My poor, unfortunate players...

[MerricB]

We had finally reached the end of the module, Feast of Goblyns, converted to 3.5E rules. After several months of intrigue, deception, dungeon crawling and horror, the PCs were involved in a massive fight against the living dead.

All they had to do was to kill the undead, and then let the paladin kill the villain. I'd told them several times during the session, it'll be bad if anyone but the paladin kills the chief bad guy.

I guess you know what happened next. The sorceress killed the chief bad guy.

Greyhawk isn't going to be the same again. I was somewhat nice to the PCs - instead of killing them outright, I banished them to another plane of existence. And I'm going to make things very bad for that sorceress. Her player needs to learn a lesson or two about paying attention.

Cheers!

 

[Shemeska]

Not having read or played that module, what was the reasoning behind only having the paladin kill the BBEG? Was it something within the plot of the module, or what?

 

[Castellan]

I'd told them several times during the session, it'll be bad if anyone but the paladin kills the chief bad guy.

This would've heralded open-season on that bad guy, with my group. Everyone but the paladin would have gone after him, for various reasons.

I've learned to ask myself, "What is the one thing I don't want my players to do?" Then I plan for them to do that thing, plus one more that I hadn't thought of.

I consider a D&D game to be really tough improv, where I know something unexpected is going to be thrown at me -- I just don't know what.

Of course, I probably would've done something similar to you, and cackled maniacally as I did it!

 

[Wycen]

After a particularly bad session of Vampire, I came up with the mantra, "never under estimate the stupidity of your players". Though I suppose I was talking about my group mostly. On the plus side, they haven't done anything quite that bad since, except the incident with the fireball and necklace of missiles.

 

[billd91]

I'm a little confused too. I haven't ready Feast of Goblyns in years and I can't think of why nobody but a paladin should kill the BBEG. If that was in a published module, I'd be surprised since any party without a paladin would be hosed and that's not a normal thing in published scenarios.
The other question that comes to mind is: how did the PCs, in character, get any inkling that only a paladin should kill the BBEG? If it wasn't something in character, how should the character be expected to know about it? If it's just the DM dropping hints, well, I think we've all ignored hints and taunts from our DMs from time to time and lived to tell the tale...

 

[DanMcS]

Your poor players is right, but probably not for the reason you think. Sounds like a bad case of lame railroading to me.

 

[dreaded_beast]

Your poor players is right, but probably not for the reason you think. Sounds like a bad case of lame railroading to me.

While I wouldn't use the exact phrase , I agree with most of it.

Calling players dumb or stupid for not doing as you intended, being able to solve a puzzle, do the "obvious" thing, etc. is neither respectful or polite.

Players are not mindreaders and I believe that noone thinks exactly alike. Something obvious to the DM may not be so obvious to the players and vice-versa.

That being said, I don't really know the specifics of this adventure. For example, if the PCs meet an NPC that specifically told them that the paladin was destined to kill the BBEG, that's one thing. If the Sorceress is playing "in-character", a chaotic sort that doesn't believe in stuff like that, that another thing as well.

However, if the players were just rebelling against your carefully laid plans (akin to the KOTD, which I am assuming you have read ), then that's a cruel thing for you players to do to you.

 

[diaglo]

it is Ravenloft what do you expect.

here it is as a free download from the WotC site:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/2/ra1/FeastofGoblyns.zip

 

[Arnwyn]

If that was in a published module, I'd be surprised since any party without a paladin would be hosed and that's not a normal thing in published scenarios.

I'm assuming, then, that you've never seen a Ravenloft adventure? Because all the bad things you hear about 2e adventures is because of Ravenloft modules. *shudder*

 

[Beard in the Sky]

I was a PC in a Star Wars game a few years back and one of my fellow players was playing a Jedi. The main bad guy turned out to be an NPC the GM had come up with for him alone... talk about bad decisions. When we finally faced off with him, the GM had some sort of force field or something keep the rest of us from being able to help him fight the guy. It was horrible...we just had to watch (in and out of game). This was the old West End Star Wars game and lightsabers were... dangerous. Our buddy whips out his lightsaber, takes a swipe at his (and our) arch-nemesis... and cuts his OWN HEAD OFF. lol. The villain got away because the GM couldn't justify having the mysterious force field just "go away" and the campaign ended with him flying off into space, victorious. Hell, I guess my character is still trapped on some freighter inside that force field.