Most interesting dilemma you've thrown at your players?

[staz100]

Not really a dilemma, but it was really cool plot twist.

A friend of mine was GMing a superheroes game set in the late 1930s - post WWI but pre-WWII. We were members of a elite, but experimental, U.S. couter-intelligence group. We knew the Germans were experimenting with genetic manipulation. Persumably those individuals with recessive genes (like blond hair and blue eyes) are more genetically accepting of gene manipulation. The "Uber-Mensch" was really meant to be that - a genetically superior human, through gene manipulation.

Our group was at a wealthy Germans estate for a party. We knew something was going to happen and that the Germans were going to reveal something important. It was our job to infiltrate and find out what the big revealation was going to be. Well, this wealthy individual unveiled a whole big army. Tanks, motorized vehicles, the whole big she-bang!

Our group was discovered as spies and we fled the party towards are pre-determined pick up point. Heading east. Did I mention that this estate was very near the German/Polish border? So to be short, our elite-superhero powered counter-intelligence group actually started WWII!!!!

 

[Kae'Yoss]

My campaign contains a sweet little 6-year old girl who happens to be the embodiment of pure evil - only she doesn't know it.

I guess you liked Good Omens, did you?



My DM has unleashed a couple of minor not-niceties on us, not as bad as the ones here, but I'll share them nonetheless.

The first was simply this: We fought a powerful demon-prince (epic levels), and after we killed him, we inspected his sword. It was ludicrously expansive (+12 or so). BUT: It was evil (it had the epic special ability unholy power). Me being a champion of good, I simply had to destroy the thing - much to the dismay of the parties over-greedy, non-good mage. That player has still not forgiven me destroying that thing instead of selling it.


In the current campaign, an attempt to use a plane-travelling device went wrong and we were stranded in the etherial, without any means of escape. We were then surrounded by enemies who could easily kill us who said they'd bring us home.... If we would surrender one of us (who had a prophecy going on) to them.

 

[Piratecat]

I intend to steal heartily from this thread.

 

[Psion]

Many such situations in my game could be summed up as "deals with the devil." IOW, when the players are put in the situation of having to appeal to and aid a power that they don't trust in order to meet their own goals.

A particularly poignant example of this that comes to mind is when the players met with a kobold lich expert in constructs, and bargained an exchange with him to get his construct domination spell to help them stop a wave of beholder constructs headed to their homeland. This exchange was negoatiated out of earshot of the Paladin and when he learned about it, he was furious!

Another simple but common situation is when the PCs have to fight otherwise good people who are obligated to serve the "bad guy".

 

[Jolly Giant]

Lot's of good stuff to steal in this thread; love it!

So, here's my contribution:

The PCs are in a town that's isolated and starving because of an unnaturally long and hard winter (the BBEG's doing of course; long story). It's gotten to the point where people use their furniture for firewood and when dear old granma dies the family might very well have stew for dinner the next day...

Two NPC clerics have recently arrived in town. They serve an evil god of death/undeath, but set up a small shrine where they serve out food (using the Create Food and Drink spell) to the people. You just have to pledge allegiance to the god of death andd accept his "blessing" and you'll not only get food, but the promise of eternal life as well.

The PCs investigate and discover that the "blessing" consists of a spell that makes the target raise as an undead if he/she dies (from Magic of Faerun). A lot of people know this, but still come to these clerics to get food for themselves and their families.

The PCs (who all have characters based on the BoED, the campaign being a counterpoint to our other ongoing campaign where they're all evil) obviously want to stop these evil clerics, but if they do so a great number of innocent people -including children- will starve to death....

They sweated long and hard over this one, let me assure you! In the end they sold all of their most valuable items and used the money to finance the creation of a magic item that let them utilize Create Food and Drink at will! So now they're just sitting around waiting for the item to be finished, leaving the evil clerics alone - for the time being!

 

[trowizilla]

Ah, a beloved memory.

The party is in Igelden, a trade city run by a High and a Low council. Council meetings are held twice a year, and the only acceptable excuses for missing a meeting are childbirth, grave illness, and being on a city-sanctioned quest. No other excuses are allowed, period. The penalty for missing a council is forced suicide, with no resurrections possible.
So, the party gets to know a Lady Eleanor, who is trying to pass legistlation to ban the child brothels, slave trades, and body sales that had been proliferating in the city. They also run into the Lord Velden, a middle-aged, pot-bellied man who happens to head nearly all of the city's vile businesses. Who is also a highly prominent politician. Who kidnaps Lady Eleanor the day before the council meeting.

After fighting and sneaking their way through Velden's estate, the party bursts into Velden's bedchamber to discover Velden, a bound Eleanor, and a Tainted Elf sorcerer they'd been clashing with for a few sessions. They, of course, make for the elf, and Velden, who is a sneaky, resourceful (#^$@#), sees his chance. He steps to Eleanor, puts a dagger to her throat, and says "If anyone moves, she dies."

A long, tense stalemate ensues. A single shot would probably take out Velden, but not before he cuts Eleanor's throat. Resurrections IMC take at least a week, so if she dies and they raise her, she'll have to commit suicide for missing the council meeting.

Finally, the atheistic wizard uses her "divine answer" card she got from a (heavily altered) Deck of Many Things, and gets the Goddess of the Holy Fire to step in. Velden made a lovely barbeque, the Tainted Elf teleported out of there, and the wizard now owes service to a deity she'd never believed in.

I love me some plot hooks.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Ok... Yoink.

We were a strange group; it took the DM a lot of effort to get us to loot this hoard that belonged to the dwarven mafia...he had to have us stumble on a plot of theirs to loot the Imperial treasury for us to finally get around to looting it.

So, since the Bad Guy wasn't doing anything BAD, we couldn't do anything to him. We were a surprisingly law-abiding group towards the end...even the Neutral (leaning towars NE) character couldn't do anything until provoked (not that he could...).

Brad

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

I do not often DM... in fact, I've done it once...

However, in my observation-- and this could just be our group-- the DM rarely throws interesting dilemmas at us... it seems that we the players throw OURSELVES into the most interesting situations.

Indeed, our campaign has rightfully achieved what a dear friend of mine would call "Gong Show" status... we cause ourselves more pain, trouble, and angst because of our own stupidity to need the DM to throw us into these situations..

But, great thread! I'm learning a lot for my future excursions as a DM!

 

[Stone Angel]

Yeah ok consider most of these ideas yoinked! I espicially like the RPing heavy ones. The Musketeers one for example.

The Seraph of Earth and Stone

 

[Piratecat]

Hmmm. I'll throw out a few.

• On a planar adventure, the PCs managed to annoy (but not kill) an erinyes. She found out what Prime the PCs were from and headed there herself. While the PCs were still dallying arounf the planes, the erinyes took human guise and charmed, then married, a PC's father. She then poisoned the father against the PC, even as she continued to harvest souls from local commoners. When the PCs returned and called her on it, she calmly pointed out that in this country having congress (of any sort) with fiends was punishable by death and complete confiscation of family wealth by the crown. Sure, the PCs could attack her. . . but if they didn't kill her in one blow, she'd teleport to the King and make it very clear that the PC's father was married to a fiend.
• Inadvertently turning up the magic jar of an archmage when exploring a ruined magic academy, the wizard possessed one of the PCs. The group was then forced to catch this "PC" within 24 hours, BEFORE she had time to prepare all her spells, and without hurting the woman whose body was possessed.
• I once used a crystal ball to give a wizard a glimpse of a beautiful girl, held captive. Using the crystal ball to talk to her, they learned that she was to be sacrificed to bring back a powerful arcvh-devil. After venturing through a horrible dungeon and freeing her, they learned the hard way that she was the arch-devil, that the PCs had just undone the prison created by a LG church, and that she was communicating through a crystal hypnosis ball.