Slip o' the tongue

[werk]

Have you ever slipped up as a DM and given too much information to the players accidentally? Ever been a player and seen this happen?

I messed up in my campaign recently and was hoping some of you could comiserate with me.

My players are hiding out at an arcane academy after all their high-level allies were presumedly killed as the party fled a city ruled by evil guys. Earlier, one of the allies, a chaotic neutral sorcerer had placed a Geas on the party rogue because he kept bringing trouble to the place where the sorc's son and the party were hiding out. (The party had rescued the son from the evil guys in a previous adventure.)

So back to the arcane academy... The sorc, Brock, shows up and the party is completely shocked that he is alive. I had decided that this would not be Brock, but rather a look-a-like that was assigned to keep an eye on the party and eventually assign them to enter an ambush trap under the ruse that they were sent to rescue his son...again.

I was doing well, and even though I kept dropping subtle hints that this was not Brock, like not knowing peoples' names or remembering details of past encounters, the party didn't suspect a thing. My spy was getting well embedded within the academy and the party was doing quite well adventuring in the region for the academy, but then the rogue asked 'Brock' to remove the geas.
Brock played dumb, "What geas?"
"The geas that you put on me back in (Stronghold of the Nine). I'm afraid that I might accidently set it off."
<Rolls a knowledge arcana for the imposter=1, rolls a bluff=1>
"What are you talking about?"

At this point, the players started trying to remind me about the geas, thinking that I had forgotten about it. I said that I remember, but Brock does not. They said that he had to remember, anyone who is not a complete idiot would remember because it was a fairly high-stress situation, and had just happened weeks ago. This is it, I thought, they are going to figure it out.

Then I slipped up, "This Brock doesn't remember." DOH!

We all had a good laugh, but I ruined the whole sub-plot with one four letter word.

 

[shaylon]

You mean like the time I described this construct in meticulous detail then when I was going over initiatives I said "Oh it is the Shield Guardian's turn."

Yeah that was a little embarassing. Good job Shaylon!

 

[werk]

You mean like the time I described this construct in meticulous detail then when I was going over initiatives I said "Oh it is the Shield Guardian's turn."

Yeah that was a little embarassing. Good job Shaylon!

Yes, exactly like that!

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

There were two priests, one good, one evil, but the party didn't know it, they just knew their names. I said something like 'the priest asks blah-blah'. One of the players asks 'Dave the priest?' for clarification, and I reply, 'No, the other one, the evil one.'

D'oh.

 

[Mercule]

Yup. I've done that a few times. I occasionally compensate by faking a Freudian slip.

I also adopt whatever terminology/assumptions the players seem to be making. I've had them paranoid for weeks because they started calling a monster/NPC one thing when it was really something else that was general harmless by comparisson. Of course, the inverse is true, too. I think my players have caught on that they should listen to my descriptions and not place too much stock in any single word.

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

So I told the players that various things like Goblin and Kobold are just nonsense words as far as their characters are concerned in my homebrew. Instead of just 'oh it's a kobold' I wanted to modify the monsters, and then describe the threat and have the layers react according to how much it scared them.

So my all-new kobolds - are vaguely 'draconian' in origin (i.e. they're an experimental creation produced by the big nasty black dragon). They have little (non-functional) wings and I really played up their black dragon origins.

After the first big combat one player says to the other "What do you think those were?"

"Well the little bald man in the red robes called them kobolds..."

I didn't even recall mentioning it, but it must have come out during combat... so much for the tension :\

 

[Dragonbait]

*Accidentally drew the secret doors on the Player's map handout
Players: We go through the secret door in this room
Me: What? How do you know its there?
Players: You drew it on the map.
Me: (a damn! followed by some fancy quick thinking) Oh yeah! One of the doors in this room looks like it was intended to be concealed from passer-bys. Its surface is covered in false stonework meant to camouflaged it in with the rest of the wall, but someone left it ajar and the illusion is broken. (Good thinking, Dragonbait! *whew*)

*My big surprise was going to be a fight with one of those golems that transform from a normal looking column to a golem (contrary to all the images where they are statues that function as columns). In the middle of the room description, I called the column by its monster name. Oops.

I know there are many, many more..

 

[Dragonbait]

Don't call them kobolds/How did they know they were kobolds?!

While not exactly the same situation, trying to change the names or concepts of some basic monsters in D&D can be difficult. The following is not based on a true story, but an exaggeration of the problems with this:

Me: Evil dragons are called dramojh, not dragons.
Player: So they have a green dragon?
Me: Yes, they have a green dramojh.
Player: Well I've never faced a dramojh before. I wan't to try to talk to it. *roll roll roll* Crap! Diplomacy of roll of 5! What does the dramojh do?
Me: The green dragon rears up and laughs.
Player: I'm going to run from dragon.
Me: Dramojh.
Player: I run from the dramojh.
Me: Ok, so the dragon takes flight and chases you.
and so on..

 

[Sejs]

"Well the little bald man in the red robes called them kobolds..."

I didn't even recall mentioning it, but it must have come out during combat... so much for the tension :\

This little bald man, he didn't happen to hang out with a bunch of kids and a baby unicorn by any chance, did he?

 

[Nathan P. Mahney]

I've done the 'draw the secret door on the players' map' thing, and used the same excuse as the above poster to cover my slip. (The player's didn't buy it.)

Along the same lines as the dragon/dramojh thing from above, my campaign is set in a world of eternal night, with the period where the moon is visible called night-time, and the period where it isn't called dark-time. I am, of course, continually getting these mixed up, and often use the term day-time by accident - I've even slipped up and described the sunrise once!