Greatest Moment While DMing

[Silver Moon]

During an epic-length module the Arch-Mage villain had gone to the Astral Plane and managed to mentally kidnap some of the PC's. A character who had the means to access the Astral Plane mounted a rescue mission with two others in the party. The lowest level of these three, a 1st level Wizard with only one 0-level spell single-handedly takes on the Arch-Mage while the other two attempt to rescue the prisoners. Using an incredible amount of fast-talking, bluffing, putting together information obtained during the module and the one spell he manages to scare the Arch-Mage info fleeing the scene.

Here is the story hour with that encounter (in Chapter 63, but you may want to start at the beginning, I consider this my group's single best module):
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=28642

 

[Jorunkun]

Loved the druid story, and the idea of arcane spellcasters receiving different kinds of spells depending on their actions, being "courted" by gods of conflicting alignments. Think I'll gank that - thx!

 

[Ambrus]

Loved the druid story, and the idea of arcane spellcasters receiving different kinds of spells depending on their actions, being "courted" by gods of conflicting alignments. Think I'll gank that - thx!

Glad you liked it. I have to admit that I found the idea intriguing at the time. Until then I figured all evil clerics were just oddball crackpots of one sort or another. Why would anyone willingly choose to worship loathsome theological ideals if they weren't nuts?

This scenario gave me the idea that maybe evil clerics shouldn't always serve their gods because they believe in the god's ideals, but rather because they're somehow manipulated into it. Evil gods give them access to nasty powers and then manipulates them into situations where they'll be forced to use them, ensuring their self-corruption. Perhaps gods try to poach each others' servants too... Interesting notions.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Actually for 4e one campaign idea I am tumbling around in my head is that my world is more distant from the gods. As such only Divine-users that truly commit themselves full-force towards their faith get noticed, sorta like a flare in the night sky. Now with a flare anyone can see that and anyone can come.

So this flare of holy-might can be noticed by and gods, or any being of godly proportions. As such your cleric, paladin, etc. may believe his powers come the god he worships say... Tyr but they are actually come from Shar and he is being subtly manipulated by the goddess.

 

[moritheil]

Loved the druid story, and the idea of arcane spellcasters receiving different kinds of spells depending on their actions, being "courted" by gods of conflicting alignments. Think I'll gank that - thx!

Technically that's divine spellcasters in the example - but I see no reason why not.

In FR, powerful spellcasters are courted by those who desire champions. It makes sense in any setting, really.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

The scenario was that the party was helping defend a town that was under constant attack by a cult of necromancers. The town had a church bell, if rang, would increase your effective cleric level by 20 for the purposes of turning and rebuking undead.

The cult needed to carefully remove it from the tower something that they didn't feel they could do with the townfolk there.

Before the party came to help the town had sent away their women and children "somewhere safe" The party was actually very happy to know that in case the final option was to torch the town.

The cult had been sending random waves and skirmishes of undead at the town hoping to drive them all out, but with the arrival of the party, their resolve strenghtened.


Once night when a fair amount of the party was on watch with some town folk, another wave of zombies attacked...


At first the party thought the zombies were goblin or halfling zombies because of their height....


Until they got closer.


It was the Children, who never made it to "somewhere safe"

I described the reaction of the townsmen who were forced to cut down their own children right alongside the party...


Two people got up and had to leave the table briefly to compose themselves.


When the party finally put the cult down, WOW was their celebration...


Most invested I think I've ever gotten my players in a game.

I'm not really one to get like that, but I think if I was at the table I would have been a bit creeped out hacking down the little children. Maybe it's just because I've become a father in the last 6 months that it really seemed to hit home. Definitely would have been a creepy session, especially if you did a good job describing how the townsfolk militia reacted to the situation (which it sounds like you did).

Olaf the Stout

 

[pogre]

I've had many, but my greatest happened during the climactic encounter in Shadows Over Bogenhafen. Every little piece of the mystery puzzle came together for the players and their PCs barely saved the day.

 

[Knightfall]

There have been a few great moments for me. Most of them were when I was a teenage DM. Back then, the plot didn't really concern my players; as long as they were having fun it didn't matter.

One of the great moments was when one of my player's PCs discovered that his wife was really an evil witch and that she'd stolen their infant child and disappeared. He was incensed and the PCs tracked her to her lair, which was on another continent (big island, really).

Along the way I threw some nasty things at them, which only made them more determined to catch the evil witch and bring her to justice. (Basically, they cut her to shreads.)

I also made them listen in horror once while an ally (a female paladin) was

Spoiler

raped

by a group of evil minotaurs, off stage, so to speak. Now that I think about it, they were probably too young to have gone through such a game.

Another great moment, years later, was when the Companions of my 2E World of Kulan campaign came face to claw with a half-mad fang dragon that I roleplayed like a playful, yet insane, talking puppy. If they had made him mad, then he could have wiped them out very easily. My players were nervous thoughout that encounter, especially when the fang dragon gave them away to the "protector" of the item that they were seeking.

There were a lot of great moments from my 3E Shackled City campaign but I can't remember them right now. I'll revisit this thread at a later time if I re-remember them.

 

[Ambrus]

Another time, the PCs had just finished exploring a ruined keep that had been the site of a demon attack a few centuries earlier and were returning to town. While searching they'd found a small stone tablet which they'd translated and found to be an old dwarven love letter. The author was a lady who was writing to her paramour to accept a marriage proposal and stating how anxious she was to see him again. One of the PCs, the bard, had the Gallant kit; a 2e prestige class of sorts which made the bard into a chivalrous knight dedicated to the ideals of courtly love. He thought the letter was sweet and so took it with him.

When they get back to town, they go their usual tavern where they know all the local patrons from. They walk in and greet all their friends, including an old codger of a dwarf nicknamed Grizzler. The elves in the party hated him cause he was always taunting and badmouthing them. The bard walks up to him, pulls out the tablet, hands it to the dwarf and mentions offhandedly that they'd found it in the local ruins and, he being a dwarf, figured he might like to have it.

I hadn't been expecting this turn of events but it turned out to be a perfect opportunity. This is the moment that I start shedding real tears in an Oscar-worthy performance. I mime reaching out for the tablet with quivering hands and longingly mumbled the tablet author's name: "Celia..."

The bard's player's eyes grew wide as many legends they'd heard about the old keep, the demon who destroyed it and the band of heroes who fought him in an epic battle so long ago (including a great dwarven warrior who's love letter they'd found) finally clicked in the player's mind. The bard player simply muttered in astonishment: "It's him! He's the dwarf from the keep!..."

Turns out that the dwarf and his fiancée hadn't ever managed to get together in part because of the demon attack which had ruined the keep. And by pure chance, the party had accidentally returned an old letter to its original recipient a few centuries later.

I kept crying and trembling while I mimed lovingly stroking the stone tablet as the PCs helped walk the broken old dwarf back to his cottage nearby. Soon the whole group was really crying because of this fictional old dwarf who suffered such loss centuries earlier. It was some great role-playing coupled with a great revelation. My favorite role-playing moment ever I believe.

 

[shilsen]

I'm not really one to get like that, but I think if I was at the table I would have been a bit creeped out hacking down the little children. Maybe it's just because I've become a father in the last 6 months that it really seemed to hit home. Definitely would have been a creepy session, especially if you did a good job describing how the townsfolk militia reacted to the situation (which it sounds like you did).

Olaf the Stout

I've done something very similar to that and it can seriously creep out players. When one of the PCs was attacked by a little zombie elf girl who smacked her with a teddy bear she almost lost it