Share the time you thought you really messed up as a DM but it all turned out ok anyway.
In my game last week I threw a monster at my group that was a little too strong, but it was really low int so I played it poorly to even things out. Anyway, I went for an attack on the warlock and critted. With out thinking I announced the rolls for damage so no chance for fudging. And he died. The remaining damage was enough to kill him outright. After a moment it was revealed that he miscalculated and survived by 2 damage.The group is only level 3 and nowhere near being able to resurrect anyone.
I wasn't DMing this time, but our DM pitted us (a party of 2 level 1s and 1 level 2) against five giant badgers. Miraculously, only one character (my own) died, but all three fell unconscious. Fortunately, the level 2 character rolled a nat 20 on a death save, and the DM had a moment of mercy as he described the Aasimar rising from the place he fell, divine light and flames swirling around him. All of the remaining badgers ran away.
Probably when the gunslinger fighter in the party for a game I was running got bit by a werewolf and failed his CON save, we all shared a good laugh though and the paladin chained him to a horse and we dragged him to neverwinter.
Running LMOP/DoIP campaign, party went to gnomengarde as level 2. I thought the wild magic table offered by the guide was a bit anemic so I decided to replace it by the warlcok wild magic table. First roll for it ends up being a level 3 fireball centered on the wizard with enough radius and damage to kill the whole party while missing the monsters.
I decided that it didn't count because it was a player who rolled it instead of me.
When my Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign blew up because the players decided that Chapter 4 [dragon attack] was just so ridiculous; and later (on them reading the rest of the campaign) that Chapter 5 onwards was such a random change of campaign arc that they decided the book had been written as 3 separate adventures rather than a single coherent campaign.
The next week they are rolled up 1st level characters to play some Adventurer's League adventures until we can get back to face-to-face gaming in a pub (UK).
Probably when I had to fudge my way out of having the entire party swallowed by giant toads... Seriously the party were 4 PC's at lvl 4-5, and it was just meant as an "easy" encounter "on the road". The dice decided otherwise. All characters failed perception tests, so they were taken completely by surprise. After round one they were all grappled. After round two they would all have been swallowed if I hadn't started to fudge... Since it would have been the end of the entire party, and the end of the campaign - that was a situation I'm completely OK with fudging.
What was supposed to be an innocent sand castle building event at the beach ended up with the druid wild shaping into a crab and criting on a pinch, insta-killing a child. Very traumatic, but "fortunately" there was a high level cleric also at the beach "ahem".
When my dwarven cleric (personal character using as an NPC in my first game to fill out a party of new first time players) held off attacking to give the first time players to strike the final blow on a Hag, and the other players did other things, or missed hitting the Hag. So, my cleric finally ran up to the witch to strike her down with her warhammer (war domain) and missed with both hits, only to have the Hag go next. My cleric had just been struck by a beam of lightening, nearly killing her, so already low on hp, the Hag landed a claw attack. My cleric falls unconscious and then lays at the foot of the Hag. That was my "oh crap" moment when I thought if someone doesn't do something, the cleric is going to be hit by the Hag again the next round. Needless to say, the group focused back on the Hag and took her down before that happened, thankfully. Sometimes, we get attached to party playing NPCs. :)
This week I completely miscalculated the CR of an encounter, and pitted my five level 1 players against two displacer beasts (math is not my strong suit!). First round, highest initiative going to enemy number one, DB hits the paladin, and I rolled max damage— knocked him out in one hit. All I can think is, “Good god, I’ve made a huge mistake!”, but decided to see how the rest of the round played out.
Three PCs went, all of them missing every attack they made. DB number two comes up, and takes the artificer down to two hp... at this point, I decided I’d better start the encounter over. Fortunately for me, my players all know me well, and know that I’m brand new to DMing, and two of them are completely new to D&D. We took a five-minute break. When break was over, poof! The displacer beasts had turned into wolves.
We all had a good laugh over that. From now on, I’m having my sister (who’s so good at math it’s scary) check my CR calculations!
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I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
Speaking of miscalculated CRs, I modified the DoIP's Gnomengarde quest to have them worshipping a radiant idol ( a CR 8 monster), who was the boss, mind you, I thought it was the party's aggregate levels which should match the CR, so two 4th level players faced a CR 8 enemy, it subsequently scored a knockout on paladin, who thankfully rolled a nat 20 on his death save and healed himself, they barely managed to put a dent in him, and they ran away ( wise decision. ), it was a important lesson on CR calculation.
the dice always have their say . i had severely crippled a dragon to face off with them but in the second round of combat using its breath weapon I rolled a crit and rolled near max damage killing two of them outright - they had already met a very powerfull cleric _ who would later turn out to be the BBEG but they did not know that yet so instead of re-rolling new chars one of my players took the bodys back and had him resurrect them - in the end it turns out he cursed them so they could not act against him directly. made for a very interesting twist in the game.
I had a scene planned out to play out a player's departure from the group so that we could have their character's disappearance fit into the story and present an opportunity for them to return from time to time. With the group being quite tilted towards being good at Wisdom saves, I had a device that required a save making it that anyone who would save would witness what happened to the player... however everyone but the leaving player failed the save (one character by failed by 1).
My brain was instantly going "oh no... the upcoming combat encounter was designed to have at least one other character join him so they could both help with the fight and witness why he was gone..." and I ended up doing a super quick rethink of the entire encounter so that the party could still assist the leaving character in some way, however their characters now have no clue as to what happened to him.
Another 'oh crap' moment was when I had an individual that was tracking a party member send a cryptic message that they were being followed, intending that they would seek out and confront the individual - however the character panicked, resulting in the party running away from the city mid-investigation... which sort of caused the party to miss a major threat that was still in the city. Though it has resulted in me coming up with some interesting plans of what the party might have to deal with later on having missed such a dangerous item.
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Share the time you thought you really messed up as a DM but it all turned out ok anyway.
In my game last week I threw a monster at my group that was a little too strong, but it was really low int so I played it poorly to even things out. Anyway, I went for an attack on the warlock and critted. With out thinking I announced the rolls for damage so no chance for fudging. And he died. The remaining damage was enough to kill him outright. After a moment it was revealed that he miscalculated and survived by 2 damage.The group is only level 3 and nowhere near being able to resurrect anyone.
I wasn't DMing this time, but our DM pitted us (a party of 2 level 1s and 1 level 2) against five giant badgers. Miraculously, only one character (my own) died, but all three fell unconscious. Fortunately, the level 2 character rolled a nat 20 on a death save, and the DM had a moment of mercy as he described the Aasimar rising from the place he fell, divine light and flames swirling around him. All of the remaining badgers ran away.
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Probably when the gunslinger fighter in the party for a game I was running got bit by a werewolf and failed his CON save, we all shared a good laugh though and the paladin chained him to a horse and we dragged him to neverwinter.
Mystic v3 should be official, nuff said.
Running LMOP/DoIP campaign, party went to gnomengarde as level 2. I thought the wild magic table offered by the guide was a bit anemic so I decided to replace it by the warlcok wild magic table. First roll for it ends up being a level 3 fireball centered on the wizard with enough radius and damage to kill the whole party while missing the monsters.
I decided that it didn't count because it was a player who rolled it instead of me.
When my Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign blew up because the players decided that Chapter 4 [dragon attack] was just so ridiculous; and later (on them reading the rest of the campaign) that Chapter 5 onwards was such a random change of campaign arc that they decided the book had been written as 3 separate adventures rather than a single coherent campaign.
The next week they are rolled up 1st level characters to play some Adventurer's League adventures until we can get back to face-to-face gaming in a pub (UK).
Probably when I had to fudge my way out of having the entire party swallowed by giant toads... Seriously the party were 4 PC's at lvl 4-5, and it was just meant as an "easy" encounter "on the road". The dice decided otherwise. All characters failed perception tests, so they were taken completely by surprise. After round one they were all grappled. After round two they would all have been swallowed if I hadn't started to fudge... Since it would have been the end of the entire party, and the end of the campaign - that was a situation I'm completely OK with fudging.
Ludo ergo sum!
What was supposed to be an innocent sand castle building event at the beach ended up with the druid wild shaping into a crab and criting on a pinch, insta-killing a child. Very traumatic, but "fortunately" there was a high level cleric also at the beach "ahem".
When my dwarven cleric (personal character using as an NPC in my first game to fill out a party of new first time players) held off attacking to give the first time players to strike the final blow on a Hag, and the other players did other things, or missed hitting the Hag. So, my cleric finally ran up to the witch to strike her down with her warhammer (war domain) and missed with both hits, only to have the Hag go next. My cleric had just been struck by a beam of lightening, nearly killing her, so already low on hp, the Hag landed a claw attack. My cleric falls unconscious and then lays at the foot of the Hag. That was my "oh crap" moment when I thought if someone doesn't do something, the cleric is going to be hit by the Hag again the next round. Needless to say, the group focused back on the Hag and took her down before that happened, thankfully. Sometimes, we get attached to party playing NPCs. :)
This week I completely miscalculated the CR of an encounter, and pitted my five level 1 players against two displacer beasts (math is not my strong suit!). First round, highest initiative going to enemy number one, DB hits the paladin, and I rolled max damage— knocked him out in one hit. All I can think is, “Good god, I’ve made a huge mistake!”, but decided to see how the rest of the round played out.
Three PCs went, all of them missing every attack they made. DB number two comes up, and takes the artificer down to two hp... at this point, I decided I’d better start the encounter over. Fortunately for me, my players all know me well, and know that I’m brand new to DMing, and two of them are completely new to D&D. We took a five-minute break. When break was over, poof! The displacer beasts had turned into wolves.
We all had a good laugh over that. From now on, I’m having my sister (who’s so good at math it’s scary) check my CR calculations!
I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
Speaking of miscalculated CRs, I modified the DoIP's Gnomengarde quest to have them worshipping a radiant idol ( a CR 8 monster), who was the boss, mind you, I thought it was the party's aggregate levels which should match the CR, so two 4th level players faced a CR 8 enemy, it subsequently scored a knockout on paladin, who thankfully rolled a nat 20 on his death save and healed himself, they barely managed to put a dent in him, and they ran away ( wise decision. ), it was a important lesson on CR calculation.
Mystic v3 should be official, nuff said.
First time being a dm and having only played one time back in the 80s
Me to the group: I really hope I don't kill you all.
the dice always have their say . i had severely crippled a dragon to face off with them but in the second round of combat using its breath weapon I rolled a crit and rolled near max damage killing two of them outright - they had already met a very powerfull cleric _ who would later turn out to be the BBEG but they did not know that yet so instead of re-rolling new chars one of my players took the bodys back and had him resurrect them - in the end it turns out he cursed them so they could not act against him directly. made for a very interesting twist in the game.
I had a scene planned out to play out a player's departure from the group so that we could have their character's disappearance fit into the story and present an opportunity for them to return from time to time. With the group being quite tilted towards being good at Wisdom saves, I had a device that required a save making it that anyone who would save would witness what happened to the player... however everyone but the leaving player failed the save (one character by failed by 1).
My brain was instantly going "oh no... the upcoming combat encounter was designed to have at least one other character join him so they could both help with the fight and witness why he was gone..." and I ended up doing a super quick rethink of the entire encounter so that the party could still assist the leaving character in some way, however their characters now have no clue as to what happened to him.
Another 'oh crap' moment was when I had an individual that was tracking a party member send a cryptic message that they were being followed, intending that they would seek out and confront the individual - however the character panicked, resulting in the party running away from the city mid-investigation... which sort of caused the party to miss a major threat that was still in the city. Though it has resulted in me coming up with some interesting plans of what the party might have to deal with later on having missed such a dangerous item.