What hilarious (or other impactful) misunderstandings have you seen in your games?

[goto124]

Sometimes, misunderstandings happen. Maybe the GM misheard the player, or vice versa. Maybe the GM and player have different understandings of what a word means. Either way, the results can be rather funny.

An example that's not from a game I was in, but is too good to not share:
PC1: She seems much more fond of incontinence curses than deadly ones.
PC2: Eewww! Seriously, I would rather just die, thank you very much.

PC1: I think I used the wrong word. Things like you have the feet of a duck, your hair grows three feet a minute, that sort of curse.

[RazorChain]

Not a misunderstanding but a player stating his actions in the wrong order.

Player: I jump off the tower and cast levitate
GM: Wait, you jump off and THEN cast levitate?
Player: eh...my wizard is impulsive so I guess that's what he does
GM: Ok, roll fright check as you plummet to the ground to see if you manage to cast the spell.

Fail and a splat!

[solidork]

In our L5R game, the incredibly arrogant and self centered void shugenja was 'too good' to do something so lowly as accept the scroll with our mission on it from the local magistrate. This has made her yojimbo (who did take the scroll) the de facto leader of our group in the eyes of literally everyone except said shugenja.