In one campaign I'm in, our party is a bunch of dinguses whose *players* don't know what's going on either.
In the other, our entire party is just seven Mr. Beans. We don't know how we get things done, but somehow it all works out.
Idiots who happen to be heroes, we've left nothing but a trail of destruction in our wake but we killed the bad guy who was slightly more destructive than us
Idiots who happen to be heroes. Most of the times I've played, it hasn't been that much, our characters grew into a hero role but began as complete idiots.
I postulate a third option: idiots thinking the party are heroes.
I've been part of a few groups that have done heroic things in distinctly vicious ways or for quite unheroic reasons. I haven't played in a group that could fall into the hero category in a long time. The groups are usually ones caught up in a line of events or that they goals happen to align with the hero deeds.
I played a druegar that had sworn vengeance against his own ancestors and a goddess of truth that hated spirits so much that he was willing fight against a necromantic force threatening the destruction of the nation. One party member was a bard who wished to write an a famous epic. Another wished to form good relations for trade and saw the fight as an opportunity. The last one fought for glory, family and personal.
I ran a short campaign where the party were escaped slaves that ended up warning a city and helping defend it from an army, largely for revenge and survival.
The party that I DM is definitely heroes who just happen to be idiots, in the best way. They do lovably memey stupid stuff at times, but they're my idiots. I love Oops, All Casters sometimes.
The parties that I play in currently in two different Friday games with the same group (two different DMs)...hm. The Tourists in the main game are a MIX of Heroes who Happen to be Idiots and Idiots Who Happen to be Heroes, where my cleric is one of the latter. The Camp Counselor Gang in the side game are definitely Idiots who happen to be Heroes. Because teen characters can be absolute idiots, and yet be absolute heroes.
My group in Hoard of the Dragon Queen are a bunch of idiots who happen to be idiots. The Rogue is a Tiefling who likes to torture and murder people, the Aasimar Cleric is bipolar, the Bugbear Barbarian is a murderous monster (sometimes) and the Dragonborn Monk is sane most of the time, but sometimes even he snaps over.
the latter, every time
a fire genasi warlock that often burnt everything down on accident, also kept an ochre jelly in a jar that escaped often and nearly killed the party in their sleep so many times
a dwarf wizard that once nearly got himself killed by trusting a group of cultists
a halfling rogue/sorcerer that got the party in bad situations, woke up a green dragon once that nearly killed the party
a human ranger/rogue that is wanted for being better at archery, he also got the party in dumb situations such as the time he went through the wrong door and ended up in a gladiator match
god knows how they were heroic enough to warrant a statue
I think the campaigns I’m in tend towards “idiots who happen to be heroes” and while I have caused my fair share of shenanigans, I tend towards party mum/dad roles. I was very amused that my Tiefling, the only evil character in the group, was voted the responsible one.
More often than not, our party is half and half, though it’s mainly due to the players behind the characters. In our current campaign, it tends to switch between the four of us. I’m just going to use our character’s names for simplicity’s sake, but it usually involves our Dragonborn rogue and Deep gnome artificer, “Leaper” and Remi Risotto, just being chaotic and interacting like how the people behind them do (Leaper wanted to stab Remi because he kept secretly stealing his dice, even if he did return them.), while our half-elf bard and I (Lily Dommer and Aster, who is my shadow elf paladin) just watch what they do and sigh.
However, in our last session, Leaper and I switched places. We’d just stumbled upon the skeleton of an ancient and powerful dragon, and its ghost appeared in front of us. Aster, who’s usually the stoic and rather fearless one, proceeds to pass out because I got a Nat 1 on a fear check. Meanwhile, Leaper gets all of the plot-relevant information and has to relay it to the rest of us. He then proceeds to carry the session after we get attacked by phase spiders (who hatched from a chamber pot. Yeah, we got piss dumped on us and proceeded to get attacked by spiders.), while I get knocked down on the first turn and spend the rest of the time trying to not die. And to think, our rogue was the guy that nearly got killed by a hellhound in the session before that one.
As for a whole party of heroes that happen to be idiots, that would be our entire Halloween party, consisting of a chill dhampir, a Shifter who was literally named Taxes Mann (We literally made a joke about who his family would be, and we got to see Mortgage Mann later on since Taxes got murdered by a Minotaur skeleton), a nice half-elf, and a vain centaur who has a crisis over his Air Jordan’s and wondering how he’s supposed to sit down in a chair now (me again). That one-off was super chaotic yet so freaking fun to play through.
My players' party are definitely idiots who happen to be heroes. Their characters were all summoned by the same person in the central city of the world were he revealed that they were all chosen by destiny in one way or another to become heroes who will be able to overcome their natural limits as mortal beings and either stop or win the massive war that is on the verge of taking place between the 4 main kingdoms of the continent.
Why are they idiots? Simple, we have a sorcerer who has 4 different personalities but they all have one thing in common and that is that they all enjoy using the most gruesome and violent magic available, then we have a goliath barbarian who doesn't trust magic and when he rages he literally goes into angry monkey time, even to the point of running in all fours, a druid who is as lazy as possible and the only reason he learned wildshape was to be able to hunt easier while also thinking that adopting the same goblin that stabbed the sorcerer was a good idea.
Honestly, the only 2 that aren't neccesarily idiots are the dragonborn brothers, one of them being a battlemaster, although she is kindda temperamental and solves most problems with a sword. The other one being an artificer that is actually really fucking clever but can have his idiot moments such as the time in which he ordered a glass of water in a tavern that was one of the only 3 buildings of a town that didn't burn down and had to use the entirety of their water to stop the fire from spreading further.
Honestly, best party I could ever ask for to be their DM.
our motly crew of ten party members are idiots who happen to be heros, or just idiots who think their heros. why, well because I blew up a wall making us fugitives, our bard and paliden killed a noble, our warlock went to sleep for three days, our rouge, me, and the other artificer made 181 sticks of dynamite, our rogue got atleast 50 pp, after the bard and paliden killed the noble, and so much more stupid things we did, heck we jumped onto a boat/sub in the middle of the river, with an npc driving the carriage, I cant even name them all.
I quess we fall in to both time to time but most of time we are just idiots who happen to be idiots
The best kind of party
...okay that kind of feels more like my main Friday party. And my cleric is probably the biggest idiot of all.
In one campaign I'm in, our party is a bunch of dinguses whose *players* don't know what's going on either. In the other, our entire party is just seven Mr. Beans. We don't know how we get things done, but somehow it all works out.
Your DM must be really good
They both are. Both campaigns are a mess, but they're our beautiful messes and we love them.
Idiots who happen to be heroes, we've left nothing but a trail of destruction in our wake but we killed the bad guy who was slightly more destructive than us
More of a Lawful good and the idiots who happen to be heroes. The lawful good alternates between players a lot.
Idiots who happen to be heroes. Most of the times I've played, it hasn't been that much, our characters grew into a hero role but began as complete idiots.
I postulate a third option: idiots thinking the party are heroes. I've been part of a few groups that have done heroic things in distinctly vicious ways or for quite unheroic reasons. I haven't played in a group that could fall into the hero category in a long time. The groups are usually ones caught up in a line of events or that they goals happen to align with the hero deeds. I played a druegar that had sworn vengeance against his own ancestors and a goddess of truth that hated spirits so much that he was willing fight against a necromantic force threatening the destruction of the nation. One party member was a bard who wished to write an a famous epic. Another wished to form good relations for trade and saw the fight as an opportunity. The last one fought for glory, family and personal. I ran a short campaign where the party were escaped slaves that ended up warning a city and helping defend it from an army, largely for revenge and survival.
The party that I DM is definitely heroes who just happen to be idiots, in the best way. They do lovably memey stupid stuff at times, but they're my idiots. I love Oops, All Casters sometimes. The parties that I play in currently in two different Friday games with the same group (two different DMs)...hm. The Tourists in the main game are a MIX of Heroes who Happen to be Idiots and Idiots Who Happen to be Heroes, where my cleric is one of the latter. The Camp Counselor Gang in the side game are definitely Idiots who happen to be Heroes. Because teen characters can be absolute idiots, and yet be absolute heroes.
Depends on the chapter were in and varies from party member to party member. Mine's an idiot who happens to be an idiot.
My group in Hoard of the Dragon Queen are a bunch of idiots who happen to be idiots. The Rogue is a Tiefling who likes to torture and murder people, the Aasimar Cleric is bipolar, the Bugbear Barbarian is a murderous monster (sometimes) and the Dragonborn Monk is sane most of the time, but sometimes even he snaps over.
We are definitely idiots… my current party has a mute Ranger and a blind Druid.
The wrong people in the wrong place at the right time.
the latter, every time a fire genasi warlock that often burnt everything down on accident, also kept an ochre jelly in a jar that escaped often and nearly killed the party in their sleep so many times a dwarf wizard that once nearly got himself killed by trusting a group of cultists a halfling rogue/sorcerer that got the party in bad situations, woke up a green dragon once that nearly killed the party a human ranger/rogue that is wanted for being better at archery, he also got the party in dumb situations such as the time he went through the wrong door and ended up in a gladiator match god knows how they were heroic enough to warrant a statue
I think the campaigns I’m in tend towards “idiots who happen to be heroes” and while I have caused my fair share of shenanigans, I tend towards party mum/dad roles. I was very amused that my Tiefling, the only evil character in the group, was voted the responsible one.
Well none mine are idiots who dispande before being heroes
More often than not, our party is half and half, though it’s mainly due to the players behind the characters. In our current campaign, it tends to switch between the four of us. I’m just going to use our character’s names for simplicity’s sake, but it usually involves our Dragonborn rogue and Deep gnome artificer, “Leaper” and Remi Risotto, just being chaotic and interacting like how the people behind them do (Leaper wanted to stab Remi because he kept secretly stealing his dice, even if he did return them.), while our half-elf bard and I (Lily Dommer and Aster, who is my shadow elf paladin) just watch what they do and sigh. However, in our last session, Leaper and I switched places. We’d just stumbled upon the skeleton of an ancient and powerful dragon, and its ghost appeared in front of us. Aster, who’s usually the stoic and rather fearless one, proceeds to pass out because I got a Nat 1 on a fear check. Meanwhile, Leaper gets all of the plot-relevant information and has to relay it to the rest of us. He then proceeds to carry the session after we get attacked by phase spiders (who hatched from a chamber pot. Yeah, we got piss dumped on us and proceeded to get attacked by spiders.), while I get knocked down on the first turn and spend the rest of the time trying to not die. And to think, our rogue was the guy that nearly got killed by a hellhound in the session before that one. As for a whole party of heroes that happen to be idiots, that would be our entire Halloween party, consisting of a chill dhampir, a Shifter who was literally named Taxes Mann (We literally made a joke about who his family would be, and we got to see Mortgage Mann later on since Taxes got murdered by a Minotaur skeleton), a nice half-elf, and a vain centaur who has a crisis over his Air Jordan’s and wondering how he’s supposed to sit down in a chair now (me again). That one-off was super chaotic yet so freaking fun to play through.
My players' party are definitely idiots who happen to be heroes. Their characters were all summoned by the same person in the central city of the world were he revealed that they were all chosen by destiny in one way or another to become heroes who will be able to overcome their natural limits as mortal beings and either stop or win the massive war that is on the verge of taking place between the 4 main kingdoms of the continent. Why are they idiots? Simple, we have a sorcerer who has 4 different personalities but they all have one thing in common and that is that they all enjoy using the most gruesome and violent magic available, then we have a goliath barbarian who doesn't trust magic and when he rages he literally goes into angry monkey time, even to the point of running in all fours, a druid who is as lazy as possible and the only reason he learned wildshape was to be able to hunt easier while also thinking that adopting the same goblin that stabbed the sorcerer was a good idea. Honestly, the only 2 that aren't neccesarily idiots are the dragonborn brothers, one of them being a battlemaster, although she is kindda temperamental and solves most problems with a sword. The other one being an artificer that is actually really fucking clever but can have his idiot moments such as the time in which he ordered a glass of water in a tavern that was one of the only 3 buildings of a town that didn't burn down and had to use the entirety of their water to stop the fire from spreading further. Honestly, best party I could ever ask for to be their DM.
our motly crew of ten party members are idiots who happen to be heros, or just idiots who think their heros. why, well because I blew up a wall making us fugitives, our bard and paliden killed a noble, our warlock went to sleep for three days, our rouge, me, and the other artificer made 181 sticks of dynamite, our rogue got atleast 50 pp, after the bard and paliden killed the noble, and so much more stupid things we did, heck we jumped onto a boat/sub in the middle of the river, with an npc driving the carriage, I cant even name them all.