Crazy Guy

[Dark Ass4ssin 1]

So my party, which has existed since lv.3 are now on the last schlep of their journey. A pivotal part of their success has been an odd fellow named 'crazy guy'. My issue is I have planned to pull a punch with this guy since about the 5th session they didn't even ask his name. Seriously they still call him crazy guy. He has always helped passively (as to not outshine the party in combat) but is seen often enough to have at least asked his name. They are currently lv.17 on some fate of the world mission in which they need crazy guys assistance.

I don't know what to do with him. A couple of party members troll him relatively often with stupid pranks like:
Unhinging all the doorframes in his house

Putting a honeybadger in his closet

Flat out kicking the man in the groinal area

Constantly taking his tools

Digging a literal hole in his house... Just cause.

I usually don't let him get angry over these things with comments like, "you what, this room needed a good hole"

I'd like to think he is secretly holding bottled up rage that he plans to take out on the party in some ultimate scheme of vengence and betrayal... Now what could that be?

The field is pretty much open on this one. The party is lv.17 with a Wizard,(constantly belittles him and is the reason "crazy guy" is his name) Barbarian(intimadates him to do things), Rouge (usually the douche playing pranks), and a ranger ( the only party member that treats him nice)

Crazy guy cannot be powerful, but needs a scene that puts him in a position of power. The party is, however, completly oblivious and thinks the crazy guy loves them.

[Sigreid]

Simple, when they need him most, he should let them fail spectacularly. Maybe their next characters will have some regard for others.

Edit: By now he probably knows enough about the group to give the BBEG the serious upper hand. After all, "He can't be any worse than these sphincter-fedoras.

[Ralanr]

Vengeance. Paladin.

Or just straight up Angel in human form...or a dragon in human form.

Or a god who finds the acts of mortals amusing.

Why is this guy called, "Crazy Guy" anyway? Your group seems to be the crazy ones.

[Dark Ass4ssin 1]

No...This deeper than a cliche rouge playing tricks.

This...This is the end

I want them to finish the story arc alive, but I want to remember the most intricate plan thathas ever been unveiled.

I want them to almost die, but for a breif moment crazy guy needs the upperhand

[Ralanr]

No...This deeper than a cliche rouge playing tricks.

This...This is the end

I want them to finish the story arc alive, but I want to remember the most intricate plan thathas ever been unveiled.

I want them to almost die, but for a breif moment crazy guy needs the upperhand

Hmm...Actually Oathbreaker Paladin capstone ability might work (Provided he gloats while the aura is in effect rather than just straight up try hard to murder them).

[Jaredino]

Maybe have it revealed that Crazy Guy has been visiting all of the dungeons after the party clears them out, and selling everything that hasn't been taken already. Over the course of a dozen levels he has finally saved up enough to purchase a Djinnis lamp, and uses the Wish spell to afflict every single prank and insult he has ever suffered at the hands of the party, back on the party itself multiplied by a hundred. They could be teleported into a super deep pit that drops them into a cavern full of hundreds of goblins that ONLY attack the characters groin areas, being tied up and forced to fight a 100 foot honey badger, and then having all of their magic stuff taken away. (just temporarily).

[Giant2005]

I could imagine a guy like that would be willing to make a Warlock pact in order to get himself out of the hell those guys have put him in.
As a Warlock he could Feeblemind the Wizard, True Polymorph the Barbarian into a fluffy bunny and Flesh to Stone the Trickster Rogue. Those seem like fitting punishments for those characters and their respective crimes.

[WampDiesel]

A simple betrayal would do.

While they are traveling have the crazy guy go on a water run to a nearby stream since the party likes to make him do bitchwork. There he can poison their waterskins. When they are all sleepy. Have him hand them over to the minions of the BBEG. Then allow the crazy guy to gloat and monologue when they are held captive. Then after the crazy guy gets mistreated way worse by BBEG he heroically sacrifices himself / distracts the guards / gets their stuff back etc.

Or maybe have him be an agent of the BBEG the whole time and he only tolerated them because he was getting information out of them. Ruin everything that is important to their character off screen through nefarious means. Find out through sleuthing that he was the one responsible but he is nowhere to be found. Maybe have the minions prepared for certain tactics the adventurers like to use and counter them.

Put him far away when he first makes his betrayal speech though. Up a tower, on a cliff, other side of a chasm. Otherwise they might bumrush him and kill him.

[Malifice]

Make him a deity. He's secretly been testing them to assume a portion of his divinity. Only let the ranger ascend. End the game.

'Just as planned'.

[Dimcair]

Maybe have it revealed that Crazy Guy has been visiting all of the dungeons after the party clears them out, and selling everything that hasn't been taken already. Over the course of a dozen levels he has finally saved up enough to purchase a Djinnis lamp, and uses the Wish spell to afflict every single prank and insult he has ever suffered at the hands of the party, back on the party itself multiplied by a hundred. They could be teleported into a super deep pit that drops them into a cavern full of hundreds of goblins that ONLY attack the characters groin areas, being tied up and forced to fight a 100 foot honey badger, and then having all of their magic stuff taken away. (just temporarily).

I second that. Make them live through his experience.

[Stan]

Maybe he is a writer and stays with them for material. His books have become popular and a very humorous, poking fun at the stupid stuff adventurers do.

Imagine the party going into a town and getting recognized. "Hey look! It's the Bumbling Idiots" (or other insulting name). People start coming up to them and recounting their deeds from the worst possible perspective. Eventually, they'll get a copy of one of the books and the characters are obviously them, with slightly changed names. They may have thought of themselves as heroes but they're world famous as bumbling fools.

[WampDiesel]

Maybe he is a writer and stays with them for material. His books have become popular and a very humorous, poking fun at the stupid stuff adventurers do.

Imagine the party going into a town and getting recognized. "Hey look! It's the Bumbling Idiots" (or other insulting name). People start coming up to them and recounting their deeds from the worst possible perspective. Eventually, they'll get a copy of one of the books and the characters are obviously them, with slightly changed names. They may have thought of themselves as heroes but they're world famous as bumbling fools.

I like this one.

[Once a Fool]

Maybe he is a writer and stays with them for material. His books have become popular and a very humorous, poking fun at the stupid stuff adventurers do.

Imagine the party going into a town and getting recognized. "Hey look! It's the Bumbling Idiots" (or other insulting name). People start coming up to them and recounting their deeds from the worst possible perspective. Eventually, they'll get a copy of one of the books and the characters are obviously them, with slightly changed names. They may have thought of themselves as heroes but they're world famous as bumbling fools.

I think this is a great way to go--and, not only that, all future campaigns that you run should have this book in it. Their buffoonery could be legend spanning millennia and planes!

[Warlawk]

Maybe he is a writer and stays with them for material. His books have become popular and a very humorous, poking fun at the stupid stuff adventurers do.

Imagine the party going into a town and getting recognized. "Hey look! It's the Bumbling Idiots" (or other insulting name). People start coming up to them and recounting their deeds from the worst possible perspective. Eventually, they'll get a copy of one of the books and the characters are obviously them, with slightly changed names. They may have thought of themselves as heroes but they're world famous as bumbling fools.

This.
So this.

You could look to the character of Chauncer in Knights Tale "Go, begone, I'm through with you... except to extract my revenge." "What could you do to us?" " I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity."

Also, there is an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender where there is a parody play being performed of the groups travels and antics, could be a good source of ideas.

[EvanescentHero]

Maybe he is a writer and stays with them for material. His books have become popular and a very humorous, poking fun at the stupid stuff adventurers do.

Imagine the party going into a town and getting recognized. "Hey look! It's the Bumbling Idiots" (or other insulting name). People start coming up to them and recounting their deeds from the worst possible perspective. Eventually, they'll get a copy of one of the books and the characters are obviously them, with slightly changed names. They may have thought of themselves as heroes but they're world famous as bumbling fools.

Perfect. Absolutely perfect.

[Shining Wrath]

Why writer?

Bard.

Every tavern they go into, songs are sung about them, and not complimentary ones.

Town criers know their names and laugh out loud.

City guards at the gate point and laugh when they ask to be let into the city.

Even orcs know jokes about these guys.

And when they meet the BBEG, he has a perfect plan which depends upon Crazy Guy's information, and it almost works, too. Except Crazy Guy deliberately put a little misinformation into his stories, and they barely escape with their lives.

[Slipperychicken]

What does crazy guy do? What's his personality like? How has he helped the party?

[Dark Ass4ssin 1]

What does crazy guy do? What's his personality like? How has he helped the party?

He has helped by finding old ruins (strongholds as the party named them) that the current BBEG has repurposed for training and other evil purposes. He also acts like a wade from kim possible when they need help disciphering riddles that only a madman could solve. (Long story short the wizard got jealous that he couldn't solve the riddle, but crazy guy could, so he started calling him crazy guy

[Dark Ass4ssin 1]

Also I think I am going to go through with the writer idea.

So I would like a name for the book, And anymore fun suggestions you guys have.

[Ralanr]

The charade of heroes: A documented tale of lunatics and monsters.

[Xetheral]

"Crazy Guy" makes for a great penname for the author too.

[Shining Wrath]

"Party of Fools: How one Crazy Guy saved self-important buffoons from self-destruction"

[GiantOctopodes]

The Pity Party: A tale of the most pitiable bunch of "adventurers" ever to live

Douschy Hobos

The 'Kindness' of Strangers

Fops, Fools, and Halfwits, or why there are no tests required to be an 'adventurer'

Crazy Guy's remarkable Patients (taken from the angle of a psycho therapist who has been trying to help these guys get over their mental "issues")

(Wizard's name), (Rogue's Name) and (Barbarian's name): A cautionary tale.

[Shining Wrath]

The party of the dumb part: my life among the morons.

[Kurt Kurageous]

Definitely a writer, perhaps an artist with a limited distribution deal who has a massive cult following?

They are the unattractive uninteresting villains a multipanel cartoon titled "The Order of the Schtick?"

I think it's been done before though. Somewhere...hmm...:roach:

[Sigreid]

He has helped by finding old ruins (strongholds as the party named them) that the current BBEG has repurposed for training and other evil purposes. He also acts like a wade from kim possible when they need help disciphering riddles that only a madman could solve. (Long story short the wizard got jealous that he couldn't solve the riddle, but crazy guy could, so he started calling him crazy guy

And just like that I have sympathy with your characters. It now sounds to me like the issue may be that they resent this NPC being so important and solving things for them and are acting out instead of just quitting or ruining the campaign all together. At this point I'd kill crazy guy and see if they let go of their inner jerk when they are on their own for solving riddles and finding the BBEG.

[Dark Ass4ssin 1]

And just like that I have sympathy with your characters. It now sounds to me like the issue may be that they resent this NPC being so important and solving things for them and are acting out instead of just quitting or ruining the campaign all together. At this point I'd kill crazy guy and see if they let go of their inner jerk when they are on their own for solving riddles and finding the BBEG.

No you misunderstand, mostly because of my inability to say what I'm trying to say.

He doesn't do it often or to outshine them. I like my PCs to feel important. He simply tells them where the next point of relevance is.

The "riddles" he solves are not obstacles, but a way to explain how he would know such info.

The wizard asked him to read off a previously solved riddle just to try and solve it. When he was unable to solve it OoC I gave his int.20 wizard a roll. (Because nobody has 20 int. IRL) A bad roll insued, and the wizard failed. The riddle was not to show off the crazy guys mental superiority, but that's how the player took it. So to explain why, I said the riddle didn't make any sense. Saying that to solve this you would have to be a bit insane.

The crazy guy has a thinly veiled personality of the medic from tf2 so they went with it.

To be honest the riddles were never meant to be mentioned, and in a retrospective point of view should never have been.

[Sigreid]

No you misunderstand, mostly because of my inability to say what I'm trying to say.

He doesn't do it often or to outshine them. I like my PCs to feel important. He simply tells them where the next point of relevance is.

The "riddles" he solves are not obstacles, but a way to explain how he would know such info.

The wizard asked him to read off a previously solved riddle just to try and solve it. When he was unable to solve it OoC I gave his int.20 wizard a roll. (Because nobody has 20 int. IRL) A bad roll insued, and the wizard failed. The riddle was not to show off the crazy guys mental superiority, but that's how the player took it. So to explain why, I said the riddle didn't make any sense. Saying that to solve this you would have to be a bit insane.

The crazy guy has a thinly veiled personality of the medic from tf2 so they went with it.

To be honest the riddles were never meant to be mentioned, and in a retrospective point of view should never have been.

OK, but are you sure your players see him the way you do? Is there the possibility they got the same impression from the game that I got from that statement? Obviously I don't know your group and you do, but this still strikes me that it might be part of the cause to your effect. Presumably you aren't playing with a bunch of people who are just jerks.

Edited for clarity: I get that you view the npc as a Captain Crunch decoder ring with personality, but only because of this last post of yours. I think you should meta talk with your players and see what is going on from their point of view. Doing the character humiliation thing in this thread wouldn't be good for your table if it's just a difference in how the npc is perceived.

[Dark Ass4ssin 1]

OK, but are you sure your players see him the way you do? Is there the possibility they got the same impression from the game that I got from that statement? Obviously I don't know your group and you do, but this still strikes me that it might be part of the cause to your effect. Presumably you aren't playing with a bunch of people who are just jerks.

Edited for clarity: I get that you view the npc as a Captain Crunch decoder ring with personality, but only because of this last post of yours. I think you should meta talk with your players and see what is going on from their point of view. Doing the character humiliation thing in this thread wouldn't be good for your table if it's just a difference in how the npc is perceived.

I talked with them, and none seem to feel belittled, and the wizard said "I did it cuz my character would, this guy is weaksauce" when asked about the name.

So they aren't upset with him, nor do they think he outshines them. As for what they do to him it really is as simple as a competition to see who's prank makes people laugh more.

Maybe its a little selfish or douchey to punish the party for that, but the fact of the matter is they see him as a "captain crunch decoder ring with a personality" as well.

[Sigreid]

I talked with them, and none seem to feel belittled, and the wizard said "I did it cuz my character would, this guy is weaksauce" when asked about the name.

So they aren't upset with him, nor do they think he outshines them. As for what they do to him it really is as simple as a competition to see who's prank makes people laugh more.

Maybe its a little selfish or douchey to punish the party for that, but the fact of the matter is they see him as a "captain crunch decoder ring with a personality" as well.

Excellent! As long as you're all on the same page and having fun that's all that matters. I was a little concerned that they might be being alienated and that's not good.

[Dark Ass4ssin 1]

Excellent! As long as you're all on the same page and having fun that's all that matters. I was a little concerned that they might be being alienated and that's not good.

Oh no, the party isn't petty and in the end we are all there to have fun. This is honestly about one final punch before a game ends.