So I know that some of us play tabletop RPGs. The kind where a bunch of people get together and do crazy stuff to the greater frustration of their DMs/GMs. It's impossible to meet a new group of people who do this and not share the crazy things we've done/had done to us in the past, so I hereby christen this thread the crazy tabletop RPG story thread! I've played pen and paper style RPGs for something like twelve years now, in a number of different formats, online and offline. For the most part, though, I play with a group of four or five guys who live nearby. Our playgroup has fluctuated a good deal in size and composition over the past nine years or so, we've also done a lot of crazy stuff, which I'll probably talk more about here if the thread takes off (or it might die a horrible death, who knows?) My first story is a, "I can't believe my players did that to me," story and involves the only other person who has been in the group since we first sat down and rolled up (very short lived) Rifts characters way back when. (I know, I know, all Rifts characters are short lived...) As you've probably guessed, I was GM. We were playing DnD 3.5 and, as an experiment, everyone was playing with spellcasters from outside the core rule book. As I recall, we had a beguiler, a dragon shaman and a duskblade. Staging combat was difficult, as their healing was very limited and yet they had enormous attack power and a suite of crazy illusions at their disposal. I had to allow them to use all their powers at least some of the time (thus, no spamming true sight) yet not overpower them with raw melee damage. The campaign plot was a fairly vanilla "don't let the bad guy find items of magic power" with a few twists for flavor. I thought, since combat had to be handled carefully, it might be interesting to stage a magic tournament with a series of regulated duels and healing provided in between rounds. This would give each player a chance to shine in the spotlight, our beguiler fighting cleverly with illusions, dragon shaman pimping out his auras and duskblade just walking over other casters. I had brackets worked out to provide two or three quick, one round fights, one tough fight for each, exciting quarterfinals where one PC might end up fighting another, you get the picture. To tempt them to compete, one of the artifacts they needed was the grand prize. So the guy playing the beguiler hears about the set up and the first thing he asks me is, "Is there going to be betting on this tournament?" I shrug and say, "Yeah, probably." Says he, "I have an idea." That was my first warning sign, but somehow I missed it. So Mr. Beguiler, he goes and sells the party on one of the craziest master plans I've ever heard. To summarize, he wanted to rig the tournament. The party wound up enlisting the aid of the local organized crime group and carefully sabotaging the tournament's refreshments and, in one case, actively poisoning one participant, with a very powerful laxative that ensured some people couldn't concentrate during their matches. They then bet heavily on their chosen person to win, splitting their winnings with the crime group. Then, once the person with the least defended house had taken his prize and hidden it away, they broke in and stole it. Profit was had all around and the PCs left town before a number of wizards with running bowels came looking for them. It was a brilliant plan, but never before (or since) have I had to do what I did when the plan was first laid out and approved by the party. I actually ended the session two hours earlier than normal so I could work out how I was going to respond to an angle from way, way out of left field. I was tempted to just wing it, but that would have been much uglier, I think. As it was, the PCs got to have some fun wheedling the Halfling who ran the crime syndicate over to their side and breaking into the house to steal the book they were after was more in-depth than it would have been had I just winged it. Still, I try to have what I call the "catastrophic side trip" emergency plan in place whenever I DM now. Since the guy who played that beguiler is still in our group, I've found myself glad to have it on more than one occasion.
Well, I'll add my story. In my group of boardgamers, there is one who plays RPGs a lot and he wanted us to play. Since I've some fond memories on my playing, I've decided to join in and the others joined too. I was going to be the DM, so I have prepared an easy adventure for the others, because they have never played any RPGs before. We have gathered together, and then it began. At first I started explaining what is it exactly about, game basics, character creation and everything they need for the beginning. That other guy started to interrupt me with his own explanations (and he even went needlessly deep). Aftere the othdrs created their character, he pulled out a few pre-made characters and chose one which complemented the others. That's all fine and dandy, tough all his characters seemed to have been really lucky on their attribute rolls, not to mention all of them had best suitable race for their class. Well, whatever. Then we have finally started and I have initiated the first interactons and roleplaying between them as well as started the story. Our hyperactive friend was playing a hyperactive halfling thief, which started to annoy the other players a bit, but they acted maturely and dealt with it (our guy is 16 and he is the youngest of us). Then he convinced others to gather more supplies to be ready for anything they may encounter, even though I have said that it will be just an easy adventure, possibly a one-shot, if they won't like it. When describing, I was intentionally ambiguous, because their characters have no special knowledge, yet our friend was spoiling many things. After the session ended, the others told me that it was fun, one told me that our guy was ruining it a bit. Since then I am very reluctant to play with him again, he even wanted to be the DM. I hope that I will find some munchkin-unfriendly RPG system the others will like. FATE looks like a good candidate, that may be fun even for the rest of the party.
One thing that helps with Munchkin'ism is using a point buy system for character creation. It levels the playing field a bit so you don't have one guy with all maxed out attributes. My gaming group started using it after too many games with a munchkin player and we all rather enjoy it. We kicked him out of the gaming group for unrelated reasons but we still use the point buy system. On the other hand Munchkins will still be Munchkins so your mileage may vary. Note: My gaming group typically plays DnD. We've recently switched over to Pathfinder which is kind of like 3.75. Occasional RIFTS games have been known to occur however.
It's like that in my group, too. We use the point buy system for everything and not just the start, though, seeing as we don't play any RPGs with character levels. Add to that the fact that points are given for actually accomplishing something (so the guy who spent a day trying to decipher some code is going to get more points for using his character's [and his own, by extension] intellect than the one who swung his sword five times is going to get for using strength), and that the starting points are determined by the character's backstory, and voilà, it's difficult to play a character that munchkins like to use (not to mention that we don't have the munchkin issue, but that is because of a whole different reason).
On a more positive note: A few years ago I had a regular RPG group, we all had our go at being GM for one adventure or another. Mostly we played Vampire: the Masquerade. One adventure stands out as particularly strange. We were investigating a strange house. We'd walk around, note portraits on the walls, etc. But the walls/doors seemed to move if you did some things, basically the whole house was a puzzle, we figured out that we needed to move some paintings in the correct order to open the way to what we needed. It was very sureal, and the GM summed up his inspiration for it with one made-up composite word. "Vicissihouse"(vicissi from vicissitude, a vampire ability that can reshape people). One of my most fun GMing experiences include roleplaying with a first-time werewolf: the apocalypse group(all veteran V:tM players). I took them through adventures in the Umbra where they earned their starting gifts. Often in slapstick fashion. A good time was had by all, and it was a good introduction to werewolf if I do say so myself, since it got them acquianted with their gifts, with dealing with spirits, and with the umbra. An example is that the group shaman(crescent moon) got one of this gifts by first being asked by a spirit of an owl to help it catch a mouse, which he did, then the skeleton of the dead mouse showed it its litter of babies, and had him care for them, and at the end he realised the mouse spirit had given him a gift of healing.
Let's see, I was the ST and did a prelude for one of the players. I guess what made it curious was that he just kinda sucked at roleplaying/making decisions. I made a NPC vampire who was stalking the player's human around, and the npc saved his butt a few times and also turned out to be the anonymous donor who's been funding his college education. And NPC vampire also told the guy that he cared for him after saving his butt. Guy: "He's gay for me isn't he." Me: "No, he's not." His character's NPC gf in a strange turn of events tries to kill him and the NPC vampire turns his character into a vampire because he's about to die. Even after the NPC gf nearly murders him, she still manages to convince the player to kill the NPC vampire. The guy is about to stake the vampire. Me: Are you SURE you want to kill him? Guy: Hell yeah! He's gay for me! Me: You don't know that! And he just saved your life TWICE! Guy: Well, I go to his casket and then I stab him with the candlestick. And then set him on fire. Me: I'll ask one more time. Are you sure? Guy: Yes! Positive! My character's straight as a rod! Me: *Facepalm* Okay. -later on- Me: You stumble upon a small, private room, and the walls are covered with your mother's photos and pictures of you since you were an infant. Suddenly, the realization strikes you: the vampire you killed was your father. Guy: AW SHIT! I thought he was gay for me! Me: *megafacepalm* Also the guy had a dilemma in game, he had to choose between rushing back to SJ to donate his bone marrow to his sick infant brother or staying in New Orleans for some pressing issues. Guy: I don't know... oh god this is hard. Okay. I cut off my finger, keep it frozen, and send it to my family back in SJ. Yeah.
You know it's a bad idea when the DM/ST asks "are you sure...?" You know it's an epic-grade bad idea if the word "really" is included in that question. Our group's ST policy is that there is no moratorium on handing players rope. Eventually they'll have enough to string up not only themselves, but a good portion of the NPC cast as well... ...however, since I know at least one of the players reads this forum, details will have to wait until the Plot moves on.
My group had rolled up some level 2 characters for a DnD campaign that sadly never ended up happening...but while we were waiting for it to [not] start, one of us had some coworkers who let us "guest star" in their level 10+ campaign. Important characters: Me - lvl 2 dwarf druid "Shiny" - lvl 2 ranger, guy had never played DnD before this Kronk - lvl 10+ Orc Barbarian, 20+ str <4 int as usual. Gave "Shiny" his nickname because he wore a chain shirt. Jerkwad - lvl 10+ elf mage/thief of some sort. others, some lvl 2 some 10+ We met in a tavern (heyo!), since they had just finished looting a dragon lair and wanted to rest up before continuing their investigation of a Drow plot of some sort. Kronk orders his usual keg, makes friends with Shiny, and gets in a friendly drinking contest with my dwarf, with a "small" wager of like 6000 gold for him, a few hundred for me. I proceed to roll 18, 17, 18 while he gets 3, 2, 3; there is now an orc under the table and a rich dwarf above the table! Jerkwad pickpockets me before I can spend it; I fail to roll the 37 or whatever needed to spot it. Shiny annoys the local thieves/assassins guild, but they're scared of Kronk (who is awake again). After we leave the tavern, Jerkwad slips off to ask them how much they would pay for a tied-up Shiny delivered to their doorstep. Remember this is Shiny's first game of DnD ever. We leave town, and notice some rustling in the bushes on the side of the road, prompting the following: Jerkwad: "Psst, Kronk, throw something at those bushes" Me (instantly): "I STEP AWAY FROM KRONK." *a second passes* Rest of table: "I STEP AWAY FROM KRONK!" Jerkwad: "-WAY FROM Iiiiiii'm the last person to step away from Kronk aren't I?" Kronk: "KRONK THROW SOMETHING!" Jerkwad: "I MEANT A RRROOOOOooooooocccccckkkkkkkkk....." DM: *grabs a fistful of dice* "What's your AC?" Jerkwad: *says a low number* DM: *rolls* "Fort Save?" Jerkwad: *says a lower number, voice cracking* DM: *rolls* "HP?" Jerkwad: *says a number consisting of multiple d4s with a racial Con penalty* DM: *rolls* "Well while you're flying through the air, 6 poisoned crossbow bolts hit you. You are unconscious, poisoned, and paralyzed...and THEN you hit the ground.... *rolls* Wow lookit all those 1's. You survive at -8." Bard saved him darnit
I remember the one time when I had to reply "I can't really say 'no' this time, you know". My GM looked at the party, sighed, and said "I guess not" dully. What happened next was a really rough ride, but my character actually survived. Just remember, sons, if you need to use HP-casting to use a spell that has to be cast or else your character dies, something went wrong when you woke up that day. Also, forgetting about semi-permanent shield spell cast three hours ago that wasn't triggered by chance and then remembering about it after you looked at your character sheet out of boredom is a great way to surprise the GM. And getting to the stories themselves, there's this particular bit that I remember now (I'll look for my game blooper archive when I have more time): The party at that time was a rather craft-centred group, there being a blacksmith (player A), healer/herbalist (player B), tinkerer (player C), and a crossbowyer (player D). The last character was busy doing some other stuff that involved taking part in a coup d'etat, so characters A and C went to character B's workshop. Character C: "So do you have your own waterfall in your house?" Character A: "Why would you ask her that? It's a normal house, not some jungle shack." Character C: "Because she's, you know, natural."
got a simpler story for you guys. In the younger days of my group, when we were more careless than we were of late, our party opened a room which was empty except for a pedestal in the center. This pedestal had some obvious 'magic' items on it. They showed up as magical too when detected for. The thief didn't bother to look for traps, and so when the goods were grabbed, a pressure plate caused a large hatch to open, causing a ceiling-full of green slime to swamp the room. The End. edit: even bigger irony - the items were fakes, all made so by a Nystul's magical aura cast on them.
Our group has gained a new tradition: Accidental Imposterdom. 1) Show up in exactly the right place and time to be mistaken for someone else, 2) Inadvertently behave in a way that doesn't contradict the NPC misconception, 3) Bluff through the results, 4) Receive dangerous and/or contraband item intended for someone who is not them. The first time this happened was when they were attempting an object retrieval and were discussing the various magical and mundane methods they could steal it, when one got the bright idea of just knocking on the door and saying "Hi". Nobody was more surprised than him that it actually worked...
I remember it once happened to my group. Only the "contact" mistook our group for another one because he was kind of in a hurry (being chased and stuff) and the other group left them with a description which also matched our group by accident. Only we ended up becoming collaborators in a kidnapping instead. And the very moment we noticed that, it was too late to go back because the group which we "impersonated" ended up chasing us.
They got two big bags of trouble the first time it happened. When they went back to demand an explanation, they got given Bag Of Trouble #3 instead. The in-character debate as to whether they should go back to the guy a third time is ongoing. The joys of setting the NPCs' timetables in advance...
