Small Acts of DM Cruelty

[lukelightning]

In a SW game I gave a PC a bunch of powerful grenades. He was pretty sure what they did (one explosive, one incendiary, one gas), but didn't know the burst radius. He ended up gassing the whole party, knockin them all unconsious (including himself). The villain, of course, was unaffected, as she was wearing a gas mask.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

In a SW game I gave a PC a bunch of powerful grenades. He was pretty sure what they did (one explosive, one incendiary, one gas), but didn't know the burst radius. He ended up gassing the whole party, knockin them all unconsious (including himself). The villain, of course, was unaffected, as she was wearing a gas mask.

This very weekend, I ran an SWd20 game for my son and two of his friends. This was the very first table top RPG experience for one of them, and he kept insisting that "if this were Halo and Halo 2, my character should be able to blah blah blah". He insisted on carrying around frag grenades, and in a fight with Clone troopers aboard their very small starship, he detonated one.

TPK.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

The party also once bought a dozen light green healing potions from a shabby Skullport merchant.

Half were healing potions.

Half were full of Ogre Pee.

This was discovered after the 2nd healing potion failed to bring the unconcious dwarf back to positive hit points.

Party never did track the merchant down. Though the dwarf never gave up.

 

[dinsdale]

From a live-action game, but still relevant:

Party enters an office area in the back of the bad guy's lair. In a corner of the room sits a large chest and a few feet in front of it, there is a gold piece sitting on the floor.

The Catch: There was a tripwire taped to the back of the coin that set off a trap when pulled (the chest was actually the physical container for the trap and had nothing else in it).

Extra Bonus Cruelty: The trap was an explosive trap, which not only destroys some of the party's equipment, but also destroys the gold piece.

I received many death threats that day.

 

[adwyn]

During my pulp/CoC game this summer the players developed a powerful animosity towards an NPC protagonist who would always turn up when least expected -to the point one of the players would go red at the mention of the NPC's name.

That player is one of the newscasters on the local news, and lately he's had to do the morning show. So last week I called in one of those birthday wishes for someone tunring 100 using the NPC's name. Sure enough when his co-host read off the name and gave her sweet speel about the person turning 100 Dean's head jerked up and he flushed a couple of different colors for a few seconds before regaining composure.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

During my pulp/CoC game this summer the players developed a powerful animosity towards an NPC protagonist who would always turn up when least expected -to the point one of the players would go red at the mention of the NPC's name.

That player is one of the newscasters on the local news, and lately he's had to do the morning show. So last week I called in one of those birthday wishes for someone tunring 100 using the NPC's name. Sure enough when his co-host read off the name and gave her sweet speel about the person turning 100 Dean's head jerked up and he flushed a couple of different colors for a few seconds before regaining composure.

This made my whole day. Thanks!

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

During my pulp/CoC game this summer the players developed a powerful animosity towards an NPC protagonist who would always turn up when least expected -to the point one of the players would go red at the mention of the NPC's name.

That player is one of the newscasters on the local news, and lately he's had to do the morning show. So last week I called in one of those birthday wishes for someone tunring 100 using the NPC's name. Sure enough when his co-host read off the name and gave her sweet speel about the person turning 100 Dean's head jerked up and he flushed a couple of different colors for a few seconds before regaining composure.

That is fantastic! I hope you recorded it.

 

[ForceUser]

What small, mean and nasty things have you done to a player lately?

The party had boarded a caravel wrecked upon a coral reef to recover cargo. The hold was completely submerged in water and sharks swarmed in and out, looking for food. The party spirit shaman, after casting water breathing and speak with animals, had cleverly convinced the sharks to leave him alone through wild empathy. Exploring the hold alone (!), he swam aft and open the door to the stern-most room, only to discover a scrag (aquatic troll) feasting upon a human corpse. Initiative is rolled, the spirit shaman desperately tries to swim away, fails, is grabbed by the scrag, and is rent to pieces.

Ten minutes later the rest of the party quieries "Um, what's taking Condon so long?"

Says the now-deceased spirit shaman's player to me: "You dirty bastard! A troll?!? I was expecting a big shark!"

Quoth I: "Welcome to 5th level, where trolls are CR-appropriate encounters for a full group."

 

[Gnome]

Once in a 2e game, my group wanted to find a white dragon to hunt down and kill. They sought out rumors of white dragons in the region, and decided to pursue the one that was described as unusually large.

They loaded-up on their anti-cold magic and found the dragon, which doused the party with a stream of acid. Turned out that the white dragon was really an albino black dragon. I was a rat-b****** DM that time for sure.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Then there was that time with the ogress bards with ranks in Preform-Dance-Erotic & Charm Person spells.

I'm still not allowed to devulge what happened to the halfling.

Nor the evil lich that was behind the whole thing.