That is a classic! One I'm going to tell my group this weekend. Thanks for a
great laugh Clark. :)
I could go on about the Warhammer game were the halfling assassin, pissed
off at the ex-snotball player in the group, spent over 500,000 gold crowns
to build a house made from gunpowder just to kill the ex-snotball player....
But I won't. :)
Hyrum.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Clark
Peterson
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 10:23 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [ogf-d20-l] Detecting Traps?
Hyrum-
That reminds me of my favorite all time D&D moment,
which unfortuantely led two players not to speak to
each other for about a year.
This requires a little set up, which, unfortunately
will make the final punch line less funny. But it is
necessary:
Some years ago I ran an adventure campaign where I
said "everyone go create 12th level dream characters
and I will give you killer magic items." The concept
was I was sending them through a gate in an evil
temple to Acheron, the plane of slime and muck, where
they would confront the minions of the frog-demon
Tsathogga, steal an item of great power, yada yada
yada. Power gaming at its finest.
In any event, they had barely bashed some demon heads,
made it through the portal and found another nasty
shrine on the other side when they ran into a problem:
They came upon a room that just screamed "this room is
trapped with some horrible Clark-inspired death trap
that wont be pretty."
The thief in the party was a halfling played by a guy
named Gene. An awesome roleplayer. Maybe the best I
have ever had. But on this day he was shown-up by one
of my best friends, a guy named Joe.
Joe always loved Elric. He had been buggin me for
years to let him play an anti-paladin (from the old
Dragon magazine article). I always said no. But when I
got the idea for this incredibly high powered
campaign, he made the request again--this time
persuasively. After all, most of the PCs were neutral
(unlike my normal cleric and paladin oriented
adventures), so it wasnt as much of a problem. He got
cool black armor and I gave him Blackrazor from White
Plume Mountain. [I told you it was power gaming].
So.....
Here they are at the obviously trapped room. Problem
is, Gene doesnt want to send his halfling thief in to
check for traps. He knows he is going to get greased.
And he is mostly worried because he cant figure out
how. I'm sure the cleric found traps as well.
An argument ensues for 30 minutes about how to handle
dealing with the trap. And I had 8 players. So this
got heated.
And then the gem I will never forget.
Joe's half-orc anti-paladin, frustrated from the 30
minute discussion, grabs the halfling and tosses him
into the room to the stunned amazment of Gene (the
player of the thief) and everyone else. (I think I
made Joe grapple him, but I dont recall).
Needless to say the whirling scything blades that
appeared from nowhere severed Gene's thief's arm and
then killed him from multiple other injuries.
Everyone looked at Joe in shock. (Gene seething)
His response was classic: "Hey, thieves are for
detecting traps. He found the trap."
Problem was because they were on a deep level of
another plane I cut off some of the high level priest
spells so they could only raise him from the
dead--meaning the thief was alive, but no arm. (they
used a scroll or maybe a potion). To Gene's credit, he
played the thief for some time afterward and wound up
fashioning what can now be described as a magical
inspector gadget-type arm (though this was before that
cartoon).
I still tell that story to all new players saying they
want to play halfling thieves....
Just thought I'd share.
Clark
PS--Gene and Joe eventually got over it. Well, I
should say Gene got over it. To this day Joe loves
that story.
PPS--I should also mention that several of the players
had been getting upset with Gene dragging his feet
about doing his job so, though they were stunned, they
didnt exactly get mad at Joe. They just insisted that
he no longer stay in the rear of the marching order.
=====
http://www.necromancergames.com
"3rd Edition Rules, 1st Edition Feel"
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