Quote from: Xanther;379662I delight in the PCs completely mucking up the best laid plans of the NPCs particularily by doing something completely unexpected and audacious.

We all have these moments as GMs. We prepare the session, or have a set of expectations as to what the PCs might do in this or that situation. We run the game, get to the situation in question and... the shit hits the fan. The players do something COMPLETELY unexpected.

I LOVE this stuff as a GM. I strive on it. It keeps me on my toes, prompts me to improvise on the spot, keeps the game genuine, and makes it more fun for everyone involved. That's when imaginary exchanges between GM and players occur more "LIVE" than ever, in a way.

So. Share your "WTF" moments like this with me. Any particularly good or bad memories? Stuff that will live on forever in glory or infamy in your gaming chronicles? Share with us.

Years ago, during the days of Unearthed Arcana, one of my players was playing a cavalier and got knocked unconscious and captured by the enemy. Upon being rescued by the rest of the party, he immediately committed suicide because of the line in UA about "death before dishonor." I was scratching my head over that one for quite a while.

I also had a player jump off a high bridge and kill himself rather than be captured, even when it was abundantly clear it was one of those "and then break out / get rescued by the other PCs" scenarios. Isn't the daring escape supposed to be fun? I certainly think so. Not my player. He would have rather died, apparently.

Since then I don't really do imprisonment scenarios anymore.

I really wish I had one of those "and then my players went totally off the rails and it was AWESOME!" stories. But I don't. My players are awesome in ways that leave them on the rails, apparently.

In the last AD&D 1e campaign I ran, a group of players entered Viridistan and killed the last Viridian Emperor. The city was thrown into chaos and the empire split into civil war. This wasn't a WTF moment as the players pretty much stated their intent in killing the emperor.  That came two years later.

It was my first major Fantasy Hero (1st edition) campaign. The players arrived in Viridistan hot on the quest after the Chromatic Crystal in order to deal with the Ebon Crystal they found. Along the way they managed to find the Regalia of the Demon King and had that in safekeeping. Viridistan at this time was under the control of the Church of Set who managed to cobble together a shaky alliance that brought order to the city. They were not nice guys and the players continually ran afoul of the Setites.

The WTF moment came when prowling around they discovered by the city guards. One thing led to another and the party's position in the city was compromised and they were being bagged one by one. The mage literally panicked out of game and in a rush of words said he was grabbing the regalia and putting it on.

The regalia was established as a "Real bad thing" like in your character becomes an NPC bad thing. However I decided to let the mage player have one last fling with the character and let him handle him for the remainder of the session. This was after a huddle in the hall outside of the dorm room we were playing.

A funny moment came when I was describing the mage character going around and zapping Setites while taking control of Viridistan. Two of the players saw him flying high in the air. One goes to the other "Hey I don't think the mage can fly can he?" the other goes "Nope, I think our problems just multiplied".  

Eventually every player was bagged by the mage aka the Demon King and his flunkies.

The climax came when the Demon King is sitting in the throne room having eliminated the opposition. He orders the players to be brought before him.  He order them to swear fealty or die. The players being a particular heroic bunch all refused except one.

He stepped up and announced he would support the Demon King. He was supposedly an ex-Setite but everybody thought he was evil. The player always played this character as a bad-ass and that little to help change this perception.

After the player announced this he then explained the he had the Chromatic Crystal (which they found during all this) hidden and was willing to present it to the Demon King. By this time all the players were glaring at him.

None the less he walks up to the Demon Kings, pulls out the Chromatic Crystal and to everybody's surprise zaps him. The Chromatic Crystal is a powerful holy artifact and it causes the Regalia to fall off. Freeing the mage and eliminating the Demon King.

This causes further chaos but because just about all the higher ups were killed by the Demon King the player gained the upper hand and control of the Viridistan where they still rule in the current present of my campaign in 4454 BCCC. (The Majestic Wilderlands supplement is written in 4436 BCCC).

So what started a fuck up that was going to result in them being jailed by the city guards wound up with them being in control of the city itself! A pure WTF from start to finish and a lot of fun.

I think I have told this story before... but here it goes.

A lengthy Feng Shui campaign was having its climactic battle. One of the heroes (a Martial Artist) was in the Netherworld in a showdown against his mentor, an Old Master who'd turned evil. The stakes were immense.

The setting was in a gigantic cavern, on a narrow stone bridge leading to a temple on a jutting island. The Old Master was guarding the bridge against the hero.

They squared off, and I decided to roll outside the screen as a sort of means of saying "No fudging on this." The battle was tooth-and-nail back and forth, with the characters both facing penalties and having to make balance rolls to keep from falling. The Old Master readied some mighty martial arts move that would have completely finished the PC hero off if it connected.

In Feng Shui, you roll two dice (a positive and a negative, averaged) and add them to the relevant skill (and any other modifiers). Rolls of 6s explode and are rolled again, indicating "something weird happens."

I rolled boxcars. Then boxcars again. Then boxcars again. Then a negative 6. Then another. Then another. Then a 2. The result was "triple weird things happen" and the villain had a modifier of something like -38 to his skill of 20.

I had him leap up into the air, coming down over and completely missing the player character, striking the ground so hard he shattered the bridge beneath him. He scrambled to try to reach a safe spot, only to have that section break off, then another piece break off, and then he fell to his death without a sound.

The players were stupefied that one of the three big bads for the campaign had essentially fumbled himself to death.

man I can't count the number of wtf moments I've had as a GM. One of the most entertaining that I recall was a fight between two players, one a wizard and the other a fighter. Although I don't remember the details of the argument, it ended when the wizard turned the fighter into a bag of weed and smoked him. It was also the end of our group IIRC.  

Pete

In an AD&D campaign the PCs had joined up with the local, underground rebellion of the inevitable evil empire.  One of the 'hooks' of the day included a grand ball that most of the big bad villains would be attending.  It was meant to serve as an opportunity for the PCs to have more freedom to gather information from locals or steal into residences for plans, equipment, etc.

Instead, the PCs dressed up in noble disguises and bluffed their way into the ball.  One of the PCs even got herself a dance with a general that she would soon be pitted against in open warfare a few weeks later.  It was priceless.  They came away well rewarded with knowledge of another kind; quirks, power relationships and bellies full of fine cuisine.

Well, we just made our GM in my face-to-face group a WTF moment Thursday night.  The characters are members of the kingdom's militia, which is under the control of the prince.  The Duke in charge of the kingdom's army has rebelled against the prince.  We've been following the prince's trail, trying to reach him with important new (although, he already knew it).  We came to the prince's girlfriend's city, which was under her family's control.  However, we arrived late at night after the gates were closed.  The guard on the gate was loyal to the Lady's noble house and told us that the Duke's men have taken control of the city and placed the Lady under house arrest.

We talk about different courses of action, some of which included sneaking into the city to rescue the Lady for our prince.  There was talk of obtaining uniforms of the Duke's men, etc.  However, our elf mage can fly and be invisible.  So I suggested that he turn invisible and fly into the city and the Lady's estate to find her and talk to her.  At first, we just wanted to verify if the prince was in the city or not.  But, he found her and talked with her.  I said get her out now.  They climbed out a window and slipped into the canals of the city and got away.

The GM had planned for us to assault the Lady's estate to effect her rescue and had drawn out an elaborate battle map.  We didn't use it at all.

WTF moments, let me count the times....

A) First and only game of GURPS: Traveller, I wanted to introduce the Players to a helpful NPC who captained a local Patrol Cruiser. The PCs jumped in with a Free Trader, so I had the Patrol Cruiser come alongside and request a boarding for inspection. The PCs weren't doing anything illegal, the inspection was simply procedural, and was set up for just a role-playing scene. The Free Trader captain PC declared over the radio, "We do not recognize your authority! Your Imperial marines will board our ship over our dead bodies!"

Which they did.

Shortest campaign I ever ran.

B) d20 Star Wars, the PCs had just freed some Rebel Agents and were sneaking them out of the starport to their ship. At one point, they hid in a fast food restaurant bathroom to change clothes in order to remain inconspicuous (they had been disguised as technicians to free the Rebels). To make it just a bit more tense, I had an Imperial Officer come into the bathroom and use the facilities. He used the urinal, finished up, didn't pay attention to the other PCs in the stalls, and began to leave.

While walking out the door to the main eating area of the restaurant, one of the Players decided that the Imperial Officer should be shot. In front of a Star Wars McDonald's full of customers this happened. Panic ensued. The authorities and the Empire were alerted. The rest of the night's game was a running gunfight across the starport to the PCs ship followed by a stock light freighter & TIE fighter chase scene leaving the planet. All seven PCs injured,  including two dead, and their ship was heavily damaged.

I have more, but those two really stick out in my mind.

Those stories are hilarious, Jeff.

I did have something like that happen to me in a D&D game I ran in high school.

Player: I want to play a druid who goes on a grand quest.
Me: OK.
(Player rolls up druid)
Me: Your circle asks you to commence a grand quest to retrieve...
Player: I tell them to eat my ass!
Me: ...

So he wandered off into the woods, I rolled on the random encounter table and he was eaten by a grizzly. So ends the fabulous tale of druid-man.

We all have a lot of these.  The longer you game, the more you gain.  30+ years for some of us means we've forgotten some good moments.

one comes right to mind.

One PC was playing an Assassin/Mage-type (Eodl) and a Healer/Druid-type (Bramble Oakthorn).  He's a VERY in depth roleplayer, one of those players I've kept for about 3 decades in my games.  Group is in town, doing various and sundry, and the first one tries to pull a sexual bad thing to another PC, especting to kill her afterwards.  She escapes, and he has to flee.  
The rest of the group decides it is their job to bring him down.  (and remember, the Player now has PCs on both sides of this.)  They all go out in pairs to hunt down Eodl, for which I was happy, becasue I was able to make the other PC with Bramble make all the directional decisions.  But of course, it turns out that Bramble and the Other PC run into Eodl in a tavern in the Dockside area of Igbar.  Of course.
The Other PC was still outside (having run into a member of his guild and trying to get info), when Bramble goes in and confronts Eodl.
And the Player has to have his characters engage in a combat to the death, with Bramble being disgusted by the amoral Eodl.  WTF?
(It stayed in WTF mode, the Weaker one, the Healer/Druid type got lucky and killed the Assasin type).

I stocked the wizard's tower the PCs were exploring with various alchemical substances, just for flavor, one of which happened to be an explosive substance not unlike gunpowder.  

I know I shouldn't have been surprised when they ended up blowing up the entire tower (to keep it out of enemy hands, of course ).

I guess this is as common as dirt but the adventurers captured a magic-user who'd been using Orcs as muscle.  Said M-U tried to weasel-talk his way out of giving the party any direct information (I was planning on having him come back at a later time if the party parlayed with him and freed him).  The group cleric threw him down a 30' shaft (as he was only a 5th level magic-user the fall was quite fatal).

Oh!  Another one in the same campaign: the party captured Gellor (from Gary's Gord the Rogue novels) and was planning on torturing him for information until another party member said "Uh, guys, he said he would work with us"

Very recently:

Players kill Iggwilv and free Iuz, Robilar and Zuoken form the God Trap. Castle Greyhawks starts to shake. They run, get outside. Castle Greyhawk starts to phase through the planes and whatever else.

Players find out that something bad happened due to a former friended NPC turning evil via Mirrormaster of Lynn artifact.

Players say: Fuck!

One Player: If we only could go back in time.

'Nother Player: Iknwoiknowinknowwhatwegonnado; we seek out the phasing Castle Greyhawk, take that God-Trap power source Obeliskwhatsisface, an use that to power the Castle as a Transplanar Time Machine. Wait, and we use the Suelwhatchacallitpowerslerotinstuff-Books the mage guy found with his nerdy prestige class guys to bend time & planes.

One Player: Yess! We CAN go back in time and prevent evil shit from happening! That´ll teach 'em Mirrormasters!

Mage Player: I´ll ask my most trusted friends in the Arcane Order to start preparing a scholarly excursion force immedeately.

DM: ... ...
DM:....
DM: Awesome!

Quote from: Settembrini;379761Very recently:

Players kill Iggwilv and free Iuz, Robilar and Zuoken form the God Trap. Castle Greyhawks starts to shake. They run, get outside. Castle Greyhawk starts to phase through the planes and whatever else.

Players find out that something bad happened due to a former friended NPC turning evil via Mirrormaster of Lynn artifact.

Players say: Fuck!

One Player: If we only could go back in time.

'Nother Player: Iknwoiknowinknowwhatwegonnado; we seek out the phasing Castle Greyhawk, take that God-Trap power source Obeliskwhatsisface, an use that to power the Castle as a Transplanar Time Machine. Wait, and we use the Suelwhatchacallitpowerslerotinstuff-Books the mage guy found with his nerdy prestige class guys to bend time & planes.

One Player: Yess! We CAN go back in time and prevent evil shit from happening! That´ll teach 'em Mirrormasters!

Mage Player: I´ll ask my most trusted friends in the Arcane Order to start preparing a scholarly excursion force immedeately.

DM: ... ...
DM:....
DM: Awesome!

Where do you live, and do you have an open slot in your game.

Berlin, actually! And we could cope with another player.

BTW, since then we haven´t played that campaign...because I needed to create/review time-travel rules for D&D. The mage player was so kind to DM a 4e module as a try out.

Now I am all set with the time travel rules (Chronomancer by this Mark-dude, it´s sheer awesome), and more importantly, the history of time travel in Greyhawk (It´s in the fucking Boxed Set, Gary amazes me to no end, Len Lakofka also helps out, via Lendore Isles).