Share you worst campaign meltdown
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
Off topic, I have to describe an incomparable scene in Victoria, British Columbia that I saw the year before last. The bus fleets in BC's two major cities had just got digital displays for their route names. Buses going off-duty had always just displayed "not in service" up to this point. But once people figured out that one could give a route name two screens' worth of information, the buses in Vancouver began to flash "Sorry," followed by "Not in Service."reveal said:How do you get a Canadian to apologize? Punch him in the face!
Not to be outdone, the more grammatically correct Victoria modified their buses to say "I am sorry" followed by "Not in Service." Of course, two-line/screen bus titles keep flashing until the buses are parked and turned off. So, one afternoon as I walked up the hill on Douglas Street in downtown Victoria, I saw a series of buses all parked, waiting for rush hour to start, each one proudly proclaiming to the world, "I am sorry."
Evilhalfling
Adventurer
Campaign melt down 1#
Running a game for 3 single guys who are sharing an 2 bed room apartment. Two of them are argumentative by nature and the third is an absloute slob. The group also had another guy who also liked to argue, and was a buisness partner of one of the others. Playing and evil campaign where interparty cliques developed. Total out of game meltdown, people didn't speak to each other for years afterward. I ran to seperate games for a while one with just my two older friends, until it melted down - there were only 3 of us and one player could'nt be woken up for a 11 am game, we woke him up, went out to lunch while he dressed & showerd came back to find him asleep. (late night playing online games) I ended the game there, and have rarely spoken to him since.
The other game added new people an aside from too many IC alignment arguments the game lasted another year. Two LG or LN/LG who were each sure they were right. Every time.
Running a game for 3 single guys who are sharing an 2 bed room apartment. Two of them are argumentative by nature and the third is an absloute slob. The group also had another guy who also liked to argue, and was a buisness partner of one of the others. Playing and evil campaign where interparty cliques developed. Total out of game meltdown, people didn't speak to each other for years afterward. I ran to seperate games for a while one with just my two older friends, until it melted down - there were only 3 of us and one player could'nt be woken up for a 11 am game, we woke him up, went out to lunch while he dressed & showerd came back to find him asleep. (late night playing online games) I ended the game there, and have rarely spoken to him since.
The other game added new people an aside from too many IC alignment arguments the game lasted another year. Two LG or LN/LG who were each sure they were right. Every time.
Ok, here it goes. This was back in 1985 or 86. The ToEE module just came out. The DM was running that. I was running a cavilier fro unearthed arcana. Most of the rest of the party are Good, CG. There was one player that was playing a half orc thief/ assasin. As players we knew he was evil, but out PC's did not, so we played it that way. The character did not do anything bad to use, we were waiting for him to. One of the other players, we'll call him Ray, decided to bring in a new character. he decides to bring in a palaidin. He rides up to us when we are in Homlet, says to us "I want to join with you, but that half orc has to go." We all told the paladin to screw bassally. We had been adventuring with the half orc for awhile, and did not like this new guy telling us who could be in our party.
The DM lost it. He thought we should drop the half orc to let the palaidin in. He even said I was close to losing my cavilier status becuse I should have sided with the paladin. The next week 3 of the other players tried to bring in half orc paladin's. The DM basacally stoped the game. It was because of this that DM did not game for awhile.
The DM lost it. He thought we should drop the half orc to let the palaidin in. He even said I was close to losing my cavilier status becuse I should have sided with the paladin. The next week 3 of the other players tried to bring in half orc paladin's. The DM basacally stoped the game. It was because of this that DM did not game for awhile.
Kapalen
First Post
I've only been playing about 3 and everyone I play with I've known for most of my life. There was this one guy when we first started though. he was one of the "it's all about me" guys. After a dispute over a powerful magic mirror another guy had (He took it and smashed it claiming he did it cause he's a stupid barbarian) the guy let the barbarian get eaten by a troll. From then on he made characters for the sole purpose of trying to kill the other guy. After three very crappy attempts he quit. That's about the worst of it. WE do have a problem with the same other guy and a rogue tey're constantly threatening to kill each other while they sleep. If my character couldn't kill both theirs (plus the other other guy who plays with us is the biggest guy I've ever seen in my life) and they know it, something bad would of happened a long time ago.
shilsen
Adventurer
The meltdown which ended my first campaign was really simple. One of the players was drinking whiskey surreptitiously and constantly throughout what turned out to be the last session. I didn't realize it till his paladin kicked the rogue through a door just as he was bent over and looking through the keyhole, because "it was really funny!". 'Nuff said.
kanithardm
First Post
Reynard said:
Theres your problem. A Paladin caused both my campaign meltdowns and I have banned them.
kanithardm said:
True enough, but in this case it wasn't so much that the paladin was a trouble maker as he was beset by evil at all sides, evil he was forced to wrok with in order to defeat an even greater evil. Had the paladin given up the Big Secret, it would have likely saved the campaign for a little while, but all the evil PCs with that Big Secret would surely have made it go down in flames eventually.
Vexed
First Post
This was in 97. A FR campaign setting. This was involving some very volatile and several inebriated players. I don’t recall who I was playing particularly but I remember who everyone else was playing. I think I was a drow wizard (weird) anyway. It was well into the night, around 1 am, and we had already been playing for several hours. The group was a total motley crew, and no one got along at all. It was shocking we had made as much progress as we did…
Finally, the Barbarian player began arguing with the Halfling thief player named “Botch” who continually stole from everyone, waiting for people to be asleep or away from the Inn and left “presents” in their back pack (you don’t want to know) and kept “hexing” player’s rolls. After doing this to the player with the Barbarian several times and after he had a few bad rolls, the Barbarian player began cursing and threatening him. The two began arguing while at the same time, the School teacher who was playing an Amazon (who teaches for dyslexic children at a Christian school; no im not making this up!) began arguing with the group cleric player about chauvinism, and he made an off hand rude comment that she took great offense to and proceeded to hurl a book at his head, he “made his reflex save” and managed to avoid the end corner from hitting him between the eyes and took it on the top of his head. The DM (who was married to the teacher) jumped up and tried to cool things down between the two, and took his wife downstairs to talk about it. The argument between the Barbarian and Halfling thief got to the point where they were shoving each other and one put the other in a headlock. Now the guy with the Barbarian lives with the School Teacher and DM, and begins yelling at the Halfling player about “watch the fish tank, watch out for the damn fish tanks!” and the guy kept shoving him and rammed him into one. It didn’t do any damage, but he lost it. He started whaling him in the head, several times until he shoved him practically down the stairs. There was an intermission as the two cooled down, and when they came back to the table the barbarian player verbally abused him and told him he should have bla bla bla… whatever. The guy with the Halfling had a HUGE raspberry stain on his forehead from the beating, and the other guy kept calling him Comrade Gorbachev after that LOL I have to admit it was pretty damn funny… anyway I sat there with my brother and the Barbarians friend (who played the cat creature, Rakasta?) he got up and went downstairs and returned shortly before the DM did. Prior to that we just sat there watching this all happen around us. The DM finally came back upstairs without his wife (so the Amazon is out of the party). We played for another hour until finally the Rakasta (the barbarians friend) took first watch and when we woke up, the entire part was in cages watching the Rakasta player collect money from several thayans, as he had sold us into slavery while we slept…we figured out he must have done this with the DM before he came back upstairs…he laughed whole heartedly as we were wheeled off to god knows where, and that is where the DM called it.
A fitting end to a great night in the realms….
Finally, the Barbarian player began arguing with the Halfling thief player named “Botch” who continually stole from everyone, waiting for people to be asleep or away from the Inn and left “presents” in their back pack (you don’t want to know) and kept “hexing” player’s rolls. After doing this to the player with the Barbarian several times and after he had a few bad rolls, the Barbarian player began cursing and threatening him. The two began arguing while at the same time, the School teacher who was playing an Amazon (who teaches for dyslexic children at a Christian school; no im not making this up!) began arguing with the group cleric player about chauvinism, and he made an off hand rude comment that she took great offense to and proceeded to hurl a book at his head, he “made his reflex save” and managed to avoid the end corner from hitting him between the eyes and took it on the top of his head. The DM (who was married to the teacher) jumped up and tried to cool things down between the two, and took his wife downstairs to talk about it. The argument between the Barbarian and Halfling thief got to the point where they were shoving each other and one put the other in a headlock. Now the guy with the Barbarian lives with the School Teacher and DM, and begins yelling at the Halfling player about “watch the fish tank, watch out for the damn fish tanks!” and the guy kept shoving him and rammed him into one. It didn’t do any damage, but he lost it. He started whaling him in the head, several times until he shoved him practically down the stairs. There was an intermission as the two cooled down, and when they came back to the table the barbarian player verbally abused him and told him he should have bla bla bla… whatever. The guy with the Halfling had a HUGE raspberry stain on his forehead from the beating, and the other guy kept calling him Comrade Gorbachev after that LOL I have to admit it was pretty damn funny… anyway I sat there with my brother and the Barbarians friend (who played the cat creature, Rakasta?) he got up and went downstairs and returned shortly before the DM did. Prior to that we just sat there watching this all happen around us. The DM finally came back upstairs without his wife (so the Amazon is out of the party). We played for another hour until finally the Rakasta (the barbarians friend) took first watch and when we woke up, the entire part was in cages watching the Rakasta player collect money from several thayans, as he had sold us into slavery while we slept…we figured out he must have done this with the DM before he came back upstairs…he laughed whole heartedly as we were wheeled off to god knows where, and that is where the DM called it.
A fitting end to a great night in the realms….
