Have you ever done something during a session, just to see the look on a player's (or multiple players') face?
I'll go first:
One of my players was playing a paladin, who worshipped a pantheon of chaos gods ("The Church of ur mom", to be exact), just so they could be chaotic and tanky with none of the religious repercussions of being a murder-hobo. So, I would have some fun with this sometimes. If they wanted to do something funny and stupid and chaotic (sometimes it was for a good reason!!), I would give them "divine gifts" and buff up their rolls, to encourage them. BUT I would only do them when the thing they were doing was completely pointless. Now for the actual story: They were sneaking through the BBEG's sky-castle, and they were looking through a bunch of rooms. Note the word sneak. So, they were looking through the "spare bedrooms" area of the castle (that I had put there because I was lazy), and after looking through a few unlocked rooms, the player in question got bored and decided to break down the door by punching it. I asked them why the sudden violence? and they said that they "felt that this was the one". They thought that the door was the door to the secret prison that held the PC they were looking to break out. So, I let them roll for strength. Nat 20. They ended up shattering the door AND the doorframe with a single punch, only to find... another bedroom with an unlocked door, just like the 10 rooms right next to it... Their face was PRICELESS. But, after a round of good-natured laughter and pats on the back, they were ambushed by a bunch of lizardfolk that then took them to the very same prison they were looking for. Ended up working out just fine.
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Jack, a Changeling Artificer/Bard/Cleric/Fighter/Rogue---RynnElocin'sFrom Dusk to Dawn Amon, a Fairy Arcane Trickster---ShieldHero_'s Fractum
The first session I ever DMed was a one shot. The level 3 party had been given a strange magical item by the daughter of an adventurer with instructions to return it to its rightful place.
The party did not know this was the device used by an ancient silver dragon to travel to and from the material Plane and since its theft it had been stranded.
I was looking forward to the players reactions when they found themselves facing an ancient dragon but when I did the big reveal on roll 20 one player thought the image of a gigantic dragon was a white dragon and the noob dm was out to kill the party!
I was looking forward to the players reactions when they found themselves facing an ancient dragon but when I did the big reveal on roll 20 one player thought the image of a gigantic dragon was a white dragon and the noob dm was out to kill the party!
To be fair, a ancient silver dragon is a pretty solid choice if your goal is a TPK; DC 24 Con save paralyze in a 90' cone is impressive against even quite high level parties.
In the 4th session of my campaign, I had an NPC mention that there were some bandits holding out in a place called Jorhedd Cave (Pronounced Yor-Hedd).
As the campaign progresses, I throw in the name of the cave every now and then, as the story progresses, it's discovered that undead have taken it over and the place is full of zombies.
In the 21st session, almost a year after the 4th session, they finally arrived at Jorhedd Cave and spot someone running away from it. They stop the guy and ask what's wrong, he says through heavy breathing:
"In Jorhedd... In Jorhedd... Zombies... Zombies!... Zombies!!!"
They finally discovered the bad joke I had planned almost a year ago and as it dawned on them, I watched them groan, collapse and then start laughing for almost 5 whole minutes before moving forward with the campaign.
In the 4th session of my campaign, I had an NPC mention that there were some bandits holding out in a place called Jorhedd Cave (Pronounced Yor-Hedd).
As the campaign progresses, I throw in the name of the cave every now and then, as the story progresses, it's discovered that undead have taken it over and the place is full of zombies.
In the 21st session, almost a year after the 4th session, they finally arrived at Jorhedd Cave and spot someone running away from it. They stop the guy and ask what's wrong, he says through heavy breathing:
"In Jorhedd... In Jorhedd... Zombies... Zombies!... Zombies!!!"
They finally discovered the bad joke I had planned almost a year ago and as it dawned on them, I watched them groan, collapse and then start laughing for almost 5 whole minutes before moving forward with the campaign.
This. This is genius. Mind if I steal it?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jack, a Changeling Artificer/Bard/Cleric/Fighter/Rogue---RynnElocin'sFrom Dusk to Dawn Amon, a Fairy Arcane Trickster---ShieldHero_'s Fractum
I was looking forward to the players reactions when they found themselves facing an ancient dragon but when I did the big reveal on roll 20 one player thought the image of a gigantic dragon was a white dragon and the noob dm was out to kill the party!
Nice, haha!! I'm assuming the silver dragon didn't really want to fight, and that was the confusion with the party?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jack, a Changeling Artificer/Bard/Cleric/Fighter/Rogue---RynnElocin'sFrom Dusk to Dawn Amon, a Fairy Arcane Trickster---ShieldHero_'s Fractum
Players spent 2 turns setting up an epic move to kill the BBEG. They were keeping it secret, and when they finally made their move, I rolled a natural 1 to save against their plan.
Their little faces lit up so much, I almost felt cruel saying "but he has legendary resistance, so..."
Players spent 2 turns setting up an epic move to kill the BBEG. They were keeping it secret, and when they finally made their move, I rolled a natural 1 to save against their plan.
Their little faces lit up so much, I almost felt cruel saying "but he has legendary resistance, so..."
Sadly, I'm an online DM with players who do voice chat only, so I never get to see faces. Last session, however...
Players are infiltrating a cultist lair and are terrified there's some deadly warding on the only entrance. (There wasn't. It was just locked.) They have to get inside somehow, though, and they argue for 10 minutes about how to do it safely. Finally, the cleric's player psychs himself up and goes to knock on the door. Purely to hear him panic, I ask, "Are you sure you wanna do that?"
On the other side of the spectrum, I ran a Candy Land one-shot that required players to collect magical geological samples to do battle against the evil Prince Candycorn. The players had to survive peanut boulder avalanches, the harrowing nougat cave, caramel sap mimics, and scalding chocolate geysers before they fought the BBEG. They infiltrated his castle, got beat up, and attacked him with their magical samples of nougat, peanuts, caramel and chocolate...all so I could have him turn nice and make a Snickers "You aren't you when you're hungry" joke. The reactions were priceless.
Sadly, I'm an online DM with players who do voice chat only, so I never get to see faces. Last session, however...
Players are infiltrating a cultist lair and are terrified there's some deadly warding on the only entrance. (There wasn't. It was just locked.) They have to get inside somehow, though, and they argue for 10 minutes about how to do it safely. Finally, the cleric's player psychs himself up and goes to knock on the door. Purely to hear him panic, I ask, "Are you sure you wanna do that?"
On the other side of the spectrum, I ran a Candy Land one-shot that required players to collect magical geological samples to do battle against the evil Prince Candycorn. The players had to survive peanut boulder avalanches, the harrowing nougat cave, caramel sap mimics, and scalding chocolate geysers before they fought the BBEG. They infiltrated his castle, got beat up, and attacked him with their magical samples of nougat, peanuts, caramel and chocolate...all so I could have him turn nice and make a Snickers "You aren't you when you're hungry" joke. The reactions were priceless.
I love instilling panic in my players for no reason! It makes up a good portion of my storytelling arsenal as a DM. As for the one-shot, that is amazing. Mind if I steal it to use on my own party?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jack, a Changeling Artificer/Bard/Cleric/Fighter/Rogue---RynnElocin'sFrom Dusk to Dawn Amon, a Fairy Arcane Trickster---ShieldHero_'s Fractum
On the other side of the spectrum, I ran a Candy Land one-shot that required players to collect magical geological samples to do battle against the evil Prince Candycorn.
At least you had a good choice for evil. Candy corn was always the "I could have gotten a real candy, but no..." thing in Halloween bags.
On the other side of the spectrum, I ran a Candy Land one-shot that required players to collect magical geological samples to do battle against the evil Prince Candycorn.
At least you had a good choice for evil. Candy corn was always the "I could have gotten a real candy, but no..." thing in Halloween bags.
If you're gonna run a game about candy, you gotta give the party something truly heinous to rally against...
I was looking forward to the players reactions when they found themselves facing an ancient dragon but when I did the big reveal on roll 20 one player thought the image of a gigantic dragon was a white dragon and the noob dm was out to kill the party!
Nice, haha!! I'm assuming the silver dragon didn't really want to fight, and that was the confusion with the party?
You are right, the silver dragon did not want a fight, it was very grateful to get its device back. No confusion with the party (the characters), but I think having level 3s walk into a room and finding an ancient silver dragon there is somewhat akin to secretly arranging an award (for say an act of bravery) for some ordinary civilian so they walk into a room and find the president waiting for them. There response was a mixture of awe, honour and fright.
I was looking forward to the players reactions when they found themselves facing an ancient dragon but when I did the big reveal on roll 20 one player thought the image of a gigantic dragon was a white dragon and the noob dm was out to kill the party!
Nice, haha!! I'm assuming the silver dragon didn't really want to fight, and that was the confusion with the party?
You are right, the silver dragon did not want a fight, it was very grateful to get its device back. No confusion with the party (the characters), but I think having level 3s walk into a room and finding an ancient silver dragon there is somewhat akin to secretly arranging an award (for say an act of bravery) for some ordinary civilian so they walk into a room and find the president waiting for them. There response was a mixture of awe, honour and fright.
Makes sense. Their reactions must've been awesome!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jack, a Changeling Artificer/Bard/Cleric/Fighter/Rogue---RynnElocin'sFrom Dusk to Dawn Amon, a Fairy Arcane Trickster---ShieldHero_'s Fractum
I ended a session with a character running out of their fly spell. He was last in initiative, so when we started next session, the player had to wait for the end of the round to find out what happened!
While running a session while super tired, i'd accidentally used the wrong name for a new NPC, using the name on the statblock i adapted from a published module instead of the name the NPC was supposed to have, which the characters would have recognized and not trusted. I'd decided it was too late to turn back though, so instead of saying 'whoops' and using the right name, i wrote a whole backstory for why this character was lying, had them keep it up, and eventually had them betray the party, stealing an artifact the enemies needed that the party was trying to stop them from getting.
In the last session, i had that NPC show up again, using the name the party would have recognized if i had said the correct name the first time. They went feral, it was amazing, they ended up throwing the NPC At A Devil who was carrying two of their party members down a rift into the abyss, killing the NPC and making the Devil drop their allies. it was awesome, and all because i read something wrong like twelve sessions previous and decided not to correct myself.
Based on a thread by @IamSposta of a similar name
Have you ever done something during a session, just to see the look on a player's (or multiple players') face?
I'll go first:
One of my players was playing a paladin, who worshipped a pantheon of chaos gods ("The Church of ur mom", to be exact), just so they could be chaotic and tanky with none of the religious repercussions of being a murder-hobo. So, I would have some fun with this sometimes. If they wanted to do something funny and stupid and chaotic (sometimes it was for a good reason!!), I would give them "divine gifts" and buff up their rolls, to encourage them. BUT I would only do them when the thing they were doing was completely pointless. Now for the actual story: They were sneaking through the BBEG's sky-castle, and they were looking through a bunch of rooms. Note the word sneak. So, they were looking through the "spare bedrooms" area of the castle (that I had put there because I was lazy), and after looking through a few unlocked rooms, the player in question got bored and decided to break down the door by punching it. I asked them why the sudden violence? and they said that they "felt that this was the one". They thought that the door was the door to the secret prison that held the PC they were looking to break out. So, I let them roll for strength. Nat 20. They ended up shattering the door AND the doorframe with a single punch, only to find... another bedroom with an unlocked door, just like the 10 rooms right next to it... Their face was PRICELESS. But, after a round of good-natured laughter and pats on the back, they were ambushed by a bunch of lizardfolk that then took them to the very same prison they were looking for. Ended up working out just fine.
Jack, a Changeling Artificer/Bard/Cleric/Fighter/Rogue---RynnElocin's From Dusk to Dawn
Amon, a Fairy Arcane Trickster---ShieldHero_'s Fractum
I'M BACK
PFP credit goes to Mo Willems
The first session I ever DMed was a one shot. The level 3 party had been given a strange magical item by the daughter of an adventurer with instructions to return it to its rightful place.
The party did not know this was the device used by an ancient silver dragon to travel to and from the material Plane and since its theft it had been stranded.
I was looking forward to the players reactions when they found themselves facing an ancient dragon but when I did the big reveal on roll 20 one player thought the image of a gigantic dragon was a white dragon and the noob dm was out to kill the party!
To be fair, a ancient silver dragon is a pretty solid choice if your goal is a TPK; DC 24 Con save paralyze in a 90' cone is impressive against even quite high level parties.
In the 4th session of my campaign, I had an NPC mention that there were some bandits holding out in a place called Jorhedd Cave (Pronounced Yor-Hedd).
As the campaign progresses, I throw in the name of the cave every now and then, as the story progresses, it's discovered that undead have taken it over and the place is full of zombies.
In the 21st session, almost a year after the 4th session, they finally arrived at Jorhedd Cave and spot someone running away from it. They stop the guy and ask what's wrong, he says through heavy breathing:
"In Jorhedd... In Jorhedd... Zombies... Zombies!... Zombies!!!"
They finally discovered the bad joke I had planned almost a year ago and as it dawned on them, I watched them groan, collapse and then start laughing for almost 5 whole minutes before moving forward with the campaign.
This. This is genius. Mind if I steal it?
Jack, a Changeling Artificer/Bard/Cleric/Fighter/Rogue---RynnElocin's From Dusk to Dawn
Amon, a Fairy Arcane Trickster---ShieldHero_'s Fractum
I'M BACK
PFP credit goes to Mo Willems
Nice, haha!! I'm assuming the silver dragon didn't really want to fight, and that was the confusion with the party?
Jack, a Changeling Artificer/Bard/Cleric/Fighter/Rogue---RynnElocin's From Dusk to Dawn
Amon, a Fairy Arcane Trickster---ShieldHero_'s Fractum
I'M BACK
PFP credit goes to Mo Willems
Players spent 2 turns setting up an epic move to kill the BBEG. They were keeping it secret, and when they finally made their move, I rolled a natural 1 to save against their plan.
Their little faces lit up so much, I almost felt cruel saying "but he has legendary resistance, so..."
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
That's the evilest thing I've ever heard. 🥲
Sadly, I'm an online DM with players who do voice chat only, so I never get to see faces. Last session, however...
Players are infiltrating a cultist lair and are terrified there's some deadly warding on the only entrance. (There wasn't. It was just locked.) They have to get inside somehow, though, and they argue for 10 minutes about how to do it safely. Finally, the cleric's player psychs himself up and goes to knock on the door. Purely to hear him panic, I ask, "Are you sure you wanna do that?"
On the other side of the spectrum, I ran a Candy Land one-shot that required players to collect magical geological samples to do battle against the evil Prince Candycorn. The players had to survive peanut boulder avalanches, the harrowing nougat cave, caramel sap mimics, and scalding chocolate geysers before they fought the BBEG. They infiltrated his castle, got beat up, and attacked him with their magical samples of nougat, peanuts, caramel and chocolate...all so I could have him turn nice and make a Snickers "You aren't you when you're hungry" joke. The reactions were priceless.
I love instilling panic in my players for no reason! It makes up a good portion of my storytelling arsenal as a DM. As for the one-shot, that is amazing. Mind if I steal it to use on my own party?
Jack, a Changeling Artificer/Bard/Cleric/Fighter/Rogue---RynnElocin's From Dusk to Dawn
Amon, a Fairy Arcane Trickster---ShieldHero_'s Fractum
I'M BACK
PFP credit goes to Mo Willems
Lol, I would be honored to have my one-shot stolen. May it be full of sickeningly sweet, wholesome fun.
At least you had a good choice for evil. Candy corn was always the "I could have gotten a real candy, but no..." thing in Halloween bags.
If you're gonna run a game about candy, you gotta give the party something truly heinous to rally against...
You are right, the silver dragon did not want a fight, it was very grateful to get its device back. No confusion with the party (the characters), but I think having level 3s walk into a room and finding an ancient silver dragon there is somewhat akin to secretly arranging an award (for say an act of bravery) for some ordinary civilian so they walk into a room and find the president waiting for them. There response was a mixture of awe, honour and fright.
Makes sense. Their reactions must've been awesome!
Jack, a Changeling Artificer/Bard/Cleric/Fighter/Rogue---RynnElocin's From Dusk to Dawn
Amon, a Fairy Arcane Trickster---ShieldHero_'s Fractum
I'M BACK
PFP credit goes to Mo Willems
I made the npc steal the magic axe that the fifth level players killed a dragon for.
Ain’t nuttiness Berta than sum good ole jambalaya
I ended a session with a character running out of their fly spell. He was last in initiative, so when we started next session, the player had to wait for the end of the round to find out what happened!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
While running a session while super tired, i'd accidentally used the wrong name for a new NPC, using the name on the statblock i adapted from a published module instead of the name the NPC was supposed to have, which the characters would have recognized and not trusted. I'd decided it was too late to turn back though, so instead of saying 'whoops' and using the right name, i wrote a whole backstory for why this character was lying, had them keep it up, and eventually had them betray the party, stealing an artifact the enemies needed that the party was trying to stop them from getting.
In the last session, i had that NPC show up again, using the name the party would have recognized if i had said the correct name the first time. They went feral, it was amazing, they ended up throwing the NPC At A Devil who was carrying two of their party members down a rift into the abyss, killing the NPC and making the Devil drop their allies. it was awesome, and all because i read something wrong like twelve sessions previous and decided not to correct myself.
:)