Recently while DMing my PC's had some downtime and let me tell you, things got way out of hand but it got me wondering what kind of stories more seasoned DMs have. Anyway feel free to share I'm honestly just curious.
As for my last session, I don't usually implement downtime often and I thought it'd be fun to try and experiment with it so I lengthened the wait for two parts of a campaign I was running it all started fine and it went a little like this. It started simple, some of the PC's went carousing and actually made quite a bit of money, another asked what kind of things she could do while in downtime, so I pulled out the ol' DMG and read some of the options. She decided to do a ritual (Which looking back on it I realize her character was completely unqualified to perform a ritual) I told her that she could do basically anything she wanted... she decided to time travel. You see the quest I was running was more of a prequel to my original campaign since a few of my players told me ahead of time they wouldn't be able to attend the next few sessions, I decided to have a few easter eggs to a quest we had played a while back with different characters. Basically, the NPC's of the previous characters were in town to solve an accident that had happened and had added a new person to the party whom they had found in the forest under the rubble of a crashed wagon. My friend wanted to go back in time and be the reason that the wagon crashed and me, being the curious person that I am, allowed it to see what would happen.
After a weird and crude ritual (that I don't think I'm allowed to speak of on this site) the players successfully made it back in time. Immediately the two chaotic neutral characters went to the nearest person and demanded to know where Verth Drakespell was, the NPC confused told them that his daughter was a huge fan of Verth (who had a background as a performer) and made the mistake of telling them where she was (my players rolled a solid 17 on intimidation) what followed was terrifying. My PC's broke into the guy's house and interrogated this little teenage girl, who then told them where Verth was. At this moment I decided this was starting to get out of hand so I had the local guard show up and attempt to arrest the players, WHAT INSTEAD ENDED UP HAPPENING IS THAT ONE OF MY PLAYERS ROLLED A NAT 20 FOR DECEPTION WITH A +7, the player then convinced the guards that the little girl was the one who caused the ruckus after having killed her own mother, oh that's right did I mention that my players SHOT THE GIRLS MOTHER AS INTIMIDATION. One of my players jokingly said that the guard shot the little girl, as a little punishment for their guilty minds, I started muttering "Its just the line of duty, Its just my duty, its my duty its my duty" I then had the guard shoot the little girl (I was starting to get a little carried away at this point) after that entire mess the party went to the forest to find Verth's wagon and here's what happened: They crashed it, they kidnapped Verth, they stabbed him, THEN THEY USED KNIVES TO PIN HIM INTO A TREE AS IF CRUCIFYING HIM. The one chaotic evil player then killed him and left him at the tree.
That entire session was just a mess, it ended with my players starting an alternate timeline and then going back to their own time (Where as another psychological punishment I had the player who shot the mother of the little girl suddenly see the mother watching over the daughter who was playing with a ball, the ball rolled up to my player and the little girl then laughed "Won't you play with me mister?") we ended the session all feeling mentally drained and I vowed to never again let my players perform a ritual during down time.
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Recently while DMing my PC's had some downtime and let me tell you, things got way out of hand but it got me wondering what kind of stories more seasoned DMs have. Anyway feel free to share I'm honestly just curious.
As for my last session, I don't usually implement downtime often and I thought it'd be fun to try and experiment with it so I lengthened the wait for two parts of a campaign I was running it all started fine and it went a little like this. It started simple, some of the PC's went carousing and actually made quite a bit of money, another asked what kind of things she could do while in downtime, so I pulled out the ol' DMG and read some of the options. She decided to do a ritual (Which looking back on it I realize her character was completely unqualified to perform a ritual) I told her that she could do basically anything she wanted... she decided to time travel. You see the quest I was running was more of a prequel to my original campaign since a few of my players told me ahead of time they wouldn't be able to attend the next few sessions, I decided to have a few easter eggs to a quest we had played a while back with different characters. Basically, the NPC's of the previous characters were in town to solve an accident that had happened and had added a new person to the party whom they had found in the forest under the rubble of a crashed wagon. My friend wanted to go back in time and be the reason that the wagon crashed and me, being the curious person that I am, allowed it to see what would happen.
After a weird and crude ritual (that I don't think I'm allowed to speak of on this site) the players successfully made it back in time. Immediately the two chaotic neutral characters went to the nearest person and demanded to know where Verth Drakespell was, the NPC confused told them that his daughter was a huge fan of Verth (who had a background as a performer) and made the mistake of telling them where she was (my players rolled a solid 17 on intimidation) what followed was terrifying. My PC's broke into the guy's house and interrogated this little teenage girl, who then told them where Verth was. At this moment I decided this was starting to get out of hand so I had the local guard show up and attempt to arrest the players, WHAT INSTEAD ENDED UP HAPPENING IS THAT ONE OF MY PLAYERS ROLLED A NAT 20 FOR DECEPTION WITH A +7, the player then convinced the guards that the little girl was the one who caused the ruckus after having killed her own mother, oh that's right did I mention that my players SHOT THE GIRLS MOTHER AS INTIMIDATION. One of my players jokingly said that the guard shot the little girl, as a little punishment for their guilty minds, I started muttering "Its just the line of duty, Its just my duty, its my duty its my duty" I then had the guard shoot the little girl (I was starting to get a little carried away at this point) after that entire mess the party went to the forest to find Verth's wagon and here's what happened: They crashed it, they kidnapped Verth, they stabbed him, THEN THEY USED KNIVES TO PIN HIM INTO A TREE AS IF CRUCIFYING HIM. The one chaotic evil player then killed him and left him at the tree.
That entire session was just a mess, it ended with my players starting an alternate timeline and then going back to their own time (Where as another psychological punishment I had the player who shot the mother of the little girl suddenly see the mother watching over the daughter who was playing with a ball, the ball rolled up to my player and the little girl then laughed "Won't you play with me mister?") we ended the session all feeling mentally drained and I vowed to never again let my players perform a ritual during down time.