The Unexpected

[AtwasAwamps]

How many of you have ever done something that was exactly the opposite of what you know your DM wanted you to do and what your group expected? I don’t mean something that brings the game to a screeching halt, but rather, something that your DM absolutely did not expect and that took fellow players for a loop as well. Something that sent askew some well-laid plans and caused the DM to struggle momentarily to catch up with what happened or at least have an alternative.

Some examples:

1: My character, a 4e Resourceful Warlord who is a bit of a rascal, newly met up with the main adventuring party. He has been through one combat encounter with them, and it was a nasty one, but they stood by him and he stood by them. Two of the party members are also famous rabble-rousers and fighters that my character has heard stories about (and has made up stories about and is not telling them. One of them is under the impression that he had an amorous encounter with a dragon while blacked out. It’s fantastic.)

At one point, they ask me to step away from the group, along with the cleric (who is also new) so that they (more tight-knit and very “family” style group) can discuss whether or not to let us in on their ultimate goal. While we are away, POOF! The Tiny Annoying NPC appears. This is this particular DM’s trademark…an irritating little guy who follows the party around and causes trouble and taunts them, usually homebrewed and cheated into invincibility. Sometimes this can be fun, but most of the gaming group hates him. So he appears to me, playing a little banjo and dancing around, talking about the party and how they’re going to need the MacGuffin that he gets out and shows me, but that they don’t know it yet. He makes me swear not to tell them, and does the same to the cleric. We both agree.

The party comes back and the first words out of my character’s mouth are: “So there was this tiny irritating thing that just appeared and wanted me not to tell you he has the object you need for some quest you folks are on. So you should probably get it from him the next time you see him. Just a thought.”

The cleric players stared at me for a moment and then the entire group started laughing OOC. IC, the invoker (the nominal party leader) looked at me, then looked at the rest of the group and said “He’s in.” The DM stared at me for a moment in pure unadulterated frustration (I think he was really hoping to create some party tension with that) and then began scribbling on paper. I’m assuming my GP is going to be replaced with onions by a magical banjo-playing scarecrow, but the look on his face was priceless.

[Deth Muncher]

I’m assuming my GP is going to be replaced with onions by a magical banjo-playing scarecrow, but the look on his face was priceless.

Best quote ever.

[drengnikrafe]

My DM was expecting me to walk all the way down an alleyway. Instead, I climbed into a nearby window, killed the residents, slept in the closet, changed into a suit, and threw the bed out the window at some thugs. Is that good enough?

[Choco]

In a game I DMed, I expected my players to use their heads in an encounter that I purposely made too tough for them to beat through force alone (their usual "walk in and hit everything until it stops moving" approach). I did wisdom/int rolls and flat out told them their characters thought the encounter is not winable by conventional means. Their target was the particularly reasonable MBEG who had a reputation as a great tactician in addition to being a powerful caster, and had let the party go a few times before (why? they never bothered investigating). They tried to brute force it anyway. They didn't even retreat/surrender when they were almost dead cause they were rolling well and know I "would never throw an unbeatable encounter at them". After the 3rd TPK I FINALLY learned that "kick in the door" is bout the only style of play this particular group is capable of and have since tailored my campaigns to match that style and everyone is having more fun.

[Dimers]

Nothing much, really, just opened fire on the dragon.

What? We could've taken him!

The DM's immediate response was annoying (having the dragon run away because the overarching plot didn't want a fight then-and-there), but I liked the longer-term response of assigning that character the "Aggressive" trait.

[Sleepingbear]

Our group was involved with helping a couple of highly placed NPC's. One, a half elf Rogue/Ranger named Sil was a special agent sent into the area by the Elf Queen. The other was a fallen half-celestial who was seeking redemption. She was named Diantha.*

Diantha had proven herself to Sil but had yet to earn the trust of the rest of the Elven Garrison. Especially that of the Garrison commander, an elf Paladin with some celestial blood. His name was Jacan. A lot of bad stuff was happening around the garrison and Diantha was getting all the heat for it.

Our mission was to find out who was responsible for the badness while trying to clear Diantha's name. The group split up to pursue different strategies.

I arranged to have a public falling out with Diantha. It was supposed to be staged but apparently my character went a little overboard with the insults and genuinely upset her. She she slapped him (for lethal damage!) and then went off to sulk.

Another one of the other player characters went to comfort her and strengthen his personal ties to her. This characters name was Marcus.

Flash fast forward and the party has revealed the person responsible (a drow claiming to be reformed) and cleared Diantha's name. Marcus is now full of self-righteous fury. He confronts the Paladin. "I believe you owe someone an apology!"

My character immediately says, "That's absolutely right." This is pretty normal, our characters often back each other up in conversations. But then my character kneels to Diantha and declares, "I am truly, deeply sorry for all that I said to you before. None of it was true I meant not a word of it." Then I pointed out that I was in a zone of truth when my character said it.

Everyone's jaws dropped but the first one to recover was the player whose thunder I just stole. He gave me a high five.

After that, the Paladin really had no choice but to apologize.

*Some may recognize NPC names from the World's Largest Dungeon. We were in Region H, controlled by the elves. The DM changed a few of the characters and their back stories to make things a tad more interesting.

[dsmiles]

Nothing spectacular, but back in 2e (I know, I'm showing my age here), my 7th level half-elf thief (yes, thief) stole a ring of teleport right off of a lich's finger with a successful (d%) pick pockets roll (all of my level up percentage points went into pick pockets, and I had a 99% chance and rolled a 01). Then I teleported away and left the party for dead...

...What, we were an evil party destroying the lich because he interfered in our political agendas. I was evil, gimme a break. I still think the lich won, the DM said we had to start new characters after that.