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Post those moments when you had a WTF? moment. A moment that just made think, why? I'll start. When playing AD&D one of the players had put on a ring of weakness. Rather than find a magic user to remove it. He just cut the finger off! So dakka, anyone else have any strange moments of note?

My friends were playing Call of Cthulu, and were up against the King in Yellow. The Debbie asked the gm if she still had her bottle of wine she had been drinking from- the answer was yes. (At the same moment everyone else yelled something about looking away.) She proceeded to throw the wine and her lighter on him (the King in Yellow) and SET HIM ON FIRE.

Unsurprisingly, she went insane, as he is the embodiment of insanity.

One of my old gaming groups had an intra-party conflict degenerate into actual battle. IIRC it was an all-elf campaign, with a big border conflict with the humans, and the party was split between two factions- one more peace-oriented, the other hardline warmongers. Anyway, finally gak went down, and one of the mages took the opportunity to avenge an old grudge in the middle of it, against one of his compatriots. So the DM asks for actions to be declared, and the mages goes "I cast Ice Knife on... [spins to the guy next to him, who thought they were on the same side, points] ...you!"

That became a catch phrase in the group for like ten years, signifying one of your own party members unexpectedly screwing you.

loritheladybug7 wrote:My friends were playing Call of Cthulu, and were up against the King in Yellow. The Debbie asked the gm if she still had her bottle of wine she had been drinking from- the answer was yes. (At the same moment everyone else yelled something about looking away.) She proceeded to throw the wine and her lighter on him (the King in Yellow) and SET HIM ON FIRE.

Unsurprisingly, she went insane, as he is the embodiment of insanity.

That must have been some hard wine! Was that wine cut with vodka?

Last year I was DMing a D&D 4th edition campaign. during the first session, while the party was assembling and meeting in character the Eladrin Rogue attempted to pickpocket the Dragonborn Fighter. Needless to say he failed, and as the Dragonborn realized this, the Eladrin used Fey Step(teleport) to get away and leave the tavern. One of the other PC's(a Dragonborn Wizard) saw this and asked how he did such a thing. The rogue attempted to bluff by saying "I'm a wizard!" but rolled a 2, generally one would expect this to fail, but the Wizard rolled a natural one, and as such believed this common thief was an all powerful wizard. Needless to say, we constantly harassed him for that roll. And now whenever we are asked who/what we are, the response is "I'm a wizard!"

One of the characters in my role playing groups years and years ago once got hold of a ring that summoned a horde of Daemons. It was a cursed item and the idea was that if you used it you would end up killing yourself so he never did...Until one day, at the end of a huge campaign to save a bunch of noble dwarves all the characters were personally thanked by the Dwarven king and all his court. As the characters were escorted out the ring wielding character turned back and triggered the ring.

I had no choice (and I was seriously annoyed at this!) but to play through a bunch of Greater Daemons chewing through all the characters and the dwarven nobility. Everyone had to start new characters and the world was broken forever!

Actually, I've got one better than that now that I think. One of my friends characters was murdered by all the other characters because he wanted his girlfriend to join our groups and she ended up conspiring against him!

Hilarious now, but the most awkward night I've ever had to DM because he was my best mate!

FoxPhoenix135 wrote:

loritheladybug7 wrote:My friends were playing Call of Cthulu, and were up against the King in Yellow. The Debbie asked the gm if she still had her bottle of wine she had been drinking from- the answer was yes. (At the same moment everyone else yelled something about looking away.) She proceeded to throw the wine and her lighter on him (the King in Yellow) and SET HIM ON FIRE.

Unsurprisingly, she went insane, as he is the embodiment of insanity.

That must have been some hard wine! Was that wine cut with vodka?

Or petrol?


The list of WTF? moments in roleplaying for me is endless, we have one character in our regular Earthdawn sessions who plays an Obsidiman Troubadour who just constantly comes out with things and tries things without consulting anyone first, usually leaving us in a terrible situation which we then have to fight our way out of.

I distinctly remember my Ork Archer dragging his semi-concious body out of a collapsing temple (no easy task as his character was over 7 foot tall and weighed somewhere in the region of 800lbs) and afterwards, as I plop down exhausted and the temple crumbles in the background, he woke up and started giving me down the banks for not going back for his pack!

A few weeks ago I was running my normal group through a Call of Cthulhu game, the PC's were trapped on an island. They ended up cutting the roof off a storage shed and useing that to take themselves and everything else they had stolen back to the mainland. Fortunatly for them, they sucedded in all of the required rolls.

My character was an assassin type and our group had to capture this knight. We tracked him to a church and I snuck in to have a look at what he was doing - praying at the alter. Seeing my chance I succesfully sneak all the way up behind him, only to fail my grapple check (I had some knock out drops I was going to use on him) and then have a massive fully armoured knight fighting me for about 3 rounds of combat before the rest of the group came in and managed to batter him into unconciousness

Another quite entertaining event occured when our group (playing D20 modern/arcana) went into the daemon dimensions and successfully managed to defeat a daemon's mortal form. However, the daemon then tried to posess the mage/cleric of our group. The mage managed to cast out the daemon... into our tech character (who was an NPC in this game as his owner was on holiday), who promptly exploded.

The next week we broke the news to him that his character was dead and he was quite upset. He sits and makes a new character while the rest of the group return to the house/base we were using. The DM makes us roll for spot/listen checks and leads us all round the house until we are outside the door of the workshop. We open the door and see something dimly lit, and hunched over. The group decide to shoot it, so we do, and kill it. At this point the tech player is quite upset and the DM is laughing his ass off.

Unknown to the rest of the group, the tech had created an automaton to go out into the world on his behalf while he stayed behind and made new stuff. By trying to put a daemon in it, we had destroyed it. Now returning home we had accidentally then blown away our tech

Jihadnik wrote:One of the characters in my role playing groups years and years ago once got hold of a ring that summoned a horde of Daemons. It was a cursed item and the idea was that if you used it you would end up killing yourself so he never did...Until one day, at the end of a huge campaign to save a bunch of noble dwarves all the characters were personally thanked by the Dwarven king and all his court. As the characters were escorted out the ring wielding character turned back and triggered the ring.

I had no choice (and I was seriously annoyed at this!) but to play through a bunch of Greater Daemons chewing through all the characters and the dwarven nobility. Everyone had to start new characters and the world was broken forever!

i don't think i would have allowed that as a GM... i'd allow the character to attempt it but probably stop it with some behind the scenes GMing in order to ADVANCE the story and not just end the campaign (unless that is what the players as a group wanted to do, in which case i'd be fine with it). if it was just one guy screwing with the campaign, i'd simply state that the dwarven king's throne room had a protection vs evil or similar effect via magic item to stop evil summoning on at all times (perfectly reasonable when you're talking about a dwarven king). the magic effects may stop some of the demons but others would make their save and tie up the majority of the court's royal guard, allowing the players a reasonable chance of escaping if they defeat the remaining guards in a fighting retreat after their failed assassination attempt.

We have a short list of favorite WTF moments and phrases from our games, but my favorite one was a few years back.

The party is stealthily approaching an ogre complex carved into the side of the mountain. They will need to take out a few of the ogre guards in order to enter without drawing attention.

The ranger leaves the party in the nearby woods, sneaks up successfully and manages to kill one of the sentries patrolling the perimeter without him raising the alarm.

What does he do in triumph? Yells back to the party "I GOT ONE!"

Boy, did that one not turn out well.

The most What The...moment I have ever had playing a RPG was...

The first time I played an RPG. I had NO idea as to what I should do, it was so embarrassing.

Needless to say, I gave up RPG's after that.

Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:The most What The...moment I have ever had playing a RPG was...

The first time I played an RPG. I had NO idea as to what I should do, it was so embarrassing.

Needless to say, I gave up RPG's after that.

First session with a new group, we were in a dungeon hacking our way through zombies. The party was six in total. On one room, my Ranger opened a door to reveal 3 medium Zombies and one large zombie.

Since it was towards the end of the day. Had cleared almost the entire area of this dungeon we have very little left, I decided to get cute. Took a thing of Alchemist fire and set the large Zombie on fire and shut the door. Everything was fine for two rounds till the large Zombie broke out of the room. By then, he was on Fire, and the three Medium Zombies were on fire.

At the end of it, the party was seriously injured. 3 members were incapacitated, and the rest of us were near the same status when we finally drug ourselves back to the surface for camp.

From that point on over the course of several campaigns I recorded a grand total of 8 incapcitates, 2 KIAs with non-magical fire against my own companions.

My solution for everything. "Burn it"

Comintern wrote:First session with a new group, we were in a dungeon hacking our way through zombies. The party was six in total. On one room, my Ranger opened a door to reveal 3 medium Zombies and one large zombie.

Since it was towards the end of the day. Had cleared almost the entire area of this dungeon we have very little left, I decided to get cute. Took a thing of Alchemist fire and set the large Zombie on fire and shut the door.

lol good story. But I highlighted your problem right there.

NEVER set a zombie on fire. Then you have a flaming, flesh-devouring, mindless undead creature after you instead of just a flesh-devouring, mindless undead creature.

It is like giving the bad guy a free magic weapon property.

And although my kill count isn't as high as yours, we did kill an Ettin at 1st level in 3.5 because of really poor reflex saves on giants. Set the poor thing's tent on fire and watched it spend the rest of its short life trying to put out the flames and swat ineffectively at us.

A homebrew campaign world with Runequest rules. Four players ( plus a pet war dog ), no NPC,s.

- Act one. A fight against a small group of enemies goes reasonably well. Until "A" fumbles with his great sword...and chops off "B";s right leg. A stunned silence ensues ..."You bastard! You killed me!".

- Act two. A new character for "B" is introduced and the campaign goes forward. A new encounter and a new fight. Our party is slowly but surely winning and everything goes smoothly. Until the dreaded fumble. By "B". Against "A" standing next to him. The result? Yup. Critical hit to right leg that chops it off . Poetic justice if I ever saw one.

Playing D&D, ok? So we we supposed to quietly sneak past one village, but instead i asked the DM if the houses were made of wood and straw, he said yes, and i proceed to light all the houses on fire...

warboss wrote:

Jihadnik wrote:One of the characters in my role playing groups years and years ago once got hold of a ring that summoned a horde of Daemons. It was a cursed item and the idea was that if you used it you would end up killing yourself so he never did...Until one day, at the end of a huge campaign to save a bunch of noble dwarves all the characters were personally thanked by the Dwarven king and all his court. As the characters were escorted out the ring wielding character turned back and triggered the ring.

I had no choice (and I was seriously annoyed at this!) but to play through a bunch of Greater Daemons chewing through all the characters and the dwarven nobility. Everyone had to start new characters and the world was broken forever!

i don't think i would have allowed that as a GM... i'd allow the character to attempt it but probably stop it with some behind the scenes GMing in order to ADVANCE the story and not just end the campaign (unless that is what the players as a group wanted to do, in which case i'd be fine with it). if it was just one guy screwing with the campaign, i'd simply state that the dwarven king's throne room had a protection vs evil or similar effect via magic item to stop evil summoning on at all times (perfectly reasonable when you're talking about a dwarven king). the magic effects may stop some of the demons but others would make their save and tie up the majority of the court's royal guard, allowing the players a reasonable chance of escaping if they defeat the remaining guards in a fighting retreat after their failed assassination attempt.

Yeah...that would have made sense to me, but I was about fifteen at the time and still new to roleplaying. I got real good at being ready for random character stuff because of that event, but at the time didn't even occur to me!

One of my all time favourites is still used to this day as a random comedy comment;

I was GM'ing an Rolemaster Campaign using some of the old AD&D Planescape scenarios. The characters were heading back to their home plane from Mount Celestia (home of Law and Good and all things Paladin like).

The leader of the group wanted to see if they could convince a group of Paladins to come with them to help with the almighty fight they were about to engage in (the usual - fate of the world, horde of orks etc).

They concoct this plan. The leader (Lawful Good) dresed in his finest armour will get assistance from the party's two mages. A small pyrotechnics display, cantrips to produce a back light and faint angelic/stirring music. All sounded good.

So the time comes and the leader stands before the gathering of Paladins, the lights and the fireworks go off and all of these Paladins turn to look anticipating something...

The first words out of the character's mouth?

"My Lords. Excuse my impotence...no... sh*t!"

Ah how we laughed

DaWar, my favorite role players to have in my group are people who use the wrong words unitentionally, hilarity usually ensues.

Certainly does

Impudence... Impertinence... good words in that situation... impotence, not so much


Another one was not so much a WTF moment and a series of waiting for a character to make the same mistake that he always does. It's wrong to mock the afflicted, I know... but it can also be very funny.

Same campaign as above, different character. He was an assassin type that had a power or spell that helped him blend and hide and he used it alot (liked to be sneaky... kind of his job I suppose). It was called façade of something or something façade.

He couldn't say façade... no matter how many times we mocked him and hit him with things we always waited for him to use it to see what he would say this time.

We had façade to rhyme with fa-shard... façade to rhyme with fa-cade (as in laid)... façade to rhyme with fa-caddy...
The fun never stopped...

Ooo, and whilst I'm here... same campaign, same party (like the bloody goon show this one was!)... best character kill was done in party. Group's wizard, generally known as "the artillery" was doing his job and threw a ball of fire which went wrong, scattered slightly, caught his mate in the blast and vaporised the three orcs he was fighting and him (maximum critical result - the fire burns with a fury that scares even yourself. Everything within 10 foot of the centre is vaporised with no save possible)

A genuine "D'oh" moment

In one capaign for 4th edition I was playing an AOE heavy invoker, I ended up killing everyone else in the party and the end boss with a sustanible AOE. I enjoyed it, the party...not so much.

Taking the idea of playing in character to far while playing Inquisitor and trying to arrest a Daemon host with an Arbites judge... didn't end well

loritheladybug7 wrote:My friends were playing Call of Cthulu, and were up against the King in Yellow. The Debbie asked the gm if she still had her bottle of wine she had been drinking from- the answer was yes. (At the same moment everyone else yelled something about looking away.) She proceeded to throw the wine and her lighter on him (the King in Yellow) and SET HIM ON FIRE.

Unsurprisingly, she went insane, as he is the embodiment of insanity.

You're saying there are actual sessions of CoC that don't result in the entire party being dead, insane or both?


Years ago, I was playing with a group as a cavalier (back in 2nd edition) and we wound up going to the underdark. My character insisted on taking his lance with him (it was an heirloom weapon) and the DM was constantly throwing situations where the unwieldy thing get getting stuck in crevases or clattering on the rock at inappropriate moments (monsters in the next room). Somewhere along the way, we looted a monster and wound up with a figurine of wondrous power (goat of unholy terror) which was randomly generated out of the DMs manual. The final fight was with Orcus and he had already downed 2 party members when my cavalier had a flash of genius. He ran to the magic-user, grabbed the figurine and activated it then charged Orcus on his mount...winning the fight.

Ahhh. good times.

One time in a 3.0 game of D&D our guy playing the wizard was pissed off, and we ended up getting in a bar fight.

Every turn of his was "I drink my beer".

We finally beat up all the guys and his responce was "I save you guys some beer".

Another time was in a game I was just in a moment ago in 4E. I'm playing a Kobold rogue and was sneaking along behind our group, making sure nothing happened.

The wizard thought he saw something in the bushes (me) and proccedded to drop a fire ball on me, cit to hit, max crit damage, one dead rogue.

agnosto wrote:

You're saying there are actual sessions of CoC that don't result in the entire party being dead, insane or both?


Years ago, I was playing with a group as a cavalier (back in 2nd edition) and we wound up going to the underdark. My character insisted on taking his lance with him (it was an heirloom weapon) and the DM was constantly throwing situations where the unwieldy thing get getting stuck in crevases or clattering on the rock at inappropriate moments (monsters in the next room). Somewhere along the way, we looted a monster and wound up with a figurine of wondrous power (goat of unholy terror) which was randomly generated out of the DMs manual. The final fight was with Orcus and he had already downed 2 party members when my cavalier had a flash of genius. He ran to the magic-user, grabbed the figurine and activated it then charged Orcus on his mount...winning the fight.

Ahhh. good times.

WIN! I love charger characters. Cav was such a bitch in 1st/2nd but paid off when you got to use them. I love that they moved to summonable mounts in 3rd edition for Pallys. Made things so much easier. "How big is the room?" "Big enough for your mount" "SWEET!"

Cambak wrote:One time in a 3.0 game of D&D our guy playing the wizard was pissed off, and we ended up getting in a bar fight.

Every turn of his was "I drink my beer".

Most recently, I was playing a 3rd edition sorcerer and my response to most situations was, "I throw a stick at it." I did that one too many times because the statue I threw a stick at turned out to be some giant undead spider monster from hell and it killed an NPC and 1 PC before we finally put it down....moral of the story? throw bigger sticks.

Years ago the DM of my Call of Cthulhu group decided to do a zombie apocalypse one off. We ended up far north in an area where we expected no one would have been near. We stumbled across what looked like an abandoned store. Our group split up. One watched the car, I checked around outside and two went inside. Turns out there was a local inside and he didn't take kindly to strangers looting his store and they got in a tussle. One critical hit to danglers later and my buddy was dead. The GM was nice enough to let him simply go unconscious instead.

A long time ago in second edition, I managed to win the first initiative roll to fight the boss monster at the end of a long campaign. I pulled a four leaf clover that I had been saving from my players hanbook, held it up, for all to see, then proceeded to roll a natural twenty and severed its head. Poor demon never knew what hit it. The look on the DM's face was priceless.

Hoo boy, I'm sure my group has had dozens, if not hundreds over the years of playing. I think I recall a few good ones, though.

One campaign, we were playing a holy inquisition group (everything had to come from the Complete Divine or Paladin/Cleric and the like) and went out into the streets to seek out heresy. After a few minutes of conversation with someone in a trench coat on the streets, the DM comes up with this line:
"The man throws off his fedora and trench coat to reveal that he is, in fact, a Balor. Roll initiative."

The best part was during the fight itself. My character (a Grey Guard) smacked the Balor with smite, did exactly 50 points of damage, and then this one happened.
"Wait, 50 points, he has to take a fortitude save, doesn't he?"
"Yeah, but he makes it on a 2, so it's kind of a formality." (long silence and a facepalm from the DM) "He rolled a 1..."


Another one was back when 4e first came out - the group was contemplating whether or not to go down a trapdoor and see what was down there. What wound up happening was the Paladin decided he was sick of the arguing and shoved the Wizard, forcing him down the trapdoor. The Eladrin Wizard used Fey Step (which the DM allowed) to get behind the Paladin and counter-shove him. As you might predict, he managed a natural 20 to give the Paladin a push, and the heavy mail wearing tank took a nice tumble into the darkness.