History Main / OffTheRails

* The "[[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Elfslayer_Chronicles Elfslayer Chronicles]]". In a game of ''[=DnD=]'' played over an IRC chat, the DM (who was a blatant YaoiFangirl with an elf fetish) had intended the party to help the human prince save his [[StarCrossedLovers forbidden love]] with the captain of the elf guard. [[MagnificentBastard One player]], who was fed up with the DM's insistence that [[HumansAreBastards humans were bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongers]], decided to ''[[GoneHorriblyRight embrace]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight his bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongering heritage]] and had his human [[MasterOfIllusion illusion mage character]] [[XanatosGambit murder the prince and frame the elf captain]].

* The "[[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Elfslayer_Chronicles Elfslayer Chronicles]]". In a game of ''[=DnD=]'' played over an IRC chat, the DM (who was a blatant YaoiFangirl with an elf fetish) had intended the party to help the human prince save his [[StarCrossedLovers forbidden love]] with the captain of the elf guard. One player, who was fed up with the DM's insistence that [[HumansAreBastards humans were bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongers]], decided to ''[[GoneHorriblyRight embrace]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight his bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongering heritage]] and had his human [[MasterOfIllusion illusion mage character]] [[XanatosGambit murder the prince and frame the elf captain]].

* The "[[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Elfslayer_Chronicles Elfslayer Chronicles]]". In a game of ''[=DnD=]'' played over an IRC chat, the DM (who was a blatant YaoiFangirl with an elf fetish) had intended the party to help the human prince save his [[StarCrossedLovers forbidden love]] with the captain of the elf guard. One player, who was fed up with the DM's insistence that [[HumansAreBastards humans were bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongers]], decided to ''[[GoneHorriblyRight embrace]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight his bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongering heritage]] and had his human illusion mage character [[XanatosGambit murder the prince and frame the elf captain]].

* The "[[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Elfslayer_Chronicles Elfslayer Chronicles]]". In a game of ''[=DnD=]'' played over an IRC chat, the DM (who was a blatant YaoiFangirl with an elf fetish) had intended the party to help the human prince save his [[StarCrossedLovers forbidden love]] with the captain of the elf guard. One player, who was fed up with the DM's insistance that humans were bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongers, decided to ''[[GoneHorriblyRight embrace]]'' his bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongering heritage and had his human illusion mage character [[XanatosGambit murder the prince and frame the elf captain]].

* The "[[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Elfslayer_Chronicles Elfslayer Chronicles]]". In a game of ''[=DnD=]'' played over an IRC chat, the DM (who was a blatant YaoiFangirl with an elf fetish) had intended the party to help the human prince save his [[StarCrossedLovers forbidden love]] with the captain of the elf guard. One player, who was fed up with the DM's insistance that humans were bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongers, [[GoneHorriblyRight decided to ''embrace'' his bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongering heritage]] and had his human illusion mage character [[XanatosGambit murder the prince and frame the elf captain]].

* The "[[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Elfslayer_Chronicles Elfslayer Chronicles]]". In a game of ''[=DnD=]'' played over an IRC chat, the DM (who was a blatant YaoiFangirl with an elf fetish) had intended the party to help the human prince save his [[StarCrossedLovers forbidden love]] with the captain of the elf guard. One player, who was fed up with the DM's insistance that humans were bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongers, decided to [[GoneHorriblyRight ''embrace'' his bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongering heritage]] and had his human illusion mage character [[XanatosGambit murder the prince and frame the elf captain]].

* The "[[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Elfslayer_Chronicles Elfslayer Chronicles]]". In a game of ''[=DnD=]'' played over an IRC chat, the DM (who was a blatant YaoiFangirl with an elf fetish) had intended the party to help the human prince save his [[StarCrossedLovers forbidden love]] with the captain of the elf guard. One player, who was fed up with the DM's insistance that humans were bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongers, decided to [[GoneHorriblyRight''embrace'' his bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongering heritage]] and had his human illusion mage character [[XanatosGambit murder the prince and frame the elf captain]].

* The "[[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Elfslayer_Chronicles Elfslayer Chronicles]]". In a game of ''[=DnD=]'' played over an IRC chat, the DM (who was a blatant YaoiFangirl with an elf fetish) had intended the party to help the human prince save his [[StarCrossedLovers forbidden love]] with the captain of the elf guard. One player, who was fed up with the DM's insistance that humans were bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongers, decided to [[GoneHorriblyRight ''embrace'' his bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongering heritage]] and had his human illusion mage character [[XanatosGambit murder the prince and frame the elf captain]].

* The "[[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Elfslayer_Chronicles Elfslayer Chronicles]]". In a game of ''[=DnD=]'' played over an IRC chat, the DM (who was a blatant YaoiFangirl with an elf fetish) had intended the party to help the human prince save his [[StarCrossedLovers forbidden love]] with the captain of the elf guard. One player, who was fed up with the DM's insistance that humans were bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongers, decided to ''embrace'' his bigotous, overly-patriotic warmongering heritage and had his human illusion mage character [[XanatosGambit murder the prince and frame the elf captain]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "The Red Badge of Gayness," Cartman takes charge of the Confederate side of a Civil War reenactment and manages to get his side to win.
** Kind of, he just got them hammered enough that they forgot all rules and regulations and were just obsessed with two things: epic level destruction and staying drunk.

* ThingsMrWelchIsNoLongerAllowedToDoInAnRPG is a long list of attempts by somebody who seems to be the Casey Jones of games gone off the track.

** Another TNG example: in the episode "Elementary My Dear Data", mere minutes after Geordi and Data enter a SherlockHolmes holo-novel, the plot begins when a man supposedly attacked turns up with a policeman. Data at once solves the entire case (which is supposed to be the length of a full novel or a film) by firing a short barrage of questions at the man and ripping open his jacket to reveal evidence that he is a counter-agent. He was remembering how the original novel went. Unfortunately, he had read all the original novels. Geordi storms off. The next time goes no better because the computer attempts to simply pastiche elements from the novels, and (let's repeat) Data had read them all. The ''next'' time they try a holo-novel, Geordi accidentally asks the computer to create "an adversary capable of defeating '''[[ExactWords Data]]'''" (not Holmes). Cue virtual!Moriarty, a holodeck construct [[GameBreaker capable of interfering with the basic systems of the Enterprise]]. Cue mass OhCrap from the crew.

*** Kira apparently hit Lancelot when he came on to her in King Arthur game where she was playing Guinevere. She was playing a married woman, after all.

* UnLunDun seems like your average 'ChosenOne goes to another world and goes on a quest that is also a ComingOfAgeStory in between all the {{Fetch Quest}}s' story. [[spoiler: [[AntiClimax Then]] the ChosenOne gets bonked on the head, and it's up to her friend (Who was, according to the prophecy, the funny sidekick) to go on the long, epic, FetchQuest-filled journey. Except, after the first one, she decides (Correctly) 'I don't have time for this shit,' gets the Un-Gun, and becomes the UnchosenOne]].

* ''FanFic/TheFanmakeBlooperSeries''' main theme surrounds the idea that a FilmFic that's just a TransplantedCharacterFic is doomed to get derailed simply because the characters have changed. And sometimes, the characters purposefully derail the story just to be entertained. A good example is the very first chapter of ''Sleeping Blooper'', where during the scene where Maleficent (played by [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Queen Chrysalis]]) first appears, Film/VanHelsing shoots her right as she was about to curse [[VideoGame/Kairi]] (playing the role of Princess Aurora). The rest of the fanfic is trying to make an entertaining story despite the fact that the main driving force of the story is destroyed.

* ''FanFic/TheFanmakeBlooperSeries''' main theme surrounds the idea that a FilmFic that's just a TransplantedCharacterFic is doomed to get derailed simply because the characters have changed. A good example is the very first chapter of ''Sleeping Blooper'', where during the scene where Maleficent (played by [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Queen Chrysalis]]) first appears, Film/VanHelsing shoots her right as she was about to curse [[VideoGame/Kairi]] (playing the role of Princess Aurora). The rest of the fanfic is trying to make an entertaining story despite the fact that the main driving force of the story is destroyed.

** After scratching the original session, the new Alpha session is already going OffTheRails before the game even starts. The agents of Derse are killing dreamselves before the game in violation of the normal rules, and someone has repeatedly tried to assassinate Jane on Earth. It goes further OffTheRails when due to circumstane none of the Alpha kids prototype their sprites before entering the Medium, which causes the Battlefield to never fully form and the game to be completely Unwinnable.

** During a game of Song Styles, Wayne was singing to audience member Howard in the style of the Music/VillagePeople (specifically spoofing "YMCA") when keyboardist Laura Hall accidentally increased the song's tempo, leading Wayne to misspell Howard as "H-O-R-W-A-R-D".

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario''. In Sammer's Kingdom, the party is told that it must fight [[BossRush 100 Sammer Guys in a row]]. The format of the game so far has been set up to suggest that the player will fight 25 Sammer Guys in each of four levels, before receiving the [[PlotCoupon Pure Heart]] at the end. The player doesn't even finish the first level when [[spoiler:Count Bleck and his minions arrive to destroy that world. The party survives the destruction and returns to the world's ruins, only to be [[DeadlyEuphemism sent to the next world]] by Dimentio, and thus plays the seventh world early.]] The subversion, of course, is that this sequence is programmed into the game, meaning that the developers never actually intended for the player to fight all 100 Sammer Guys. [[spoiler:Before beating the game, anyway]].

If the GameMaster is inflexible, either the GM ignores all actions that disrupt his plot (a.k.a. {{Railroading}}), or [[RocksFallEveryoneDies drops a whole ton of rocks on them]]. Or pauses the game to confer with his players about them ruining the adventure. A more creative GameMaster, on the other hand, will take this player revolt and run with it, spinning a new plot out of the threads of the player's actions. Of course, good {{Game Master}}s rarely have their players revolt on them in the first place. A party going thoroughly and maliciously OffTheRails is often a herald of the end of the gaming group, or at least the end of one person's tenure as GameMaster. Alternately, if there's just one player who's dissatisfied and he keeps grabbing the throttle and gunning the train, that player's character may be subject to [[BoltOfDivineRetribution a lightning bolt on a cloudless day]], or [[Manga/DeathNote sudden violent chest pains]], or a [[http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20080609 drive-by mauling by a mind flayer that leaves everyone else untouched]]. (Or the other characters may just kill him or her.) The [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Henderson_Scale_of_Plot_Derailment Henderson Scale of Plot Derailment]] has been invented by 1d4chan (the wiki for all things /tg/) to measure just how far off the rails a game can go, named in honor of the legendary Old Man Henderson.

* Special mention must be made of [[http://spiritsoffire.com/forum/index.php?topic=3954.0 the tale of Old Man Henderson]], "The Investigator who won TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu." To make a long story short: A group is incredibly fed up with the Keeper of their Call of Cthulhu game, who is not merely a KillerGameMaster, but also ''incredibly uncreative'' in his methods of [[TotalPartyKill TPKing]]. Thusly, one of the players creates Old Man Henderson, a drunken Scottish nutcase who falsely claims to have served in Vietnam and has joined the Investigators due to a mistaken belief that the Cult of Hastur has stolen his lawn gnomes. (he actually donated them to charity, but passed out in a drunken stupor afterwards and doesn't remember.) After writing a [[DoorStopper three hundred and twenty page backstory]] to justify why Old Man Henderson has such a ridiculous and varied list of skills (such as being fluent in certain foreign languages and being a championship ice skater), the player proceeded to carve his way through the DM's campaign and into tabletop gaming history. Special highlights of the game include Old Man Henderson obliterating an entire cult cell by crashing a fuel tanker truck into the center of its ritual, dropping a cult leader's yacht onto the penthouse of another cult leader (sparking off a Cultist Gang War,) and, in a grand finale, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu taking advantage of certain CoC rules/mythology and copious amounts of high explosives to ]]''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu permanently kill]]'' [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Hastur itself]].

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jhjwkR5RZM This]] ''Series/RobotWars'' fight. A 4-way free-for-all begins with [[spoiler:House Robot Shunt getting flipped onto its side in the first five seconds of the match]]. HilarityEnsues from there. Outrageous stuff from the fight includes [[spoiler:the Refbot falling into the Pit OfDoom, the OTHER House Robot getting caught in a 4-on-1, and a ''washing machine landing in the middle of the arena''. Yes, that last one is true]]. The result is eventually decided when [[spoiler:two robots suicide into the pit]], leaving what's left to move on. "What's left" being "Not much".

*** The developers did anticipate a couple of these skips. If you already know where your father is when talking to Three Dog, then the reward for finishing his quest will change from Three Dog telling you where your father went to Three Dog telling you where a weapons cache is located.

** The DM does face a problem when [[spoiler:Legolas kills Gollum]] early on. And later on they even get to [[spoiler:kill Grima Wormtongue and Saruman]].