posted
I have not played pencil and paper D&D since high school, some 15 years ago, but here are two of my favorite memories, and they are a bit outside of the official rules...
1. We had captured a fairly large supply of Smurfs. Our party would tie strings to them and use them as scouts and trap detectors, with frequent and violent deaths as a result.
2. My friend had bestowed on me the Green Blade of Zombie Making. Those struck with the blade had to make a saving throw vs becoming an undead zombie under the service of the sword owner.
Sure these two tributes are strange and outside the normal rules, but they sure were fun and I miss my old D&D pals.
Feel free to take a stroll back memory lane, just be sure to take a smurf or two with you, just in case.
posted
I just revisited my old D&D group during my trip to California. One little exploit they told me about was the "bag-o-rats" technique. Basically, in third-edition Dungeons and Dragons, if you have the right feats, you are allowed to execute a "whirlwind attack" — a move that allows you to make one attack against each adjacent enemy — in conjunction with a "cleave" — a move that allows you, upon killing one enemy, to immediately attack another enemy of your choice.
So, if you run up against a really tough enemy, and you ahve these feats, all you need to do is empty a bag of rats on the ground. Then attack each rat in turn, killing it, and spend your cleave attack on the tough enemy. If you have thirty rats in the bag, that means you get thirty free attacks on the enemy.
They quashed that exploit in the 3.5 Edition books. [sigh]
I've got a lot of D&D stories, but most of them are just legends, nothing to do with my actual experience ...
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
My favorite story was the never-ending food supply. They took some toll flesh and stuck it in a can with a lid. When they open the lid, and it has space to, the flesh starts regenerating. If left alone, the entire troll will regenerate. So when enough comes out of the can, they slice that off and then fry it up. Troll burgers!
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
I played a psionicist and had the "phase object ability." So I phased the center ring of the dome in an undead temple and killed them all .
The DM was pretty good about it, since he had written this detailed description that included the ring. And he just moved the whole adventure to some caves in a later session so he didn't waste all his preparation time.
I was DMing once and happened to mention a heavily guarded caravan of dwarves with a shipment from the mithril mines heading down the road. It was just their for local color, but they, being mostly chaotic neutral, decided to steal a mithril bar. I had to make up the defenses on the spot. I let them steal it, but I made them roleplay fencing it. They ended up with coins that were too big for any merchants to cash, too. It's fun to get them back when they think they've pulled one over on you.
posted
As a DM I created a character--Mendax who was a devil that went around torturing with near death, sweet characters, then requesting their souls. OK, this is about as demonic as D&D gets, but I based it off of old Arthurian stories and such. This character, who almost always told lies, and his lies almost always contained truth, was so popular that he showed up in all my campaigns from that point forward, and in several campaigns of those who I gamed with. In fact, he traveled to Europe when one player joined the army, and may still be around in someone else's game today.
I had a friend cast a continue light on his bow, then proceed to try and hide in the shadows.
I created a cursed magic sword for a Paladin that had trouble playing in character. Whenever a person was taken unawares, or from behind, by this sword, it gave them hit points.
I have a lot more fun stories as well.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I was DMing for a few friend back when i lived in Atlanta. As a DM my first comment to players is that I will allow them to try anything, rules ignored if it seems interesting enough.
So I created a little, one shot campaign for them and set them loose. In the end, rather than complete the quest I set them on in the beginning, they 1) Killed off two of their own players out of a group of four. 2) set fire to the mansion they were adventuring in 3) and foolishly tried to use a wish without clarifying it precisely, resulting in the creation of an all powerful bucket of water.
They also had a level 2 thief attempt to steal the clothes off the back of the character I created to guide them into the adventure, a level-20 wizard. hilarity ensued.
Posts: 100 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
In a campaign that I am currently in the midst of, I play a fighter that specializes with greatswords. My character is OBSESSED with them. Anyway, we are in a heavily trapped dungeon, and we come across a greatsword lying on the ground. Naturally, playing in character, I run over and pick it up. Needless to say, it was cursed.
I was forced to make a will save and failed miserably. I then turned on my overly-large party (there were 2 clerics, a figher, an arcane archer, and a rogue/custom prestige class (though our mage was not present)) and charged one of the clerics. Aside from the initial failed will save, I had an incredibly lucky night. I hit probably 75% of the time while using power attack +5. Our archer missed most of the time, rolling 4's and 5's. The cleric I was attacking used inflict critical wounds, and rolled 1, 1, 1, 2. He tried it again the next round and failed his concentration check because he rolled a 1. I managed to deal at least 90 damage to that cleric, had the other cleric not cast cure critical wounds on him twice. As it is, the first cleric was left with 13 hitpoints by the time they knocked my unconsious. Fortunately, the DM didn't allow them to kill or punish me due me attacking the party because of the cursed weapon. Sucked for them, though. Posts: 1466 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
I wrote a big long post about awesome RP in one of BtL's games from way back when... I was about half done when it vanished into the ether, never to be seen again.
posted
Since I know I've talked about my alcoholic monk, I think I'll use a more present character.
One is a wizard. Now this doesn't seem too out of the ordinary until you find out that he always has someone who looks, acts, and has the exact same stats following him.
In the first ten minutes of the game... Military commander: Alright maggots! I'm here to train you as a ruthless, killing force! You're here because- Player: We were drafted! I was pulled out of my home and dragged here! Me: Yeah, I'm a conciencious objector to this war. DM: *to me*...Okay you're dead, make a new character. Me: okay a new person comes up with the exact same name, stats, and attitude. Hi, I'm Vargas! DM:...Make sure there's a two next to his name. Alright maggots! As I was saying, you are going to train hard for the next- Me: Why am I here? I'm against this war in the first place! DM:...You're dead again Nick. Me: Alright guys, meet Vargas III! DM: Now! You will obey every command I give you! I expect you to be loyal, efficient killers! Me:...I liked R. Lee Ermey better. DM: Make that a IV next to your name. *after training* DM: Okay, everyone can ask your commander for an item. If you roll a 4, he'll give it to you. *come my turn* Me: Hey commander, can I have a Vorpal letter opener? *I roll a 4* DM: Why in the name of God do you want a vorpal letter opener? Me: Well have you ever gotten a letter that turned out to be a mimic? Nasty stuff. DM: Fine, you get a vorpal letter opener. However, as you go to open your first letter, you slip and the letter opener cuts your head off and disappears. Me: Hi there, I'm Vargas V Other Player: Hey, I don't like the number 5. *kills me* Me: Hi, I'm Vargas VI!
As of now, Vargas VI has managed to stay alive, however Vargas VII is constantly following him around. The two have some nice conversations from time to time. Posts: 332 | Registered: Apr 2003
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A magic mouth appears demanding, "Say the magic word and the door will open."
The magic word was, "THe magic word."
Took players hours to figure that out.
Friend had a paladin who met a succubus. Paladin lost his life, and his LG standing because, well, he "found a better way to go than fighting some ugly ogre."
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Gottmorder, sounds like you're playing the wrong game. Try Paranoia.
My favorite D&D moment came during a period of really, really astounding roleplay following the discovery of the party's betrayal by someone who had traveled with them for nearly four months in order to reach an evil temple -- in order to "use" the party to clear the entrance to the temple, of course. When the party managed to defeat the blue dragon and the hordes of gnolls, only to be surprised by a fireball from the inside of the "abandoned" temple and an assassination attempt from the betrayer (a Rogue5/Assassin2), they were genuinely hurt and confused.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
A DM back in college was known for his 'realistic" games, meaning characters died by the truckload. Said DM refused to concede that he was weighting the game. Durng a particularly bloody dungeon crawl, my friend Dave had a character he named Targon who was tragically killed. His next character he named Targon, son of Targon. The one after that was Targon, son of Targon, Targonson. And so on, and so on... Targon, whichever one he happened to be, was devoted to his lineage and took every chance he could to remark on his ancestors and how they fought and died in this here cave. He tended to refer to himself in the third person, usually with the entire, ever-lengthening genealogical littany included. There were human Targons, dwarf Targons, elven Targons, Targons of every race and gender and age imaginable. When the DM finally lost it and forbid Dave to create more, he rolled up Nograt. Nograt was replaced by his son, Nograt, son of Targon, son of Targon, son of...(etc). The DM finally gave up, especially after the surviving party members began using the multitudes of dead bodies (and their possessions) as an informal supply chain and larder.
There were always players with heroin-addict desires for magic items, so I provided them. These included such staggeringly useful items as the Lamp Post of Wizardly Might, the Cinder Block of Water Breathing, the Frilly TuTu of Warrior Strength, and my favorite clerical weapon, the Mace of Healing: it simultaneously caused 8 points of damage while healing 7, leaving a dazed and suitably chastised opponent.
I don't know what the others got out of it, but I played just to screw with the players' minds. It's amazing how worked up a party can be after they've dug through a dungeon for two months only to find that the most valuable thing in it was the set of solid platinum doors (clad in weatherbeaten wood, of course) they jimmied open the first day...
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Heh.. I use to play with a group, and my character was a (and always seems to be) Half elf half human named Pepek. And my character's flaw.. or, well.. flaws is that he is an archer that uses a crowbar for everything who could never hold his own, relys on his luck, wanders away from the group, and enjoys talking to people too much, including the ones trying to kill him. One day on a dungeon crawl, we ran into two sheets of pure crystal hanging in a hall held up by mythril chains- my character being the little ignorant theif, found himself approaching them after little precaution, the crystal transformed into two golems, who decided to attack with this 'prism' spray or something to that effect, which makes you roll to see what happens to you or what color hits you does something-- anyway- my character automatically was sent to the some plane or another where there's no gravity or anything and bad stuff and good stuff exist-- he got lucky, at least this place had some good inhabitants- ran into some stubborn Arch Angel- but I gave him one of our party's most valuable items and he helped me out. Though the other players almost wished he'd have killed me.. anyway- I ended up being brought to the Celestial planes, and then sent back to a village near by the dungeon- after my party escaped we had to make a stop by some other town.. and off Pepek wandered again with his trusty crowbar..- Always escaping death by the the skin of his teeth.
posted
Eruve, can you provide a link? I'd love to contribute something, if I can remember anything else worth putting down.
These tales are way cool, and I especially liked the troll burgers. I must file that one away for future use...
My two best characters were Yazel and Kazel, twin brothers, fighter/thiefs who built this wonderful fortress from tungsten. Their most prized possession was a "unique" magic item similar to the ones Chris mentioned called the "Stone of Swordmaking". We used it to supply our armies with weapons quickly and easily.
Does mass combat still exist?
Posts: 1870 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I'm assuming you were talking about *the* game, twink? Too bad that computer died and took everything with it. My world! My beautiful beautiful world!
The father of one of my friends back home has been playing for years, and he's run the same series of campaigns with many different parties over the years. The final campaign, Crimson Gore, ends (assuming the players get that far) with the party fighting the red dragon Crimson Gore. I can only dream of controlling monsters that well. John's (said DM) games were brilliant.
Then I had the distinct pleasure of playing with a friend of mine named Wes who was also fantastic. The moods he could create were, just wow. We played in the world he created for, oh, 6 or 7 years. We got to know it really *really* well by that point. It was staggering just how detailed it was, how many powers were constantly pushing and pulling. I shudder to think of how many hours the man put into it. twinky came into that one right at the tailend when Wes was designing all sorts of new rules. Sadly, by that point it had totally run out of steam and was more about the mechanics he was creating than the gaming itself.
Too early to tell if Slash's game will become a favored memory. But it's still been an absolute blast thus far.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
How do you guys play Slash's game, anyway? It's by e-mail, right? Can I assume there's some fudging of the typical combat rules?
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Both Slash and I play strictly by the rules, including the effects of tactical movement, but we DON'T lay out the combat in 5' grids for the players. This has the additional interesting benefit of meaning that players provoke -- and receive -- more AoOs than they would if they were playing on a map. It also speeds up combat AND makes it considerably more realistic.
(I also, in my game, make the assumption that players will move in a way that avoids AoOs whenever possible, and try to indicate in the text of my combat descriptions when an AoO is likely for a given action.)
Area effect spells can be kind of tricky, but so far our players have been able to handle it by asking things like "so, who can I hit if I do THIS? If I were to move over, who could I hit THEN?"
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
>> I'm assuming you were talking about *the* game, twink? Too bad that computer died and took everything with it. My world! My beautiful beautiful world! <<
I am indeed talking about *the* game.
Three straight sessions of pure RP with nary a die roll to be found. Fantastic.
...and the way you worked the histories into the game world...
...I'll always wonder who the heck that mysterious wizard on the wrecked boat on the beach was.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Man, I never realized how much background you should put into roleplaying stories to get the real effect out of them. I don't have that kind of patience, so I'll make this quick.
Our 3 person party had just beaten an animated stone statue by looping it with a cable, throwing oil at it's feet, and then having our crazed fighter jump down a 20 foot cliff with the cable tied around his waist. So, the three of them are at the top of the cliff with the still animated statue scraping away at it trying to make it's way back up (wasn't going to happen). While the other two are examining a trapdoor that we found, the crazed fighter (who was pissed because he'd notched his sword trying to hack away at the statue as it was trying to get up after being pulled off the cliff) asked the DM what kind of rocks were around. After a little pestering, the DM agreed that there were some large, mostly round ones.
This works better if you see it like a movie, where the two other people are in the foreground, kneeling over the trapdoor and discussing what we're going to do about it. Yuo can hear the statute scratching away at the cliff. In the background, you see a pair of legs go by and then hear some grunting. Then, you hear some whistling and the legs return, going the other way and preceded by a boulder. The guys at the trapdoor are now checking it for traps. Suddenly, there's a huge crash, the guys look up, and the camera pans over fighter at the edge of the cliff, brushing his hands off and yelling "Take that, you ^&$^& $^%%^! Invulnerable my ass." Then he walks over to the speechless guys at the trapdoor and says, "So hey, what's up with this door?"
---
I've got some party does something stupid ones too.
We'd broken up into two teams to infiltrate an orc/evil human bandit encampment. Two of us were boldly traveling towards two sentries in the middle of a clearing who had signal horns. The other two were sneaking around the perimeter. After failing a diplomacy check miserably, the bold party succeded in enraging the sentires so much that they charged them, forgetting about the horns. Actually the last sentry (there were 2) finally died because he had remembered the horn and tried to blow it, provoking an attack of opportunity. The bold members breathed a sigh of relief that they had prevented the entire camp from knowing they were there, and then they looked to the edge of the clearing, where a huge plume of smoke was billowing. Apparently, the other two had found a shack, blocked it's exits, and set it on fire. Somehow, they had forgotten that fire makes smoke, and a huge plume of smoke was a pretty good signal that somethings going on. So, the bold party, blew the signal horn and ran for hiding, hoping that the bandits would rush to the fire and the horn and not go to guard the prisoners we were there to free. We freed some of the prisoners (lost some) and made a mad dash out of there. For the rest of the session, the bold members tried to set things on fire as the solution to any problem that came up, from haggling over a price or picking a lock.
On another occasion, I was DMing and the party had ended up at the World Strongest Dward competition with a potion keyed to transform one of them into a contestant that they had defeated on the way there. They spent some time planning how they were going to get into this competition and handle his fans and the other members of his group. After all this talking, they put their plan into action and the guy they chose drank the potion. So, he heads off to enter the contest and I ask him, "Hey, do you speak dwarvish?" "Ah crap, not a frickin' word." Ahh, it was priceless.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
I think you're exaggerating how long it was before I die was rolled and really, I didn't expect you to spend a day (literally) talking to everyone you could find. And I thought I was wasting my time making backstories for everybody on that boat.
Sadly, not only do I not remember who the wizard on the beach was, I don't remember there *being* a wizard on the beach. Ah well, I guess nobody will ever know now
Thinking about Slash's game for a bit I've decided my favorite moment was Karl's post in the aftermath of the skeleton attack where he settles in with his spellbook for the night. His character suddenly clicked for me and everything he's written since then has really jived with that turn.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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