What stunt did your D&D players pull that completely derailed the campaign? Part 1

what stunt did your D&D Player's pull that completely derailed the campaign part one not the DM here here I became ROS lawyer destroyer of campaigns fun fact in five II a goat costs 1 GP after a nice low-level adventure the party earned 200 GP each unlike a normal person buying a magic smithing stick i hired four goat herds and 100 goats i then started selling cheese we were supposed to look for a missing king after i recruited the other players we started establishing a monopoly on goats and goat cheese we hired more men bought more goats and after our cheese vault was robbed we set up a sting operation to catch the thieves the DM grew less and less subtle with his nudging the party back on track we ignored him the goat Empire grew and grew and grew at that point the DM decided [ __ ] it and ended the campaign he was pretty pissed I practically made a DM cry and it was his own fault he gave my ranger a custom-made bow that upon uttering the name of the bow thunk would guarantee a critical hit at the expense of a permanent loss of a constitution point per shot so obviously I didn't use the command word ever I just used it as a regular bow eventually he must have forgotten about it in a subsequent campaign one of the treasures to choose from was a quiver of gold arrows with jewel encrusted heads that would transform the target into a jewel encrusted gold statue before disintegrating so I chose those the next campaign we fight our way through the first series of encounters and get to the first encounter with the big bad vampire sorcerer guy which we are supposed to lose and set up the rest of our adventure as we quest to recover whatever MacGuffin he took after he beat us first action I knocked one of the jewel arrows take aim and said thunk the dm's face dropped by his own rules which to his credit he stuck to the arrow automatically critically hit him transforming him into a gold statue encrusted with jewels the DM had no backup plan it was a hollow victory because it sort of ruined all the fun that day but we carved that sucker up to finance our further adventures and lived like kings for the next few sessions I was actually the player who derailed the campaign the DM had us working our way through some subterranean caverns rooting out cultists is searching for some rumored monster who guards the cave my paladin was delivering bahamut's justice right and left and as we made our way deeper into the cavern we noticed that the lower we explored the wetter things got soon we were jumping over fetid pools and stinking streams in the lowest levels of the dungeon when we penetrated the final room what we presumed to be the lair of this mysterious monster we found an altar on the opposite side of the large cavern with a foul-smelling underground lake in between us and it quick digression did I mention I was playing a paladin he was heavily armored as paladin's tend to be and more than any monster he was terrified of drowning being dragged under the water in his heavy armor and unable to surface assuming we were going to destroy the altern battle whatever monster emerged from the shadows when we did my character used the pouch of frozen passage to freeze the underground lakes solid so our party could walk across the water in safety I had it in my inventory purchased legitimately in-game and used it according to the dm's discretion I had no idea that the scheduled boss monster was some kind of aquatic creature who was planned to emerge from the lake and attack us the lake which was now frozen solid after multiple failed attempts to damage the ice from beneath the DM announced that our party was unable to locate the monster rumored to dwell in the depths of this cavern so we destroyed the cult assaulter and casually out of the dungeon the DM obviously could have retconned his plan and had to emerge from some hidden tunnel not out of the water but he wanted to play it completely straight and he figured it would be funnier if we never located the beast while it is quite hard to derail my campaigns as I constantly adapt the world to the player choices they can still surprise me as in I didn't even think of that kind of way I originally created the world to lead them through the path of heroism - after dozens of sessions slay the last land dragon yeah not anymore first game we ever played I introduced them to the world and their city of operation there are two factions playing in shadows all standard now one of those originally asked them to the city but the other one got wind of them as well first major choice who do you side with I thought it will take minutes and off we go on the first mission ha they spent three hours interviewing the city's inhabitants and different districts made a bloody poll solve two minor crimes fixed a sewer and helped an old lady cross the street I've never improvised so hard in my life q10 sessions later and their brand new mansion don't even ask with their dwarven mercenary slash slaves seriously don't ask in comes Queen MAME there to return one of her lost fortresses that were sent to our world to help her allies the group Ranger somehow managed to coax winter night mantle out of the fairy queen by offering to kill the last one who went rogue and throwing three consecutive critical successes on persuasion they start the investigation find a vault and a bank the key to finding the fortress lay within they go in more sides gunning for the same thing appear they successfully raid the vault but are stopped on the way out investigation owner of the vault is present little girl named ivy terney to the death is proposed for the contents of the vault and [ __ ] hits the fan someone god damned Thieves thinking they're so sneaky fired a shot in a hall all chock-full of dwarves demons and fairies they were supposed to talk it out originally everyone went for everyone the Dwarven bank was leveled when they finally decided to run steal the key again and head for the fortress we are coming to the top of it they are sailing across the ocean and fail a save get ambushed ship-to-ship combat against demon infested pirates the god damned thief just before rolling acrobat c asks are there sharks in the water sure says the idiot that is me so she kicks one of the pirates to the fishes and falls in around later of course my paladin runs toward the druid who shape shifts into a bear and uses him as a mount to charge off the bloody deck to ram the sharks you know standard procedure anywho they both fail their checks bear trips on the railing paladin loses his grip and goes overboard the bear shape shifts mid-fight and does it with critical success shape ships into a Phoenix I might add the shifting created a heat wave that boiled the seed sunk one of the ships Dee sailed the other and slammed into a nearby island triggering a dormant volcano I had them sailing past this island several times so that when they find the sleeping dragon lair under the sea near the magma chamber they're all like no way except this time they set off the stupid volcano and through long discussion I allowed the thief a sneak attack bonus on the volcano against the sleeping dragon you just have to know what happened huh anywho the story is no longer about killing the last dragon [Music] RDM allowed gunpowder this certainly can't go wrong I'm an engineer playing an artifact er D&D engineer if a rifle does X damage with y powder then a cannon does 1000 X damage with 1000 Y powder oops we built a cannon into the frame of a wagon and terrorized everything the DM threw at us yes and then I got to create the first magic golem drone thing after the first mistake with the cannon the DM was very careful to define what could and could not be done you can't have anything bigger than three feet tall or heavier than 50 pounds it can't be super strong or have any magic powers beyond following simple programming and commands that led to the creation of destruction the golem was at some vaguely humanoid blob of clay or wood it was a blacksmith steel skeleton with working joints limbs hands etc and it was made to look human by the addition of fuel soaked rags that built up the limbs in place of flesh a few bits of sodium metal ensured it had to be carried everywhere submerged in a fuel filled sack / saddle bag to keep it from bursting into flames when we attacked or confronted everyone else would limber up their various weapons while my weak character would just cut the strings holding the bag to the saddle and step back when the bag hit the dirt distraction would wake up and start the program first it moved around inside the bag calling out mummy mummy before thrusting a clawed hand through the wall of the bag and emerge promptly bursting into flames what the [ __ ] is this creation things went downhill rapidly after that as it let out a banshee scream and charged towards the opponent of the moment leaping on or climbing up them with its serrated claws did you know it's remarkably difficult to focus on ranged attacks when the guy next to you is being climbed by what looks like a screaming burning child the penalty rolls to accuracy and damage made most incoming fire a joke oh and that was if the opponent of the moment succeeded in keeping it off if it got up to anything's face it would spray the acid sac in its torso in their eyes to blind with hit with arrows swords or axes it just cut the burning rags or bent the steel skeleton the best time was when the exaggerated DM fielded a large critter against us and it stepped on the thing did I mention that the thing kept the rags attached through large caltrop esque spikes under the rags what do you think happens when you step on an animated bag of s my character had to patch that thing back together dozens of times but it was just blacksmithing so it came back over and over fight after fight this is probably cheating because I was the one who pulled the stunt with some help and it was a mage The Awakening campaign not D&D the general idea was that our characters were part of a large governmental organization dedicated to fighting supernatural threats okay not the most original but the GM had been reading a lot of Hellboy so forgivable we set out on a mission our hook being that someone was fixing to steal a priceless artifact from a museum which unfortunately and unbeknownst to the curators possessed immense magical power when we got there however it became clear we were in over our head this wasn't a theft this was an assault we were engaged with automatic weapons and only survived because our typical armament mad which we used minimally to avoid paradox and pistols was supplemented by body armor and semi-automatic rifles one particular enemy stood out he had an essentially impenetrable magic shield and he managed to trash us after we've gotten through his minions everyone was either incapacitated or so low on health that they couldn't reasonably engage him so I decided that my character mind controlling persuasive rich slick and a moral master goes warlock that he was had just about enough of this arrogant jack wipe with his magic shield and with no preamble I ran up to him jammed my rifle into his belly at point-blank and made use of a feature the GM really shouldn't have allowed the under slug grenade launcher this could be good the GM looked at me and he gave me the lowest possible chance allowed by the game system above actual zero to succeed at actually doing any damage to the man I made the role I succeeded in getting through his shield and not only did I live through it but the villain did too mostly charred and bloodied but he was alive until one of the other characters mostly incapacitated made a similarly incredible roll with a 9-millimeter pistol by spending all of his fate dice at once to the game system and had extra chances of success the poultry damage he did was enough to take the guy down there were a few moments of silence the GM collected his thoughts and that was to this day the only time I heard the words congratulations you just killed the last boss in the first episode kids the reason old campaigns and modules like Tomb of Horrors or Temple of Elemental Evil my favorite or white blue mountain make you wade through dungeons and traps is because if you give the players access to the main villain early they will kill it or die trying' and then all your pristine perfect little binders that you stayed up until 2:30 a.m. assembling are for nothing and if it doesn't we bring a cleric or a rust monster you

Channel: MrRipper

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Keywords: #DnDStories, #DnD, #DungeonsAndDragons

Id: sk8tDgqAEdw

Length: 15min 44sec (944 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 25 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/inconceivablewalrus]

Harry's willingness to skip magic and just shoot the bad guy in the face is one of his best character traits

[u/Anubissama]

Mab has been around since the XVIth century when Shakespear introduced her as a fairies' midwife, only later in the XVIIth century does she gets upgraded to a Queen in other poems. So it's not like it's a Butcher original character.

But Winter Knight Mantel? Ivy? I mean the creepy little girl trope sure, but man that's a rookie GM mistake. You always "file off the serial numbers" of characters you steel.

Even 3 games and a tv show later my players don't realize they're running around in Sapkowski's Witcher world. Which to be fair at this point has been heavily modified but that's certainly where we started with me just changing the world's underlying mythos a bit (to insert another story I stole from somewhere else).