Runs gone bad, horror stories please Options

[Dog]

First time player: "Here's my new character. He's an elf-mage-decker!"
Me: "Let me guess: you used to play D&D."

or:

Mr. Johnson: "My name is Joe. I represent orc underground loyalists who are acting against the insurgency of the corporate machine to our community. There is a plot we want you to investigate and stop. For information, you may want to check out this lady, who works in the hydroponics gardens. We believe she is involved in smuggling people into the underground."

Player 1: "Okay, lets go to the hydro-whatever."

Me: "Hydroponics lab. That's where... never mind. You trek down to the lab area. It looks like a high-tech greenhouse. It's open to the public and has a lot of glass walls looking out into the common areas. There are a couple of orc militia guards loitering about and a few orc workers. One matches the description you were given."

Player 2: "Why do we need to talk to her again?"

Player 1: "Mr. Johnson says she knows where to find the guys that we're looking for."

Player 2: "Does she know Joe?"

Player 1: "I dunno."

Player 2: (talking to orc lady) "Excuse me. Joe, the underground loyalist guy, he says that you know about smuggling people into the community. Can we talk to you for a second?"

Me: "She stares at you nervously. So are several others within earshot."

Player 1: "It's okay. We work for Joe, he said we should talk to you."

Me: "She screams for help and runs away. The militia are approaching."

Player 2: "Waitaminnit. Does she know Joe or not?"

or:

Me: "The contact for your meet is at an address deep inside Redmond."

Noobie: "What's that mean?"

Experienced Player: "You didn't read anything I gave you.... The Redmond barrens are the burnt-out wastelands of years of depravity and desperation, some of the worst urban conditions a human being could conceivably survive in. It's kinda like Escape From New York, but... (blank stare) ...never mind. I mean, the cops only go into that area in teams of a dozen, using full-on armored vehicles and military-type weapons."

Noobie: "The cops are that tough? Wow, I'll leave my gun at home then. (disbelieving stares from the rest of us) ...I don't want to get into trouble."

or my favourite:

(This one I gotta justify. It not only counts as most gory player death, but most spectacular disaster that could not be attributed to bad dice rolls. And best of all, it was a completely innocent and well-meaning gesture on the part of the player.)

Me: "You finally manage to break through the glass, and escape from the arcology is only a quick climb away."

Player 1: "I toss the climbing line out and make sure it's secure on some beams or something. This wound might slow me down, so I'll go last."

Player 2: "I've barricaded the door as best I can, and booby trapped it. It should buy us enough time to climb down. Man, did Renraku build those drones, or did something else?"

Player 3: "I guess we'll just take our chances with the army once we're out. I'll rig some kind of harness for the little kid we rescued."

Me (offhandedly): "He won't leave without that stupid doll he's carrying."

Player 3: "Fine, I'll just stuff it inside my armor vest or something."

...and the rest is local legend.

[ShadowDragon8685]

[Dog]

Read Renraku Shutdown. I don't wanna spoil any more than I already have.

[Jaid]

[ Spoiler ]

the dolls are Deus' drones. they kinda "hypnotize" the children and act as spies for Deus, pretty much. in a campaign against Deus, you certainly wouldn't want to bring one along, i would think =P

[edit] what's to spoil? it's kinda old now. ah well, if you don't want it spoiled, (ie your GM is gonna run renraku arcology, ever) then don't read the spoiler. [/edit]

[ShadowDragon8685]

Ooooooh, owwwwww, heheehehehe. That hadda hurt.

[Trax]

You know how some people put explosives in toys? Yeah...

[eidolon]

That is awesome. :)

Explosions contained by body armor are the coolest.

[Dim Sum]

[Nikoli]

ah, so it was genetic then.

[Dim Sum]

[Fortune]

I would have assumed that an Anti-Theft system would have been able to be remotely activated. We can do that type of thing nowadays, after all.

[Nkari]

I think the problem was that the system was activated by the rain, and the bike and the guy was in the same puddle of water..

[Dim Sum]

Yeah, the system could be remotely activated and de-activated.

That one time he used it and got himself sizzled to crisp, the rain did not activate the system. He did, and he refused to use the remote (I haven't a CLUE why).

[ShadowDragon8685]

Why didn't you just ask him to make an Inteligence test (TN 3), and if he generated any successes, tell him outright that activating the @*(%^@ing thing will kill him.

[Krazy]

what if he didn't have the common sense edge. I know very smart people who occasionaly do very stupid things.

[Foreigner]

Dim Sum:

Why am I reminded of that scene in ROBOCOP 2 ?


Advertisement: Would-be car thief gets fried by an electric antitheft system--the thing looked like a six-point racing harness--when he triggered it after breaking into the car and getting into the driver's seat.

He was promptly cooked, and then the car deposited what was left on the pavement.

First lines:

Salesman: "MagnaVolt-- the final word in auto security. No embarrassing alarm noise, no need to trouble the police.... And it won't even run down your battery!"

Announcer voiceover: "MagnaVolt! Lethal response!"

:P

--Foreigner

This post has been edited by Foreigner: Oct 24 2005, 10:26 PM

[Dim Sum]

ShadowDragon, I draw the line at telling players the painfully obvious. If a player is about to do something that might backfire badly because he (the player as opposed to the character) is not familiar with how things work in RL, I would warn them and explain to them the situation. For example, a PC rigger piloting a sailboat wants to cut across a large fast-approaching container ship in order to lose his pursuers. The player may have no knowledge of sailing in RL but I would judge that his character (having the skill to pilot a sailboat) does. I would then explain to the player that his character knows what would follow if he made such a maneuver - loss of wind power, water turbulence in the wake of the ship, etc., etc.. If the player then chooses to continue the same course of action, he is making an informed choice.

If a player designs an anti-theft system with the intent to kill, then parks it in a puddle in heavy rain, and ignores 3-5 minutes of BLATANT hints (which were short of saying, "This will kill you.") from me and the other players, I really don't have much sympathy for the player. :S

[Dim Sum]

Heh, Foreigner, an apt analogy! :D

[Starfurie]

[ShadowDragon8685]

Haaahaaaah!

"Always know what's on the other side of anything you shoot at."

The DM shoulden't have been a dick with the high-tech treatment rules. They don't add any enjoyment (except for the sadistic DM) to the game.

Magic Loss from damage and treatment rules: Or, how to make the mage suicide and create a new character.

[SL James]

You'd think after 50 fucking years they'd have figured out a way to get around that.

[fistandantilus4....]

yeah, it's called fire zones. You could always get those prximity safetys too.

But hey, they were using rules for it, the players were aware of it. So fair's fair, although it surely sucks. Happens sometimes. See my sig for an example of crappy rolling at it's best/worst.

Good story :)

[Siege]

Ya know, when I heard the "deep in Redmond" story, I was half-expecting the player to grab a shovel. Or kill the gazebo.

And for those of you who think this can only happen in Shadowrun...

A fellow in Cambodia was trying to extort a drug dealer with a hand grenade.

Safety tip: do not taser a suspect who happens to be soaked in gasoline.

-Siege

[Starfurie]

[RedKnightSpecial]

I don't even remember the last time I posted here, but this thread has inspired me. Plus I am starting a new campaign Thursday.

We had a group of new players. I staged an impressive sounding adventure (kidnap scientist, steal data, blow lab, escape). I made the adventure pretty easy. There were just 5 sec guards with light pistols scattered around, a weak mage, and some type of airborn, magically active bacteria that made astral sight impossible.

One of the guys INSISTS on making a ghoul (3rd ED). I tell him it's a bad idea. Ghouls are blind, they can only see astrally. He wants to anyay. OKaaay.

He gives his Ghoul the Demolitions skill. Whet the group is planning the run, the BLIND ghoul wires up some explosives. Of course he did it horribly, but I didn't have it blow up right there.

So during the run, the ghoul can't see a thing because of the bacteria and is getting led by the fricken arm. Eventally they get to the part where they need to blow the lab. The bombs don't go off. They (under fire now) bring him the bomb and tell him to fix it. He asks them to open the bomb up and explain what's wrong with it so he can tell them how to fix it.

They shoot him with a burst from an automatic shotgun and leave by various means. 1 of them survived.