Stupidest thing ever done as a player or as a GM

[Walking Paradox]

What is the stupidest thing that you ever did as a player and as a GM? I'll share mine.

Player: My character attempted to disable a vehicle. Under the pretext of running a "security check," he looked it over in minute detail, before using a sleight of hand maneuver to slash a tire. One of the vehicle's occupants asked him if he "found anything." My character's reply was "not yet! I'm working on it though."

GM: The PCs in this campaign had a habit of collecting NPCs and keeping them as slaves. It irritated me when I had to keep track of (originally) stat-less, sheetless NPCs and deal with the PCs using them as canon fodder or as involuntary retainers. So, during a space combat sequence, I rulled that a critical failure on an attack roll by the ship's laser gunner accidentally channelled an electrical current into the latrine, upon which the PCs' latest "acquisition" was sitting, electrocuting the unfortunate individual, fatally.

 

[Oryan77]

As a player, I took the leadership role in 4e a little too seriously and was getting annoyed when other PCs were not listening to my tactical commands.

As a DM, I allowed a player to join our group knowing that this person would be a problem player. Things of course went horrible and I was sucked into a lame dramatic situation with the problem player.

I know those are not in-character events, but I don't tend to do boneheaded things that would be worth mentioning when I'm roleplaying my characters. Plus, I don't get to be a player very often.

 

[Meatboy]

Player: being wounded and yet absolutely certain that the bottle covered in black skulls was in actuality a healing potion...

DM: trying to orchestrate things so that the players ended up in an area of the game world I wanted so that we could play a module I wanted to run. It had gone great up until that point but then it devolved...

 

[Jimlock]

4:30 am, friday night....(ok...saturday morning!)...

My Rogue is in front of three chests. On either side of the chests there

were cells with human prisoners. My charactered, opened ALL THREE chests in

a row without EVEN rolling ONE SINGLE search check!


First chest: Trap -> Lighting Bolt. I rolled my Reflex save successfully. Evasion did it's job... Prisoners unharmed.

(Now I'm thinking: "Ok, one of them was trapped, let's see what's inside the others.")


Second chest: Trap -> Fire trap. I rolled my Reflex save successfully... again. Evasion did it's job... again. Prisoners unharmed... again.

(Now I'm thinking: "Ok, there were two trapped chests, the last one is the right one with all the goods.")


Third chest: Trap -> Ice Storm. I took the damage but survived. All prisoners dead.

Now I'm not thinking anything. I'm staring at the board, jaw hanging low. I'm dreaming of the softness of my pillow waiting for me back home...


Folks!!! One advice!!!! Never EVER play when you 're tired!!!

 

[[OMENRPG]Ben]

As a player, I had created a character in 3.5 that was a Disciple of Peace, and I had used all of the feats and abilities (vow of poverty, et al) to become extremely powerful. Around 12th level, I had managed to gimmick my way into possessing 9th level divine spells, including Wish and Mass Charm. Also, one of the side effects of the DoP was that anyone who I touched would instantly move to "friend" status (my DM ruled that no roll was necessary) and I had a similar aura that would do the same.

For several levels of attaining such powers, the rest of my group despised me out of character due to essentially "breaking" the game (which, ironically, was set in a war.) All of their warrior characters were rendered absolutely meaningless in the context of combat, as I could simply make everyone happy and my friend. In the end, my DM reasoned that that character ascended and I rolled a new character, much to the relief of my comrades.

Perhaps it is due to my hubris, but I can't remember any serious mistakes I've made as a GM. I suppose allowing clashing characters into my game (such as a Shade assassin joining a party which had been fighting the Shadowfell for quite some time.)

 

[steeldragons]

hmmmm...there've been a few.

I know I've told this story in other threads, but it does tend to stick out in my memory...
Player: PC is a gnome illusionist-thief. We are at a tentative truce with a vastly superior force of drow in the underdark. Our wizard attacks (via a spell from her staff) one of the wounded drow and kills him...after we've managed a truce and are trying to talk our butts out of it (possibly more foolish than my PCs role, but regardless...). When questioned why we attacked if we wanted to parlay, she answers "The staff misfired."

My gnome, always something of a "know it all" blurts out, "Staves don't misfire!"

Yeah, my character had someone's hand clamped over his mouth at most future negotiations.

As a DM?...I think, possibly, what I would consider my "stupidest" move as a (very young/fresh/new) DM was to have a ring of ice devils appear, surrounding the party, who were engrossed in a lengthy argument (began in character and then moved out of character and was STILL continuing, flipping back and forth from PCs to players to PCs...after a half hour of no progress in the game, I had had enough.

I figured it was the easiest/most direct way to get their attention and back into the flow of the game. A few brutal rounds of combat later, now having everyone's attention, I had the ice devils *blip* out.

I got their attention, but NONE of the players were overly pleased. Several of them said later that night that they would not suffer me as DM if I pulled another stunt like that/they would walk. Completely understandable, in retrospect, and plain old BAD DMing on my part. But, as I said, I was young and stupid.

Now, I make sure to have a plot reason for the devils to appear. I KID! I KID!

--SD

 

[Ed_Laprade]

As a player/character: Too numerous to mention, and mostly buried deep in my poor memory.

As a GM: A fair bunch, but one 'minor' bit stands out. The party was in a position to bypass a possible fight/trap, but could see into the room and asked about the shinies in it. In my misguided enthusiasm to get them into the room I described the three gems within as a pile of gems. I still haven't lived down "The pile of GEM!"

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Allow a Vow of Poverty Druid.

 

[The Monster]

As player: Fantasy Hero, I'm playing a sun mage, with light-based powers, one of which is a little teleport spell which turns him into a sunbeam and shoots him where he's going (LOS only, flashy, etc.). We're part of an assault on a badguy castle, so I decide I'm going to be clever and get inside thru an arrow slit using my rarely-used sunbeam teleport; it's part of an actual group plan I recall nothing about now, but ...(drumroll)... "it seemed like a good idea at the time!"
It worked great; I flashed into the fort - problem was, the fort had been inder bombardment for several minutes by another PC, so all the bad guys were hiding in the chambers, planning their counterattack. I ended up teleporting into the center of a crowded room full of angry badguys. I lived (barely) long enough to teleport out, but the character was horribly scarred the rest of his life.

As GM: I can't recall any classic boners as GM at the moment, just lots of fairly minor errors. I do, however, have a curse on my NPCs, in that they have extrememly bad luck with dice, to the point where I and my players plan on it. Behind the screen, out in the open, these dice or those dice, doesn't matter, my critters will suck far more than shine. In fact, the more dramatic the moment, the more likely I'll roll a critical failure (the most amusing was the supervillain who, hit with a fear attack, ended up fainting and peeing in his powersuit, which was not my plan at all).

 

[Kzach]

Buying a DMG at thirteen.