.
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Just last week, my party and I are in a dungeon filled with demonic apes and clerics of Demogorgon. We finish an encounter and then decide to move on. My party leader tells us all to move very quietly and carefully (Stealth checks). I immediately call out, "I start singing to 'inspire competence, +4 everyone.' My whole group just stared at me for like 10 seconds waiting for some sign that I'm joking. Sadly...I'm not. Then it hits me.
DM: "Ok, so who wants first watch?"
Paladin: "I Will!"
DM: "Alright, couple hours pass with nothing in particular happening, however roll perception."
Paladin: "OK"
DM: "What did you get?"
Paladin: "1"
Other players: "DON'T YOU HAVE RANKS IN PERCEPTION!!!!?"
Paladin: Just looks at the rest of the party and goes "Nope."
Lest just say that the party bard BARELY survived the coup-de'-grace from the Pale Stranger that had walked right into the party.
Ohhhhh that can't be THAT strange. With 2+ Int, my Paladin doesn't have any in it either... took 8 points just to get his 'ride' skill to a 0 with his armor/shield...
We joke around a lot that with perception and Initiative... what he rolls is what he gets :D
First session of Dragon's Demand.
A player drew his sword on Lady Origena in the middle of the town square because she refused his proposition of marriage.I just...
I just don't...
How do you even?
I'm very interested to know what the results were.
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Just last week, my party and I are in a dungeon filled with demonic apes and clerics of Demogorgon. We finish an encounter and then decide to move on. My party leader tells us all to move very quietly and carefully (Stealth checks). I immediately call out, "I start singing to 'inspire competence, +4 everyone.' My whole group just stared at me for like 10 seconds waiting for some sign that I'm joking. Sadly...I'm not. Then it hits me.And the silly thing is, this has a precedent.
I was actually expecting something else entirely.
But OotS is pretty awesome too!
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I'm very interested to know what the results were.First session of Dragon's Demand.
A player drew his sword on Lady Origena in the middle of the town square because she refused his proposition of marriage.I just...
I just don't...
How do you even?I'm just hoping that "drew his sword" isn't a euphemism.
Then, again, that might have been far less a threat.
Im hoping she drew hers and proceded to beat the stuffing out of him, but i have my doubts.
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I could tell the following story in a way to make it seem like a "Stupid, Stupid Player Characters!" story, but really, in my opinion, it was awesomely well-played.
This was a 2nd edition D&D Forgotten Realms campaign. We were about 8th level (give or take a level) and overall pretty standard. I remember I was playing a dwarven fighter. I think we had a rogue and a cleric. But it was the wizard that really stood out.
The wizard dressed in red robes and always declared himself as a Red Wizard of Thay where ever we went to whom ever we met. Even though we had never encountered any Red Wizards, in back-stories or in-game. But he enjoyed the fear and awe that it brought to NPCs when he said it.
Add to that, the player playing the wizard kept a journal that was, well, one-sided and made his wizard out to be the heroic savior of the party for every encounter and event and referred to the rest of the party as his "followers" or "worshipers."
So one day we're traveling down a canyon or steep gorge, and up ahead about twenty mounted riders wearing Zhentarim colors and symbols come around a bend. The lead knight commands us to declare ourselves.
My dwarf leans over to our wizard and whispers something like, "play it cool. The Zhents hate Red Wizards, if I remember correctly." (And at least for our campaign the two groups did hate each other).
Our wizard nods at me, then kicks his horse forward a bit and yells, "I am [so-and-so, I forget the character's name], Grand Red Wizard of Thay, Leader of the Hosts of Thaymount, Master of All that I see!"
The Zhentarim draw weapons and the leader starts to say something like, "drop you weapons," when our wizard lobs a fireball into them.
The player is giddy as he rolls his six-siders. The rest of us are horrified. He tallies up the damage, the DM applies it, and...not one of the twenty are killed. Damaged, of course, but all still breathing.
The combat was harsh, several of us were nearly killed, and only because the leader and his two lieutenants fled after killing the rest of the Zhents did we survive.
Our wizard's journal entry for that event read along the lines of "Ungrateful Zhentarim attacked us, but with my mighty fireball I slew them all save their leader who ran screaming down the canyon in fear. My followers fell to their knees, worshiping my greatness!"
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Me: ...then you see the veins on his neck begin to pop up, and his eyes go wide and he sets his sights on you.
*OoC, everyone is aware this cultist is a barbarian, getting ready to charge at Jibs from 30ft away*
Jibs (who is playing an ifrit gunslinger): I want to use my enlarge person SLA on him and make a called shot to his nads.
Me:...
Ignoring the fact that:
1) Enlarge Person is a melee touch spell
2) I do not, as I have to remind him in every one-shot he plays in, use the called shot rules.
3) Enlarge person takes 1 round to cast (he seemed to believe for some reason SLAs were swift actions).
You were planning to increase the damage die of his greatclub to 3d6, give him 10ft reach and give him +2 Strength just so you can make the shot at -2 instead of -5.
Everyone was at 3rd level. Even if this were possible for him to do, the barbarian hadn't taken any damage yet, and they also had a levitating mage and a couple mooks to deal with.
If he missed his Special Snowflake shot, he and half the party might have been killed. Classic Jibs.
Im hoping she drew hers and proceded to beat the stuffing out of him, but i have my doubts.I'm very interested to know what the results were.First session of Dragon's Demand.
A player drew his sword on Lady Origena in the middle of the town square because she refused his proposition of marriage.I just...
I just don't...
How do you even?I'm just hoping that "drew his sword" isn't a euphemism.
Then, again, that might have been far less a threat.
One of her guards power attacked.
He confirmed a critical hit.His head had only bounced three times before the crowd dispersed.