RPGaDay: Largest In-Game Surprise You Have Experienced?

Since David is usually the GM, I'm going to answer this RPGaDay question. There are actually two instances I can think of. The first was during the Ravenloft game that David was running using Dungeon World. I was playing The Witch, because I wrote most of the class and wanted to see how it held up over the long-term.

At the last leg of the campaign we geared up and headed off to Castle Ravenloft. After some fighting and a rotten dinner party Strahd pops up at the other end of a long hall, taking shots at us with a poisoned crossbow while we're dealing with a bunch of ghouls. He shoots at me, I roll to defy danger and miss, completely run out of hp, roll my last breath and also miss that roll, and get immediately taken out of the fight.

It sucked, but it wasn't David's fault. I tried bargaining with him to stay in the game at least for the big finale, but in hindsight it would have just been a watered down experience: I know what I rolled, and I knew what the results meant. It's just the way the dice roll sometimes.

The second big surprise happened much more recently (and wasn't nearly as bad), during the Age of Worms campaign using David's FrankenFourth system. It was the session where he revealed to us that Sumia had been a doppleganger for most of a session.

To recap, my character went to find Filge (guy from the first adventure) in order to get his help with something. Turned out he needed Sumia to help him move some 'things' in the sewers below his place. At the time David said he wanted to save time, so rather than go through a few fights that she would surely succeed at, just said that Sumia did the job and half an hour later was back to the inn. David mentioned that she smelled, and after asking what the party was going to do I said that Sumia would go take a bath. I didn't ask about my owlbear, which was a mistake.

The rest of the party stayed in the tavern to drink and relax, and a few minutes later David said that my character walked back down into the tavern, murdered the innkeeper with a demon horn that she found in the first adventure, then ran back up the stairs towards the rooms. In my mind I was like, "What the fuck!" Obviously it wasn't me, right? The party (and some angry patrons) ran upstairs and found Sumia in one of the baths. I tell them I didn't do that and have been right there washing myself, because as far as I know that's what Sumia had been up to.

Of course we are all shocked by the events and the party stuck up for me with the guards who came in later. It didn't work and we were all arrested, and while in jail we tried to figure out what was going on and escape, but we ended up getting drugged and moved to where the real Sumia was, bloodied and beaten. It's then that David revealed to us that when Sumia went into the sewers with Filge, she got ambushed, captured, and a doppelganger had taken her place.

We were all surprised, and I'm glad David played it out like that without telling me, as I think it made my actions and reactions more genuine.

Announcements

If you're curious about FrankenFourth and/or Dungeons & Delvers, you can find public alpha documents here and here respectively.

A Sundered World: Player Fragments, the first supplement for A Sundered World, if finally out!

The Paladin is technically the sixth "core" class we've provided an alternative for. If you interested in an alternate class that isn't merely a half-assed reskin, check it out!

By fan demand, we've mashed all of our 10+ Treasure volumes into one big magic item book, making it cheaper and more convenient to buy in print (which you can now do).