First of all, congrats to all our winners! It was really hard to choose only 20 not only because we had to read through over 250 stories but also because they were really awesome! In addition to posting a list of winners, I'll also be posting each story so you can check them out for yourself. If you didn't win this time, don't worry! We'll have plenty more opportunities to win a Beta Key! Without further ado, congratulations to your fellow Forum members: Madcow Jose Tello Lekon Scyrax Mysterious Beast Bazzaman theSovereign Jonlevir Ponyboy Slightly We also picked 10 awesome stories from our Facebook page (running the same contest)! I'll wait till they decide to sign up for the forums before naming them but I'll still publish their stories as well. I'll do some light editing too (just an FYI) to clean up things like grammar and spelling. Jon just told me he'll be sending out the Beta Key invites as soon as he gets all the necessary e-mail addresses (from here and Facebook). Please double check and message me if they're not right!
From Jose Tello: A couple of years ago, I was hosting a D&D campaign for a group of friends. They were new to the game and they had to cross an abundant river. Aramel (human cleric in armor) had the idea to jump from a big rock, but, being cautious, he made sure to tie a rope around himself. He tied the rope to himself, climbed the big rock and jumped, rolling a 3 (needing a 16 to succeed). Knowing he was in trouble, he quickly said: "Hurry! Pull me to the shore!" and, as DM, I had to ask, "Did anyone actually grab the rope first?" Everyone started laughing because, no, no one did. From then on, that day was known as "The Day Aramel Drowned!"
From Lekon: I've had many wonderful memories RPing in various games. Each time I moved as a kid I'd get to meet new folk. The avatar I'm sporting is a representation of Seer Lekon, who was me when I worked for Origin systems writing quests and events back in the day. My favorite memory was the golf trip in Ultima Online. We decided that Britannia was going to be our golf course. Three of us total, who had nothing better to do than engage in some silly RP, decided to put on bright green berets, neon shirts and some kilts. Additionally, we would be wielding long axes, which looked just like golf clubs, using black pearls for the balls. We'd pick random places to do this, and just walk in, drop the pearl, yell "FORE!" and swing the axe, pick up the pearl, and have one of the other guys drop it a ways away to look like it had landed. Most of the fun was in RPing the arguments over what a natural lie was if it landed on a shopkeeper's stand, or what the rules said if a random orc picked up the ball. We did this a number of times, mostly because it started taking on a Python-esque absurdity, especially when we'd show up in some of the more populated dungeons and bug adventurers to let us play through. Adding to the fun was occasionally blowing away an enemy during the game with high circle spells, chiding them for interrupting a gentleman's game. It was utterly silly, and I loved it. Best moment was when some other player pickpocketed the ball from one of us, and someone else yelled guards, slaying the thief. Due to UO's weird UI at the time, he used the axe on the corpse by accident, turning the thief into human pieces. "Hit the ball where it lies!" suddenly took on a horrifying connotation.
From Scyrax: I was at my local Friday Night Magic tournament (this was back during the reign of affinity in standard for anyone else that was playing during that time). I was a regular at the shop and was also one of the ones generally sitting at the top tables. On this particular night I was playing Red (my deck of choice during this period) and I was 3-0 going into the finals. My opponent was a young kid, also a regular at the store and was playing White Weenie. He usually didn't do terribly well but this week his little white army tore a path directly to the finals. It was game 3 and I was dead on the board as the turn passed to me but with my opponent at 1 health. I slowly peel the last card off of the top of my deck and... sigh. I put the card face down on the table and extend my hand. "I won???", the kid exclaims. "Yeah, congratulations." The kid was so happy. It was a beautiful sight. It was at that moment that I realized that gaming - as a whole - is far more than the sum of its parts. It's about camaraderie. It's about moments. It's about experiencing something. As the kid rushed to the front of the store to collect his prize I couldn't help but smile to myself as I collected my cards, including the face down magma jet.
From Mysterious Beast: Once upon a time, in my college days, we had assembled an unlikely team of D&D players that met in the basement conference room of one of the freshman student dorms. One of the new players had constructed a gorgeous plot-line based on rescuing an Elvish city from the nefarious plotting of several classic evil factions (cultists, demons, orcs, undead army, and so on), and the game ran very well. Our party, a multiracial band of refugee adventurers cobbled together from the world's disparate nations and unified by Elven desperation, traveled the countryside surrounding Rose City to unearth and slay its enemies. One character, an elderly dwarven priest of the God of Travel, was perhaps the best played of the lot as a loquacious missionary who often sacrificed gold for his faith in wanton fashion. As we reached the mid-levels, it became clear that "Brum Stoneskull" was highly (and intentionally) under-optimized to better demonstrate the movement-related talents of his deity. Even so, he fought and spoke bravely on our behalf! Our quest brought us to the dark tower of an evil rogue/wizard whose machinations had instigated the uprising of many demi-human races against the Elves. With villainous bravado, the mage hurled taunts and threats at the assembled party from a balcony on the fifth floor of the tower, daring us to enter his lair and challenge his guardians and traps. In return, our halfling Druid hurled a ball of ice at the mage to no avail - the foe's Evasion talent eliminated the damage! With an aggrieved roar, Brum Stoneskull casts Haste, then opens a Dimension Door and charges through it onto the mage's balcony. The DM loses the surprise roll (both for the situation and the ensuing combat initiative) and looks on as the dwarf smashes his Big Bad's hit points to half with a single blow of his war-hammer, then pulps the fresh corpse with a critical hit on the second swing. Wild-eyed, the player slams his palms onto the gaming table: "SAVE VS. DWARF, M*^HERF@(!#R!" The dungeon and session completely averted, the group retired for the night in a fit of laughter.
From Bazzaman: My best moment occurred over 25 years on my very first adventure. As a 12 year old I was dragged to one of my aunts homes and sent off to join my older sibling in his little game with his mates (they where all 16 years old and playing D&D). Sitting down at the table I was told 'we need a healer you can be this cleric , just sit there and do as you are told and heal us when we tell you'. So there I am with this A4 sheet infront of me without a clue in the world what was going on and what all these numbers and items on the sheet meant, but very excited about confused at the same. Half an hour later with some healing under my belt, we enter the lair of a red dragon. They all charge off to attack leaving my character to stand in the door way healing when told. After 5 mins of attacking the dragon and all of my spells gone the group gets flamed by the dragon leaving my PC all on his own standing in the door way. At this point one of the older boys pipes up with, "I thought we had an orb of resistance to dragon breath?" This leads a 10 minute chat and flicking through of sheets. At which point they all turn to me and ask for my sheet. It turns out my cleric had the orb all along but as I was told to keep quiet and do as I was told I failed to say anything. The DM at this point continues the adventure with just my character finishing off the dragon, which had been reduced to under 10% of its health by the others, with my character walking through numerous breath attacks from the dragon. Only later did I find out that the adventure I was on with them was a conclusion of a 12 month campaign with only my cleric to walk out of it alive. This experience showed me that no matter how young or inexperience at these games everyone should be allowed their own voice and the chance to be included.
From theSovereign: Torgo the Tyrant Torgo the dwarf was one rather bold above all he desired to have much more gold he promised all those a fair share who were willing to do and to dare go on a venture and live to have told They checked some old logs read of a witch in the bogs withal her magnificient treasure silver and gold in above equal measure but no one had told them of all those wild trogs On to defeat this scourge of humanity and rid the realm of insanity they went on in the night never scared of a fight none wise enough to foresee the calamity They came for them quick the fighting was thick the priest kneeled there to pray begged to be saved from this fray then dead and his head on a stick In this situation most dire the wizard dared to used fire but neither known nor expected his spell was reflected and the caster was ash in the mire Torgo never stopped, he blocked, bashed and he chopped one after one his enemies dropped until all the trogs and even the witch in the end were piled dead in the ditch and all bodies torn up and popped Torgo the tyrant still knew the drill all by himself he continued to kill he came home with all riches needed just a few stitches but even then he wanted to be richer still
From Jonlevir: The most memorable PnP rpg moment I've had was the time I DM'ed for a couple of my friends who had played D&D much longer than I had. We were playing 3.5, and one of the players was using a ranger he had played with in previous campaigns with another DM. I already had a little bit of a reputation as a PKing DM, so I was trying to go easy on them this time. The friend who suggested I DM liked to play "interesting" characters, in that there was always something they were absolutely horrible at. In this case, weapons. He played an orc fighter named Thog. Thog was so dumb that the only weapons he could use without hurting himself were gauntlets. All his skill points went into jump, climb, and swim, and after his magic items he had a strength of 24. So they go through the campaign, fighting cultists & generally doing well. The original final boss was a hydra, a bit of a challenge, but one they could overcome with some luck & skill. They're fighting in a cavern carved with runes & circles, the general cult flavor descriptions. The ranger sees the hydra, and pulls out an item - I think it was a custom one from the previous DM - that let him cast a 15d6 ranged energy attack 3 times a day. He hits he hydra once, and the orc smashes the hydra's one remaining head to a pulp. Needless to say, I was a little ticked, so I pulled the time-honored DM tactic of winging it. The runes & circles on the floor became a summoning ritual, powered by blood that the hydra had so thoughtfully donated. The adventurers are going through their loot when a balor rises out of the floor. The ranger fires his magic item again, the paladin uses Smite, and Thog hits it with his fists. DR reduces Thog's hits to no damage, and the balor ignores him as it attacks the other two. Thog's player was very creative, though, so as I'm calculating how close to death the other two characters are, he asks if there are any stalagmites on the floor of the cave. "Yeah, sure," I reply. "There's one about 6 feet from you." "How big is it?" he asks. "I don't know, about 5 feet tall, maybe 150lbs," I reply as the paladin hits -2. Thog's turn comes up, and he uses a strength check to rip the stalagmite off the ground. The ranger goes down to -5, and the balor turns to finish off Thog. Thog - aided by a ring of jumping & boots of springing - does a jump attack. His roll? 20. So he leaps almost 25ft into the air and comes down stalagmite first onto the balor as his attack. As he describes this, the player states: "-and I called shot his face with it!" "Okay," I said. "Roll it." He rolled 2 natural 20s. I looked at him and just said, "If you think I'm going to take the time to calculate the damage for called-shot-ing a balor in the face with a 5', 150lb stalagmite from 25ft in the air, you're crazy. You win."
From Ponyboy: Me and my droogs were playing a little of the old D&D, and they are a rowdy bunch, myself probably the rowdiest of the bunch. We are playing at the house of one of the players; let's call him T. So T's parents were out for the weekend, and we had the house to ourselves. It's about one in the morning, and we are all in the living room, downing bottle after bottle of Jolt Cola, spread out on the floor of T's living room with most of the lights out for the "mood" effect. Our party is high tailing it out of one of the most dangerous dungeons we have ever ventured through with one of the best hauls of loot that we had ever plundered out of any of them. We come to the entrance of this room where we have spotted a few lizard men, and as luck would have it, they didn't spot us coming up, so we were going to get the drop on them. Keep in mind we are all hopped up on caffeine and sugar, and my character is a big brawny barbarian with a huge sword and an even bigger mouth. So, fueled by a near overdose of cola and the pure adrenaline of identifying a bit too much with my character, I jump up as we are about to attack them and yell at the top of my lungs, "Gotcha, sons of *****es! Get ready to feel this blade pierce your guts!" I'm about to roll my character's first attack, when we hear from outside the house, "Alright, you got us! Go ahead and call the cops, just don't stab us!" Evidently, there were some stupid kids outside casing houses, and they thought the one we were in was empty, because there were no cars in the driveway and most of the lights were out. We all ran outside as T called the cops, who came right over. Imagine the looks on the cops' faces as we told them how we caught the kids sneaking around our house. To this day, my friends and I (well, the ones I still keep in touch with, anyway) still joke about the "D&D Alarm System."
From Slightly: Mine's not a story of great heroics or raucous humor, just my roleplaying moment I look back on most fondly out of my many years of play. We were playing a RIFTS campaign and were about 10 weeks into it. Us PCs were a mercenary group doing a job for a mysterious client (aren't they all?) and as well as us we had a small convoy of vehicles to travel around in including some NPC assistants. The GM had originally included the NPCs to generally make things easier for us and take care of arbitrary tasks but we did a lot of roleplaying with them and they each developed personalities that grew on us and it had begun to feel like a family. Returning from an 'away mission' back to our troupe one day we found that one of the drivers had stolen a 'package' we'd previously recovered for our client and fled with it. As betrayed as we felt, it wasn't a patch on what we felt when we discovered the body of Red, the technician Lizard-woman, outside the camp. When she spotted the driver slinking away and approached him he pulled a gun and fired, killing her. We'd grown fond of her, she was always helpful and a little naive; she was the little sister of the company. We, as players every bit as much as characters, were genuinely sad at this plot twist. It was the end of the session but we all stayed an extra half hour that night to role-play a proper burial for her. We each went around the table saying a few words for her, or reciting some impromptu anecdote about her. It was a truly beautiful moment and always makes me smile when I think back on it.
From Facebook: I remember a couple of moments in a DnD game that involved a very literal DM and a friend of mine that always rushed into things. We had just cleared a room and were looking around, picking the scraps off the dead, etc. One of us discovered a trap door in the floor, so we all gathered near it. My friend must have thought this was a regular door, because his first reaction was to kick it down. The DM took this to mean he stood on top of it and kicked to try and break it. After a roll he succeeded in kicking the door down, which resulted in him falling down the flight of stairs in his incredibly heavy armor. The DM says the stairs and the room he landed in are pitch black. My friend decided to walk back up the stairs to rejoin the group. Sadly, with little mobility and the fact he couldn't see the stairs he fell back down them after going up a few. Later on that night the two of us were sharing a tent and we were awakened by something. My friend, having learned his lesson with the stairs, lights his torch as the first thing he does. Too bad he was still in the tent when he did this. The tent and a few belongings go up in flames, and I never shared a tent with him again the rest of the game.
From Facebook: So, we have just gone on a massive dungeon crawl where I have been incredibly unlucky in everything! We come across a Deck of Many Things, and I, not knowing what I do, draw three cards from it, as do several others. Everyone else is lucky, but I, sadly, am not. The first thing turns me into a dwarf (I then spend the rest of the campaign, attempting to turn back into a dragon-born), the second says if I solo defeat the next creature to appear, I will advance two levels. The third takes all of my stuff. All of it! So I pray to my god, who comes to my rescue with a genie wish. Two hours after the entire party becoming lawyers, the following wish is made. 'I Mukta Tyaga, also known as Acahuitl, wish for all the items taken from me by the deck of many things, and those items alone, to appear on this floor, infront of me, in this room, in this plane of existence, at this time, in the condition they were in immediately prior to the moment they were taken by the deck of many things, and that they will not disappear again, except by my consent.' There is a flash of light, the items appear as stated, and the two goblins sitting on them attack.
From Facebook: I was DMing a home-brew session. The party is stuck in a labyrinth with random monsters. In one room they come across an Underworld Dragon. Now the dragon is CL11 and they're lvl 8. We're playing Pathfinder RPG so we have an Inquisitor, a Monk, Ranger and Witch. So the Inquisitor goes first, decides ah what the hell and tries to intimidate. Then the Monk decides he wants to try to grapple the dragon. And succeeds (he's only Large). And then the Witch decides ah well what the heck he's grappling and goes for Phantasmal Killer. And succeeds. The Dwarf Ranger then walks up to the dead dragon and smacks it across the head with a Long-hammer and shouts: "That's for not staying alive long enough for me to do anything".
From Facebook: The best gaming experience I can think of that had everyone laughing was in the pen and paper game D&D and I believe we were playing 2e at the time. We were playing in more of a Roman-time aspect and we were trying to invade a tower for our ‘Rome’ but the key to it was, that we couldn’t use magical items in there, for the tower would take away all the magical components from it. This was when we were at a higher level and basked in our magical items. Someone had the greatest thought of trying to build a modern-day parachute by leaping off a dragon with basically rope tied with fabric like a kite. We did some training lessons, and it wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences but we went with it anyway! Only one of our six members actually made it on the tower! Two of which got caught on one of the laping ledges that were raised outward with a sharp tip when it ripped into the kite. One landed on the lower platform where the enemy was standing guard but was able to stealthily move to avoid a dastardly fate. The other two… well we plummeted from about a hundred and twenty feet to our supposed deaths. One of us did dye but because I was playing the tank role as a ‘gladiator’ that our DM made as a class. I was able to eventually shake off the 'THUD!' of hitting the ground. I was stunned, disoriented and when I began to rise, there was a chance I would stay down (which might have been better for me). But I failed that roll, and when I rose up to stand up after the damage I’ve been put through, two hundred or so arrows flew at my direction and covered the sky. The enemy had watched the entire show of us falling to the ground, and waited at the slits before finally killing me with a rain of arrows. The party couldn’t believe I managed to live through the fall, and I just couldn’t help but laugh from it.
From Facebook: In my first serious campaign, I used a Burning Hands spell to destroy a rope/pulley elevator while a bunch of kobolds were halfway up and killed most of them, crippled their giant lizard mount. While I am proud of that in itself, it led to an argument with the cleric about how to deal with the crippled lizard (whether to kill it or try to save it). It took so long, eventually, the DM muttered something to one of the players, who promptly shot the lizard with a crossbow. When the cleric reacted with 'What the hell?!' The player's response was to point at the DM and say 'God told me to do it...'
From Facebook: I never had a gaming group or played D&D as a kid/teenager. I was forced to use Starcraft's custom game system to play the various RP maps (no not Cyber Hotel, I wasn't that naive) and there were many scenarios and stories to be had. Just the fact that you could enter a game and there would be a 10% chance that someone else would be there who wasn't incompetent and who would roleplay and create a story with you was interesting and memorable enough. I miss this sort of thing with games nowadays. I think it's coming back with Minecraft, but when people are given limited access to tools their imagination runs wild. I mean, a zergling certainly doesn't look like a goblin or a thief, but if you can believe that they're fighting against a pack of archers (marines) or guarding the castle from battery rams (reavers). The kind of emergent gameplay is something that is missing from video games it seems, because there is only the linear aspect, get from point A to point B. Where is the quality in triple A games? The fact that they're made by big companies? So this is more of a rant than of a story or a significant event in my own personal imaginative history, but I think it proves its point. Great moments are what you make of them and they can come out of any situation.
From Facebook: Not much pen and paper D&D experience, but there was this one playthrough, I was playing a warrior, along with a mage, a druid, and a rogue. We were exploring a Lovecraftian horror themed dungeon, and there was this point where all of us came to a pitch black hole on the ground. As the most curious one among the bunch, and also the tank for the team, I was trying to find out what's more to that hole, but the mage casted light on me and kicked me down the hole, illuminating the way as I fell down through it. All of the players were laughing hysterically, looking at me baffled during that time. That was one of the most memorable moments in my pen and paper D&D experiemce. A moment of ingenuity, and mischief. In the end, my warrior turned up fine, so, we continued the adventure, exploring tunnels with meaty walls, and pitch black darkness that follows my party almost everywhere we go. Just no more holes in the ground.
From Facebook: There they were, the whole party of post-apocalyptic former Western stunt show performers, pinned down by heavy fire from death robots. Low on ammo, unable to close to melee, out of tricks, it looked pretty bad. Then suddenly, Erin remembered: "Hey, didn't Matt pick up dynamite, like, in the first session?" A hush fell over the table. Matt checked. "Oh my god, guys, I have a stick of dynamite. I have dynamite!" Everyone cheered. Jamie shouted, "light it on your cigar!" Duke Law, the brawny actor who played the cowboy hero, lit the dynamite on his signature cigar. The fuse hissed and disappeared, eaten by the serpent of fire that played down the wick. Matt described how he stood up, yelled to get the attention of the robots, and cocked his arm back, Duke Law's golden locks flowing in a well timed breeze. "Okay, now what?" asked Matt. "Roll your Throwing," I said. In Savage Worlds, skills have simple, descriptive names - Fighting, Shooting, Stealth, Climbing - and they're all in alphabetical order on the character sheet so they're very easy to find. Most characters don't have more than five or six skills. Matt pored over his sheet. The cheering faded to a worried silence as he went over his sheet twice more. Finally, he looked up, true fear in his eyes. "My what?" It wasn't on his sheet.
From Facebook: One group I was in tried playing a homebrew system in a post-Apocalyptic setting similar to the Morrow Project. And underground shelter was created to harbor people during a nuclear war and eventually come out to rebuild. During the first session we created characters (very quick in this system) and having a quick shakedown mission. Our objective was to take out a bandit gang who ran a small oil refinery. It was crudely made and on our trip up the river to assault it we noticed the river had gasoline on it, probably due to leaking. We decided right there that there would be "NO EXPLOSIVES!". We repeated it several times. We scouted and got the layout, came up with the assault plan, repeated "NO EXPLOSIVES!" The first two rounds of combat went fine. We had surprise, and this this was designed to be an easy introductory mission. During the third round one person was shot at by a bandit in cover and the players response was "I throw a grenade at him!" followed by an immediate roll to hit. Miss. GM: "Uh, what kind of grenade was that?" Player: "I only have incendiary." GM: "Roll scatter to see where it goes." Player: "Directly behind my target, 3 meters. What's there?" Everyone else who was paying attention: "Gasoline barrel storage!" GM: "With an explosion seen from space..."
