Running Gags

[Mystery Man]

So, I'm on a DM hiatus right now and am starting to miss playing. I'm getting some things ready for Sept. when I hope to start my group up again and got to thinking about some of those running gags that a group inevitably has after playing for a long time.

These are mostly of the "you had to be there" type funny.

Running Gag 1. "And for the love of God, no aquatic elves!" The last sentence of my first email to my players for the first campaign I ran for them. Meant to be just a joke of course and for some reason it stuck, now they mock argue over who gets to play the aquatic elf if a PC dies. It just doesn't seem to go away.

Running Gag 2. "JUSTICE!!" The answer to a riddle. I had this great set of clues and all kinds of cool stuff planned in case they got stuck on it and one of my players shouts it out almost before I get done reading it out loud. I naturally accuse him of cheating (jokingly of course). Now whenever they're stuck on something and frustrated, that is the default answer usually yelled loud enough to wake sleeping neighbors.

Running Gag 3. "Time to get in the dinghy.." My first campaign with these guys I had a string of events where something bad would always happen in a boat. Attacked by lecedons, or left naked and weaponless floating in the middle of the sea, or attacked by a giant squid and having to swim for their lives... It got to the point where they refused to even get into anything that floats so I had to cool it with those types of encounters. Now someone always says "time to get in the dinghy" when they know their actions are going to lead to something catastrophic.


Your turn.

 

[Henry]

Our biggest one:

"Ah, screw it." One player used to say that in an old 2nd edition AD&D game just before his mage tossed a fireball into close quarters, usually because something was plaguing the group and they couldn't quite win. He did this in Goblin warrens, Ankheg burrows, narrow dungeon corridors, etc. And the players knew this was their cue to run away (assuming they went before him in initiative)

To this day, a player that says, "ah, screw it" is about to do something incredibly dumb and risky, such as lob a grenade into a close combat, or pull the Lever of Doom.

 

[diaglo]

"Liches," said by the munchkin in the group. he has an unnatural fear of Liches in every encounter from lvl 1 on up. now that we are lvl 13 and the possibility of their existence in an encounter is more likely.... he has gone quiet.

 

[Thunderfoot]

"TO THE BAT CAVE!" - a group of PCs, whilst looking for a hidden entrance to an underground tomb, thought they had found the entrance when they stumbled into a natural cave. As it turned out, it only had a bunch of bats in it. Later when the group looked to set up a permanent base of operation in the area and they were bouncing prospetive places about, someone said, "What about that cave with the bats in it?" A fighter then asked, "you mean the bat cave?"

After a five second pause everyone yelled "To the bat cave!". So everytime they returned to their BoO they yellled, TTBC - someone once brought in a tape recorder with the old Batman theme song on it (the 60s TV show) and after the inevitable nightly rendering hit the play button. Gaming was pretty much over at that point that evening.

 

[Masquerade]

"You see Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Chewbacca costume eating a gnome," or its counterpart "Try the gnome!". A running joke that shows up whenever our DM realizes that he's broken continuity. I was originally the one who said the former quote, and it just stuck. So, whenever something feels out of place, it's guaranteed that we'll encounter AS in a CC eating a G.

"It explodes and flaming bats fly out everywhere" is a common answer to the question "I'm watching the X. Does anything happen?" in the campaign I run.

There are many countless others that don't immediately come to mind.

 

[Wystan]

I kill it:

Whenever we get off on tangents one of the players will randomly say "I kill it" the invariable response train follows:

"Roll"
"I got a 20"
"You missed, it eats you"

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

You can cast Animate Object on a gag I guess & command it to Run or Double Move.

Wonder if it gets Improved Grapple as a bonus feat. Be great against spellcasters.

Works well with an Animated Rope*.



*Animated Riding Crop, Whip, Cane, or Fraternity Paddle sold seperatly.

 

[Random Axe]

"Here's the plan."

In our Star Wars campaign years and years ago, our group epitomized the old adage, "No battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy." Every time we tried to come up with a reasonable plan for taking on some enemy or puzzle, right out of the gate something would go horribly wrong and devastation would ensue. Finally it got to the point where to speak the above phrase was our cue that we were all about to be TOAST.

"I stun the Wookiee"
In our current gaming campaign, whether it is doing Star Wars, D&D, Birthright, or Babylon 5, the player who plays the Wookiee is always so off the wall, no matter what game we're in or what character he is, one of us will always resort to this quote as our way of throwing up our hands...

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Every now and then, someone will decalare an action and the DM will say:

"You did it! You win D&D!"

 

[-Warlord-]

"Ulrich"
The name of one of the pc's in an all-paladin/cleric campaign I ran. His player complained (over and over) about the fact that Ulrich only had 40 hp's at level 5, which put his equal with one of the clerics, and below everone else.

An Ulrich has become synominous with 40 hp's.

Used in a sentence:
"I hit the ogre for 1/2 an Ulrich"
"My character has 1 1/2 Ulrichs hp's"