Gaming Hoaxes

[Mark CMG]

Ever have a character pull a con on another character? Or have NPCs pull a trick on the PCs? Ever manage to fool the DM or, as DM, take all of the players in on a prank? Now is your chance to air that dirty laundry.

 

[Crothian]

In our Eberron campaign we had a changleing in the party and it was weeks or months before the other PCs figured it out.

 

[Ry]

Running Shackled City, first part, the players decided to interview the other children at the orphanage - they picked up candy on the way to the orphanage as a gift. One of the children made up an elaborate story about Terrem (the kidnapped child) having bad dreams and a ghost haunting at the window and it just went on and on... the player talking to that child just kept asking questions and stuff kept popping into my head, so I just went with it like a kid starved for attention. The player was really into it.

Another PC walked up, and as soon as he saw the kid talking I had him roll Sense Motive. He realized the kid was lying through his teeth at the other player.

This encounter ended with the following exchange:

Cleric player: "We brought candy! Here you go, kids."
Duped player (muttering): "We also brought gold, but the little liars aren't gettin' any."

 

[Twowolves]

In our Eberron campaign we had a changleing in the party and it was weeks or months before the other PCs figured it out.

Got that beat. Back in 2nd ed FR, a new guy joins our group. He was a half drow mage-thief with a robe of chameleon power, and was almost a year before anyone figured out he wasn't an elven wizard.

 

[awayfarer]

In my first ever D&D game I played a half-orc rogue who was something of a jerk. The DM allowed me to have a ring of prestidigitation at 1st level for an -350 XP penalty. I kept the thing hidden from the other players as long as possible and co-ordinated some nifty stuff through the DM.

The most memorable prank involved a trip to a tavern. I burned a daily use of the ring to make everybody's beer taste like wine. It caused a lot of confusion among both the PC's and the players and jsut a teensy bit of suspicion about the tavern owner. Had it not been an online game, my cracking up would have given it away.

 

[Sleeping Dragon]

In my first ever D&D game I played a half-orc rogue who was something of a jerk. The DM allowed me to have a ring of prestidigitation at 1st level for an -350 XP penalty. I kept the thing hidden from the other players as long as possible and co-ordinated some nifty stuff through the DM.

The most memorable prank involved a trip to a tavern. I burned a daily use of the ring to make everybody's beer taste like wine. It caused a lot of confusion among both the PC's and the players and jsut a teensy bit of suspicion about the tavern owner. Had it not been an online game, my cracking up would have given it away.

Not to mention the brown stains that kept appearing on my character's pants...had I been able to work out an in-character way for Gugeno to know it was you there'd have been hell to pay

Also from the world of online games...I ran an evil group once over OpenRPG and one member of the group decided he was bored of his current character. He announced to the rest of the group that he was going to have to leave the game due to RL concerns, while telling me about his new character concept...an imp that followed the party around. Due to his at will invisibility spell-like ability, the imp could follow the party without them even realising he was there. The player showed up in our room claiming to be a lurker and whispered the imp's actions to me, generally doing things that caused chaos (making strange illusions, dropping items from the air to cause sudden noises, stealing things and having them reappear in bizarre places, etc.)

There was only one PC in the party with a good enough Spot score to actually notice the invisible creature around them, and that was the party's assassin, who was insane anyway so the other PCs just ignored him when he said they were being followed (in fact they generally blamed the mad assassin for the strange things happening around them, adding to the hilarity). This went on for about twenty sessions (roughly five months out of game) before the player got bored of the charade and had his character openly appear (which was shortly followed by a near-TPK that ended the campaign.) Obviously, this could have never worked at a table-top game, but in an online format it was brilliant.

 

[adwyn]

The party is engaged in an unplanned show down with the arch villain during a crowded festival. A PC is hit and falls unconscious, but the others cannot spare any time to help him. Then a lone villager rushes out shouting "I can help!" and begins trying to stabilize the fallen PC. The others players give helpful advice about healing potions and such and are relieved to see the villager saving there fallen comrade.

When the cleric goes down a few rounds later the villager again helps stabilize the fallen hero along with others that continue to fall as the fight reaches its climax. It's only after the battle is won and the villain driven off do the players realize the "villager" never stabilized anyone and has looted two PCs and three henchmen.

Finding that itenerant villager became the focus for much of the rest of that campaign.

 

[awayfarer]

Not to mention the brown stains that kept appearing on my character's pants...had I been able to work out an in-character way for Gugeno to know it was you there'd have been hell to pay

Hiya Sleeping. heh, I had no idea you were on Enworld. How's England working out? FUnnily enough we're going to have another player moving to that side of the pond in a couple of months.

Out of curiosity, did Hussar tell you what he did with Gugeno after you left?

 

[Agent Oracle]

By now everyone's heard my "What, I'm supposed to tell you I'm chaotic evil?" story. It was still fun when it happened.

 

[lazarus1020]

I have had a few of these moments in my gaming history but the best was during a tabletop game several years back. I had been playing a fairly sneaky thief and had only caused minor trouble for the party. Then a new character joined the group and decided he too would be a theif. The DM thought some friendly competition would be helpful to the game. I let it slide but I was boiling mad about having this new guy who kept trying to show me up. He went so far as to steal from my character and then returning it later, such as he stole my horse while the characters were inside a tavern. Then came the great day of revenge. The party had slipped into a fortress occupied by giants. Me and the other thief got seperated from the group while being hunted by a group of nasty hill giants. We were gonna be forced to stand and fight, so I offered him a potion of giant strength my character had. The DM nearly gave me away because of a stupid smile he cracked. He knew I didn't have any potions of giant strength. After he drank it the DM looked at me and said" so what did you actually give him." It was a potion of flesh to stone and my poor competition turned into a nice statue. I was half tempted to leave him as a trophy for the giants but I had a better idea at that moment. I smashed him up and put him into my bad of holding. Then every place my character went after that I dropped a few pieces of his shattered character. Needless to say it was my crowning moment of decption that started a very unhealthy rivalry between our two characters.