Cases Please!
Added 2026-01-05 21:15:24 +0000 UTCHey there! Bailiff Jake here to let you know that the Supreme Crit is convening on the morrow. Please submit your brief (I beg!) grievance and/or table top drama on this thread and we will bring you your justice!
Comments
Dearest, delectable justices and the bailiff whose prefixes depend on the mood of others, I need help. I have DMed one shots and mini campaigns in the past, but I started my first big girl campaign yesterday as a DM. Unfortunately, it was not the stunning opening I was hoping for. The campaign is set in Stormreach during the 200th Mourning Day Parade. An explosion took place, killing some members of the Sovereign Host and sending a deep purple firework into the sky that left behind a spider image. Three of my players followed a cloaked figure that was seen fleeing the scene with two of them running and another, an Air Genasi genie warlock that is themed after Remi Le'Beux, followed behind at more of a light jog/walk. This character is played by my house mate, we will call Jacques. The fourth player, my husband we will call Jack, is playing a dragonborn knight of the Silver Flame (the offspring of a Kobald and a White Dragon, two characters that came up in my mini campaign last year. This isn't relevant, just thought I'd share.). He ran to a priest from the Silver Flame float and helped bring him to get healed. During this, the trio all caught up with each other in an alleyway known as The Slums, where they picked a fight with a Goliath barbarian. Jacques was the one who picked the fight, drawing first blood with an eldritch blast, while another players character managed to land the killing blow with her pitchfork. (Yes, a pitchfork. The other player has a rolling pin and a wooden spoon as her weapons. Don't worry about it) It was at this point, when the player was pulling her pitchfork out of the poor Goliath's abdomen, that the dragonborn ran up on the scene. Naturally, Jacques decided his player would run off, chasing after the cloaked figure. The other two stood still. Jack threw them a rope asking them kindly to tie themselves up as he chased after who he believed to be the third evil doer. Great. Fun times. Well, eventually they ran into a door blocking there way where the four met up with Jack ramming Jacques's character into the door so he couldn't get away. Jacques proceeded to eldritch blast Jack but failed his roll. The session ended with the door opening and a deep purple light pulsating in the depths below, beckoning them on. End of session! We survived! Well, not even five minutes after, Jacques, in real life, decided that Jack's character was dumb for following him instead of arresting the other characters. The argument was that Jack saw the girl pull her pitchfork out of the Goliath. Jack's argument was that both of them stayed and Jacques was the only one who ran, so he put his trust in them to stay and chased the runner. 10 minutes of yelling later, Jack slammed the door as he went to the garage and Jacques began to make his way upstairs. Jack came back in, said goodbye to everyone and made Jacques hug him as Jack apologized. Jacques then went to his bedroom and Jack pouted for the rest of the night because he felt bad. Jack went and apologized again later in the evening. I am now in the weird position of 1. living with my husband and his best friend who are fighting and 2. Jacques emailing me a full new character (Basically Frieren from the anime) saying he doesn't see how their two characters could move past this... Who's at fault? Are they both to blame? Should I force them to share full sized beg I have stored for guests? (Jack is 6foot 3 and Jacques is 5foot 10). I lay this matter at your feet. I don't want to run a session 2...
Sarah Good
2026-01-19 16:07:54 +0000 UTCDear disciples of Dice Christ, Last year, I began playing a true D&D campaign for the first time. For the first few sessions, I borrowed whatever dice my spouse had lying around the house until I had the chance to buy some unique dice of my own. It was about 4 sessions in, my half-orc College of Swords Bard was doing some crazy hits in combat. I was hitting every time and rolled two nat-20s in a row. I even rolled a third nat20 later in combat, but I lied about it thinking my fellow players would accuse me of cheating, and said I got a dirty 20 instead. However, this is not the main dilemma for which I feel the deep pang of guilt. Once the session was over, I was holding the die in my hand that kept rolling so high, and realized it was not a traditional d20, but a Magic the Gathering countdown die. I’m sure most of you know what that means with the amount of MTG references I’ve heard, but for clarity, this means all the high numbers are clustered on one side of the die and the low numbers on the other side. I genuinely did not realize this mistake until this moment, and I tried to make myself feel better by telling myself I was still giving the die a good shake in my hand before rolling, so it was still random. I have since taken that die out of play, and my campaign is still going strong; however, both these sins still eat away at me. Will dice Christ absolve me of this sin, or must I spend time in dice purgatory?
Malia Balas
2026-01-09 20:17:12 +0000 UTCI bequeath this case to the justice esquires and the dastardly man you call a "balif", I bring you the case of the almost immediately ruined character trope. I started playing in a new campaign started in my friend group, and the character I chose to make was a knight, one who promised to never take off his helmet after his tragic past to hide his face, including in the story that he might downright have a meltdown without it. Session one, we all awake on a beach after our ship crashed. Each party woke up missing something that we had to find, cool little thing to search for and all that, cool I thought originally. Judges, the dm decided my character was missing his helmet, the thing I made sure to write down was integral to the character. I panicked a little and immediately asked if I could look for, a nat 20 on an investigation later and I did, but the dm told me after that the DC was over 20 already so without such a high roll I wouldn't have been able to find it. It all worked out, and the campaign fizzled out unfortunately, but still. The fact that an integral part of my character and how he played was almost immediately taken away forever from me has sat wrong with me to this day. Should I have said something in the moment, or always trusted the judgement of a dm who's campaign went poorly enough to fizzle out? I trust your judgment with full confidence
Lightning 717
2026-01-08 19:53:56 +0000 UTCTo the delegates of Dice Christ and Dan, I come asking for forgiveness. My party and I play with opt in massive damage rules so if an attack deals more than half your hp, you can opt in to roll on a massive damage table to have something extra happen, like a scar or the loss of a limb. Basically a simple way to add more flavor to combat. Through a series of unfortunate accidents, the rouge ended up 1v1ing a six headed hydra. The hydra, through six attacks, dealt more than half the rouges hp. Before I could say otherwise, my player joyfully exclaimed, “Hell Yeah! I love consequences!!” And then rolled before I ever told her to. What she rolled was to have her characters arm ripped off. Judges…she was overjoyed. She was so excited that I couldn’t bring myself to clarify that because the hydra had six attacks, it wouldn’t count as massive damage because it has to be done in a single attack. Instead of playing by the rules, I simply narrated the hydra ripping off the rouges arm and have carried this lie with me ever since. It weighs on my soul. May I ever be forgiven?
Rebecca
2026-01-07 13:05:03 +0000 UTCTo the bone dry justices and the slightly soggy bailiff, I bring to you the case of the OP spider. I’ll cut straight to the point. It was our final session. I was playing an Elven Warlock named Alanis, as it is a dope ass name and whoever came up with it is quite cool. While finishing up the campaign we ended up in a field equidistant from a wizard tower (our end goal) and a random city the dm wanted us to explore. So we determine to go to the tower first to finish up our current quest line. This was apparently contrary to what the dm had planed. The DM groaned a bit about us not going to his cool city, then got a funny look in his eye and narrated my character’s shoe getting stuck in the mud. So I pull my foot out, grab the shoe, and put my foot back in. SURPRISE! In the shoe was a spider that then bit me and poisoned me without a save. That poison PARALYZED ME INSTANTLY and the DM was adamant that I would be unable to move for the next three days. And that’s how the campaign ended. A full year of play finished with my character paralyzed in the mud with no story arcs completed. So I ask you this, was the DM right to “railroad” us in such a way? All in all it doesn’t really matter, this is just a thing that will come to mind every once in a while and I’ll get pissed off all over again. I await your response. PS: I have many examples of this dm being……interesting in his rulings but that is a case for another day
Rebecca
2026-01-07 13:04:41 +0000 UTCDear Deacons of Dice Christ and Jake, the owner of the religiously significant Bird-lesque, I come before you with my rinky toes lowered in deep supplication. After being inspired by your campaigns and receiving encouragement from my partner and friends, I started a D&D campaign! I'm a first time DM and most of the players are new to D&D. Everyone seems to be having a good time, but I have come to realize somewhere I am significantly lacking: who to attack in combat. In my arrogance, I thought targeting my partner and friends with lethal violence would come naturally. I was mistaken. I try to be logical about who each enemy would attack, but I still end combats with some characters unconscious while others are completely untouched. I can't help feeling that this is a failure on my part and that I may be ruining the D&D experience for the new players at the table. I pray that you will show me mercy and absolve me of my sins as you look down on me from your lofty, yet tasteful, 3D-printed dice towers.
atlas_hugged64
2026-01-07 05:21:07 +0000 UTCTo the glorious judges & bailiff; the whimsical Caldwell Tanner, the perspicacious Brian Murphy, the ensorcelling Emily Axford, and the big Joke Hurwitz- I bring to you the case of the Boarhide Belt- I play a dwarf sorcerer (aka dwarferer) in an island-hopping campaign run by my two friends, Josh & Allen, who switch off DMing. On one of Josh's islands, I purchased a homebrew item made by Allen called the Boarhide Belt for 200gp. This belt gave me the Squat Nimbleness feat and considered me a small creature for squeezing through spaces. For 14 sessions across 293 days I used the belt to do things like squeeze through caves or escape an exploding factory. We made it to the next shopping opportunity (still on Josh’s island) when Allen said, "Oh I forgot something". He asked if I had attuned to the belt. I didn’t think I had to since it wasn't in the item description. He then said, "Let's just retcon that you haven't actually attuned to it yet." I then attuned, put on the belt, and promptly transformed into a greased pig. Hoping to have some fun with the situation, I said I wanted to bust out of the tavern room we were in and cause a ruckus. I was asked to make an intelligence save, which I failed because my intelligence was now 2. I was told I was frightened, couldn't move, and thought that "everyone wants my bacon”. It was this point that our party wizard rescued me by casting dispel magic, temporarily ending the polymorph effect. Allen then tells me I got the first of the “dud” items. After the session, I expressed some frustration that I essentially lost an item that I enjoyed using. I asked if at some point in the campaign I could have it fixed to work as it did before, to which both DMs said, "Yeah that sounds like a cool story beat". Justices, we have been on indefinite hiatus and may never resume this campaign. I ask the court, what is the statute of limitations for instituting a retcon? If there was intent to remedy my slight, is that enough? What if that never happens? Thank you, and Dice Christ’s blessings- Magnar Kragstone
Magnar Kragstone
2026-01-06 21:58:38 +0000 UTC
