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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 5230510" data-attributes="member: 40177">My favourite moment was way back in our 2e days - around 1995 or so.  We had a small party, and yours truly was playing a 3rd level human wizard.  My partners in crime here a halfling thief who would joke about finding his brother so they could make a "wholeling", and a dwarven fighter that took great joy in being a stereotype, apparently.  Our GM was in middle school with the rest of us, and rabidly read the Dragon magazine advice (as did we all) and felt that any game that was merely "hack and slash" was for "beginners".  He also had full control over the campaign, and handed out very little to us... my mage didn't even have very many good spells, to the point that I regularly only used Enlarge to make my teammates better, or the occasional Affect Normal Fires.  I used my crossbow a lot.Anyways, we were exploring this wilderness area, and found a large stone bridge crossing a very deep chasm ("it's at least two hundred feet deep").  So, we cross, and after some discussion, we encounter one of the GM's "Pet monsters" that always seem to win.  We'd had enough of fighting these guys (I think they were tieflings?  Memory fades on the point), and we weren't going to do it again - GM plans or no.  So we try to cross back, and head on back to town, where my mage had set up a lucrative side business using his grease spell to make french fries (yes, we owned our very own burger stand... and this was not played for laughs).  The GM told us it'd be better to keep heading forward, as his prepared adventure was "awesome".  But his idea of "awesome" generally meant us surviving by the skin of our teeth with little to no treasure.  Remember, this is mid 2e, where it was apparently bad GMing to give PCs treasure or magical items - at least, that's how it read to us.  So we try to cross the bridge back to safety.  The GM, trying to deter us, mentions that we see a Dragon in the distance, flying towards the bridge.  "He doesn't seem to like you guys trying to cross this bridge" our GM intones.  "Maybe this is a bad idea.""I'm going to fight it," I say.  I don't know why I said it.  I think it was, before I consciously knew it, that I was being tired of the "railroading", even though I had never heard the term.  Or maybe it was because I hate getting told what to do. "With what?  What spells do you have?" The GM asks.  "Web, and two Enlarge spells"  This "web" spell sounded like it could be fun."Yeah, maybe you should run.""Hell no."  I had drawn my line in the sand.  Give me liberty, or give me death!  My fellows are cowed.  We're in the middle of the bridge, and an open target.  They want to run back - to the "safe" side of the bridge.  Hell, they'll even run to the GM's side of the bridge, and fight the monsters that always beat the crap out of us.  But I say "screw that" and hold my ground.  My 3rd level wizard is gonna take on this dragon, damn it!  Dwarf and thief hide behind me, scared like little girls.  It gets close - I hold my ground.  It gets closer, flying straight at us.  I hold my ground, getting ready.  "When I say run, run" I say, quietly.  Then, I say "run" and cast my web spell - at the creature's wings... anchoring one wing tip to the other wing tip, to the tail.  The GM is stunned for a moment, his eyes going wide.  But, to give him credit, he rolled with it.  The dragon starts spiralling in the air, while my group dashes off the bridge (to the "safe" side of the chasm).    We barely make it to ground before the bridge explodes into shrapnel, and the Dragon takes 5d6 damage from the impact.  It then falls 200 feet, to the bottom of the chasm - another 20d6 damage.  But it's still alive, and the GM looks at me.  "He's really angry, now.""No problem."  The PCs help me roll some boulders off the cliff - boulders that I enlarge just as they're about to fall... and smack the stunned Dragon... for another 20d6 damage each.  one dead dragon later....  the GM informs us that we might be able to find a path and carry on with our quest.  But the party says "wait.  We just killed a dragon... that means there must be a lair somewhere.... let's look for that!"We found the lair, the GM randomly rolled the treasure, and we came back to town rich... and each a level higher (since you could only level up one level at a time).  We used the cash to add an extra floor to our lucrative burger tavern.  The campaign became very urban-focused after that.</blockquote>

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