History NiceJobBreakingItHero / TabletopRpg

*** The HorusHeresy series adds an extra layer to this- the Big E didn't send Russ just for Magnus breaking his rules, but because Magnus caused the biggest NiceJobBreakingItHero moment of the entire series. In trying to warn his father about Horus, Magnus psychically travels through the warp to Terra, but finds it blocked by extremely powerful wards. The rage from his apparent failure leaves an opening to Chaos to offer him enough power to break through, which he does so with haste. End result- Magnus gets his message through, but finds that not only did he destroy all the wards protecting Terra, but the psychic back-blast also fried the Golden Throne, which was supposed to be used to contain Chaos and/or access the Eldar webway. He then suffers MyGodWhatHaveIDone and returns to Prospero to wait for Russ to arrive and kill him.
*** The selection of Leman Russ probably indicates the Emperor actually had at least some consent for the Space Wolves to attack. The Space Wolves at that time were the only group of loyalist Space Marines that did not find the concept of fighting other Space Marines to be completely incomprehensible. Very early in the HorusHeresy series, an entire Luna Wolf squad was killed by a single Space Marine that was infected by a demon because not a single Space Marine in their right mind could bring themselves to hire on one of their own, even to preserve their own lives, the lives of their squadmates, or even to ensure they were capable of completing their mission objectives. He could have sent several other primarchs, but he chose to send the Primarch with a grudge, a violent reputation, and a complete willingness to fight other Space Marines. The only other explanation is PlotInducedStupidity.

** The Emperor winning the Horus Heresy is an example of the trope, according to [[HorusHeresy the novels of the same name]]. It was prophesized that had he lost, humanity would have died out in a couple generations taking Chaos with it and freeing the rest of the galaxy from it. This is the entire reason Alpha Legion decided to join Horus.

*** For example, when Lorgar of the Word Bearers encountered the Emperor, he transferred his deep religious faith into deifying the Emperor, and indoctrinated his Legion of Space Marines to believe the same way. As a result, when they pacified and claimed a world, they spent an extended period of time erecting temples to the Emperor and establishing their religion as the planet's new sole form of faith before moving on to the next one. The Emperor said not a word about this for centuries, then suddenly chastised the whole Legion for both "dawdling" and for believing in him as a god in the first place. The HorusHeresy novels explain that this chastisement took the form of going to a planet the Word Bearers had claimed over a century ago, which they regarded as the jewel of their achievements for the willingness and extent they had adopted the Imperial Cult, and then razing it to the ground. Then the whole Legion, including Lorgar, were summoned to the ashes of their world and telepathicly forced to kneel and listen to the Emperor chew them out -- and in front of others, for added humiliation. Lorgar goes on to fall into worshipping the Chaos Gods and is instrumental in the corruption of the rest of the soon-to-be-Traitor Legions.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', Magnus The Red used sorcery to become aware of Horus's FaceHeelTurn and desperately broke his oath never to use psychic powers again to immediately inform his father the Emperor that Horus was planning a bloody revolt against him. The Emperor, refusing to believe that his favorite son could turn against him and possibly influenced by the widespread FantasticRacism against mutants like Magnus, instead ordered Leman Russ, who was already ''looking'' for an excuse to take out his personal grudges against Magnus, to apprehend him and bring him to Terra. The Thousand Sons legion might not have defected and brought the Chaos Marine forces to exactly 50% of the existing legions at the time had Russ not gone in guns blazing and tried to execute Magnus on the spot. Instead, Tzeench got his own personal legion of chaos marines and the most powerful psyker since the Emperor joined Chaos. [[SarcasmMode Nice job, guys.]]

** Of course the Third option might be the best one for the people living there as A FateWorseThenDeath is pretty much the standard operating procedure for Ravenloft.

** Of course the Third option might be the best one for the people living there as AFateWorseThenDeath is pretty much the standard operating procedure for Ravenloft.

** Similarly, Glissa Sunseeker of Mirrodin block set out on a quest that ended with the overthrow of the mad golem Memnarch, whose "leveler" crushing robots [[YouKilledMyFather killed her family]]. Then it turned out that despite his arbitrary and despotic habits, he was the only thing standing between Mirrodin and [[BodyHorror Phyrexian]] [[TheCorruption corruption]]. Now, a few in-game centuries later, we have Scars of Mirrodin block, with the final set confirmed as New Phyrexia...and Glissa herself has been corrupted by the glistening Phyrexian oil. Yeah, ItGotWorse.

* Years ago, a French tabletop RPG magazine had released a two seasons campaign for a generic {{dystopia}} TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture setting. Season one had the players going against a NightmareFuel PsychoForHire known as ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Butcher]]'', who was trying to initiate [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the biblical apocalypse]]. They were helped in their quest by a mysterious cube, which, between fast-paced action sequences in the present, allowed them to [[QuantumLeap time travel via mind-transfer]] to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Then in season 2, it is revealed that ''The Butcher'' was really acting this way to prevent a BadFuture to occure ([[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism effectively willing to sacrifice millions of people to save billions later]]), and the players have been manipulated into opposing him all along, the cube actually being a gift from some monster, with which they really were setting ''worse'' what once went wrong -- and now of course they have to clean their mess, by time traveling again, this time with a cube given by ''The Butcher'', all while fighting BigBad 2 ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Plague]]'', a NightmareFuel CompleteMonster sweating BodyHorror and borderline EldritchAbomination, who is actually one of the secondary antagonists of season 1, LeftForDead by the players and "[[WasOnceAMan reconstructed]]" later -- oh, the {{irony}}! (for extra irony, the second cube, with which the characters are supposed to fix what they spoiled, is actually much less user-friendly than the first one).

* Among the many, [[CrapsackWorld many]] potential elements of ParanoiaFuel in the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' is the potential for [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil members of the Vigil]] to do this, due to the fact that most people are either genuinely ignorant of the [[BlackAndGreyMorality subtle shades of darkness]] of the supernatural, too closeminded to accept that things aren't black and white, or both. That [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken pack of savage shapechangers]]? They're the descendents of a long line of half-mortal half-spirits whose purpose is to keep alien totemic spirits from ripping through the fabric of reality and turning humans into puppets and food. Those [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening crazed self-proclaimed mystics]]? They're actual wizards trying to restore a golden age of humanity, as well as fight off invasions from a kind of 'anti-reality'. The [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem vampires running a trendy nightclub and secretly bleeding the human clientele]]? Now the civilised vampires are gonna start being a ''lot'' more brutal in their feeding habits as they struggle to find their own prey... to say nothing of the band of [[CompleteMonster sociopathic-even-by-their-standards vampires]] who are going to take advantage of that opening to start butchering humans for the hell of it.

* Archduke Dulinor in ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' was a WellIntentionedExtremist who killed [[spoiler:a clone of]] the Emperor in the hope of invoking a precedent that [[DeadlyDecadentCourt the Emperor's assassin could assume the throne]]. This backfired when the other nobles refused to accept his claim, the Imperium collapsed in an incredibly bloody CivilWar and history remembered him as a CompleteMonster responsible for the deaths of billions. [[EpicFail Ooops.]]

* Years ago, a French tabletop RPG magazine had released a two seasons campaign for a generic {{dystopia}} TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture setting. Season one had the players going against a NightmareFuel PsychoForHire known as ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Butcher]]'', who was trying to initiate [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the biblical apocalypse]]. They were helped in their quest by a mysterious cube, which, between fast-paced action sequences in the present, allowed them to [[QuantumLeap time travel via mind-transfer]] to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Then in season 2, it is revealed that ''The Butcher'' was really acting this way to prevent a BadFuture to occure ([[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism effectively willing to sacrifice millions of people to save billions later]]), and the players have been manipulated into opposing him all along, the cube actually being a gift from some CosmicHorror, with which they really were setting ''worse'' what once went wrong -- and now of course they have to clean their mess, by time traveling again, this time with a cube given by ''The Butcher'', all while fighting BigBad 2 ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Plague]]'', a NightmareFuel CompleteMonster sweating BodyHorror and borderline EldritchAbomination, who is actually one of the secondary antagonists of season 1, LeftForDead by the players and "[[WasOnceAMan reconstructed]]" later -- oh, the {{irony}}! (for extra irony, the second cube, with which the characters are supposed to fix what they spoiled, is actually much less user-friendly than the first one).

** Then there's ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' itself, where it was made clear that the main reason [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy the Garou]] were doing so badly against [[CosmicHorror the Wyrm]] was because [[WellIntentionedExtremist they slew first, asked questions later]]. Their millennia-long righteous campaign of purity resulted in the extinction of three races of Changing Breeds (and one of their own tribes), the surviving Changing Breeds severely distrusting them and each other, and a general species-wide feeling of, "Great, ''now'' what?"

* Potential for this trope is built right into the {{Ravenloft}} setting, where eliminating a domain's darklord can have three possible effects: A) another evil being is elevated to darklord status, gaining immense power; B) the domain is split among neighboring darklords, potentially kicking off invasions and so forth; or C) the domain -- and everyone living there -- literally ''disappears''.

* In {{Scion}}, the titans that the titular heroes have to fight against are innately tied to nature itself, and their deaths have dramatic effects on the planet. For instance, when Odin killed the titan Ymir, it ended the ice age. All well and good, except that this is what caused the Great Flood. One can only imagine what would happen if Gaia or Kamimusuhi, titans of birth, were to be killed. Fortunately, [[SealedEvilInACan there are cans to shove them in.]]

* Happened to several sets of would-be world-savers in ''{{Exalted}}''. Perhaps the best example would be the Usurpation, a noble if [[WellIntentionedExtremist excessive]] action to protect the world from its insane custodians, the Solars. They succeeded, but 13 ghosts from the slain Solars became the Deathlords, with enough power to beat up even the strongest Sidereals with rolled-up newspapers; many of the Lunars of the time went insane, with Raksi, Ma-ha-suchi, and Leviathan being the worst affected; the Dragon-Blooded Shogunate proved to be nowhere near as good at handling the world as the Solar Deliberative despite the reduced risk of its members going insane; and then the Deathlords unleashed a plague that killed 90% of the world's population. Whether or not this is an improvement over what would have happened otherwise is hotly debated to this day, both in and out of setting.
* Many ''{{Planescape}}'' adventures do that to the players. For example, ''Fires of Dis'' force them to [[spoiler: recover the sword of a respected paladin. Little they know that the [[BigBad Big Bad]] is more than happy to let them obtain this weapon, now containing a powerful baatezu. The fiend possesses its owner during an important ritual, wreaking havoc in the gate-town of Fortitude, disrupting its ascension into Arcadia.]]

* Years ago, a French tabletop RPG magazine had released a two seasons campaign for a generic {{dystopia}} TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture setting. Season one had the players going against a NightmareFuel PsychoForHire known as ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Butcher]]'', who was trying to initiate [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the biblical apocalypse]]. They were helped in their quest by a mysterious cube, which, between fast-paced action sequences in the present, allowed them to [[QuantumLeap time travel via mind-transfer]] to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Then in season 2, it is revealed that ''The Butcher'' was really acting this way to prevent a BadFuture to occure ([[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism effectively willing to sacrifice millions of people to save billions later]]), and the players have been manipulated into opposing him all along, the cube actually being a gift from some CosmicHorror, with which they really were setting ''worse'' what once went wrong -- and now of course they have to clean their mess, by time traveling again, this time with a cube given by ''The Butcher'', all while fighting BigBad 2 ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Plague]]'', a HighOctaneNightmareFuel CompleteMonster sweating BodyHorror and borderline EldritchAbomination, who is actually one of the secondary antagonists of season 1, LeftForDead by the players and "[[WasOnceAMan reconstructed]]" later -- oh, the {{irony}}! (for extra irony, the second cube, with which the characters are supposed to fix what they spoiled, is actually much less user-friendly than the first one).

* Urza from ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' pretty much lives for this trope, between the sylex blast, the soul bombs and the tolarion academy he probably killed as many people as [[BigBad Yawgmoth]] did in the invasion.

* Among the many, [[CrapsackWorld many]] potential elements of ParanoiaFuel in TabletopGame/TheWorldOfDarkness is the potential for [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil members of the Vigil]] to do this, due to the fact that most people are either genuinely ignorant of the [[BlackAndGreyMorality subtle shades of darkness]] of the supernatural, too closeminded to accept that things aren't black and white, or both. That [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken pack of savage shapechangers]]? They're the descendents of a long line of half-mortal half-spirits whose purpose is to keep alien totemic spirits from ripping through the fabric of reality and turning humans into puppets and food. Those [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening crazed self-proclaimed mystics]]? They're actual wizards trying to restore a golden age of humanity, as well as fight off invasions from a kind of 'anti-reality'. The [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem vampires running a trendy nightclub and secretly bleeding the human clientele]]? Now the civilised vampires are gonna start being a ''lot'' more brutal in their feeding habits as they struggle to find their own prey... to say nothing of the band of [[CompleteMonster sociopathic-even-by-their-standards vampires]] who are going to take advantage of that opening to start butchering humans for the hell of it.
** Then there was ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' from the old line, where it was made clear that the main reason [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy the Garou]] were doing so badly against [[CosmicHorror the Wyrm]] was because [[WellIntentionedExtremist they slew first, asked questions later]]. Their millennia-long righteous campaign of purity resulted in the extinction of three races of Changing Breeds (and one of their own tribes), the surviving Changing Breeds severely distrusting them, and a general species-wide feeling of, "Great, ''now'' what?"

*** For example, when Lorgar of the WordBearers encountered the Emperor, he transferred his deep religious faith into deifying the Emperor, and indoctrinated his Legion of Space Marines to believe the same way. As a result, when they pacified and claimed a world, they spent an extended period of time erecting temples to the Emperor and establishing their religion as the planet's new sole form of faith before moving on to the next one. The Emperor said not a word about this for centuries, then suddenly chastised the whole Legion for both "dawdling" and for believing in him as a god in the first place. The HorusHeresy novels explain that this chastisement took the form of going to a planet the Word Bearers had claimed over a century ago, which they regarded as the jewel of their achievements for the willingness and extent they had adopted the Imperial Cult, and then razing it to the ground. Then the whole Legion, including Lorgar, were summoned to the ashes of their world and telepathicly forced to kneel and listen to the Emperor chew them out -- and in front of others, for added humiliation. Lorgar goes on to fall into worshipping the Chaos Gods and is instrumental in the corruption of the rest of the soon-to-be-Traitor Legions.

* In {{Scion}}, the titans that the titular heroes have to fight against are innately tied to nature itself, and their deaths have dramatic effects on the planet. For instance, when Odin killed the titan Ymir, it ended the ice age. One can only imagine what would happen if Gaia or Kamimusuhi, titans of birth, were to be killed.
** You missed the point. The death of Ymir simultaneously melted all of the ice on the planet save the icecaps... causing the "biblical" flood. It also explains why damn near every major religion and story tradition on the planet has an account of a world resetting flood. If I recall correctly, the books give a few examples... like how if you killed Sutr, Norse titan of Fire, one of 2 things would happen. There would be no more fire in the world, or all fire would rage uncontrolled, regardless of logic and physics. Imagine trying to light a cigarette, and accidentally blowing up the entire building.

* In a ''TabletopGame/VDungeonsAndDragons'' adventure featured in ''Dungeon'' magazine, an evil giant living in a flying castle waged a terrible campaign of vengeance upon human towns and villages, murdering scores of innocents in the process. If the heroes killed him instead of making some sort of agreement with him, however, [[LoadBearingBoss castle dissolved]]... and [[SealedEvilInACan released an unspeakably powerful god-spawned monstrosity from its centuries-old prison]]. The monstrosity would then begin methodically and efficiently killing everything in the area, followed by everything else on the planet. Whoops.

* Urza from ''TabletopGame/VMagicTheGathering'' pretty much lives for this trope, between the sylex blast, the soul bombs and the tolarion academy he probably killed as many people as [[BigBad Yawgmoth]] did in the invasion.

* In a ''DungeonsAndDragons'' adventure featured in ''Dungeon'' magazine, an evil giant living in a flying castle waged a terrible campaign of vengeance upon human towns and villages, murdering scores of innocents in the process. If the heroes killed him instead of making some sort of agreement with him, however, [[LoadBearingBoss castle dissolved]]... and [[SealedEvilInACan released an unspeakably powerful god-spawned monstrosity from its centuries-old prison]]. The monstrosity would then begin methodically and efficiently killing everything in the area, followed by everything else on the planet. Whoops.

* Urza from ''MagicTheGathering'' pretty much lives for this trope, between the sylex blast, the soul bombs and the tolarion academy he probably killed as many people as [[BigBad Yawgmoth]] did in the invasion.

* Among the many, [[CrapsackWorld many]] potential elements of ParanoiaFuel in the WorldOfDarkness is the potential for [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil members of the Vigil]] to do this, due to the fact that most people are either genuinely ignorant of the [[BlackAndGreyMorality subtle shades of darkness]] of the supernatural, too closeminded to accept that things aren't black and white, or both. That [[WerewolfTheForsaken pack of savage shapechangers]]? They're the descendents of a long line of half-mortal half-spirits whose purpose is to keep alien totemic spirits from ripping through the fabric of reality and turning humans into puppets and food. Those [[MageTheAwakening crazed self-proclaimed mystics]]? They're actual wizards trying to restore a golden age of humanity, as well as fight off invasions from a kind of 'anti-reality'. The [[VampireTheRequiem vampires running a trendy nightclub and secretly bleeding the human clientele]]? Now the civilised vampires are gonna start being a ''lot'' more brutal in their feeding habits as they struggle to find their own prey... to say nothing of the band of [[CompleteMonster sociopathic-even-by-their-standards vampires]] who are going to take advantage of that opening to start butchering humans for the hell of it.

* Archduke Dulinor in ''{{Traveller}}'' was a WellIntentionedExtremist who killed [[spoiler:a clone of]] the Emperor in the hope of invoking a precedent that [[DeadlyDecadentCourt the Emperor's assassin could assume the throne]]. This backfired when the other nobles refused to accept his claim, the Imperium collapsed in an incredibly bloody CivilWar and history remembered him as a CompleteMonster responsible for the deaths of billions. [[EpicFail Ooops.]]
* In ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'', Magnus The Red used sorcery to become aware of Horus's FaceHeelTurn and desperately broke his oath never to use psychic powers again to immediately inform his father the Emperor that Horus was planning a bloody revolt against him. The Emperor, refusing to believe that his favorite son could turn against him and possibly influenced by the widespread FantasticRacism against mutants like Magnus, instead ordered Leman Russ, who was already ''looking'' for an excuse to take out his personal grudges against Magnus, to apprehend him and bring him to Terra. The Thousand Sons legion might not have defected and brought the Chaos Marine forces to exactly 50% of the existing legions at the time had Russ not gone in guns blazing and tried to execute Magnus on the spot. Instead, Tzeench got his own personal legion of chaos marines and the most powerful psyker since the Emperor joined Chaos. [[SarcasmMode Nice job, guys.]]

*** The Horus Heresy series adds an extra layer to this- the Big E didn't send Russ just for Magnus breaking his rules, but because Magnus caused the biggest NiceJobBreakingItHero moment of the entire series. In trying to warn his father about Horus, Magnus psychically travels through the warp to Terra, but finds it blocked by extremely powerful wards. The rage from his apparent failure leaves an opening to Chaos to offer him enough power to break through, which he does so with haste. End result- Magnus gets his message through, but finds that not only did he destroy all the wards protecting Terra, but the psychic back-blast also fried the Golden Throne, which was supposed to be used to contain Chaos and/or access the Eldar webway. He then suffers MyGodWhatHaveIDone and returns to Prospero to wait for Russ to arrive and kill him.

** The Emperor winning the Horus Heresy is an example of the trope. It was prophesized that had he lost, humanity would have died out in a couple generations taking Chaos with it and freeing the rest of the galaxy from it. This is the entire reason Alpha Legion decided to join Horus.

* Years ago, a French tabletop RPG magazine had released a two seasons campaign for a generic {{dystopia}} TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture setting. Season one had the players going against a NightmareFuel PsychoForHire known as ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Butcher]]'', who was trying to initiate [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the biblical apocalypse]]. They were helped in their quest by a mysterious cube (no, not [[CompanionCube that kind]] of cube... OrIsIt?), which, between fast-paced action sequences in the present, allowed them to [[QuantumLeap time travel via mind-transfer]] to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Then in season 2, it is revealed that ''The Butcher'' was really acting this way to prevent a BadFuture to occure ([[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism effectively willing to sacrifice millions of people to save billions later]]), and the players have been manipulated into opposing him all along, the cube actually being a gift from some CosmicHorror, with which they really were setting ''worse'' what once went wrong -- and now of course they have to clean their mess, by time traveling again, this time with a cube given by ''The Butcher'', all while fighting BigBad 2 ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Plague]]'', a HighOctaneNightmareFuel CompleteMonster sweating BodyHorror and borderline EldritchAbomination, who is actually one of the secondary antagonists of season 1, LeftForDead by the players and "[[WasOnceAMan reconstructed]]" later -- oh, the {{irony}}! (for extra irony, the second cube, with which the characters are supposed to fix what they spoiled, is actually much less user-friendly than the first one).

** Another chance to break it, hero in WH40K is the Lords of Change. They receive visions of the immediate future from their master Tzeentch, making them virtually impossible to kill. It is possible to kill them--but only if they receive false visions of the future from Tzeentch. So by killing a Lord of Change, you're furthering Tzeentch's schemes.

* Among the many, [[CrapsackWorld many]] potential elements of ParanoiaFuel in the WorldOfDarkness is the potential for [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil members of the Vigil]] to do this, due to the fact that most people are either genuinely ignorant of the [[BlackAndGreyMorality subtle shades of darkness]] of the supernatural, too closeminded to accept that things aren't black and white, or both. That [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken pack of savage shapechangers]]? They're the descendents of a long line of half-mortal half-spirits whose purpose is to keep alien totemic spirits from ripping through the fabric of reality and turning humans into puppets and food. Those [[MageTheAwakening crazed self-proclaimed mystics]]? They're actual wizards trying to restore a golden age of humanity, as well as fight off invasions from a kind of 'anti-reality'. The [[VampireTheRequiem vampires running a trendy nightclub and secretly bleeding the human clientele]]? Now the civilised vampires are gonna start being a ''lot'' more brutal in their feeding habits as they struggle to find their own prey... to say nothing of the band of [[CompleteMonster sociopathic-even-by-their-standards vampires]] who are going to take advantage of that opening to start butchering humans for the hell of it.

* Urza from ''[=~Magic: The Gathering~=]'' pretty much lives for this trope, between the sylex blast, the soul bombs and the tolarion academy he probably killed as many people as [[BigBad Yawgmoth]] did in the invasion.