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This didn't happen to my group specifically but was told to me.
Basically the whole party thought a sphere of annihilation was a portal. TPK.
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This didn't happen to my group specifically but was told to me.
Basically the whole party thought a sphere of annihilation was a portal. TPK.
Sounds like several Tomb of Horrors stories I've heard.
"He disappeared."
"Gone?"
"No noise, no flash, nothing."
"Must be a portal. Let's get going before he gets all the loot/gets in over his head."
GM shakes his head....
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Five players, most good roleplayers and fuzzy about all the rules and grind. They're slogging through the guards in a black dragon's lair. It's filled with grab grass, trolls, lots of submerged tunnels forcing you to disarm and swim, and bigger dangers further in.
A few water tunnels in, and the party comes to a troll cave hidden in a secret door. They manage to put down the trolls and are considering what to do... explore the secret cave... or... what are we supposed to do about trolls? Don't they come back or something? Should we burn the bodies?
Well at this point the larper of the group believes he must go out of his way to convince the rest of the players that you do NOT have to burn trolls to prevent them from regenerating, otherwise he thinks he's metagaming, because he knows that but believes his character doesn't (yes, eyeroll). I can get that you want to play that YOU don't know it, but to convince the others that you don't have to burn trolls is taking it too far in the other direction.
The party explores the cave, gets some loot, takes off their armor to go swim through the next submerged tunnel, and lo and behold the trolls have all regenerated and are waiting for them outside the secret cave. Without armor, the fighters are torn to shreds. There's no running, because they're surrounded by submerged water tunnels. Everyone is rent to pieces and eaten. Total. Party. Kill.
"Oh man, I guess you do have to burn trolls huh... LARPER, why did you tell us NOT to?!?"
"Uhh, if I didn't, it would have been metagaming."
groans
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This is a little long, but I think it's worth the read...
I had just joined a gaming group as a DM. They had history as they were the original group. One guy, I'll call him Durp, did several stupids until the others asked him to stop playing. He also had open sores all over him and never stopped scratching... that another reason they asked him to stop coming. Anyway...
1st Stupid: I run games where common sense trumps game rules. They were traveling overland for about a week and he only had one set of clothes. The others had several outfits. We tried to convince Durp to buy more clothes, but he said no. I asked, "what if you get wet?", he said he would just dry them by the fire and sit in his underwear. Whatever. I had an old table for rolling weather. He was rained on a few times. Sat out in the cool night air because he had no need for a tent or bedroll. Then, he lost a couple of points or CON from a spider bite in an old barn. That wasn't him being stupid. Just unlucky. All of that together, caused a few Fort saves (This was right after 3e came out) and Durp failed every one. His character had a cold when they got to the keep and he was pissed.
2nd Stupid: The group had just killed a bunch of hobgoblins in their lair and there was a pot of stew boiling over the cooking fire. Durp asks, "Is it goat's head stew?". I told him, he could see some meat, potatoes and carrots in the thick broth. Durp smiled and said, "I stick my hand in to the bottom". Ignoring the obvious stupid of sticking his hand in food, I reminded him that it was boiling and almost as deep as his arm is. He smiled and said, he does it anyway. He took 3 points of damage (1d6) and asked what was at the bottom. I told him there were a couple of bones. He asked if there was a goat head and I gave him a weird look as the others groaned and kinda put their faces in their hands. Durp said, "Ok because <other player who was usual DM> had some hobgoblins making goat head stew, one time.
3rd Stupid: The group just entered a cave complex used by an evil cult. They saw zombies occasionally exit the cave to toss rocks out. When they snuck in, it was dark, of course, so they dwarf pulled the cloth off his flaming crotch... Actually Continual Flame cast on his belt buckle, but we thought the name we came up with was better. They were walking quietly down the tunnel when Durp suggested he sneak ahead and scout. Being human, he couldn't see in the dark, but when everyone pointed that out, he said he could listen for trouble. So, off he goes into the dark. He stuck to the right wall which branched off without him knowing and he stumbled into a group of zombies. The party heard the commotion and rushed to help. They had to run up the tunnel then down a side passage and when the light fell on Durp, it was 3 zombies beating him while he was laying on the ground, almost dead. Yes, I know what the mental image is and it was still funny.
4th Stupid: The group came across a room full of skeletons. They were standing shoulder to shoulder filling the entire room. They were wearing some found holy symbols that made the undead not attack. Durp (the rogue) bet the dwarven fighter a gold piece that he could tumble out of the room without getting hurt. So... He walked to the opposite side of the room, took off the holy symbol and tossed it across the room to the dwarf. He got to the door at negative something and the dwarf stood in the doorway, clobbering skeletons as the others pulled the bloody rogue out of the room... missing an ear from a critical hit. Which leads to...
5th and last Stupid: They got his head bandaged up and the cleric cast a healing spell, but Durp was still missing an ear. I'm pretty sure, at this point, he was hating me and this campaign. They found came upon a dungeon and from their perspective, there was a woman chained to the wall right around the corner. They could see one shapely leg as she was on the wall right around the corner. They asked her a couple of questions and she replied in a raspy voice, possibly due to lack of water. Somehow they became suspicious and figured out that she was PROBABLY a medusa, so the dwarf swung around the corner with his axe, chopping off the head, while one of the others held a sack right around the corner to catch it. The whole thing was a little weird, but I'm not gonna tell them how to play their characters. Anyway, they really wanted to know if they were right or not, but nobody wanted to look in the sack... except one. Durp volunteered because, if he turned to stone, he trusted the others to use some oil of stone to flesh to save him. So, Durp looked in, failed his save and turned to stone. They were about to put the oil on him, when the cleric (played by a hilarious and mildly crazy guy. You have to treat him like a relaxed drunk) says, "Wait. I can fix his ear". He had stone shape prepared and he was a stone worker. Durp started to protest and I told him he can't say anything because he's stone. He sat and literally pouted. The cleric cast stone shape then he made his roll and came out with a blocky-looking ear with a slight indent on that side of his head. He had to get the material from somewhere. When he saw how it wasn't perfect, he said that he starts over and made a wiping motion with his hand. Let me tell you, I can be a bit of a jerk. The cleric smeared the ear and smoothed out the side of Durp's head, then took a 20 on his craft. He never told me that he cleared out the ear canal after he smeared over it. The end result was a decent looking ear, a slightly misshapen head and a deaf ear.
I used to play with this group of friend like 6 years ago. I had to move to another group because of timings, but they continued. It was only now that I learned that they TPK'd. Wanna know how?
They charged. Head first. Into a Cyclopian military base. Without buffs.
They all Died.
PD
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This didn't happen to my group specifically but was told to me.
Basically the whole party thought a sphere of annihilation was a portal. TPK.
Guilty. I lost a paladin that way.
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While we're on the subject of spheres of annihilation...
GM: There's a carving on the wall in the shape of a demon's head. The mouth is pitch black.
Barbarian: I stick my axe in.
GM: Your axe comes back about a foot shorter.
Barbarian: I stick my hand in.
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Two weeks ago one of my players...
Why is this stupid? They didn't figure out it was also a lich's phylactery.
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"Stupidity is the only universal crime. Its punishment is inevitable and without mercy."
OK, as a GM I don't go for clever or existential traps, they just don't amuse me.
When players still find a way to sabotage themselves, oh well.
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Everyone was outside fighting the magus. I was inside and my only ranged weapon was exotic and I kept missing with it. So I decide to climb through the window to attack with my sword. The DM told me to do an Acrobatics check to see whether or not I provoke an AoO. Guess what I rolled? Guess who the magus attacked on his very next turn? Guess who had to make a new character?
This didn't happen to my group specifically but was told to me.
Likewise Succubus in a grapple
There is also the Head of Vecna.
/cevah
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Last night were were in a dungeon and my character discovered an archway leading into a room that we had been looking for. He could see the lights in the wall sconces in the room clearly but as he was about to go into the room his blindsense indicated that something he could not see was blocking the entire archway in front of him.
Turns out it was a gelatinous cube filling the archway into the room. In character he failed his knowledge roll to know what it was but it was not attacking or anything so he stepped back a few feet and asked the 'lore experts' in the party as (he called them) what it was and how to deal with it.
Long story short, our Magus decided that she would handle it since the rest of us were 'talking too long'. Knowing this magus well my character stepped the hell away from the doorway and hallway that lead to it while she approached it.
Moments later the player targets a fireball at the other end of the room. The the gelatinous cube is filling the doorway of. The gelatinous cube that the is literally 7 feet in front of her character.
So she made her save and only took half damage. But our party cleric (who was next to the magus so he could get a better look at what was in the doorway). The NPC wizard traveling with us and his fox familiar took full damage as well and the familiar was very nearly killed. Oh and the cube died.
Despite KNOWING that it was a gelatinous cube and KNOWING the proper definition of he word gelatinous and KNOWING that the cube was actually BIGGER than the entire archway (hence why it could not come out of the room to get at us) the PLAYER for some reason thought she could shoot the fireball 'past/through' the cube and blow up the fireball on the other side of it.
My character had never facepalmed and laughed till he pee'd himself before. But he did then.
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Your character? Hell, I'd have laughed and peed myself in person.
Hi chuck mount glad to see B2 " keep on the Boarderlands " getting revamped and more use
Thanks, Tony Gent! I'm glad you remembered it. :)
I never actually got a chancre to run it as it was intended in Basic D&D. I was actually able to use it in 2E and 3E, though.
There is also the Head of Vecna.
/cevah
Lol! That one was a great read! Thanks!
That makes me want to create a character obsessed with body modification. Using the SoP system, you can build a Whitesmith who can make personal Enhancements last indefinitely. One of the Enhancements is Animate Object, and one of the construction traits you can apply is Graft, which allows you to animate an arm prosthetic. Whitesmith animates it indefinitely. Another drawback trait you can apply is Abberant, which makes it fleshy.Therefore, you can lose your arm and attach the limb of a creature you have slain in its place! Dragon claw on one side? Legs of the leopard? Done!
I think it would be a neat character, but good luck getting though recruitment with an idea like that :/
^-^
The party finds the Cursed Hoard of the Nibelungs, literally tons upon tons of accursed gold. It is too much to carry away normally, but wait, what if we use Needles of Fleshgraving to carry it all away as tattoos?
A horn dog bloodrager + a disguised green hag sorcerer + a controlled fungal nymph = nearly 20 rounds of a poor decision until death by con damage...
Lol! That one was a great read! Thanks!There is also the Head of Vecna.
/cevah
You're welcome.
PS: I am not Vidmaster7./cevah
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Lol! That one was a great read! Thanks!There is also the Head of Vecna.
/cevah
You're welcome.
PS: I am not Vidmaster7./cevah
No but if you buy old spice body wash you could smell like me!
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I may have just made this list.
I'm playing a 1/2 elf ranger / rogue. We're playing in Rise of the Runelords on a message board game. There are 3 towers with 2 goblins in each. We're making a plan to take out the goblins. The plan I'm running with is, pretending to be a bad 1/2 elf that they have dealings with and we caught. I figure, to goblins, all pink skins look alike. I walk out into the open, yell at them in their own language and say their boss sent me out to give one of them some magic flint and steel that makes big hot fires really fast. Againt goblins, with my trait bonus and favored enemy, I have a +12 bluff. Easy, right? I just rolled a 1 on the dice roller.
Yeah! I made the list!! Wooo Hooo!
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Sorry to disappoint, but your 13 bluff vs. their -1+1d20 sense motive means you still have a good chance to fake them out. They need a 14 or better. If they are Taking-10, as is likely, you probably made the bluff.
Had you taken 10 yourself, then they could not make the sense motive at all.
/cevah
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Also, a bad roll doesn't make you stupid. Dead maybe, but not stupid.
(I doubt that I would have let a player take 10 on this kind of situation in my games.)
Now stupid would be things like the Bagpiper Bard playing his pipes to support the party's Stealth rolls. Really, it happened more than once.
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Now stupid would be things like the Bagpiper Bard playing his pipes to support the party's Stealth rolls. Really, it happened more than once.
*debeverages violently*
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Also, a bad roll doesn't make you stupid. Dead maybe, but not stupid.
(I doubt that I would have let a player take 10 on this kind of situation in my games.)Now stupid would be things like the Bagpiper Bard playing his pipes to support the party's Stealth rolls. Really, it happened more than once.
I'll bet the monsters didn't hear the other PCs over all that racket though...
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(I doubt that I would have let a player take 10 on this kind of situation in my games.)
Why? He was not in imminent danger or distracted by combat.
Unless the goblins shoot everything they see, they would at lease listen to him./cevah
We intruded into a mansion last session. The druid brought us through the stone walls, poisoned meat neutralized the dogs, druid brought us into the house. So far, so good.
The rogue (me) opened doors, knocked out a maidservant (despite horrible rolls), made it to a big door. Ok, the person which we are looking for is likely inside. Open the door! Ugh. Trap. Failed save. Paralyzed. Permanently. On a second thought, a trap at the sleeping chamber totally makes sense, I should have checked for that. The fact that the sorcerer player pointed me to search for traps is also not to be neglected.
I had one ingame day to think about that, while the druid made up plans how to deal with the new statue (paint it, dry clothes on it etc.) and the cleric decided to monologue about his goddess all day while I couldn't escape. Guess I deserved it.
Fun fact: The person was in the room, but protected by a forcefield. The GM railroaded us into 'you need dispel magic to be able to get to her' - and both full casters which could have had the spell didn't. So at the end, my failure was meaningless, we had to retreat either way (were supposed to do this silently).
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1st ed campaign many years ago. Evil party belonging to a dragon worshipping cult that likes to yank the hearts out of sacrifices. The epic leader of said cult is known to have cut out his own heart, and aears open robes to show this fact off. The star of our story figures if this epic high priest can do it, so can I. Oddly the other pcs had no interest in shelling out the gold to raise him.
I still think it makes me a little stupid. I mean... "Goblins are so stupid. I'll just walk out there and tell them to come get this magic flint and steel." *thwip thwip thwip* walks back full of arrows... "Okay. Your plan of just running in and attacking was better."
I didn't realize they had a -1 Sense Motive. I guess, we'll see.......
Yeah, thinking that you can bluff intelligent creatures into thinking that you're a person that they've had numerous recent dealings with just because you're the same race as that guy is, uh, not very likely.
Disguise is still tough, but at least plausible.
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This was circa 1990...
I was at a con, GMing an AD&D 2e tournament game that I'd co-written. The PCs (all pre-generated characters) had made it to the final battle against the Big Bad, a vampire.
This was AD&D, so CR wasn't a thing. In modern terms, it was probably a CR +6 encounter. The vampire was written such that in a toe-to-toe fight, she's almost certainly going to TPK the party, so the PCs need to use positioning, tactics, and creative use of stuff they'd found earlier in the adventure to succeed.
It's been a knock-down, drag-out fight, and the PCs are definitely for the worse at this stage. The cleric is down and bleeding out, and most of the rest of the PCs are low on hp and other resources, while the vampire is wounded but still going strong.
The player of the crossbow-specialist character suddenly remembers the "optional rules in play" section of the player's hand-out: We're using the optional called shots rules from The Complete Fighter's Handbook, which are summarized in the hand-out. So, he declares a called shot for the vampire's heart and rolls... Natural 20!
The vampire goes down. High-fives all around. They manage to bring the cleric back around, and the PCs are celebrating a by-the-skin-of-their-teeth victory, and they'd scored some serious victory points for advancement to the second round.
After collecting the MacGuffin from the vampire and they're leaving the dungeon, the player of the crossbowman says, "I take the crossbow bolt as a souvenir!"
I gesture for everyone to be silent, and look the player right in the eye. "This is important. Do you really want to do that?" The player says, "Yes!"
Vampire wakes up. TPK.
I gesture for everyone to be silent, and look the player right in the eye. "This is important. Do you really want to do that?" The player says, "Yes!"
Vampire wakes up. TPK.
Bloody great story. I'm still laughing about it.
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This was circa 1990...
I was at a con, GMing an AD&D 2e tournament game that I'd co-written. The PCs (all pre-generated characters) had made it to the final battle against the Big Bad, a vampire.
This was AD&D, so CR wasn't a thing. In modern terms, it was probably a CR +6 encounter. The vampire was written such that in a toe-to-toe fight, she's almost certainly going to TPK the party, so the PCs need to use positioning, tactics, and creative use of stuff they'd found earlier in the adventure to succeed.
It's been a knock-down, drag-out fight, and the PCs are definitely for the worse at this stage. The cleric is down and bleeding out, and most of the rest of the PCs are low on hp and other resources, while the vampire is wounded but still going strong.
The player of the crossbow-specialist character suddenly remembers the "optional rules in play" section of the player's hand-out: We're using the optional called shots rules from The Complete Fighter's Handbook, which are summarized in the hand-out. So, he declares a called shot for the vampire's heart and rolls... Natural 20!
The vampire goes down. High-fives all around. They manage to bring the cleric back around, and the PCs are celebrating a by-the-skin-of-their-teeth victory, and they'd scored some serious victory points for advancement to the second round.
After collecting the MacGuffin from the vampire and they're leaving the dungeon, the player of the crossbowman says, "I take the crossbow bolt as a souvenir!"
I gesture for everyone to be silent, and look the player right in the eye. "This is important. Do you really want to do that?" The player says, "Yes!"
Vampire wakes up. TPK.
Why did you silence the other players?
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I'm guessing it was to teach him a lesson. Even though it was a fairly harsh one to the other players.
Why did you silence the other players?
They may or may not have known what would have happened. If they had said something, the crossbowman may have changed his mind. But that is metagame thinking - the character using out of game knowledge that he doesn't have to dictate his actions. If they were in a position to act, that would be different. But from the sounds of it they wern't.
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I'd have silenced them all just so they could bear witness to the astounding silliness of his impending action. I know I would have. The comedic effect would've been wonderful...until the TPK.
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Oh, here's a stupid thing I did back in the 2e days. I was playing a Bounty Hunter (modified from the 1e NPC class to 2e) and we had finally found the location of the MacGuffin. Or so we thought. There was a huge, solid block of stone completely covered in tiny, unrecognizable runes. No seams anywhere around it, so we were stumped as to how to get the prize from the box. The room was lit by a single candle on tall stand. For lack of any better ideas, my character snuffed the candle, plunging the room into total darkness. Then we heard the sound of stone scraping on stone and the vampire leaped out and killed 3 of 5 of us before someone could get a light spell going. The two of us that were still up (luckily I was one of them) and the Cleric managed to kill the vampire, but we barely got out of there with our skins on. Oh, and the MacGuffin wasn't in the sarcophagus, either. We never found it.
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This didn't happen to my group specifically but was told to me.
Basically the whole party thought a sphere of annihilation was a portal. TPK.
Sounds like several Tomb of Horrors stories I've heard.
"He disappeared."
"Gone?"
"No noise, no flash, nothing."
"Must be a portal. Let's get going before he gets all the loot/gets in over his head."
GM shakes his head....
My players did this with an actual portal.
To the Abyss.