Best laid plans... (aka when players change the game)

[tedcahill2]

So planned a small one off encounter where my players would come across a destroyed wagon, merchant and escort killed, wares plundered, etc. Around that same time they see a huge green dragon circling over the forest on the other side of the river, miles away. I established that the huge dragon appeared to be looking for something, as it kept circling around the same area.

Out of the corner of their eyes they (that made a spot check) see a figure come out of the water on the other side of the river dragging a sack behind them (it was dusk, they couldn't make out details).

They decide to follow the mystery figure (which I anticipated) and found a young green dragon pacing around a campfire. He'd set a bunch of small sticks in the ground which he had fashioned like stick figures. He was address his "minions" as though he were a supreme ruler. He spoke of his grand plans to one day rule over all mankind (basically just playing out a childish fantasy of his).

I had written out a few different XP and rewards depending on what they decided to do with the dragon.

Option 1: kill and steal treasure
Option 2: capture, steal treasure, return baby dragon to mama dragon
Option 3: sneak past/lead away, steal treasure

My players did something I did not plan for, of course. They captured the dragon, but left him tied up in the forest. They talked about returning the dragon to the mama, but decided against it. I had all these contingencies thought through, like if they kill the baby the mama would find out and hunt them down.

But since they left him alive, and seem to have taken a liking to the little fella, I will instead be introducing him again in a later game (spoiler, he will have a tribe of kobolds as minions, except they're cowards and will all flee as soon as one of them dies, leaving the dragon to curse the "heroes" and flee himself) It will be a super easy fight and is mainly a comic encounter.

So, what other stories of players doing absolutely unexpected things can you all share?

[Geddy2112]

Always good to have those chickens...in this case, dragons, come home to roost. Remind them that they left that dragon there, and have it come back with a vengence(but a hilarious vengence).

I once had my party abandon the main plot of the campaign to get the goblin oracle in the party a girlfriend. Through a strange series of events, a goblin body had the soul of an elf, who had taken a liking to a young girl in a town the party was in. The party's main goal was to convince the various nations of this contentment to join their nation across the sea, which was coming to invade. The young girl wants nothing to do with the goblin, but he is smitten. Through some previously established connections, the party finds out that if they help destroy an ancient and powerful artifact, the fey court will grant the party a wish, which they plan to use to make the girl and the goblin get married.

Two sessions later, the party skips town(including talking to the queen about the quest) and is in BFE nowhere destroying a magical spear. The process kills two party members and purges the elf soul from the goblin, leaving behind a goblin who remembers, but does not care about the girl. The party never returns to the nation where the young girl lived, nor talks to the queen, leaving the entire arc unresolved till the campaign ends and they find out in the afterwards.

[Jay R]

I was planning to run a Flashing Blades campaign set in the Caribbean, set in the time when buccaneers were just Frenchmen living on the back side of Hispaniola stealing cows, before they had fled to Tortuga and really gotten into the business of piracy. The PCs were Richelieu’s agents at the court of the Spanish viceroy, there to pursue French interests. They were given the following mission goals.


Attempt to learn as much as possible about these renegades.
Discover as much as possible about Spanish interests, settlements, trade, etc.
Assure the Spanish governor that the French government has no association with or control over these renegades, and indeed, no presence in the Caribbean except for a small colony (shared with the English) on St. Christopher’s.
Find possible locations for additional French settlements, establish a French presence in the Caribbean, and offer (untraceable) aid, form an association, and attempt to exert some measure of control over them.

They had been told that Richelieu's power and influence in the Caribbean were very weak, while the Spaniards were all-powerful, so they needed to be very subtle and quiet, keeping a low profile and not raising any suspicions. I had several political intrigues planned – a slave uprising, the viceroy’s daughter kidnapped, the buccaneers getting bolder and the PCs blamed for it, etc., a Dutch-led sailors' mutiny, all with the slowly growing threat of piracy in the background.

By the end of the first episode, the PCs had slain the viceroy's captain, seized a ship, sunk two Spanish ships, captured a bunch of Spanish silver, and were full-fledged pirates.

[martixy]

Last session I planned to lead them into a generic dungeon crawl. It ended up into as a mystery leading up into political intrigue... go figure.

[Crake]

Well, my players once accidentally brought lolth back from the dead, then assumed she was the big bad guy of the campaign and pursued that red herring like nobody's business.