Cliches

[bobjester]

Last session, a player new to our group was playing a MU, and announced he was casting fireball.

To set the scene, the party had just gone up a flight of stairs in a round tower, 30 feet in diameter, and came up into a half-moon shaped tower floor chamber that took up half the floor. They opened the door in the center of the dividing wall to see the other half-moon shaped chamber on the other side and a flock of harpies. The new MU (the party are all 5-8th level) announces he's casting fireball into the chamber with the harpies, to which the rest of the players yell in unison, "No!" realizing that his fireball blast radius is greater than the diameter of the entire tower floor.

"Too late." I say with a grin. "Everyone make a saving throw."

To the new MU player's credit, he said he never, ever understood radius/diameter/math. "Well, this is a practical problem for you then, and the EXPERIENCE you gain, should you and the rest of the players survive, will serve you well." I replied.

[JasonZavoda]

What are some cliche's that you love to see in the game?

I'm partial to moments like this:

[rredmond]

Nice! I don't think I've ever seen that second one before, where is it from Jason?
--Ron--

[Juju EyeBall]

Fairly certain that is from HackMaster.

[JasonZavoda]

Maybe from an issue of KoDT

[rredmond]

Fairly certain that is from HackMaster.

Considering HM this makes a lot of sense.
Thanks!
--Ron--

[Juju EyeBall]

Fairly certain that is from HackMaster.

Considering HM this makes a lot of sense.
Thanks!
--Ron--

I have a copy of the PhB i'll try to remember to check

[fingolwyn]

One of the interesting things about this photo is the relative depth of the water for the guy banging futilely at the door vs. the skeleton sneaking up on him---unless the skelton is a halfling or some other shorter humanoid, it must be rising up from a deeper section of water in the center of the room.

Given that the guy is ignoring the skeleton, my hunch is that he's standing on a ledge that runs around the center of the room, or at the top of stairs that descended into the room, and that he's distracted by the entering water, which makes the skeleton especially deadly (striking from behind with surprise, perhaps!).

Allan.

In my imagination the skeleton was just a heap of bones on the floor, the fighter came in the room to investigate it, the door shut behind him, water started to flow, the fighter turns his attention to the door unaware that the skeleton is rising behind him.
Skeleton gets a back stab, unprecedented!

Oh. I had always assumed the skeleton was lying on the floor level with everything else and was sitting up/leaning forward in the final motion of throwing the dagger. Still an awkward pose though.

One of my favorite cliches is Dwarvish ruins. I hate to say it, but that has been *sooo* overdone in the past 40 years. Yet I still find myself designing them and using them in games and getting excited when another DM wants to run a game in them.