Stupidest things PCs/DMs have done

[InVinoVeritas]

Yeah, I've never understood what it is about Shadowrun or CP2020 that just brings out the stupid in players.

 

[Numion]

Yeah, I've never understood what it is about Shadowrun or CP2020 that just brings out the stupid in players.

Yeah. Another one: The player of the autoshotgun PC in the previous example had (once again) got his PC killed. So rest of the PCs start to recruit for a new member to their black ops team, and arrange a meeting at a bar. The player has made a fresh character, equipped and all, ready to join the team. The PC goes to the bar they had agreed to meet in, but instead of going to the other PCs, he forces his way into back area of the bar, finds a small office room with a somewhat surprised looking owner of the bar.

Player: "I pull out a grenade, pull the pin, and stick the grenade inside the mans shirt!"

The resulting explosion killed both his PC and the owner (I reminded him, after being surprised that he had equipped his character with 'nades, that the office was small). I don't know why the player did what he did, but that's the shortest lived PC ever, like 5 minutes of real time / game time.

 

[Switchblade]

A different player, a different group. Fresh stupidity.
The player has been roleplaying since before I was born and holds a doctrate so should be intelegent and experienced.
Its CP2020, he is playing as a cop and trying to quell a peaceful protest. He as standard loads his auto shotgun with alternating solid/scatter rounds and has a solid shot chambered. SomeONE in the crowd throws a rock. So the idiot shoots him, full auto thinking that as he doesn't miss no one else will get hurt. Unsuprisingly he had some explaining to do after his cone of buckshot scythed down a load of old grannies and turned a peaceful protest into a violent riot.

I swear, give someone an automatic weapon and watch their IQ half, or quater with explosives.

 

[Numion]

I swear, give someone an automatic weapon and watch their IQ half, or quater with explosives.

Once I had a short running cop campaign in CP2020 (I don't know if it's even possible to have a long CP2020 cop campaign). Anyway, the PC cops storm a suspected drugdealers apartment in chinatown. One of the suspects escapes, slides down fire escape ladder on the outside of the building, and starts running away in a crowded chinatown street.

One PC runs to the window, sees the suspect three stories down, running in the crowd.

"I lean out of the window, and put 10 shots on the perp from my Militech, full auto."

He rolls '1' and kills a bystander or two. A riot ensued, and their patrol car was torched. Well, this wasn't just stupidity, but also bad luck since he could've hit with all 10 shots and not hit bystanders.

 

[Ampolitor]

shocking experience.

hmm one does stick out a fighter who picked up a wand of chain lightning. He was trapped in a room full of rising water. him and his companions then were surrounded by a small group of zombies. Well genius stabs one with a dagger, and with the other hand casts chain lightning on another zombie. Of course it was a shocking experience for all in the room!

 

[Slife]

Heck, when I write adventures, I specifically design to this requirement. Always assume that the players won't take no for an answer, and will blame you if they can't do what they want to, no matter how ridiculous it is.

For example, in one adventure, the players are supposed to view a historical (nonmagical) artifact, which is then subsequently stolen. So, I can't have the PCs standing guard, because they'll die trying to prevent the theft. The local guard, therefore, tells them that they can't stick around. Fair enough. Of course, some PCs won't accept that; it's there, it'll probably get stolen, so they have to stick around to prevent it. So, I dealt with it by having the guard adamantly refuse them, and turn them away. Most (well, many) players take the hint and leave. Those that don't will typically hide, and try to sneak back in to guard the artifact. So, the adventure as written gives them the option of doing this--then seeing the artifact already stolen, the PCs caught by the guard, accused of the crime or at least breaking and entering, and being thrown in jail. Players typically won't be too upset by this. They're the sort that will have been in jail before, they can break out. But then one of the adventure's bad guys, having been placed in jail earlier, breaks himself out of jail by slaughtering the jailers and animating their corpses. The PCs, locked in a cell, denied their equipment, and under the effect of a silence spell cast by the bad guy, are unable to affect the course of action. This is where the players get the actual punishment for being stupid above; the simple denial of affecting the outcome eats away at them. However, the bad guy finished up by freeing the PCs as well before leaving. Since the PCs survive and are free again, they don't blame the DM; they blame the bad guy.

I notice you have no contingency for the PCs stealing the artifact preemptively.

 

[Numion]

For example, in one adventure, the players are supposed to view a historical (nonmagical) artifact, which is then subsequently stolen. So, I can't have the PCs standing guard, because they'll die trying to prevent the theft. The local guard, therefore, tells them that they can't stick around. Fair enough. Of course, some PCs won't accept that; it's there, it'll probably get stolen, so they have to stick around to prevent it. So, I dealt with it by having the guard adamantly refuse them, and turn them away. Most (well, many) players take the hint and leave.

How are the players supposed to know when an NPC is speaking to them in the "DM voice" and that they should take the hint, or whether the NPC is in cahoots with the baddies and wants them to fail?

I mean, if somebody tried to get my PC not to do the job I was hired to do, I would be suspicious, and would try to do my job even more. I would be pretty pissed to realize I was on the plot wagon, hired to do a job the DM had already decided would fail.

There's a reason why basically all gamemastering advice says that it's bad form to have a plot where the PCs are hired to protect something and the plot requires them to fail. It's called railroading. Better option would be to have the PCs be hired for the protection job, but have the McGuffin stolen before they get to their post.

And what was the lesson the 'stupid' players learned here? When an NPC tells you something you better do it, or be sidelined for the session? :\

 

[InVinoVeritas]

How are the players supposed to know when an NPC is speaking to them in the "DM voice" and that they should take the hint, or whether the NPC is in cahoots with the baddies and wants them to fail?

I mean, if somebody tried to get my PC not to do the job I was hired to do, I would be suspicious, and would try to do my job even more. I would be pretty pissed to realize I was on the plot wagon, hired to do a job the DM had already decided would fail.

There's a reason why basically all gamemastering advice says that it's bad form to have a plot where the PCs are hired to protect something and the plot requires them to fail. It's called railroading. Better option would be to have the PCs be hired for the protection job, but have the McGuffin stolen before they get to their post.

And what was the lesson the 'stupid' players learned here? When an NPC tells you something you better do it, or be sidelined for the session? :\

The PCs are not hired to protect the artifact. They were never hired to protect the artifact; they were invited to a party because the local lord wanted to thank them for their previous successes. Guards are already in place before the guests arrive, and the guests are not allowed to carry weapons, armor, or obviously violent magical items with them. The artifact is already protected by PC-style NPCs as well as mook guards, and they are there as guests at a special viewing, not as guards. Also (Slife), the PCs don't get their weapons back until when they leave.

So, they don't have to abandon their posts as NPCs ask them to, they have to let people do their job--they're otherwise asking the NPCs to abandon THEIR posts.

Otherwise, yes, you're absolutely right--I wouldn't have tried this in an adventure if it meant that the PCs would have to fail at their job. I had to make sure that the job that failed was never theirs in the first place.

 

[Thurbane]

My 2nd level evoker, Thurbane, recently ran into rooms without checking to see if they were safe not once, but twice, in the same night. Both instances earned him a whack from a goblin with a battleaxe. (Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde)

 

[Lalalei2001]

^ Hopefully he won't do that again. Next time it might be a gelatinous cube or something! Cause once one of my players ran into a room with a treasure, and moved too fast to notice the gelatinous cube in front of the treasure.