Blowing Up A Game In A Good Way

[HelloChristian]

Have you ever witnessed a PC disrupt a campaign in a good way? I'm wondering about masterful betrayals, spectacular deaths and other amazing flameouts.

Here's mine. I was playing a wizard who was very close to the half-orc fighter in our group. The half-orc had saved my skin on many, many occasions. He was my best friend. During a nasty alley fight, we got separated. I survived, but he was ambushed by a grimlock and slain. (Speaker in Dreams adventure)

That same session, another player was introducing a new character, a bard.

My wizard rounds the corner to see my half-orc companion dead in the alley. Over his body was the new character - the bard - going though his pockets. It was the classic, "Bob's character is dead. What can I loot?"

But my wizard didn't know this. He was offended at the way the half-orc was being violated, so he let loose with a fireball that knocked the bard down to 1 hp. The person playing the bard was very upset. I replied, "In this adventuring company, we honor our dead. We don't loot them.

It all worked out in the end (the fellow playing the bard was a life-long friend), but I stand by my IC actions.

Now share your take with me. How have you disrupted your game, but in a "good" way?

 

[justanobody]

That's what kenders were made for. The PC conflicts make for some good strong storiy elements.

There has been so many in my games, picking one isn't possible. Looting similar to yours but a paladin being offended, it made the group stronger in the end to better work together things and know the characters and players more as to what they were wnating out of the game.

I am curious what became of your half-orc friend?

 

[HelloChristian]

I am curious what became of your half-orc friend?

The half-orc was buried in a nearby forest. An impressive magic sword that we wielded - Shatterspike - was buried by his side. He cam back with a spiked chain fighter, who eventually got torn apart by a massive, four-armed gorilla thing.

Oh well.

The bard continued to be an xp leach throughout the campaign.

 

[justanobody]

So there was no intent for the half-orc to return, just your compassion for the friendship that brought it on.

I would say that was a good game to have that much character depth/ties!

 

[HelloChristian]

So there was no intent for the half-orc to return, just your compassion for the friendship that brought it on.

I would say that was a good game to have that much character depth/ties!

Thanks, man. I hardly ever get a chance to run a PC, so when I do...I go for it!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

1) A high level campaign back in 1988 or so- what we'd call "epic" today- the party is about to ambush a group of undead (a lich, a deathknight and others) in a wooded area in an evil demiplane.

The party "Übermage" is getting ready to launch his biggest, baddest fireball. My Drow Rgr/Dru/M-U says "If you launch a fireball in this forest, its the last thing you'll ever do..." That made him think...was I serious? Then he cast lightning bolt instead.

2) A supers campaign- nobody has been introduced, but everyone gets "the call" that there is a break-in at a particular warehouse. My PC (a "brick" named Omega) arrives just in time to see a costumed figure lurking about...and attacks! The martial arts/skill monkey evades my blows long enough to reveal that he's attempting to find the bad guys...

Omega doesn't speak English.

The fight continues- Omega simply can't tag the guy, and he can't even scratch Omega. Finally, other heroes- ones Omega recognize- arrive and break up the fight. However, the commotion allowed the burglars to escape, so we had to track them down.

3) Bear was a great fighter. Maxed out Str, Dex and Con and max HP for several levels. He also had an Int, Wis and Cha that added up to 18. He was manipulated mercilessly by the party thief who befriended him, then hid behind him after stealing from the party or otherwise causing problems. Eventually, the thief stole something important- City Watchmen poured out of barracks like fire-ants from a toppled mound. As the party ran for their lives, the thief asked Bear to do what he always did- "Protect me!"

Bear stopped at the middle of the bridge they were crossing in their escape. He turned and faced the Watchmen, and started mowing them down. After many rounds of combat, Bear was killed and thrown into the river, but the party escaped.

After a few Wanted posters appeared, so did the thief. He was hanging from a tree (by his neck), the stolen item at his feet, and a notation on a Wanted poster that the reward money be spent to bury Bear properly.

 

[grendel1968]

I think my favorite was years ago, when DM-ing a Planescape campaign for which I had tweaked the Rod of Seven Parts boxed set. The character group included a water genasi, an earth genasi, an aasimar, and a half elf, among others. One day on a lark, they decided they were all half-siblings, the children of some kind of very charismatic inter-planar door to door salesman. We ran with it, introduced more sibling NPC's, included a side plot to unite the family and try and find Dad...

The clincher came at the end when the water genasi cleric, having quietly and patiently researched means to become a lich throughout the entire campaign, absconded with the rod of seven parts and got her wish, becoming a near-immortal lich. The siblings were furious. I nearly had to DM an interplanar quest for the aasimar paladin half-brother to locate her phylactery and then her, but he realized that the rest of the family didn't support him...

Tempers ran hot that day, and the cleric and paladin, friends of years, nearly created an in-character vedetta that could only be expiated by death.

But it all worked out....