PAX East 2013 Free Pass Contest

Certis gave the ok to post this new contest:

Each participant in this contest will be entered into a random draw for a free Pax East 3 day badge.

Post your story of a horrible, miraculous, or wildly entertaining dice rolling experience. Did your exploding dice save your life in the nick of time? Did critical misses cost you the campaign? I want to hear the extremes of your dice rolling adventures.

If you're interested in other free ways to win a Pax badge, you can also check out www.dicewitch.com/contests.html

I'm going to keep this running for a bit to generate some interest, especially since the PAX badge will not be available to send to the winner until February. Contest will end on February 17th, 2013. Winner announced February 18th.

Wish PAX was an option for me- the travel is simply out of my budget.

demonbox wrote:

Wish PAX was an option for me- the travel is simply out of my budget.

Same for me, although I would try to go if I somehow got a pass. Is there any specific game or type of game you're looking for with the dice rolling story?

No specific game, anything that involves dice is an option!

I had a moment in a game where my character did something difficult and heroic to save his companions' lives and then had to make a nearly impossible roll to survive himself. On the fictional level, I was definitely feeling the dread: "I'm probably going to die, and I don't even know if they made it out or not."

On the "real" level, though, I was feeling anything but dread: "My guy's probably going to die! To save his friends! Who don't even know he thinks of them as friends! Awesome!"

Nice, I like the layers!

Way back in middle school, we were playing some weird mashup for AD&D 2nd edition. This was my first D&D experience, and my first tabletop RPG experience, so my friend was explaining how Critical Hits worked.

TheGM wrote:

If your initial roll to hit was a 20, you roll another D20 to confirm the critical hit. If you hit with that, it's a critical, and you do some multiple of your dice pool for damage.

So I ask the silly question, being a precocious 14 year old boy - "What happens if I get a 20 when I roll to confirm?"

TheGM wrote:

You instantly kill whatever you were attacking.

Armed with this knowledge, and being a precocious 14 year old boy, we started playing. I rolled up my first (of many) Elven Rangers specializing in bows, with my ludicrous equipment like a cup of ever-flowing coffee, and we set off through some mystical fantasy forest. We come upon an area of quicksand, and nothing we can do stops us from being sucked under, and pulled through the earth and pass through some kind of portal. We find ourselves high in the air, over a large island, and we start falling. The canopy of a rain forest breaks out fall, and we slowly make our way down to the forest floor.

We start to get our bearings, and soon find the dense forest is starting to thin out a little bit. There's smoke on the horizon, so we head off in that direction.

Then we feel the ground shaking. There is a pause. Another shake. Another pause.

A thundering roar echoes across the plains, and out of the same forest we just left, we see a giant tyrannosaurus rex - and it's eyes are fixated on out party's position.

The party starts to run, and the T-rex begins to chase. Try as we might, we're not able to outrun the monstrous beast.

We roll initiative, and somehow I wind up being the last to go from the group, but right before the T-rex. The fighter tries to land a blow with his mighty two-handed sword, and even with a high roll, was unable to hit. "Wow, he must have a really low AC!" I hear one of the party members say out of character.

The wizard is unable to land his first spell, and the paladin also misses with the first swing of his mace.

The initiative order turns to my ranger.

"So, I just roll to hit?" I ask.
"Yes, roll a D20, and you want it to be high," one of the players responds.
"Can I, like, choose where I want to try and hit?"
"Sure - that would be a Called Shot, it adds to the difficulty, but increases the damage," another player responds.
"Cool - I aim for its eye!"

I let my D20 roll, as my archer lets off an arrow from his bow. In that slow-motion suspense while waiting for the die to come to rest, I can see every face of the dice as it scatters around. It settles on a 20!

TheGM wrote:

Excellent! A 20 will always hit, regardless of AC or THAC0! Now roll to confirm a critical!

I go to pick up my D20, but another player pushes my hand away. "No man, you gotta roll a different die! Don't touch the 20 until its all done!" And then he hands me his D20. I roll, there's another moment of slow-motion suspense. The dice begins to slow down, and one final burst of momentum has it coming to rest - another 20.

The rest of the players leap up from the table in our middle school cafeteria, and begin hooping and yelling. My best friend, the GM, is torn. I'm just a little confused.

TheGM wrote:

Generations of archery talent combine into your single shot. Your eyes, your muscles, your fingertips - they all work in tandem to let off a perfect shot. Your arrow flies true, landing squarely in the T-rex's pupil, and going straight into its brain. The beast's muscles slacken, and it falls over dead.

My first combat, my first roll EVER, is an instant kill! On a T-rex!

I later find out from my friend the GM that we weren't really supposed to survive the encounter. The adventure he had planned for us involved losing to the T-rex, and then being nurtured back to health by natives, and getting clues for the next steps from the natives who rescued us.

You don't get "nursed back to health" after losing to a T-Rex! You get turned into dino sh*t.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

You don't get "nursed back to health" after losing to a T-Rex! You get turned into dino sh*t.

He might have meant "rescued before being eaten, and then nursed back to health." Either way, that's a great story. My first D&D character died when I made the DM mad. He decided that even though we won the fight, I contracted tetanus from one of the rusty weapons I was hit by, and apparently didn't notice until it killed me.

Stengah wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

You don't get "nursed back to health" after losing to a T-Rex! You get turned into dino sh*t.

He might have meant "rescued before being eaten, and then nursed back to health." Either way, that's a great story. My first D&D character died when I made the DM mad. He decided that even though we won the fight, I contracted tetanus from one of the rusty weapons I was hit by, and apparently didn't notice until it killed me.

Hey, I'm not the one who said "I know the perfect first enemy for this party of 4 Level 1 PCs! A T-rex with AC -10!"

I am the one who insta-killed it with a called shot and double critical

I wouldn't mind be armed with an "ever flowing cup of coffee" on a regular basis! Great detail on the story. I think at this point anyone who puts their story up is going to get at least a discount for my "dice charging" and "dice cleansing" kits, if not free products.

Keep em' coming, the Pax badge awaits!

TheDiceWitch wrote:

I wouldn't mind be armed with an "ever flowing cup of coffee" on a regular basis!

I worked on my friend FOR WEEKS to get him to allow me to have that as part of the starting gear

Congratulations to McIrishJihad, the winner in the Free Pax East Badge Contest!