I don't know why I was browsing through old threads in off-topic, but here we are. Time to cast revivify on this thread.
I have some ridiculous stories about players who didn't make it past the trial session.
I wouldn't mind hearing some of these stories. They sound interesting.
I'd have to dig through some old messages to properly remember some of them, but one always stands out to me.
Basically, two party members had just left the game for personal reasons (one got a new job and the other couldn't keep a consistent enough schedule to make games). So, I needed to find a couple of new players to join an ongoing game that was around level 7 and had been going once a week for several months. I get on the Roll20 forums and post a LFP message describing the game and my general rules. As always, I get inundated with requests to play (given the massive dearth of DMs compared to willing players in D&D) and I pick the three that sound least terrible.
One of the permanent party members couldn't make it, but I figured using a session that couldn't have everybody to try out the new players was a good compromise; the other players still got a game and the guy who couldn't make it wouldn't miss much. Boy, was I wrong.
The three player profiles I got were for a druid, a monk, and a paladin. The druid had a lot of experience and sent me a ten page backstory, the monk had played a bit before and sent me everything I asked for (about a page and a half answering basic background questions), and the paladin seemed to have played before but was really reluctant to provide much detail on their character or plans. As a DM, the last one was a red flag, but I let it slide because they had seemed fine up to that point and I was already committed to the session.
The day before the game, the paladin messages me explaining that they didn't really like any of the normal subclasses, so I offered to let them play an Unearthed Arcana version (WotC unofficial material) or potentially homebrew something, subject to approval and balancing. They come back with a "paladin of fun" that sounded like a drug-addled nature paladin. Again, red flag, but I figured it couldn't be that bad.
Day of the game, the two permanent players introduce themselves, we hear a bit about each of the new characters, and we
jump into the game. First encounter comes up, and the party is fighting some normal trash mobs in a
forest as a warm up. Mr. Paladin of Fun makes a huge section of ground rough terrain, reducing most players' movement by half...in a mostly melee-oriented party. Apparently, the paladin didn't understand the spell, but refused to drop it so we played it out. The simple combat turned into a grueling hour-long fight, mostly thanks to rough terrain, an unfortunate coincidence in creature choice (I think it was something that could knock players down, effectively preventing them from moving at all in rough terrain), and some bad rolls on part of the party. But, they made it through and everyone joked about the paladin being more useful in the future.
Then the bad part happened. The group was following a trail of clues to find the hideout of a renegade archmage. Now, as level 7, they definitely weren't equipped to fight an archmage, but they planned to do some
reconnaissance for a nice reward and turn the matter over to more powerful allies. This was to set up the main arc of the story, in which they would eventually fight all of the renegade archmages as the conclusion to the game at level 20. They find the hideout, start exploring, and trigger a trap.
The trap was a story element meant to scare them off. It just alerted the archmage that someone was in his house and he teleported back. His backstory involved being reluctant to hurt people, so he was never going to kill them, but they didn't know that. He shows up, they get spooked as he telekinetically tosses the NPC with them like a ragdoll, and they start to bolt. Except for paladin of fun. He says, "Hey, we got this. Let's fight." And all of the other players go, "Oh, yeah, that sounds like a not-stupid plan. Let's fight."
At this point, I drop several increasingly-obvious hints that this would be a bad idea. At one point, they attack one of the archmage's allies, and HE LITERALLY SAYS TO STOP in a menacing tone. Paladin of fun proceeds to kill the ally, starting the fight. I pull a lot of punches, trying really hard not to kill them all for a new player's odd insistence on violence in a bad situation, but they really won't take the hint. This whole time, we're jaegering the guy who couldn't be there and I'm especially trying not to get him killed when he's not even playing.
Basically, the fight progresses, the party gets separated, and paladin of fun, the guy who couldn't be there (a warrior), and the rogue (permanent player) are stranded away from the way out. I'm trying to figure out what to do when the paladin sees the small stream running through the base and asks where it leads. I tell him its a dark tunnel filled with water that leads somewhere you can't see, but they knew they were pretty high up on a
mountain and it seemed like a bad idea. (It was a garbage shoot that just took waste off the side of the
mountain.) He decides that's their escape route and starts literally pulling
the warrior with him using grapple checks.
The warrior, played by me, somehow manages to roll three natural 1s in a row, losing every check to not get pulled into the chute. As they're on the brink, I just flat say "You know you'll almost certainly die if you go down that chute." And paladin of fun goes for it anyway, dragging
the warrior after him. Then, the rogue decides (all the way at the exit after having successfully escaped the right way) to
jump in after them in case they need saving. I warn him again that it's basically guaranteed death. He goes anyway.
That's where the session ended. I told the rogue that he was dead after taking like 200 falling damage. (I firmly believe in letting players die if they
insist on making poor choices repeatedly.) The paladin also died, and afterward everyone voted on not asking them back due mostly to party interactions, but also because of essentially getting two permanent members killed after several overt warnings. I told
the warrior that they could either roll a new character or have a miraculous survival followed by a new plot hook about their rescuer. They were getting bored of playing a champion fighter anyway, so they rolled a new character with no hard feelings.
So yeah, sometimes people really don't mesh well with the group.
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