Blunders of the PCs

[thinker]

Are you a DM who has constantly blundering PCs? Post here so we can all laugh at the mess-ups of our player characters!

[thinker]

"Lets go down the stairs" said a foolish human thief named Blackstone Shadowleaper. So even with the knowledge that down=death he soon had the party convinced except for a gnome magic-user that nobody listened to. The went down the stairs and took a passage that split of to the left. At the end was a symbol the had seened before. Last time they touched it it shot out an arrow. So of course they touched it again. Now the first level thief who was at 2 hp went back down the main passage only to be knocked out by a javelin from a bugbear. At this point the party fled dragging the thief behind them.

[kesher]

See, the player's first blunder was naming his character "Blackstone Shadowleaper"...

It was, however, very thoughtful of the party to drag his corpse out with them...

Just out of curiosity, what system are you using?

[thinker]

See, the player's first blunder was naming his character "Blackstone Shadowleaper"...

I would have to agree.

Just out of curiosity, what system are you using?

By system do you mean version of D&D?

[kesher]

By system do you mean version of D&D?

Yup. Couldn't quite place it from the type of characters being used (gnome magic user, etc.)

[thinker]

I am using version 3.5. Just so you you know blacky is . He told me to tell you.

[kesher]

Jul 11, 2010 19:36:14 GMT -6 thinker said:

I am using version 3.5. Just so you you know blacky is . He told me to tell you.

Ah, makes sense now.

And I will accept Blacky's rage, and release it harmlessly back into the Universe...or something like that.

Actually, if someone named a character like that in my campaign, I think we'd all immediately start making up nicknames like Blacky... Of course, they name their characters things like "Melvin" and "Narpet" and "Fireskull" and "Catgut Dogskin", so there you go.

[coffee]

Don't forget Sneerglaw!

Or Joe Generic!

[kesher]

Jul 12, 2010 11:20:30 GMT -6 coffee said:

Don't forget Sneerglaw!

Or Joe Generic!

Actually, Sneerglaw was a perfect name for a balrog...

And see, I immediately needed to start calling Joe "Josephus Genericus"...

I remember a player I had in a game who named his character Oglar Doglochen. We all simply called him "Dog Lotion". Which was maybe a better name over all...

[coffee]

I was in a game with a kid who read too much Order of the Stick and had named his dwarf cleric Durkon. The DM couldn't remember that all the time so he started calling him Doorknob.

Needless to say, it stuck.

[thinker]

Those sound like some very interesting names. ;D

Now I shall tell the story of Leerum who is probably the clumsiest elf in the world. The party had just finished killing the main force of kobolds but a few had fled through a door. The kobolds were on the other side of hallway trying to hide in there vault but they had lost the key. Leerum moved up to the front of the party but not before slipping and sitting on the gnome. He then fearlessly (and stupidly) walked right down the hallway not thinking the might have the vault area trapped. He got hit by an arrow but still kept going. Then he fell into a pit and then clunk . I like Leerum, he always makes sure my traps never go to waste.

[coffee]

Okay, when Leerum slips and sits on the gnome...

Is this something tied to game mechanics?

Is it a roleplaying thing?

Or did you inflict it on him as some sort of "I'm the DM; I'm God; whaddaya gonna do?" kind of thing?

I ask because I'm curious.

[thinker]

Kobolds are small creatures and he was squeezing through a door and since all his friends had clogged up the hallway not wanting to go near the traps (the thief had found the arrow trap). He rolled a 1 on his dex and sat on the gnome.

[sniderman]

How about the opposite of a blunder?

Friend was playing a kender thief named Willie armed with only a dagger. We met an ogre who swiftly trounced everyone but Willie. As the only one left conscious, he knew he was the only thing standing between us and a TPK.

"I run between the ogre's legs and stab him as I dart through!"

The guy playing Willie meant to say he was stabbing at the ogre's LEG when he ran through, hoping the ogre would drop to the ground where he could fight it better. Instead the DM assumed Willie was stabbing UPWARD as he ran through. The DM rolled the dice.

"OK, you run through his legs and stab up and under his loincloth as you do so. His groin takes 4 points of damage."

Howls of laughter erupt. Willie's player smiles.

"OK, I do it again!"

The orge takes a swipe at Willie, missing handily, and Willie darts through its legs again with a called shot to the ogre's plumsack.

"You stab it in the nuts again, and it takes double damage. The orge screams, and staggers a bit, but it's still on it feet."

Half of us are on the floor, laughing ourselves sick due to the absurdity of the fight.

By the time the fight ended, Willie was successful and the ogre was dead due to multiple called shots to its junk. That day, Willie changed his name to "Nadstabber."

[kesher]

That's a perfect example of how RPGs are so much MORE FUN when you don't take them too seriously...

"Nadstabber" is simply glorious.

[makofan]

1979, playing AD&D with B1 Search of the Unknown. A player jumps in the pool of acid and dies. Another player crawls into a bag of devouring, and when he did not come out, a second player investigated ... They drank the perfume, thinking it was a magic potion. The one MU in the party memorized Magic Missile, which he used at the very start of the game, and then moped around the rest of the evening. They finally all died of starvation after getting trapped behind the portcullis

[abecross]

Nadstabber! My players have committed hundreds of blunders recently:

Destroying the controls of a Jetsonian spaceship that was their only means of escape (they thought they would prevent the Snail-Wizard's escape).

One Shot Kill on a powerful NPC that had info no one else had. ("Parley? What does that mean?").

The MU of the party ignoring several DM warnings that messing with another man's magic orb is never a good idea when you don't know what it is/does. Being sucked into another dimension may make him rethink this next time. Oops.

EDIT: this Jrients post might be my favorite blunder:
jrients.blogspot.com/2010/07/weirdest-death-in-recent-memory.html

[Torreny]

This isn't quite a blunder, but a game of mine not too long ago, a low-ish level party followed gossip concerning a dragon's lair deep within a shattered mountain with the intents of stealing some booty, not to actually confront the thing. Unknown to the rest of the players, the barbarian had been offed the session before and the player assumed the role of a doppleganger. After all manner of efforts were expended to get down into the dragon lair itself, the (doppleganger'd) barbarian threw a loose piece of flagstone into the hoard while the thief, caster and fighter were gingerly attempting to steal a sword (and an opulent eorcanstan) from beside a sleeping baby dragon. The parents couldn't be seen anywhere, but the air seemed to just flow further down a nearby passage.

The best player-based TPK in D&D I've so far run.

---

Or here's a more recent one in Metamorphosis Alpha:

So, the party (for the moment) consisted of a PSH Valid and his not-even-close-to-a-friend mutant human companion that had been following an agri-tram line, and far down the way, they could spot a shiny, chrome-like dot rapidly approaching, kicking up dust and grass. They figured getting a air/raft hover sled would be cool, so the mutant wanted to create the illusion of a nearby tree collapsing as the vehicle sped into range. Not even a moment later the sled pitches wildly, crashing in a horrible thunder of ripped open trees and torn metal. Thankfully the emergency systems evacuated the passengers in the nick of time. The driver, not-so-much-so.

The two ignored the jettisoned folk, and investigated the crash, where they found a humanoid clad in armour and uniform (I borrowed Gamma World's serfs for these guys). His last act in the world was a feeble pull of his side-arm's trigger before being mashed to paste by the mutant player. The Valid returned back to their side of the road after looking around for the others. Their messing around gave the Non-players time to set up a tripod-mounted machine gun, and they started ripping up the foliage and what remained of the vehicle, trying hard to take out their assailants.

In a bestial roar and a feat of supernormal strength the mutant pulls free the smoking wreckage and throws it at the soldiers in cover, and a bad throw takes out one of the trees sheltering them. He closes for melee, crackling with electricity like some hell-beast, taking fire from an accelerator rifle for a round before he is upon them, meanwhile, the valid went prone behind a stump, raining death upon anything but his opponents. Bloodied beyond all belief, the mutant human goes for several boughts of hand-to-hand with the much fresher Non-player, and dies with his throat torn out.

The other player immediately disengaged and ran off into the wilderness to live another day.

---

Ha, oh, now this is an old thread. Oh, well. Wrote it all out already.

[franchise]

I was a player, and this was another player's blunder that was my favorite one ever. It might be a type of "You had to be there" thing, but it was hilarious to us at the time.

We were playing Gangbusters, and were all teenagers. A friend's younger brother was also playing. The younger brother was a reporter or a cop or something. He was trying to infiltrate a gang of guys, and they were getting wise to him. There were about 4 tough thugs who had driven the player out to the middle of nowhere. The paraphrased dialogue went something like this.

Gangster: So, you're a tough criminal and really think you can join our gang huh?

Player(Cop): Yeah, that's right.

Gangster: Well maybe we don't trust you.

Player(Cop): Aww man you should. I'll be really good for you guys.

Gangster: Where do you live?

Player(Cop): In the city.

Gangster: What's your zip code?

Player(Cop): (noticeably puzzled) uhh...942..28...77...42..39...61

Gangster: Those are a lot of numbers

Player(Cop): Well, I live a long way away.

The player was dead serious, and didn't understand why we all busted out laughing. We explained that his answer was great, and he shouldn't worry. I think the GM had the gangsters let him live, but they did run over his gun hand with their car.