L
lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
This didn't derail the game, it's also in-game rather than meta, but it still makes me shake my head. Most of my table is completely new to, or very inexperienced with RPGs. The one experienced player, unfortunately, had to recently leave the group, otherwise this never would have happened.
So the characters bid adieu to the cleric that the experienced player ran and need to get from City A to City B, 800 miles away, across the sparely inhabited grasslands. I figure we'll do a session of travel (we have 3-hour sessions). The players spend over an hour in real time preparing for the journey. I tried nudging them along a couple of times, but they really enjoyed the planning. Oddly, the thought that horses would be a good idea, was the last thing they thought of. So after 2/3 of session they set off on their 3 riding horses and a pony (for the gnome warlock). They even add a warhorse after a brief encounter with some brigands.
At the start of the next session, when they get near the coast, just for some color, they encounter patches of quicksand. Their passive perception fails and the gnome and pony walk right into some quicksand and after rolling badly, (something this player does constantly due to his steadfast refusal to stop using dice that must be weighted rather unfavorably) he and his pony sink like a stone. The monk throws a rope to the gnome. The monk, while mounted, tries to pull the gnome free from the quicksand, using just her arms. This fails and the gnome disappears under the quicksand. The monk then ties the rope to her saddle and uses the horse to drag the gnome free. Fortunately, because of the extra horse, the gnome still has a mount.
The players decide that the bard will now lead, and tie a rope around him for safety. (You see where this is going, right?) The bard fails a perception roll and walks into more quicksand. He tries to turn the warhorse around and rolls for the horse but botches… badly (a 0.5% chance at our table). The horse breaks its leg, but the bard is easily rescued do to the aforementioned safety rope. The bard player asks if he can use his sword to probe the ground, and I say “certainly”. At this point the gnome player realizes he has a staff that would be quite useful here.
So they lose a pony and a warhorse, but gain valuable experience regarding marshy terrain. The gnome now shares the bard’s mount.
Fast forward to the end of the session. They’ve picked up an emaciated escaped slave who begs them to take him back to City B, where he escaped from. (He’s afraid of the monsters and is starving in the wilderness and life was much better as a kitchen slave.) The party randomly encounters some griffons. I glance at the MM, and notice the text says they like to eat horses. None of us had realized just how much the players had leaned on the cleric during combat. The encounter should not have been a difficult, especially as the party was rested. Due to poor tactics, the griffons start wearing the characters down and the characters are doing almost nothing in return. The bard and warlock fall off their horse, so I use the opportunity to thin the ranks of the opponent. One of the griffons grabs the horse and flies away, followed by another. This doesn’t improve things. By the end of the encounter the players are all making death saves (none die), their horses are gone, and there’s an escaped slave in the middle of it all wondering, WTF?
Epilogue: The slave died in the next session after another particularly bad encounter. The monk player said that at least he was able to die with a full belly. To which the warlock player replied, “A belly full of arrows.”
So the characters bid adieu to the cleric that the experienced player ran and need to get from City A to City B, 800 miles away, across the sparely inhabited grasslands. I figure we'll do a session of travel (we have 3-hour sessions). The players spend over an hour in real time preparing for the journey. I tried nudging them along a couple of times, but they really enjoyed the planning. Oddly, the thought that horses would be a good idea, was the last thing they thought of. So after 2/3 of session they set off on their 3 riding horses and a pony (for the gnome warlock). They even add a warhorse after a brief encounter with some brigands.
At the start of the next session, when they get near the coast, just for some color, they encounter patches of quicksand. Their passive perception fails and the gnome and pony walk right into some quicksand and after rolling badly, (something this player does constantly due to his steadfast refusal to stop using dice that must be weighted rather unfavorably) he and his pony sink like a stone. The monk throws a rope to the gnome. The monk, while mounted, tries to pull the gnome free from the quicksand, using just her arms. This fails and the gnome disappears under the quicksand. The monk then ties the rope to her saddle and uses the horse to drag the gnome free. Fortunately, because of the extra horse, the gnome still has a mount.
The players decide that the bard will now lead, and tie a rope around him for safety. (You see where this is going, right?) The bard fails a perception roll and walks into more quicksand. He tries to turn the warhorse around and rolls for the horse but botches… badly (a 0.5% chance at our table). The horse breaks its leg, but the bard is easily rescued do to the aforementioned safety rope. The bard player asks if he can use his sword to probe the ground, and I say “certainly”. At this point the gnome player realizes he has a staff that would be quite useful here.
So they lose a pony and a warhorse, but gain valuable experience regarding marshy terrain. The gnome now shares the bard’s mount.
Fast forward to the end of the session. They’ve picked up an emaciated escaped slave who begs them to take him back to City B, where he escaped from. (He’s afraid of the monsters and is starving in the wilderness and life was much better as a kitchen slave.) The party randomly encounters some griffons. I glance at the MM, and notice the text says they like to eat horses. None of us had realized just how much the players had leaned on the cleric during combat. The encounter should not have been a difficult, especially as the party was rested. Due to poor tactics, the griffons start wearing the characters down and the characters are doing almost nothing in return. The bard and warlock fall off their horse, so I use the opportunity to thin the ranks of the opponent. One of the griffons grabs the horse and flies away, followed by another. This doesn’t improve things. By the end of the encounter the players are all making death saves (none die), their horses are gone, and there’s an escaped slave in the middle of it all wondering, WTF?
Epilogue: The slave died in the next session after another particularly bad encounter. The monk player said that at least he was able to die with a full belly. To which the warlock player replied, “A belly full of arrows.”
Last edited:
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
A game where every character is based off of 80s sitcoms sounds like it’d be a hoot!
The worst gaming experience I played through was probably one when I was getting back into the hobby after a break in the mid-90s. The DM had my character raped within the first few minutes, then at the end we all died in a TPK because we never thought to dig in the dirt to find the weapon that could hurt the monster.
And then they made me their king (actually, just asked me to DM and never let the other guy back behind the screen).
I’ve rarely had a gaming experience go completely pear-shaped out of nowhere; it seems to me that with the worst ones, something is off from the get-go.
The worst gaming experience I played through was probably one when I was getting back into the hobby after a break in the mid-90s. The DM had my character raped within the first few minutes, then at the end we all died in a TPK because we never thought to dig in the dirt to find the weapon that could hurt the monster.
And then they made me their king (actually, just asked me to DM and never let the other guy back behind the screen).
I’ve rarely had a gaming experience go completely pear-shaped out of nowhere; it seems to me that with the worst ones, something is off from the get-go.
L
lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
Sword of Spirit
Legend
Bring on the hunger and plastic caltrops, but please do not make me endure any of those other calamities.
Herobizkit
Adventurer
Rules arguments infuriate me as a player, especially when it's during a session.
But noting infuriated me more than wasting a night of RP which was promised to be "a well-thought out adventure with a DM who's known for his deep stories and plots" and presented with "a castle full of Death Knights because they're cool"... and only one character of the seven of us had a magic weapon. The Paladin. BY DM DESIGN.
In short, the adventure was centered around the Palaldin character. In shorter short, the Paladin DIED during one of the earliest fights, and the only, ONLY reason why ANY of us got out alive was because my old gaming buddy rolled a 2e Elven Bladesinger. *snerk*
But noting infuriated me more than wasting a night of RP which was promised to be "a well-thought out adventure with a DM who's known for his deep stories and plots" and presented with "a castle full of Death Knights because they're cool"... and only one character of the seven of us had a magic weapon. The Paladin. BY DM DESIGN.
In short, the adventure was centered around the Palaldin character. In shorter short, the Paladin DIED during one of the earliest fights, and the only, ONLY reason why ANY of us got out alive was because my old gaming buddy rolled a 2e Elven Bladesinger. *snerk*
Great stuff.
L
lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
TwoSix
Everyone's literal second-favorite poster
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
We had a brand new player to RPGs. She made a male character who was a bit of a ladies man. First city we got into she runs into a dwarven woman at a bar and slept with her. DM rolled and "oh look, her father is the high priest of some god" and "oh look, he uses a house-rules divine intervention to turn you into a dwarf and force you to marry her now that you've despoiled her".
Player never came back.
Player never came back.
Similar Threads
- Poll
- Poll
