Had a weird experience in my last game

[Kazuel]

So I’m playing in a new Ravnica game and we were tracking a goblin we were hire to capture to a warehouse. There was a single guard at the door we were going to enter at. The plan was my rogue was going to sneak up to him, knife him in the back while the other rogue shoots him with an arrow. Basically creating an instant back up plan. Now here’s the weird thing. The plan worked. Our dice didnt betray us or anything. We had several other plans work as well.

Anyone else experiencing this glitch where plans actually work?

[lightningcat]

Never had it happen as a player, but I have seen it when running games. Of course, it is usually my dice that betray me whether running or playing.
The most notable example I can recall is one of my players wanted to sneak into a warehouse, bypass the security system, look into a specific box that he needed to find, and get back out, all without being seen by the security guards. He ninjaed through everything, while the guards made Barney Fife look competent.

[Kaptin Keen]

I've had this happen too. We'd lost a fight, and a party member had been taken captive - and my character was able to talk his way in, disguised by illusion, and free our friend.

Of course it only counts if the terribly botched fight we lost is ignored.

[Elvensilver]

Wow, a glitch like this also happened to our group:
We had a nice little plan, the only possible problem was that our LG-Cleric without any ranks in Bluff had to bluff sime high wisdom badguys.

Our goal was to channel the cosmic power that once a century bubbles out from a well in the world's biggest library. It can only be used by clerics. So, we approach the well after fighting some rivaling factions (a cult of cannibals and some assorted undead). The armored but invisible cleric sneaks up while the bard cries some challenges. Next to the well already is a evil cleric of Asmodeus together with another roguish baddy, ready to channel the well's power the moment it surges forth. Our cleric (LG) drops invisibility and announces herself as a paladin ready to smite them. The bluff works, and they are not particulary bothered by her because only the nearest cleric gets the power without needing to do anything else. As soon as she is near enough, she then bullrushes the evil cleric away and activates her cube of force to keep out all living things. They can't circumvent it, (the rogue stabs the evil cleric in the back and then with a scroll raises her as an undead to get her through the forcefield, but as a mindless undead, she's not a cleric anymore) and so, the party wins the cosmic power and the day without having to fight...well the cleric didn't have to fight, the squishy bard still stood against hordes of undead. But this sacrifice was planned, so that he could feel useful. So everything worked as planned.

[hotflungwok]

This one time playing Shadowrun, we stole the secret information and set up an enemy to take the fall all without triggering any alarms or getting into any running gun battles with the guards. I know, I was astonished too.

[KarlMarx]

See, our groups rarely have a problem with our plans working, because they are usually situations where success is worse/more entertaining than failure...

For example, there was one time in Starfinder where we were obviously supposed to steal/otherwise indirectly grab the MacGuffin, because the holder of the MacGuffin was a crimelord who we couldn't persuade or fight with any reasonable chance of success. So we challenged him to a death race, with the MacGuffin and our ship as bets. The Envoy seduced a bunch of the crimelord's racers, and lo and behold, we won the race, though not without some...interesting complications.

[Son of A Lich!]

Welp, something is definitely wrong. Looks like you're going to have to reboot the table.

Get a diamond worth about 10,000 gold, kill your DM, wait until the red light stops blinking, then resurrect him with the diamond.

You should see your plans failing, like normal, almost immediately.

You might also want to hire an attorney...

[5crownik007]

As others have mentioned, when you are the one running the game, your dice betray you and therefore the plans of the players go completely unimpeded. That really strong boss Iyou set up? Killed in three rounds. Oops.

Then there are occasions where some of the party doesn't want the plan to work, and team-kill you. Although, Iyou should have seen it coming, they were both chaotic evil death god clerics.

[Jay R]

My most impressive job that included several smaller plans all working together was when six player-characters defeated an entire army - in Flashing Blades, a musketeer game with no magic.

Spoiler: Spoilered for length

Show

Jean-Louis is my rogue PC. Vivienne is Ruth's actress PC.

In a previous adventure, we had captured bills of lading for supplies to feed an army coming to France next spring. The bills of lading implied an army of roughly 2,000 soldiers and camp followers and 500 horses, led by the General Don Miguel ----, whose last name is a moot point, as shown below. All winter, we had horses staked out to attract two wolf packs to the forest between Luneville and Drouville. We wanted numerous wolves used to feeding on horseflesh to greet the Spanish army.

The first delivery was at St. Die. We arranged that the food would arrive two days early, to allow spoilage. Then there was a heavy rain that delayed the troops. The wine was (very mildly) spiked with bad water. There were 20 pistoles baked into the bread. We spread a rumor that the rich soldiers have been throwing coins to the peasants, to encourage peasants along the road to get in the army's way.

Vivienne and Jean-Louis joined the army as camp followers, Vivienne concentrating her attentions on the officers. Jean-Louis started to become a common face, performing, spreading rumors, asking questions. "What's this I hear about a missing paywagon?" The next day was Baccarat. 20 more pistoles and 2 Louis d'Or (gold coins) were baked in the bread. The wine was slghtly more spiked. Deliveries of the food arrived mid-morning the next day, further delaying the troops. Vivienne had two officers fighting a duel over her. […] we spread rumors about the paywagon, and bad blood between officers. (Jean-Louis gathered a crowd of soldiers at the dueling field.) We started a fire in town after the troops left.

Some cavalry units left early, and so were not fed. Near the town of Luneville, we burned a bridge and planted stakes. The cavalry units tried to cross first, and one horse was lamed. So they waited for the rest of the army to arrive to build the bridge. More unrest, more rumors, more bad food. We incited some guttersnipes to throw rocks across the river at them. The bridge was finished mid-morning the next day, so late the next night, a bedraggled, tired, dispirited army arrived at Drouville. The army was forced to detour through the wolf forest by a road block. We spread rumors that the army had been torching villages behind them. The food was strongly poisoned, and the rye bread was tainted with ergot. The army was not going to be in shape to deal with the situation. Vivienne lured Don Miguel to her room at an inn, and murdered him in his sleep. We spread poisoned oats out in the woods. Then we torched the town, stampeding the horses. We started several fires on the upwind side of town. While cutting horses loose, Jean-Louis was spotted. He yelled, "Release the horses – don’t let them burn!" And he convinced the sentries that were there to guard the horses to help him release and stampede them.

The Spanish lost supplies, horses, and lots of time trying to round up the horses that survived the night. Note that spooked horses aren't too bright, and that they were downwind of the flames. Many horses were lost (or eaten). Jean-Louis slipped into the General's headquarters. He fought and killed two sentries, leaving them in a pose indicating that they had slain each other. He then made off with the general's orders, dispatches, and 70 escudo (4200 L.!).

In nearby towns the next day we spread rumors that the army was berserk, looting and burning. We spread rumors in the army that the general was seen running off with a courtesan. Henri went north and bought their next shipment of food (with their money), which we dumped in the river. After spreading a few more rumors in Nancy, the capital of Lorraine, we returned to Paris, where we delivered the orders and dispatches to Richelieu.

The army split up, some becoming bandits until captured by the Duke of Lorraine; some continuing on, ravaging the countryside as they went. But as an invading force, they were done.

[Kazuel]

Stand down. It was just a momentary glitch. Last game session nothing went as planned and my dice hate me. We’re back to business as usual.

[Calthropstu]

Never had it happen as a player, but I have seen it when running games. Of course, it is usually my dice that betray me whether running or playing.
The most notable example I can recall is one of my players wanted to sneak into a warehouse, bypass the security system, look into a specific box that he needed to find, and get back out, all without being seen by the security guards. He ninjaed through everything, while the guards made Barney Fife look competent.

See, my dice roll whatever is worst for the party. If I gm, I roll fantastic. If I play, I roll whatever will result in pure hilarity (usually rolling nat 1s whenever it would make me fail at something spectacularly, getting 20s when no one is around to see it etc)

[Quertus]

Things going according to plan? What is this "plan" you speak of? "Not winging it" isn't really what they do.