You guys love having stories and talking about times your players were retarded or how your DM was retarded

You guys love having stories and talking about times your players were retarded or how your DM was retarded.
But what are some stories where you legitimately felt pride in your group and how they outwited or dealt with a situation?
A scenario that shows they actually learned?

instead of doing our regular murder hobo antics we instead accused a war vet who kicked my halfing bards ass and stabed grarr the orc my halfings best friend, of being a pedofile and the town burnt him alive.
> tldr use words to burn enemies

>supers game 1930's
>temporal shenanigans
>time rifts open throughout the city
>players psyched, they get to punch dinosaurs
>rifts get worse and a pre-ice age army marches through
>foot soldiers with hide armor and copper axes
>orichalcum armored warriors riding saber tooth tigers
>a majestic and savage warlord atop a woolly mammoth

After punching dinosaurs I figured the players would attack. Instead they surprised me with a effective display of diplomacy.

>party of murder hobos
>trying to save small city from bandits
>attack the bandits stronghold
>realize we have no plan whatsoever
>improvise
>druid summons a lion
>druid conjures a lightning storm
>party mounts the lion
>burst through the front gates while riding a lion in the middle of a lightning storm
We won the fight too, barely.

Damn, this game sounds like it was a lot of fun

>Be player in a campaign
>We're supposedly heroes, but act more like a dysfunctional gang
>We frequenty fuck up quests, come in conflict with nobility and royalty all the time, our quest givers betray us and there's barely anybody in the world who gives us any sort of respect
>And we give them no respect in return
>It all ends with us saving the world, but the mighty sweep it under a rug and effectively exile us instead of rewarding.
>Get very salty, tell the DM that all his NPCs are complete assholes
>He promises to fix it

>Same DM, next campaign
>We're still a dysfunctional gang, but less so
>Roleplay more, try to act like heroes
>Still do a lot of dumb shit, and NPCs sometimes call us out
>End up saving the world again
>But also royally fuck things up for the king
>He contemplates hanging us for it, but chooses to reward us for saving the world instead
>Well, that's an improvement

>Same DM, next campaign
>We're a group of refugees, looking for a better life
>Rumors of a better life turn out to be a lie, this new place sucks
>It's infested with monsters, bandits, elves and assholes
>Our liege lord is kind of tolerable, but he gets kidnapped a few sessions in
>With nobody to boss us around or force us into quests, we become a proactive force
>Kill the bandits, slay the monsters, establish the trade routes, arm the guard out of our own pockets
>Save our liege lord out of our own initiative and restore him to power
>Lift the curses, heal the sick, solve the crimes, right the wrongs
>Over twenty sessions or so, we singlehandedly make this shitty duchy perhaps the least terrible place in the war-torn kingdom
>Soon people begin raising glasses in our honor
>We are knighted for our feats, even though the party is full of inhumans and women
>Very soon after we are lorded too, end up ruling the place.

>DM apologizes for running grimderp campaigns full of traitorous, ungrateful pricks
>We apologize for playing as murderhobos
>Vicious cycle of shit is broken

It was a pretty incredible game. I was aiming for pre-golden age Justice League. They went for mystery men, and I met them halfway.

The game ended on a cliffhanger. They were about the enter the hollow earth and get ambushed by a group of 4th Reich super clones.

The funniest moment had to be when the telepath read the mind of the NPC from the future and found she was here to kill Hitler. This is way before Adolf became known internationally, so they started collecting telephone directories and warning each Hitler they could find. It broke the national news in game. "Nationwide Rash of Prank Calls Leave Hitlers Puzzled"

Once, a few years back, my party ended up in a situation where they were up in the mountains, and needed the help of a Redwood nymph - who didn't trust them one bit, because they were coming from the direction of a camp full of lumber workers. I like to keep things pretty open-ended, so I was prepared for them to either do her a mini-quest to win her over, to negotiate some sort of peace between her and the loggers, or to try and continue without knowing exactly how to get where they were going (the nymph knew how to access a long-forgotten mineshaft in the area which the party was looking for).

And as I'm sitting behind my screen, wondering which of a, b, or c the party's going to do, one of the players says, "How about a trade? We'll give you a hundred pounds of rich soil."

I think I said something eloquent like "What?" at that point, and she explained that since this giant tree was sitting up in the mountains, on terrain I'd previously described as rocky and rough, surely quality dirt was at a premium, and what nymph wouldn't want to beef up her growing opportunities? That hadn't even occurred to me, but it was clever enough that I wasn't going to argue with it. So they agreed to the hundred pounds of rich soil.

I didn't appreciate quite how clever she was being, though, until she got back to the lumber camp and offered to empty their latrine, free of charge. Nightsoil is still soil, and the tree won't care as long as it's nutrient-rich, right? In the space of just a few hours in-game and maybe ten minutes realtime, the party got information that I thought it would take them an entire session, and were on their way.

I didn't even feel outsmarted; it was just a great example of lateral thinking. Honestly, it was one of the more fun experiences I've had at the gaming table.

I don't think I've ever encountered an uplifting "Characters dump shit on my NPC" story before.

Awesome tale, sir!

This one guy liked playing songs in the table while he was the bard.

In one situation where the party was captured for doing some dumb shit in a castle they are brought before the king, who is known for being harsh, sort of sadistic when it comes to punishing criminals and very proud of it.

Bard asks him if he will release the party if he plays a song that will impress the king.

King allows it.

The dude gets up, picks up his guitar and lays out the most impressive non-metal version of Mötorhead's King of Kings I've ever heard.

I disregard the roll and tell him he succeeded.

Everything seemed to be going wrong. My high bluff sorcerer got bad rolls and couldn't get info from a shopkeeper (secret cult leader kidnapping people) and got kicked out. Our stealth got made bad stealth rolls and was trapped in conversation with the shopkeeper, though confirming he was not the original shopkeeper in that conversation.

So I turned invisible while the others stalled for time and I snuck into the basement to look for clues. I then kept getting bad perception rolls and needed more and more time. No problem.

Our very large and strong monk, who's player would speak in a ridiculous Russian accent when voicing, went up to the shopkeeper with a very unique problem. He rolled 'ok' so the GM left the outcome up to whatever he could think of on the spot to say.

>Shopkeeper I was wondering, you see I am a very, very BIG man. Do you have any very BIG potions.
>The shopkeeper is confused, "Do you mean you just need more potions? I wouldn't advise that."
>No shopkeeper, I am a big man, so what I need is a big potion. Small potions, ah, they do not seem to work as well. Is there such a thing as a bigger potion.
>Do you mean for bigger injuries, or just bigger bottles?
>No the potion must be big, you see me, look at me, I am big man, very big, I need bigger potion.
>So you mean a more powerful potion?
>No, no no no no, I do not mean stronger potion. You see I am very big man....

and it went on, and on, and on like this, the absolute best improv I have ever seen. He discovered new ways of shifting the conversation and acting confused, all to bring it back with the same question. Eventually the shopkeeper got mad enough to demand he buy something or leave, so they bought a few potions and I came up the stairs in time to make it out and tell them what I found (puzzle and riddle stuff on the walls hidden behind crates mostly).

>are you Sarah Conner

My players were new but very sure of themselves. They thought that they could win every encounter simply by nuking it without thinking. I had to make sure there was a beatdown so they could realize that fighting with smarts was more effective.

So i made a BBEG that was stupid overpowered if the players played by their normal rules.
>30 foot reach due to magic chain
>anywhere within this reach, he can attack, and he can make attacks as reactions to almost any action.
>his attacks would paralyze and would interrupt magic
>his attacks would also trip
>his armor also made him resistant to ((direct)) magic
>he had an ability to break out of almost all status effects that dont disable thought completely
>can deflect attacks, including rays and beams

The players were in a heap of trouble, but they didnt know it. They thought "pssh new BBEG? should be over in a few rounds" and got themselves invited to a duel.

Immediately the BBEG's had innocent townspeople surround the arena in approximately a 30 foot radius. Explosions would have to be kept to a minimum. Then the beatdown began.
I could describe round by round what happened, but in summary, the players individually whispered "fuck" on their respective turns.
Several times each they were knocked unconscious and regained consciousness in this combat sequence.
When they were on their last bit of energy, one player summed up all the abilities that they knew he had, and decided on a simple solution. He simply used an indirect spell to affect the BBEG's chain, rather than the BBEG himself. The chain disappeared for a few rounds, but in this time 70% of what made the BBEG a threat disappeared.
His range disappeared, so he could not harm anyone if they ever acted, and he could not interrupt spells, and he could not deflect attacks or trip, he was toast.

I feel that from that point they started thinking a little longer before acting. It made their choices more meaningful.

I love your group dude. You are all awesome

>Bist du Sara Conner?
The Hitler murdering NPC was a vat grown Aryan Superfrau. She came from a future in which the Nazis won, destroying the planet in the process. They look to the stars for Lebensraum, and the horrified clone steals an experimental time machine to kill Hitler. I think her plan was to 'port a T-Rex into the Reichstag.

The 4th Reich clones that were going to ambush the players were all variations of their NPC buddy. Only instead of being a daredevil gadgeteer they all had powers similar to the player characters.

I did my best to make sure she didn't turn out a DMPC. The players kept her tied up in the beginning, and later trusted her to do behind the scenes tech stuff.

That sounds absolutely amazing, as does this entire campaign. I've half a mind to request an entire storytime.

Most of that stuff I came up on the fly. I had as completely different series of adventures planned, but they insisted chasing after a throwaway npc. Rather than railroading them into the original plot I decided to see how far they'd go down the rabbit hole.

I know that feeling - if an NPC is important you can garuntee my players will breeze past it, but the one-shot throwaway is of the utmost importance.
My players once captured a decently high-ranking lieutenant of the BBEG, who was just there to demonstrate that the BBEG made use of child soldiers because everyone loves an easy to hate villain, and they spent the better part of like 2 sessions with her imprisoned on their ship deciding what to do with her.
The entire plot-line she was supposed to hook them on to eventually dissappeared, and she became a recurring character that they all loved; well, until her grand betrayal two campaigns later that resulted in the BBEG taking over the world because she'd been a spy the entire time and had subtly pushed the group to do things that were two steps removed from what the villain wanted in the first place. That was a good time, the hurt was real.

Obviously, nowhere near as awesome as time-travelling aryans who plan to kill Hitler with a T-Rex, but then what is?

>time-travelling aryans who plan to kill Hitler with a T-Rex
I managed to find some of my old NPC files. The system is Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition. Here is "Mad Jack" Von Braun in all her glory.

>Jack Von Braun – PL 11
>St 14 Dex 26 Con 16 Int 30 Wis 16 Cha 18
>Tough +11 Fort +8 Ref +13 Will +8
>Attack +10 Damage: Unarmed +2, Blaster Pistol +5 Defense +10 Initiative +9
>Powers/Devices: Rocket Pack (device 2, Flight 5, 250mph)
>Feats: Attractive, Equipment 10, Inventor, Skill Mastery( Drive, Pilot, Disable >Device, Profession), Improved Initiative, Fearless
>Skills: Acrobatics +16, Bluff +12, Computers +18, Craft: Electronic +25, Craft: >Mechanical +25, Diplomacy +12, Disable Device +25, Disguise +12, Drive +23, >Escape Artist +16, Gather Information +12, Intimidate +12, Knowledge: >Technology +25, Medicine +11, Notice +11, Pilot +23, Profession: Pilot +15, >Search +18, Sense Motive +11, Stealth +16, Survival +7, Swim +6
>Equipment: Blaster Pistol, Armored Smart Cloth, Rocket Pack, Comlink Bracer
>The Valkyrie: Spaceship disguised as custom autogyro, Sleipnir: a anti-grav motorcycle

Character origin for Jack
>Time traveler from an alternate timeline in which the Nazis won WWII and conquered the world. She's come back in time to make sure this doesn't come to pass, and to stop the atrocities committed towards the end of the war. In short she's here to kill Hitler. However, she has to do it at a specific point in time, otherwise the Nazi movement is empowered by Hitlers martyrdom. While she works to determine this juncture, Jack is enjoying the thrills Central City has to offer.

Trying to dig up info on the player characters right now.

>Group was hired to act as bodyguards for some lord at a feast
>It's basically confirmed that assassina are going to attack the lord (because it's a game of course they are)
>They aren't a very proactive bunch, were the type who would've been content to just mill around the target until the scripted assassin pops out, then just swordbang it
>I've been trying to cure them of this shit habit
>Give them the timetable for the day, the layout of the castle, the guest list and some info
>Tell them I'm going to go shopping for snacks and shit, and I'll be back in half an hour. They need to come up with a plan/schedule while I'm out
>Surprised with the amount of thought they put into it when I get back, they give me a huge list of things they check/do which are right on the money
>Everything plays out like a god damn heist movie, everyone having a blast
>They capture assassins in three seperate routes, but fail to figure out the fourth (they easily assumed the food was poisoned, but specified their focus on the cooks and waiters, inclusing taste testing as soon as the food/wine was served)
>Assassin passes his checks to climb along the rafters and drip poison along a string onto the food after its tested
>On a whim the Cleric uses fucking Detect Poison of all things
>Most players didn't even know about the spell, but he had the forethought to take it for the day
>I'm so fucking stoked
>The lord gives them enough property to set them up for life
>Best session ever

>The entire plot-line she was supposed to hook them on to eventually dissappeared, and she became a recurring character that they all loved; well, until her grand betrayal two campaigns later that resulted in the BBEG taking over the world because she'd been a spy the entire time and had subtly pushed the group to do things that were two steps removed from what the villain wanted in the first place. That was a good time, the hurt was real.
The sweet taste of betrayal.

Honestly, it wasn't just the betrayal, it was the fact they all had a "Oh shit that totally makes sense" moment.
She was a mechanic that they got to fix up their ship every so often, and was open about the fact she essentially ran a blog documenting their adventures (because even villains supposedly-turned-heroes have hobbies), and that she wasn't opposed to the BBEG's goals, just his methods.
So when the crew are framed for a few crimes, they all have a "Who could have framed us this well?". Well, who's been able to examine the specs of your ship, your ID signatures (even if she changes them for you, you rapscallions), knows how you fight, work, your team dynamic, and has been posting it all online? Not that anyone would listen - unless, of course, they knew it was all true. But who could have the motivation? Well, probably the only person who openly says they don't mind the Empire coming back, so long as it's done properly.

To tie back to the thread, I was actually really proud of their roleplaying when she revealed everything. My group are pretty light-roleplayers, more along for the story and the laughs, but there was some actual conviction in their acting that day, I don't think anybody broke character or summarised what they say instead of saying it for a solid hour or so.

>But what are some stories where you legitimately felt pride in your group and how they outwited or dealt with a situation?
>A scenario that shows they actually learned?

I got none. The only thing that keeps me playing is the hope that I'll actually find a group that will try to solve a problem with something different other than "I attack/intimidate him/her/it".
They don't even try to seduce anything, just attack.

I dont know you or your group, but I do know people use the tools they have to solve the situation they're in. Mostly this thumb-rule is only excepted when it is abundantly clear the tool is unsuited -- or illegal.

The players were visiting the mayor near reelection time. He mentioned the challenger and asked them for their vote. They IMMEDIATELY wanted to go pay the challenger a visit and I hadn't even considered that.

> level 7ish group follows trail to discover sizeable gnoll war camp set up doing spooky shit
> actually scope it out successfully and even capture scouts for interrogation
> Make our plan of attack overnight
> moon druid transforms into a giant ape (magic item) and being hasted while wielding a big tree as a bat and rushes the palisade
> Barbarian sat on their shoulder and leapt into the fray and tanked some serious damage charging the main fortification
> wizard and light cleric on air support mounted on griffon, raining fireballs etc.
> gnoll/fiend general came out of his tent and saw the slaughter and seppuku'd
> took out at least 100 gnolls in maybe 4 rounds
> felt real good

I know it wasn't any kind of spectacular show of tactics but the party messes up plans a lot and it was great to throw everything we had in one good assault and actually pull something off without actually having too much a sweat

My group rescued a little girl once without a single pedophile joke. Sometimes it's the little things.

Not really an epic tale of the party overcoming adversity, but a single action that was fairly obvious but I had completely not even anticipated as an option and took me really off-guard with how clever it was.

>Two PC's are escorting a villainous sorcerer they had apprehended in the previous session gagged and manacled through a side passage of the king's castle to be stowed away while an execution is prepared.
>One of the PC's is wounded from the battle and is taking wound penalties and cannot do any sort of strenuous athletic feats
>The PC's describe how they put one of those execution hoods over his head while describing the scene and I roll with it.
>Suddenly the castle is in an uproar as the king had been murdered in broad daylight
>A doppelganger of the wounded PC sprints past the party as the sound of guards thunders closer
>The healthy pc gives chase but the wounded one is stuck in a hallway with a captive sorcerer while a mob of angry guards gets closer.
>The PC snatches the hood off the prisoner and puts it on himself, pulling the oldest trick in the Scooby-Doo book


I was taken totally by surprise how that bit of flavor text saved his ass and didn't see that coming at all.

I was GMing a story where metallic dragons all disappeared, meaning that the chromatics now had nothing holding them back and were building/breeding armies of minions to take over the world. One of these were Vulaxthen, a blue ancient wyrm, who is known for taking care of his 'princes' and 'princesses' descendants, no matter how draconic they are. So later on, when the party found out that one of Vulaxthen's minions were buying a plot-related artifact from a different dragon, they disguised the party's bard (who was a siren, and had... blue scales) as a half-dragon. And acted like a complete bitch, snotty and arrogant, acting as one of Vulaxthen's daughters.

By the end of it, the players had the artifact, and Jelvurn (The green Adult who ruled the city) was sure that Vulaxthen planned to pick this annoying daughter to be the courier as a way of showing his dislike and distrust for Jelvurn, and Vurn was going to show his distaste back to the bigger, badder blue dragon... who was pissed he didn't get the artifact.

Long story short, they got the mcguffin and started a civil war between their enemies.

I was playing a game of fake D&D with my ten year old brother, he was playing a stone golem whose flaw was that he couldn't talk.
>While traveling through the woods he fell into a hole
>It was a hunters trap, there were skeletons and some spikes around
>He decided to take out the spikes and make them into poles that held up a tunnel he was digging
>After a while, he dug into a cave with abandoned dwarven buildings and huts
>Explored a bit and decided to dig up
>He scrapped whatever wood was around to make more poles and shovels, he then made a stairway to the surface
I was proud of him, especially since his character was pretty large, pic related is what his dude looked like.
Not that cool, but felt like sharing.

>group has a habit of dying in the first session of every campaign
>ask them what difficulty they want for this new one
>they still pick the hardest one
>group starts on a cell with a single sleeping guard outside and five armed guards
>they start hearing the sound of explosions far away
>the five guards quickly run off
>only the sleeping guard is left
>they eventually lockpick the cell and take care of the guard aswell as get the keys
>free the other party members
>"alright guys, roll for encounter"
>they roll 1
>3 armed guards and a general-looking dude with golden armor appears
>good chance of at least a single death if they fight this
>immediatelly though, they all surrender instead
>are taken back to their cells and they just wait till the golden-armor dude has to leave to take care of whathever caused those explosions
>go on to make their escape again, now only against the 3 armed guys he left
>by proper use of surprise attacks, they hardly even take damage

I never felt so proud, even more considering we have 3 murderhobos on the party.

Every fucking time they sideline me in my own game to rp with each other (or ignore the material I have planned out to chat up major NPCS and discuss ships).

God I love my friends.

...

Please let the dead rest in peace, foul necromancer.

One player of mine had been playing in a campaign for three years and needed to retire his character. This one monk had seen some shit.
>His family was killed by ghouls, his brother aged before his time
>His best friend had been turned to evil and then killed
>He fought for this noble cause even when he was the last member of the original band together
>He saw so many people suffer and die he was used to it
>He just wanted to retire and make his potions, but he felt obligated to fight anyways

He had seen a dark sorcerer who ruined the lives of thousands dead, rescued a young princess from her manipulative foster father, struck down a rogue swordsman, challenged a goddess of chaos, and eventually freed an entire nation from tyranny. He even got his immortality, even if it was at the cost of his ability to have children (he wasn't interested in romance, so that didn't matter either).

What was his reward for doing all this awesome shit? His brother, who had been aged to death by a ghoul and was the reason he set out in the first place, got brought back to life at about the same age as him. He returned to a monastery the group found along the path and finally found himself again.

I was just happy to finally give this guy a happy ending.

I love it

I feel pretty proud of one of my fellow players. Two of our party were dying in the middle of a horde of enemies. Our Halfling Rogue with 23 STR overcame his flaw of running away in tough spots and managed to airlift them out of dodge in one turn using dash, cunning action, haste, and Tenser’s Floating Disc

Lies. Groups. Groups never change.

>DM has always been a bit loose about rules for the sake of fun
>For a couple sessions, our druid's moonbeam has been a bit on the overpowered side.
>DM decides to nerf it by restricting it to night because "it gets its power from the moon."
>Next session, we're about to face a boss.
>"So, moonbeam gets its power from the moon, right?"
>"Yeah"
>"What about Jupiter's moons?"(we assumed we were in the same solar system, different Earth)
>It was a joke, but the DM took a moment to think about it.
>We proceed to spend the encounter tanking hits for him. The DM told him it'd take some time to charge.
>I guess we're Dragon Ball now
>I can only assume the DM wanted this to happen as much as we did and fudged some rolls because it finished as we were about to have our shit pushed in.
>He brings down an orbital fucking strike.
>The damage from a regular moonbeam is multiplied by about 60.
>Vaporizes the boss and our paladin.