"....so we tossed the jerk out...."

[Tewligan]

We also used to have a player who cheated. His characters would have unusually high stats, and he seemed to roll crits just a little too often. On one occasion he went in the other room to lie down on the couch because he didn't feel well, and rolled his dice from there. He got 3 or 4 crits in a row.

Heh - I'm amused by the image of a group of people sitting around the table, and calling through the doorway to an unseen person during the game:

"Steve, what did you roll to attack the wyvern?
(Rattle, rattle, disembodied voice) "Umm...20?"
"Sigh...what a surprise. Confirm the crit."
(Disembodied voice) "Hey, another 20!"
"Steve, I didn't hear the dice roll."
(Hurried rattle) "Yeah, it's a 20."

 

[StupidSmurf]

I laughed and laughed when I read this. Well played, sir!

I never realized how truly fortunate I've been in my gaming career until I read this thread.

I've had some weird moments, though, like the time I responded to an ad at my FLGS for a 2e game; the GM was a bouncer/AV tech at a local club, and had his entire living room set up like a stage--complete with multiple spotlights with different color gels. He also told me he'd painstakingly created multiple cassette tapes (with some MIDI equipment) full of different music that would act as a sort of "soundtrack" for the campaign (there were at least 20 tapes, carefully labelled and arranged on a nearby card table). We start playing (in an all-Viking campaign, iirc), and he pops in a tape. Pretty standard Conan background music, kind of cheesy, but not any kind of problem. Then we begin to travel, and he carefully selects a new tape, puts it in, and we hear...the exact same music. I don't mean "similar," I mean I couldn't tell the difference between them at all. Maybe this guy had some kind of dog hearing, and had adjusted the bass a tiny fraction, but that was it. Then, we finally run into some bad guys and are about to start combat, but the GM makes us wait for a couple of minutes while he painstakingly selects the appropriate "combat music." He puts in the tape, plays it and...yes, once again, it is the *exact* same music.

By this point, I was trying so hard not to laugh I didn't trust myself to talk, so I just rolled some dice, waiting for my chance to cut and run. Once I finally made it out of there, I told the GM that I was sorry, but that the campaign wasn't for me. Luckily, though, I stayed in touch with one of the other players (who also bolted after the first session) and we've been friends ever since.

We still talk about that night. In retrospect, I dearly wish I'd had the foresight to ask the GM if I could have a copy of one of the tapes, if only to have him earnestly ask me which one I'd liked best.

"Oooh, the combat one!" I would have said, and it would have been awesome.

Thanks for the compliment!
And may I say, your story is hilarious....I've been in situations where I've sat in on another DM's session, and he's tried to pull out all stops, when it turns out that there's only ONE stop to pull out!

 

[amazingshafeman]

On the All The Stops front:

Recently I was running an adventure that ended up taking several game sessions spread over a couple of months because of personal crises of one sort or another with each of the players. At the beginning, the "company commander" figure giving the mission had given a few key clues to avoiding certain death near the end of the adventure. Rather than summarizing the key points at the beginning of each game session, I grabbed my good ole digital recorder and just recorded the speech he'd given, sans player interruption. Unbeknownst to me, the speaker on the DR was about to wig out, and the first playback made me/the character sound like an imp speaking with rocks in his mouth.

Most unfortunately, my wife managed to copy it with the distortion, so that recording pops up from time to time.

Sorry to derail the post, they didn't kick me out for that one.

 

[kanithardm]

And let's not forget:

"Falls asleep at the game"

thats a DM not a player, silly

 

[sniffles]

Heh - I'm amused by the image of a group of people sitting around the table, and calling through the doorway to an unseen person during the game:

"Steve, what did you roll to attack the wyvern?
(Rattle, rattle, disembodied voice) "Umm...20?"
"Sigh...what a surprise. Confirm the crit."
(Disembodied voice) "Hey, another 20!"
"Steve, I didn't hear the dice roll."
(Hurried rattle) "Yeah, it's a 20."

Yup, that was pretty much it. I don't know why the GM didn't say something. That guy didn't get kicked out, either; he just quit showing up. He did get kicked out of another game for being argumentative and whiny, though. It was kind of vindication for the rest of the group that the GM who kicked him loose is the guy least likely to find player behavior irritating.

 

[Aeolius]

Thread Resurrection: I was doing a search for Nigel Findley and found this one.

It was Nigel Findley's "Ecology of the Greenhag" that started my fascination with hags. Sadly, as I was contemplating an "Ecology of the Night Hag" article, I discovered he had passed on six months prior. I truly wish I had met the man.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Thread Resurrection: I was doing a search for Nigel Findley and found this one.

It was Nigel Findley's "Ecology of the Greenhag" that started my fascination with hags. Sadly, as I was contemplating an "Ecology of the Night Hag" article, I discovered he had passed on six months prior. I truly wish I had met the man.

He was one of kind.

Awesome mentor, excellent friend, great drinking buddy, terrific writer (RPG and otherwise) and a top-flight gamer.

He's missed.