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View Full Version : 'Cause You Had a Bad Day



Khaeta
2009-01-22, 09:51 PM
Everyone has had a bad day in their RPG club, whether their D&D party was slaughtered by a ridiculous run of crits, or your shadowrun character was arrested for having an illegal nervous system. Everyone wants to gripe about it, so why not do it here, with the caring individuals of Gitp?:smallsmile:

So, as the thread creator, here's my bad day:
I'm a DM. I wanted to introduce my party to a tribe of human hating hobgoblins, so I had them run into a scouting party. The scouting party was easily defeated. However, later that day, they ran into another group from the same tribe seeking revenge. It should have been at the very least an even fight, as the numbers and levels were equal. However, due to lucky rolling by the hobgoblin archers and general tactical ineptitude from the party, they got the snot beaten out of them. They were captured and taken to the hobgoblin cheiften. the monk claimed the right of single combat with an appointed champion, a bugbear, and the two of them then spent 6 rounds missing each other. The bugbear finally got the first hit, and I should have fudged the roll, but I wasn't paying that much attention (damn, thought, I could have sworn the monk had more HP than that...) and the monk got 1HKO'd. The entire party got slaughtered, partially due to the fact that they decided as they were escaping that they wanted to make new characters. My rant finished, I now pass on this thread to the general public.

Mobey_Wee
2009-01-22, 10:29 PM
Bad day:
Playing a wizard, just got to the end of this night's dungeon, chase the last couple mooks around the corner to their BBEG friend, I round the corner right after them to throw a bead of fireball, at the enemy I know to be waiting just far enough away so that I won't get caught in the blast, and I miss the attack roll. This thought had occurred to me, wasn't too worried about it, I figure if I miss the bead will fly right past him to burst against the wall behind him. Not the case this night. The DM knows a d8 is involved in determining where the bead should land know, but since he can't remember exactly, he decides it's going to be distance from me. And I blow myself up. And our Cleric. And we pay out the ass so i can be reincarnated as a halfling. My gray elf wizard was not happy. Nor was I happy the next 3 encounters we played going after a limited wish spell to turn me back to normal.

I was still new to the game, I believe that was my first death; and yes I was annoyed when I found how the rule was supposed to work and the DM didn't want to change it, since the party had left the dungeon. Anyway...

Caeldrim
2009-01-23, 01:12 AM
This MAY make your day worse, but there IS no attack roll on fireball.

MCerberus
2009-01-23, 01:18 AM
I was playing a rogue for a DM who really enjoys breaking everything I own (houserule: stuff general busts after a nat-1). It doesn't surprise me that my 100gp thieves tools break on a door. Knowing the GM I had a backup. Well another attempt lands another 1. At this point I'm down to the cheap stuff. I roll once to make sure my die wasn't possessed and it lands on a 12 or something. My last set of thieves tools and a natural 1!



Everyone else then asks my why I didn't take 10.

Behold_the_Void
2009-01-23, 02:33 AM
My roommate was getting a constant string of 1's once that was frustrating him to no end and making the encounter way more difficult than it should have been.

We eventually found out through experimentation that his die was actually improperly made and off-balance. That die was flung across the room and I've not seen it since.

Celeres
2009-01-23, 02:47 AM
I made a charge-based fighter/barbarian. 3rd level could easily do 76 damage in one round.

we get in a fight with a necromancer. the Dm purposely made him stronger than he was supposed to be so i wouldn't kill him in one round.

i charge and attack. one hit, one potential crit. if this crit hits, i kill him in one turn.

i roll the crit confirmation... missed by 1.

the fight proceeded to last 2-3 hours.

Shpadoinkle
2009-01-23, 03:21 AM
This MAY make your day worse, but there IS no attack roll on fireball.

If I'm not mistaken, it DOES actually say in the description the spell something to the effect of: "Normally no attack roll is required, but if the spell is being cast at a small or difficult to hit target, such as through an arrow slit, the DM may call for one."

Suedars
2009-01-23, 03:25 AM
This MAY make your day worse, but there IS no attack roll on fireball.

He's using a bead of fireball, which is a thrown magical item that creates a fireball on impact. Like all grenade-like weapons, it has an attack roll that results in it hitting an adjacent square to the target on a miss.

Chineselegolas
2009-01-23, 03:39 AM
My third session DMing. Third session for two of my players, first time for the third.
They stop and set up camp and I roll to randomize which watch gets attacked. Come up with the NPC traveling with them (Yeah, I made a slightly over powered DMPC to follow along, they were ranged characters so I made a tank to let them use their shtick rather than make the opponents strangely stay in the distance. Meh, they are having fun and all he does is help in combat, or give a few pointers on what they could do in character. They are new to RPing after all.)
Anyhow, the NPC is on watch and rolls a one for his perception checks (3.5, some pathfinder stuff). So he misses the orc warriors sneaking up on the camp... Despite the sever lack of stealth skills...
So the orcs sneak up... Rather than just coup de grace, they just walk upto the party and attack. Luckily I roll low. Except on the sorcerer... -1 HP
1st round of combat, roll initiative, Orcs come first. Two arrows into the ranger, down.
One critical on the Dwarf... -16...
Rogue still alive... Doesn't do anything. Following round... Yeah...

So I went with no... They didn't kill you they knocked you out and took you prisoner. Make up an escape mission on the fly... Didn't work so well...
Every hide, every open lock, every bluff... PC's couldn't roll about 5, the guards couldn't roll below 18...
Give in and finally start lying about what the enemies are rolling. Come on... Orcs with so low wisdom they have -2 on will saves vs DC 14 sleep. Two natural 20's and an 19...

Hopefully the next session is more akin to the first two where they were the opposite. PC's rolled crits left right and center, the monsters... not above a 10. Or even better. Part way between..

SoD
2009-01-23, 03:51 AM
He's using a bead of fireball, which is a thrown magical item that creates a fireball on impact. Like all grenade-like weapons, it has an attack roll that results in it hitting an adjacent square to the target on a miss.

Against AC 5, as you're throwing for the square.

Bad day? My first character, an inept Elan Lurk called Shadow (A.K.A. 'The'). A character who, when trying to jump five feet from one caravan to another, rolled two natural 1's in a row...He tripped up, and fell into the other caravan, concussing himself. However, our paty was so damn lucky, we were invincible. So the DM starts throwing harder stuff at us. Which we creamed. Se he threw something harder. Which we smashed. So he threw an encounter at us. CR (wait for it) 8. We were comprised of 5 level 2 PC's, and an NPC of an unknown level (probably not higher than ours. He was a bard, and I conscripted him. He wasn't very useful, who needs a depressed bard, eh?). However...our arcane caster was asleep when we first saw the encounter, so our paladin orders me to wake him up (when I'd annoyed the hell out of said caster by repetedly waking him). Our arcane caster was...wait for it...a CE dread necromancer (the paladin was suspcious, but didn't know he was evil for sure, because of undetectable alignment). He was so annoyed at me for waking him again that he proceded to do what he'd threatened earlier. Kill me. I ran away, and he ran up behind me and critted me, laughing maniacally, and twitching slightly. In front of the party. The paladin detected evil (not enough sleep to cast the spell), charged, and smited. The barbarian raged and charged. The rogue threw an arrow, and the bard mourned the loss of his only friend (me, not him). And then the encounter started, with our only useful caster dead, me dead, the barbarian fatigued, the paladin having used his smite.

At the end; the bard was in hiding, terrified, the paladin had his remains taken to his church, the barbarian had to be resucitated and my body, along with the necromancers, were left for the animals to eat. After being looted. And the rogue? Up until that encounter, in the past. three. sessions, she hadn't taken a single point of damage. At the end of the enounter, she had taken a grand total of 0 damage.

RebelRogue
2009-01-23, 07:19 AM
This MAY make your day worse, but there IS no attack roll on fireball.
It could be a 4e campaign!

Froogleyboy
2009-01-24, 12:46 AM
Bad Day: [D20 modern]

I had been abandend by my party and locked in a church with a
fireball-throwing goblin which was protecting this demon who was spawning. A barrier was around us and my stench ability didn't affect the demon (I'm a trog) It transformed twice and became huge. Our vampire character found a tunnel in to the church-yard we were in an tried to help me and the demon beat the snot out of her. I fianally ran out of ammo, and pistol whipped the demon 'till it died. Its corpse regenerated into a dog-thing and the sun came up. Dealing damage to our vampire (just enough to kill her) the barrier dissapeared along with the demons so I got 0 EXP.

Delaney Gale
2009-01-24, 01:58 PM
Vox's Bad Day.

Vox Dei is a paladin. Greyguard, to be precise, but paladin. Here is the origin of how Vox came to be called the Failadin...

We enter the Temple of Vecna and hear people talking behind a door. Vox and his tower shield roll to break down the door. He does so with a natural 20, and he tries making an attack against the first person he sees behind the door. He rolls a natural 1, trips over his tower shield, and falls flat on his face.

Later, we're sneaking around in some of the reliquary rooms. Vox activates a trap, where one of the doors turns into an iron Vecna golem. Vox charges, rolls a natural 1, and trips over his tower shield (that proficiency in it was such a waste, huh?). He pulls it up to defend himself from being stepped on by the golem, and gets trapped underneath it with a golem on top of him. Then the golem rolls a critical hit on our half-dragon warmage and Vox starts drowning in dragon ichor. Then I land a few good hits on it with my bow, killing it, activating the second trap... a pit trap opens, dropping Vox 40 feet onto spikes beneath an iron golem. He's at -5 HP, so we panic and try to figure out a way to send the hospitaler down after him. At -6 HP, he makes the roll to stabilize.

Then we find the reliquary of the Head of Vecna. My girl, a tomb raider and magical item trader, is kind of squicked by the idea of putting the Head of Vecna on anyone (note: she and the hospitaler had just performed field open-heart surgery to insert the Heart of Vecna into Vox). Vox, ignoring her protests, decapitates himself. Anyone who knows about the Head of Vecna should know what happens next.

After this he begins to fail less spectacularly, although there was one more distinct moment. We met a Cleric of Vecna in the streets of Citadel Corvalis, and he was trying to convert us. This culminated in Vox yelling, in the middle of Vecna's capital city, "All Hail Vecna, The Bitch King!" After he gets his laughter under control, the DM asks for a Fort save, and he rolls a 4. A passing lich went "who the **** does that guy think he is!?" and disintegrated him. This lich later went on to become a recurring character.

VoxPVoxD
2009-01-24, 02:05 PM
ewhy keep itfrom ud both

Flickerdart
2009-01-24, 02:14 PM
Bad Day: [D20 modern]

I had been abandend by my party and locked in a church with a
fireball-throwing goblin which was protecting this demon who was spawning. A barrier was around us and my stench ability didn't affect the demon (I'm a trog) It transformed twice and became huge. Our vampire character found a tunnel in to the church-yard we were in an tried to help me and the demon beat the snot out of her. I fianally ran out of ammo, and pistol whipped the demon 'till it died. Its corpse regenerated into a dog-thing and the sun came up. Dealing damage to our vampire (just enough to kill her) the barrier dissapeared along with the demons so I got 0 EXP.
You get EXP for overcoming challenges. if you pushed a dude off a cliff, you get EXP even though the fall killed him. The same principle applies.

Froogleyboy
2009-01-24, 03:11 PM
You get EXP for overcoming challenges. if you pushed a dude off a cliff, you get EXP even though the fall killed him. The same principle applies.

Well he didn't technicly die. The DM said it teleported him away

MickJay
2009-01-24, 05:17 PM
Unless you missed something obvious (hint that you're not supposed to fight the demon at all?) or acted far below your abilities (fight took way too much time), you should have gotten the XP anyway.

If the DM was planning from the start that you'll be fighting the demon and then won't get any XP, then he kinda sucks as DM; if he planned to "evacuate" demon after you defeated it, you should still have gotten some XP. That's what I'd do anyway (if you didn't screw up) :smalltongue:

TempusCCK
2009-01-24, 05:53 PM
Causing something to run away is defeating it, regardless of whether or not it dies. You foiled his plot, overcame the danger to yourself...

Shalizar
2009-01-24, 09:11 PM
bad days, well i have have a few:

as DM, I have had characters go unconcious from a critical hit, as a DM i roll between 15-20 almost all the time. I have had a person leave the game because all he did was say "I'm going to the bar."

Player: I had a warlock in a fourth edition game, and the party hated me. When I am a PC, I roll 1's, often. I once had two characters take mine and throw him at a ceiling because there was runes up there, and I was the only one with Arcana check that was good. Of course my character was no ok with this, but they won the grapple check and threw me up. By the way it is important to mention that we are at the top of a tower and I almost fell to my death if it wasnt for another player who wrapped a rope around my chracters waist.

As my squirrel rogue I was often thrown into a sac, hole or something along those lines because my character was scared.

It would seem I play the character that everyone wants to kill.

Shalizar
2009-01-24, 09:51 PM
bad days, well i have have a few:

as DM, I have had characters go unconcious from a critical hit, as a DM i roll between 15-20 almost all the time. I have had a person leave the game because all he did was say "I'm going to the bar."

Player: I had a warlock in a fourth edition game, and the party hated me. When I am a PC, I roll 1's, often. I once had two characters take mine and throw him at a ceiling because there was runes up there, and I was the only one with Arcana check that was good. Of course my character was no ok with this, but they won the grapple check and threw me up. By the way it is important to mention that we are at the top of a tower and I almost fell to my death if it wasnt for another player who wrapped a rope around my chracters waist.

As my squirrel rogue I was often thrown into a sac, hole or something along those lines because my character was scared.

It would seem I play the character that everyone wants to kill.

Wafflecart
2009-01-25, 01:38 AM
I have two, both of which kinda pissed me off...

One: I, being a bard, have a very high bluff skill. I didn't feel like paying a fee of some sort or another (don't really remember what it was, I think for being shipped across the ocean or something), and I try to fix this by picking up some rocks, and trying to bluff the nearest vendor into buying them. The DM then decides that my roll being too low, merits the vendor getting pissed and calling the guards on me, I am then transported to jail...I still have no idea why lying about a rock merits a jail-sentence.

Two: I get a Magic Item in the loot from some monster, again I don't remember exactly what. The way we do treasure is the DM rolls a dice and depending on what number, a certain player gets the item, and the item is based on what that player can use, he then rolls d% for the effects. Anyway, my number comes up on the dice. SWEET! However, after being told, "Hey, you get a new Magic Item!" the DM then looks over at a player who is 2 levels below me and one other person, and 1 below everyone else. The reason he is so low it because HE HASN'T SHOWED UP TO A SINGLE CAMPAIGN SESSION BEFORE THIS ONE!!!!!! However, the DM being sympathetic towards this person who doesn't show up, then gives him the Magic Item...He is now the lowest level person in the group, with the only Magic Item in the group, and probably won't ever show up again to use it. I am asked by this person to identify the weapon, being the lone arcane spellcaster of the group (a bard). I do so, and because he wont pay me for it, I lie to him about what it really is. For either lying (remember, I am a BARD, not a PALADIN), or wanting payment for performing a service that is usually paid for, the DM deems it necessary to change my alignment to evil, I must then restrain myself from killing this other player, the fact that it wont make me any eviler doesn't help.

P.S. I tend to switch characters after the campaign has started, maybe this is punishment...

ME: "Hey, I just discovered this other class I'd like to play...think you could kill off my current character so I can play it?"

DM: "...Damnit, not this crap again!"

Olo Demonsbane
2009-01-25, 03:15 AM
This is more of a series of bad days with one character:

I made a gnome bard with a club. He got some feats for it, and generally used bardic music and/or a buff spell, then started hitting people. Or rather, attempting to hit people. He, through the course of the 8 levels he played (he ended at 9th level) did not get 1 single hit! Despite doing almost nothing, he gained levels with the rest of the party, which annoyed the optimized, power gamers in my party :smallwink:.

Shpadoinkle
2009-01-25, 05:02 AM
This one happened to my players in a game I ran.

They were investigating a weird phenomena that was making the residents of a remote village sick. Tracing it back to it's source, they found a guy who looked like a doctor. One of the PCs had the ability sense magic, and this guy lit up like an A-bomb. They talked to him for a bit, and determined that he was studying disease (he was nonhuman, though you couldn't tell jsut from looking at him). The second PC had the Poor Impulse Control defect (in retrospect, it was a mistake to let him take it), so naturally he drew his weapon and struck the guy.

As they soon discovered, this was a really, REALLY BAD IDEA. In D&D terms, this guy was essentially a cross between a vampire lord and a lich. I had NOT intended for them to fight him AT ALL. Anyway, after a few rounds of blowing his spellcasting stat checks, during which time the PCs managed to do some fair damage to him, he finally succeeded, and petrified the both of them.

I have since banned the Poor Impule Control defect, and required that PCs actually HAVE mental stats.