A few weeks back I ran Gamma World 7e for some pals. It’s the one based on D&D 4e rules. All random mutators and playing cards. It’s a good time. I was running City of Teeth, a simple escort missing quest with drippings of political machinations just under the hood.
A funny thing — actually funny, funny ha-ha — happened in the first act. The game starts with the mayor asking for a favor. Standard fare for these kinds of games. The mayor comes to the players, hat in hand asking for help. Two outposts have him in a bit of a bind, and if they don’t track down a missing caravan, the titular city of teeth with tear through the town in a righteous war. The goods he needs to deliver are war reparations, see. Only the goods haven’t been delivered to him, and he’s starting to get worried. It’s a whole thing.
Anyway, the players did what players do, and they asked for a reward. I predicted this, and had prepared a little monologue for the mayor. I cackled as I read it. These players weren’t making friends!
Before he sends them off, the mayor asks for one last thing: “Please keep an eye out for any news about my half-brother, Mauricio. He went asking after this caravan a few weeks back, and hasn’t returned.”
The player, Aleina, who had previously pissed off the mayor saw her chance to redeem herself, get back into his good graces. “What’s he look like?” she asked.
“He looks just like me, only a little less handsome.”
Aleina took on a flirtatious tone, “I don’t see how that’s possible.”
Silence broke across the table as we all replayed what she’d said, weighed the implications of it. “Get the hell out of here!”
It was an honest mistake, she really had meant to flatter him, and accidentally unleashed, as the kids say, “A mad sick burn, yo. A roast he’ll never recover from, fr fr.” We laughed about it in the moment, and then, much later we laughed again. An innocent slip of the tongue has become my top RPG memory of the year, and I hope in sharing it, I’ve spread some of that joy to you as well.