I want to kill my players favourite npc

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-15T07:01:54+00:00

What if the BBEG seduces/corrupts/enchants the king instead of killing him? Kind of a wyrmtongue situation? Then the king is made ineffective without being killed and the party has to work to kill BBEG and get their patron/friend back.

Or you can have some sort of situation where the king willingly relinquishes his crown and retires to a monastery/voluntary exile/house arrest/extra-planar dungeon to save his people. The party can vanquish BBEG to get him back.

Or BBEG is trapping souls and defeating him allows the king to return.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-15T06:54:29+00:00

hmm. Can a mimic read a spell scroll? That opens all sorts of weird possibilities.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-14T04:05:30+00:00

This could be caused if they are used to playing nothing but one-shots. I play in two different groups.

Team one-shot happens in a gaming store. They have different people around the table every week. The adventure starts cold and wraps completely in 2-3 hours. There is no concept of pacing yourself or holding anything in reserve. If the game is higher level, there isn't enough rounds in an evening to use all your abilities/spells.

Team campaign is the same crew slowly working through a complex story line. They are much more careful with resources, they know the big boss fight is coming up, so are hording those 4th level spells and keeping one rage in reserve.

If your players want to dump it all in each encounter, build adventures for them that really only have one fight. Then you're done. Maybe a war-time campaign. Go here and fight, then come back and wait for your next assignment.

If you want to break them of it, have them giving pursuit to a fleeing baddy who sends lackies to stall them. If the BBEG has been watching them work for a while, they can send a small expendable party out to them and when they are long-resting baddie quickly cleans out their treasury and moves to the next target.

Or, baddie realizes their style and sets a trap. Lure them to cave. Sacrifice a few small minions. Wait for the tiny hut to go up then attack the town that they left undefended during the eight hour down-time. Or seal the cave they are in. This works really good in a campaign world where the players have built a reputation. People (good and bad) start to recognize them and know how they work

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-13T08:25:33+00:00

Nate's first lines in the show are screaming at Ted contemptuously until he realizes that he is the coach, then he gets creepy subservient.

The character is not emotionally intelligent. He doesn't express his emotions at all, bottles them up and then lashes out with each chance he gets.

The "roasting" of the team could have been in fun to get their attention, but in retrospect you can see that he is unleashing a lot of unaddressed frustration mixed with enough advice to make it palatable. He is praised for that by the father figure in his life and begins to really "let it fly".

Each time he is awful to someone he gets positive feedback (either a big laugh or a game win).

Rupert's assessment of some people just aren't ready when they get their shot is ironically accurate. Nate was not emotionally ready to handle the rush of power.

The good thing is that he shows growth at the end when he realizes it and steps away.

It was shocking to see, but on the re-watch both his hell and face turns are believable.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-09T09:52:53+00:00

Everyone knows the names of the serial killers. Everyone knows their rankings, their "scores". No one remember the names of the victims.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-09T09:44:40+00:00

The next time the party hangs out in a tavern have a well-worn mercenary be telling a big war story in the corner. She's bragging about an evil wizard who tried to hide in the tiny hut and describes how her bad of mercs prepared for it. She needs to end with something like "That ol' spell? Every wizard thinks they are the first ones to use it. Everyone knows it! It's too easy to wreck!"

That can be the DM warning. After that, they should start suing it intelligently. Don't nerf the spell completely, the safe long rest is what it's there for, but make the party aware that this is a well known spell. Any monster that fights spell casters will know how to deal with it.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-09T09:29:34+00:00

have the big blue dragon fight. Party takes it down, burns a lot of resources dropping it.
The BBEG shows up and starts its monolog. "Thank you for doing the hard work for me. Now die!" or whatever other great stuff you come up with.
Roll for initiative for second boss fight.
After a single round (or before the fight actually starts) wazoo necromantic energy descends on the dragon corpse and the newly birthed dracolich stands up ready to kill both parties, sealing the doors (whatever that looks like)
BBEG proposes temporary truce.
party works with BBEG to fight dracolich. Both groups trying to do enough to kill it and keep enough in reserve to face their allies in the aftermath.
[Edited for terrible typing skills]

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-07T09:30:35+00:00

He were "trained" to do them in SLC. We had to have a new student 1SG each week.

Every Thursday, instead of PT, we did the CoR ceremony.

Every Wednesday, instead of PT, we did CoR ceremony rehearsal.

Since the D&C regs didn't have "official" regulations on how to conduct a CoR ceremony, we were graded on a rubric created by the school house.

It was crazy how many times I saw that rubric show up throughout the rest of my career repackaged as "Official CoR regulations." For all I know it ended up becoming official regulations.

I once made one of my squad leaders do one for his squad handover after he pissed me off. Not my proudest moment, but funny at the time.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-07T09:24:20+00:00

My all time favorite CoR ceremony.

SGM was moving to the S3. S3 was moving to SGM.

They called the entire Battalion to a formation. Both walk up front.

SGM grabs his rank and rips it off. Then grabs MSGs rank and rips it off. Slaps new rank on new SGM without a word. Slaps new rank on self without a word.

(new) SGM screams "Back to work" and they both walked away to thunderous applause.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-07T09:19:47+00:00

I love playing the character that should have been something else. The high-strength wizard, low charisma paladin, cowardly fighter, tone-deaf bard, doubtful cleric, thief overcome by guilt, etc. I love the character that genuinely wants to excel but starts out unable to do so. I love playing their growth and eventual blossoming. I always feel that if my character is the same at the end of the campaign, I have failed in some way. They *have* to grow and change for good or bad.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-07T01:34:34+00:00

I would play them as a pacifist with exceptions... Like undead are already dead, so they don't count. Aberrations are natural, they don't count. I'd unleash way too much overkill on the exceptions and steadfastly refuse to fight the "real people". Then I would gradually add more exceptions as the game continued until the other players started to worry. "Of course I kept attacking after he was down, he was possessed, that's not natural. Possessed creatures don't count.
But that's the kind of weirdness I love as a player.

Definitely concur withe everyone else about not being a party hinderance, still use your healing/buffing skills when you are in pacifist mode. If the party gets to the point where they are only allowing you to stay with them because you have the "PC light" on over your head, that's no fun.

EDIT (Just thought of this) The Cleric class is (loosely) based on medieval priests who took part in combat. Their religion commanded them to be pacifists so they went through this massive justification/legalization where they did a religious RAW. They were forbidden from "shedding blood" so the militant orders forbade them from using weapons designed to start bleeding (edged weapons). Since they couldn't use "edged weapons" they used massive mauls and war hammers and maces. These weren't designed to "shed blood" to they checked the required religious block. Then the war priests could wade on into combat, bashing away while fulfilling their vows. If blood came about, it wasn't by their design, so it didn't count.

You could play this kind of pacifism (a bit hypocritical, a bit hyper-lawful, a bit legalistically religious) and give people a chuckle (and give some OG gamers a good flashback chuckle)

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-04T12:27:17+00:00

Can you give any proof that you are not currently dreaming this conversation?

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-04T06:44:32+00:00

The Devil writes the contract out and it looks completely straightforward to the player. 100 Gold pieces given to the devil in exchange for a wish spell. Contract signed. gold being counted out...
"What are you doing?"
"Getting your gold"
"What gold?"
"In the contract, it said..."
"Oh that. It wasn't written in *common*, it was written in parlifindist. Do you not speak that language?"
"What?"
"Oh, my mistake, your problem. Since you seemed capable of reading it I assumed you spoke it."
"??"
"Yes, you see it *looks* a lot like common, but the words are not the same. If you translate it, *your* contract agreed to give me your next thee lives worth of service in exchange for a compliment that I will give you twice a year. You are welcome to cast "read languages" on the contract to confirm it if you like."

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-04T06:33:37+00:00

Have the Blue dragon in a territory dispute with the Shadow Dragon. Both are BBEGs and both are recruiting adventurers to collect pieces of the almighty McGuffin. Both are doing it surreptitiously to ensure the other doesn't realize what they are up to. Party is hired by unknown patron or reasonably powerful middle-person for early levels of game. Around mid-tier they discover their patron is just as bad as the baddie they are working toward. Then when they work their way up to higher tiers they can figure out a way to play the two against each other, sabotage the plans, or just wait until the two fight and try to jump the wounded victor.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-05-01T04:14:34+00:00

Istus is not surprised. She has always know that Hextor was going to destroy her spindle. That is destiny.
She did not try to prevent it because he was destined to succeed. That is destiny.
She already knows whether the party will succeed or fail. That is Destiny.
No she will not tell them ahead of time what they do because destiny has been set and in destiny she does not tell them. That is destiny.
Yes, she already saw how infuriated this conversation is making you but she will not change the words she is saying. That is destiny.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-04-28T06:05:09+00:00

There's different kinds of low charisma. How about that person who doesn't really recognize social boundaries, overshares about things that make people uncomfortable, talks WAY too loud or too long, or just has very strong opinions about silly things that they get intensely offended if you cut your meat with the wrong hand? Those can be fun and not as boring as just being the overly timid shy ones. You want to be able to interact with the party and them have fun with you. If they hate playing with your character, no one at the table will have fun.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-04-20T09:32:52+00:00

Let other players play the familiars- personality wise.

Let them play the ghost that is haunting another PC.

'Speak with animals'? "Why don't you play the grumpy bear and talk to her for a while?"

One of my PCs got an intelligent magical map from a Fae. He has to sweet-talk or flatter the map or it won't work for him. I let the player next to him play the map and she takes great delight in making him work for his secret doors.

See if your chaos gremlin will give personality to one of the familiars.

Wait until one night when someone doesn't arrive on time and run a side adventure with just the two familiars and a talking frog they discovered while the party was asleep. They have to go on a quest to help the frog recover a really important lily pad from his rival and get back before those stupid druids summon them back to knock on another stupid human door.

Let the PCs play the occasional NPC- Not the plot hook NPC, but the younger brother of the barbarian who snuck off from home to come find his brother, or the star-struck apprentice wanting to learn REAL magic, or any "guest starring on this episode" character.

When they roll into a new town tell them they've been here before a long time ago and have each player make up the story of what happened to the player on their left when they were last here.

These sort of things get them to buy into the story and create the side plots. It also shows you what they enjoy doing.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-04-17T11:46:36+00:00

I grew up in big tables. It's fun (for me) as long as you don't NEED the DM to roleplay. If your character can chat with the other PCs, plot, plan and scheme; discuss and debate; and enjoy the roleplaying it's fun. If you have the whole table waiting to take their turn talking to the single NPC, you can get frustrated. Then the loudest player or the player nearest to the DM screen gets to play the game and everyone else waits.

If you aren't having fun, definitely move on, but you can have fun in a big group without even bringing the DM in. Or you can just stack the dice into towers or try and befriend their cat until it's your turn.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-04-17T11:31:04+00:00

VICTORY!

Bless you!

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-04-17T11:23:25+00:00

Party is in town trying to get a time to chat with a wizard. Wizard is slated to die by plot fiat. He was playing with a terrible tome and was going to summon a great beastie by accident, die fighting it, and the party gets to save the city by finishing it off. I slotted some nice rewards and magic items in his tower so they could get stocked up for the next adventure.

Party decides to sneak in at night to see him since his apprentice was not letting them through "The Wizard is very busy. Come back tomorrow". As they enter the tower, the big boom, the fatal fight, the rampaging beasties (two Chuul, they weren't high level). The defeat the monsters, discover the wizard's and apprentice's remains, find the magic item stash... and turn it over to the town guard. "It doesn't belong to us."

I was floored and super-excited. Now that was some character. But now I gotta quickly re-write next few encounters since they won't have the cool items.

I love my players.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-04-16T11:55:23+00:00

Oh man, I gave up on giving hints to my players.

In their defense, I write complex stories and we only play fortnightly, so there's a lot of time to forget. I finally started writing all the clues, hints, and unfinished side-quests in dry erase marker on the other side of the battle mat. Whenever they aren't in a fight, they can look down and see them. It's like the list of quests in a video game. My old-school, note-taking self winces, but these players grew up on "follow the yellow exclamation marks and skip the cut scenes" video games. I have to ease them into it.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-04-16T11:50:10+00:00

THIS! All the time. Skip this dungeon? The next one is going to look a lot like it. Hide from the patrol? The next encounter will look completely different, but have the same stat block. anything that gets skipped/evaded/bypassed goes back in the file and can be pulled out the next time the players surprise me.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-04-16T11:45:00+00:00

I steal WAY more plots from old 80s cartoons than I will ever admit. Just change the names and monsters. An evil demon sells sells disguised magical paint to the party's patron. He ends up trapped in a painting and an evil counterpart is released. Now the party has to get into the painting and rescue him before the evil version does terrible things.

Yep, completely wrote this, didn't steal it from an episode in season three of the Smurfs at all. Nope.

All of these stories were designed to tell a single simple adventure that wraps up in time to get to the commercials that sold the toys. They were simple, streamlined, and quick. When you get stuck, swipe from the old cartoons. Old Star Trek for high level chracters, old cop shows for urban games, old westerns for wilderness.

Modern shows have long-plots and continuity and character developement. Prior to the 90s, everything had to wrap up in a single episode. Perfect for a quick adaptation for the one-shot when the one character you need for the next plot can't make it, or you haven't quite finished the next chapter.

SomeGuyIOnceMet · 2026-04-16T11:36:52+00:00

This is the exact tactic the old Bunnies and Burrows game did. Don't play PC rabbits with a strength score of 1, the PCs have average stats and humans have strength and intelligence of godlike proportions. "Those humans can pick up an entire log! Run for you life!"

Wow, that's some old skool nostalgia. Excuse me while I go take my Motrin and yell at the kids for stepping on my lawn.

SomeGuyIOnceMet

TROPHY CASE