Running gags

[Thasmodious]

So with threads popping back up on memes and game slang and the like, I thought it might be fun to share some running gags, in-jokes, and other around the table, group specific, shenanigans. We might run into some "guess you had to be theres", but it's worth a shot.

I've told this story here before, but it's a good one to kick things off I think:

The other one who DMs in my group is rather descriptive, and in kind of an odd stream of consciousness way. He seems to basically describe what he sees when he looks around his imagination rather than write and read or use established gaming or literary conventions. "There are pillars, the walls are stone, and old, dripping, there is a chest on the floor in the corner, and birds in a cage, making noise, and..." The effect is quite good. However, occasionally the stream of consciousness produces some unfortunate results. A few years ago he attempted to describe for us a group of frost giants that were particularly tall and particularly evil as such:

"These frost giants are unusually huge, you could walk casually between their legs. They have an evil, corrupted taint."

This is still a recurring in-joke, where we often follow up comments about something's evilness or goodness with "but what's their taint like?". Or asking, after an enemy gunslinger was dehorsed and flat on his back, legs up in the air, "can you describe his taint?"

 

[billd91]

It's out of character table talk, but for many years it simply wasn't Thursday night gaming unless the f-word came up. And not the 4-letter one either.
In the interests of being Grandma-friendly, I'll leave it there.

 

[Thasmodious]

Fomorians?

 

[Scott DeWar]

no, frost giants, with an evil corrupted taint!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

No one expects the Halfling Inquisition!

 

[TheUltramark]

This could also fall under a thread titled "most embarassing thing you did as a dm"
one of our core group guys was running from a giant (I did NOT think to describe the taint) and he wanted to climb a tree to escape the giantly gruesomeness, I really wanted him NOT to climb a tree, and in my frustration I said no you can't - which is ridiculous, he was an elf thief, he cold climb it with one hand tied behind his back. So I let him climb the tree...but to make it possible for my guy to still attack, I said the tree was only 15 feet tall. All the trees were 15 feet tall.
That was 20 years ago and I still take heat for it to this day. Anytime the size of something comes into question the first answer is always 15 feet - followed uproariously laughter.

 

[Diamond Cross]

Miniature giant space hamster was one of ours.

But it does get really old saying the same joke over and over.

 

[Thasmodious]

Heh, I have an eerily similar tale. The PCs were ambushed in a mountain pass once, and I described the bridge they needed to cross as "spanning a chasm". Chasm was a bad word choice, as it was really just a ravine and bit of the set decoration and not meant to be a yawning, bottomless death pit. It was really a ravine, about 30 feet down, with snow at the bottom. I neglected to describe this ravine with any dimensions or as anything other than a "chasm". So they had a much different mental image than I did, until one of them was knocked off the bridge, fell 30', landed in the snow and took 2d6 damage (they were around lvl 8 in 3e). I am still given grief about this all the time. If I describe something as expansive or large in scale, they say "like a chasm?" or some such.

This culminated when a few of us took our kids to the theater to see The Golden Compass. Late in the movie, Lyra is crossing a bridge spawning a chasm that disappeared into darkness. One of the players, loud enough for much of the theater to hear, said "Hey Thas, see that? THAT'S a chasm!"

 

[billd91]

One of my long-time fellow players used to ask the question "Why can't we do that in your adventures, <name of current GM here>?" whenever watching a movie and something cool happens onscreen. Of course, plenty of cool things used to happen in campaigns we played, but he had fun needling GMs with it.

It was telling that the question didn't come up once, not once, when they went to go see the D&D movie.

 

[Iron Sky]

One of the oldest ones that still comes up most sessions we play D&D is from our first 2e campaign. In the campaign, the BBEG had a group of deathknights as his generals. I had made this decision without actually looking at deathknights, and when I finally did I noticed they had swords that shot fireballs... 20d6 fireballs to be exact.

As the group was gathered in the heart of the keep they'd built, discussing what to do with the ancient artifact they'd just gone to extreme effort (and a few PC deaths) to get, when said BBEG walked in.

The smart PCs ran away with the relic while the others rushed in. Handily being immune to fire, the BBEG took the sword he'd swiped from one of his death knights, pointed it at his feet, and set off a fireball. I described this, then looked at my dice.

I gathered up all the d6s I had - 15, which was a considerable handful - then looked up at the suddenly pale players and said "I need more d6s". Two PCs died instantly and a few more did in the combat afterward before fleeing.

12 years later, if someone needs another dice, they always say or a DM notices a monster has a powerful attack, they say "I need more d6s".