The Player Who Managed To Outsmart The Dungeon Master And The Entire Party u/MuffledPhosphor on /rpghorrorstories says: In our gaming group we continued this general
attitude of weeding out the weaklings. If you were creating a character and said, "Hey,
can you pass the Pla--", that's as far as you got because the Player's Handbook was
already in the air coming straight for your head. If you got hit then you got laughed
at. We did lots of things like that. We were a very unforgiving group. On the plus side,
things like these kept everyone very focused. We never had to wait around for people to
make up their mind about what their PC was doing since everyone was formulating their
plan of action while the DM did his thing with everyone else.
Now, with everyone having their own agenda and whatnot, we devised a system of passing
notes to the GM for performing actions which we were keeping secret from the rest of the
players. Mostly this was mundane things like robbing random houses in town at night, picking
the pocket of an NPC, popping off to the outfitter to stock up on arrows, or off to the temple
to load up on healing potions. So notes were being passed constantly and we kept our private
affairs private, unless your note when awry and someone else saw it. We didn't roll dice
to see if other players "noticed" your behavior. It was simple. "Bob the Barbarian wanders
off. Cedric the Cleric, you're shagging the barmaid? Great. Roll a save vs. poison or
get the clap." And so on. Another thing that we did, which will become
important later, was that if your character died the rest of us looted the body and then
we burned your character sheet. Temples didn't raise the dead for a modest fee. If the party
didn't have Resurrection or Raise Dead, your body would rot where it dropped. That's just
how we rolled. In this campaign we had one new player, the
DM's cousin and the rest of us were regulars. Altogether there were six of us in our party
playing our tried and true characters. Mine was the now infamous Roghan the Red, a human
fighter/assassin although nobody knew he was an assassin. Or that's how I liked to play
it, anyway. I always thought it was silly that "assassins" ran around looking like assassins.
That kind of defeated the purpose of being stealthy and what not. And given the way the
game mechanics worked, I found that trying to murder people with 1d4 dmg was ludicrous,
so I tended to use a bastard sword. It was easier.
For this gaming session we were starting that most legendary of modules, the one that every
playing group ran once they got high enough in level: (S3) The Expedition to the Barrier
Peaks. Everybody liked the idea of having grenades, power armor, and blaster pistols.
I mean, why not, right? The backdrop was the default intro. King Genericus
or whatever his name was calls out for brave mercenaries adventurers to find out where
all the weird monsters are coming from that are eating his taxpayer base. We were the
motley crew which showed up. That explained why most of us didn't know each other.
So it begins. The DM decided that this module was for a
much larger group, so he let everyone else make a second character rather than have him
run a bunch of redshirts. I say "everyone else", because he had something against my
character in general and me in particular, I came to discover. Plus I was a fifth level
fighter and tenth level assassin, so he figured I didn't need another char since I was already
"level 15". Everyone else was Good™. LG unless contraindicated
by class restrictions, like the druid or thief (Rogue wasn't a thing yet). But since I was
an assassin, I was NE. I played the char as pretty much pure neutral aside from the whole
"murder for hire" thing, but I never saw that as any different from what PCs did all the
time anyway. But I digress. The very first thing out of the DM's mouth
when we all sat down was to tell his cousin's paladin "He's Evil!" while pointing at me.
Needless to say, I was a bit put out about this. I'm not one for rules lawyering, but
we'd all pretty much understood that things like the paladin's detect evil ability were
conscious effects (*meaning you had to specifically tell the DM you were using it for it to work),
and that it really only worked when the target actually had evil intent. Since the new precedent
was that he detected my PC's general evilness I realized very quickly that this would completely
overshadow specific instances of evil intent in the future. This was where he screwed the
pooch. If he hadn't done this, then the ending would have been completely different and he
had no one to blame but himself. Immediately this put everyone else, who each
had two characters at level 10, against me for no other reason than my alignment. Never
mind the fact that I'd played with the rest of them for a couple years and we got along
fine. They knew which side their bread was buttered on, though, and since the DM and
his cousin had their eye on me, it would serve the rest of them right to keep an eye on my
PC as well. To his credit, however, the DM neglected to actually inform anyone that my
primary class was assassin. I was, after all, a hulking brute with an 18/83 strength wearing
plate mail and carrying a Sword of Sharpness, so my ability to do assassin things was entirely
outside of their notice. Right from the start they had me on point,
but that didn't bother me much. We got to the crashed spaceship, got inside the top
level, and started to explore. There were a few fights where they made me tank and didn't
bother helping me with healing. They saved their spells and made me use up some of my
healing potions. We were poisoned by gas at one point during which I discovered that one
of the other player's throwaway characters had a +1 Periapt of Proof Against Poisons.
I didn't steal it right away, but I made a note of that for later. Shortly thereafter
we found one of the keycards that allowed us access to the elevator. The DM wasn't at
all clear about describing things, so when he had everyone open a door with the keycard
and all pile in, I was just happy I wasn't on point anymore. Then the doors close and
the rest of the party is hell and gone, leaving me all alone with no way to rejoin them.
During the course of the next hour or so, the rest of the party explores several rooms
while I'm left to my own devices. I got into fights with three random encounters while
the main party didn't. I survived. Go me. During my exploration I found a grey keycard,
however, so I'm happy I can rejoin the party. But I don't. Instead I try and loot other
rooms where I'm at and that's when the DM makes his fatal mistake.
While I was rummaging through what I presumed to be an alchemist's lab, I discover a wonderful
powder which grants infravision, a few mild poisons, some jars of strong acid, and then
the mother of all poisons. It is very important to point out at this juncture that the stats
of the poison I found were a munchkiny attempt to permanently take me out. The DM ruled that
the sweet smelling green powder which I subsequently tasted was a very powerful nerve agent. He
informed me that because I tasted it I had to make a save vs. poison at a -10. I rolled
a 20 and was very gleeful, then he rolls again and informs me I have 3 HP left. Yes. You
heard that correct. This poison is so toxic that if you make your save you only have 1d4
HP left. So I'm pretty pissed off at this point, but
I have a ton of this poison so I put it away for a rainy day, drink the last of my healing
potions, and try and survive until the end of this module. I really wasn't paying attention
after this point. Pleading self preservation due to low HP (which nobody heals, thanks
guys), I offer fire support with my bow and avoid melee the rest of the game. We played
every day after school for a week to finish this beast of a module. There was a lot to
it. The Paladin got his power armor. The other fighter got his blaster rifle and grenades.
And they tried to give me the shaft. And on the way home I pick one fellow's pocket of
one item, which I replace with an nearly identical appearing item. Because I swap a gemstone
for valuable gemstone, the DM doesn't put up too much of a fuss when I pilfer the cleric's
periapt. At the very end we were at an inn licking
our wounds and splitting up the treasure. This is where the DM got too clever for his
own good. Being a somewhat realistic minded bunch, it
was standard practice not to wear armor or carry heavy weapons in towns. The DM made
a point to bring this to everyone's awareness. For the after-party nobody was armed with
anything more dangerous than a dagger and nobody had any armor. Except maybe the mages
with their magical bracers and wizard robes, but that barely counts as armor.
I ask very quickly if there is time for me to buy wine for the party. I had to spend
500gp on a cask of wine enough for all of us (more punishment for being Evil™, I suppose).
I then hand the wine over to the innkeeper's wife and pay her extra not to drink it when
she pours it into jugs and serves it to the party. Yes. I did that.
So we all write quick notes about what we are bringing to the party. I pass a note to
the DM about checking the other players but there are no surprises. Nobody brings any
serious weapons since there are weapons in the loot on the table anyway, and the last
thing anybody is expecting is a fight. I write my note and pass it to him and I made a note
on the back which I will point out later. I had three daggers, all magical, my +2 Ring
of Protection, and my newly pilfered Periapt. The DM's cousin's other character, the same
cleric I lifted the periapt off of, arrives late with a bag of holding and adds its contents
to the pile of treasures we're all going to pick from. I immediately recognize my sword
of sharpness, my +3 Plate Mail, my bow and magic arrows, and all my other valuables which
I had left up in my room. The DM reasoned that since I steal from the other players
that it's only fair they get to go through my stuff and take whatever they want. Since
I'm outnumbered and outgunned by a dozen level 15+ wizards, clerics, rangers, bards, and
druids, I really don't have much choice in the matter.
Me being me, I make an attempt to point out the unfairness, but the DM overrules me. Not
unexpected, I suppose at this point. He pushes on with the party and they plan to drink the
wine I bought while they split up all my money and things between themselves and have a good
laugh. So they toast on it, and we all drink. A few
of the players were a little leery since it was my wine, but when they see me drink they
all drink as well. I was counting on that. That is, after all, the purpose of a toast,
to slosh the wine between all the cups so everyone drinks the same thing.
And I stop everyone at that point and announce to the entire group, "Everyone make a save
against poison at -10." There was a moment of intense consternation,
then the DM reads the back of the note I gave him earlier and realizes wtf I just did to
everyone. Or, rather, what he did to everyone. With that nerve toxin in the wine, everybody
needs a very high saving throw just to survive with 1d4 HP. The Paladin died. His cleric
died. The ranger died. The druid died. The bard, died (I hate bards, so Yay!), everyone
died. The only ones who made their roll were the thief and one of the wizards. Everyone
else died instantly. Then it was my turn to roll a save. The DM
looked pretty smug since he was sure I couldn't get another natural twenty. But I didn't need
to. I had the Periapt, so I only needed to make a regular save with no negative modifier.
I think I rolled an 11 of something stupid. Passed easily. He gave me 1 HP left just to
be a dick, I suppose. Before anyone else realized they needed to do anything, I threw a poisoned
dagger at the wizard and jumped the thief. Wizard died. Thief died. And that was that.
It turns out it actually is easy to kill people with a dagger when they only have 4 HP. I
think my STR bonus damage was higher than their hit points. They never had a chance.
I wish at the time that I knew the phrase "hoist on his own petard", because it would
have been fitting. He never expected me to do anything like that with something he had
made up just to get me. I wasn't just a good assassin. I was a great
assassin. He never gave me my experience points for
killing all those high level monsters, either. But I did burn their character sheets. That
point was non-negotiable. They didn't like it, but that was how we rolled.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you guys enjoyed the story. I personally
do not like Dungeon Masters who make the party aware of player's alignment because he does
not like it. They need to man up and state it upfront. That's how you get back at a jerk
DM and party. We take our leave and promise to come back
with more amazing Dungeons and Dragons content. Meanwhile, make sure to subscribe to our channel.
What a toxic group.
What a toxic group, that DM sounds like a massive wet towel. People like that turn people off from DnD
Everybody here was in the wrong. This is why the group should communicate out of game.
to summarize:
one player decides to 'secretly' be an evil assassin, and has a shitty time because the dm and the rest of the group is against him, but in the end finds a way to ruin it for the rest of the group too
i guess this is what happens when you play dnd 'competitively'?
This group is an actual nightmare.
Reposting the same story. Theres about a dozen video of that particular story.
Love the video narrator sounds like hes doing a bad sonic impression
If you click on the link to the original Reddit story the author explains they were junior high kids and they were playing AD&D in the 80s (which was much more lethal than fifth edition). Sure, these players sound like little shits, but they weren’t adults yet, either.
I wanna see more common versions of these that we can all relate to. Like wheres the
"The player that was super excited to RP a specific character and spent forever on their background just to stop making an effort after several sessions because the DM never gave them an opportunity to bring the characters personality out and nobody in the party ever asked anything about them..."
Hmm? Where's that?
Also It sounds like the entire party just hated this guy and he was too self-centered to notice