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gandalf970:
My story is a GMs nightmare.  The group was pretty high level (15th) and they were King and knights of their realm.  They were happy to run domestic skills and role play the courts for a few levels.  I kept hinting, implying and out right telling them that they were starting to look weak as they were not flexing any military might.  The people respected this but they didn't care.

So they angered the Ice Queen in the neighboring kingdom so I decided to bring a white dragon down on them.  I foreshadowed all of it so they knew a dragon was coming.  When the battle ensued, they got initiative and the first knight charged in with his lance and hit him with an E writ, 100 on crit table dead.

I was so pissed as a GM they looked at me with all smiles and said, no problem.  I admit I sent the white dragons mate out of spite, but they killed that one as well in round 3 as I fumbled the dragons resistance roll.

DangerMan:
Our was somewhat the opposite of Peter's:

A crew of low level adventurers are going fra A to B in Middle Earth, somewhere in Arnor. There's the mage, the Paladin, the Rogue, the Fighter and the drunken, useless, underpowered Bard. The latter is the only non-powerplayer.

Unfortunatly the group stumbles upon a land drake - a wingless dragon. The dragon, however, does no attack on sight, but simply follows the group from out of range position. The group decides combat is the only way out, but we are very scared, as we were at low levels and we have no idea of the beasts power level. However, when pressing the attack, the dragon pulls away and starts taunting us and saying it will wait until we fall asleep. This goes on for hours...

Now we are beginning to get frustrated. We have a rule that says “no sleeping in armor” and thus we are going to need to get this fight going before bedtime. So we start taunting the dragon. “You sorry excuse for an overgrown serpent”. “Ya mama was a snake, raped by a real dragon” etc etc. Finally, the dragon charges! I remember the GM saying something like “Well, you are not CERTAIN to die….” a wicked smile on his face…

Now, the Fighter raises his sword and looks for a good position, the Mage starts to prepare shock bolt (bah…), the Rouge loads his bow and aims, the Paladin throws some defensive spell and the Bard…. The bard decides to fire his composite bow right away. He’s out of range and gets penalties for loading etc etc, all this on top of his missile skill of forty-something. Fat chance he’s gonna save the day… well..

First he rolls an open ended and gets the hit. Players go crazy, shouting the Bards praise. Then the critical. He lands it at 99!! Dragon dies from an arrow through his lungs. We are stunned! Players and GM alike agrees to go over the math and rules several times, to make sure no err was made. Then we celebrate and the Bard is forever known as The Dragon Slayer.

ARMS LAW FTW!!!!

jsoldati:
This one goes back about 18 years.  The act of open ending around our table is called a "schmenke." Rolling a second in a row, however rare, is called a double schmenke.

Gravit, a dwarven ranger, typical drinking problem, but highly manueverable, takes an ill advised bow shot at a passing giant the rest of the party was doing their best to hide from.  Totally breaking role play, screams erupted from around the table in anguish anticipating Total party kill.... Quadruple Schmenke large or superlarge table..... i forget now. 

Giant falls dead.  Dwarf uncorks flask. So whats the big deal??????

GrumpyOldFart:
Some of you have heard references to one of my faves before. It dates back to one of my first sessions of RM1, so it had to have been '81 or '82...

The party has been investigating an abandoned mine. They've been down there two days, have found several monsters of various stripes and at least a bit of treasure. Two days of going farther and farther in, they come to a shaft and ladder leading upward, and see daylight at the top. Figuring that it's better than a two day trip back, they decide to check it out.

It turns out they've gone all the way through the mountain, to a spot where the mines had connected to an old cave system. For some reason the Mentalist went up the ladder first, with the Rogue behind him. The shaft is 130' tall.

At the top, they find that they've connected to a cave system. Moreover, there are half a dozen small giants asleep in the cave. The Mentalist creeps away from the top of the ladder, trying to get by without waking the giants, and the Rogue follows.

I honestly don't remember who fumbled a maneuver enough to wake the giants, but it happened before the next person (a Fighter) got to the top of the ladder. So suddenly it's a Mentalist and a Rogue against six giants, and they have to hold them long enough for the two Fighters, the Magician and the Healer to get off the ladder.

Anyway, the Rogue takes a swing at the first giant up and moving, does a bit of damage but nothing major. The giant gets in his return shot and not only does damage but knocks the Rogue down and stuns him.

The GM lets the Rogue make a maneuver to stay upright and, since he's just "had his bell rung", to stay aware enough not to step in the shaft down to the mines. Roll a Stunned Maneuver....

-101 / -150 in the Stunned column: "Fall. +10 hits. You break your leg. You are at -75%. You are out 6 rounds."

Well the GM was "nice" and didn't demand that he fall to his death down the mineshaft. Instead, he spent the battle hanging at the top of the ladder, upside down by a broken leg, while the two Fighters, the Magician and the Healer all scrambled over him. At one point he had a stunned giant fall down the hole and nearly take him with him. The only thing that kept him up was his broken leg, hooked upside down into the ladder.

This is #1 of the sessions that made new players believe me when I said, "This is not like D&D."

GrumpyOldFart:
The #2 session that made players believe "This is not D&D" was thought up specifically for that purpose. I had a few new players, long time D&D players, who wanted to "kill some orcs". I told them that these are not D&D orcs, but apparently they didn't realize just how much difference there was.

So a party of 5 went out "orc hunting". Levels ranged from about 5 to 9 (I think, this was another session from decades ago). Off they go into the wild lands, hoping to find some orcs. They found one.

But since the one they found was a 13th level orc Rogue, they hardly needed any more.

The first to die was shot off the back of his horse while they were riding through 5'-6' high scrub oak in a mountain valley. The second to die was shot in the face from out of the darkness that night while they were camping. Luckily they had decided to set a double watch, otherwise none of them would have lived until morning.

They finally managed to drive the orc into a corner, where he couldn't ambush them from cover and their still superior numbers could be brought to bear, and thus managed to kill him.

The final tally was 1 remaining party member still alive, conscious and "walking wounded". 1 other party member critically injured, but stable and would probably live if he could be gotten back to town.

3 dead, 1 critically but not mortally wounded, taking down one orc.



Note: I dunno from advertising, copyright issues, etc. Feel free to insert "typical RPG orc" for "D&D orc" anywhere you like.

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