History WebAnimation / PuffinForest

* OverShadowedByAwesome: In a ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' campaign, Ben picked character last, and wondered why no one wanted to play as the DarkLord Sauron. It turned out the other players were [[InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons Smaug]], [[GiantSpider She]][[AnimalisticAbomination lob]] and [[OurDemonsAreDifferent the Balrog]].

** Sometimes this justifies Ben's mistakes. For instance, the Waterdeep module doesn't actually have a stat block for Nihiloor but does have his portrait next to the stat block of a Nimblewright; the DM is supposed to use the stats of a mind flayer. Other times not so much, such as Ben missing a section specifically called "Getting into the temple" in The Fane of the Night Serpent.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In the Tomb of Annihilation campaign that Ben ran, the Ras Nsi is killed with his own FlamingSword after a player cut his hand off in a duel with him and stole the sword.

* ContrivedCoincidence: In the "Curse of Strahd" campaign Krusk needs to find a suit of plate and happens to find some in a raider camp. Strahd later activates a curse on the armor that paralyzes Krusk and reveals he placed the armor where the party would find it. Granted, Strahd has demonstrated a knack for knowing where the players are at any point and may have even directed them towards it using [[spoiler:his guise as Vasili]].

* TakeThat: Ben was less than impressed with the proscribed method of getting into the Fane of the Night Serpent[[note]]Surrendering to the cult and giving up all their weapons and items to become slaves[[/note]].

* ThoseWackyNazis: Ben tried to run a ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' game inspired by ''Franchise/IndianaJones'', featuring, of course, nazis as the villains. Then he realized that nazis have guns.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGdCdQJxBDA first game Ben GM'd]] takes place in one. It's big enough that [[spoiler:an otyugh, a giant tentacle monster, lives in it]]. But [[RealityEnsues it turns out]] that [[VomitIndiscretionShot sewers are gross]].

* RealityEnsues:
** The main reason why the players at Ben's Table didn't want to play Traveler. Spaceships are so prohibitively expensive [[note]]they cost 150 million dollars[[/note]] that people can only afford shares of a ship. Moreover, instead of starting the game as the character they want the players have to roll for life events. Thus the noble became a half-deaf exile [[note]][[CharClone his family was wiped out, he joined the army under an assumed name]], he was made deaf in one ear by cannon fire, and he was imprisoned for a time by pirates[[/note]] and the scholar became a disgraced outcast [[note]]he got caught stealing someone else's work, got kicked out from the university, and when he tried to do independent research on an alien planet his ship broke down and he ended up stranded there for years[[/note]]. On a more meta level, springing that kind of character creation on them with no warning certainly didn't help their enthusiasm.
** While playtesting Pathfinder 2e Ben had multiple pre-made modules, each with its own facet of gameplay to test. One was a TPK module which recommended ''not'' telling the players what they were testing. Ben thought that springing an unfair TPK on the players would be rude so he explained and then asked if they could run it anyway. Needless to say the players all refused.
** A poor NPC vandal at the Pokemón University gets to learn that humans are not beholden to the rules of pokemón battles.
-->'''Vandal''': Smeargle, use Leer!\\
[{{Beat}}]\\
'''Security Guard''': [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown LET'S FUCK HIM UP!!!]]

** In his ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' Evil Campaign, Ben picked Sauron before realizing he actually doesn't know very much about the character, having only seen the film trilogy. So he gives Sauron the Deceive, Notice and Craft skills, essentially making him an evil blacksmith, and runs his evil empire like a militant corporation out to industrialize Middle-Earth by force. Cue Tolkien lore nerds in the comments section affirming that Ben pretty much got Sauron spot-on.

** In his ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' Evil Campaign, Ben picked Sauron before realizing he actually doesn't know much about the character. So he gives Sauron the Deceive, Notice and Craft skills, essentially making him an evil blacksmith, and runs his evil empire like a militant corporation out to industrialize Middle-Earth by force. Cue Tolkien lore nerds in the comments section affirming that Ben got Sauron spot-on.

* "What it's like to give your players an overpowered NPC friendo" is a parody of a movie trailer where Ben spends the entire time berating himself about why he thought it was a good idea to give the players a pet kraken.

*** Gouda and Krusk are [[spoiler:trapped (Krusk more voluntarily as he's just staying with Gouda) travelling around, Gouda alwys planning to go home but always and forever being distracted by some new quest. After all, she ''is'' The Hero... and will never be anything else, forever reincarnated to be so while her rejected reincarnations come to life as shells with only the purpose to kill her. Gouda's player is very put out by this, while Krusk's notes that his character will probably be fine with it. ]]

** Aligaros Ashuin: A fighter with a fear of libraries who things that all problems should be solved with an axe and treats his BirdFolk teammate like a pet.

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXBy8E_GOtI The GM Took Away My Addiction Because It Was Breaking His Game]]". Ben's character is knocked unconscious with the force and finds that his addiction to death sticks is mysteriously gone when he wakes, and all of his death sticks, and only his death sticks, were all stolen. No part of this makes any sense.

** Aligaros thinks that is an ax is the solution to every problem. He is amazed when he sees one of his teammates solve a problem with their mind, so he thinks they must have used their "mind-ax".

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Captain Morgan's solution to every problem is cocaine. It usually works.

* CatsAreMean: The villain of the Holiday One Off is an immortal monster that happens to look like an ordinary cat and loves to hunt humans.

** In "Too Many Pets", some one tries to scoff at the idea of Ghosts, before the party points out that, at this point, Ghosts are basically an establshed fact in the World.

* FlatEarthAtheist: One episode has a guard who insists that magic isn't real, because he has [[NotHyperbole literally]] never been outside.

* OurElvesAreBetter: Discussed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J6OlsTSxRc "My favorite classes to play in D&D"]], when Ben notes that typical high-fantasy elves have all the benefits of being simultaneously old and young, with none of the downsides."

** In "The Infamous TPK Module" Ben was running an encounter with a "lake monster" but he couldn't find the relevant stat block. He instead used the block for a Purple Worm which proceeded to demolish the party, forcing them to retreat. Ben later determined he was meant to use the stat block for a ''Sea'' Serpent whose stats are almost identical to a Purple Worm; the encounter was always meant to be a near-TPK.

* AccidentallyAccurate: In "The Infamous TPK Module" Ben was running an encounter with a "lake monster" but he couldn't find the relevant stat block. He instead used the block for a Purple Worm which proceeded to demolish the party, forcing them to retreat. Ben later determined he was meant to use the stat block for a ''Sea'' Serpent whose stats are almost identical to a Purple Worm; the encounter was always meant to be a near-TPK.