Sir Hawkeye
First Post
Zerovoid said:
Tsk,tsk! And what has become of ten-foot poles?
The lovely stupidity of some players...
- Thread starter Patrick-S&S
- Start date
Tsk,tsk! And what has become of ten-foot poles?
sineater
First Post
I have a player that won't listen to warnings. Anytime we go adventuring in a cave, dungeon or whatever. He always has his character wonder off down a path by himself without telling the rest of the party.
Once he wondered off and ran into an Ettin. Some how he escaped and headed back towards our party. Oh yes the Ettin was following him. Needless to say he died and so did me rogue.
Another time he wondered of and started to explore a pool of murky water by himself and was mangled by a large alligator.
Then another time he runs into a Gorillion and decides to fight it. Well lets say it peeled him like a banana.
So now after losing about 8 characters he is finally coming around. We hope.
Once he wondered off and ran into an Ettin. Some how he escaped and headed back towards our party. Oh yes the Ettin was following him. Needless to say he died and so did me rogue.
Another time he wondered of and started to explore a pool of murky water by himself and was mangled by a large alligator.
Then another time he runs into a Gorillion and decides to fight it. Well lets say it peeled him like a banana.
So now after losing about 8 characters he is finally coming around. We hope.
I remember back when I was in high school my brother brought his friend Dan into the campaign. Dan was...not really all there sometimes. My brother talked him into playing a cleric, and off the party went on their first adventure with Dan.
Dan's PC pulled first watch duty that night, and while the rest of the party was fast asleep he spots a couple of smilodons approaching. "They look hungry," I tell him. (I think Dan's PC was an elf; he had infravision in any case, and yes, this was back in the 1E days.) So, rather than wake up anyone else for assistance, rather than prepare a spell or ready a weapon, when I tell him the smilodons are staring right at him and starting to sprint his way, he reaches into his backpack and pulls out a handful of iron rations to feed to them. He even holds the food out in front of him as if expecting them to halt at his feet and nibble daintily upon his proferred meal.
Fortunately, the impact of the first leaping smilodon upon Dan's PC sent them both plowing into one of the tents, and the growls, snarls, and roars of the sabertooths as they messily devoured Dan's idiotic sentry woke the rest of the party up in time to dispatch the beasts without any other PC casualties.
Johnathan
Dan's PC pulled first watch duty that night, and while the rest of the party was fast asleep he spots a couple of smilodons approaching. "They look hungry," I tell him. (I think Dan's PC was an elf; he had infravision in any case, and yes, this was back in the 1E days.) So, rather than wake up anyone else for assistance, rather than prepare a spell or ready a weapon, when I tell him the smilodons are staring right at him and starting to sprint his way, he reaches into his backpack and pulls out a handful of iron rations to feed to them. He even holds the food out in front of him as if expecting them to halt at his feet and nibble daintily upon his proferred meal.
Fortunately, the impact of the first leaping smilodon upon Dan's PC sent them both plowing into one of the tents, and the growls, snarls, and roars of the sabertooths as they messily devoured Dan's idiotic sentry woke the rest of the party up in time to dispatch the beasts without any other PC casualties.
Johnathan
Cloudgatherer
First Post
I've had the same player make a couple stupid mistakes, here's my favorite.
The party is travelling to another town, but on the way they are met by a band of "pretend" guardsmen who tell the party to turn around and go back, the road to the city is closed. They don't give a reason, they just have pure numbers on the party.
The party (this being relatively low level), needs to get to the city quickly and the bard formulates a "brilliant" plan to take out the ruffians (it is fairly obvious to anyone they are just mercs). The plan was thus: the party would lay in ambush down the road, the bard would proceed up to the mercenaries (in disguise of course) and tell them he is transporting a large sum of gold and that he has dropped it alongside the road and he would like some help carrying it...
Being mercs, they pummel the bard senseless and set out after the gold and the party soon had no choice but to fight. However, we still poke fun at the player ("gee, I dropped my gold over there").
The party is travelling to another town, but on the way they are met by a band of "pretend" guardsmen who tell the party to turn around and go back, the road to the city is closed. They don't give a reason, they just have pure numbers on the party.
The party (this being relatively low level), needs to get to the city quickly and the bard formulates a "brilliant" plan to take out the ruffians (it is fairly obvious to anyone they are just mercs). The plan was thus: the party would lay in ambush down the road, the bard would proceed up to the mercenaries (in disguise of course) and tell them he is transporting a large sum of gold and that he has dropped it alongside the road and he would like some help carrying it...
Being mercs, they pummel the bard senseless and set out after the gold and the party soon had no choice but to fight. However, we still poke fun at the player ("gee, I dropped my gold over there").
SableWyvern
Cruel Despot
Player: I cautiously approach the chest, checking for traps.
DM: You find what looks like a pressure activated pit trap a few feet from the chest.
Player: I go round it, really cautiously.
DM: You find another similar trap, right beside it.
Player continues to circle the chest, finding more traps, until he comes across an area of clear floor.
Player: I very, very, carefully go around to the front of the chest and check it for traps.
DM: You don't find any traps. There isn't any visible locking mechanism.
Player: I open the chest and jump backwards, just in case....
DM: You find what looks like a pressure activated pit trap a few feet from the chest.
Player: I go round it, really cautiously.
DM: You find another similar trap, right beside it.
Player continues to circle the chest, finding more traps, until he comes across an area of clear floor.
Player: I very, very, carefully go around to the front of the chest and check it for traps.
DM: You don't find any traps. There isn't any visible locking mechanism.
Player: I open the chest and jump backwards, just in case....
Oracular Vision
First Post
Patrick-S&S said:
Well, I hate to tell you this, but he was right...I saw it on an animal show, as long as you move quietly and swim like an alligator, they pretty much leave you alone...but if you thrash around like most people do, they think you are an animal in distress and come after you...I saw the guy do it, he lowered himself in and swam right next to them with no problem, then moved slowly away (the way they do, with just your head above water_ and then he started swimming like normal, splashing and so on, and they moved in on him (he got out in a hurry then).
Very impressive. I will try to remember which guy it was, it wasn't Steve Irwin.
Patrick-S&S
First Post
Lazybones said:
Oh this does not happen all of the time but once in a while. He do add flavor and some laughs to the table as well most of the gaming sessions since he has a way of ovredramatizing things. And I would not dream of kicking him out because he has been with the group for 17 years and was the one who introduced me to RPGs in the first place.
And about the guy wimming with the crocks... Well I personally don't have that kind of death wish. You are right that it is not Steve Irwin. I think he is an englishman if it is the same guy who swam with the white sharks...
Bill was an avid Rolemaster player who really felt the need to prove the competency of his new Healer character. The rest of the players met this character in the middle of an adventure: they found him locked in a prison cell.
Bill: "You need me to join your group. I'm a Healer, and I'm so good that I can regenerate from severe wounds! Go ahead, hurt me and I'll show you."
Not often invited to hurt fellow PCs, the players happily obliged... stabbing him through the bars. Bill contentedly demonstrated his character's ability to automatically heal damage.
Bill: "I can even regenerate from mortal wounds! Go ahead and try to kill me."
Again, the group obliged with enthusiasm, stabbing the Healer repeatedly until he stopped breathing. Moments later, the character was healed and standing once again.
Bill: "...and I can do it more than once per day!"
Jumping the gun a little this time, the players lept into furious action. They stabbed the Healer until he fell, cut off his head, poured a flask of oil over him, and lit him on fire.
Bill and the rest of the players sat around waiting for me to describe the Healer's miracuolous recouvery.
DM: "Actually Bill, you can't recouver from that... you can theoretically resurrect more than once a day, but you've already used all your power points with your previous demonstrations."
They really could have used a Healer on the remainder of that adventure...
One character collected the Healer's ashes, and put them in a jar. For awhile we discussed the feasability of the Paladin hand-grenade: the cremated remains of a Paladin poised to resurrect himself as soon as the jar was smashed (by throwing it at your foe).
Of course, I've been known to do a few stupid things as well. One of my favourite rogue characters, Kayli, was voluntarily lowered by the rest of the party down a really long shaft so she could fetch a book in the room below without stepping on the floor. The book was a lab diary, fiercely guarded by an elemental who attacked anyone that stepped on the room's floor. The room itself was a scrying chamber; a magically moist clay tablet lay directly below the shaft where shadows from a complicated magical mechanism suspended far above could be traced onto the large tablet's surface. The augeries were later transcribed by the Mage into the lab diary.
So here's Kayli, very smug in the knowledge that she's beat the dungeon without endangering the group. She tells the group to pull her up quickly if she tugs on the line once, and start/stop lowering her if she tugs twice in quick succession. Slowly they lower Kayli until they can no longer see her. Near the bottom, she tugs the line twice, and the party stops lowering her.
With a little acrobatics and a lot of stretching, Kayli is able to grab the book from its pedestal. The moment she touches it though, the elemental rises from the floor and prepares to attack. Caught up in the events, and panicking almost as much as my character, I physically pantomimed tugging on the rope... twice.
The party happily obliged by dropping me face first into the tablet of wet clay.
When the party hauled me out of there, I explained how my muddy appearance was the result of the elemental's attack.
In a later adventure, our party returned to the dungeon and had to take a more mundane route down into the scrying chamber in order to accomplish a disenchantment of the keep. After we fought and destroyed the elemental in a particularily harrowing fight, my character limped ahead of the group so she could beat them to the clay tablet and erase the evidence of her embarassing mistake.
<volefisk>
Bill: "You need me to join your group. I'm a Healer, and I'm so good that I can regenerate from severe wounds! Go ahead, hurt me and I'll show you."
Not often invited to hurt fellow PCs, the players happily obliged... stabbing him through the bars. Bill contentedly demonstrated his character's ability to automatically heal damage.
Bill: "I can even regenerate from mortal wounds! Go ahead and try to kill me."
Again, the group obliged with enthusiasm, stabbing the Healer repeatedly until he stopped breathing. Moments later, the character was healed and standing once again.
Bill: "...and I can do it more than once per day!"
Jumping the gun a little this time, the players lept into furious action. They stabbed the Healer until he fell, cut off his head, poured a flask of oil over him, and lit him on fire.
Bill and the rest of the players sat around waiting for me to describe the Healer's miracuolous recouvery.
DM: "Actually Bill, you can't recouver from that... you can theoretically resurrect more than once a day, but you've already used all your power points with your previous demonstrations."
They really could have used a Healer on the remainder of that adventure...
One character collected the Healer's ashes, and put them in a jar. For awhile we discussed the feasability of the Paladin hand-grenade: the cremated remains of a Paladin poised to resurrect himself as soon as the jar was smashed (by throwing it at your foe).
Of course, I've been known to do a few stupid things as well. One of my favourite rogue characters, Kayli, was voluntarily lowered by the rest of the party down a really long shaft so she could fetch a book in the room below without stepping on the floor. The book was a lab diary, fiercely guarded by an elemental who attacked anyone that stepped on the room's floor. The room itself was a scrying chamber; a magically moist clay tablet lay directly below the shaft where shadows from a complicated magical mechanism suspended far above could be traced onto the large tablet's surface. The augeries were later transcribed by the Mage into the lab diary.
So here's Kayli, very smug in the knowledge that she's beat the dungeon without endangering the group. She tells the group to pull her up quickly if she tugs on the line once, and start/stop lowering her if she tugs twice in quick succession. Slowly they lower Kayli until they can no longer see her. Near the bottom, she tugs the line twice, and the party stops lowering her.
With a little acrobatics and a lot of stretching, Kayli is able to grab the book from its pedestal. The moment she touches it though, the elemental rises from the floor and prepares to attack. Caught up in the events, and panicking almost as much as my character, I physically pantomimed tugging on the rope... twice.
The party happily obliged by dropping me face first into the tablet of wet clay.
When the party hauled me out of there, I explained how my muddy appearance was the result of the elemental's attack.
In a later adventure, our party returned to the dungeon and had to take a more mundane route down into the scrying chamber in order to accomplish a disenchantment of the keep. After we fought and destroyed the elemental in a particularily harrowing fight, my character limped ahead of the group so she could beat them to the clay tablet and erase the evidence of her embarassing mistake.
<volefisk>
I had a whole party of players decide to split up into groups of two in order to explore Castle Ravenloft. Does that count as stupid?
Or how about at the end of the old G3 module, when my group finished off the giant king we figured it was over (not knowing about the Underdark back in those days), so we agreed that the Dwarf Fighter/Thief and the Paladin (both injured) would go down into the caverns to see what was there while the rest of the party set up camp. If I remember correctly, there are THIRTY trolls down in the caverns near the entrance to the Underdark. Luckily my Paladin had an exploding sword (long story), so after the Dwarf was dead, he blew up the sword, himself, and most of the trolls. Maybe it was only dumb in retrospect, but it was certainly dumb.
Or how about at the end of the old G3 module, when my group finished off the giant king we figured it was over (not knowing about the Underdark back in those days), so we agreed that the Dwarf Fighter/Thief and the Paladin (both injured) would go down into the caverns to see what was there while the rest of the party set up camp. If I remember correctly, there are THIRTY trolls down in the caverns near the entrance to the Underdark. Luckily my Paladin had an exploding sword (long story), so after the Dwarf was dead, he blew up the sword, himself, and most of the trolls. Maybe it was only dumb in retrospect, but it was certainly dumb.
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