Moments you live for in D&D gaming

[Psion]

Sleestaks = Dr. Who?

I am assuming you are asking what the source of Sleestaks is.

The answer is, Land of the Lost, an old live action Saturday morking series where a family gets lost in a land filled with prehistoric creatures, and the Sleestaks are villainous lizard thingies, some with access to some wierd magic/technology.

More info:
http://www.landofthelost.com/faq.cfm

 

[JoeBlank]

Great thread, Psion. Made me feel good just reading it.

My contributions:

• When I realize that the players are making decisions that are not meta-gaming, or better yet that go against what they would do if they were meta-gaming.
• After a fantastic session that seems to flow perfectly, the DM admits that nothing went according to plan and he was just winging it whole session.
• As so many others have said, just having the opportunity to get together with friends and forget the real world for a while. My original group includes friends from grade school, including one friend from kindergarten, now scattered across the country. I know that without gaming to draw us together we would most likely have grown apart and lost contact by now.
• And we still tell stories about games we shared over 20 years ago.

 

[Psion]

When I realize that the players are making decisions that are not meta-gaming, or better yet that go against what they would do if they were meta-gaming.

That reminds me of a lovely one.

In my campaign, I featured an empire with basic fire-elemental powered steamtech. The had a railroad train. The PCs had never heard of this technology before, though their commanders were given to muse on how the enemy could move troops and supplies to the front so quickly.

When crossing enemy territory, they ran across train tracks. I described what they saw in basic terms (i.e., you see thick metal bars laid across the ground, etc.)

After asking all the basic questions, one of my players really got into it and started roleplaying the conclusions his character would make as if not knowing what train track is. He eventually came to the conclusion it was some sort of communication device.

After a fantastic session that seems to flow perfectly, the DM admits that nothing went according to plan and he was just winging it whole session.

I've had a few of these, too. Most often when I expect players to go one direction and they go and do something I totally wasn't prepared to run.

 

[Evilhalfling]

The look on the face of a player as he realizes the best possible solution, then works out what his character would actually do.

moments where the action is so vivid I can actually see it happening
-like when someone has gotten caught in a tangle-foot bag, fallen backwards down a staircase and desperatly rolls onto his back and blasting away with his wand.

when the quiet backgroud player saves the day.

When they players decipher a complicated plot in a completely unexpected way. " .. so object reading only gives age, race, and alignment former owners of an object - so a 90 yr old human NE bought it from its 48 LG creator. How old is the head of your religious order? we need to talk."

 

[Krieg]

When players tell me "You're a VERY Naughty man!" Then I know I'm doing my job.

Can we please keep your personal life out of it? OK?

 

[SSquirrel]

Things from D&D (and otehr RPGs) that will always make me smile.

In high school we had staretd a new group. I was in 9th as were a coupla otehr guys, teh rest were in 7th. One of teh 7th graders had never played before and he made his character and when asked to describe it he said "I have a 6 foot elf". This was repeated by EVERYONE in the room and he would say it anytime he was talking about his character the first coupla sessions. Hilarious to this day.

Getting both Kender AND Malkavians BANNED from gaming groups in 2 different cities heh.

Creating a black hole in Mage and instead of teh whole group (and really teh whole world) being destroyed along with teh Technocrats attcking us, we're sent 200 years into a VERY different future.

Assisting the ST in teh above story with making mix tapes befre every session. Specific to that night. Never played for a gaming session afterwards.

A night of that game I missed the group imploded during Skunk Anansise's "Feed". This song was NEVER inclded on anotehr mix tape. The song lyrics include teh chorus line "Big Brotehr is watching you" and one of teh characters was a Technocrat double agent who narced teh group out. Hmm..common occurrence with that ST. Party goes nuclear heh.

"Shannon's character throws a bit of sand into the air and disappears into teh folds of space and time." A Rolemaster character with truly Obscene stealth capabilities.

More later.
Hagen

 

[ltclnlbrain]

Having a player so attached to his character that he insists on raising him each of the seventeen times he dies, despite the cost to the party.

When the players thank you for running a fun and exciting game and come to each session eager to see what awaits them next.

When you run an NPC so well that one of the players loses sight of whether that character is real or not.

The aquatic bugbear moment mentioned in my signature.

 

[Psion]

When the players thank you for running a fun and exciting game and come to each session eager to see what awaits them next.

When I was in the last really involved story arc when the players were really into their characters, they put in a special request that we set aside an extra day to game that week because they couldn't get enough.

That tickled me.

 

[Tharen the Damned]

As a player:

When you know, only the natural 20 can save the day and you actually roll it.

When you know that there is a trap/monster/theBBEG behind the door, but your PC doesn´t and you open it.


As a DM:

When your players as players and not only as PCs begin to really hate the BBEG.

 

[Cor Azer]

I generally rate my success in a session as a DM by the number of times one of my players says to me "ASS!"

As has been mentioned, when the players actually figure out the links between all sorts of seemingly unrelated plot events.

When players have their characters build relationships with NPCs that are not integral to the main plot at all.