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How My Friend Tried to Kill Me in Game, Ruining The Game & Our Friendship
This is a long story, but I tell it to every new player that has joined my group ever since
it happened.
This is my cautionary tale.
In my first real group that wasn’t just us kids screwing around.
My friend said his dad would happily DM 3.5e for a group consisting of myself, the friend,
Ben, his brother Jim, another friend of ours Riley, a girl who was our cleric Sasha, and
later would come a friend of mine Greg who I brought into the group after asking the
others if he could join.
If it matters.
I was a Paladin, Ben a Rogue, Jim a Wizard, Riley a Sorcerer, Sasha a Cleric, and Greg
a Barbarian.
So this game was a classic.
We went to lots of places and did lots of things and every week I went home thinking,
“Wow.
I’m lucky to have so many people who are so into this game and just being fun characters
going on a good ol’ romp in the Forgotten Realms.”
Then a weird thing happened, Ben was given a pretty dang powerful item by the DM out
of the blue.
I can’t recall when it was acquired or from where.
But it was a dagger that, upon a roll of 19/20, would instantly kill any living thing it hit.
No confirming crit, no save, no nothing.
10% chance of death.
He killed a dragon one turn into combat with it once.
It was not fun.
But hey, whatever right?
Around the same time, Sasha our cleric, in and out of character, was acting very strangely.
Purposefully setting off traps and pissing off any NPC she met.
I tried to gently call her out by saying “Hey, do you realize you’re acting a little weird?
I’m not faulting you for being an outlandish character, but maybe don’t try to get us
all killed every 30 seconds please.”
As we finish up that game, our characters get old.
Stopped playing at about level 10.
We say hey, this new Pathfinder game is coming out, let’s try it.
So we go ahead and roll up.
I asked Ben if he minds me trying out Rogue.
It seemed cool when he was playing so I asked for some good rogue tips and he was all “Yeah
man, let’s swap roles.
I’ll do something meaty and you be sneaky man.”
So our new party is me as a Rogue, Jim a Cleric, Riley a Ranger, Sasha a Fighter, and Greg,
who had really come into his own since his first game, ending up as the most active leader
and generally most amazing character actor I’ve ever played with, a Cavalier, Order
of the Dragon.
And finally, Ben a Rogue.
Huh.
I thought I was the rogue?
Not a huge deal, parties can stack up on classes and it’s all good.
No no.
He’s playing the same character at the same level he was with all of his magic swag and
the stupid dagger.
We are level 1 and dirt poor.
Except him.
Greg and I are eyeing each other across the table like, “What the hell?”
We try to forget and move on, not understanding a dang thing.
Any time I try to do anything a rogue would do, Ben one-ups me, showing off with his bonuses
I can’t even hope to have at this point.
Sometimes I bring it up and he spins it into an argument.
Greg, playing Order of the Dragon, knows that it is in his order as well as in the unwritten
rules of D&D that this cannot stand: players should be a team, not bickering in a field
somewhere.
He tries to diplomatically get us both to back off from each other and apologize.
Then, Ben starts acting like a jerk to other players and NPCs.
What the hell, man?
Greg and I ask him what his problem is, to which he responds by taking out his magic
insta-kill knife and threatening us with it.
He picks up his dice as if he’s about to roll an attack.
I’m in awe of what’s happening.
Greg is standing up and demanding Ben stop being a jerk.
To which Ben replies, “I didn’t mean it.”
Sure he doesn’t…
Later that session, we find out that the fighter Sasha is playing, has been CHAOTIC EVIL this
entire time, and in the middle of speaking with a Nereid and trying to befriend it, she
full on jumps at it with swords in hand, and goes for the kill.
She gets her butt handed to her and is paralyzed and sinking rapidly in the lake we are visiting.
Greg and I are laughing our butts off and, in character, we are walking away from this
encounter and profusely apologizing to the Nereid on our way out.
Ben SCREAMS for us to save her and calls us selfish for abandoning our party member.
He then threatens to insta kill us and actually rolls to attack Greg.
He misses, and Greg says, “Are we really doing this?
You wanna start PC vs PC combat over this?”
To which Ben responds, after failing to intimidate us, “Well… uh…
I didn't mean it.”
We break from the game and have a long discussion about how these behaviours need to stop, and
how Chaotic Evil is literally the last thing that you should ever consider being in D&D.
We, for some reason, agree to save her from drowning even though an Order of the Dragon
cavalier, quote: “must remain loyal to his allies and must always work to further the
aims of the group.
He must protect his allies from harm and defend their honor when called into doubt.”
Greg says, “From where my character sees it, she’s not an ally.
She’s clearly an evil bastard, hellbent on taking us all down with her.
But fine, if you both promise to stop ruining the game and threatening us with character
death, I’ll save her.”
We resume the game.
Greg dives into the lake and saves Sasha’s character at the last second, brings her up
to the surface, and makes sure she can breathe.
He uses an item to help cure her of the temporary paralysis.
Then he picks her character up, slams them against the ground, and says, and I’ll never
forget these moments as long as I live: “We are supposed to work together, if you don’t
understand that then you cannot be a part of this team.
This is your one and only warning.
If you ever do something like that again, or put any of us in danger because of your
stupid evil actions, I will personally cut your head off and leave you to rot!
Do I make myself clear?”
Greg let her go.
Ben says “Wow.
You are being a real dick right now.
You didn’t have to be so pissed off at her for playing in character you a-hole.”
Greg looks him dead in the eyes and says,
“I didn’t mean it.”
At this point Ben is practically in tears with rage and is defending Sasha with his
life, for real.
He rolls to attack and the final straw has been broken.
Greg defends himself while trying not to hurt him.
Sasha attacks as well and now I can take no more, I defend Greg and after this goes on
for several uncomfortable minutes the DM shouts at all of us and declares the game off for
the night.
The next day Ben texts me.
“Next time, don’t bring Greg with you.”
And I didn’t, nor did I ever show up at his table again.
I tell all of my new players this, to illustrate to them how being an egotistical, self centered,
maniacal jerk in a game of D&D with your friends, can lead to real hurt feelings.
I also use it to tell them my two hard no’s as a DM:
“No evil characters.
If you roll to attack another player, you are gone forever.”
Sometimes people forget that DnD is a team game.
Has something like this ever happened to your group?
Lose a friend over an in game fight?
How did you, or the group, handle it?
Please let us know and comment below!
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