February 2012
11 posts
5 tags
It's good to charm the king
These were partially the DM’s fault for being unfamiliar with Druid powers but not completely, and he was always quick enough to improvise when we ruined his plans.
Anyway, I was a mid level Druid, and we were trudging through the jungle on out way to whatever cave we needed something from, rolled an encounter, and found ourselves facing several leopards or tigers or something. One of them...
6 tags
Game Breaking 20s - "What about our reward...?"
My friends and I play D&D 3.5 on a pretty regular basis and the same age-old problem of “I want better loot” always finds its way into our games. Possibly because of our inundation with video games, we expect there to be a big shiny box at the end of everything filled with goodies. Our DM, however, doesn’t agree with this. But sometimes a good ol’ fashioned Bluff...
8 tags
Lessons in Vampirism
During a spirited campaign of Vampire: The Masquerade(V:TM), my players found perhaps the worst solutions to the simplest of problems. For those of you who have never played V:TM, it centers around a secret underground world of vampires who battle physically and politically over domains of influence.
During this particular game, my group of five players found themselves attempting to break into a...
9 tags
How to make friends and alienate celestials
Some years ago, we were running a D&D game when a Player Girlfriend decided she wanted in. It was a relatively high level campaign, around 15 and naturally, being a new player, she decided to roll a dual-classed warrior/mage.
It was a solid party and we carved a bloody swath through the land, despite our often unconscious warrior/mage. Alas, the Player behind the Character didn’t have...
6 tags
FPS Call-sign
In college, my friends played a ton of PvP Half-life, and there was no rivalry greater or closer than between Brad and Matt.
One day I jumped in on a game with the two of them. Part of the map we were playing on was a long hallway with a ladder to a lower level in the middle of it. In the process of trying to find either of them, I came popping up this ladder to find myself between BOTH of them...
12 tags
Wish I May, Wish I Might...
I ran a long-term D&D campaign a while ago (3 years, 30 levels… no cleric), which led to a climactic fight through the Abyss to a face-off with the demon lord Yeenoghu. They finally tracked him to his throne room, where he brandished his three-headed flail, a weapon that they had heard horrific stories of in regards to its ability to really, really hurt. He reared his head back, howled a...
8 tags
The Too Hard Dungeon
I have a bit of a reputation as a DM. I’m very “let the dice fall where they may.” This has lead to many an untimely character death. At the time of this story I was running a Forgotten Realms game. It had been a six month campaign. The group was in the midst of re-assembling an “item of power,” or as the last poster put it the MacGuffin.
Anyways, during the course of the game one of the...
8 tags
Storm Jesus
Once a year a bunch of friends would get together for a 3-day party on a private beach in Baja California, Mexico.
One morning, all hung-over and determined for real food, a group of four of us got into a car to drive the few miles to Ensenada.
One the way we passed this:
El Cristo del Sagrado Corazón (Christ of the Sacred Heart).
This is a towering statue standing atop a Baja hillside...
9 tags
Mages Break Everything
Our party was tracking down the MacGuffin Staff of Great Power or whatever which lead us into a crypt full of reanimated undead. It was a pretty large cavern and at the end, past a horde of skeletons, wights, and whatnot, was a mummy holding the Staff.
Of course the DM was expecting a great battle and some level draining.
But what use is magic if not for fucking with the DM?
So I told the group...
7 tags
Double Twenties
I have a large box full of dice, which I have collected over years of game play. One day, while nervously rolling a twenty-sided die in my palm, I noticed that the 20 wasn’t base-adjacent to the 7, 14, or 8, which is the usual arrangement on the 20-sided I’d encountered. So I looked to see where the 7 was, and there it was… on the other side of the die… next to the 20. The other 20. At some...
9 tags
Fuck Paladins
I used to play a gray elf mage (AD&D) who carried around a pouch full of shrunken rocks and boulders… essentially it was a pouch full of pebbles. Making them was a very simple procedure, just the opposite of the 1st level spell “enlarge”. Really low-cost.
This was his “Fuck Paladins” pouch.
Any time a righteous Paladin gave him shit for using magic he’d just grab a pebble (colored depending...
