Players Surprising GM...

[Stumblewyk]

I have one player who is consistently matching wits with me in character. I don't mind this in the least, since most of my other players are happy to ride the plot along, and this player keeps me on my toes.

In our previous campaign, I had a coup take place in the PCs homeland. The rightful king was deposed, exiled, and assumed dead. The PCs knew this to be a lie, and were all staunch king's men (and women). They had recently moved the king further into hiding for safety, and were travelling to the capital to confront the traitor (the former queen, her new lover - an old NPC villain, and her brother who now captained the Queen's Guard). The queen's brother was speaking in a city they were passing through, announcing the new holiday of Reunification Day, trying to effectively quash any further rebellion through political maneuvering.

The player in question (playing a Sorcerer/Warlock/Arcane Theurge) proceeded to tell his allies to flee the city at nightfall. He remained behind to confront the queen's brother at his speech the next day.

As crowds gathered in the square, he magically altered his appearance to look like the deposed king-in-hiding. As Hugh the Betrayer began his speech, Malcolm (the PC) cast off his robes, and declared to all who gathered that "though the vile betrayers may say his claim to the throne was no more and that he had died, all these things were lies. King Pietr Hallorand lives now, and will return to reclaim the throne in time!" Then he launched his most powerful quickened spells at Hugh and his retinue.

Hugh barely survived the initial blasts, as did his gnome wizard advisor. Hugh leapt into the crowd, drew his blade, and charged at the imposter-king. Before he could strike, the gnome wizard hit Malcolm with a Baleful Polymorph. The "king" disappeared. And a tiny, harmless rabbit scampered off to hide.

...

I was so blown away by the preparation, delivery, and outright awesomeness of the player's plan that even though Malcolm failed his saves and remained a rabbit, he's now a national hero. The king did reclaim his throne, with the help of the PCs, and in recognition of Malcolm's sacrifice, and assumed death, King Pietr Hallorand erected a statue in Malcolm's honor in the very square where he sacrificed himself and raised the spirits of the King's subjects.

Today, Malcolm serves as my wife's Sorcerer's familiar. He insists he's a great war hero, but the 16 year old sorceress just assumes that her rabbit is precocious.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

This is tagged a Mutants and Masterminds thread, but I'm going to answer with what happened recently in a D&D 3.5 (with Saga + 4E houserules) game I was running.

The players had been on the trail of a multiple murderer, and had reason to believe that the suspect was actually a Red Wizard of Thay, who had been in cahoots with a town councilman to smuggle in low-end magical goods (and some additional, less-savory stuff, besides) against the local Duke's express wish to keep any and all Red Wizards out of his territory.

Long story made short, the Red Wizard(ess) and her underlings assembled the results of their blood-magic-enfused-undead magical research, a score of armsmen, and a swathe of more normal undead, and marched on the town, and the party rallied the town's militia to fight them off.

I planned the battle for ... well, for weeks, because we didn't get together that often. I got miniatures for each unit of militia and enemies. I made up some mass combat rules using the Saga Edition fighter squadron rules plus some additional morale rules. I made tokens for each side, and little stat cards for each unit, so that whomever was playing it at the moment would know what to roll and when.

In short, it was going to be an epic final battle, with more than ... 400? ... total combatants (separated into 10-20 units on each side to keep things doable).

The party formed up their battle lines, and then left town, bringing a single unit of half-orc irregulars and a single unit of cavalry with them, to scout out the enemy forces. In the middle of the night, they came across the Red Wizard's encampment in a copse of trees some short miles from town, which was ringed with undead (many of whom were glowing softly) and archers (some human, some skeletal). It was, in short, an absolutely overwhelming force - and they arrived just in time to stop a large, heavily-laden wagon enter the encampment (which carried the enemies' additional magical weapons and toys).

They elected to just watch the wagon travel the last couple miles and enter the encampment.

Then they attacked the encampment. Six heroes, a dozen NPC troops in support, against about 200 mixed undead (some of them particularly nasty) and human soldiers.

After the battle was joined, I looked at them and said, "I gave you guys an army; you really decided to solo this?"

They actually won, though it was a very close-run thing, because:

1) The Elven Wizard casted Enlarge Person and Bull's Strength on the Half-Orc Druid and then Enlarged himself, giving them *just* enough Strength to knock over the small hut in which the main Red Wizard, her best apprentices, and a good number of strong undead bodyguards were spending the night the round before they burst out and laid waste to a sizeable portion of the PCs. I'd determined, at the start of the battle, that the Wizard and her apprentices would spend a certain number of rounds casting her best short-term buff spells before entering the fight, and then halved that number when the PCs started in on the hutt. Missed it by one! And ...

2) One of the PCs, in an act of desperation, leapt into the campfire, got horribly burned, and threw an armfull of burning wood into the back of the wagon. Which set it on fire. Which caused the specially-prepared siege ammunition (which would have absolutely devastated large portions of the militia, necessitating *someone* to go break through the enemy lines to disrupt the siege engines in the main battle) to cook off. When the fire started on the wagon, the human soldiers that had engaged and surrounded several of the PCs threw down their swords and *booked it.* The PCs took the hint, but were still thrown bodily to the ground when, a few rounds later, the whole thing detonated.

The PCs were recognized for their assistance to the Duke, who chartered them as a recognized Adventuring Company (he's a Cormyrian ex-pat), and named the Company as Baron of the northern reaches of his demesne. The PCs chose to call themselves the "Company of the Crater," for obvious reasons.

And I, on the other hand, got to look at the list of NPC names I'd drawn up. Every militiaman was named, many after old characters of my own or of people I've played with over the years, so that in the aftermath I could actually construct a listing of the dead and let people know how they'd fared.

I figured the PCs would have to deal with a fairly-well decimated settlement, and rebuild it from the smoking ashes. Instead, well, basically everyone lived, and the PCs are now the Barons of a vibrant, celebratory village!

Color me surprised!

 

[pawsplay]

A notorious incident from my last campaign: after fighting through a ziggurat filled with mind flayer monks, the PCs at last reach the vault containing the Heart of Ice, a humongous sapphire of priceless worth. During the final battle, the party wizard contemptously casts a fireball into a group of weakened opponents, destroying them all. He's grinning ear to ear, until he notices the other players looking appalled. His fireball had encompassed the Heart of Ice, destroying it. They never let him live that one down.

On another occasion, they ventured into the well-secured lair of a vampire, including high-level hidey holes to prevent ground-based intruders. After first annihlating his throne room and obliterating the vampire, they chased his incorporeal form to his hidden coffin, sunk into a great wall accessible only through a tiny air hole. They summoned a celestial giant bee, and sent it on a couple of timed runs. After estimating the depth of the hole, the wizard carefully aimed his fireball through the tiny aperture...

In one game, a group of low level adventurers was exploring some ruins. I told they spotted a pack of ghouls in the distance. They decided they were probably outmatched (correct). They decided the best course of action was to hide in some trees (incorrect). The last thing I remember about the conversation after the TPK that followed was me shouting, "Why didn't you run away? Hiding in trees???" One of the players said, "Well, it works with bears." (No. It doesn't).

 

[Evilhalfling]

I the current game the PCs were on an important mission to save the world, with a clear objective in mind. When they heard it was snowing, in late summer several hundred miles in the other direction.
On the plus side that bonus adventure that comes with the monster vault is a lot of fun.


Then they were chasing down an important NPC named "Gerald the Wanderer" they finally found a friend of his, and arranged a meeting using a sending spell.
Gerald missed the meeting but offered to meet up elsewhere. The party concensus "Nah." and they went hunting pirate treasure, almost missing a orc invasion.

 

[Heathen72]

#3) As a DM, I had to helplessly watch as a party ambushed my BBEG Necromancer... The Paladin walked up to him in the market and said something to the effect of "Sir, I have something for you," and quick-drew her sword and stabbed him before his bodyguards could react.

A 'paladin' king-hit someone in broad daylight and killed them. I am not surprised you were surprised!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Did I mention they laughed and almost made me cry?



I was secretly proud of them, though...I mean, it was such an excellent piece of teamwork and planning...and lets face it, the die rolls meant fortune was on their side in a big, big way.

 

[Tdata]

Laughter

A bunch of these events made me laugh just reading about them. I am thinking about running some more of the D&D campaign I have going with the pyramid tomorrow, maybe I will be surprised again.

Also, has anyone had fun with people being given "Wish" spells or items that can get them a use of one? Personally I haven't, but my bro-in-law who is one of my players and my sister both have numerous stories to tell.

For example, once one of their friends had gotten an item with a wish on it. He didn't want to use it right away and eventually forgot he had it. Well eventually him and his party came across a mirror that makes the person who looks into it fight an evil copy of him/herself, along with items.

I don't remember the name of the mirror. But the GM had to remind the player to double check his items and he had to use the wish item to finish off his double, b/c the GM would make the double use his(my bro-in-law was the GM so could say for certain).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Also, has anyone had fun with people being given "Wish" spells or items that can get them a use of one? Personally I haven't, but my bro-in-law who is one of my players and my sister both have numerous stories to tell.

Before I joined my current group, one guy's character got a piece if magical jewelry out of the treasure. While holding it, he said, "I wish I knew what this thing was."

A voice out of nowhere spoke clearly, and with volume, "I am the Talisman of Zagy!", and it disappeared in a burst of light, leaving behind a large diamond.

Apparently, he stammered in disbelief for quite a while after that.

 

[Tdata]

Another Wish story...

Another story I have been told about forgetting having a wish item was from my sister.
I forget the story behind the game that was going on at the time, but apparently she was mad at one of the NPCs who was no where near where she was at. She happens to say "I wish 'so-and-so(insert name)' was in front of me so I can punch him." Well, he appears right in front of her with a surprised look on his face. She decides to go ahead and punch him even though she had not been "planning" on it. After which, he disappears(I guess to go back where he came from, having been brought just so she could punch him).