Great Gaming Moments

[Super Squirrel]

On the old boards we had an assortment of threads anywhere from Funniest to Most Embarrasing Moments and even so far to Best Player Death. I want to simply that with a thread that is simply any moment that stands out and you want to share. Here is my leading example which is rather simple compared to the many stories I have been acquiring.

My players are in the City of North Pillar of a Post-Apoc Fantasy game. There was a minor earthquake and a contingent of the party is worried that one of their own may be involved. Wanting to follow a group of Templars who were heading to the scene, they all made a ton of rolls why they chose to roll some of these is beyond me but here is the list.

Tracking, Shadowing, Disguise, Stealth, Streetwise, Land Navigation, and Concealment. It was very amusing considering all they needed to do was make a Shadowing roll with a +4 bonus to the skill roll.

[GradonSilverton]

Origional Star Wars D6 system....

While exscaping from the house of a extremely rich "Planet Lord," the 5 PC's ran into their worst nightmare....

A Kitchen Droid that turned aggressive thanks to the internal security system that was signaling the PC's escape...

The PC were virtually weaponless (they had been stripped and had only picked up a few "club" like weapons so far...

The Kitchen droid took them to school...

Rolling Pin to the head...
Broom stick to the stomach...
Carving Knife to the leg...
Etc...

While the PC blew every Freakin' role they had...
One PC knocked another out with his club...
A second took a knife from the table and went about stabbing himself in the foot...
Etc...

By the time it was over, we had 2..count EM 2...conscious PC's and a Kitchen droid that only gave up b/c its legs were removed with 2 GREAT club wacks (and some GM compassion)...

To this day, the Kitchen Droid battle is legendary and makes all 5 of them blush and laugh!

[keithcurtis]

The game was Champions.
We were the West Coast contingent of a national super-team. We knew we were going to fight a psionic mastermind. (Think Menton). Realizing we would probably be mind-controlled to fight each other during the combat, we had our own team mentalist give us a mental compulsion to not fight another team member. Then his command would have to fight against her compulsion.
We voluntarily dropped our defenses and got psyched good and hard. Awesome rolls. There was absolutely no way we could be made to fight each other. All the time, our GM is being unusually cooperative.
We burst into his secret base to discover:
Our East coast team, already mind-controlled to fight us. We couldn't land a single punch. We got creamed.

Keith "Never trust a smiling GM" Curtis

[Bazza]

My character had just died for the third time. I found myself in a laboratory run by a wizard of some description. I didn't know at the time (I think) that he was an evil necromancer. He had been very good to be, raising me from the dead and I was indebted to him, or so I thought. One of his minions lightly tapped on my door. I found out later that he was trying to warn me. Well any way he lightly tapped three times on the door. I, supposedly, clapped three times. I don't know why. But the other players at the table cracked up laughing. I dont know why.

That same character, the second time got raised from the dead, was using his fingernail as a material component for the spell. A treasured memory.

[Lord Mhoram]

I've got a bunch of wonderful war stories (yeah wonderful, right). But this was one of my greatest moements roleplaying, both in and out of character, and it requires some set up for the final payoff. Rather long story.

The game was first ed D&D. It was 1986, and I had discovered Champions the year before, in Oregon. I had moved back to Utah, and was desperately looking for a champs group, but had found none. So I played D&D. At this point in my gaming evolution, I had been a hack&slasher most of my gaming life. It was only after playing champions for a while that I truly got into the idea of being "in character", role assumption, that sort of thing. I still was something of a powergamer, but it was now always within the constraints of the good characterisization. A new GM started a closed ended game, and wanted mid/high level characters. We were to investigate a Dwarven nation that everyone had lost contact with. I didn't have a character of approriate level (having been playing Champions) so the GM let me build one. Out came Obsidian- Drow fighter, but he was raised by Dwarves, from the age of a few weeks old. He was Lawful Good, and though of himself as a Dwarf. Now, this world knew about Drow, so he was hated/hunted, reviled and such, and always felt like an outsider, even at home.
We get to the town which became our home base and there was a statue to a local demigod in the town square, overlooking the main inn and general store. He had ascended, and this area had been his home in mortality. There was a legend that if somehow you could get inside the statue, you would find the "greatest treasure ever known". This Demigod was a half orc/half elf.

The adventure happens. A rather exciting mystery, but does not bear on my story. After we had ascertained the problem, and why, we were headed out to leave, but got lost in the Dwarven caves, and after hours of searching came upon a door to a small suite of rooms. A chapel, bed, and study. In the study were two windows, that when we looked out of them, we saw the villiage inn and store. We realized that we had found our way into the statue. At this point everyone starts ransacking the place looking for the treasure. Obsidian just looks out the window. The GM, taking each of us in turn telling us what we find- nothing. Obsidian keeps looking out the window, and the GM with a small smile keeps describing the interaction of the people, families moving about and such...
One of the other players, frustrated, cries "Where is this Greatest Treasure Even Know", and Obsidian (adopted drow child of Dwarves) said "Right here." and gestured out the window. He turned and said "This is the greatest treasure, acceptance by your fellow man & family. This god was a half orc, half elf- everyone reviled him, everyone was disgusted by him. That is what is here- community".
All the other players looked disgusted.

Possibly my greatest moment as a player. I had a true sense of transcendence of self- much like the one or two times doing theater in school when everything just came together. It is part of why I play.

As a postcript, we found a chapel to the demigod later, who gave everyone a minor wish. Obsidian wished for a recieved a grand, silver, bushy beard. :-)>

[Thirdbase]

In a Star Wars game, I was playing a small furry alien that was of a race of master traders. After spending half an hour or so in character haggling with the GM, we had completely forgotten what the initial parts of the deal were. We spent another 10 minutes backtracking to figure out each part of the deal.

[Catacomb]

We had a Jedi in the old Decipher game try and TK a blaster out of an assailants hand, and ended up whacking himself in the head with a hydrspanner...

[Alien Knight]

Ok, our most brilliant piece of teamwork ever (well, in that game anyway):
Snarl the Dinosaur Man (a brick for the hard of thinking) has just spent the last three phases closing with the evil Frostfire (an energy projector). On his phase, Snarl winds up with a haymaker only to discover that Frostfire has a move on the next segment. Frostfire decides that she doesn't really want to see what happens when the haymaker connects and moves away. Player frustrated, haymaker won't land.
Mirage (our teleporter/martial artist) and Speed Demon (our speedster) decide that this just won't do at all. Mirage hops on Speed Demon's back and race to Frostfire. Speed Demon grabs the miscreant and Mirage teleports them all to where Snarl is still swinging and they let go. Haymaker connects. Frostfire leaves the fight. (Rebounded down a hallway in Stronghold. Very unconcious.)

Amusing moment. Eldritch (sort of like Captain Marvel of the DC universe) is going mano-a-mano with some big Scottish brick. Brick pummels our hero and stuns him. Eldritch recovers. Brick pummels him again and stuns him. Eldritch recovers.
Brick: "Will you just fall down already?"
Eldritch: "I will never fall to evil for my heart is pure and my cause is just."
Brick pummels him again. Stuns him.
Eldritch: "I will never <groan> fall to evil, for my heart is pure and my cause is just."
Brick pummels Eldritch again. Negative stun, but only just (victim is still aware of surroundings).
Eldritch (wobbling now) takes a recovery and says, "I <huh> I will never...fall to evil...for my...heart is pure and my...cause...is just."
Brick lays into him AGAIN. Negative stun, but only negative nine.
Eldritch: "I...fall to evil...never will...just cause...pure heart...ow...ow."
Sadly the next hit finished him off. Unfortunately that exchage taught the GM that Eldritch was nigh invulnerable so he got the "red shirt" treatment forever after. You know, hit him first with the totally awful attack to show that the situation's serious.

[Peregrine]

The game was Star Trek (FASA Trek, for those interested).

The ship was disabled, and there was an expanding energy wave which would destroy the ship unless we moved soonest. The engineer character failed her rolls to get the engines working. Now, said engineer was of Terran Japanese background, and fully subscribed to the Code of Bushido (or some Trek variant thereof). Having failed, she asked "What do you want me to do, get our and push?" When no one answered, she did the following:

1. Got a warpshuttle from the shuttle bay
2. Piloted said warpshuttle to the rear of the ship, maneuvering until the warpshuttle was in physical contact with the ship's hull
3. Engaged the warpshuttle's warp engines so that the warp field so generated would encompass the ship.

Results:

1. The ship was 'warp-skipped' far enough that the maximum expansion of the energy field did not reach it (the ship was saved).
2. The warpshuttle did not move with the ship, and was destroyed by the energy wave (the engineer was killed).

Best player character sacrifice I ever saw - perfectly roleplayed.

[Brainchild]

Eldritch: "I will never fall to evil for my heart is pure and my cause is just."

Sadly the next hit finished him off. Unfortunately that exchage taught the GM that Eldritch was nigh invulnerable so he got the "red shirt" treatment forever after. You know, hit him first with the totally awful attack to show that the situation's serious.

Ah the Worf effect, never saw that in a game before, though, the mantra there reminds me of another from a computer animated movie: Dragon Hunters. "I do not fear you evil thing, for my heart is as pure as a fresh water spring." In the climax it was pulled petty well, I would say Eldritch dramatically got it here too.

The game was Star Trek (FASA Trek, for those interested).

The ship was disabled, and there was an expanding energy wave which would destroy the ship unless we moved soonest. The engineer character failed her rolls to get the engines working. Now, said engineer was of Terran Japanese background, and fully subscribed to the Code of Bushido (or some Trek variant thereof). Having failed, she asked "What do you want me to do, get our and push?" When no one answered, she did the following:

1. Got a warpshuttle from the shuttle bay
2. Piloted said warpshuttle to the rear of the ship, maneuvering until the warpshuttle was in physical contact with the ship's hull
3. Engaged the warpshuttle's warp engines so that the warp field so generated would encompass the ship.

Results:

1. The ship was 'warp-skipped' far enough that the maximum expansion of the energy field did not reach it (the ship was saved).
2. The warpshuttle did not move with the ship, and was destroyed by the energy wave (the engineer was killed).

Best player character sacrifice I ever saw - perfectly roleplayed.

This why i love rpg's, movies only Try to be as epic. It may be only once in a while, but when it happens it's worth the wait.
P.S. my username "Brainchild" refers to my first Champions character, a Lt. Cmdr. Data Homage, not the Mentalist villain.

[John Desmarais]

Golden Age Champions game. The heroes are trying to rescue a geophysicist mining engineer who has been captured by Lizard People living in catacombs under the city. Prior to being kidnapped one of the local news rags had run a pretty extensive story about the engineer and his radio x-ray device that he had used to map out the catacombs. The Article included a (small) picture of his map.

The actual rescue was occurring in the session of the game (session one had been a whole lot of preamble stuff, dropping big hints about what's going on, and basically railroading the the PCs into realizing they need to rescue this guy - included in this was the discovery of the newspaper article).

A couple of hours of play later, after getting lost in the catacombs multiple times, Rowdy (one of the players) realizes that he still has the printout of the newspaper article I had put together as a visual prop - which included a very small picture of the map. Upon showing this to the other players, Will (who had not been in session one) - in character as Vulcan begins shouting, "You had a map! We've been tromping around blindly in this smelly cavern for hours and you had a map!"

"You had a map!" has since become one of my favorite game quotes.

[Peregrine]

This why i love rpg's, movies only Try to be as epic.

Sadly, the only lesson the GM learned was "Make the players sacrifice a PC"; a meme he couldn't get rid of...

[Brainchild]

Sadly, the only lesson the GM learned was "Make the players sacrifice a PC"; a meme he couldn't get rid of...

Aw man, that’s not what where supposed to take away from that. The hero's aren’t supposed to die a lot!

[godfish]

A fantasy game that had been going on for quite a while. One of the PCs has a romantic interest in an NPC that he's been cultivating for a while. One of the issues is that the PC can't stand cats. The NPC, of course, has one that she treats like a spoiled child. The cat intervenes in an *ahem* romantic moment, just before the tasteful "fadeout" occurs, prompting the NPC to leave to get the cat something to eat. The PC gets up and begins to leave the room, turning back to the cat. The cat sits down on the bed and stares at the PC intently, yawning and beginning to clean itself. The PC says, "You win this round, cat!" The player delivered the line with absolutely perfect comic timing.

Note: Its basic humor is amplified when you're playing at 2 in the morning and haven't had a lot of sleep the night before.

[Peregrine]

Aw man, that’s not what where supposed to take away from that. The hero's aren’t supposed to die a lot!

Agreed. That was one of the many flaws that particular GM either developed or couldn't see his way to overcome, such that I won't game with him anymore. Fortunately, we are still close friends; we just don't game together.