[Any] Shortest Adventuring Careers Ever [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Kerrin

2011-02-17, 03:38 PM

Another thread got me thinking about my first ever D&D character and how rediculously short he lived - he died in his first encounter. So, I thought I'd start this thread where folks can share stories about characters who have had extremely short adventuring careers and why they are memorable for it.

Here are two of mine...

My First D&D Charater Ever
I was introduced to D&D by a boy I was babysitting. He had the original Red Box way back when.

I made up a "knight in shining armor", bought up some meager bits of gear, and sallied forth. The first encounter was with a gold dragon which killed my character in one shot. It was probably the shortest adventuring career ever.

Later after my charge was in bed sleeping I read through the entire Red Box contents and got hooked on role playing games!

My Shortest Lived Moria Character Ever
I college I enjoyed playing the old ASCII game Moria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moria_(video_game)).

I went through the arduous task of creating a magic user and then haggling for all his starting gear. Then I went down the stairs to the first level of the dungeon, took literally my first step (yes, just one step) and was killed by a deadfall trap - tombstone and game over in just one move!
Let's hear about your characters from any game who have had rediculously short adventuring careers!

The Cat Goddess

2011-02-17, 03:57 PM

Introduced to RuneQuest (table-top, not computer) by I.C.E... If you've never heard of the infamous RuneQuest Crit/Fumble tables, consider yourself lucky.

Two of us built characters and set forth to adventure.

We spotted a fat, evil (as described by the GM) merchant, so climbed a tree to ambush him. My friend readied his axe and hid behind the tree.

I fumbled my bow and shot myself in the foot, then fell from the tree to my death. My friend charged forth and fumbled his axe, slicing off his own leg and died from bloodloss.

I imagine the merchant simply rode on by, oblivious... much like the merchant in the Daffy Duck as Robin Hood cartoon.

Kylarra

2011-02-17, 04:03 PM

There's a few games where you can die in character creation.

Cieyrin

2011-02-17, 04:08 PM

Not my character but my mom tells me of a story of one of her early characters. It basically boils down to:

Time to make character: 45 minutes
Time till character dies: 30 seconds.

First step into the dungeon, her character fell down the stairs into a kobold nest and was promptly stabbed to death before her companions could respond.

Grelna the Blue

2011-02-17, 04:09 PM

I created my very first character about 25 years ago. He was a wizard named, IIRC, Beelzebub Blackfog (oldest of the extremely shortlived Blackfog brood). I don't know if I've ever rolled better stats, even though they were rolled in order, no arranging. The guy had an 18 Strength, as a wizard. I gave him the darts proficiency and had him carry a staff he was not proficient with, so he'd have something for when something closed in and he'd used his single spell.

The DM was almost as inexperienced as I, but he had a copy of the classic B2 Keep on the Borderlands module, and had created an DMPC who was going to show Beelzy around.

As you may know, that module contains a number of caves with more or less level-appropriate monsters in them, although of course B2 was meant for more than 2 characters. My character was making the decisions and randomly chose one to enter.

So he and his guide went in and Beelzy chose a path that led straight to an empty room with a pile of rubbish and feathers in one corner. I felt very clever when I told the GM that I thought there might be monsters hiding in that pile, so I'd throw darts at it to scare them out.

When the sleeping owlbear (for that is what it was) stood up, badly annoyed by the two darts I'd hit it with, I fired off my single Magic Missile spell. Then I turned to the DM and innocently asked if it was almost dead yet. After all, I'd hit it 3 times. In response, he told me I could hear the already distant but rapidly retreating footsteps of my companion.Beelzebub Blackfog, requiescat in pace.

Saph

2011-02-17, 04:12 PM

Phantasy Star IV campaign, using D&D 3.5 as the system. The PCs had reached the very end of the story, and were fighting this version of the Profound Darkness (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95450).

One of the players was a random drop-in, and had just rolled up a 10th-level rogue. The session went straight into the final boss fight with the Profound Darkness. Round 1, rogue goes first, P.D. goes second.

Rogue's action: Moves forward, Sneak Attacks the Profound Darkness.
Profound Darkness action: Fires a Prismatic Ray at the Rogue. The d8 comes up with the Electricity result. Rogue fails save. Takes 80 damage. Dies.

Other player: "You're a 10th-level Rogue, don't you have Improved Evasion?"
Rogue: "I didn't think I'd need it."

hobbitkniver

2011-02-17, 04:16 PM

My first character was also the original red box. I made a wizard because who wants to give up magical powers for a wimpy realistic warrior? I rolled a single hitpoint. Later, I drank a vial of boiling water. Basically it happened like this: Raise the bottle to my mouth. Hot water touches my lip. Fall over eternally dead.

malachi

2011-02-17, 04:18 PM

I've had two characters die in their first session in 3.5. I've only had 3 sessions in 3.5.
My 4e character has survived two sessions so far, so I'm very proud of myself (or, more to the point, my 4e DM for not giving us crazy impossible crap).

3.5 - 6th level gnome illusionist (planning to be a Shadowcraft Mage)

I was jumping into a lvl 6 campaign as a gnomish illusionist. I talked a little with the DM in August to mostly build my character, but the group didn't have any sessions until mid-December, so I had lots of stuff planned for this guy.

In game, the changeling rogue tricked me into thinking he knew some stuff my character was researching, so I followed him into the ancient catacombs beneath the library I worked in (which I'd never seen before). There, he used a bomb to blow up a sarcophagus, and while we were examining another sarcophagus, 13 wraiths (3 or 4 at a time) attacked.

Needless to say, my level 6 gnome illusionist died without being able to contribute anything helpful. If he had survived, he would have been equally useless against the boss (an undead with a death gaze and a sword of doom). DM gave the party enough xp to level thrice (I have learned this is not normally acceptable procedure from people on this forum).

3.5 - 9th level Kobold Cleric of Fharlanghn

In the next game (late January), I picked out a level 9 kobold cleric. In the first fight, I got one-shotted (well below -30) by a Rakshasa's sword's lightning bolt. My reflex roll was in the high 20's, but still failed. It also did enough damage to kill the raging barbarian below -10 health in one hit. The DM told us that the Rakshasa had like 17 racial HD plus at least 9 levels of cleric (so I don't know how we were expected to win against her with 4 lvl 9 characters).
This character didn't die, because the DM allows characters to pray fervently to have super good things happen. My cleric prayed really, really, really, really hard, and nothing happened. The rogue sort of prayed half-heartedly, making some jokes, and his god stepped down from above, resurrected the barbarian and my character, and then took the boss away.

Kurald Galain

2011-02-17, 04:19 PM

The Cat Goddess

2011-02-17, 04:20 PM

There's a few games where you can die in character creation.

Did that.

Original Traveller (and Space Opera) both had rules concerning your character's "career path" before entering play. The longer your "career path", the more skills and skill points you had... and the older you were.

Not too hard (if you rolled good stats) to end up dead of old age before you entered play.

Dust

2011-02-17, 04:20 PM

My first 3.5 experience was in a level 5 gestalt game. I was playing a male paladin/something whom I named Blaze O'glory, with a buttload of AC thanks to his enormous shield and plate armor.
He spoke with an irish accent and died two minutes into the campaign when he stepped in a pool of quicksand and drowned.

Keld Denar

2011-02-17, 04:23 PM

FATAL has rules where you can die during character creation. Actually, dying during character creation is probably the least uncomfortable thing that can happen to a FATAL character. Sadly.

D&D 3.0 Living Greyhawk game I ran, 1st encounter...APL2, 1st level party. 1st combat: orcs. 1st round of combat: Orc charges rogue with greataxe. Orc crits rogue with greataxe. Rogue takes 3d12+9 damage, results 32 damage. Rogue is takes enough damage to kill her twice over, INCLUDING the span from 0 to -10 twice.

Ooopsee.

LibraryOgre

2011-02-17, 04:27 PM

Had a guy who died in his first real encounter, on the first round. Half-orc rogue in 4e. I used a daily reaction, then used a daily that brought me up to some bad guys, then an action point to do something else... and then was promptly stabbed into massive unconsciousness by the badguys, and blown up by the party wizard.

slaydemons

2011-02-17, 04:34 PM

mine is of course the 3 minute samurai since it was also my first experience

we start by a campfire in a cave because its raining outside. we had to sleep I decided (and wish I didn't) that my elf friend could take the first night watch and when he needs to trance I would watch over him.

sometime during the night the fire started to dim out my friend decides to go out and look for wood as the storm has passed. as he is looking for said wood I get attacked by rats, and scream for help since i am unarmored and .... my friend doesn't come he hears me but decides to get more firewood. I grabbed my bastard sword and short sword and swung at the tiny vermin (about 4-7 of them) and killed maybe half before dying. YES DYING at some rats hands.

No brains

2011-02-17, 04:37 PM

FATAL has rules where you can die during character creation. Actually, dying during character creation is probably the least uncomfortable thing that can happen to a FATAL character. Sadly.

No, that's just the best excuse to never play. Wanna play FATAL? Ok, oops, died rolling myself up. Have fun without me!

As a DM I'v hosted an abbatior of 1st level PCs my sisters played. I wasn't cruel, and they didn't suck, but god DAMNED if we couln't get off our asses to play a second session!

R.I.P. Jur-jen, Ting Ass-stabber, Gronka, Querilyn Hobb, That cool Kobold, and that elf who only ever got a name and I can't even remember that!

Keld Denar

2011-02-17, 04:41 PM

YES DYING at some rats hands.

In Soviet Everquest, rats grind YOU!

Typewriter

2011-02-17, 04:54 PM

It was the first time my friend and I had been playing, and after a while the MD initiated a "Anything you say after 10 PM you do" rule because we would sit around making jokes about what we do for hours at a time. Sometimes this led to bad situations. His character died, and he rolled a dwarven fighter. The first combat he was involved in was against a dragon, and I was playing a half-ogre with throw anything and a few other fun feats. My friend made a joke at my expense, and I jokingly responded with, "I throw you at the dragon".

I rolled a natural 1, the dragon rolled a natural 20 on the attack of opportunity.

vikingofdoom

2011-02-17, 04:57 PM

The following death is less so memorable and more so incredibly stupid:

The Character: Dwarf Fighter 3, all round good stats, players first session joined up part way through.

How it happened: We were in the Mournland, hired to explore a cave and pick up the magic item in it. We were standing in the foyer (it was an abandoned Cannith bunker) filled with trap doors on the ground. Dwarf Fighter (not his actual name) decided to jump in one of them at random. He takes minor electricity damage. The DM had him jump out again. Everyone else is exploring the cave. 2nd round: he jumps back in the same door, taking more electricity damage. DM does the same thing as before. Sorcerer is studying the magic on a hatch he found. 3rd round: he does this a third time. Now he is injured fairly badly, but still alive. DM has him back out of the hole. Everyone is telling him to stop (no one actually expected him to injure himself so badly) 4th round: Against all advice he hops into the hole one last time, and dies to the Shocking Grasp trap on it.

Amphetryon

2011-02-17, 05:12 PM

One of the characters in the group for whom I DM died in his sleep after joining the party, before the player had said a word in character. Arrow + crit = whoopsie.

Derjuin

2011-02-17, 05:19 PM

If you're particularly unlucky in Ancient Domains of Mystery (a roguelike), you can end up with a character with negative hitpoints immediately after beginning, from really low Constitution and starting on a Monday. It rarely happens, of course, but the death message the game gives you is great.

"John, the male halfling wizard, ."

WinWin

2011-02-17, 05:23 PM

A fiend of mine had a character that he put together in about 10 mins.

Canon Zamit, a fearless mercenary, 6th level replacement fighter. 1st encounter, the party comes across a pack of ghouls feeding on some corpses and paralyzed victims. Canon wins initiative and charges. The rest of the party casts buff spells or uses ranged.

Canon was paralyzed by a ghoul on it's first hit. The next ghoul moves up and coup de graces Canon. Canon makes his saves. The rest follow suit and he eventually dies due to hp loss, but made every subsequent saving throw up until he hit -10.

I had a similar occerance with a frenzied berserker of mine. Won initiative, charged a pack of trolls, then the party just stands back, takes ineffective actions and watches him get killed. Mind you, that death was not the end of his career.

Skorj

2011-02-17, 05:47 PM

There's a few games where you can die in character creation.

I had one Traveller character who had a complete adventuring career, ending in retirement to his palace (on his private moonlet IIRC) during character creation. And the rolls required were lucky, but not crazy-lucky.

FATAL has rules where you can die during character creation. Actually, dying during character creation is probably the least uncomfortable thing that can happen to a FATAL character. Sadly.

Wait, you, or your character? Either would be a kindness, really, if the alternative were playing FATAL.

PPA

2011-02-17, 06:02 PM

My first D&D character back in 1993 o so died on our first game session because he got grappled by a carnivorous plant when wandering down a different corridor from the rest of the party and was too stupid to remember to call for help as he ineffectually stabbed the plant with a little dagger.

My first Call of Cthulhu character was a gangster in the 1930's and he died about an hour into the game when he got into a gunfight with the police. Unbeknownst to me at the time, CoC characters are nowhere near as tough as D&D characters, so I decided it would be cool to empty my tommy gun on the cops while standing in plan view like a total badass. I did just that and three of the four cops died in a hail of hot lead while the fourth fell badly wounded. He shot me once as he lay dying before I could fire again and killed me. Yep, guns are in fact deadly.

Clepto

2011-02-17, 06:03 PM

My group has this tendency towards getting into places in the dungeon that we shouldn't be in yet. Case in point, I had just rerolled a new character, and joined the level 2 party at level one (DM always has new people come in one level below the party average). We enter the dungeon. Ten feet into said dungeon, there is a door (locked) to the left, and a passage to the right.

I'm not left handed, but it's a running joke in my group that when given a choice of direction, I always go left. Our rogue picks the lock on the door, and we enter a mausoleum.

While everyone else is worrying about opening the coffins throughout the room to check for zombies, I go straight for the large, ornate coffin that's raised on a dais. And by ornate, I mean hand carved, made of gold. Clearly there is some loot in there. So I open it. And die to the level drain from a wight during the surprise round. Blank character sheet to dead, in real time, maybe an hour.

The Cat Goddess

2011-02-17, 06:37 PM

I had one Traveller character who had a complete adventuring career, ending in retirement to his palace (on his private moonlet IIRC) during character creation. And the rolls required were lucky, but not crazy-lucky.

Not exactly a character death... but I had a similar situation due to different circumstances.

One of our group proposed running a Vampire: The Masquerade game.

I create a character who is a sculptress... she lives in a large mansion with a huge rose garden in the back where all the statues she's made are on display. She never personally went into the garden, because she could never see it when the roses were in full bloom in the daylight.

Time went by and the game hadn't started yet (he was "still working on it"). So I developed more of the character's story. She married young, to an older man... an arranged marriage. Her husband was killed by the same Vampire who turned her.

More time went by, and the game still hadn't started. So, more story. The Vampire who turned her got bored and careless, so she was able to kill him... but she was still a Vampire, and thus had no freedom. She continued to sculpt, and in her basement was an unfinished statue of an angel.

Eventually, I had created the character's entire story and there wasn't any reason to play her in a game.

Which was good, since the game never got started. :smallmad:

hewhosaysfish

2011-02-17, 06:40 PM

Cieyrin

2011-02-17, 06:41 PM

Not exactly a character death... but I had a similar situation due to different circumstances.

One of our group proposed running a Vampire: The Masquerade game.

I create a character who is a sculptress... she lives in a large mansion with a huge rose garden in the back where all the statues she's made are on display. She never personally went into the garden, because she could never see it when the roses were in full bloom in the daylight.

Time went by and the game hadn't started yet (he was "still working on it"). So I developed more of the character's story. She married young, to an older man... an arranged marriage. Her husband was killed by the same Vampire who turned her.

More time went by, and the game still hadn't started. So, more story. The Vampire who turned her got bored and careless, so she was able to kill him... but she was still a Vampire, and thus had no freedom. She continued to sculpt, and in her basement was an unfinished statue of an angel.

Eventually, I had created the character's entire story and there wasn't any reason to play her in a game.

Which was good, since the game never got started. :smallmad:

Unfair that this never made it to play. :smallfrown:

EDIT:
Do you have less hp on a Monday? :smallconfused:

You've never had a case of the Mondays? Terrible disease, it is. Many have passed from its vile touch.

Kurald Galain

2011-02-17, 06:42 PM

Do you have less hp on a Monday? :smallconfused:
Yes, and less luck on Friday the 13th, and undead get more dangerous around midnight. Don't you love meta?

starwoof

2011-02-17, 06:45 PM

I've seen a lot of characters die in their first encounter. I've seen quite a few more who would have died if not for their friends stopping them from doing something retarded.

My fastest death was in the 3.0 boxed game.
I died to a gelatinous cube in the third dungeon. Just walked right into it. Tordek sucks at spot!

Doc Roc

2011-02-17, 06:45 PM

Commodore Guff:
He didn't even finish his buff rounds before the game ended.

Traveler:
You know the joke? It's actually hilarious when it happens.

big teej

2011-02-17, 07:31 PM

TroubleBrewing

2011-02-17, 07:38 PM

Walter, my first Barbarian. 1st level game, 1st encounter was a group of 4 Lemures. Charged in, killed 1 outright, and then initiative rolled around to them. They've got 2 claw attacks each, my DM rolls 6 dice, and 5 of them come up 20. He rolls to confirm, and 4 of them confirm criticals. I've got 16 HP, and I take somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 damage. I got pink-misted by Lemures.

The Cat Goddess

2011-02-17, 07:42 PM

I have seen entire campaigns die due to player's casual comments.

1) Superhero game, modern day with no known superheroes. The characters would operate clandestinely, knowing that if it were ever discovered there were people with superpowers, they'd be hunted by "secret government labs". The game died when one player put his character sheet on the table and described him thusly: "He's just an ordinary, average Joe... with Wings... that are On Fire".

2) Space game, huge evil Empire Earth with random pockets of resistance and a few alien races that don't trust each other on the outskirts. The game died with one player (not the same guy as the first one) says: "Well, we need a ship... so what we do is we get a really big box. You know, the kind of box that a ship is packed in when they send it to you once you buy it. Then, we get a really, really long string and..."

Game over.

starwoof

2011-02-17, 07:52 PM

was adventure six "the hall of the dwarven lord?"

and the necromancer zeru in adventure 2?

You know it! Zeru's magic missile's got nothin' on Tordek's axe!

Zanatos777

2011-02-17, 08:05 PM

I was not the DM of this death but it was also hilarious so I wish to share it with you guys.

First session of a new game, basically all the players were new to the game with for one girl it was actually her first game ever. One player and I were the only experienced players (not including the DM). The other experienced player who I will call...Moron 4 (fourth dumbest player I've ever had) had created a halfling rogue (oh we were level one by the way). We were sneaking along through a forest at night. Suddenly we come to a small clearing with an ogre, everyone decides that we don't have to fight the ogre and risk terrible death. Everyone except Moron 4 who instead decided to charge the ogre. The DM to his credit pointed out that the ogre would get an AoO but M4 decided that wasn't dangerous. One crit later and the ogre had hit a home run. The rest of us beat a hasty retreat and checked the clock...yup one hour into the session. M4 would go on to die or leave the party no less than 7 times (mostly gnomes...) over a campaign which stretched all the way until level 18.

lyko555

2011-02-17, 08:10 PM

I was joining a C&C game that was already lvl 5 so i made a paly. The dm had this chart you had to roll on for evry lvl above 1 it determined your fame/gold/items/experiences. I died 13 times during character creation. it took me so long to roll up the character that half of the sesion was over so i just gave up and left.

Telasi

2011-02-17, 08:16 PM

My very first character ever, a sorcerer, died in the first round of the first combat, a victim of rats.

More recently, I played a longtooth shifter fighter, who lasted 1.5 sessions before dying. It took the enemy three tries and -56 hp's worth of damage before it took, though; he was a stubborn bastard.

icantsavemyself

2011-02-17, 08:30 PM

This wasn't my character but the DM started us out at 8th level and character creation involved us drawing from a deck of many things. One of my friends wished for a ton of gold and was crushed by a ton of gold falling on him.

One other guy that was in the group decided to outsmart the GM and asked for a huge, powerful animal companion. He was rewarded with an extremely old white dragon that instantly died and fell on him. When the dragon fell on him he died and then the dragon exploded in a snow storm almost killing the remaining two of us still in character creation.

It was complicated because we were basing the backstories off of creation and we were considered living.

slaydemons

2011-02-17, 11:32 PM

My very first character ever, a sorcerer, died in the first round of the first combat, a victim of rats.

I feel the pain of the rates to be far though in m case I had like 4-7 rats

Apophis775

2011-02-18, 12:26 AM

My shortest was once when I was DMing Sunless citadel back in 2006.

Most of the party rolled bad when descending the initial unstable staircase and fell to their death or unconciousness, the 1 that didn't decided he'd much rather be a villager.

We rerolled and started a different campaign.

big teej

2011-02-18, 12:58 AM

You know it! Zeru's magic missile's got nothin' on Tordek's axe!

that's the 'teaching module' I keep referin to!! =D

heh, the party knocked zeru unconcious, and he now has a personal stake in seeing the party paladin humliated or killed (or both)

that module helped springboard so many plotlines
its fantastic =D

I won't say more about it unless you say you've completed the module.
or you can PM me about what i've done with it.
its whatever

I just think its cool someoen else has it.

one question.

why did you play with the pregen characters?

Amblehook

2011-02-18, 02:17 AM

My shortest lived character came from a superhero campaign.

My friends had played two or three sessions before I decided to join. Before the next game, I spent an entire day, carefully crafting my character. He had a beautiful and full backstory and powers that fit so perfectly. When I brought him to the table, the game was at that moment in an old prison in Germany.

The GM set my character in a separate wing of the building from the rest of the party to later introduce him. So I proactively headed in their direction. I happened across the group in a large dungeon-esque room. What happened next is the exact opposite of meta-gaming. One of the PCs thought I was a guard and shredded my character with a large vortex of shrapnel. He killed me dead.

Not only did my character not see any combat (until his final, hopeless seconds), but he was killed by a PC. Eight hours of character creation, thirty minutes of play. :smallfurious:

Ravens_cry

2011-02-18, 02:53 AM

2) Space game, huge evil Empire Earth with random pockets of resistance and a few alien races that don't trust each other on the outskirts. The game died with one player (not the same guy as the first one) says: "Well, we need a ship... so what we do is we get a really big box. You know, the kind of box that a ship is packed in when they send it to you once you buy it. Then, we get a really, really long string and..."

Game over.
Could you explain this one further? I am not getting how this ended the game before it started.

WinWin

2011-02-18, 02:53 AM

Tex, my hard fightin', hard drinkin', chain smokin' street samurai died in a car accident at the end of his first run. I thought a high reflexes and drive skill was enough to make a turn out of a parking garage at full speed while firing a submachine gun. The dice said otherwise.

I also had a Ventrue die right after he formed a coterie to deak with a group of hunters. Jumping on an incendiary grenade is inadvisable, even with a moderate fortitude.

starwoof

2011-02-18, 05:18 AM

that's the 'teaching module' I keep referin to!! =D

heh, the party knocked zeru unconcious, and he now has a personal stake in seeing the party paladin humliated or killed (or both)

that module helped springboard so many plotlines
its fantastic =D

I won't say more about it unless you say you've completed the module.
or you can PM me about what i've done with it.
its whatever

I just think its cool someoen else has it.

one question.

why did you play with the pregen characters?
The first time I played it we were all like 10. We were barely aware that not playing the pregens was an option. Besides, Tordek was awesome. In our first real campaign one of our players actually took Naull to level 24.:smallbiggrin:

And yeah, I've finished it. I actually still have all my tokens and stuff from 10 odd years ago.

Badgerish

2011-02-18, 05:29 AM

D&D 4ed - LFR game
Most PCs are level 1, some are lightly higher.

1st encounter: no PC deaths
2nd encounter: two PCs die, players quickly create new PCs and arrive as reinforcements. They die again.

Anklegs can be utter murder machines!

(the players created further reinforcements and survived the rest of the adventure with no further deaths)

Fri

2011-02-18, 05:40 AM

Saph

2011-02-18, 06:04 AM

I actually remember someone in gitp once told stories about a campaign based on PS 4 where the players never played PS before. Is this the same campaign? I remember a story about the players hunting Phantasy Star sandworm in some ridiculous way....

Yep, same campaign. The famous "let's go hunt a sandworm" story happened just a few sessions earlier. :smallbiggrin:

John Campbell

2011-02-18, 07:31 AM

As I mentioned over in the Darwin Awards thread, I once killed an AD&D PC during character generation. I foolishly let the thief buy some fairly lethal blade poison, and he decided he was going to attempt to immunize himself to it... by poisoning one of his daggers and stabbing himself with it. Even after I asked him if he was sure. He failed his save vs. poison.

If we're doing roguelikes, I've killed a knight in nethack before the first move by attempting to mount my pony. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Scorpions__

2011-02-18, 01:26 PM

In my first AD&D campaign all the players were allowed to make two characters each, however I chose to only make one.

When my cleric reached fifth level I decided that I wanted to take the DM up on his offer of a second character, so I made another cleric.

Unfortunately we were in the Temple of Elemental Evil and my new character -- a gnome Cleric of Melkor -- had to start at level one.

He at least proved a worthy distraction that saved to party fighter from being the one plastered to the front of the earth elemental.

/gnome

DM[F]R

comicshorse

2011-02-18, 01:38 PM

Playing the 'Masks of Nyralathotep' campaign for 'Call of Cthulhu'. Having lost my previous character storming an oriental cult leaders headquarters. I rolled up Doctor Marcus Brady, heroic archaelogist, who the rest of the P.C.s would find held prisoner in the cellars of the headquarters.
The P.C.s burst in to discover my character tied to a table. As a couple of them cut me free of the ropes, one of them examines the cult leaders desk. She fails the Spot roll, misses the posion needle and gets posioned.
Dr. Brady springs into action, declaring " Don't worry I'll suck the posion out". He precedes to try to do that, botches the roll and swallows a mouthful of blood and posion. Then botches the Resistance roll against the poision and drops dead !
Total game time: 15 seconds

Roderick_BR

2011-02-18, 01:59 PM

I think I mentioned this one before, but heh.

Dwarven cleric. Stepped into the cave and had time to just say "hey guys" before being trampled to death by a mining cart.

That the human barbarian was "surfing".

Yeah.

Friv

2011-02-18, 02:00 PM

I was playing in a PBP game, and the DM decided to start things in medias res, to save time. So we opened with a short scrawl explaining what was going on, where we were, and the battle that was about to break out. I was playing a good ol' frontline fighter with decent DEX and armor, and starting HP of 11. There were, I believe, five or six PCs, pretty standard non-optimized spread, against four orcs with SRD builds, I believe.

We each made one roll, for initiative. I rolled very badly, so my first post was basically a summary of my thoughts and reasons for joining, and then my moment of hesitation. The orcs rolled really well, so they went first, spreading out to attack the fighter-types. One of them hit me. Natural 20. Critical confirm? Success. Final rolled damage: 22. Me: dead instantly.

I was most sorrowful.

randomhero00

2011-02-18, 02:24 PM

DM and player spent hours making a special homebrew just for the story. He died not only in the first encounter, but the first hit :smallsigh:

Gnaeus

2011-02-18, 02:34 PM

My Shortest Lived Moria Character Ever
I college I enjoyed playing the old ASCII game Moria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moria_(video_game)).

I went through the arduous task of creating a magic user and then haggling for all his starting gear. Then I went down the stairs to the first level of the dungeon, took literally my first step (yes, just one step) and was killed by a deadfall trap - tombstone and game over in just one move!

Shortest Lived Campaign ever.

My high school buddies and I were playing Rolemaster. We made 3 characters (which took us several hours). We entered an "abandoned" keep through the gate, and an orc poured a pot of boiling water through a murder hole. One PC died. Onc PC received permanently disfiguring injuries (I think he was blinded) and the third was going to take over a month to recover. I think we played a board game after that.