Hello everyone. Got any stories to tell? A campaign that went horribly wrong? A player that turned it sour or even a DM?

Then this is the place for you! If you wish to tell of course. What kind of campaigns did you experience or horror stories you have to offer whilst playing DnD, I'd love to hear about it! Feel free to comment below if you want to. 

Well, in my first campaign, a DMPC killed three out of the five players in the party. But at least my ranger died a heroic death, resisting the DMPC until the end. The DMPC had upstaged our party in every way, killing several monsters singlehandedly and threatening us every time we stepped out of line with their (unexplained) goals. They also seemed to be a purely minmaxed build that didn't make much sense thematically.

I've been in plenty of bad D&D things.

I was in my first D&D campaign with my sisters, who didn't bother to read the rules and basically crashed because we had no time for it. 

Then I was in a campaign that was interrupted after one session by Covid - all the players in it were problems though.

The next (this one online) campaign I did as DM (with different players) had none of the players ever turn up, and when they did they didn't know the rules at all so I had to prompt them on everything.  Also, the players were more toxic than I realized and disagreements happened. I did this campaign for several months though.

Then, I was in a campaign where things happened, like my character would be left alone in a haunted house while the rest of the party abandons them and goes to the tavern a few kilometers away (my character never even knew they had left because of reasons), the same party talking constantly about "human procreating" and cutting off people's pants, acting all chaotic bards seducing basically, ignoring me and my characters (I had four in the one campaign, which I was in for barely 6 sessions).   Doesn't help the DM was too young to technically be allowed in the group (13-18 years old).

I then decided to participate in a public open-group for D&D (where we take one character from 1st to 5th level over 9 sessions) started brilliant but slowly got worse as certain people started to bully me.  Fortunately the group reset soon after and the bullying was addressed, but there's still problem players around and some sessions can be lousy.  Still go there though, and most sessions are great.

I also made a new online campaign, with new players and again as DM.  Most of the players don't know what they're doing, but at least they turn up. 

I also have started another campaign, with my sisters (who now RP slightly, despite no idea of the rules it is the most consistently good campaign I have ever been in).

During all this I've also participated in 5 play-by-post campaigns, one of which I will be starting in a few days, one of which I'm in at the moment (that is DMed by the great Thauraeln_The_Bold), one of which I'm only a non-regular player (Tales of Adventurer's Tavern), and two other ones with toxic players.

In other words, my D&D history is rocky at best.  This has been a catalogue of every campaign I have been in for the past year and a half (the entire time I have played D&D).

I started DMing a campaign of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden.

At level 2, the party were expected to withstand attacks from an creature that was striking twice per round doing 3d12+6 damage (admittedly, for the first two rounds it wasn't able to attack).

At level 6, they were expected to rush from one place to another, and try to keep up with a dragon doing massive amounts of damage - and which could easily have killed the party - but the rules of the campaign don't allow you to travel fast enough to do it. There was an entire chapter for this!

We gave up on the campaign, since NO published campaign should EVER require the amount of work that this campaign would require in order to get it to work.

Basically, our group has decided NEVER to run another WOTC published campaign ever again!

Quote from Farling >>

I started DMing a campaign of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden.

At level 2, the party were expected to withstand attacks from an creature that was striking twice per round doing 3d12+6 damage (admittedly, for the first two rounds it wasn't able to attack).

At level 6, they were expected to rush from one place to another, and try to keep up with a dragon doing massive amounts of damage - and which could easily have killed the party - but the rules of the campaign don't allow you to travel fast enough to do it. There was an entire chapter for this!

We gave up on the campaign, since NO published campaign should EVER require the amount of work that this campaign would require in order to get it to work.

Basically, our group has decided NEVER to run another WOTC published campaign ever again!

 That's a bit harsh.  ID: RotF was made to be difficult.  Sure, WotC should have stated that the starting adventures should go in town alphabetical order (Bremen, then Bryn Shander, etc.), but while the encounters are hard, they're survivable.  Just avoid the Cold-Hearted Killer.

The Dragon is expressly meant to destroy 10 towns.  The towns have been destroyed before (see R.A. Salvatore's The Crystal Shard) - the characters need to get to one of the last towns to save it.  It's meant to utterly depress and beat the characters down - the adventure is gritty.  Sure, it's a pain, but it can be done and even a few tweaks such as lowering the dragon's fly speed would help.  If you lack the imagination to make a few tweaks, you're a railroader of a DM.  

A person was there in a campaign I DMed who consistently used "Realism" to try and get bs advantages.

I kinda dread having to DM for that person in the future. (Luckly I can use my excuse of my other group and all the work for that to not)

I'd say the worst D&D story i was involved in was a oneshot I played at a local game shop.  As I understood it afterwards the intent of the oneshot was a chase with an unbeatable opponent (a souped up Drider, i think we were level 2 or 3), but the DM didn't explain the situation well enough and rushed our decisionmaking.  There were webs blocking escape routes that were supposed to be cut, but due to the rush one character tried to burn them off, and the DM described the result as the whole room (which was admittedly covered in webs) beginning to catch fire.  We wound up fleeing the way we came in, and the DM cornered us with the drider, so the oneshot which was supposed to be this chase turned into a protracted battle against the drider that lasted over 3 hours.  Only one PC survived, with only about 1/4 of their hitpoints, and no spell slots/abilities left (and I think the DM may have just given up at that point and let us "win" as we were approaching the end of the scheduled session.)

My worst D&D game was something that would probably get me in trouble if I tried to describe it in detail here.  Let's just say that the other players were the types who would have liked FATAL or Racial Holy Wars and leave it at that.

My worst D&D story happened today. I was DMING CoS and the party was trying to make their way through the village of Barovia, but we were playing at one of the players' homes and for no reason they had some friend over who didn't play, just stood around making comments and showing the players something on his phone i didn't see. He was incredibly disruptive and I would sometimes make comments about it under my breath. I got so annoyed with his antics I began triggering high end encounters whenever someone wouldn't pay attention bc they were talking to him. I would frequently have to pause the game to tell people to pay attention. If I wasn't at someone else's house I probably would have said "I didn't prepare this session and went over here just to be ignored and talked over by this rat" but since we weren't at my house I felt like I couldn't demand respect like usual. Worst session I've ever experienced 

Quote from TieflingMcGothVibes >>

My worst D&D story happened today. I was DMING CoS and the party was trying to make their way through the village of Barovia, but we were playing at one of the players' homes and for no reason they had some friend over who didn't play, just stood around making comments and showing the players something on his phone i didn't see. He was incredibly disruptive and I would sometimes make comments about it under my breath. I got so annoyed with his antics I began triggering high end encounters whenever someone wouldn't pay attention bc they were talking to him. I would frequently have to pause the game to tell people to pay attention. If I wasn't at someone else's house I probably would have said "I didn't prepare this session and went over here just to be ignored and talked over by this rat" but since we weren't at my house I felt like I couldn't demand respect like usual. Worst session I've ever experienced 

 I'm glad you got off lightly, but feel sorry you had a bad experience at all. 

GM had the bad guy cast sleep on the party but as I was playing an Elf (lvl 2), wasn't affected. Naturally I tried to defend my friends so the GM had the bad guy cast Finger of Death.

Play by post game in which those players that could post more often got opportunities to gain more exp than those that could not post as much.

Quote from Wysperra >>

GM had the bad guy cast sleep on the party but as I was playing an Elf (lvl 2), wasn't affected. Naturally I tried to defend my friends so the GM had the bad guy cast Finger of Death.

I hope you quit at that point.

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Quote from Wysperra >>

GM had the bad guy cast sleep on the party but as I was playing an Elf (lvl 2), wasn't affected. Naturally I tried to defend my friends so the GM had the bad guy cast Finger of Death.

I hope you quit at that point.

 My character was dead so it was easy.

This doesn't seem like a healthy thread

it was a couple year back . i was still learning  the game i only played paladins. i joined a group i thought we would do a section  zero  but we did not so i had no clue what the other players are playing as i ass. i ask them they all say don't worry i don't need to know. i went with it but so you guys know we had a  fire genasi cleric a dwarf rogue and elf druid . i was a human paladin stick one for me this group hated humans i would not played as one is they told me anything about there players .before we started i asked the dm and he said it be ok. so shrike  two my finale strike  with  withs this grope was when we  stormed a tower filled with evil  snake people as a paladin i killed one at  that moment the player playing the cleric did nothing but bully my character. she did everything in he power to not help me . like if a need healing me doing a a.o.e  spell on top of me the list goes on .i ask the player  what's going on  she told me that her cleric was raided my snake people and she was mad a me for killing them . i said i was sorry  but knew nothing you did not tell  me anything about your charter  you said don't worry about it .i was so confused  after the game i just packed up and left. we cut to the next game i was sick . tight when i was going to call dm to say i cant make he calls me and  say dont  bother  showing up  i said ok and i never played or hung out with that group again . to this day i still don't know why they kicked me out  that my story hope you guys like it 

I was a new DM, and one of my players was a ranger who was best friends with a squirrel. Ranger said that his squirrel could go and recruit a few other squirrels to fight for him. At first I thought nothing of it, and squirrels could probably only do one point of damage. He had not used the ability yet, but when my players went up against a gibbering mouther that was summoned by some cultists, it got chaotic and ruined the whole final boss fight. He asked me if he could send his squirrel to go get some others, so I agreed, which was the biggest mistake. He goes on to roll a d100 and summoned 86 squirrels to go attack the mouther. The mouther had been adjusted by me to have less hit points and be overall a bit weaker for the low level party. He then used the squirrels to instantly kill the boss and the cultists, ending the adventure without giving the other players a chance to attack. The players got pretty annoyed, so we ran Curse of Strahd instead, and banned the use of squirrels.

ok so I was dming and my group (a human barbarian, a elf monk, a evil dragonborn wizard and a human ranger) were ambushed by 21 goblins. now they were 5th level and very powerful but didn't work together well. so the goblins got a round to attack and most missed due to high armour class. now the wizard used fire ball to kill 7 goblins the fighter then killed 5 using action surge, the rangers killed 3 together and the monk killed 5 altogether. now there was one left this one goblin disengaged as a bonus action and ran. the plot behind the story as that the characters were to follow the foodprints of the 21 goblins back to a huge goblin base where they would use stealth to assassinate the boss. now if the goblin got away then the hole plot would be ruined due to the enemy being warned. now the characters start chasing after the goblin. apart from the monk who was greedy and hung back to lute even though he was the fastest. anyway the fighter chose to run 30 ft then shoot twice each missing even though he's got like plus 7 to hit. then the barbarian chooses to dash as far as he can. the wizard casts expeditious retreat and moves as far as he can. now the goblin is running through the bush at top speed and is about to get away. as a dm I can't let that happen due to wanting to keep the plot working so I say to the characters " you hear the rushing of water but you knowtise that the goblin has seemed to of herd it" now I had just placed a cliff and waterfall that I was using as a way to kill the goblin in case the characters failed. but due to them not listening to me they ignored what I had said. the barbarian then on his turn used a dagger from long ranged and hit once dealing 3 damage, the figter couldn't shoot through the trees and the monk and rangers were looting. the wizard then used fire bolt dealing 2d10 to the goblin rolling 2 ONES and not killing it. it was on 2 hit points when I made it run of the cliff I said "you see the goblin has seemed to of fallen to the ground out of your site". now the barbarian who had not listened to me about the water fall kept running straight of the cliff. this meant that the characters had to burn through all there money to get true resurrection cast on the barbarian and so that's how we finished a section with the poorest characters in the world.

I was playing a CoS campaign as a wood elf druid. I was the only good character. The other characters were a wizard, a fighter, and, notably, a half-orc barbarian. The first... interesting thing happened when, in the first village, an old lady came to sell pies in the middle of the night. The fighter bought 7, I believe, and ate them all. The wizard ate one. They failed a con save and became incapacitated. I and the barbarian chased down the lady, and after he was forced to eat pie, I attacked her, and she disappeared. After shaking my companions out of their trance, they became addicted to the pies. A mysterious voice *cough cough DM cough cough* then said something very interesting would happen if we all ate pies, and four more appeared on the floor. Naturally, the party attacked me to down me and force me to eat pie. After being attacked by the wizard, I transformed into a giant badger and dug away. The barbarian then had the genius thought that, since I was no longer in the party, everyone could eat pies... I then saved them from the hags.

After the half-orc barbarian had tried to kill an elf because, you know, half-orc, I told him (in character) to stop and I would give him spell scrolls (he wanted magic). I then challenged him to a duel (cue spears of justice).                                                                                                                                                        Fighter: "Dude, lets down Jormundür and steal his gold."                                                                                                                                                                            Wizard: "Yeah! If we split it we'll have [checks my character sheet] [amount of gold] each!."                                                                                                                    I downed the wizard in one round through the power of goats, but unfortunately, barbarians are good tanks and half-orc crits hit hard.

I kinda hope this one just gets lost here.

So we were playing online during the pandemic. I played an aasimar cleric who grew up very sheltered in a remote religious commune. He was male but had the serene androgyny of someone who just stepped out of a painting by Sandro Botticelli. I made it very clear from Day One that he was asexual, he knew nothing of sexuality, and had no interest in it whatsoever. He was also quite overwhelmed by his new surroundings and didn't much like violence. He didn't even carry a weapon. He was a support character who did buffs and heals. 

Well, we had cleared out a few vampires from a haunted mansion and in the fight my cleric got hit by something that knocked his Intelligence down from a 9 to a 5. The fight also got a bit desperate and my cleric had to kill someone for the first time ever. So we get back to town and there's a huge wedding celebration going on in town. Keep in mind my character is dealing with PTSD and a massive traumatic brain injury that happened literally hours ago. So he's minding his own business amid the celebration crowd, trying to process his trauma. So the DM mentions that an attractive tiefling woman approaches my character and invites him for a walk in the woods. The DM joked about wondering if a half-devil and a half-celestial would create a human baby or some devil-celestial hybrid. I explain (out of character, as myself) to the DM that not only is my character not interested, but he currently has the mental capacity of a wounded golden retriever. So he says the woman takes my character's hand, leads him into the nearby forest, and begins seducing him. I explain again - out of character - as myself - to the DM that my character not only does not react and absolutely does not reciprocate in any way, but he also probably doesn't even understand what's happening. The DM brushed all that aside with a jovial, "Naw, you enjoyed it." 

I seriously considered just logging off forever right there. But I don't just play D&D for fun. I play D&D as an outlet for stuff. And that game was the only game I had during that Year of the Plague. Every week after that I considered whether or not to log in and play. I kept going only because I loved playing with the other players and I knew we (the players) would be playing a new campaign (without that DM) once the lockdowns ended. And we did. Once we were all vaccinated those players and I started a new in-person game at a table with paper character sheets and snacks. I loved that character. He's still my favorite character that I have ever played - even if my DM did date-**** him that one time. 

I hope you found a different group.  That is seriously inappropriate behavior on the part of the GM.  Like a good reason to never talk with them again level of inappropriate.