Gaming Hoaxes
- Thread starter Mark CMG
- Start date
Nightchilde-2
First Post
I've got the "hidde changeling" thing going on in my Eberron game right now. This player has also managed to keep her character's infernal past (she's a warlock and is going to take some fiendish trait feats soon) hidden as well.
In one of my FR games, a character convinced the LG cleric to read the Book of Vile Darkness (though admittedly, neither the player nor the character knew that's what it was). End result was a dead LG cleric.
In one Exalted game I ran, an Abyssal PC managed to win the trust of the circle of Solars long enough to get his hands on a powerful, unique warstrider..which he then used to crush the Solars in an epic battle that's still talked about in our group to this day.
In a very, VERY old Mage the Ascension game (like when MtA first came out), one of the mages was a Nephandi (think "mage group that wants to destroy everything) and was able to get the PCs to trust him with all of the MacGuffins they were collecting, the combination of which would spell, quite literally, the end of existance. Yeah, that campaign ended with the bad guys winning.
In one of my FR games, a character convinced the LG cleric to read the Book of Vile Darkness (though admittedly, neither the player nor the character knew that's what it was). End result was a dead LG cleric.
In one Exalted game I ran, an Abyssal PC managed to win the trust of the circle of Solars long enough to get his hands on a powerful, unique warstrider..which he then used to crush the Solars in an epic battle that's still talked about in our group to this day.
In a very, VERY old Mage the Ascension game (like when MtA first came out), one of the mages was a Nephandi (think "mage group that wants to destroy everything) and was able to get the PCs to trust him with all of the MacGuffins they were collecting, the combination of which would spell, quite literally, the end of existance. Yeah, that campaign ended with the bad guys winning.
Thornir Alekeg
Albatross!
Back in the 2e days I had made a custom character class. It was pretty close to a Wizard, but with some Rogue abilities (took even more XP to level than a stadard Wizard, but since it was more than any other PC, nobody noticed it was even slower than it should have been). Outwardly I played him as a straight wizard, but took advantage of his other skills without the other players being aware (most common was his pocketing a share of treasure before it was split up). One player finally figured it out when his character was possessed and I had to pick his pocket to get the mcguffin from him, but since his character was unaware, he never let on and the rest of the party never figured out how I always seemed to have extra money to spend.
Eberron Adventure Path spoilers...
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In my Eberron game (following the creation patern saga), the characters had began to be suspicous of their current employeer and were hording the schema pieces and pattern. In my attempt as DM to get the schema and pattern in the hands of the bad guys, I set up a meeting with the Head of House Cannith East, whom was one PCs patron -- although he had only met him once. Well, it wasn't the house head who showed up, but the Changling villian in disguise, along with several fake house Cannith guards. I had the players make spot checks ahead of time (didn't say what for), all failed. They simply handed over the pieces -- but the bastages held on to the pattern
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In my Eberron game (following the creation patern saga), the characters had began to be suspicous of their current employeer and were hording the schema pieces and pattern. In my attempt as DM to get the schema and pattern in the hands of the bad guys, I set up a meeting with the Head of House Cannith East, whom was one PCs patron -- although he had only met him once. Well, it wasn't the house head who showed up, but the Changling villian in disguise, along with several fake house Cannith guards. I had the players make spot checks ahead of time (didn't say what for), all failed. They simply handed over the pieces -- but the bastages held on to the pattern
I was playing a gnomish bard. We were exploring some caves, on the lookout for some kinda enemy goat-people (race name starts with a V, don't remember, maybe Vrill?). We were escorting/bodyguarding a celestial child past them, to a spaceship deep in the caves.
My bard, Lomax, slugged his elixirs of hiding and sneaking, and went exploring. He spotted a Vrill settlement, and cast disguise self to look like one of the V people (they were also of Small stature). Along the way, he chatted some up, had some hilarious RP acting as a "Vrillbilly" and being a doofus in their town, then left to return to the party.
Well, the party didn't make their Spot or Listen checks to detect the bard, so Lomax Tumbled into the center of the party, right next to the child we were bodyguarding, (disguised as one of the bad guys, remember?), and ended with a big Whasaaaaaap?
The party rolled initiative, and were about to take my bard's head off, but the celestial won init, and apparently she had constant true seeing, and she said, "oh, Lomax, stop kidding around!" The party would have killed Lomax if she hadn't won init. I love playing chaotic good. SO MUCH FUN.
The paladin (whose dump stat is Int) kept asking "How did Lomax get turned into a vrill?"
My bard, Lomax, slugged his elixirs of hiding and sneaking, and went exploring. He spotted a Vrill settlement, and cast disguise self to look like one of the V people (they were also of Small stature). Along the way, he chatted some up, had some hilarious RP acting as a "Vrillbilly" and being a doofus in their town, then left to return to the party.
Well, the party didn't make their Spot or Listen checks to detect the bard, so Lomax Tumbled into the center of the party, right next to the child we were bodyguarding, (disguised as one of the bad guys, remember?), and ended with a big Whasaaaaaap?
The party rolled initiative, and were about to take my bard's head off, but the celestial won init, and apparently she had constant true seeing, and she said, "oh, Lomax, stop kidding around!" The party would have killed Lomax if she hadn't won init. I love playing chaotic good. SO MUCH FUN.
The paladin (whose dump stat is Int) kept asking "How did Lomax get turned into a vrill?"
atomn
Explorer
In a Werewolf game, the party recently discovered they were werewolves, were thrown together as a pack and were working out their rank in the pack at a werewolf kin's farmhouse. My character (a Ragabash) was fighting to not be the lowest ranked with a brutish Ahroun, dubbed "Rock". Since I didn't have the physical strength to compete against him (and since I hadn't learned how to turn into a werewolf but he had), I'd resigned to being the omega and decided to started pestering him instead. There was lots of blood from the sheep that the pack had eaten, so I slathered a bunch on my midsection and stumbled, doubled over towards the farmhouse. My plan was to have the newly emerged leader chew out Rock for attacking a pack member. As I neared the house, weakly gasping "Rock...". The werewolf kin owner of the house saw my dramatic act, spotted Rock returning from the barn dripping with blood from feeding on some sheep and figured Rock was going berserk. Poor, oblivious Rock turned the corner of the house to catch the kin's shotgun blast right in his guts. It was not enough to kill him but enough to keep him injured for the next few session so my guy always stayed one rung above last. Never since has an unintended plan gone so beautifully!
BlackMoria
First Post
I played a dwarven cleric from 1st level to 11th level without the party ever knowing he was a cleric. They all thought he was a fighter class. In that campaign, dwarves were a very secretative race and religious practices are not done in front of non-dwarves.
He was the sole survivor of his clanhold overun by a goblinoid army and having a certain guilt about not dying honorably with his clan, he fell into hard drinking and voluntary exile from fellow dwarves.
It was only a hard fight that nearly resulted in a TPK before he openly cast spells to save the day. The look of shock on the other players' faces was priceless.
They never picked on certain clues - like my 'fighter' taking lots of damage but never seemed to need alot of healing spells. Or how my dwarf 'fighter' would frequently be able to find traps (2E game - Find Traps) which he explain away as a dwarven ability he had. A bunch of other odd things which should of twigged the players that my character was more than he appeared. But somehow, they overlooked it or accepted the explaination my character gave ('Tis an power of me father's axe....).
The look of utter shock when I cut loose with spell after spell to save the party....
He was the sole survivor of his clanhold overun by a goblinoid army and having a certain guilt about not dying honorably with his clan, he fell into hard drinking and voluntary exile from fellow dwarves.
It was only a hard fight that nearly resulted in a TPK before he openly cast spells to save the day. The look of shock on the other players' faces was priceless.
They never picked on certain clues - like my 'fighter' taking lots of damage but never seemed to need alot of healing spells. Or how my dwarf 'fighter' would frequently be able to find traps (2E game - Find Traps) which he explain away as a dwarven ability he had. A bunch of other odd things which should of twigged the players that my character was more than he appeared. But somehow, they overlooked it or accepted the explaination my character gave ('Tis an power of me father's axe....).
The look of utter shock when I cut loose with spell after spell to save the party....
Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
Two spring to mind:
One, is in a campaign I wasn't actually participating in, but know several players who were. One player, who was only in the game for a single session, had obtained a polymorph potion of some type. he drank it unseen, approached the rest of the party in the form of a duck-headed two-legged freak of some kind and said...
"Awk! Awk! The eyes of the Great One are upon you!"
...and walked away. None of the other players had a clue what the hell was going on. As the campaign proceeded the other players convinced themselves that EVERYTHING that was happening was in some way connected to "the Great One". The player responsible never knew because he never played again and the DM didn't let on for several years real-time and then only to those players who started to grasp the reality.
- - -
The second was one of the most fun nights I've ever had playing D&D. It was in a VERY long-running game. Our PC party called themselves The Avengers. They had adventured long enough to become rulers of nations, captains of armies, movers and shakers of world events. The roster of PC's was probably 20 or more. There were games where we had 10 and 12 players at a time and it was very common for players to run two characters at once. The level of these characters ranged from low single digits to high teens and eventually one 20th+ level.
There came to be, in the game world, a secret organization known as The Red Brigade. One of the special concerns of the Red Brigade was the repeated kidnapping, murder, and robbery of members of the Avengers. The Red Brigade members weren't even very high level, but they kidnapped and ransomed even some of the higher level Avengers successfully because they had numbers - lots of guys with crossbows and nasty poisons. For YEARS, both in real-time and in-game, the Avengers searched the world trying to find the leaders of the Red Brigade but repeatedly failed.
And players DESPISED this. To have their PC killed and all their extremely valuable equipment stolen, and then have to pay a ransom for the corpse - and then pay to get the corpse resurrected! Eventually, one or two players deduced - from meta-game knowledge - who led the Red Brigade, but to their credit kept completely silent. But one day, as was common, the Avengers were making use of a Commune spell from the highest level PC - a 20th level cleric. But, the information we had been seeking took up only a few questions leaving a lot of questions unused. Not wanting to waste them we asked along several other lines of questions, one of which was the Red Brigade.
As fate would have it someone FINALLY managed to ask the right questions, in the right way, put two and two together and it was revealed that one of the wizards in the Avengers (named Bored Flak) was in fact a traitor and the leader of the Red Brigade. I say, "as fate would have it," because it was a COMPLETE FLUKE that Bored Flak was not present with the others at the time and thus remained at large and remained a PC/NPC nemesis of the Avengers to the end of the campaign.
The revelation however STUNNED everyone and after much shouting of, "I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" we all stood and shook the hand of the player of Bored Flak for such a masterful job of pulling the wool over our eyes for years, and driving us all nuts.
[Another best-game-experience-ever was when the Avengers came to a standoff against EACH OTHER at the launch console of an Intercontinental Magic Missile Silo. But that's another thread...]
One, is in a campaign I wasn't actually participating in, but know several players who were. One player, who was only in the game for a single session, had obtained a polymorph potion of some type. he drank it unseen, approached the rest of the party in the form of a duck-headed two-legged freak of some kind and said...
"Awk! Awk! The eyes of the Great One are upon you!"
...and walked away. None of the other players had a clue what the hell was going on. As the campaign proceeded the other players convinced themselves that EVERYTHING that was happening was in some way connected to "the Great One". The player responsible never knew because he never played again and the DM didn't let on for several years real-time and then only to those players who started to grasp the reality.
- - -
The second was one of the most fun nights I've ever had playing D&D. It was in a VERY long-running game. Our PC party called themselves The Avengers. They had adventured long enough to become rulers of nations, captains of armies, movers and shakers of world events. The roster of PC's was probably 20 or more. There were games where we had 10 and 12 players at a time and it was very common for players to run two characters at once. The level of these characters ranged from low single digits to high teens and eventually one 20th+ level.
There came to be, in the game world, a secret organization known as The Red Brigade. One of the special concerns of the Red Brigade was the repeated kidnapping, murder, and robbery of members of the Avengers. The Red Brigade members weren't even very high level, but they kidnapped and ransomed even some of the higher level Avengers successfully because they had numbers - lots of guys with crossbows and nasty poisons. For YEARS, both in real-time and in-game, the Avengers searched the world trying to find the leaders of the Red Brigade but repeatedly failed.
And players DESPISED this. To have their PC killed and all their extremely valuable equipment stolen, and then have to pay a ransom for the corpse - and then pay to get the corpse resurrected! Eventually, one or two players deduced - from meta-game knowledge - who led the Red Brigade, but to their credit kept completely silent. But one day, as was common, the Avengers were making use of a Commune spell from the highest level PC - a 20th level cleric. But, the information we had been seeking took up only a few questions leaving a lot of questions unused. Not wanting to waste them we asked along several other lines of questions, one of which was the Red Brigade.
As fate would have it someone FINALLY managed to ask the right questions, in the right way, put two and two together and it was revealed that one of the wizards in the Avengers (named Bored Flak) was in fact a traitor and the leader of the Red Brigade. I say, "as fate would have it," because it was a COMPLETE FLUKE that Bored Flak was not present with the others at the time and thus remained at large and remained a PC/NPC nemesis of the Avengers to the end of the campaign.
The revelation however STUNNED everyone and after much shouting of, "I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" we all stood and shook the hand of the player of Bored Flak for such a masterful job of pulling the wool over our eyes for years, and driving us all nuts.
[Another best-game-experience-ever was when the Avengers came to a standoff against EACH OTHER at the launch console of an Intercontinental Magic Missile Silo. But that's another thread...]
DonTadow
First Post
Last April Fool's day, 4 of the players and I decided to play a prank on two of the players whom had taken the previous week off (they are a couple).
For years they talked about how their couples never ended up together or dated like some rpging couples tend to do.
Well, we told them that their couples were married. Seems harmless enough, but it was something that drove them mad. THe entire session was geared around how they had to make sure to act married or else the rest of the group wouldn't gain passage on the ship. I managed to weave the hoax into the storyline indicating that their characters were so drunk, they didn't remember what happened. The other players and their PCs went along with the charade, including the meating of the families and planning a reception. During the entire time, the other two players obviously were pissed. The joke carried until they were introduced to a priest, whom said that since they ;married in his country, it is customary for them to consummates the marriage in front of a religious figure and 5 of his followers.
After a couple of WTF, the other players couldn't hold it in anymore. We told them it was a joke and that the NPC priest was a rogue in the thieves guild.
For years they talked about how their couples never ended up together or dated like some rpging couples tend to do.
Well, we told them that their couples were married. Seems harmless enough, but it was something that drove them mad. THe entire session was geared around how they had to make sure to act married or else the rest of the group wouldn't gain passage on the ship. I managed to weave the hoax into the storyline indicating that their characters were so drunk, they didn't remember what happened. The other players and their PCs went along with the charade, including the meating of the families and planning a reception. During the entire time, the other two players obviously were pissed. The joke carried until they were introduced to a priest, whom said that since they ;married in his country, it is customary for them to consummates the marriage in front of a religious figure and 5 of his followers.
After a couple of WTF, the other players couldn't hold it in anymore. We told them it was a joke and that the NPC priest was a rogue in the thieves guild.
