[D&D 3.5] Heart of the Iron God Game/Lesson

There is a link to an article going around about how to be a better roleplayer. I have a story from my D&D 3.5 game at PortCon last week that exemplifies rule #5: Don't harm other players.

First, let me say a little something about the game. It's not often you get to play a 13th level character in a game, either at home or at a convention. It was fun. My wizard had spells I had only ever read about. Most of the rounds of the game were spent with me casting spells. It was during the roleplay aspect that the lesson came about.

The player in question was playing the party fighter. He was playing the character rather recklessly, and at one point charged up a set of stairs on his own. The stairs were trapped, and they deposited him in a furnace via a trap door. The player barely got out of the furnace before his character died.

Later we found three strange symbols set on circles in the floor. We wanted to find out what the strange symbols did, and my character encouraged the fighter to check them out. The first one transported him back to the beginning of the adventure. The character was able to make his way back to us without any trouble.

He was a little more hesitant on the second symbol, but I encouraged him to go for it. The symbol transported him to a dungeon somewhere far away from the action. Luckily there was another symbol there that transported him back.

Before I could encourage any other actions, and before the rest of the party could say anything, the player decided his character may as well try the third symbol. This one transported him back to the furnace. This time he couldn't escape. His character died. It was due to something stupid he did which I encouraged. However, I didn't make him do it.

It was a horrendous death, and the player spent the rest of the night bemoaning it and  trying to negotiate a retcon. There were two hours left in our slot, so the DM allowed the player to use one of the replacement characters.

In the next room we found his replacement character unconscious. When the character woke up, the first thing he did was go in a savage barbarian rage against me. The player was looking for someone else to blame for the death of his character and he chose me, saying the last thing he saw before he went unconscious was a wizard. He hit me twice and took most of my hit points. I had no way to defend my wizard except to cast a forcecage around the barbarian.

A forecage lasts for 2 hours per spellcaster level. He spent the rest of the game in the cage, was no use to the party, and no use to the convention game he signed up for.

The message isn't don't mess with me though I would like it if you didn't. The message is number 5 out of the 11 ways to be a better player found in this linked article: Don't harm other players.

By the way, in the end my character ended up being affected by an ancient chaos horror creature and turned into a spongy quivering mass in constant pain and with little sense of self.