What makes stupidity fatal?

[Marius Delphus]

Not a TPK, but definitely suicidal. From a 1E convention game:

The PCs (about a dozen of us!) are part of the crew of a military sailing ship, in transit from one fort to another. We are mainly 1st and 2nd level but there are some higher-level support characters in the background. Pirates of some brazen sort appear, draw alongside, grapple, and begin boarding. As we fighters line up to repel the boarders, chaos breaks out elsewhere, and there is backstabbing, spellcasting, and all sorts of other nonsense. The support characters seem to be dealing with something else, and the enemy captain and first mate end up paralyzed at the helm.

Enter the 2nd-level wizard, who (I'm not kidding) swings on a rope over to the pirate ship to assassinate the paralyzed NPCs. Note that pirates are still pouring out of the holds. Note that we fighters are having a very rough time, and victory is not certain. Note that we've been trying to keep the spellcasters safe to cast whatever spells they can. Note that one of our higher-level background characters has already turned up a thief ready to backstab whomever he can sneak up on.

Our tired-of-life wizard manages to off one of his targets before being knocked out from behind. In the next round, the DM rules the culprit then kills the helpless wizard. The bawling that ensued was embarassing... but the rest of us pretty much agreed that the incident could fairly be chalked up to "player error"....

 

[F5]

The closest I've come to a TPK due to stupidity actually just happened a few months ago, so I don't even have the "I was young and stupid then" excuse. I hang my head in shame...

My fairly low level party (we were between 4th and 5th level) were in a gnomish city, looking for minions of the Big Bad Evil Guy. We've tracked our suspect to his lair in the sewers, and we want to get to him quickly because we know he's about to bolt for parts unknown. Only three of the usual 6 players made it to that session, so it was just the Cleric, fighter and halfling sorcerer, but we figured we could take on one, solitary gnome.

We've snuck up on his chambers, and are outside the old, rusty door we know he's hiding behind. In the interest of time, our brilliant plan is to throw open the door and charge the gnome before he can react.

Imagine our surprise when we find out that the "gnome" was a shapechanged Rakshasa, who knew exactly where we were, had cast Fire Trap on the door, and had readied a Fireball spell to go off as soon as the door opened. And me without a Protection from Elements. It hurt.

Miraculously, no one took enough damage to put them at -10, so the DM "mercifully" let us survive. In the clutches of the Rakshasa, who used a rat-bastardly combo of Bestow Curse, Lesser Geas, and Modify Memory to make us unwittingly destroy the Temple of the Paladins.

No one in the group likes to talk about that particular incident...

 

[jasper]

Had 1 guy who thought I would not let him get in over his head. The party is low level, no one above second level. Orc tracks are found. Now I had the adventure planned out, they were traveling toward the village of Hommlet.
“no way am I going to the temple of elemental evil! Guys lets take the north path”
I mention that the adventure is to the east. I don’t mention that the temple had been cleared out two years before and they were to meet some of surviving adventurers.
“My old dm would let us wander where we want too. We go north.”
He ignores the sign, which points to adventure to east.
I agree with him. The party stumbles across the three witches from “Hocus Pocus”. Most of party except him fail their saves and are charmed. Coming close to TPK. He decides to talk with them and get the witches to release the party. The witches rob the party of gold and turn them loose, with the warning not to bother them again.

He escorts the party to road and then RETURNS to cut a deal with witches about sacrificing members of the party later.
Imagine his surprise when he has make some saving throws.
Then finds his character in the soup pot.
He found out he could be an Adventurer and follow some of the plot hooks. Or the extra that gets it in the opening scene.

 

[drakhe]

Don't touch the magic mirror

Not realy a party wreck, but what I did was pretty stupid!

Imagine a second level wood elf rogue/wizard...

Imagine a wizards tower, open door, no guards, ...

Imagine this woodelf being very curious...

Imagine.... <GET ON WITH IT>

well, I did enter the wizards tower to try and have him help us. I never stopped to find it very weard, a wizard tower with it's door open and no guards in sight. I even could walk in without a problem. And this mirror was pretty neat, a wooden statue of a dog standing in front of it was not just reflected in the mirror, in the mirror the dog was... alive, running in a meadow. Hmm ... gotta touch the mirror... touch ... the ... mirror SWOOOOOP
My poor little woodelf rogue/wizard is to this day running after the dog in the mirror <sigh>

Bwah, the session before, my sister (played by another player) got herself killed. Running away from a hunting party she decided to climb into a tree and play tarzan <sigh> well, the rope broke, the sister fell, the hounds had a lovely meal...

 

[BOZ]

near TPK on Ghost Tower of Inverness

oh man, that one was rough! we went in with about 8 PCs and 1 NPC a month ago, and 5 of those PCs didn't make it out in one peice. and i think he toned it down quite a bit too. we didn't know what we were getting into.

of the remaining PCs, two are mute (the result of a botched wish spell), and all were drained of their magic items. oddly enough, only the NPC came out unscathed.

 

[barsoomcore]

Last season on Barsoom:

Our heroes have an unusual ship at their disposal. A merchant vessel, sturdy and reliable, that seems to completely nullify magical effects. No spells can be cast by anyone standing on the ship, nor do spells cast from beyond the ship have any effect on the ship or its occupants.

Pretty handy thing, when you're being hunted by mad god-wizards, right?

So our heroes rescue one mad god-wizard from another. These two mad god-wizards (mgws) have been trying to kill each other for the past two hundred years. ONE of the mgws (not the one they rescued) is also desperate to kill the party.

So they have a boat (A) that nullifies magic and a mgw (B) on their side, against another mgw (C) who's out to get them. What do they do?

Well of course, they put mgw B into boat A, rendering her helpless once mgw C starts dropping big heavy things on boat A.

Party (D) sinks. DM (E) shakes his head, confused. They seemed so intelligent...

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

Re: Re: What makes stupidity fatal?

Hrr. That sounds less a matter of player stupidity as it was of DM showing off. Remember, there are no "accidents" in D&D. You cannot "accidentally teleport to a place. You can only accidentally teleport. The DM decides the place. He decided to put you into a situation you could not handle. It's not terribly reasonable to expect you to get out of that situation alive, going to to toe or not.

When the players willfully seek outy such a situation, it's stupidity. When the DM forces it upon you... well, it's frequently not what I'd call good DMing. YMMV.

In fairness to the DM, we did teleport into a quiet corner from which we could sneak away fairly easily - if we had been so inclined. I on the other hand had eyes on a magical crown.

 

[Moe Ronalds]

I don't really have stupid players, but every group I have seems to contain ONE stupid player.

In Sunless Citadel, first level characters. Action.

Me: A small, dog-like, lizard-like, humanoid creature in robes sits upon a small throne. She obviously holds some position of power, judging by the many other creatures bowing to her. On a nearby altar, she has several valuable looking possessions.

Player1: Hello, be you leader?

Player2: I walk up and take out my sword.

DM: Are you sure?

Player 2: Yes.

DM: Alright. Upon seeing you take arms against her, the robed figure mutters a few words. (Player fails save). You're now in a large block of webbing, and the creatures surrounding the robed figure all look angry.

Player 2: I turn around and fart in her face!

DM: You what?

Player2: You heard me!

DM: You sure you want to do that?

Player2: Yes!

DM: You sure?

Player2: YES ALREADY!

DM: Roll up a new character.

(Player2 is the same guy in my sig by the way)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rogue: Alright, I head into the dungeon and check for traps.

Monk: Wait! Before you do that, the BEST way to find traps is to stomp down on the floor REALLY HARD. This way, if you trigger anything, you'll get it stuck in place and nothing will activate.

Rogue: Really?

Monk: Yeah!

DM(Later): And you want your new character to be a bard you say?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And my personal favorite...

Rogue: I go into the general store.

DM: the store is selling a few cheap, normal peasent goods as well as food.

Rogue: DO you have any swords?

Shopkeep: No.

Rogue: Do you have any SHORTswords?

Shopkeep: NO.

Rogue: Are you sure?

Shopkeep: BUy something or leave.

Rogue: What about daggers?

Necromancer: I enter and ask to buy food for my familiar.

Shopkeep: We don't serve your kind here, OUT.

Necromancer: All I want is some birdseed!

Druid: I enter and hit him with my club.

DM: Alright well the old man keels over. Wondering what the ruccus is, the town millitia enters.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DM: [Rogue], the town guard walks up to you. They're holding a wanted poster with your face on it.

Rogue: I stab them!

DM: You miss. They hit you with their longswords. You are now at... 3 HP.

Monk(who has recently joined town guard): What's the difficulty here?

Rogue: I run away.

Monk: I follow

Rogue: I keep running.

DM: You're wearing medium armor.

ROgue: So?

DM: You're running from a MONK.

Rogue: So?

DM: Right. *takes out 4 D6's and waits*

 

[Ramien Meltides]

Our friendly local DM (Ki Ryn here on the boards, in fact) was running his Tir'anon campaign, set in a viking fantasy northland. Our party was halfheartedly investigating some rumors of assassinations as a side project to the campaign metaplot.

So we're in a tavern, and lo and behold! A member of a mercenary group approaches us, asks us if we want to become members of "Ice's band". Since we knew the assassinations were done with ice-coated weapons, we agree. One minor test later, the party is escorted into a secret hideout where Ice and his band of assassin's are lairing.

The DM patiently explains who these people are and gives each member of the bad guys an interesting name and personality. Our party is keeping it on the down-low, just chitchatting and biding our time. I was playing a LG gnome wizard. Thinking that now would be a good time to spring the surprise and capture these miscreants, my character leaps up onto the table with an announcement. Unrolling a scroll and clearing my throat, I calmly tell the assassin's they are under arrest, then read the Web scroll I held in my hands.

The DM stopped, and looked at me. "Okay" he says. "You can clearly tell that Ice and his assassin's are about two or three levels higher than your party average."

Gulp. Now he tells me. Unfortunately, I don't like taking back actions I feel would be "in character"... so I square my shoulders and say "Well, I guess we'll see how we do, then."

We gave Ice and his pals a hell of a fight, but we were all handily captured... some of us in the Web spell! (Darn those areas of effect!)

 

[Umbran]

Re: Re: Re: What makes stupidity fatal?

In fairness to the DM, we did teleport into a quiet corner from which we could sneak away fairly easily

That's very nice, but it also shows the DM violating a vairly basic rule, which can be stated in theartical terms as "If you put a gun on the stage, you'd better dang well use it".

While not 100% true in gaming, it's still mostly true. If you introduce a thing with which the PCs may interact, you must expect them to interact with it. And seeing as these folks would just as soon kill you as anything else, the natural form of interaction would be whooping your butt.

Thus, in a sense this can be seen as a case of the DM showing off ("See, I'm the DM, I have these neat badasses as my characters!"), but perhaps not realizing the consequences.

Because, really now - nobody randomly teleports into a room filled with important people. Important people have protections against that sort of nonsense.