Weirdest Arguements You've Had at the Tabletop

[AshfireMage]

As the title said, what's the strangest thing people have found each other arguing about (not necessarily viciously) while playing?

I remember once while dming I had two of my players get into an argument about whether a sufficiently powerful succubus could override someone's sexual orientation (ie make a gay man or an asexual attracted to her). At that point, no succubi had appeared in the campaign, or even been suggested and the only player character with an established sexual orientation was a straight man. I have no idea how we got there.

At one point in a different campaign, we ended up spending a good half hour going over the finer points of a particular real-world religion's beliefs about the afterlife (during which time the dm kept trying to argue against one of the players who had grown up in said religion). Somehow this sprung from a session whose main plot involved trying to con our way into a meeting with the mayor.

So, what's the weirdest thing you've ever disagreed with related to a game? Was it related to the game by some weird string of logic, or completely random?

Note: I've seen threads in this vein turn into fights about the the subject, rather than humorous sharing. Please be nice and abide by forum rules

[Cealocanth]

Well, in the Frozen Seas, we had an argument over whether or not wrought iron that was frozen in a glacier would rust through over a century. It took several college level chemistry courses and an interview with an underwater archaeologist to calculate that small pieces of iron such as nails would indeed rust through over the period, but some would still be relatively preserved.

Also in the Frozen Seas, there was an argument over whether or not suthinium (magically enhanced gunpowder) cannons would have sufficient range to attack a town from over the horizon on a ship, and whether or not said cannons would have enough recoil to tip the boat.

[Friv]

There was a long discussion in a gold rush game about whether a specific university had been founded yet, and thus whether a character could actually have graduated from it before coming out west. It was odd.


We also had a really extensive discussion about whether you could get internet from a place that no longer technically existed, if that place was still exporting goods to you. Is the internet a good, or a service? I don't think we really came to a solid conclusion on that one.

[legomaster00156]

There was a long discussion in a gold rush game about whether a specific university had been founded yet, and thus whether a character could actually have graduated from it before coming out west. It was odd.


We also had a really extensive discussion about whether you could get internet from a place that no longer technically existed, if that place was still exporting goods to you. Is the internet a good, or a service? I don't think we really came to a solid conclusion on that one.

You cannot physically "have" the Internet. You can "use" the Internet. The Internet is, therefore, a service.

[Anonymouswizard]

Not an argument, but we once got into the specifics elven reproduction. Not sure how, all I said was that RAW dwarves were generally hotter than elves, and this somehow snowballed into working out the length of an elven or if they instead go into heat (using the time the Phoenix King has to reside with the Ever queen to approximate the value).

[BayardSPSR]

You cannot physically "have" the Internet. You can "use" the Internet. The Internet is, therefore, a service.

Isn't it more of a utility?

[RazorChain]

We once argued over the size of a medium sized bucket!!! That was a waste of play time but now when we descend into pointless discussions/arguments then someone will shout out "What's a medium sized bucket anyway?!!!" That usually brings us to our senses and we'll start playing again.

[OldTrees1]

Isn't it more of a utility?

Well the internet is 2-3 things
1) The local storage (Ex: all my webpages are stored on my computer)
2) A connection to retrieve that data from elsewhere
3) Non local storage (Ex: my webpages are stored on a bunch of random servers out there)

So if the connection has been severed then you cannot access the unconnected data. Likewise you cannot access data whose storage has been destroyed (from the point of view of the connection).

So I guess it would depend on the technical details of "no longer technically existed".


The strangest thing I can think of was how would chemistry work if there were only 6 elements. Including but not limited to what an omnielemental would be.

[legomaster00156]

Isn't it more of a utility?

A utility is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a service.

[BayardSPSR]

A utility is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a service.

In other words, it depends on whether by "internet" you mean "somebody else's HTML" or "the stuff that gets other people's HTML to you."

[nedz]

Well the internet is 2-3 things
1) The local storage (Ex: all my webpages are stored on my computer)
2) A connection to retrieve that data from elsewhere
3) Non local storage (Ex: my webpages are stored on a bunch of random servers out there)

So if the connection has been severed then you cannot access the unconnected data. Likewise you cannot access data whose storage has been destroyed (from the point of view of the connection).

Technically the internet is just a bunch of protocols - which means it's a medium of communication.

As for weirdest argument - I'm not sure, I've been playing a very long time.

[Milo v3]

all I said was that RAW dwarves were generally hotter than elves

What game has that as RAW? @_@

[Tanuki Tales]

What game has that as RAW? @_@

Those that have male dwarves as hirsute, brawny, manly men and dwarven women as thick, warrior maidens?

Different strokes for different folks and I'd take a dwarven lass over a flighty elf any day, at least she wouldn't break easy.

[Telwar]

What game has that as RAW? @_@

Using Con as an indicator of health/attractiveness, maybe?

[Milo v3]

Weirdest I've had is players trying to argue about how hot glass has to be when your blowing it.

Those that have male dwarves as hirsute, brawny, manly men and dwarven women as thick, warrior maidens?

Different strokes for different folks and I'd take a dwarven lass over a flighty elf any day, at least she wouldn't break easy.

Different strokes is why I'm confused about it being RAW rather than his personal preference.

Using Con as an indicator of health/attractiveness, maybe?

In D&D charisma is for attractiveness by RAW (even though that's dumb), and Dwarves generally have a penalty to Cha, making them uglier than most races by default. What games that have Con use Con for attractiveness?

[Tanuki Tales]

Different strokes is why I'm confused about it being RAW rather than his personal preference.

He meant how they're depicted, per the game rules.

[Sith_Happens]

I wouldn't quite call it an argument, but one time my group ended up going back and forth for about five minutes about whether owls have penises before we finally just Googled it.

[goto124]

I'm pretty sure birds in general don't.

[Sith_Happens]

It depends on the bird. Turns out owls do, and of course there's also ducks... It's best not to talk about ducks.

[Anonymouswizard]

What game has that as RAW? @_@

This was GURPS, which has a sex appeal skill based off of health. Now dwarves tend to get a bonus to health, specifically +2 in the game I was playing, and elves didn't. Therefore dwarves are hotter than elves.

Those that have male dwarves as hirsute, brawny, manly men and dwarven women as thick, warrior maidens?

Different strokes for different folks and I'd take a dwarven lass over a flighty elf any day, at least she wouldn't break easy.

Yep, I actually don't care as long as they leave their axe or bow outside the bedroom.

[goto124]

Yep, I actually don't care as long as they leave their axe or bow outside the bedroom.

Axist! Bowist!

[hymer]

It's best not to talk about ducks.

Indeed, you could easily do yourself an injury. Here, have some pros do the talking for you.

[MrZJunior]

My group got into a long argument once about whether it was an evil act for my character to burn down a kitchen. It was attached to a mansion that earlier in the campaign was inhabited by our evil enemies but was now occupied by the other members of the party. My character wasn't aware of this yet and the kitchen was the only part of the complex which was flammable.

I argued that my intention was to hinder and annoy our enemies and therefore my actions were just. They argued that the people who were most hurt were the servants rather than the people who lived in the annoyingly fireproof stone mansion. I argued that the servants were working for evil people and therefore were guilty by association. The GM then ruled that my character was stupid enough to believe that argument and therefore it was not an alignment violation.

[Hamste]

...The real question is why they made everything except the thing containing fires fireproof. You would think they would have made sure the kitchen was made of stone at least.

[goto124]

The GM then ruled that my character was stupid enough to believe that argument and therefore it was not an alignment violation.

This is great

[MrZJunior]

...The real question is why they made everything except the thing containing fires fireproof. You would think they would have made sure the kitchen was made of stone at least.

I guess so that when it catches fire it's cheap and easy to rebuild. That city seemed to be lacking in stone buildings.

This is great

One of the other players was a paladin with a horse mount. The horse was within a few points of being as smart as my character.

[TheFurith]

I was once in a game where our LG cleric wanted to light a bound woman's nipples on fire with a torch to get information from her. You can about imagine where that went.

There was also that time I had to roll a slight of hand check to put my ring on my own finger. An action I wasn't trying to conceal at all. Because why would I?

Or that strength check to throw alchemist's fire on literally the anything in the entire room I was standing in that wasn't me.

I could make quite a list actually, but I won't.

[DigoDragon]

The weirdest argument I have witnessed was my early D&D 3.5 campaign where the party was fighting over who'd get the -2 Pink Dagger of Cicada Chirping. Yes, the argument was over who deserved the cursed magic item that glowed a bright pink and made a loud chirping noise so as to heavily penalize your stealth checks. I don't know why everyone in the party wanted this item!

Eventually the party rogue got it after the fierce debate. That'll teach me to put cursed magic items in a treasure pile. >.>

[Sith_Happens]

I was once in a game where our LG cleric wanted to light a bound woman's nipples on fire with a torch to get information from her. You can about imagine where that went.

With them immediately dropping to LN just for suggesting such a thing, and possibly also falling due to flagrant doctrine failure (depending on deity)?

...Nah, that's what would have happened in a sane group.

The weirdest argument I have witnessed was my early D&D 3.5 campaign where the party was fighting over who'd get the -2 Pink Dagger of Cicada Chirping. Yes, the argument was over who deserved the cursed magic item that glowed a bright pink and made a loud chirping noise so as to heavily penalize your stealth checks. I don't know why everyone in the party wanted this item!

Eventually the party rogue got it after the fierce debate. That'll teach me to put cursed magic items in a treasure pile. >.>

Was this the same group you play Shadowrun with, because if so then it's the best possible description of how they operate.

[Blue Lantern]

Non that exciting but I had quite the back and forth with a guy in my group about the interaction between Unseen servant and black pudding.