Had a "wow" moment lately?

[SpiderMonkey]

I don't know about you, but one of the biggest reasons I play is that elusive experience when what happens in the game is so emotional, raw, or real, that you actually get an emotional reaction from it.

I was recently DMing a session with 16th level PCs who had to act as diplomats to a foreign king they once served. He viewed them as traitors, primarily due to the influence of his mystical advisor (think of a female, beautiful Wormtongue with some potentially sorcerous or divine powers). They were in a room full of guards and Mage Guild higher-ups. Powerful as they were, if they messed up, the PCs weren't walking out of this one.

The PCs (mentally linked via Telepathic Bond) helped feed the lead PC diplomat of the party some lines (his Diplomacy is through the roof but his Int and Wis aren't the greatest). There was a lot of bartering, sense motive checks, diplomacy checks, and listen checks as the PCs tried to eavesdrop on the lines that the advisor was feeding the king. At one point, when the PC felt confident enough to confront the king, he bellowed out at the table, "Who speaks for his highness? Does he speak for himself, or is he merely a puppet?!" At that moment, everyone at the table, including me, just stopped and muttered, "ooooo" and eventually smiled because the line was so appropriate at that moment. A few rolls and lines later, the King was swayed, and the advisor stalked to her chambers.

We took a break, and one of the players approached me, asking "Is it weird that I got an adrenaline rush off of D&D?" That was one of the coolest compliments I've ever received as a DM.

EDIT: Grammar goes out the window when you're in a rush.

 

[Goblyn]

That's cool.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Good for you. I GMed a session of Mutants & Masterminds a few weeks ago. All of us are college seniors and it's been really difficult to get games in this year. But M&M got everyone stoked. It was basically one big combat session, but it was so much fun. My players were having a great time with their characters, and I really can't take credit for the imagery pouring out of my mouth. Everything just worked out really well.

 

[Rel]

This past weekend I was playing in Old One's game at the NC Game Day and the end of the final encounter was a really exciting, edge of your seat, affair.

We were facing off against a Huge Scorpion conjured by a Fire Witch. The scorpion had grabbed two of the best fighters in the group and was crushing the life out of them. Our mages were out of spells and the Legionnaires we had with us (cannon fodder basically) could do little against the creature. My character (the Halfling Rogue basically) and the Cleric type PC managed to get past the scorpion and flank the Fire Witch. With the expenditure of a pile of Action Points and a lucky crit, we took her down just as the scorpion crushed the life out of our Elven Archeress. But the Cleric had a potion that could bring a dead character back to life if used within a round or two so we suffered no PC's killed.

The way we whooped and hollered when we took down that Fire Witch was like a bunch of little kids (most of us were guys over 30).

 

[Brottor Dankil]

We had a similar but opposite situation. Instead of the king we were dealing with a peasant.

Our DM had us in a world where conspirasy was everywhere and security was extremely tight (picture a medieval version of Nazi Germany). The party (roughly 8th level) was about 5 miles away from a castle (not quite in sight range) on a road when we approached some peasants in a field. The peasants where removing rocks from a field that was about to be plowed.

Well, we didn't know exactly where the castle was so we went over and asked one of the peasants where could we find the lord of the land. The peasant (DM) got testy and asked us "Who are you! Where are your papers!".

The party was a little tired about getting the third degree from ever single freaking person we came across for the last 8 levels so I said "Who the hell are you to ask for my papers, you're just some SLOB carrying rocks!" and then b slapped the peasant. The party had a brief "Ooooo" moment and then burst out in laughter. The DM was so pissed he quit the game. We didn't care because we hadn't been having fun in his game anyway.

 

[Rel]

The party had a brief "Ooooo" moment and then burst out in laughter. The DM was so pissed he quit the game. We didn't care because we hadn't been having fun in his game anyway.

I suspect that we'll be reading a thread called, "My players assaulted a defenseless peasant so I quit the game!" very shortly.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Yes, this past weekend in my Eberron Campaign.
The party of 6 5th level characters comes out of a building carrying a 1200 lb statue after a long couple of days of combat (but they did get rest).
Well my MBEG (Medium Bad Evil Girl) lands in aircoaches surrounding the party and demands the statue. She is an 8th level wizard with her 5th level warforged wizard companion and 30 mooks. I expected the party to be overwhelmed and readily hand over the statue.
Uh, nope they attack. I am like "wow" you attack ?
Initiative goes terrible and all the bad guys go after all the good guys and with a fireball or two and some fantastic tactics my MBEG is the only one left running home with her tail tucked to nurse some serious wounds.

I had to stat the mooks on the fly cause I really didnt think they would attack.
I was very surprised.
You would think after all these years I would remember "The party never does what you expect"

 

[Brottor Dankil]

I suspect that we'll be reading a thread called, "My players assaulted a defenseless peasant so I quit the game!" very shortly.

No doubt.

 

[shilsen]

The party had a brief "Ooooo" moment and then burst out in laughter. The DM was so pissed he quit the game. We didn't care because we hadn't been having fun in his game anyway.

What was the DM's rationale for quitting the game? Your character hitting the peasant, the party laughing about it, or something else. Sounds like major overreaction on his part.

You would think after all these years I would remember "The party never does what you expect"

True. One of my primary rules for successful DMing is "Thou shalt not expect".

 

[Goblyn]

I really can't take credit for the imagery pouring out of my mouth.

How's that for imagery?