Players Gambled & Got Themselves Killed Cause It Was Getting Boring
A few friends and I were running a modified homebrew campaign loosely based on the rules
of 'The Dark Eye' and the setting of the game 'FTL: Faster than Light'.
Essentially, they were all part of the crew of a small starship, with everyone choosing
their race, class and position on the crew (pilot, engineer, shields guy, weapons guy).
The only part I wholly stole from FTL was that every part of the ship could be damaged
individually - so an enemy vessel could specifically cause damage to the weapons systems, which
would then need skills, repair kits, scrap, etc to fix.
I hooked the party with a little mystery about strange alien monoliths being found on a few
planets across the galaxy and causing people to go crazy, and off they went.
I was the DM for the campaign, and probably could have been a little more heavy-handed,
but I didn't want to risk breaking the group's fun at the time.
The first few sessions went really well, and everyone found their groove - we're all sci-fi
nerds, so they all had fun making call-outs like in star trek and roleplaying the bridge
dialogue.
The ship got upgraded, they installed new, more powerful weapons and such, and made a
lot of progress on the main story.
They were in the midst of defending a mining outpost which had found one of the monoliths
from a small squad of mercenaries when a few bad rolls and an unintended combo in the enemy
composition (basically, the mercs had two fighters, which have very high evasion, and
the player ship didn't have any point defense and was mostly focused on taking out larger
vessels) caused them to take way too much damage to carry on.
So they landed at the mining outpost, the engineer got to repairing the ship's damage,
two crew members got out to explore and the last went to pick up their reward from the
outpost's administration.
That last one is the problem player, Vic.
I hadn't had any real problems with him, but he was very... invested in roleplay, and his
character was more on the edgy side.
He was a veteran in the fleet and our weapons guy, and to cut him some slack, pretty good
at sussing out the weaknesses of the enemy builds I'd thrown at them.
But he was also very much a "its what my character would do" kind of guy.
So he went to pick up the reward, which included a clue for the campaign (a video log showing
the thieves of the monolith flying away, alongside their ship registration), and was returning,
when he suddenly side-tracked and asked me if there was a black market of some kind here.
I said sure, because there was, and let him find a small roadhouse/tavern run by a cousin's
uncle's nephew's branch family of a larger pirate clan.
The place was tiny, just a bit of drug trade, a gambling ring and some contraband, so I
thought he was just being a bit edgy by mingling with smugglers and pirates, and let him.
The other players did their thing, bought a souvenir and rejoined the engineer to continue
patching up the ship, but Vic was now full on gambling in a den of inequity.
The others had no idea where he was, and his rolls were very bad (with disadvantage, because
the people he was with were cheats, obviously), so they spent a while trying to find where
he was.
He first lost the reward, then his character's money, and all the while I was hinting at
the guys he was with not being honest, but he just kept going.
Eventually, the crew did find him, but he'd just bet their ship in a game of cards, and
if they tried to intervene, they'd probably get gunned down by the entire pub.
He lost, of course, and the ship was gone.
I should've probably put an end to it there, because the mood at the table was getting
sour, but I improvised a grand theft spaceship sidequest about stealing back their vessel
and getting out of there.
Night falls, the crew sneaks into the spaceport undetected and is just about to board in secret,
when he says "I pull out my pistol and shoot the guard in the head".
I was unironically baffled at wtf he was doing.
Like, is he trying to get everyone killed?
Sure enough, the shot misses and instantly the whole port's guard is shooting at the
crew trying to be sneaky.
They take some hits and eventually get cornered in the engine room, where Vic deliberately
shoots at the reactor core and causes the entire ship to explode, killing the whole
party and destroying the spaceport, effectively ending the campaign.
The whole party is left fuming, except for Vic who just goes "finally, now we can do
something else".
Turns out he was bored of the game's setting and decided to ruin it for everyone else for
his own entertainment.
I kicked him out after that, but we were all out of energy by that point.
I offered the rest of the party to roll back the last session and ditch Vic from the group,
but they all declined, because they felt it was ruined.
This was maybe a month ago and I'm still salty about it.
Everyone seemed to have fun with it, the whole party got super into the RP aspect of space
travel, I had a whole story planned out and everything, and then one guy had to go and
ruin it.
That’s one dumb way to end a game here is another…much better way to end a game.
Rocks Fall and Everyone Dies: How my DM Subverted the Worst Way to End a Story.
This was the moment that made me want to become a DM and eventually led me to writing two
sourcebooks and getting more involved in DnD.
For context, my group had just completed an insane, emotional campaign of Curse of Strahd.
During the climactic final battle, my character was killed and their soul claimed by the dark
powers.
Everyone else still loved their powerful level 10 characters, so we decided to continue the
campaign outside Borovia and in a homebrew setting.
My new character, Melody Song was a gunslinger/bard with a penchant for drama, quoting Shakespeare,
and some kick ass cowboy flair.
She had taken a new name after her squad was killed and she deserted the army.
After defeating Stradh, the party was feeling confident they could take up a position as
investigators into dark powers, eldritch gods, and lost, forgotten things of an ancient world.
In part to learn how to free my previous character's soul.
Melody Song joined up with them to explore an ancient ruin from an advanced civilization,
known as the Grave of Gods.
We descended hundreds of feet into a dark cavern and were swarmed by horrible mutated
monsters twisted by radioactive and necrotic energy.
The combat was tense and even with powerful magic items and my super high DPS, we quickly
realized we weren't in Barovia anymore.
This was another beast entirely.
When the combat was over, we were standing before the entrance to the God Grave above
which were words, “All the World’s a Stage.”
Odd, but eager for treasure and challenges, the party descended into the Grave of Gods.
Our DM is a master of eldritch horror; we faced rooms filled with massive centipedes
with human faces, gibbering horrors, black puddings and dark curses.
But what terrified us more than anything was the feeling that we were being watched.
Even with super high Perception checks, we could not figure out what was following us.
During a watch, one of the players heard something that sounded like clapping.
Since I had the best stealth (expertise and 20 Dex), I believed I could discover what
it was without getting caught.
I turned a corner and saw a shadowy figure, but then the DM told me to make a Wisdom saving
throw, I roll a 15.
My DM said nothing seemed to happen and I snuck back to the party and reported my findings.
After our long rest, we continued exploring.
We spent 2 hours IRL going through more rooms of this radioactive horror-chamber, but eventually
found ourselves in an observation deck overlooking the corpse of a god.
We learned a bunch of lore investigating, including that the ancient civilization had
somehow trapped a god and used it to power everything.
But then in the middle of exploring this room, the monk pulled a lever, DM played a 2000s
sitcom laugh track and then said, “Rocks Fall and Everyone Dies,” and promptly declared
a 10-minute break.
We freaked out!
The players were super invested in these badass, Stradh killing characters.
But our DM just smiled and went to the bathroom.
When he returned, he said that we woke up in exactly the same spot we finished our long
rest.
The party decided this was some kind of temporal trap and we’ll go a different route.
After another hour IRL, we found our way back to the observation deck.
My character’s got some mechanical knowledge, so I decide to investigate the machinery in
the room, specifically the lever.
I roll a 25 Tinker’s Tools to detach a panel.
The DM smiled, played the laugh track, and said “Rocks Fall and Everyone Dies.”
At this point we’re starting to get frustrated, we spent another 45 minutes in real life getting
back to the observation room.
One of the party members suggested we blow the glass and go look at the corpse.
I take a shot, laugh track plays, and our DM says, “Rocks Fall and Everyone Dies.”
We are fuming, clearly this is some kind of puzzle and we just can't figure it out.
We spend a bit brainstorming; theories get tossed around, and we make our way back to
the room.
At this point it’s been about six hours in real life.
My character believes the lever is super important, because all this started after it was pulled.
So I decided to look in the connecting machinery for a wire, gears, anything that connects
to the lever.
I roll really high on my Investigation and the DM tells me that nothing connects to the
lever because nothing connects to anything.
There is nothing inside these shattered computers, no magic, no wires, no ancient tech sources
(electricity).
And suddenly it hits me, the quote above the entrance, the laugh track, the tech that never
could have worked!
I shoot out of my seat and tell the DM my character walks right up to the lever and
I begin favorite Shakespeare monologue from memory,
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage*,*
And then is heard no more.
It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
I take a deep breath and say, “Cue, Sergeant Maranda Draper (my character's real name),
pulls the lever, rocks fall and everyone dies.
The company bows and exits stage right.
" And then I pulled the lever.
My party freaks out, they think I’m being ridiculous and we’re going to have to repeat
this all over again.
The DM looks at me, smiles, and plays a cheering soundtrack and then says, “Rocks Fall and
Everyone Dies.”
The table erupts, but the DM calms everyone and says, “When you awake you find yourselves
standing in the observation deck, but you realize it’s just a stage.
Hundreds of faceless people fill the auditorium, wearing lab coats, hardhats, and suits.
All you can see are their bright white teeth as they cheer.
You all bow, the cheering stops, and a spotlight shines on a single figure in a stage box.
He wears a bright yellow suit and a perfectly smooth white mask.
The figure slowly claps and you all exit stage right.
You all wake up standing at the entrance to the Grave of Gods, the words, 'All the World's
a Stage' displayed above sealed blast doors.”
It was all an illusion, the exploration a trick.
It wasn’t until we realized we were actors, and took control of our narrative, that we
could change the story and avoid our grizzly fate.
It was an incredibly empowering and amazing moment.
It left us with mystery, “Was any of the lore we learned real?
Was it actually possible to trap a god?
Or was it all a trick, part of the sick play we repeated over and over?”
It was an incredibly satisfying conclusion to the exploration arc, forced my character
to reveal her true name and therefore bond with the party, and revealed our new eldritch
evil.
This arc made me know I wanted to be DM and led to me making DnD content!
I don’t understand a player that isn’t having a good time and wanting to sabotage
the game for the rest of the players.
Just…quit.
Have you ever tried a timeloop mechanic in a game?
How’d it go?
Let us know in the comments below!
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