Funniest Adventure Moments

[Spinward Scout]

You got the sequence backwards. First, he claimed he knew all there was to know about Paladins (who was I to argue?). Then he stole the horse, then I reminded him of the consequences.

Hilarity ensued.

Player knowledge and character knowledge are two different things. Couldn't you have had him roll a Wisdom check?

Just a thought.

 

[beowulf2044]

Wisdom check? Screw that. If a player announces they know it all, then they can take their lumps. Saw it happen with a Traveller game I ran at a convention. At one point, an Aslan NPC made an appearence. Before I can brief the players on common knowledge about the Aslan race (some players at the convention we're playing Traveller for the first time) a certain player announces: "No problem. I know just what to do with these guys."

He then says his character walks up to the Aslan and says: "Alright, Fur Face; take me to whoever's in charge here. Now!"

The result was entertaining and educational, if brief.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

Player knowledge and character knowledge are two different things. Couldn't you have had him roll a Wisdom check? Just a thought.

Both the player and the character knew that "Thou Shalt Not Steal" was one of the Laws of the Land.

From my "Guidelines for RPG Referees (A Work In Progress)":

"If a character is played heroically, and the time comes for it to 'die', then it should 'die' a hero's death. If, on the other hand, a character is played foolishly, and the dice decree that it should 'die', then it should 'die' a fool's death."

... and ...

"When a player displays a momentary lapse in judgment through the actions of his or her character, never pass up the opportunity to exploit the situation for its entertainment value."

The dice did not decree that the character should 'die' (Honest! I rolled them twice, just to be sure ... ), and from that point on, even the player of the "Ten-Minute Paladin" had fun with it, and eventually did redeem his character through many heroic adventures.

The redemption scene alone would have made Cecil B. DeMille proud, and Irwin Allen sick with envy.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Wisdom check? Screw that. If a player announces they know it all, then they can take their lumps. Saw it happen with a Traveller game I ran at a convention. At one point, an Aslan NPC made an appearence. Before I can brief the players on common knowledge about the Aslan race (some players at the convention we're playing Traveller for the first time) a certain player announces: "No problem. I know just what to do with these guys."

He then says his character walks up to the Aslan and says: "Alright, Fur Face; take me to whoever's in charge here. Now!"

The result was entertaining and educational, if brief.

I like that last line. It has closure.

Loose tangential anecdote; our group didn't rub elbows with the Aslan too much. When we did we were normally the hired guns for some clan or something. One time we were on one of their mercenary ships and got boarded.

The funny part was that the GM announced that borders were approaching and we had plenty of time to prepare. Not a bad thing. Who would be dumb enough to board an Aslan mercenary ship? That's when the life support system was compromised, and all decks were flooded with anesthesia. The good news. We were immune. The bad news. Our Aslan comrades, the very battalion that had hired our four man wrecking crew, were not! :rofl:

The regular crew and mostly Aslan battalion was anesthetized, and we poor humans who were relatively immune to said anesthesia, had to repel the borders. This included one super-burly guy in some pretty hefty armor. Our LMGunner unloaded an entire belt into this NPC, barely bringing him down.

Quite a battle. Just thought I'd share.

 

[FreeTrav]

I've done this one in so many different contexts it's becoming old FOR ME - but it still gets the people around me rolling on the floor when it happens. This is the gaming context incident...

The game, natch, was Traveller - Classic or Mega would have been the version of choice, as it was pre-TNE.

We were playing at the house of a friend who lived near Queens Boulevard in Queens, NY - a divided main road, with service roads. People treat the divided main road as though it was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The PCs were chasing the Big Baddie NPC, and it had gotten to a ground-car chase. BBNPC had about 100m lead on them, and blows through a contrary traffic control signal. PCs figure on doing the same, but <roll> "there's a bystander's g-c coming out of the cross street."

"SHIT! I slam on the brakes!"

"Gimme a roll against your DEX, for reaction speed."

<roll>

"Oops. You smoke the brakes, very loudly, and slow down a hell of a lot, but you don't quite come to a stop in time. Roll for..."

At that moment, we hear a very loud, very long screech outside - like someone was smoking the brakes, very loudly. We all pause while the screech ... well, screeches.

It stops.

Silence.

I wait a beat.

In my best Marvin the Martian voice, "Where's the KABOOM!? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering KABOOM!."

Visualization of the reaction is left as an exercise for the student.

 

[aramis]

year was 1996... the game was Arabian Sea Tales.

Jerry, playing a gifted young boy who can speak with djinn, hears the call to prayer. Goes to the mosque, and asks for inspiration.

Rolls gifted, overkill result. "Your lungs fill with a djinn of air, who uses you to scream, 'There is no God but Allah, but the Djinn have more say!"

Proceeds to run from mosque, grabbing other PC's en route. Mob chases them to a blind alley by the sultan's palace... up the wall... in the window... into the harem. The social-type character, played by Steve, rolls to secure help from one of the slaves in said harem. Overkill. She not only points the way out, but demands to be taken along.

Somewhat later, Jerry's character has lead the party out into the desert... and then Steves spots a lizard... hoping for dinner, He rolls slashing steel to kill the lizard, and overkills... severing it's tail. Lizard runs off, Steve's socialite is standing there, upset woman hanging off his arm, holding a wiggling lizard tail.

Jerry, drolly, says "Well, that was a lot of work for a piece of tail...."

 

[Gatsby]

Ok....a bunch of Travellers in the usual:

Small compound loaded with pissed off military moving in to capture or kill. With great pains and a few wounds the 'heroes' crawl into an air/raft and start it up as the military types move in.

The driver says two words: 'Pop up' and the air/raft heads vertical. One 'hero' decides to take care of the swarm below and drop a nice fat grenade on them...over the side it goes....just as the driver pops up into a hail of VRF Gauss fire from the canyon walls. Immediately, he decides to 'Drop hard! Full Thrust'.

Ah...when several players are yelling actions at once!

"You drop fast...Hey, Look, you pass your grenade...no, wait: Here it comes! Boom."

 

[Samules]

D&D 3.5

The characters have just escaped from a prison but are still deep within a fortress. The Rogue goes into his cell and makes a disguise check to look like a guard. Natural 20 (for travellers that means PERFECTION at task) DM says "You look EXACTLY like a guard. The rest of you see another guard inside this cell."

The rest of the players are excellent roleplayers and while laughing declare:
"Magic Missile!"
"Charge with spear!"
"I cast protection from evil on the fighter!"

2nd level rogues are squishy.

 

[DonaldH]

Believe it or not 1st Ed AD&D.

DM...You come onto a fork in the road.

Player...wait codpiece

need I say more.

 

[Zedwardson]

Three things come to mind....

AD&D...

Players walking down road, and the DM says you see a "A Taco".

It is some monster that sounded like "A Taco", so one player, not relizing the DM meant the monster, says "I pick it up and eat it.

Sadly for the player, the moster ate HIM...

---------------------------------------------------

in third edition, I played a half-Orc Bard, I pleased the players and DM as I would play a pig-skin drum and would almost start bar fights by starting up the ode to say, the battle of Unbruck, where many orcs slaughtered the human and elves, look up to see who was in the tavern, say "Rought crowd" and then do something more appoperate.

Anyways, we had a gamer girl, she was playing a halfling, and in combat her first move would be to hide behind the half-orc, her boyfriend was actually getting pissed off that she was hiding behind the half-orc, and not his usual Dwarven warrior. Ended up breaking up the couple for a few days over this. o:


-----------------------

and now, in CT...

The party was hired by some settlers to scare off some male Aslans who where squatting on the planet, before the females show up and make the squatter compound full time settlement.

The party had a hotshot former marine, who insisted that the party (who was mostly made of traiders, scientists, and naval guys and gals) land the shuttle right in the main camp, and come out blazing. The PLAYERS knew it was crazy, but the charicters figured "He knows what he talking about" so they went for it.

late in session.....

The party is holed up in there shuttle, surrounded by angry kitties, the shuttle is holed and unable to take off, and the marine was taken out by the one heavy gun the Kitties had.

The party looks around, the marine was holding the rear in the retreat, and the party best weapon is with him, exposed to fire. The party has a motly collection of blades, revolvers, and compact pistols.

Suddenly, one of the guys starts to say lines from the "Charge of the light brigade" (Which was funny it itself, he was the last one you would ever expect to know it) and the other players grin, and with a shout, run out with revolvers and cutlesses.

and by god, they won, the kittens ran back to there ship after seeing there leader get holed in the head with a revolver and there heavy gun crew sliced by cutlesses.

The party used the payment on a down payment on a free traider called "Crimean Peninsula".

 

[Blue Ghost]

How poetic.

 

[Zedwardson]

How poetic.

When I describe it, it sounds cheezy, but it was all done for laughs, as the party thought they where all dead, and wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, and somehow a few of them lived. I also think he may have watched the Ds9 episode where it is mentioned, and bashir and Obrian sing a few verses before what appears to be a hopeless battle.

 

[pmbnss]

Most of our Traveller games were pretty serious, but these are the funniest non-Trav games I can think of off the top of my head.

Call of Cthulhu – The two Players were extremely risk-averse and abject cowards to boot. For thise game they were FBI agents ala X-Files tracking down a scam artist who bilked old folks out of their fortunes with his New Religion. They cornered him in a small town north of Boston, and after investigating several grisly ritual-style murders that he seemed to be connected to, they had him arrested under suspicion. Then another murder occurred out in a desolate swampy area. So they investigated. After entering the deepest, darkest portion of a forest, a small bug drops onto one of the investigator;s shoulders. Then another. And another.

In an uncharacteristic fit of insight, they shine their electric torches upwards and realize that the trees are actually dead, and the leave are zillions of insects. Normal insects, but zillions or them. The Players scream.

After getting them back to the table, their characters race back to the town, insect-horde in hot pursuit, and go to the town to Confront the Villain. The charlatan looks out of his cell, his eyes becoming dinner plates as he sees the impending Doom, and the characters demand that he reverses the spell. He looks atthem is shock "The spell? What spell?!" he cries and spills his guts about being a charlatan and having huge gambling debts to the mob, but he's never killed nobody, etc., etc.

At that point the Players realized that they had been following all the red herrings thus far, and ignoring all the clues I had dropped – including ham-handed ones – up to this point.

The looks on their faces was priceless.

AD&D Lore. This was a friend's gaming group, and is funny in a different way. A band of (it turns out BAMF) Halflings are traveling through An Olde Forest and stumble upon a pair of heavily armed Bugbears. The Halflings have the Battle of their Lives and manage to slay both Bugbears without much damage to themselves. The players are so excited that they have the characters celebrate their victory with a feast.

Later they find out that they had inadvertently stopped a major invasion of the Shire by Beastly Forces which, after not hearing back from their scouting party, investigated the camp. The Beastly Forces surveyed the debris of the camp and realized their not only had their Bugbear scouts been slain, but had been butchered, but eaten.

Not just eaten, but prepared! Herbs and spices had been collected, meat hand been carefully butchered and the tenderest parts lovingly seared and roasted. Fine wines had been drunk. Mushrooms and potatoes prepared and served.

Clearly, the Beastly Forces were ill-equipped to deal with THESE monsters…

And Finally, another Call of Cthulhu moment. This has hysterical to players, not so much to the GM. The three of us players were good friends and one of us was always the GM in any game we played. This was our first – and only – game we actually got to play together as players.

The GM told us that we were playing in the modern day and to create characters. We discussed briefly about what type of Academics to play, and my roommate said, "Let's play Good Fellas!" to which Dan and I cheered.

The GM looked at us, and shook his head sadly. For the next four hours we played our NYC mobsters just out of the Can ("Pauly", Jimmy Two-Times, and Joey the Wop) to the hilt arguing with one another and generally being a royal pain. Parties were had, cops were bribed, our cousins were eaten, and monsters were slain.

The GM desperately tried to get us on track and rescue whatever he could from his story, but to no avail. To this day, I understand that he never saw the humor in it, but it stands out as one our favorite gaming experiences.

 

[Viram Bloch]

Funniest I can recall

Funniest AD&D moment:
A fellow player had min-maxxed his Elf Bladedancer and collected a ridiculous amount of magical items that enhanced his combat skills and overall level of invulnerablility even further. He generally walked into combat without any fear knowing that all this kit, on top of his abilities, would be enough to kill anything. Made me mad!

I did the only logical thing - my Mage/Thief spent months copying his magical items, pilfering them, sketching them, weighing them and putting them back unnoticed to the effect that I had all his magical items copied to almost perfection.o:

I waited until we knew we were going somewhere really bad. A challenge beyond any we had faced. As he entered his morning meditation, I stole all his items and replaced them with the fakes covered by an illusory glamour to make them seem perfect. One last cocky walk over to the the very nasty bad guy...:toast:

The sweet revenge for his months of gloating about the character that could not die... The begging and pleading with the GM when none of his items worked... I didn't kill him but I did save a body part... So I could ressurect him later inside a protective field - and kill him again - as many times as I wanted... He never did forgive me that one!:rofl:

That and grenades - I've seen very bad things happen with grenades!!!

 

[kafka47]

Yes, grenades, are always fun in enclosed spaces like starships or airlocks...times like that I never give players the second chance. The problem is that many players in conventions want to go for the TPS (Total Party Suicide)...which is all to easy to do in Traveller.

Had a funny incident with players who were trying to communicate with a lifeform that relyed upon touch. Really quite harmless, as it was just a juvenile. Anyhow, a female Marine took exception to being "felt up by the creature" (really was touching the face, hands and legs (so quite innocent)). So, she decided to frag it with a few incendiary grenades. Killed junior without any problem. That woke up mother. Oh yes, it is this a good time to mention that this creature was a Shoggoth.

 

[Keklas Rekobah]

To no one in particular...

... "There" -- An adverb denoting location, as in: "Look over there!"

... "Their" -- An adjective indicating possession, as in: "Their reinforcements are coming up the trail!"

... "They're" -- Contraction of "They are", as in: "I'll bet they're not coming to negotiate."

You're welcome.

-KR-

 

[Blue Ghost]

Yes, grenades, are always fun in enclosed spaces like starships or airlocks...times like that I never give players the second chance. The problem is that many players in conventions want to go for the TPS (Total Party Suicide)...which is all to easy to do in Traveller.

*snip*

That woke up mother. Oh yes, it is this a good time to mention that this creature was a Shoggoth.

I think it's "too".

What's a Shoggoth? (he asked innocently)

 

[Jazzlvraz]

And yes, as soon as grammatical commentary enters almost any thread, but especially one designed for smiles and laughs, that thread dies a horrible death.

 

[rancke]

A fellow player had min-maxxed his Elf Bladedancer and collected a ridiculous amount of magical items that enhanced his combat skills and overall level of invulnerablility even further. He generally walked into combat without any fear knowing that all this kit, on top of his abilities, would be enough to kill anything. Made me mad!

I did the only logical thing - my Mage/Thief spent months copying his magical items, pilfering them, sketching them, weighing them and putting them back unnoticed to the effect that I had all his magical items copied to almost perfection.o:

I waited until we knew we were going somewhere really bad. A challenge beyond any we had faced. As he entered his morning meditation, I stole all his items and replaced them with the fakes covered by an illusory glamour to make them seem perfect. One last cocky walk over to the the very nasty bad guy...:toast:

The sweet revenge for his months of gloating about the character that could not die... The begging and pleading with the GM when none of his items worked... I didn't kill him but I did save a body part... So I could ressurect him later inside a protective field - and kill him again - as many times as I wanted... He never did forgive me that one!:rofl:

That's so wrong in so many ways.


Hans

 

[Ran Targas]

^ Truly classic. Fully realizing a long and well planned scheme for revenge is perhaps one of the greatest achievements anyone can hope for.