RBDMs, what's the most RB thing you've ever done?

[Primitive Screwhead]

Most RBDM moment? putting aside all the Paranoia game sessions of course

I was once invited to guest DM for a freind whose game had gotten a wee bit Monty Haul.. well, more that a wee bit. He had the group set up to chase a Lich down into its lair. So I took over the session, adding in a dash of freindly Vampire from next door and sent 2 of the 8 characters into Undeath.. but that was all just window dressing.

After defeating the Lich and his Vampiric freind, the group found thier way into an underground chamber full of treasure. In the middle of the room sat a throne...

In the base of the throne was a hidden secret door, trapped with poison..

The Thief could not resist.. he opened the secret door to find a small wooden box. Meanwhile, the rest of the party is marveling over all the *kewl loot*, pawing through Figurines of Wonderous power and flaming Greatswords..

Inside the box was a simple, plain ring and a note. The note read 'Wear this ring and speak my name, and all my power will surround you.'

Thief.... well, he uses the unique Ring....of Mordenkainen's Disjunction. It dispelled every magic effect and disjoined every magic item within a 60' radius.

Did I mention the roof was held up by walls of force?


The party survived, albiet without any magical loot.... except the Ring, and the campaign continued under the normal GM, but he didn't go all Monty Haul anymore.
{actually turned out to be a good game afterwards... }

 

[QuaziquestGM]

Cursed scroll of mass animate dead at the bottom of the dungeon. Everything they killed to get to the bottom they had to destroy to get out.

 

[Numion]

Cursed scroll of mass animate dead at the bottom of the dungeon. Everything they killed to get to the bottom they had to destroy to get out.

I think we have a winner. Simple and elegant.

 

[Rechan]

Cursed scroll of mass animate dead at the bottom of the dungeon. Everything they killed to get to the bottom they had to destroy to get out.

I'm curious how you got them to cast it. In my experience, when PCs get a scroll, they identify it and then put it in a pocket to use twenty sessions later.

 

[Mark Chance]

Way back in 1E days when I didn't let people get a saving throw against a illusion for just interacting with it, I ran a small group through a veritable maze of death and madness in which various enemies appeared and disappeared with alarming ease. After several hours of wandering lost, wondering from which direction the next ambush would occur, one of the players said words to the effect of, "This can't be happening. I disbelieve." I then endured angry glares and various expletives as the characters discovered the maze was a massive permanent illusion.

Good times.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Most recent:

I have a running sub plot in my current game. In the 1st session, the players met an imperious nobleman, Giovanni de la Roche, who demanded the players give him their horses. The party refused, and in the ensuing fight, killed him. The mans hired henchmen returned the mans body to his family.

2 sessions later, they encountered Antonio de la Roche. That encounter started with "Hello. My name is Antonio de la Roche. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Well, Antonio died. Later after that, they encountered Ricardo de La Roche, who said "Hello. My name is Ricardo de la Roche. You killed my Uncle, and my cousin. Prepare to die." A reward was also placed on their heads. A good time was had by all. Well, Ricardo survived and was locked up and a ransom demand was issued.

The players were paid a Ransom by Vincent de la Roche. 4000 gp, paid in four 1000 gp letters of credit. However, only one of the letters of credit was legitimate. The others were for only 50 gp, and has Firetrap cast on them. I brain farted though, and should have used explosive runes. Still, the de la Roche family is still a factor in the game. More is yet to come of this. The players recently hired a Bard to spread a bunch of lies and slander against them.

Now, less recently:
In a 2nd edition game run back in 1998, an Orog Warlord called Rourc had come into prominance. The players intercepted a patroll, wiped it out, and left a prisoner tied to a tree. They then carved a challenge into a survivors chest, challenging the warlord to an honorable 4 vs 1 duel. They then moved off, and kept watch for a few days. A few days later, a 2nd patrol found the first, and took the survivor down from the tree. A day after that, a patrol returned and left a response on the tree, giving the players a time and a location. Their challenge had been accepted.

The players then entered the warlords camp. The warlord had a pretty large army, all wanting to kill the players. But not a hand was laid on them. They warlord, an impressive half Orc / half Ogre stepped out and greeted the players. He told them to go ahead, and get their armour on. When the mage did not armour up, the following exchange took place.

Rourc: "I see you are not donning armour. Are you a mage?"
Greg: "You will find out."
Rourc: "You will die first".

Anyway, initiative was rolled, and the fight started.

Round 1: Rourc drops Greg in 1 round, gives Garret a vicious smile.
Round 2: Rourc drops Garret in 1 round. Gives Derrick a vicious smile.

So now half the party is dead, and Rourc and the party tank are squaring off. Rourc is doing big amounts of damage, and he has soaked up some heavy attacks. Derrick has a retarded AC, and plenty of HP, but he was not going to hold out for long. Charlie was just throwing out called shots (from 2nd Edition Combat and Tactics), and pretty much figured he was dead. But the players scored a the kill. One of Charlies called shots caused Rourcs armour to be damaged, and Rourc's hp gave out. It was a classic D&D moment, with a hard fought victory. The players were cheering and giving one another high fives. Than I told them the following (not word for word exactly, but the gist).

<As charlie was basically eviscerating Rourc> Rourc falls down, and as you tear his intestines out, he is laughing. As he is laughing, he fades from view, but you still hear laughing. "That was fun!". Rourc steps out of his tent laughing, accompanied by a man in blue robes. "This is Targ, my Illusionist. My god, you guys are retarded. You challenge me to an honorable[/] 4 vs 1 Duel? What the hell do I care for honor. I am an Orog warlord, not some idiot human knight." Rourc looks at his massive army that you are now in the middle of. "Ok. Lets get em boys."

At this point, the game went on hold as my players charged me en mass. After a few minutes, things settled down. Greg's character failed the system shock roll, and stayed dead. The rest of the fight was pretty quick, and the players went down, but were kept alive, and stripped of gear, and tied to a tree with Rourc's brand carved into their chest.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[robertliguori]

So, one of my players ends up sending his sorceror solo-adventuring in a city well known for being adventurer-capable. However, the adventurer-capability of the city tops out around levels 6-8. The character is level 16. He investigates a bit, gets lost, and runs into a pretty if slightly ill-kempt half-elven lass, who cheerfully offers to tour-guide him around the city for a nominal fee (nominal for a normal person, as opposed to a L16 adventurer). Now, the fact of the matter is that the lass is in fact a warlock/rogue of some note, who was standing around looking for a grab-bag of magical auras indicating loot. The plan was, she finds some adventurer who's off by his lonesome, lures him into an alley 'defending' her, and then joins in her band of thugs in slaying the adventurer and looting his body.

The warlockess decided that there was going to be a bit of a divergence from normal operating procedures when the adventurer she snared does follow her into an alley, does get surrounded by her thugs, and then turns and obliterates half of them with a Prismatic Spray. At this point, the warlockess decides that her survival is contingent on the sorceror continuing to think well of her. As such, she promptly leaps to the sorceror's aid (without using any magic and taking a hefty voluntary penalty on her attacks to simulate lack of combat expertise). The thugs, cursing her for a traitor, die quickly, and the warlockess thanks the sorceror for coming to her aid. A bit later on, he presses her for information on what was meant by her being a traitor. She 'breaks down', and begins weaving an elaborate story about how she used to be a (very) minor noble of a house driven to poverty by a criminal conspiracy penetrating almost every level of the city's society.

Now, it's at this point that I feel the need to point out that despite making it to level 16, the sorceror appeared to be quite content with his 0 ranks in Sense Motive and his Wis of 8. Conversely, the only thing the warlockess could do effectively was lie. The end result? I gave the player no extra information other than what the warlockess was actually doing and saying (lying effectively), and the player decided he was being given his next series of quests. So, the sorceror briefly wined and dined the warlockess, took her to a hideously expensive show in which he ended up doing an exhibition spell-duel against the city's top three arcane champions simultaneously (and winning), and then, not having exhausted half of his spell slots, murdered half of the people on the list the warlockess gave and gave the rest stern warnings to shape up or they would get the same. He then flew back to meet the warlockess, showed off the 'family heirlooms' he had 'recovered' for her and mentioned his accomplishments.

It's at this point that the warlockess abandons her current plan to murder the sorceror in his sleep and settles for getting the hell out of dodge and finding someplace where she will be safe from the combined wrath of the city and the walking demigod that is the character. Knowing the player as I do, I throw a few cues at him that ensure that he ends up 'seducing' the warlockess. I fade to black, roll a few very significant Sleight of Hand checks, and have the player wake up to find the warlockess and all of his easily removable gear missing (but easily found in the vaults of the magic dealers, who recently sold a series of disguise, protection, and transportation magics to an unknown party matching her description), and the city watch running away in fear at his approach.

When investigation confirmed that his sweetie wasn't his sweetie...well, the expression on his face was priceless.

 

[Rabelais]

When investigation confirmed that his sweetie wasn't his sweetie...well, the expression on his face was priceless.

Ok, that's pretty RBish

 

[QuaziquestGM]

I'm curious how you got them to cast it. In my experience, when PCs get a scroll, they identify it and then put it in a pocket to use twenty sessions later.

Oh...they do now...

But back in the day, the party would try to save the 100 gp pearl by just using read magic to figure out scrolls, and that sets it off.

The cursed scroll before they had held on to for weeks of playing time and a month or 2 of game time when the wizard decided to take the time to identify it and the other "unsorted"s in the wagon. It was a cursed scroll of summon cockatrice. The fighters were on the other side of the wagon eating breakfast...and the wizard decided to solo it without yelling for help. The statue ended up being the party christmas tree...

 

[Numion]

When investigation confirmed that his sweetie wasn't his sweetie...well, the expression on his face was priceless.

That was excellent RBism. Brings a warm smile to any DMs face.

I once did a variation of this. The PCs were investigating a series of disappearances in a remote stretch of land with only one village of settlers (they were the ones disappearing). A sneaky Barghest was lairing nearby, and he planted false evidence to point to a wizards tower, and in the end convinced the PCs to storm the wizards tower, because the wizard was the barghests only capable enemy, other than the adventurers.

Years before in WFRP I had a fake wizard hire them to break into 'his tower' since he had 'forgotten the keys', paid for by small portion of the treasures inside