Just as the title says: what was the dumbest most-memorable death you ever had a PC die?

Dumbest GM way of handling killing my PC:
GM: "Oh, I just remembered - your PC actually survived that last session where everyone else died! Hmm. So, what were you planning to do after that?"
Me: "Well, I was thinking I would carefully retreat and hide, reload my arbalest and be sure to be careful to stay alert in case the raging monster came after me. If he did, I'd aim for a giant eye with it."
GM: "Oh, well ok then, you'll die."

Dumbest GM way of killing his wife's PC: Having the monster I just mentioned rape her PC to death in front of the party, with pretty much zero chance of escape or rescue.

Dumbest PC death in a game I was running... er, hard call, but one of the more memorable was the wizard who, abandoned alone with a bleeding wound, decided to cast a Create Fire spell as a falling sphere above his wound, in an attempt to cauterize the wound to prevent himself from bleeding to death. Actually kind of brilliant, and I gave it a slim chance to actually cauterize the wound, and it did... but the fatigue also knocked him unconscious, and the fire also set fire to his clothes, which finished him off.

Dumbest way I've gotten a PC of my own killed? Well there was the time I decided to try a duel to the first good blow with a giant and got killed in one blow (a pretty likely outcome that I didn't really think through before it was too late). Oh and there was the time my wizard decided to help the group by casting Mass Sleep on a group of guards, but I only barely had the remaining strength to cast the spell, so I collapsed unconscious, thinking the others would drag my body with them or figure something out, or that someone had a healing potion or something that could allow me to stagger along with them. But we were raiding an extremely hostile orc city and the group had to hurry and leave me behind.

Quote from: Skarg;1021104Dumbest way I've gotten a PC of my own killed? Well there was the time I decided to try a duel to the first good blow with a giant and got killed in one blow (a pretty likely outcome that I didn't really think through before it was too late).

The visuals on that are pretty hilarious.

PC: "To the first good blow!"

6 seconds later:

Rest of PC group regards the pancake.

In an old Shadowrun campaign, our runners were set upon by an android assassin that was programmed to know exactly how each of us fought, so it could anticipate our actions and defeat them with ease. The fight was not going well, as expected, so I tried something I thought might confuse and, hopefully, short circuit the android's thinking process. I plunged my 'laser sword' through my own heart, killing myself. The android didn't bat an eye and that was that. lol

Player of a lawful cleric in Basic D&D wanted to test me to see if I meant what I said about characters could do anything they wanted, but the world would respond.  Decided to do some petty stealing.  Got arrested by the town guard after an inept attempt.  Friends decided to break him out of jail, rather than pay a fine.  They all managed to escape with a bit of luck and daring under a hail of crossbow bolts (all rolls in the open), but without much in the way of supplies, and now "Wanted: Dead or Alive" at what would have been the closest "home base".  Eventually, entire party died in the wilderness due to trying to steal food from monsters.  

I'd say it was a wasted session, but most of them had fun with that "adventure," and they all learned something.  Plus, the new players they rolled up then went on the original adventure.  So it was a dumb death, but I guess the drawn-out, educational side of it made it worthwhile.

I don't remember any of my PCs dying in spectacularly silly ways.

Silliest death I ever refereed:  I was reffing Tekumel under the old EPT rules.  There are VERY strict rules about magic users not being able to cast magic in the presence of more than a few grams of metal.

The characters are exploring a deserted temple.  They find a room with a huge Tunkel gong in it... imagine a suspended Japanese tubular gong, but this one was about ten feet around and thirty feet high.  It was struck higher up; the PCs were down at the bottom where the gong was about 3 feet off the floor.  There was only about ten feet of spare space around the gong.

Monsters come into the chamber and attack.  One magic user (played by a 13 year old kid, so give him a break for that at least) chimneys his way up inside the Tunkel gong to hide.  He gets all the way inside to the top.. inside this huge METAL cylinder with a closed top... and decides to cast a LIGHT spell for some reason.

Remember previous comment about "few grams of metal?"  So I have the MU roll for the deleterious effect of metal on his magic... and he explodes.  BOOM!

But he explodes inside a heavy cylinder with one closed end.  What do you call a closed cylinder with an open end with an explosion inside it?

A ROCKET!

So the Tunkel gong rockets up into the air and strikes the top of the chamber.  As it falls I roll for the chain... and the chain holding it does NOT break!  So the gong drops the twenty feet or so to the end of the chain.  But all that energy has to go somewhere, so the gong flails around madly on the end of its chain, pounding against the walls rather like a bar mill breaking up ore.

The few PCs and monsters that were not utterly pulverized by being smashed between the gong and the walls were deafened by the huge explosion followed by an enormous gong pounding against the walls.

That's the most "Wile E. Coyote" death ever in a game I ran.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1021191Player of a lawful cleric in Basic D&D wanted to test me to see if I meant what I said about characters could do anything they wanted, but the world would respond.  Decided to do some petty stealing.  Got arrested by the town guard after an inept attempt.  Friends decided to break him out of jail, rather than pay a fine.  They all managed to escape with a bit of luck and daring under a hail of crossbow bolts (all rolls in the open), but without much in the way of supplies, and now "Wanted: Dead or Alive" at what would have been the closest "home base".  Eventually, entire party died in the wilderness due to trying to steal food from monsters.  

I'd say it was a wasted session, but most of them had fun with that "adventure," and they all learned something.  Plus, the new players they rolled up then went on the original adventure.  So it was a dumb death, but I guess the drawn-out, educational side of it made it worthwhile.

Gods above, at least they figured out not to do that again.  I've encountered too many players who just don't learn.

A D&D game with the same crew that caused the "D&D Sensitivity Training Incident" (Post #9). We are all ow level and have just entered a room, my PC gets attacked by a Gorbell and goes unconscious from the combat, rest of the party kills the Gorbell and just lets me PC lie there on the floor. There is a chest in the room which they all gravitate towards, the party thief opens the chest, and it is trapped. It is a gas trap and all of the other PCs run out of the room and shut the door. The players do a quick head count and wonder why I am sitting at the table quietly fuming mad, then they realized that they had left my PCs unconscious body in the gas-filled room. Save or die, and I died.

The most memorable PC death was that of a player from my old D&D DM days. A single PC (1st level fighter I think) was exploring the First Level of my dungeon. It was a megadungeon thought that aspect doesn't come into the story. The PC had no NPCs with him, though he was leading a mule to carry his extra gear and all the treasure that he hoped to carry out with him. While he exploring he was spotted by some Orcs. Wisely he decided to beat a hasty retreat. He ran into a nearby room. Which happened to be, more or less, a dead end.

More in that there were no other doors aside from the one he entered through. Less in that there was a chimney in the room. So he closed the door and spiked it shut. But the Orcs began to hammer on the door. Which is when it all went pear shaped, as the Brits say. Afraid that the Orcs might be able to bash the door open he decided to deter the Orcs from entering by splashing oil all over the door and lighting it on fire. Which worked. The oil burned and the door began to smoke and catch fire. That was the good news.

The bad news was that all that smoke and fire panicked his mule. The mule began to bray and kick. Afraid of the damage that a mule might do to his 1D+1 fighter the player decided to escape the mule's deadly hooves by having his PC climb up inside the chimney....Did I mention that the door was smoking and smoldering as it began to burn?

So the fireplace did what fireplaces are supposed to do and the smoke went up the chimney where the PC was lodged. For safety. The smoke cut off the oxygen to the PC. Choking on smoke he fell back down the chimney and crawled out into the room to get below the smoke. Where he was stomped to death by his own mule.

The end.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1021211Gods above, at least they figured out not to do that again.  I've encountered too many players who just don't learn.

All but the original instigator became very good players, including strategy and tactics.  The instigator decided shortly thereafter that RPGs weren't for him.  (I think that was genuine--not a pouting reaction.)  The horrible way they started may have jump-started the process.  You never really know, since you can't go back and run an experiment where they don't have the instigator along, without that bad experience.

I have had players that simply will not learn no matter what you do.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;1021239I have had players that simply will not learn no matter what you do.

Some people just do not seem to get tactics. With board games those folks tend to self-select out. But with RPGs there is enough other stuff that isn't tactics that the tactically inept may enjoy the game enough to stick around.

Playing red box D&D not that long ago. Everybody in the party failed their open door/pick lock tests. My squishy mage goes forward, kicks open the door (1 on d6) and fails a suprise check against the hobgoblins waiting on the other side of the door and I got quickly cut down without being able to do a damn thing.

When I was young and first learning to play I made a fighter (still my favorite) and rolled 1 HP (no CON bonus after rolling 3d6 straight).  The DM made me keep the roll, cause that's the way the game was played. I hid in the back of the party for months and survived to second level just waiting to roll a new hit die so I could do something.  I rolled another 1 for a grand total of 2 HP.  I wanted to throw myself on my sword but the DM said that wasn't cool, so I ditched my armor and shield, got myself a great sword and threw myself at our enemies with reckless fury.  Amazingly, I survived to 3rd level XP and everybody said that Deltar Copenhagen, who bested the kobold king in single combat, was destined for great things.  All I had to do was get out of the dungeon and back to town, but I fell in a 10' pit trap on my way back and I took d6 damage - the DM rolled a 3...

Quote from: Madprofessor;1021334I rolled another 1 for a grand total of 2 HP.  I wanted to throw myself on my sword...

One interpretation of the original OD&D rules was that at each level you re-rolled all your hit dice and used the higher of your previous roll and your new roll. Using that interpretation would have worked to Deltar Copenhagen's advantage.

Quote from: Bren;1021363One interpretation of the original OD&D rules was that at each level you re-rolled all your hit dice and used the higher of your previous roll and your new roll. Using that interpretation would have worked to Deltar Copenhagen's advantage.

Wouldn't have been any worse, at least.  For the level of luck demonstrated, it wouldn't have surprised me if a reroll at 2nd came up double ones.