Does anyone have any highly chaotic strategies that you use? I'm looking for things like "I kill everyone in the tavern and run it as my own" and "I pretend I'm the polymorphed king, and the real king is a imposter"
nothing like a player who intentionally tries to force out the significant amount of prep time a DM provided for the group - disrupting the campaign and wasting everyone's time.
if you're going to blatantly try to trash everything that DM worked on, giving him a giant finger in the process, why would you be invited back? Your talking about not just game time, but the time the DM has already given up for YOU preparing for the evening. I don't know of many/any people who go to a D&D game to sit around while the DM spends the evening trying to figure out how to salvage a story line that one player is continually trying to f up. you're wasting the time of everyone at the table.
unless of course, you've already cleared this strategy with the group & the DM and everyone is fine with not doing anything for the night.
get a candy cane and sharpen it into a point by sucking on it. then sterilize it by holding it over a flame for a moment but not so that it melts. then get the most alcoholic beverage available. 3rd, shout "DOES ANYONE WANT A DECORATIVE PIERCING." this will attract all sorts of folks who want piercings. first you have to sanitize the piercing area with the alcohol, and you do this by pouring it directly out from the bottle (less control is better, especially for ear and nose piercings). then, blindly stab with the candy cane. good: give the victim customer the candy cane. neutral: let them go. evil: charge and stab them again
As a new DM, one thing that has consistently tripped me up has been one player who is extremely sympathetic to half the monsters she runs into, so now I have to start roleplaying how this insane otherworldly being will react to kindness from a tiefling bard.
I want to make a really important distinction here. Chaotic characters are fine. They can be a lot of fun and can make games more interesting and exciting than they would otherwise be.
Chaotic players are just annoying. Not just to the DM but also to the other players who didn't take 5 hours out of their week just to watch you run Murdertown Tavern Simulator because "LoL sO RaNdoM."
To use your two examples, the tavern thing is a player being blatantly disruptive and actively trying to hijack the game from the DM and the other players. The polymorphed king thing is you throwing the DM a curveball, which is totally fine and even encouraged at many tables - as long as you're buying into the story and impersonating the king in order to further the goals of the party (or at least not going against them).
D&D is a team game, and having a chaotic or evil alignment doesn't allow you as a player to disrupt the fun of the other players at the table.
As for examples of curveballs you can throw your DM, there are tons of spells that can take care of situations in an unexpected manner. Just about any illusion or enchantment spell can be used to stop a fight before it starts in the right situation.
I agree with most of the posters in this thread. Chaotic behavior to trip up your DM is... you know this is a cooperative game, right? Like, you're all on the same team here. It's like saying "Hey, does anybody know any really good football plays where the quarterback can't pass to anybody?"
As a new DM, one thing that has consistently tripped me up has been one player who is extremely sympathetic to half the monsters she runs into, so now I have to start roleplaying how this insane otherworldly being will react to kindness from a tiefling bard.
I don't think of this as tripping up the DM, but it's good outside-the-box thinking (inside-the-box thinking?). The game is usually Murder Hobos Inc, and having a player recognize they're part of a living, breathing world can create a lot of real internal struggle. Next time you're about to start a fight, think to yourself "What would I do in this situation?" Most of the time, the answer is not "go on an arbitrary killing spree, then dig through the pockets of the deceased, yaaaaaaaaaay!" Use that to create internal conflict, and you'll have a character making choices that increase the tension at the table while still being grounded in something sympathetic.
I don't have any chaotic ideas to share but, sometimes nobody cared if the game was serious or realistic. In those cases, we would run what we called BS Adventures. They could be really fun(and rulebreaking).
I do have ridiculous ideas to share that players and DM gladly participated in. A Wish for two magic weapons that lead to one character somewhere else missing his weapons while another had them, genie tricks. A character had Indestructible property meant for magic weapons cast on logs, to build an indestructible keep that could only be teleported into. This was necessary, as the group had gone into a dimension of hell and beheaded "Satan" and mounted the still living head on a wall. Demons continually tried to retrieve the head and restore their lord but, despite having dimensional teleport, they risked teleportation failure(imbedded in a sold object) for not being familiar with the location in question. Hunting Dragons with spiked clubs where every point was poisoned and did it's dose of damage on hit if the Save failed, so many dice rolls and so much gold from ground dragon bone. Killing enemies with a small sack full of 10 flasks of Acid. I could go on all day...
I agree with most of the posters in this thread. Chaotic behavior to trip up your DM is... you know this is a cooperative game, right? Like, you're all on the same team here. It's like saying "Hey, does anybody know any really good football plays where the quarterback can't pass to anybody?"
This. A roleplaying game is not a game where you do whatever you want; it's a cooperative storytelling game. Even silly stories like Monty Python and the Holy Grail wouldn't work if the humor was just all the knights doing random things and not searching for the Grail. If you want a silly, random game, talk to your DM and see if they can include silly, random encounters (like the infamous Killer Rabbit) that you can be silly in without being disruptive. Plus, as funny as it might be to trip up your DM, remember your DM is a player too, and even other PCs probably just want to go on heroic adventures and grab loot, so you're taking away from their experience too.
I agree with most of the posters in this thread. Chaotic behavior to trip up your DM is... you know this is a cooperative game, right? Like, you're all on the same team here. It's like saying "Hey, does anybody know any really good football plays where the quarterback can't pass to anybody?"
It's not to trip them up, just to make them have to change NPC behavior. Bargaining with someone in combat, trying to pass off a mundane sword as a family heirloom, etc.
Since the DM is god of gods. Maybe the following happens - You try to start a fight in the Tavern, in a wacky ‘I’m mad me,’ stylee. You suddenly turn into Rabbit with no teeth incapable of making any sound and remain so until further notice....
I think you need to familiarise yourself with Wheaton's Law.
This is a group game. Everyone has the right to have fun. Everyone has the responsibility to consider the fun of everyone else at the table. The GM is included in all uses of "everyone" in this paragraph.
Since the DM is god of gods. Maybe the following happens - You try to start a fight in the Tavern, in a wacky ‘I’m mad me,’ stylee. You suddenly turn into Rabbit with no teeth incapable of making any sound and remain so until further notice....
Too obvious. A decorative suit of plate mail that suddenly turns alive and uses fire giant stats to bounce the troublemakers out of the tavern is less obvious, embedded in the story and can easily dispose of the annoying PC.
Increase the stats as needed to end the fight in the first two rounds.
If you like Star Wars and a little less serious eastereggs have the barkeep tell them it's a relict from the "Gnome Wars". Prepare a little backstory about two local tribes of rock gnomes that disapproved of each others way of tinkering and have a ruin or two ready as dungeons. One tribe built constructs like the armor to work for them, but the process was dangerous and dozens of gnomes dies producing these constructs. The other tribe was fond of alchemy and magic and cloned one of their strongest fighters to have the clone gnomes fight, and work but there were moral objections to the cloning. Eventually the both tribes nearly eradicated each other and the event is all but forgotten, but there are still some ruins where you can find artifacts and constructs from that time.
Edit: you don't need this to be part of your setting. The barkeeper just tells a tale. But it'd be a nice excuse to have a construct themed dungeon and stop the killing spree in the tavern.
If you have a caster, and you've already have one of those spells mentioned below, I surely can tell you what one should do to make a huge Chaotical situation.
* Control Water ( 4th lvl evocation spell ) = Since it works with every STANDING WATERS, my question is : can also works with a bucket filled with water ???
* Wall of water ( 3rd lvl evocation spell ) = Place yourself on a cemetary, cast this spell and, at the same moment, someone else cast Create undead ( 6th lvl Necromancy spell ). What gonna happen when the corpses rises up again from the tombs ???? xD
* Tsunami ( 8th lvl Conjuration spell ) = You know yet what to do to get an easy Chaotical situation, or not ?? xD
* Gate ( 9th lvl Conjuration spell ) = Go to any town, or village. Then, stepping on any house door, cast this spell. And ( this is the most funny moment ), knock the housedoor, place yourself three or four steps back from the Gate and the house door, and call the people to come out for a while. TADAA !! xDD
I have more options to choose but, obviously I don't gonna tell it so easily to anyone, huh ??
Does anyone have any highly chaotic strategies that you use? I'm looking for things like "I kill everyone in the tavern and run it as my own" and "I pretend I'm the polymorphed king, and the real king is a imposter"
Hrmmmm...... have you tried.... Fable? Or Fable 2?
they’re one player games, but let you do that without being a nuisance to everyone else, and without forcing everyone else to have to either go along with your shenanigans, or ignore your shenanigans, or confront your shenanigans, none of which puts them in a good spot.
is there a different way you can get the attention you are seeking? Perhaps just be an interesting character, like a bard who neither sings nor plays instruments, but just tells very tall and fanciful stories/lies all the time.
Does anyone have any highly chaotic strategies that you use? I'm looking for things like "I kill everyone in the tavern and run it as my own" and "I pretend I'm the polymorphed king, and the real king is a imposter"
Hrmmmm...... have you tried.... Fable? Or Fable 2?
they’re one player games, but let you do that without being a nuisance to everyone else, and without forcing everyone else to have to either go along with your shenanigans, or ignore your shenanigans, or confront your shenanigans, none of which puts them in a good spot.
is there a different way you can get the attention you are seeking? Perhaps just be an interesting character, like a bard who neither sings nor plays instruments, but just tells very tall and fanciful stories/lies all the time.
This game dosen't exist in dices&charsheets version... xD
Does anyone have any highly chaotic strategies that you use? I'm looking for things like "I kill everyone in the tavern and run it as my own" and "I pretend I'm the polymorphed king, and the real king is a imposter"
Follow your DM’s story, that will confuse them.
Attack and kill the NPC's that your DM expected to advance the story line.
nice try dm in disguise
nothing like a player who intentionally tries to force out the significant amount of prep time a DM provided for the group - disrupting the campaign and wasting everyone's time.
if you're going to blatantly try to trash everything that DM worked on, giving him a giant finger in the process, why would you be invited back? Your talking about not just game time, but the time the DM has already given up for YOU preparing for the evening. I don't know of many/any people who go to a D&D game to sit around while the DM spends the evening trying to figure out how to salvage a story line that one player is continually trying to f up. you're wasting the time of everyone at the table.
unless of course, you've already cleared this strategy with the group & the DM and everyone is fine with not doing anything for the night.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
get a candy cane and sharpen it into a point by sucking on it. then sterilize it by holding it over a flame for a moment but not so that it melts. then get the most alcoholic beverage available. 3rd, shout "DOES ANYONE WANT A DECORATIVE PIERCING." this will attract all sorts of folks who want piercings. first you have to sanitize the piercing area with the alcohol, and you do this by pouring it directly out from the bottle (less control is better, especially for ear and nose piercings). then, blindly stab with the candy cane. good: give the
victimcustomer the candy cane. neutral: let them go. evil: charge and stab them againAs a new DM, one thing that has consistently tripped me up has been one player who is extremely sympathetic to half the monsters she runs into, so now I have to start roleplaying how this insane otherworldly being will react to kindness from a tiefling bard.
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I want to make a really important distinction here. Chaotic characters are fine. They can be a lot of fun and can make games more interesting and exciting than they would otherwise be.
Chaotic players are just annoying. Not just to the DM but also to the other players who didn't take 5 hours out of their week just to watch you run Murdertown Tavern Simulator because "LoL sO RaNdoM."
To use your two examples, the tavern thing is a player being blatantly disruptive and actively trying to hijack the game from the DM and the other players. The polymorphed king thing is you throwing the DM a curveball, which is totally fine and even encouraged at many tables - as long as you're buying into the story and impersonating the king in order to further the goals of the party (or at least not going against them).
D&D is a team game, and having a chaotic or evil alignment doesn't allow you as a player to disrupt the fun of the other players at the table.
As for examples of curveballs you can throw your DM, there are tons of spells that can take care of situations in an unexpected manner. Just about any illusion or enchantment spell can be used to stop a fight before it starts in the right situation.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I agree with most of the posters in this thread. Chaotic behavior to trip up your DM is... you know this is a cooperative game, right? Like, you're all on the same team here. It's like saying "Hey, does anybody know any really good football plays where the quarterback can't pass to anybody?"
That said:
I don't think of this as tripping up the DM, but it's good outside-the-box thinking (inside-the-box thinking?). The game is usually Murder Hobos Inc, and having a player recognize they're part of a living, breathing world can create a lot of real internal struggle. Next time you're about to start a fight, think to yourself "What would I do in this situation?" Most of the time, the answer is not "go on an arbitrary killing spree, then dig through the pockets of the deceased, yaaaaaaaaaay!" Use that to create internal conflict, and you'll have a character making choices that increase the tension at the table while still being grounded in something sympathetic.
If your fun comes from intentionally messing with your DM or others maybe you shouldn't be playing cause you'll ruin the game...period.
If your older than 13 you should know how to act in a social setting.
I don't have any chaotic ideas to share but, sometimes nobody cared if the game was serious or realistic. In those cases, we would run what we called BS Adventures. They could be really fun(and rulebreaking).
I do have ridiculous ideas to share that players and DM gladly participated in. A Wish for two magic weapons that lead to one character somewhere else missing his weapons while another had them, genie tricks. A character had Indestructible property meant for magic weapons cast on logs, to build an indestructible keep that could only be teleported into. This was necessary, as the group had gone into a dimension of hell and beheaded "Satan" and mounted the still living head on a wall. Demons continually tried to retrieve the head and restore their lord but, despite having dimensional teleport, they risked teleportation failure(imbedded in a sold object) for not being familiar with the location in question. Hunting Dragons with spiked clubs where every point was poisoned and did it's dose of damage on hit if the Save failed, so many dice rolls and so much gold from ground dragon bone. Killing enemies with a small sack full of 10 flasks of Acid. I could go on all day...
This. A roleplaying game is not a game where you do whatever you want; it's a cooperative storytelling game. Even silly stories like Monty Python and the Holy Grail wouldn't work if the humor was just all the knights doing random things and not searching for the Grail. If you want a silly, random game, talk to your DM and see if they can include silly, random encounters (like the infamous Killer Rabbit) that you can be silly in without being disruptive. Plus, as funny as it might be to trip up your DM, remember your DM is a player too, and even other PCs probably just want to go on heroic adventures and grab loot, so you're taking away from their experience too.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
It's not to trip them up, just to make them have to change NPC behavior. Bargaining with someone in combat, trying to pass off a mundane sword as a family heirloom, etc.
Since the DM is god of gods. Maybe the following happens - You try to start a fight in the Tavern, in a wacky ‘I’m mad me,’ stylee. You suddenly turn into Rabbit with no teeth incapable of making any sound and remain so until further notice....
I think you need to familiarise yourself with Wheaton's Law.
This is a group game. Everyone has the right to have fun. Everyone has the responsibility to consider the fun of everyone else at the table. The GM is included in all uses of "everyone" in this paragraph.
Too obvious. A decorative suit of plate mail that suddenly turns alive and uses fire giant stats to bounce the troublemakers out of the tavern is less obvious, embedded in the story and can easily dispose of the annoying PC.
Increase the stats as needed to end the fight in the first two rounds.
If you like Star Wars and a little less serious eastereggs have the barkeep tell them it's a relict from the "Gnome Wars". Prepare a little backstory about two local tribes of rock gnomes that disapproved of each others way of tinkering and have a ruin or two ready as dungeons. One tribe built constructs like the armor to work for them, but the process was dangerous and dozens of gnomes dies producing these constructs. The other tribe was fond of alchemy and magic and cloned one of their strongest fighters to have the clone gnomes fight, and work but there were moral objections to the cloning. Eventually the both tribes nearly eradicated each other and the event is all but forgotten, but there are still some ruins where you can find artifacts and constructs from that time.
Edit: you don't need this to be part of your setting. The barkeeper just tells a tale. But it'd be a nice excuse to have a construct themed dungeon and stop the killing spree in the tavern.
That's not really a surprise.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
If you have a caster, and you've already have one of those spells mentioned below, I surely can tell you what one should do to make a huge Chaotical situation.
* Control Water ( 4th lvl evocation spell ) = Since it works with every STANDING WATERS, my question is : can also works with a bucket filled with water ???
* Wall of water ( 3rd lvl evocation spell ) = Place yourself on a cemetary, cast this spell and, at the same moment, someone else cast Create undead ( 6th lvl Necromancy spell ). What gonna happen when the corpses rises up again from the tombs ???? xD
* Tsunami ( 8th lvl Conjuration spell ) = You know yet what to do to get an easy Chaotical situation, or not ?? xD
* Gate ( 9th lvl Conjuration spell ) = Go to any town, or village. Then, stepping on any house door, cast this spell. And ( this is the most funny moment ), knock the housedoor, place yourself three or four steps back from the Gate and the house door, and call the people to come out for a while. TADAA !! xDD
I have more options to choose but, obviously I don't gonna tell it so easily to anyone, huh ??
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
Hrmmmm...... have you tried.... Fable? Or Fable 2?
they’re one player games, but let you do that without being a nuisance to everyone else, and without forcing everyone else to have to either go along with your shenanigans, or ignore your shenanigans, or confront your shenanigans, none of which puts them in a good spot.
is there a different way you can get the attention you are seeking? Perhaps just be an interesting character, like a bard who neither sings nor plays instruments, but just tells very tall and fanciful stories/lies all the time.
Watch me on twitch
This game dosen't exist in dices&charsheets version... xD
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk