Greatest moments of RPG brilliance ever experienced or perpetrated

[Walking Paradox]

I had so much fun reading responses to my last thread about RPG stupidity that I thought I would turn it around.

What were your most brilliant moments ever experienced as either a player or as a GM in an RPG, either accomplished by yourself or witnessed first-hand? Here are mine:

Player: A PC in one of my games was an alcoholic who had a penchent for fast-draw artistry with a pair of pistols. Some NPC thugs confronted the PCs and to show they meant business, one of the, grabbed the aforementioned drunk PC's hand, put a pistol to the bottom of his hip flask, and fired a shot through it; emptying its contents onto the ground.

The player made a sad frown, pantomimed the act of getting the very last drops out of the flask, and tossing it to the NPC thug who shot it.

I pantomimed the act of catching the shot flask.

The player then grinned and pantomimed the act of drawing both guns and firing several shots into the offending NPC at point blank range.

Yes, there were die rolls to resolve this, but the results were what you'd expect...

GM: I was in a group that had rotating players and GMs (basically, "run anything, it's your turn this weekend"). I discovered that one of the players who was going to be in this scenario was an incurable rules lawyer; I don't mean the kind who offers helpful reminders, but rather someone who questions the GM's judgment at every turn, and who even questions the logic of the plot or of how the NPCs are being roleplayed.

In the name of inclusiveness, I had to let him into the group, however, I altered the scenario. First I had him captured by a nemesis that, as per the original plans of the scenario, the PCs had not been aware of; thus splitting the party up on purpose. The subsequent play of the scenario alternated between the main body of PCs in "let's find and rescue our buddy" mode and the other PC's "zOMG I'm being interrogated and tortured by vile people!!!" mode. (His PC was created to have, for all intents and purposes, a diametrically-opposed worldview from his captors; what would have been called a "different alignment" in some RPGs.)

The scenario ended in a very intense, very carefully coordinated raid by the main body of PCs that happened right when the separated PC managed to effect his escape. It almost resulted in a few "own goals" by the PCs but that had humor value.

Nobody realized the scenario had been doctored to make the rules lawyer incapable of interfering with the flow of the game. He was too focused on figuring out how to escape and stay alive to worry about that.

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

We were inside a subterranean area known locally as The Warrens, about a weeks ride from Specularum. The deeper you go, the nastier it gets. And we were very deep, too deep for a group of 5th-7th level 2nd Edition adventurers - a fact we had come to terms with, as we found ourselves in one nasty running battle after another as we desperately tried to reach higher and subsequently safer levels. We finally made it to Midcairn Bridge, your a-typical slender stone bridge spanning a deep nigh bottomless cleft in the earth. The side we were on = nasty with a capital N. The side we wanted, littler nasties we could better hold off. Unfortunately the bad guys were a bit upset with us, and one of the blasted Deurgar Wizards shattered the spam. Without hesitation Radcliffe Du Mourne, our Psionicist, who was literally out of PSPs threw open a dimension door to the other side, using the old optional rule of expending hit points to power his abilities. By the time we all got through, Radcliffe's power was fading, so he turned towards the onrushing Deurgar and Ogres, laughed, and leaped into the crevasse. The party thief - Tuft - had to be physically restrained from throwing himself into the rift after him. Radcliffe was our only loss that expedition, it was pretty damn noble.

 

[[OMENRPG]Ben]

Cool thread idea!

I've had many excellent experiences, especially as a GM, as I had been blessed with some of the most committed and skilled players (many of whom were actors and writers.)

GM: As a GM, my first 4e campaign was entering its ninth month or so, and the party were reaching mid paragon. They had been looking for certain magical artifacts and had received information regarding a certain fallen temple of the Bael Turath Empire, and that one of the elements of this artifact might be within. So, after a fairly long adventure to simply reach this place, they repelled down a large sinkhole into the earth where the ruins of this temple had collapsed down.

The undead remains of the demonically influenced Bael Turathians were defensive of one of their highest training academies for its warlocks, and the party struggled for several days in game time through the massive compound, defeating traps and monsters and the like. After a pretty epic dungeon crawl, the players were thoroughly enjoying themselves and the non-linearity of the dungeon's design was one of my proudest moments.

But the real kicker came in at the end, when they were terrified to find that one of the main antagonist groups had been waiting for them with the artifact, and led by an extremely powerful and evil cleric, ambushed the party at the final chamber. It was an excellent fight all around, and I can remember the faces of each of the players staring intently at me as they were poised on my every syllable. It was so quiet when I paused that one could hear a pin drop (even on carpet!) and I felt that I had mastered my craft as the GM.

Finally, the battle seemed as if the PCs were about to lose, although the bad guys were terribly wounded as well. I thought it fitting that one of the "big brother" helper types (a DMPC, I know I know, cliche, but they found him in character and wanted to "keep" him, who could say no?) sacrificed himself to distract and battle the BBEG so that the party could escape. In all of the epic combat, the ruins collapsed, the party escaped with the artifact, and they mourned the loss of their friend.

What was so touching was that all but one of the players were crying in real life, and I myself was nearly emotional and at letting one of my favorite characters of all time go.

Player: As a player, my friend was GMing a Star Wars Saga game, as he is a huge SW fanatic and will GM only that. But, really it is to his credit as he is one of the best I've ever sat at a table with. So anyway, we were all sitting around, and in his own SW timeline (post Legacy roughly 300 years, if anyone cares), and I had made a scoundrel/engineer jawa character. He had many cybernetic implants and had escaped with the aid of his family at a young age from the oppressive rule of the Hutts. His family was wiped out, blah blah blah, and therefore had an extreme hatred toward the Hutts and those who kept Jawas as slaves.

Part of our in-game decisions (he was not really a "party-leader" by any means, in fact, I didn't participate in much combat as I piloted and repaired the ship and all of the equipment) led us to attempting to gain alliances from various power groups outside of the Galactic Alliance in an attempt to bolster a new war effort (no clone army, you see.)

Well, my character was naturally opposed to this, but was reasonable and intelligent enough to be convinced that at the very least, the monetary aid provided for by the Hutts would be of great service to the upcoming war effort. My character promised to be polite, and we entered onto a very large party on Nal Hutta where most of the major Hutt family elders and their progeny were meeting for a great council that only happens every so often (you know, that old chestnut.)

I should say, as a side note, that my character had an insanely high skill bonuses for making explosives. I, as a non combat optimizer, had simply been looking to become good at technology and engineering and the like, but due to the overlapping of skills in SWSE, that also meant that I could make killer bombs. Our party was fairly wealthy, and having figured this out several months prior, my character had purchased large quantities of detonite and various other custom explosives, to which he was toying with.

Upon entering the party, the Hutts were adorned in their full resplendent slug-like pageantry, complete with dozens of Jawa slaves. My character began to boil at the injustice of it all, and, after several Hutts commanded him to fetch them some thing or another, he became outraged and stormed out of the party during the negotiations. As he returned to the ship, for the next hour or so while the rest of the party continued their diplomacy, I strapped together something around 100 kg of detonite and some other missiles and plastic explosives, using the RAW to create a chain reaction bomb.

Due to my exceedingly high rolls (with the help of some force-points), I had a simple, remote-detonated, large bomb that equated to something like 856d6. I waited calmly for my party to leave, and then remote-piloted one of our smaller throw-away speeders to park outside of the structure. Once the time was right, and our ship was fairly far away, I flew the speeder up to the top of the building, had it flip its contents onto the roof of the building where all of the galaxy's most important Hutts resided, and clicked the detonator.

My GM reasoned that due to the Hutt's complete surprise, their overall lack of agility, and the impressive size of the bomb, was enough to leave nothing but a charred crater several hundred meters wide and a dozen meters deep, effectively handi-capping the entire Hutt syndicate for the rest of our campaign.

Fortunately, they had said "no" to our negotiations anyway. When the players asked why I would kill so many Jawas in the process, I deemed it was for the greater good, and essentially putting them out of their misery. (And yes, I received a handful of dark side points for this, slipping dangerously close to my tipping point.)

Good times!

 

[Iron Sky]

There's probably been dozens of these in the nearly 20 years I've been gaming (makes me feel old!) but off the top of my head:

DM: One of the L4W PbP adventures I ran on these boards is probably the best adventure I've ever run. At one point close to the end of the adventure, the party was fleeing some undead-filled woods with one PC already dead and another turned into a zombie that they were dragging with them in hopes of somehow saving him. The last fight had, at one point, all but 2 of the 7 PCs down dying or dead (or undead and attacking their companions) during which they burned almost every daily and consumable they had. Several PCs had no healing surges left.

One of the players spotted a golden light in the wilderness and, having no other hope of survival, they headed towards it - but the dead were closing too fast. They reached a choke-point on the cliff trail they were following and the choice was made: the Battlemind would stay behind to hold the pass while the rest of the party fled.

He held the waves of undead for round after round and was right at the brink of going down, having been pushed back from the pass and surrounded when the rest of the party succeeded at their skill challenge to reach a rocky grotto that held the last fragments of an otherwise-forgotten goddess's domain.

She told them they had a chance to save their friend, but one of them would have to sacrifice their own life. Everyone stepped forward, giving her pause. With everyone offering, she thought of another way; each person could give whatever they had to save him - daily powers, action points, their few remaining healing surges, the last of their potions, a couple players even threw in their weapons!

Each one had its own effect, healing, blessing, buffing, granting extra attacks to the Battlemind. Those who gave their weapons manifested as conjurations at his side and helped him dispatch the strongest of the dead while another player's daily power shone threw him and drove the rest of the undead away.

The Battlemind staggered back to the party and the goddess, impressed by their sacrifices, gave them all boons based on their sacrifices and a few appropriate magical items (raising the axe one had sacrificed from +1 to +2 for example). It was awesome.

DM: Another time, back in the 2e AD&D days, there was the infamous "Bugbear Fortress" fight. The group had found a bugbear fortress from which raiders were attacking travelers on the road on which they were traveling. After infiltration failed, they assaulted the main gate, fought a mass of bugbears across the courtyard and to the keep gate only to have it slam closed.

It opened a minute later, there was a massive exchange of ranged attacks and spells, then everyone charged into melee. Near the end of the fight only 6 of 9 PCs were still on their feet against the bugbear chieftain and a dozen grunts. The chieftain drew a potion and was about to drink it when the cleric threw a ball of fire at it... and found out it was a potion of firebreath.

When the fire cleared, only 3 PCs were left against the chieftain. The fighter rushed up, injured the chieftain, and was dropped. The ranger followed suit, leaving just the cleric and the chieftain. Everyone stood around the table as they fought back and forth for five rounds until, when the cleric was at 3 hp, he managed to hit the chieftain for exactly the number of hp the bugbear had left.

That session is still talked about today, almost 15 years later.

Player: We were playing a Star Wars game and I was playing the character I had been making for years whenever we did a pick-up game of Star Wars; Gage Kale, a gambler/gunfighter that was an odd mix of Captain Jack Sparrow, Bruce Willis in Last Man Standing, and Jason Bourne.

At one point, he was captured by bounty hunters after getting a bounty on his head (I don't remember what that one was for, he almost always had bounties from someone or another) and they were flying through Coruscant towards an area that had dissolved into a urban-warfare-level crime zone.

So confident were the bad guys that they hadn't even taken his guns or even patted him down, though his compartment in the car was sealed off. What they didn't expect was him pulling the pins on a dozen micro grenades, dropping them under the back seat, and jumping out of the air car at about a thousand feet... with no particular plan beyond that point.

The fall destroyed the four grapnel launchers he happened to be carrying and his trusty repulsor-hammock and landed him in the middle of a gang shootout, but he survived.

He was a ton of fun - I purposely did impulsive things just so I could try to figure out how to get out of them (unlike my usual gaming mentality). Other things he did:

*Wager all his money and possessions on a single roll of the dice - "I'll give you everything I own against 5000 credits unless I roll a 6" - and rolled a 6.
*Rescue, serve, and eventually betray a Sith Lord.
*Toss two hand grenades into the middle room he was in since he didn't figure he was going to survive anyway.
*Casually gun down a gang of 20 guys on his own in a gunfight only to panic and try to flee when one the last enemy's gun jammed, he drew a knife, and charged into melee.
*Break and tell all instantly at the merest hint of torture just before the rest of the characters rescued him.
*Wager another player's star ship on a Sabbac hand.

 

[Pentius]

I've always enjoyed Last Stand heroics, and will tend to do them should I have the opportunity. I've had two to date.

The first was in an Eberron 3.5 campaign. Our party was defending a Karrnathi village from a horde of 'zombie' created by the Madstone. We fought hard, and did pretty well, but eventually, they broke through our lines and we had to cover a retreat. We managed to save a good number of civilians, hand just got a couple of children moving when the horde bore down on us. Now we were encumbered by all the civilians, with some of party carrying the children, so these guys were gonna catch us. My character, the shifter barbarian, stops and looks at the road. "It's a fairly narrow road." he said, "You guys go. I'll catch up." and tosses them a wink before popping his last shift and rage of the day and charging in. Everyone at the table just stared. They asked if I was sure. The DM reminded me that I really could die. "We're doing this." I said. I managed to hold them off until the group had gotten far enough away, then took out the front row of baddies and ran for it.

The second was in 4e. We were fighting a bunch of mysteriously risen dead that had started pouring out of the Raven Queen's temple in the middle of town. The DM had homebrewed a type of undead that, when hit with radiant energy, would gather it, amplify it, and hurl it back in a burst. Not all of them had this ability, though. Our cleric decided to take the gamble and used Sacred Flame on one. Sure enough, it had the ability. The energy bounced off that one, into the others, and it amplified until it hit us, at which point it dropped half the party, killing the cleric and one paladin(my character'
s brother) outright. My character stepped into the doorway, bloodied, and told the others to carry the injured and dead away. The Sorcerer ended up staying behind and using Sorcerous Sirocco to haul me out at the last moment.


Oddly enough, I've had character deaths before, but never from deliberately sacrificing myself. Somehow, I always survive that.

 

[meomwt]

A group I DM'ed 2e for - many, many years ago - had a couple of stand-out moments. These included:

• The Wild Mage being executed by the Fighter, then the Illusionist/ Thief going back to loot the body
• Rescuing a bunch of human slaves from an Orc city, then razing it to the ground
• Using a Stone Shape spell to catch a Black Dragon, who was sitting on the roof of a stone outhouse and gloating after reducing the Dwarven Cleric to a pile of bones
• And preventing Llolth from reaching the Prime Material by leaving a Bag of Holding right where her Dimensional Gateway was about to open.

Best of the lot, however, was managing to acquire an Arrow of Dragon Slaying (after a long and arduous quest) and realising that the only person good enough to use it on the Red Dragon marauding through the hills was the Fighter who generally rolled a 1 to hit. He was given all kinds of buffs (gloves of dexterity, magic bows, etc.) and waited on the mountains. The Illusionist/ Thief conjured a vision of another Dragon to distract the Red, and the Fighter drew the bow.

He rolled.

The die tumbled, bounced and stopped.

On a 20.

The entire room exploded in a huge cheer as the Red Dragon aged to death in about a minute.

 

[RainOfSteel]

[...] and one of the blasted Deurgar Wizards shattered the spam.

That was a really cool story, but I dissolved into helpless laughter right here.

 

[Smoss]

I've mentioned my favorite moment as a DM elsewhere before - I had created a tome of prophecies. The PCs were using it to know where to go to solve problems. The more they did this, the more suspicion crept in them that something was fishy. All of the problems ended up starting BECAUSE the PCs had gone there. Self Fulfilling prophecies... Then they finally did some research and learned that the tome had been written by the BIG BAD GUY (TM). It was a wonderful moment of them realizing they had been played. They really, REALLY wanted the bad guy's blood after that.

My favorite moment as a player was playing an old WEG d6 Star Wars game. I was playing a force sensitive person during the rebellion years. Another player was also force sensitive, and a third was a force immune bounty hunter. And our ship was captured by a Star Destroyer. On board we got to meet the one and only Darth Vader himself. The mercenary thought it would be easy (Being Force Immune). Unfortunately HE was immune, but his equipment was not. Vader flung him all over the place by his jetpack. (Wham to floor, wham to ceiling, etc). We were getting out butts kicked.

We had already disabled the tractor beams (violently). Things looked ugly. So I used the force to fling my two friends towards our ship and hit the blast door button. Vader rushed for the door, but I stood in his way. The others escaped while I held Vader off briefly. Even then it was a close call for them. But totally worth it for the epic fight.
Smoss

 

[IstraRaugir]

Unlike most her I can't claim years of playing experience but I'll add my two coppers nonetheless.

As DM: During my first campaign as DM I made the mistake of throwing an Allip as a random travel encounter at the rather low-level PC's. They didn't have any magic weapons and the only spellcaster in the party was a gnome illusionist/prankster who spent most of his time annoying people and turning things blue; did I mention that he only had a single damage spell prepared that day (I think it was burning hands).
Well facing an incorporeal foe that they couldn't possibly defeat and said foe being faster than half the party (the gnome and a dwarf fighter) the PC were looking royally screwed.
When suddenly Alryn, the small (strength 5!) gnome wizard, stepped right up to the Allip and let loose a color spray. The allips fails its save and is stunned and blinded. The rest of the party quickly dives into the bushes while the gnome stays put. On his second round Alryn casts ghost sound of running people to disorient the still blinded allip. And on his third round, right before allip could see again, he casts invisibility on himself and stays put.
Suffice to say that the allip wandered off after the ghost sounds and I gave the party full XP for being awesome.

 

[Wik]

I've got a bunch, but this one is sort of a legend around my table at this point.

When third edition came out, I kept talking about Gibbering Mouthers. For some reason, I had fallen in love with the Mouther, and wanted to have a chance to use it. My players all knew about my obsession, but they also knew I wouldn't throw one at them if it didn't make sense. And so, we were Mouther-Free.

I started running the Savage Tide adventure path around then. Without going into too many spoilers, there is one encounter that involves a Gibbering Mouther. The PCs approached the room, and heard this awful Gibbering noise.

The party groaned. "Roll Initiative" I said, smirking. My GM dreams were about to come true!

The Goliath Fighter won initiative. With his first action, he charged the Mouther and power-attack for full force. He scored a crit, with his x3 Greataxe. He did something like sixty points of damage, killing the Mouther in one hit.

Before it even had a chance to move.

The party erupted in laughter. And "Remember that time we killed your mouther in one hit?" became something of a taunt the PCs would throw at me.