Two events that I almost allowed to happen at the start of my last campaign.
1: Campaign starts with the characters, 1st level, on the run from the devastating destruction of the training camp in which they grew up. In the initial write-up, their characters manage to evade wizards on dragons, a force of trolls and a skirmish line of bugbears, all of which are more than a match for the PCs, because older, more senior types sacrifice themselves to help *someone* (ie, the young) get away from what is an overwhelming defeat.
The write-up continues with the PCs waking up in a wooded patch where they had all collapsed in exhaustion, to see a bunch of others stupidly cooking breakfast around a campfire. Dragons come in and kill the lot of them. The whole thing is a setup to establish that the PCs are 'on the run' and in extreme danger.
So...what do they do? Well, the initial response is to want to turn back toward the army that they just ran from. No, that's suicide folks. So they run parallel to it, despite my hair-pulling attempts to get them to see that this is NOT A GOOD IDEA.
All day long, they have to stop and hide as wizards on dragons fly overhead. They at least have the good sense to do this.
That night, what do they do? Light a campfire...
NO NO NO NO NO.
"Ok, the NPCs try to stop you and, failing that, they run away, saying you are suicidally stupid" Sure thing, the players insisted on the fire. So I gave the players a choice. a> Throw away your character sheets and come up with new ones, b> Give up on the whole idea of this campaign, or c> GET THE CLUE and not only not light the campfire, but FREAKING RUN AWAY ALREADY!!!
So, after several days of moving AROUND the army and watching everyone get killed around them, they're running from a bunch of Bugbears. Dwarf Ranger gets separated, runs the wrong direction and crests a hill to see the backside of a Beholder. I give it to him that the thing doesn't initially see him. What does he do?
"I attack".
WHY? "I figured you wouldn't throw anything at us that we couldn't handle.". This from a long-time D&D player. *sigh* Guess you haven't been paying attention, have you.
"Ok, I'll give you one more chance. a> Come up with a new character; b> go home and don't come back; c> RUN AWAY ALREADY!!!"