"Only in RPG's..." Topic

Had a PF game Saturday. Not going to go into too much detail, but the highlight was a big bad readying an Inflict Serious Wounds to launch on one of us, rolling a 1 (fumbling.)

Consulted the Fumble/Crit app = "roll to hit your nearest ally with the spell."

Rolls a 20. Confirms. Consult the Fumble/Crit app = "Spell does Triple damage to target."

Only in RPG's…

Yeah but this is great stuff! We had a lot of fun with the crit/fumble tables back in the day. We're playing D&D 5e now, and the DM is not using any crit/fumble apps, which is a shame. Some whacky stuff can go on there!

Damon.

Now,I dunno. I blew myself up with a stick of dynamite in a Desperado game. And,in my first game of the FIW variant,I,as an Indian,lost a multiturn melee with an unconscious opponent.

Admittedly,Desperado is getting close to RPG.

Lots of bloody laughs,anyway.

Not just RPGs. Real life, too. It's hard to get honest numbers, but I suspect real life "friendly fire" losses--especially pre-uniform or after rifling and camouflage became common--are higher than anyone would tolerate in a rule set.

Certainly higher than I'd put up with.

The game master is welcome to embellish the result and make it R-O-L-E-playing instead of R-O-L-L-playing.

For example: "Big Bad breathes into a flask and mutters some eerie strange words. Next to him the Horned One starts an annoying giggling, and begins prancing and leaping. The liquid glows yellow and the hackles rise on the back of your neck. Big Bad draws back to throw … but at that moment the Horned One cavorts right in front of him. The flask shatters on his horn and Horned Minion blazes up in a screaming pillar of flame. 'Curses' says Big Bad, 'you can't get smart minions these days!`."

Oh, believe me, the DM loves to embellish the "rolls" with cinematic descriptors, this was not just mechanical. If I recall it correctly:

The Bad thrusts out to grasp our party member with her wispy, smoking hands, only to have him strongly bat her arm away. Losing her balance from the strength of the blow, the spell yet unspent, the caster stumbles a bit, catching her balance by grabbing onto the nearest object…

A cloaked figure whose features constantly shift and move, at his feet numerous insects crawl in and out.

He is grabbed unexpectedly, and a snakelike, inky smoke traverses the figure with supernatural speed, starting and ending at the contact, and he cries out in pain, a shrill buzzing that aches the ears.

In obvious fury, he suddenly grabs her in retribution, you can hear a whimper escape her lips, and then screams. And a sudden silence after the loud cracking of bone.

The creature looks down at his dead minion and the carnage the party has wrought on the others and mumbles matter-of-facly, "I have got to get me some better witches," before his cloak collapses, his body dissolving into thousands of insects, escaping through flight in the various cracks and crevasses in the room.

I suspect real life "friendly fire" losses--especially pre-uniform or after rifling and camouflage became common--are higher than anyone would tolerate in a rule set

I've had my share of "friendly fire" losses while LARPing. The worst was when I was running up to a "wounded" comrade who was armed with a great sword. He chose that moment to raise the sword over and behind his head, readying himself for a mighty strike. Instead, his backswing stabbed me in the groin. Needless to say, I was out of the fight.

As a dice snob, I wonder if the '1' and '20' indicate that the die in question may be biased.

Not a very "smart" Boss. A truly smart boss always has a low level body guard nearby just in case of such an emergency.

I suspect real life "friendly fire" losses--especially pre-uniform or after rifling and camouflage became common--are higher than anyone would tolerate in a rule set

I was playing paintball in an old factory building firing down the hallway providing covering fire. A Team member decided he was on the wrong side of the hallway and crossed my path not 10 feet in front of me and got 2 rounds in the back.

+1 Warwell, I've seen the same sort of thing and it's hilarious!

In my first PF game I had a Bard, just made 2nd level. We were using the card decks for crit/fumble and I took an arrow to the neck, 4x damage, popping my head off like a cork.

…and then I rolled up a new character…

Large party 8 or more player with miniatures. Wizard casts a fireball at EHP while another PC thief sets up for a backstabbing. EHP makes save and survives. Thief not so lucky.

I remember giving covering fire to a dwarf as he charged some bandits. I fumbled, hit friend, and critical him with an arrow straight through the neck.
We all had such a laugh, apart from the dwarf he tore up his character sheet in frustration, that the DM kindly restarted the game (we had only been playing for about 5 minutes).
Then there was the time that a 5th level barbarian tried to cut open a slain purple worm to rescue the 18th level Mage that had been swallowed whole; not a wise thing to do with an egotistical soul drinking sword – exit one wizard & barbarian…
I miss those critical hit tables that we used <gulp> 35 years ago.