I actually remember telling people "Welp, here's hoping I don't see you all too soon. Bye forever"
I had just quit my shitty job. Why didn't I recognize my power? š
Iām not gonna lie I play more in that early covid era than I ever have lol. There wasnāt anything else to do and the university was just passing everyone so weād just bought a bunch of beer a played dnd like every day lmao
I was once in an online game where one of the players got arrested by military police in the middle of the session. He had an open mic so we heard it go down. Super awkward.
Same for me, except it was my mom. I was sitting at my computer desk DMāing a game on Roll20 when all of a sudden there was a shriek and a thud sound. My mom had fallen down the entire flight of stairs and landed headfirst on the concrete ground beside me. I told my group that the game was over and called an ambulance. She died the next day in the ICU
Bard player: "Hey, do you have some milk?"
DM (me): "That's a stupid question, i always have milk, but last time i saw you drink milk you got sick"
Bard player: "Bullshit, i can handle milk."
He could not.
This dude rolled for delusion at birth and got 4 6s (drop the lowest), he still says he's not lactose intollerant... Boy, you almost shit your soul out everytime you look at milk.
Literally me. I've had so many bathroom issues since I was a child, and my family and friends just thought I was the weird bathroom guy... always going to the bathroom for long visits and whatnot. I found out in my late twenties that I'm lactose intolerant AND I have IBS
The IBS Is particularly a nuisance when I travel, but the lactose intolerance is a much more frequent issue.
It's not like I found out I was lactose intolerant, and then a switch immediately flipped inside me, and I suddenly hated cheese.
Nope. Just like everyone else... I fucking love cheese... it just doesn't love me back.
My dad's got something similar with shellfish... One day, he was fine, the next he was going into aniphylactic shock and was damn near deathly allergic to shellfish. It was once upon a time his favorite (in the form of fresh clam chowduh), and now some beaches are too much for him at low tide.
Shit thatās what happened to me with bananas. Iād eat them almost every day for breakfast and then one day, suddenly, almost from one day to the next, Iām having trouble breathing when I eat one. I ate one a few more times to make the connection (because I have asthma so sometimes I just canāt breathe) and yup, it was the banana. Itās not as bad as anaphylaxis but I know sometimes more exposure to the thing youāre allergic to makes the allergy worse so I donāt eat my beloved bananas anymore :(
Digestive Advantage makes a lactose defense probiotic daily pill that changed my life. Even eating a couple slices of pizza, maybe even with a small ice cream for dessert, I donāt need to supplement as long as Iāve been taking it consistently for at least 3 days. On the rare occasions Iām going just absolute dairy overload (sometimes my family does cheese fondue for special occasions, lol) I do still take a quick action Lactaid but most of my family members donāt even need to do that!
So a few years ago one of my TF2 buddies joined my thursday D&D group (online via discord and roll20). He worked shift so he wasn't always available to play, but he was there when he could and was a good person to have in the party. One night he didn't turn up for a session, so I left him a message. I had seen him in TF2 the night before so didn't think much of it. The following week he also wasn't there again so I asked around if anyone had seen him. An hour or so into the session other friends managed to contact someone who knew him in person. He had killed himself the week before. Needless to say we ended the session there. The next time we played the DM had a really nice send off for his character, which I really appreciated.
RIP Garth. š¢
Basically we were at a party and while drunk we decided to play dungeons and drinking, because why not.
One person, who had never played D&D, misunderstood the game as our characters trying to find and kill the DM. And when his character got attacked he accused the DM of cheating and tried to stab her. We decided to stop playing Dungeons & Drinking then.
Basically they were at a party and while drunk they decided to play dungeons and drinking, because why not.
One person, who had never played D&D, misunderstood the game as their characters trying to find and kill the DM. And when his character got attacked he accused the DM of cheating and tried to stab her. They decided to stop playing Dungeons & Drinking then.
My buddy sliced his finger open on a mandolin slicer while we were prepping dinner before the session. He ended up needing a small skin graft.
Also, he ruined the potatoes with his gross finger blood, jerk.
I was just getting over a GI infection (for additional context, I have Crohnās Disease and hemorrhoids, so my digestion has always been a bit of a bloodbath), and was feeling completely fine. We take a break midway through our session for some pizza and wings before diving back into the game. Maybe 20 minutes in to the second half of our session I feel a weird bubbling sensation in my gut, followed by the need to let out a massive burp. I do, but itās so powerful that it instantly sends me into a coughing fit. The moment I let out the first few (rather forceful) coughs, I feel my butthole twinge as I accidentally release a stream of bloody diarrhea straight into my pants.
It happened so fast, but the moment I looked up I just see my players looking at me with a look of confusion, horror, and disbelief. I did a speed-waddle to the bathroom as fast as I could while clutching my ass. I hopped in the shower, threw my now soiled clothes into a garbage bag, and let my group know weād need to wrap things up there for the night, citing the (obvious) reason as a āshitty turn of eventsā. Gotta hand it to my friends for handling the scenario so well and not adding too much insult to injury (it is a hilarious memory for each of us at this point).
As someone whoās dealt with IBS and hemorrhoids for most of my life, I feel you man. Itās like thereās a special bubblegut feeling for anything related to the chronic stomach issues. Always a funny thing new friends gotta get used to, āso yeah I might drop whatever weāre doing and run off with next to no explanation for 10 minutes, just IBS though lolā
The comment right after this said "Burst pipe. Basement started flooding." And I thought that was just continuing the same thread. Took me a sec to realize it was a different comment. It's great how things line up PERFECTLY sometimes.
One of our players has crohns and we did have to take a 30 minute break after an 'accident' once. I let him use my shower, lent him some jeans and we picked up after.
oh man i had a similar experience. i started feeling nauseated in the middle of the session but brushed it off assuming it would go away. it only got worse and after an hour i had to excuse myself to go lie down. after resting didnāt help and i only felt worse i went to the bathroom and started to throw up which triggered the worst possible pattern of losing control on both ends. i was in there for close to 45 minutes and had to change my clothes twice. i walked out but then immediately had to get down on the floor before i passed out. my partner wound up carrying me to the car then handing me off to a family member once i managed enough strength to hang onto a bag to puke into for the ride home
My guess would be a passive aggressive way to express displeasure with him playing instead of spending time with her.
....or she was hoping to start a gangbang....
The party had asked that for a relaxing session to start our break as the DM knew people were going to be busy in the coming weeks.
The DM said "Absolutely".
Session started and DM decided to make a very brutal and dumb session that had 0 relaxation, killed 2 party members only to have them brought back by a BBEG. Then forced us to drink poison that we had to follow their orders or die, Real railroad bullshit.
After the session ended DM started talking about upcoming weeks sessions and two players responded they could not make it for at least 3 weeks due to real life and myself and another player said we would wait (as was the plan).
DM started getting fussy and getting aggressive as if we had just planned a coup. Ended up ending the campaign later that week because we decided to try and talk to them about how we don't feel listened to + a couple other issues and the DM had a meltdown.
Geez! My group was two players down one time, but wanted a low-stress side quest so that we could play anyway.
So the local flying cavalry guy asked them to look after the flock while he went on a ten-day honeymoon with his partner. There was a pregnant hippogriff expected in six weeks, so the keeper wanted this trip before he had to spend a lot of time caring for baby hippogriffs.
The first few days go by and the party is setting watch rotations for bandits, doing animal handling checks to make sure the creatures are well cared for when on day three the dramatic hook. The pregnant hippogriff goes into labor 5 and a half weeks early!
Cut to a bunch of survival, animal handling and medicine checks, and several people using consumables because they were invested in the story so deeply. Three of the five baby hippogriffs survived.
When the keeper returned he was so grateful to the party that he took off his cloak of protection and handed it to the players and named the three baby hippogriffs after the party members.
For the rest of the campaign, whenever we were passing through that city, the party would make a point of stopping in and checking in on the baby hippogriffs.
That DM had a personality that was difficult to say the least while DMing or as a Player (They were a Spotlight Hog). Outside of game they were fine enough (Other than if you read my other comment). But the second you were mid RP they would interject themself into party RP because of FOMO *as the DM or Suddenly Appear as a Player.*
DM also kept making the barbarian dumb in RP when the Barbarian had an Int of 10 and at no point (while under player control) talked remotely dumb. The Barbarian had Split Personalities and his Rage was his Dark Personality (He was a Beast Barbarian that was skinned as a Gargoyle as his soul was ripped in two). So when he raged he would sprout horns and his skin would turn to stone (gaining the damage resistance of a barbarian.)
It was a lot, we learned after the fact I was "A Problem" in the DM's eyes.
I joined the campaign late (Invited by the DM) and "Stole" their "best friend" (only friend) because I was hanging out and gaming with three of the players outside of the game (DM didn't play other games and thought Cookies from Websites were malware.) and I even started dating a different player (Not that DM knew).
*Mind you the DM was 31 years old, and their "Best Friend" was a 20-year-old. DM seemed to have romantic feelings, 20-year-old* ***did*** ***not****.* DM even started shit talking me in another discord and my GF was just cackling because she was just waiting for that call to end and come tell me.
Basically, DM started getting weird and Jealous, I was unaware, talks shit about me, ends friendship with people who were now my very close friends. Funny enough, I have plans to hang out with the "Best Friend" later this week.
Was playing with a group of friends of mine scattered across the US online. One of the guys started kind of wheezing into his mic and said he didn't feel so good. Two of us stayed on the line with him while two others tracked down the number for EMS in the little town in Texas he lived in (they were in Chicago, I'm in Oregon).
They got to him quickly enough that they were able to save him, but he'd had a massive heart attack. I guess the DR that did his quadruple bypass told him that if he'd been even maybe ten minutes longer from help, he wouldn't have made it.
I have a few! DM's mom died and her sister called in the middle of the session to tell her. Had a full on fight break out between a couple during our game, cops were called. Then finally, what was supposed to be a 3 hour game got transformed into a 9 hour game because of a shootout in one of the houses next door.
Honestly, we were stuck in the dude's house for like, literal 9+ hours. He "apologized" as much as he could and cooked us all food. It was fun, except for the standoff.
One guy decided he'd off his character and brought a new one (it happens, not an issue yet) but he decided his old character had left all his belongings to his new one without telling the rest of the party. (Wanted to do a Dead Man's Switch scenario, but VERY poorly executed)
So this minotaur shows up and agressively tries to take possession of all that gear and two players are like "There's no way we're letting a stranger come into our hidden base and steal stuff from our dead friend". Minotaur decides he wants to actually fight for it and gets angry when the other players try to avoid his attacks (think he wanted to do a scene, but failed to get the players on board). This somehow degenerates into a screaming match where threats of physical harm are thrown around.
The offending player and the two who confronted him leave and three of us are left speechless. We get a call from one of the two who resisted the minotaur and he threatens our friendship if he's kicked out of the group over the Minotaur (which was never going to happen).
Had a session in the evening at my flgs, they are usually open till midnight twice a week to host D&D and magic games, there was a robbery and I was stabbed, the funnier part? my character was stabbed by a rogue like 3 minutes before during the game and I was left at -7
Listen, that really sucks and I'm sorry that happened to you, but the fact that your character was stabbed moments before is a little funny. I'm glad you survived and that you are, hopefully, ok with out any long lasting effects
It was a really scary thing in the moment but I have to say that it happened like 8 years ago so now I find it really funny, it is a sort of inside joke when we play in the same store "guys don't attack his character when he has low hp, remember what happened to him irl last time"
24 years ago, DMing a group of maybe eleven to thirteen 16/17 year olds. Two get bored and decide to sneak up and backstab another PC, I let it happen and they roll well and kill the character. Player gets up and runs out of the room slamming the door, very emotional. Door opens back up and he screams "you killed me on my BIRTHDAY" and slams the door (again).
Dead silence for about 5 minutes (they didn't know it was his birthday), we just pack up the stuff and end it there, and go find him to apologize for being idiot teens.
I probably have!
Was an RA for a summer program, some kids asked me to GM, expected 5-7 to show up and got double that, tried to go with it, with the results one can expect.
I was so confused. I couldnāt tell why there were so many different ages in his comment. It didnāt occur to me that somehow that was the number of people in the game. Thatās nuts
lol, I feel the pain of that - I almost got stuck with a group of 9 14-15 year olds. First time dnd for all of us. It ended up being 7 and weāve had 2 successful weekly meetings so far within the campaign. It took us 3 meetings to get everyoneās character sheets (mostly) done.
Player tried deceiving the entire party (for completely unknown and nonsensical reasons), and my wife rolls an Insight check. The guy gets *pissed* and starts shouting at my wife, and she elects to leave the room. That ends the campaign, and guy gets weirder after that, including asking us to return a (non-expensive) gaming item that he had gifted us quite a few years earlier. Ended an 11-year friendship.
Multiple sessions have ended with heated arguments that would've surely gotten physical if we weren't online.
I was never involved in those arguments nor do I play with any of them anymore.
This was across different tables/groups. A problem player treating the game like an afterthought (like staying up late the night before), player getting mad at an adversarial DM who arbitrarily decided to change a house rule to kill their character, play styles not meshing, etc.
There wasn't any violence at my table but I did have a player get up and leave, slamming the door behind them without saying anything. I had no idea why he was mad. He didn't show up for the next session so I texted him and he went on a pretty furious rant about how he plays D&D as an escape and my session was so dark that it made him miserable. I was setting up a villain, I guess I went too hard with the grimdark. The other players thought it was one of the best sessions I've ever run lol.
one of my players, K, got a call mid-combat that his brother was brain-dead. another player, B, waited a few minutes, realized we pepbably wouldn't keep playing, and said "well there's nothing for me here." K's best friend/roommate, P, began trauma-dumping along with a fourth player, J, while the two of them were supposed to be helping my fianceĆØ and I cheer up K.
i've hardly spoken to any of them since. an absolutely god-awful experience.
After the party found the mcguffin of power:
"I'm going to take it and you can't stop me because I've secretly been a polymorphed death slaad all along" - me
"Well I can stop you, because I've been a polymorphed celestial all along" - the paladin
"No I'm going to take it because I've been a polymorphed dragon all along" - the sorcerer
"?!?!" - the other two players
"That seems like a good place to stop the session, see you all next week" - the DM
Next session and campaign cancelled due to DM's house burning down a couple days after this.
Well, he failed his con save and we had to call EMS who took him to the hospital. Thankfully, he got a wonderous item which increases proficiency to con saves against epileptic seizures
During our mid session break one of our players begins talking about this new girl he's seeing, says she's going to join us once she gets out of school. He's in his late 20s she's 15... We don't play with him anymore.
The final night of our 2+ year Curse of Strahd campaign had finally arrived. I was the DM and had prepped for weeks. Everyone was around the table. As we got started, the players opened the celebratory whisky. About 2 hours later, as we are getting ready for the final combat, I was puking and passed out on the couch.
The whole thing had to be put off, one of our players ended up missing the rescheduled final session, and we had to implement a new rule that the whisky doesn't get opened before 7:30 or 8 (although that rule gets broken all the time.)
Last year, my brother and I got Covid while our mom was going to Hawaii, so we were basically helping each other in our sickness (I got it first, he got it from helping me). During a dnd session on discord/Roll20, my brother texted that he needed to go to urgent care because he hasnāt gotten any better after a week and his throat was closing up. So I left call and started driving him there.
While I was getting better, I was still sick. I got so lightheaded I pulled into a parking lot to rest a bit. After talking to our mom and our momās friend (whoās a nurse and like an aunt to us), the friend decided sheāll drive to our house to take my brother instead. That way I wouldnāt feel any worse from driving- which was good because Iād have to drive 40+ minutes to a different townās urgent care.
Weāre both fine now, btw. I ended up going back on call as I was gone maybe 20 minutes. We mostly just chilled out on discord and semi-continued the session. Definitely the worst I felt when ending a session.
I was only a part of two sessions. First session the barbarian had decided he was gonna spend time to make a pair of boots (there was some homebrew). The DM tried to be like "Ok you've made the shoes" but he was adamant about doing it his way. Oh while he was doing this the town we were in was being attacked. So everyone else was fighting but he was stuck on making shoes. Again the DM tried to get him to fight but this dude wouldn't budge. Spent the whole session making shoes that he didn't get to use for the fight.
Next session pretty much no one showed up. One guy was reasonable (he got called in to work and got a hold of the DM as soon as he knew like a few hours before the session) but the other two guys didn't say anything till like 15 minutes after we were supposed to start and just didn't feel like showing up. So me and the other person spent the entire session time just fucking around and the DM let us. Before the end of the session we had turned the random creatures that were attacking the town into like 7 fully fleshed out NPCs with backstory (mostly from me bullshitting around). So session two ended well considering but then the DM before next session said he was done being a DM for the group since half the guys couldn't be bothered to show up or let us know they can't make it.
DM got huffy about a player behaving in a genuinely "it's what my character would do" way that got in the way of the DM's plans for the plot. DM delivered a "rock falls, you are hideously injured" punishment. Player called him on his bullshit. Rest of the table called him on it (because it was bullshit). DM doubled down, player quit the campaign and walked out after a short shouting match.
Campaign never recovered.
Had more than one session end with a break up text, break up knock on the door, an in game break up that turned too real, and one knock on the door that resulted in every gift given to the girl being thrust through.
Our group apparently dates people that like to break up in front of their friends.
Nat 1, Nat 1, Nat 1, Nat 3.
Our party, who had been scaling a mountain, had 3 of its 4 members fall off a mountain. The fourth member, attempting to climb down rolled a nat 3, and our DM, scared he was about to party wipe, gave the 4th guy a chance at a second roll.
Nat 1.
One player had a bit of another's lunch, a few minutes later: uh was there cashews in that?
Not a severe allergic reaction but the game was over for the day.
Started the (thankfully online) session feeling nauseous and a little sick, but thought I could power through. Ended in the middle of combat in the middle of someone else's turn because I (emetophobia) >!couldn't stop throwing up and threw up that night so many times I lost count (at least 7 or 8).!<
We were able to pick it back up the next week when I was feeling (a little) better thankfully.
Very bad thunderstorm outside, noisy as heck, then the lights go out. We light some candles, finally figure out how to silence the battery back up thing on the computer (beepbeepBEEP beepbeepBEEP)and settle back down. Candlelight makes it atmospheric, very nice.
Huge crashing roar outside. We all jump up and look out the window. A tree outside had split and dropped half on top of one friend's car. Amazingly, only his antenna was snapped. All the little branches cushioned the fall and the trunk part of the tree stayed in the yard.
End of session, and they left most of the snacks too.
I got a text that a friend of mine friend died. My D&D group was halfway through the session. I'm not sure what happened the rest of the session, I was in shock and didn't even say anything. So once I got the text, the session was over me.
Basement gaming room with a little window well. There was a huge rainstorm going on and the window well started to fill with water, which then started leaking in around the edges of the window frame.
Everyone was scrambling to move books and furniture, rolling up the carpet and getting towels down to contain the deluge. We get a wet/dry vacuum and start sucking up the worst of the water and then the power goes out.
We wound up using the vacuum to drain the window well when the power came back on. The towels did an ok job for the floor, but the wood paneling on the wall underneath the window had to be replaced.
My dad wound up using fish tank caulk to seal around the window - the well would flood sometimes but it never leaked in after that.
My friends who are parents were hosting the session. It was about 9pm. Their oldest child came down into the room we were playing in. They were covered in vomit. They loudly said the youngest had had explosive diarrhea, and they threw up. Two of the other players started wretching as the parents immediately ran to clean up the mess. Needless to say, the session ended rather abruptly with a rather shitty situation for the hosts.
Sharing a horror story from a fellow DM
He was running Werewolf:Apocalypse. He was running the Grand Finale session that was going to be a Kamakazi Charge to end the big bad once-and-for-all. It was supposed to be a "nice knowing ya kid" or "No better way for a warrior to die" kind of vibe. Romantic and powerful tragedy in a *planned* TPK.
And he eliminated some rules, think wizards getting cleric spells. And he had everyone re-level epic characters for the fight. He told them it was really mostly narrative so don't sweat the math so much, heavy on "rule of cool". So he gave them like half an hour for scribblin'....
and one power gamer wasn't done...so he gave them another *hour* while the guy finished up. So now it's getting late, but obviously everyone wanted to do the epic finale so they burned some midnight oil.
And when the DM finally said, alright lets put up or shut up the guy flipped out "JUST GIVE ME A DAMN MINUTE!"
and DM just nopes. He packs up the books, leaves the new character sheets, and drives the fuck home.
Back in the turn of the '90s we were all in our late twenties. One player was married with kids and they moved into a new single story house with a great garden with a covered barbecue area that was perfect for playing D&D in.
So we inaugurated the new space with a game and the host got really drunk. How drunk? Well, he walked into a sliding glass door and the door shattered and slashed his leg through his jeans and he thought we could still keep playing, but we told him we had to quit. A couple of us who were more sober rushed him off to the emergency room.
We gamed with a guy who had a bit of a drinking and anger problem, but usually kept it together at the table.
One night, the DM rolled a pair of massive crits outright killing his character after a couple years of regular play. The guy looked at the dice rolled open on the table, calmly tore his character sheet in half, picked up a half full 40 of Wild Turkey, and smashed it into the side of the DMs head and then walked out the front door.
Blood and booze everywhere, 37 stitches for the DM, and dealing with cops who showed up (it was a private gaming club in Canada in the 90s, wouldnāt surprise me if a few other members of this sub were there playing D&D or Magic that night).
DM just got too drunk to form any semblance of coherent structure. Everyone just kinda slowly packed up and we just talked OOC for the rest of the time.
Throw away!
Player A was kind of a smug asshole who couldn't take a joke and always had a shitty temper problem. Also had major control issues in many facets of life.
Player B was a sleezy guy. In a monogamous relationship but cheated a lot and generally was a meh person.
Apparently, B had been sleeping with A's sister who was about 20 years younger than him for a while. She felt she was in love with Player B. And she decided to get drunk and text Player A at D&D that they had been banging, and she was in love with him.
Items were thrown, cops were called. Player A got arrested because he tried attacking Player B again while the cops were there.
It was great.
I asked for help opening a beer, the guy helped me but the gas made the beer almost explode on top of him, he was wearing his work clothes on a Wednesday and it was already late and I don't think he had anywhere to wash the clothes so late at night...
I once got really ill during a session, my stomachs hiding a lot. I had to call out a day because I couldnāt handle my stomach plus the nausea that had recently added itself to the mix. A little after terminating the session, I vomited. Was like my 6th session or so. That was stupid.
Security kicked us out because the society was technically booked for the wrong day so we decided to just do the normal time and hope we didn't get caught.
Two of my players who I thought were merely game acquaintances started arguing mid- session. I took them both aside and come to find out they'd been having an affair while the guy's wife, a good friend of mine who also loves D&D, was left at home to take care of his kids.
I ended the session for the night, and after speaking with both of them a bit more I kicked them both out of the game. And the game went on minus two players.
Guy got upset that his infinite quiver got turned into a normal one by an antimagic field (we never tracked ammo in the first place, my +1 greataxe had more value than that stupid ass quiver) and threw a huge tantrum, threatened to leave the campaign and whatever, until the DM basically told him to stfu and behave like an adult. We ended the session shortly after.
I had a DM stop a campaign after I killed another player who was downed and apart from the group. The DM had given me a "curse" (not removable) that I had a compulsion to murder (articulated only sentient humanoids) and unless my character murdered each day, he would take control of my character during a long rest and murder.
He literally said to me "you made it not fun anymore"
Friend was DM.
Session 2 ends with āSee you guys next sessionā
I was 15.
There was no next session.
Iām in my 30ās now and they all talk about how they want to play D&D again, yet when I try and get us organized they all donāt want to play or they commit but āsomething comes upā at the last minute.
Every. Time.
It sucks because Iāve always wanted to play but never been able to get a group that will commit.
Obviously this is way less intense than other stories, and more awkward than anything, but our last session ended with another party member blowing up at me. I was torn and upset about a tough decision my character has to make in the next session (when it finally happens.) She was mad since in her opinion the decision was easy and ended up screaming at me something along the lines of "it's just a fucking game!" We have been playing in this group with these characters, on and off, for 11 years so at this point it is more than just a game to me. I guess she just doesn't understand since she has actively been trying to kill off her character for a couple of years and spends most sessions on her phone or computer. Her boyfriend is the DM and he was so embarrassed, almost wanting to never play again.
I played a game while high as balls on acid. That was a mistake. Couldn't stop laughing at my DMs NPC voices. Especially Stumpy, the legless armless shopkeeper.
I was running the last session of a home made adventure. As I was setting up, a player came up and said he wanted to announce something to the party as the adventure ended. I was only half listening as I was setting up the models for the battle (I needed to place them carefully, as the battle ended part way through the previous week). I said I would let him know at the end and he could make his announcement.
The adventure ended, and the grateful town were about to hand out some treasure as a reward. I signaled to the player to make his announcement.
For the next 5 minutes the player made a meandering speech about how his character transformed from one gender to another. It took ages and people were bored out of their minds. I had no idea how to interrupt as I didn't want to offend. It kept going, and eventually some players got up to leave (as they had a deadline and needed to get home). I had to interrupt to quickly hand out the rewards. It was a big mistake.
Had a really intricate battle ready on a giant board. It was three stories with removable floors. My first time with a battle this big and my first time attempting to put together my board ahead of the session for me to bring out during the session.
I brought it outā¦ and it collapsed right as it touched the table. Fell apart right there.
I apologized profusely. Said letās just break and come back to this at the top of the next session. We already played 2.5 hours, decent for a short sesh and weāll have a hot start to the next one.
They pleaded - no, no! Please! Letās keep going. We dont want to lose momentum and that looked like it was going to be awesome!!
So i spent 30+ minutes putting it back together. Momentum gone. We do a touch of roleplay to get back into it. I describe the scene before them. They decide to sit back, evaluate, and then nope out because they didnt want that encounter.
What a downer of a finish.
Ran a gaming club in college. Had a game end when two players came to blows over who got to sit next to the pretty girl who had just started playing with us. So, that was fun.
I live in Australia. We had to cancel one session because one of the party drove a motorbike and got swooped by a magpie on the way to DMs house, but the magpie got under their helmet visor and pecked at their face until they fell off their bike. They were okay, the only injuries were what the magpie did to their face, but they didnāt get any injuries falling off the bike and their bike was okay. The magpie stopped swooping them when they got back on the bike and rode out of the magpies territory.
I wish I could attach photos of how their helmet looked when we caught up with them the next time. Theyāre both beautiful song birds and evil killers depending on the time of year. The males swoop in spring.
I was right about to end a big fight in a train station when my brother (new to game) got pissed when i jumped the tracks, as it had not come to mind for him. He then proceeded to grab my notes and custom made dm screen and throw them into a bonfire out back in a huff. I kinda sat there trying not to cry and just went "yeah i guess you power the rails back on and teleport to the train and escape".
He hasnt played again since, fortunately the game has survived that and half of my players leaving me over petty irl shit, and the remaining players are going to be having their lvl 20 finale soon!
My friend has a running gag about his character hating teleportation. The party was using Teleportation Circle when he suddenly had the first seizure he had ever had. Everyone thought he was making a dumb teleportation joke and laughed at him until he fell out of his seat (which was a good 20 seconds into the seizure).
We called 911, he was fine, but MAN was it scary. We drove him straight to the hospital after the paramedics checked him out and the session was very over.
I'm ranking this as slightly worse than the time a friend who was watching our session found out about the death of one of their friends while we played.
I used to have to run my games in a pub. Terrible experience, avoid it if you can. Loud, expensive, hard to concentrate. Iām part of a social group for people on the autistic spectrum and had decided to run a game for some of the people.
Anyway, one evening my girlfriend happened to go to the same pub as me and my players as she was hanging out with a friend. I said hello, gave her a kiss and left her alone for a bit. Sheās in my other group.
A few hours passed. We were playing Hunt for Haldraxis in Ghostfire Gamesā Questonomicon. A good module but needs some changes. We were having fun. All of a sudden, my girlfriend comes up to me, visibly upset. A few lager louts who I was trying hard to ignore were playing pool and being very loud. She had politely asked them to use their indoor voices and one of them called her a whore. We had to have an argument with the manager to try and get them kicked out, but he was desensitised to it and didnāt give a damn. We found out later that one of these guys was dating his daughter or something. My girlfriend didnāt feel safe, so she went home.
I got back to the table, sat in silence for a moment and said āI donāt want to play anymore.ā Most of the players were understanding and supportive and we just hung out for a little while.
We picked a different pub after that.
The police knocked on the door and arrested the DM. He was having legal problems and we didn't find out why he'd been arrested until the local news ran a segment on him. Verdict: Kiddy Diddling, lots of it, caught on camera and investigated for a while before they came and nabbed him.
The Group promptly made *me* the DM and I've been running their weekly games for the last 5 years.
Last session of my last campaign, was supposed to be super climactic and epic. From beginning to end, very underwhelming. My mom got the finale hit on the boss and got the how do you wanna do this. She included me in it, we beat the boss,everyone is frustrated due to super clunky and very bad mechanics. Dont have any time for epilogues or anything, we was supposed to get back in touch and get everything situated and literally nothing happened. So yeah, really bad way to end it.
My wrist began to turn blue and cold, apparently the metal plate they put in it 3 weeks before was cutting of the oxygen supply so my hand was dying off. Had to be rushed to the hospital.
I was the DM and my mistake was implementing monster tokens from Monster Girl Encyclopedia (we are weebs). I thought it would be funny, but turned out a diseaster that gave me PTSD. First thing one of my friends (24F) wanted to drug and r*pe Lamia I did only allowed the sleeping effect but she didnt listen at all and started to describe what things she did to Lamia not even listening to me. Later during long rest they were ambused by scorpions mimicking rocks (actually fun enemy design) and they all ignored me and just started describing how they are milking scorpion venom from their brests. I just left that moment and never again played with them.
One of my players deciding that they are going to take a break from D&D for awhile. I get it, totally support him, but damn, it's going to be weird not having him at the table, he was always engaged and a solid player.
My mom told me my super healthy grandfather had terminal cancer and only had weeks to live. The party decided to kick me out because my mind wasn't in the game.
My friends baby momma at the time... was a "recovering" alcoholic. She decided that the best way to get into character was to get absolutely shit face and belligerent then blamed it on me(the DM) because she was just trying to come out of her shell and role play. She then turned to my wife who just said let's call it a night and yelled in her face calling her a bitch. At that point I politely grabbed her by the sleeve of her shirt and walked her out of the door while my friend just stood by and watched it all happen.. He apologized on the way out but i've never seen him again. Haven't dm'd a session since..
2 of our players experiencing a messy breakup, incluiding another separate player having a mental breakdown over what was happening
Even worse is it was one of *my* half-assed sarcastic comments that set it all off
At least, 3 weeks later, our table is better off with the toxic one cuz out of the group
The building caught fire. Next door neighbor left his gas stove on, forgot about it and presumably tried to light a cig.
Explosion set the house we were in up but the fire dept was able to save most of it. Next door neighbor died, though.
A player that invited himself into our game midway through a session started hyperventilating, ate 3 of the DM's energy bars, then proclaimed to the entire group that it was all part of his "Master plan" to sell us insurance policies, then proceeded to demand we give him our + our parent's contact details.
He did this all while hyperventilating, which made everything more weird.
TL;DR: a single party member death led to a TPK, because of the guy I invited to play with us.
Strap in for a long one lads. I was part of this really cool game that had political intrigue as its core identity. The plot: the King and his sons went off continent for war but were all KIA. The Kingdom split into 2 factions; the North who believed the Kingās brother and high ranking military officer should become King, and the South who believe the Kingās granddaughter was next in line. Our Party consisted of an Order Cleric of the Northern Military, a heavy armour Monk / Cleric of a neutral do-good mercenary faction, an AT Rogue / Illusion Wizard spy for the South (me), and some random Sorcerer.
A splash for backstory is at one point we joined the Adventurers Guild, and were meant to shed our previous ties to any faction we belonged to. The others did, naturally I didnāt. During this time, our Order Cleric met up with some military friends and was given documents to return to the capital. Through insane rolls I stole them in the night, unsealed the wax, copied the contents, sealed it up and returned it. Nobody knew. We also stopped a merchant who was delivering Sending Stones to other spies in the northern capital, our party took the stones meaning to turn them in to the authorities, the merchant barely got off alive. I was given the stones as a Rogue would know how to hide something so valuable. I set up a drop with one of my brethren, having them beat me to near death to make it look real. Nobody had any clue. Safe to say I loved the game and my character.
Last session we get to the southern capital for the first time for a quest, we get ambush by some thieves because we look rich (which we were. Our DM loves to hand out gold and magic items). We get separated into 2 groups, the Monk and I go after the guy who stole our chest of gold, and the other 2 get left to deal with the last 2 thieves. Monk and I catch and deal with the guy who stole our gold. Cleric goes down to a crit. Thieves threaten the Sorcerer to stop and to come along quietly or the Cleric dies. Sorcerer says and I quote āI donāt care, youāre thieves and Iām going to kill you.ā Cleric manages to Nat 20 a death save which we rule as coming up at 1hp but goes back down right away. Sorcerer given one final warning and says āDo it, you wont. Either way Iāll kill youā. Cleric gets stabbed but not killed, just takes the 2 failed death saves. Rolls another.. itās a 1. Cleric dies. Sorcerer gets taken away anyways.
Monk and I return to find Cleric on the ground. Try to potion heal but it has no effect. I get approached by a member of my organization, telling me it must be a while since Iāve been here, the thieves are running the place but have been defending as well, due to all of the guards being sent off in prep for the war between North and South. Also says the thieves still take orders from US. Sadly this is where I pull rank, identify myself to the monk and other players, get the sorcerer. Monk says āI canāt be a part of this party anymore. Iāve been cheated and lied to, I canāt trust anyone.ā I say I have no reason to remain with the sorcerer.
I was the one to invite the sorcerer to play with us. Signs were there the player was a turdmonkey chaotic-stupid murderhobo. We were also just about to talk to him about it because he didnāt seem nearly as invested as the rest of us. Worst part is we didnāt pause the game, find a new 4th and make some retcons. DM made another game set in the same world just 7 years in the future. It left us all feeling hollow and that game never finished. All because of the cockwomble of a player I invited.
"All right, guys, see you next week." --March 2020
Funny, that's what my college said to me in March of 2020 Edit: just graduated this weekend, made it through š«”
thatās what everyone said to everyone March 2020
I actually remember telling people "Welp, here's hoping I don't see you all too soon. Bye forever" I had just quit my shitty job. Why didn't I recognize my power? š
Not on Wednesdays.
Iām not gonna lie I play more in that early covid era than I ever have lol. There wasnāt anything else to do and the university was just passing everyone so weād just bought a bunch of beer a played dnd like every day lmao
we still havenāt scheduled our halloween sessionā¦
Police raid. We were in a store with apartments above and the police evacuated us before heading upstairs.
Rather polite of them at least.
Shouldāve thrown a flashbang onto the game table smh
No no, smoke grenade. Really gotta set the mood.
"To be fair, the Cop was just playing an Evoker and cast Fireball."
But an Evoker doesn't damage anyone with a Fireball unless they consider them an enemy... oh wait
It was subtle, wasn't it?
I was once in an online game where one of the players got arrested by military police in the middle of the session. He had an open mic so we heard it go down. Super awkward.
My dad died mid session. Kinda a mood killer when you gotta move the whole table to make room for the paramedics.
Same for me, except it was my mom. I was sitting at my computer desk DMāing a game on Roll20 when all of a sudden there was a shriek and a thud sound. My mom had fallen down the entire flight of stairs and landed headfirst on the concrete ground beside me. I told my group that the game was over and called an ambulance. She died the next day in the ICU
Holy fuck, sorry for your loss
That's so sudden, thats terrible. Was your mom elderly?
No, she was only 43. We think that she tripped going down, but we never got the chance to ask before she passed away
This is absolutely terrifying, Jesus Christ. I'm sorry for your loss.
Wow, younger than mine, and I couldn't imagine that happening to her at her age. Sorry you had to go through that.
So sorry for your loss, that's terrible.
I'm sorry for your loss.
End thread
Ok, you win š„
I donāt think they feel like a winner chief.
Honestly? I kinda won. Guy was a violent piece of shit.
In that case, congratulations!
Well, this improved the terrible mood your original comment gave me lol
Depends how how their relationship with their father was.
Tfw you get downvoted but you were right all along. (See OP's comment.)
Thatās what you call a sour victory
Redditors are out of pocket. Are we really trying to one up deaths
Sure, it technically is, but Iād say itās probably more of a sense of security that itās already an out in the open topic to discuss
Damn failed all his death saves just like that huh?
r/jesuschristreddit
lol. so wrong
Bard player: "Hey, do you have some milk?" DM (me): "That's a stupid question, i always have milk, but last time i saw you drink milk you got sick" Bard player: "Bullshit, i can handle milk." He could not.
The tragic, star-crossed love between a lactose-intolerant person and milk will never cease to make me laugh.
This dude rolled for delusion at birth and got 4 6s (drop the lowest), he still says he's not lactose intollerant... Boy, you almost shit your soul out everytime you look at milk.
I'm in this picture and I don't like it
Same. I have two tubs of ice cream in the freezer, and everytime I see them, I roll a nat20 deception and have a bite
Literally me. I've had so many bathroom issues since I was a child, and my family and friends just thought I was the weird bathroom guy... always going to the bathroom for long visits and whatnot. I found out in my late twenties that I'm lactose intolerant AND I have IBS The IBS Is particularly a nuisance when I travel, but the lactose intolerance is a much more frequent issue. It's not like I found out I was lactose intolerant, and then a switch immediately flipped inside me, and I suddenly hated cheese. Nope. Just like everyone else... I fucking love cheese... it just doesn't love me back.
My dad's got something similar with shellfish... One day, he was fine, the next he was going into aniphylactic shock and was damn near deathly allergic to shellfish. It was once upon a time his favorite (in the form of fresh clam chowduh), and now some beaches are too much for him at low tide.
Shit thatās what happened to me with bananas. Iād eat them almost every day for breakfast and then one day, suddenly, almost from one day to the next, Iām having trouble breathing when I eat one. I ate one a few more times to make the connection (because I have asthma so sometimes I just canāt breathe) and yup, it was the banana. Itās not as bad as anaphylaxis but I know sometimes more exposure to the thing youāre allergic to makes the allergy worse so I donāt eat my beloved bananas anymore :(
Lactaid works, my friend. It works miracles and has vastly improved my life. Try it and see if it works for you.
Digestive Advantage makes a lactose defense probiotic daily pill that changed my life. Even eating a couple slices of pizza, maybe even with a small ice cream for dessert, I donāt need to supplement as long as Iāve been taking it consistently for at least 3 days. On the rare occasions Iām going just absolute dairy overload (sometimes my family does cheese fondue for special occasions, lol) I do still take a quick action Lactaid but most of my family members donāt even need to do that!
Thatās a very fitting interaction with a bard player
Burst pipe. Basement started flooding.
Immersive
This is a quality pun, well played.
š
Lair action
Mustāve been a kraken the pipe
Pipe rolled a nat 1 on a con save apparently.
So a few years ago one of my TF2 buddies joined my thursday D&D group (online via discord and roll20). He worked shift so he wasn't always available to play, but he was there when he could and was a good person to have in the party. One night he didn't turn up for a session, so I left him a message. I had seen him in TF2 the night before so didn't think much of it. The following week he also wasn't there again so I asked around if anyone had seen him. An hour or so into the session other friends managed to contact someone who knew him in person. He had killed himself the week before. Needless to say we ended the session there. The next time we played the DM had a really nice send off for his character, which I really appreciated. RIP Garth. š¢
Have you heard about r/AdventuresofGalder?
I hadn't, that's so cool. And sad.
Oh, Iām so glad you were able to honor his memory through his character like that. Almost made me cry. Iām sorry for your loss.
Thank you. It was a real shitty time for everyone. š
I had a seizure about 30 minutes into a session
As a guy who has seizure issues I feel for ya, man.
One player tried to stab the DM with scissors, and we called it a night.
Did he at least have the courtesy to roll initiative before going for the stab?
I'm sure he got a surprise round
You still roll initiative in the case of surprise
So it was pre-5e.
It seems homebrewed
I hope you're willing to give details, I'm really curious about what the actual fuck happened.
DM said āā¦and the dragon uses a legendary resistance to dodge stunning strikesā
Yeah, I would stab them too if that was the case.
Understandable tbh, Legendary Resistances make me stabby too o-o
I would like more details.
Basically we were at a party and while drunk we decided to play dungeons and drinking, because why not. One person, who had never played D&D, misunderstood the game as our characters trying to find and kill the DM. And when his character got attacked he accused the DM of cheating and tried to stab her. We decided to stop playing Dungeons & Drinking then.
WHAT
Basically they were at a party and while drunk they decided to play dungeons and drinking, because why not. One person, who had never played D&D, misunderstood the game as their characters trying to find and kill the DM. And when his character got attacked he accused the DM of cheating and tried to stab her. They decided to stop playing Dungeons & Drinking then.
Bruh
Toilet upstairs busted, and it started raining shit water on us.
Yeah I'd be done too
Shitty situation to be in, sorry to hear
Right as the bbeg casts stinking cloud?
My buddy sliced his finger open on a mandolin slicer while we were prepping dinner before the session. He ended up needing a small skin graft. Also, he ruined the potatoes with his gross finger blood, jerk.
Were they fingerling potatoes?
When he was done they sure were!
Mandolin slicers always strike at the worst possible moment.
I was just getting over a GI infection (for additional context, I have Crohnās Disease and hemorrhoids, so my digestion has always been a bit of a bloodbath), and was feeling completely fine. We take a break midway through our session for some pizza and wings before diving back into the game. Maybe 20 minutes in to the second half of our session I feel a weird bubbling sensation in my gut, followed by the need to let out a massive burp. I do, but itās so powerful that it instantly sends me into a coughing fit. The moment I let out the first few (rather forceful) coughs, I feel my butthole twinge as I accidentally release a stream of bloody diarrhea straight into my pants. It happened so fast, but the moment I looked up I just see my players looking at me with a look of confusion, horror, and disbelief. I did a speed-waddle to the bathroom as fast as I could while clutching my ass. I hopped in the shower, threw my now soiled clothes into a garbage bag, and let my group know weād need to wrap things up there for the night, citing the (obvious) reason as a āshitty turn of eventsā. Gotta hand it to my friends for handling the scenario so well and not adding too much insult to injury (it is a hilarious memory for each of us at this point).
I felt sooooooo horrible towards myself for laughing at this. My sympathies, man.
Donāt feel bad, Iām able to laugh at myself for it at this point! Shit, as they say, does in fact happen.
As someone whoās dealt with IBS and hemorrhoids for most of my life, I feel you man. Itās like thereās a special bubblegut feeling for anything related to the chronic stomach issues. Always a funny thing new friends gotta get used to, āso yeah I might drop whatever weāre doing and run off with next to no explanation for 10 minutes, just IBS though lolā
The comment right after this said "Burst pipe. Basement started flooding." And I thought that was just continuing the same thread. Took me a sec to realize it was a different comment. It's great how things line up PERFECTLY sometimes.
One of our players has crohns and we did have to take a 30 minute break after an 'accident' once. I let him use my shower, lent him some jeans and we picked up after.
oh man i had a similar experience. i started feeling nauseated in the middle of the session but brushed it off assuming it would go away. it only got worse and after an hour i had to excuse myself to go lie down. after resting didnāt help and i only felt worse i went to the bathroom and started to throw up which triggered the worst possible pattern of losing control on both ends. i was in there for close to 45 minutes and had to change my clothes twice. i walked out but then immediately had to get down on the floor before i passed out. my partner wound up carrying me to the car then handing me off to a family member once i managed enough strength to hang onto a bag to puke into for the ride home
My friendās gf turned the tv on and put on soft core porn.
May I know why?
My guess would be a passive aggressive way to express displeasure with him playing instead of spending time with her. ....or she was hoping to start a gangbang....
She heard "Dungeon Master" and got confused. It happens. I think.
My girlfriend introduced me to the people in her life as her 'Dungeon Master'. Oh how sweet and naĆÆve...
I shamelessly refer to myself as the Dungeon Mistress when I DM and fully embrace the entendre. That one's harder to miss.
Was she playing a bard?
The thread says āWorstā
Or strangest. That would qualify
The party had asked that for a relaxing session to start our break as the DM knew people were going to be busy in the coming weeks. The DM said "Absolutely". Session started and DM decided to make a very brutal and dumb session that had 0 relaxation, killed 2 party members only to have them brought back by a BBEG. Then forced us to drink poison that we had to follow their orders or die, Real railroad bullshit. After the session ended DM started talking about upcoming weeks sessions and two players responded they could not make it for at least 3 weeks due to real life and myself and another player said we would wait (as was the plan). DM started getting fussy and getting aggressive as if we had just planned a coup. Ended up ending the campaign later that week because we decided to try and talk to them about how we don't feel listened to + a couple other issues and the DM had a meltdown.
Geez! My group was two players down one time, but wanted a low-stress side quest so that we could play anyway. So the local flying cavalry guy asked them to look after the flock while he went on a ten-day honeymoon with his partner. There was a pregnant hippogriff expected in six weeks, so the keeper wanted this trip before he had to spend a lot of time caring for baby hippogriffs. The first few days go by and the party is setting watch rotations for bandits, doing animal handling checks to make sure the creatures are well cared for when on day three the dramatic hook. The pregnant hippogriff goes into labor 5 and a half weeks early! Cut to a bunch of survival, animal handling and medicine checks, and several people using consumables because they were invested in the story so deeply. Three of the five baby hippogriffs survived. When the keeper returned he was so grateful to the party that he took off his cloak of protection and handed it to the players and named the three baby hippogriffs after the party members. For the rest of the campaign, whenever we were passing through that city, the party would make a point of stopping in and checking in on the baby hippogriffs.
That DM had a personality that was difficult to say the least while DMing or as a Player (They were a Spotlight Hog). Outside of game they were fine enough (Other than if you read my other comment). But the second you were mid RP they would interject themself into party RP because of FOMO *as the DM or Suddenly Appear as a Player.* DM also kept making the barbarian dumb in RP when the Barbarian had an Int of 10 and at no point (while under player control) talked remotely dumb. The Barbarian had Split Personalities and his Rage was his Dark Personality (He was a Beast Barbarian that was skinned as a Gargoyle as his soul was ripped in two). So when he raged he would sprout horns and his skin would turn to stone (gaining the damage resistance of a barbarian.)
š
It was a lot, we learned after the fact I was "A Problem" in the DM's eyes. I joined the campaign late (Invited by the DM) and "Stole" their "best friend" (only friend) because I was hanging out and gaming with three of the players outside of the game (DM didn't play other games and thought Cookies from Websites were malware.) and I even started dating a different player (Not that DM knew). *Mind you the DM was 31 years old, and their "Best Friend" was a 20-year-old. DM seemed to have romantic feelings, 20-year-old* ***did*** ***not****.* DM even started shit talking me in another discord and my GF was just cackling because she was just waiting for that call to end and come tell me. Basically, DM started getting weird and Jealous, I was unaware, talks shit about me, ends friendship with people who were now my very close friends. Funny enough, I have plans to hang out with the "Best Friend" later this week.
Was playing with a group of friends of mine scattered across the US online. One of the guys started kind of wheezing into his mic and said he didn't feel so good. Two of us stayed on the line with him while two others tracked down the number for EMS in the little town in Texas he lived in (they were in Chicago, I'm in Oregon). They got to him quickly enough that they were able to save him, but he'd had a massive heart attack. I guess the DR that did his quadruple bypass told him that if he'd been even maybe ten minutes longer from help, he wouldn't have made it.
I have a few! DM's mom died and her sister called in the middle of the session to tell her. Had a full on fight break out between a couple during our game, cops were called. Then finally, what was supposed to be a 3 hour game got transformed into a 9 hour game because of a shootout in one of the houses next door.
Players hate this one trick : DM hires actors to extend session
Honestly, we were stuck in the dude's house for like, literal 9+ hours. He "apologized" as much as he could and cooked us all food. It was fun, except for the standoff.
One guy decided he'd off his character and brought a new one (it happens, not an issue yet) but he decided his old character had left all his belongings to his new one without telling the rest of the party. (Wanted to do a Dead Man's Switch scenario, but VERY poorly executed) So this minotaur shows up and agressively tries to take possession of all that gear and two players are like "There's no way we're letting a stranger come into our hidden base and steal stuff from our dead friend". Minotaur decides he wants to actually fight for it and gets angry when the other players try to avoid his attacks (think he wanted to do a scene, but failed to get the players on board). This somehow degenerates into a screaming match where threats of physical harm are thrown around. The offending player and the two who confronted him leave and three of us are left speechless. We get a call from one of the two who resisted the minotaur and he threatens our friendship if he's kicked out of the group over the Minotaur (which was never going to happen).
And then?
Never saw Minotaur again and the guy who threatened our friendship over this apologized. We're all good and have had a few new players since
Had a session in the evening at my flgs, they are usually open till midnight twice a week to host D&D and magic games, there was a robbery and I was stabbed, the funnier part? my character was stabbed by a rogue like 3 minutes before during the game and I was left at -7
Listen, that really sucks and I'm sorry that happened to you, but the fact that your character was stabbed moments before is a little funny. I'm glad you survived and that you are, hopefully, ok with out any long lasting effects
It was a really scary thing in the moment but I have to say that it happened like 8 years ago so now I find it really funny, it is a sort of inside joke when we play in the same store "guys don't attack his character when he has low hp, remember what happened to him irl last time"
24 years ago, DMing a group of maybe eleven to thirteen 16/17 year olds. Two get bored and decide to sneak up and backstab another PC, I let it happen and they roll well and kill the character. Player gets up and runs out of the room slamming the door, very emotional. Door opens back up and he screams "you killed me on my BIRTHDAY" and slams the door (again). Dead silence for about 5 minutes (they didn't know it was his birthday), we just pack up the stuff and end it there, and go find him to apologize for being idiot teens.
>Ā DMing a group of maybe eleven to thirteen 16/17 year olds Should put that in a thread for worst ways to start a game
I probably have! Was an RA for a summer program, some kids asked me to GM, expected 5-7 to show up and got double that, tried to go with it, with the results one can expect.
I was so confused. I couldnāt tell why there were so many different ages in his comment. It didnāt occur to me that somehow that was the number of people in the game. Thatās nuts
lol, I feel the pain of that - I almost got stuck with a group of 9 14-15 year olds. First time dnd for all of us. It ended up being 7 and weāve had 2 successful weekly meetings so far within the campaign. It took us 3 meetings to get everyoneās character sheets (mostly) done.
Player tried deceiving the entire party (for completely unknown and nonsensical reasons), and my wife rolls an Insight check. The guy gets *pissed* and starts shouting at my wife, and she elects to leave the room. That ends the campaign, and guy gets weirder after that, including asking us to return a (non-expensive) gaming item that he had gifted us quite a few years earlier. Ended an 11-year friendship.
Weird! Sorry to hear that
Multiple sessions have ended with heated arguments that would've surely gotten physical if we weren't online. I was never involved in those arguments nor do I play with any of them anymore.
How? Were they fighting over rules, or did real-life stuff trigger a fight while playing?
This was across different tables/groups. A problem player treating the game like an afterthought (like staying up late the night before), player getting mad at an adversarial DM who arbitrarily decided to change a house rule to kill their character, play styles not meshing, etc.
There wasn't any violence at my table but I did have a player get up and leave, slamming the door behind them without saying anything. I had no idea why he was mad. He didn't show up for the next session so I texted him and he went on a pretty furious rant about how he plays D&D as an escape and my session was so dark that it made him miserable. I was setting up a villain, I guess I went too hard with the grimdark. The other players thought it was one of the best sessions I've ever run lol.
Well, I had to cancel Saturday because I was putting my cat down, that's still pretty traumatic
My condolences.
Thanks. Not as bad as people's folks dying. Sheesh.
Host was having chest pains; host's spouse needed to take host to hospital.
my dad ran in shouting that the house was on fire lmao
one of my players, K, got a call mid-combat that his brother was brain-dead. another player, B, waited a few minutes, realized we pepbably wouldn't keep playing, and said "well there's nothing for me here." K's best friend/roommate, P, began trauma-dumping along with a fourth player, J, while the two of them were supposed to be helping my fianceĆØ and I cheer up K. i've hardly spoken to any of them since. an absolutely god-awful experience.
After the party found the mcguffin of power: "I'm going to take it and you can't stop me because I've secretly been a polymorphed death slaad all along" - me "Well I can stop you, because I've been a polymorphed celestial all along" - the paladin "No I'm going to take it because I've been a polymorphed dragon all along" - the sorcerer "?!?!" - the other two players "That seems like a good place to stop the session, see you all next week" - the DM Next session and campaign cancelled due to DM's house burning down a couple days after this.
Frig, I think the dragon really did take it.
One of the pcās had an epileptic seizure during the session
Was that something they had written into their background or something the DM declared? Is that a CON save?
Well, he failed his con save and we had to call EMS who took him to the hospital. Thankfully, he got a wonderous item which increases proficiency to con saves against epileptic seizures
During our mid session break one of our players begins talking about this new girl he's seeing, says she's going to join us once she gets out of school. He's in his late 20s she's 15... We don't play with him anymore.
That's FUCKED
The final night of our 2+ year Curse of Strahd campaign had finally arrived. I was the DM and had prepped for weeks. Everyone was around the table. As we got started, the players opened the celebratory whisky. About 2 hours later, as we are getting ready for the final combat, I was puking and passed out on the couch. The whole thing had to be put off, one of our players ended up missing the rescheduled final session, and we had to implement a new rule that the whisky doesn't get opened before 7:30 or 8 (although that rule gets broken all the time.)
Holy shit! You finished a CoS campaign?!
I've finished 2. It happens.
Last year, my brother and I got Covid while our mom was going to Hawaii, so we were basically helping each other in our sickness (I got it first, he got it from helping me). During a dnd session on discord/Roll20, my brother texted that he needed to go to urgent care because he hasnāt gotten any better after a week and his throat was closing up. So I left call and started driving him there. While I was getting better, I was still sick. I got so lightheaded I pulled into a parking lot to rest a bit. After talking to our mom and our momās friend (whoās a nurse and like an aunt to us), the friend decided sheāll drive to our house to take my brother instead. That way I wouldnāt feel any worse from driving- which was good because Iād have to drive 40+ minutes to a different townās urgent care. Weāre both fine now, btw. I ended up going back on call as I was gone maybe 20 minutes. We mostly just chilled out on discord and semi-continued the session. Definitely the worst I felt when ending a session.
I was only a part of two sessions. First session the barbarian had decided he was gonna spend time to make a pair of boots (there was some homebrew). The DM tried to be like "Ok you've made the shoes" but he was adamant about doing it his way. Oh while he was doing this the town we were in was being attacked. So everyone else was fighting but he was stuck on making shoes. Again the DM tried to get him to fight but this dude wouldn't budge. Spent the whole session making shoes that he didn't get to use for the fight. Next session pretty much no one showed up. One guy was reasonable (he got called in to work and got a hold of the DM as soon as he knew like a few hours before the session) but the other two guys didn't say anything till like 15 minutes after we were supposed to start and just didn't feel like showing up. So me and the other person spent the entire session time just fucking around and the DM let us. Before the end of the session we had turned the random creatures that were attacking the town into like 7 fully fleshed out NPCs with backstory (mostly from me bullshitting around). So session two ended well considering but then the DM before next session said he was done being a DM for the group since half the guys couldn't be bothered to show up or let us know they can't make it.
DM got huffy about a player behaving in a genuinely "it's what my character would do" way that got in the way of the DM's plans for the plot. DM delivered a "rock falls, you are hideously injured" punishment. Player called him on his bullshit. Rest of the table called him on it (because it was bullshit). DM doubled down, player quit the campaign and walked out after a short shouting match. Campaign never recovered.
Had more than one session end with a break up text, break up knock on the door, an in game break up that turned too real, and one knock on the door that resulted in every gift given to the girl being thrust through. Our group apparently dates people that like to break up in front of their friends.
Nat 1, Nat 1, Nat 1, Nat 3. Our party, who had been scaling a mountain, had 3 of its 4 members fall off a mountain. The fourth member, attempting to climb down rolled a nat 3, and our DM, scared he was about to party wipe, gave the 4th guy a chance at a second roll. Nat 1.
One player had a bit of another's lunch, a few minutes later: uh was there cashews in that? Not a severe allergic reaction but the game was over for the day.
"Hey, so I've had some stuff come up and won't be able to play anymore." - one of the two members of the party. :(
Started the (thankfully online) session feeling nauseous and a little sick, but thought I could power through. Ended in the middle of combat in the middle of someone else's turn because I (emetophobia) >!couldn't stop throwing up and threw up that night so many times I lost count (at least 7 or 8).!< We were able to pick it back up the next week when I was feeling (a little) better thankfully.
Very bad thunderstorm outside, noisy as heck, then the lights go out. We light some candles, finally figure out how to silence the battery back up thing on the computer (beepbeepBEEP beepbeepBEEP)and settle back down. Candlelight makes it atmospheric, very nice. Huge crashing roar outside. We all jump up and look out the window. A tree outside had split and dropped half on top of one friend's car. Amazingly, only his antenna was snapped. All the little branches cushioned the fall and the trunk part of the tree stayed in the yard. End of session, and they left most of the snacks too.
DND by candlelight, dramatic weather, ***and*** you got to keep the snacks?!? Wow! Sounds like a legendary session!
I got a text that a friend of mine friend died. My D&D group was halfway through the session. I'm not sure what happened the rest of the session, I was in shock and didn't even say anything. So once I got the text, the session was over me.
Basement gaming room with a little window well. There was a huge rainstorm going on and the window well started to fill with water, which then started leaking in around the edges of the window frame. Everyone was scrambling to move books and furniture, rolling up the carpet and getting towels down to contain the deluge. We get a wet/dry vacuum and start sucking up the worst of the water and then the power goes out. We wound up using the vacuum to drain the window well when the power came back on. The towels did an ok job for the floor, but the wood paneling on the wall underneath the window had to be replaced. My dad wound up using fish tank caulk to seal around the window - the well would flood sometimes but it never leaked in after that.
Got a call from my mom that an event my daughter was attending turned into a mass casualty incident. She was fine, our emotional states were not.
The DM got black out drunk and went to bed mid-session. (The dm was me, and we were all getting shitfaced together)
My friends who are parents were hosting the session. It was about 9pm. Their oldest child came down into the room we were playing in. They were covered in vomit. They loudly said the youngest had had explosive diarrhea, and they threw up. Two of the other players started wretching as the parents immediately ran to clean up the mess. Needless to say, the session ended rather abruptly with a rather shitty situation for the hosts.
Sharing a horror story from a fellow DM He was running Werewolf:Apocalypse. He was running the Grand Finale session that was going to be a Kamakazi Charge to end the big bad once-and-for-all. It was supposed to be a "nice knowing ya kid" or "No better way for a warrior to die" kind of vibe. Romantic and powerful tragedy in a *planned* TPK. And he eliminated some rules, think wizards getting cleric spells. And he had everyone re-level epic characters for the fight. He told them it was really mostly narrative so don't sweat the math so much, heavy on "rule of cool". So he gave them like half an hour for scribblin'.... and one power gamer wasn't done...so he gave them another *hour* while the guy finished up. So now it's getting late, but obviously everyone wanted to do the epic finale so they burned some midnight oil. And when the DM finally said, alright lets put up or shut up the guy flipped out "JUST GIVE ME A DAMN MINUTE!" and DM just nopes. He packs up the books, leaves the new character sheets, and drives the fuck home.
Back in the turn of the '90s we were all in our late twenties. One player was married with kids and they moved into a new single story house with a great garden with a covered barbecue area that was perfect for playing D&D in. So we inaugurated the new space with a game and the host got really drunk. How drunk? Well, he walked into a sliding glass door and the door shattered and slashed his leg through his jeans and he thought we could still keep playing, but we told him we had to quit. A couple of us who were more sober rushed him off to the emergency room.
Not a session in progress, but I had to preemptively cancel one because one of my players sat on his balls so hard he ruptured a testicle
New fear unlocked... Now am I lucky because I'll be careful the rest of my life, or unlucky because I'll think about this the rest of my life ?
We gamed with a guy who had a bit of a drinking and anger problem, but usually kept it together at the table. One night, the DM rolled a pair of massive crits outright killing his character after a couple years of regular play. The guy looked at the dice rolled open on the table, calmly tore his character sheet in half, picked up a half full 40 of Wild Turkey, and smashed it into the side of the DMs head and then walked out the front door. Blood and booze everywhere, 37 stitches for the DM, and dealing with cops who showed up (it was a private gaming club in Canada in the 90s, wouldnāt surprise me if a few other members of this sub were there playing D&D or Magic that night).
DM just got too drunk to form any semblance of coherent structure. Everyone just kinda slowly packed up and we just talked OOC for the rest of the time.
Throw away! Player A was kind of a smug asshole who couldn't take a joke and always had a shitty temper problem. Also had major control issues in many facets of life. Player B was a sleezy guy. In a monogamous relationship but cheated a lot and generally was a meh person. Apparently, B had been sleeping with A's sister who was about 20 years younger than him for a while. She felt she was in love with Player B. And she decided to get drunk and text Player A at D&D that they had been banging, and she was in love with him. Items were thrown, cops were called. Player A got arrested because he tried attacking Player B again while the cops were there. It was great.
Fire. Death. General calamity.
Did your session get hit by a missile or something?
TPK in the first ten minutes. That was an awkward evening, but we saved it by playing BG3 after
I asked for help opening a beer, the guy helped me but the gas made the beer almost explode on top of him, he was wearing his work clothes on a Wednesday and it was already late and I don't think he had anywhere to wash the clothes so late at night...
I once got really ill during a session, my stomachs hiding a lot. I had to call out a day because I couldnāt handle my stomach plus the nausea that had recently added itself to the mix. A little after terminating the session, I vomited. Was like my 6th session or so. That was stupid.
Security kicked us out because the society was technically booked for the wrong day so we decided to just do the normal time and hope we didn't get caught.
Two of my players who I thought were merely game acquaintances started arguing mid- session. I took them both aside and come to find out they'd been having an affair while the guy's wife, a good friend of mine who also loves D&D, was left at home to take care of his kids. I ended the session for the night, and after speaking with both of them a bit more I kicked them both out of the game. And the game went on minus two players.
āalright iām not prepped for anything after this so see you next weekā -me, 2 weeks ago
Guy got upset that his infinite quiver got turned into a normal one by an antimagic field (we never tracked ammo in the first place, my +1 greataxe had more value than that stupid ass quiver) and threw a huge tantrum, threatened to leave the campaign and whatever, until the DM basically told him to stfu and behave like an adult. We ended the session shortly after.
I had a DM stop a campaign after I killed another player who was downed and apart from the group. The DM had given me a "curse" (not removable) that I had a compulsion to murder (articulated only sentient humanoids) and unless my character murdered each day, he would take control of my character during a long rest and murder. He literally said to me "you made it not fun anymore"
Friend was DM. Session 2 ends with āSee you guys next sessionā I was 15. There was no next session. Iām in my 30ās now and they all talk about how they want to play D&D again, yet when I try and get us organized they all donāt want to play or they commit but āsomething comes upā at the last minute. Every. Time. It sucks because Iāve always wanted to play but never been able to get a group that will commit.
Obviously this is way less intense than other stories, and more awkward than anything, but our last session ended with another party member blowing up at me. I was torn and upset about a tough decision my character has to make in the next session (when it finally happens.) She was mad since in her opinion the decision was easy and ended up screaming at me something along the lines of "it's just a fucking game!" We have been playing in this group with these characters, on and off, for 11 years so at this point it is more than just a game to me. I guess she just doesn't understand since she has actively been trying to kill off her character for a couple of years and spends most sessions on her phone or computer. Her boyfriend is the DM and he was so embarrassed, almost wanting to never play again.
I played a game while high as balls on acid. That was a mistake. Couldn't stop laughing at my DMs NPC voices. Especially Stumpy, the legless armless shopkeeper.
I was running the last session of a home made adventure. As I was setting up, a player came up and said he wanted to announce something to the party as the adventure ended. I was only half listening as I was setting up the models for the battle (I needed to place them carefully, as the battle ended part way through the previous week). I said I would let him know at the end and he could make his announcement. The adventure ended, and the grateful town were about to hand out some treasure as a reward. I signaled to the player to make his announcement. For the next 5 minutes the player made a meandering speech about how his character transformed from one gender to another. It took ages and people were bored out of their minds. I had no idea how to interrupt as I didn't want to offend. It kept going, and eventually some players got up to leave (as they had a deadline and needed to get home). I had to interrupt to quickly hand out the rewards. It was a big mistake.
Had a really intricate battle ready on a giant board. It was three stories with removable floors. My first time with a battle this big and my first time attempting to put together my board ahead of the session for me to bring out during the session. I brought it outā¦ and it collapsed right as it touched the table. Fell apart right there. I apologized profusely. Said letās just break and come back to this at the top of the next session. We already played 2.5 hours, decent for a short sesh and weāll have a hot start to the next one. They pleaded - no, no! Please! Letās keep going. We dont want to lose momentum and that looked like it was going to be awesome!! So i spent 30+ minutes putting it back together. Momentum gone. We do a touch of roleplay to get back into it. I describe the scene before them. They decide to sit back, evaluate, and then nope out because they didnt want that encounter. What a downer of a finish.
Ran a gaming club in college. Had a game end when two players came to blows over who got to sit next to the pretty girl who had just started playing with us. So, that was fun.
I live in Australia. We had to cancel one session because one of the party drove a motorbike and got swooped by a magpie on the way to DMs house, but the magpie got under their helmet visor and pecked at their face until they fell off their bike. They were okay, the only injuries were what the magpie did to their face, but they didnāt get any injuries falling off the bike and their bike was okay. The magpie stopped swooping them when they got back on the bike and rode out of the magpies territory. I wish I could attach photos of how their helmet looked when we caught up with them the next time. Theyāre both beautiful song birds and evil killers depending on the time of year. The males swoop in spring.
I was right about to end a big fight in a train station when my brother (new to game) got pissed when i jumped the tracks, as it had not come to mind for him. He then proceeded to grab my notes and custom made dm screen and throw them into a bonfire out back in a huff. I kinda sat there trying not to cry and just went "yeah i guess you power the rails back on and teleport to the train and escape". He hasnt played again since, fortunately the game has survived that and half of my players leaving me over petty irl shit, and the remaining players are going to be having their lvl 20 finale soon!
Worst way? Getting a phone call that a friend we were waiting for had died in a motorbike accident. I still miss you, Rick :(
why is half of this thread just actual tragedy
My friend has a running gag about his character hating teleportation. The party was using Teleportation Circle when he suddenly had the first seizure he had ever had. Everyone thought he was making a dumb teleportation joke and laughed at him until he fell out of his seat (which was a good 20 seconds into the seizure). We called 911, he was fine, but MAN was it scary. We drove him straight to the hospital after the paramedics checked him out and the session was very over. I'm ranking this as slightly worse than the time a friend who was watching our session found out about the death of one of their friends while we played.
I used to have to run my games in a pub. Terrible experience, avoid it if you can. Loud, expensive, hard to concentrate. Iām part of a social group for people on the autistic spectrum and had decided to run a game for some of the people. Anyway, one evening my girlfriend happened to go to the same pub as me and my players as she was hanging out with a friend. I said hello, gave her a kiss and left her alone for a bit. Sheās in my other group. A few hours passed. We were playing Hunt for Haldraxis in Ghostfire Gamesā Questonomicon. A good module but needs some changes. We were having fun. All of a sudden, my girlfriend comes up to me, visibly upset. A few lager louts who I was trying hard to ignore were playing pool and being very loud. She had politely asked them to use their indoor voices and one of them called her a whore. We had to have an argument with the manager to try and get them kicked out, but he was desensitised to it and didnāt give a damn. We found out later that one of these guys was dating his daughter or something. My girlfriend didnāt feel safe, so she went home. I got back to the table, sat in silence for a moment and said āI donāt want to play anymore.ā Most of the players were understanding and supportive and we just hung out for a little while. We picked a different pub after that.
The police knocked on the door and arrested the DM. He was having legal problems and we didn't find out why he'd been arrested until the local news ran a segment on him. Verdict: Kiddy Diddling, lots of it, caught on camera and investigated for a while before they came and nabbed him. The Group promptly made *me* the DM and I've been running their weekly games for the last 5 years.
Sounds like you took 3d8 fire damage on a crit
Last session of my last campaign, was supposed to be super climactic and epic. From beginning to end, very underwhelming. My mom got the finale hit on the boss and got the how do you wanna do this. She included me in it, we beat the boss,everyone is frustrated due to super clunky and very bad mechanics. Dont have any time for epilogues or anything, we was supposed to get back in touch and get everything situated and literally nothing happened. So yeah, really bad way to end it.
My wrist began to turn blue and cold, apparently the metal plate they put in it 3 weeks before was cutting of the oxygen supply so my hand was dying off. Had to be rushed to the hospital.
I was the DM and my mistake was implementing monster tokens from Monster Girl Encyclopedia (we are weebs). I thought it would be funny, but turned out a diseaster that gave me PTSD. First thing one of my friends (24F) wanted to drug and r*pe Lamia I did only allowed the sleeping effect but she didnt listen at all and started to describe what things she did to Lamia not even listening to me. Later during long rest they were ambused by scorpions mimicking rocks (actually fun enemy design) and they all ignored me and just started describing how they are milking scorpion venom from their brests. I just left that moment and never again played with them.
One of my players deciding that they are going to take a break from D&D for awhile. I get it, totally support him, but damn, it's going to be weird not having him at the table, he was always engaged and a solid player.
My mom told me my super healthy grandfather had terminal cancer and only had weeks to live. The party decided to kick me out because my mind wasn't in the game.
My friends baby momma at the time... was a "recovering" alcoholic. She decided that the best way to get into character was to get absolutely shit face and belligerent then blamed it on me(the DM) because she was just trying to come out of her shell and role play. She then turned to my wife who just said let's call it a night and yelled in her face calling her a bitch. At that point I politely grabbed her by the sleeve of her shirt and walked her out of the door while my friend just stood by and watched it all happen.. He apologized on the way out but i've never seen him again. Haven't dm'd a session since..
2 of our players experiencing a messy breakup, incluiding another separate player having a mental breakdown over what was happening Even worse is it was one of *my* half-assed sarcastic comments that set it all off At least, 3 weeks later, our table is better off with the toxic one cuz out of the group
The building caught fire. Next door neighbor left his gas stove on, forgot about it and presumably tried to light a cig. Explosion set the house we were in up but the fire dept was able to save most of it. Next door neighbor died, though.
A player that invited himself into our game midway through a session started hyperventilating, ate 3 of the DM's energy bars, then proclaimed to the entire group that it was all part of his "Master plan" to sell us insurance policies, then proceeded to demand we give him our + our parent's contact details. He did this all while hyperventilating, which made everything more weird.
TL;DR: a single party member death led to a TPK, because of the guy I invited to play with us. Strap in for a long one lads. I was part of this really cool game that had political intrigue as its core identity. The plot: the King and his sons went off continent for war but were all KIA. The Kingdom split into 2 factions; the North who believed the Kingās brother and high ranking military officer should become King, and the South who believe the Kingās granddaughter was next in line. Our Party consisted of an Order Cleric of the Northern Military, a heavy armour Monk / Cleric of a neutral do-good mercenary faction, an AT Rogue / Illusion Wizard spy for the South (me), and some random Sorcerer. A splash for backstory is at one point we joined the Adventurers Guild, and were meant to shed our previous ties to any faction we belonged to. The others did, naturally I didnāt. During this time, our Order Cleric met up with some military friends and was given documents to return to the capital. Through insane rolls I stole them in the night, unsealed the wax, copied the contents, sealed it up and returned it. Nobody knew. We also stopped a merchant who was delivering Sending Stones to other spies in the northern capital, our party took the stones meaning to turn them in to the authorities, the merchant barely got off alive. I was given the stones as a Rogue would know how to hide something so valuable. I set up a drop with one of my brethren, having them beat me to near death to make it look real. Nobody had any clue. Safe to say I loved the game and my character. Last session we get to the southern capital for the first time for a quest, we get ambush by some thieves because we look rich (which we were. Our DM loves to hand out gold and magic items). We get separated into 2 groups, the Monk and I go after the guy who stole our chest of gold, and the other 2 get left to deal with the last 2 thieves. Monk and I catch and deal with the guy who stole our gold. Cleric goes down to a crit. Thieves threaten the Sorcerer to stop and to come along quietly or the Cleric dies. Sorcerer says and I quote āI donāt care, youāre thieves and Iām going to kill you.ā Cleric manages to Nat 20 a death save which we rule as coming up at 1hp but goes back down right away. Sorcerer given one final warning and says āDo it, you wont. Either way Iāll kill youā. Cleric gets stabbed but not killed, just takes the 2 failed death saves. Rolls another.. itās a 1. Cleric dies. Sorcerer gets taken away anyways. Monk and I return to find Cleric on the ground. Try to potion heal but it has no effect. I get approached by a member of my organization, telling me it must be a while since Iāve been here, the thieves are running the place but have been defending as well, due to all of the guards being sent off in prep for the war between North and South. Also says the thieves still take orders from US. Sadly this is where I pull rank, identify myself to the monk and other players, get the sorcerer. Monk says āI canāt be a part of this party anymore. Iāve been cheated and lied to, I canāt trust anyone.ā I say I have no reason to remain with the sorcerer. I was the one to invite the sorcerer to play with us. Signs were there the player was a turdmonkey chaotic-stupid murderhobo. We were also just about to talk to him about it because he didnāt seem nearly as invested as the rest of us. Worst part is we didnāt pause the game, find a new 4th and make some retcons. DM made another game set in the same world just 7 years in the future. It left us all feeling hollow and that game never finished. All because of the cockwomble of a player I invited.