D&D 5E Party Rolled a Teleport Mishap Near 200 giants-Plz Help!

[pontinyc]

How far were they teleporting from start to destination? Just go 1d10 x 1d10% of that distance away from the target. If they were only teleporting a short distance, that puts them at higher risk of dropping in some giants’ laps. But if it was a fairly long distance, they’re likely to be far off and safer.

This is interesting, billd91, thanks for the input. They were a hundred-plus miles away from the destination. Can I ask if this is usually how you handle a mishap?

 

[pontinyc]

Look up "Erfurt Latrine Disaster." You can even find videos covering it on YouTube (luckily, not videos of the actual disaster, since it happened in the 1100s).

It will be like that. But with 20x more horror and dark comedy.

Just looked it up. Amazing.

 

[Dragongrief]

What exactly did they roll? With standard Teleport, there are 3 bad results:

*Mishap - take damage and roll again.
*Off Target - 1d10x1d10% of the distance in a random direction.
*Similar Area - end up somewhere similar to the destination. (They could end up in a similar hut to where they intended on the opposite sode of the world)

 

[billd91]

This is interesting, billd91, thanks for the input. They were a hundred-plus miles away from the destination. Can I ask if this is usually how you handle a mishap?

If it’s the Off Target result, yeah, that’s the rule from the teleport spell. The teleport spell rules are pretty decent. Use them. Plus, the players have access to them, so they’ve given informed consent to apply them to the PCs.

 

[Gorck]

According to the 2014 Monster Manual, Stone Giants are "Neutral." Maybe the face of the group can attempt to plead with the Stone Giants to stop the Hill Giants and Ogres from killing them. Or at least, maybe the face can keep everyone occupied and distracted long enough for the Wizard to covertly cast Teleportation circle (from inside a makeshift jail cell if they can successfully plead for their lives).

Without knowing the layout of the camp, it's hard to say where a good place to put them would be (other than the aforementioned latrine). Perhaps they teleport directly into the Stone Giant leader's command tent and all the Hill Giants and Ogres are conveniently outside in the rest of the camp. After the initial shock of unexpectedly appearing in the tent, they can "Oops, sorry, didn't mean that. We'll be out of your way in just a minute (literally)" their way out of the predicament.

 

[GMMichael]

So, like the title says, the party rolled a mishap trying to teleport to a location which would enable them to sneak into a stone giant shaman's fortress. That location is about 500 yards from the fortress proper which is surrounded by seven tribes of stone and hill giants numbering over two hundred total, with plenty of ogres accompanying them.

Where should I place them as a result of the mishap?

In the kennels, with the other adventurers. And the dire pets.

100 feet above the desired location is always fun, too.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Lois McMaster Bujold had a heuristic: "What's the worst thing that could happen to Miles Vorkosigan that he could learn from?". It's not a bad one.

 

[Ancalagon]

This is interesting, billd91, thanks for the input. They were a hundred-plus miles away from the destination. Can I ask if this is usually how you handle a mishap?

OH

Ok my reading on this situation has completely changed, because there are clear rules that will tell us what happen. the closest they can be to the camp is one mile. Statistically, the average distance on a 1d10*1d10 % of a 100 miles is 32.5 miles (if the distance intended was 100 miles). The odds are very great that the party will appear too far away from the giant camp to be in danger - at least in danger from the giant camp.

This is really dependent on your players and their relation/expectations regarding your playstyle. Are they excited that the misshap is going to land them in a chaotic/exciting situation? Or are they the type who want the rules to be followed and let the dice decide? Because if it's the second type, they may feel that you deciding where they end up is the DM fudging/interfering too much.

So the most likely situation here is not "oh no we are too close to giants!'. It's "Oh no we are too FAR from the giants and we are in a rush!".

 

[Cergorach]

Where should I place them as a result of the mishap?

According to the 5e Teleport spell, they take 3d10 force damage and you reroll on the table to see where they land... The teleport spell is very clear on how it works...

If you throw 'mishap' again, another 3d10 force damage and keep rerolling.
Besides that, it's either on target, a similar area or off target.
A similar area: you teleport 500 yards off a fortress, just not the stone giant fortress. I would say, be creative. It can be a beholder fortress or a kobold fortress. Heck it could be a fortress made of cheese on the moon!
Off target: 1-100% off target of distance traveled (1d10x1d10%), it averages out at about 30%. I would take the destination and roll a d12 to determine direction and then move them the rolled amount of distance off the target.

And while I think that the latrine is extremely funny! It isn't at all how teleport works, you as the DM need to have a certain level of consistency, only make things up when there are no actual rules for something. In this case there are. As a player I roll with the punches, but I would find it annoying that the DM couldn't be bothered to read the rules for the game he's DMing... At that point, why bother with the rules yourself... If things work differently in your world, inform the players beforehand.

If this kills the PCs, so be it! The game becomes a lot less thrilling when there are no consequences.

Unless the distance is relatively minor and/or you throw horribly low, chances are small that they land in the middle of an Stone Giant encampment.

Source:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2275-teleport (PHB 2014)
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2619163-teleport (PHB 2024)

 

[pontinyc]

So, like the title says, the party rolled a mishap trying to teleport to a location which would enable them to sneak into a stone giant shaman's fortress. That location is about 500 yards from the fortress proper which is surrounded by seven tribes of stone and hill giants numbering over two hundred total, with plenty of ogres accompanying them.

Where should I place them as a result of the mishap?

They knew that there was a possibility that they could wind up smack dab in the middle of the giants' camp but decided to risk it anyway due to a severe time crunch (they know the giants are preparing a massive assault on a neighboring area). An npc teleported them, the party wizard has teleportation circle to get them back but that takes a minute to cast. If they land in the middle of the giants, they're probably going to TPK.

Any thoughts would be hugely appreciated, thanks!

Oh hi everyone, dingbat OP here. Turns out I read the spell rules incorrectly in the first place and then remembered something other than what I'd originally read. Oof. My apologies but I kicked off a thread after completely misunderstanding the parameters of the spell. Got it now.

Mishap is simply a reroll with damage. What I was really asking about was potential off-target results but now understand that, because they were roughly originally 100 miles from their targeted destination, any off-target result could put many them miles away from the target (though it could put them merely a mile from it, as well).

I had done some bizarre math in my head that was resulting in their potentially arriving much closer to their target than would be possible.

Many thanks to everyone who clarified the spell rules for my ding dong brain and to everyone who got me thinking about all sorts of options if they do land off-target. Very much appreciated!