Do You Keep Any "Guiness Book of Records" Records In Your Game?

[Hypersmurf]

I Maximized a Lightning Bolt the hard way, once...

-Hyp.

 

[Lanefan]

We keep records of nigh-everything...what characters came in/died/retired in which adventure; when those adventures were, what adventures each PC has been in, etc.

We also keep Guinness-like records, of both the in-game and meta-game variety; here are some from 25+ years at this:

VARIOUS:
All-time highs and lows for each stat;
Most PCs, players, etc. in the same party;
Most PCs played by one player simultaneously/overall
Highest level reached by player/by class
Longest adventuring career by player/by class

COMBAT:
Damage records, personal and overall
Lowest h.p. reached by melee (-80?)/by anything (-256, and it was my character!)
Most deaths/fumbles simultaneously/in a round/in a combat
Longest combat (38 rounds; a single PC fighting her own clone)

ODDBALL:
Most gender changes, one PC (6)
Shortest/longest death-raise cycle (5 seconds/several years)
Oldest (510+ years)/youngest (11 years) PC

Lanefan

 

[Voadam]

For a while we kept track of records for damage done and damage taken.

I remember the dwarf cleric/fighter winning for damage inflicted with a wall of fire on a large line of mohrgs who were carrying flammable bombards of one type.

Our elven straight fighter archer ruled in the full attack on one opponent category.

The dwarf won for most with one shot when he critted with his two handed warhammer while full power attacking and buffed on righteous might.

I think the arcane trickster suffered the most from one shot at one point when a dreadwraith nailed him for 8 con damage.

It was fun and kept changing as the campaign continued and the PCs became higher level. We stopped doing it a number of years ago though.

 

[Gez]

In an Ars Magica game I play in, the GM keeps track of all skill rolls where we get 18+ on the die. (You know how the Ars Mag die works: if, in a stress roll, you get a 1, you reroll and double the result. Every time you roll another 1 on your reroll, then you double again and reroll again, etc.)

She thus keeps a log of extraordinary successes. It's not exactly a guiness book but it's somewhat similar.

 

[Hypersmurf]

We had a fighter in the party in 1E who was rolled with an 18 Constitution.

By the time I moved cities and had to leave the group, his Con was 10.

Someone once tried to imagine his eventual tombstone: "Here lies Zob. Born XXXX. Died: Died: Died: Died: Died:..."

-Hyp.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

We had a fighter in the party in 1E who was rolled with an 18 Constitution.

By the time I moved cities and had to leave the group, his Con was 10.

Someone once tried to imagine his eventual tombstone: "Here lies Zob. Born XXXX. Died: Died: Died: Died: Died:..."

-Hyp.

I hadn't imagined a PC rather than a player holding the record for most deaths! Was he just unlucky or did me make a lot of silly mistakes?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Hypersmurf]

I hadn't imagined a PC rather than a player holding the record for most deaths! Was he just unlucky or did me make a lot of silly mistakes?

Mostly unlucky, I think.

At the end of Castle Amber, the PCs were each presented with a gift deemed most suitable. Zob was given a Ring of Regeneration, which subsequently accounted for about five of his returns. Oddly enough, when the ring got drained in the Ghost Tower of Inverness, Zob stopped dying...

One evening, the player got called into work. "Look after Zob!" he told everyone else.

When he got back a few hours later, he asked "How did it go?"
"Um... you died."
"Oh."
"Um... twice."

He had Boots of Levitation and a Wisdom of about 4... so as a fighter, his Save vs mind-affecting Spells was abysmal. A devil that had been stalking us had seen Zob use his boots, and when it decided to attack us, it hit Zob with a Suggestion - "Why don't we take the fight up there, where it's less crowded?" Naturally, Zob failed his save. Of course, the flying devil was fine, but Zob suffered all the penalties for combat while levitating, and wasn't doing so well... so we all tried to help.

The ranger shot a +4 arrow, the magic-user cast a lightning bolt, and the dwarven fighter contributed another lightning bolt from his hammer. All of them, alas, missed the devil... and all of them hit Zob...

On another occasion, the party was swarmed by ghouls in an underground cavern. After a couple of rounds, everyone but Zob was unconscious or paralyzed... and there were still a whole lot of ghouls. In desperation, he broke a Wand of Fireballs, and it was judged that all the remaining charges detonated.

Some hours later, Zob's ring brought him back to life, and he looked around at a cavern full of charred bodies. And spent the next couple of days hunting out ring fingers, putting the ring on them, and waiting to see if it was a PC that started to regenerate...

-Hyp.

 

[rgard]

Most horrifying death definitely sounds interesting!

Olaf the Stout

Ok, here you go...

The PCs are in a desert town doing an urban fight with minions of the BBEG. One of the minions summons up a death scarab swarm for battlefield control and sicks it after the player's rogue. Rogue manages to stay away from the swarm (same movement rate without running.) Minion only has a clear shot on the moving rogue and lobs a bisection plane spell at the rogue. Bisection Plane is a high level spell adapted from an old late 70s/early 80s frpg supplement that makes a five foot radius plane (parallel to the ground) that cuts through everything. The plane is adjustable from 3" to 3' off the ground. If you are in the area of effect it's a reflex save or your bits are separated from the rest of your bits at whatever height the caster decides. Rogue fails his reflex save...yep. The minion caster set the height at 6" and the rogue loses both his feet. The death scarab swarm continues to move towards him.

I ask the player, "What is your character doing?"

He responds, "I'm crawling to the closest building and will try to climb up it."

I ask, "Are you taking your feet with you?"

He responds, "Yes, I put them in my backpack and crawl to the wall."

Edit: I forgot the part when the other players yell at the rogue player to throw his feet at the swarm as it may slow the swarm down if they pause to eat. He ignores them.

5 rounds of movement later, his character finally gets to the wall and fails his climb check; the swarm arrives and attacks. The character fails his save (rolls a 1) and is 'distracted.' Once distracted, the swarm enters the body and begins to consume the rogue. I read the part in the monster description that says that the swarm enters through orifices adding, "and the swarm has the additional advantage of entering through your two stumps."

For me, the horrifying part of this was when he took his feet with him. Kind of sadly horrific, and of course his reduced movement rate while the swarm closed in was tense. It was a big melee and the 5 rounds for the swarm to catch him lasted probably 20 minutes real time. There was no doubt in anybody's mind (accept maybe the player of the rogue) that he was toast.

Same player had the 2nd most horrific death. His wizard was beaten to death by goblin children wielding small baseball bats (you know, the kind you get on 'Bat Day' at your local baseball game.) One hp of damage per round to the captured and tied up wizard while the wizard screamed for help from her party members. Wizard started with 4 hp and lasted exactly 14 rounds all the way to -10.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Lanefan]

We had a fighter in the party in 1E who was rolled with an 18 Constitution.

By the time I moved cities and had to leave the group, his Con was 10.

Someone once tried to imagine his eventual tombstone: "Here lies Zob. Born XXXX. Died: Died: Died: Died: Died:..."

We've had lots of characters and lots of death over time, but nobody's managed yet in our crew to die 8 times. There's about 5 of 'em tied at 7 deaths, however...

And we've had some deaths in unusual circumstances:

Dying while in a dream (numerous occasions of this)
Dying while in an illusion (similar, except you don't get to wake up)
Having already died and been buried, coming back to life via someone's wish while still buried and promptly dying again of suffocation.

But the best one of all:

Dying (twice!) while already dead.

I can explain this one if anyone's interested, but it's a long story...

Lanefan

 

[Rabelais]

Same player had the 2nd most horrific death. His wizard was beaten to death by goblin children wielding small baseball bats (you know, the kind you get on 'Bat Day' at your local baseball game.) One hp of damage per round to the captured and tied up wizard while the wizard screamed for help from her party members. Wizard started with 4 hp and lasted exactly 14 rounds all the way to -10.

I see you've been to Fenway on Dollar Beer / bat night...