# One Thousand Ways to Freak Out Your Players



## HalfElfSorcerer

(Courtesy someone on the Wizards boards for the idea)
No, I'm not going to do them all myself.  I need YOU to submit the ideas and keep this thread alive!  Please label each Way to Freak Out Your Players (WTFOYP) with the next number in line.  We can do it!
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1.  When the characters walk into a room, pull out _all_ your six-sided dice.  If you are an experienced DM, this is quite a lot.  Count them, then mumble audibly, "I knew I should have bought more at the game store yesterday."  Roll the dice.  Pull out a calculator and add something up.  Repeat until one of the players cracks and runs screaming into the night.
2.  At the beginning of one session, decide to disallow wizards, clerics, rogues and fighters because they are "broken."

Keep 'em coming!


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## Eternalknight

Tell your players that Wizards has just released 4th edition, and that according to the new conversion rules all their characters are now illegal and must be re-rolled


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## Zappo

4. Have the characters find a weird and powerful magical item, with unknown powers. When one of the players says "I pick it up and concentrate", grin evilly and tell all of them to hand over their character sheets.

(did it once, worked great)


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## Eternalknight

5.  Continouslly ask players to make Spot checks whilst wandering through a dark dungeon.  Never allow them to find anything.


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## Kugar

At the start start of the session, ask one person to leave ther room so you can talk to the rest of the group.  After 5 minutes look in on him and say "I just wanted to make sure you are not listening, were just gettingto the good part"  When you have the person come in just have the whole grouip grinning evily and hiding their character sheets.   If you are really twisted play "cow" on the person (which is really hard to describe in the post - but it is an elaborate con to get a person to scream MOO at the top of thier lungs)

Kugar


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## James McMurray

7. Have them encounter an immortal cat that is tied to a dissectng tray. No matter what they do, it won't die and just keeps mewing pitifully. Even an anti-magic field only stops its movement while it remains inside it.


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## Zappo

8a. "Uhm... how many hit points do you have left?"
8b. "Uhm... how many hit points did you have left?"


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## Moon_Goddess

Just do what I did last night.   Smile alot


Rogue was rolling horrible getting like 7's 8's and 9's on all his search checks.    And I just kept smiling saying "As far as you can tell there's no traps."   And they didn't have time to take 20


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## Zappo

9. While the players are wandering on the 67th layer of the Abyss, "You see a lone kobold walking towards you".


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## BiggusGeekus

10) Tell them that you've decided Challenge Rating are for babies and that you're going to use your intuition instead.  Then whip out the demon miniatures....


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## DM with a vengence

10) Hand each player several character sheets and d6s when they enter.

11) Roll fireball damage one dice at a time.

12) Make continual references to Jeremy and his 'Sultans of Smack'.  Say that the bad guy wasn't allowed to be in Sultans of Smack because it was too powerful.

13) Have a bad guy with Genisis and Astral Project, let him hang out on his demi-plane and Astral Project to fight the party.  He cannot be killed, except by fighting on his home plane, which is warded to allow only one creature above Fine on it at a time.

14) Randomly say.  "Are you sure that's a good idea?  Nevermind, you'll cross that bridge when you reach it."

15) "As you enter a large room of the crypts, you see the remaining cultists standing around an alter, chanting in a tounge none of you understand.  Everybody make Sanity checks."
Ignore their protests that D&D doesn't have sanity.  Smile evilly and say.  "This sight requires it."  Take out a d100.


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## Umbran

At an appropriately tense moment, roll a die, and scowl for a moment.  In a solemn tone, ask the player for their character sheet.  Hold it up, and rip it in half, slowly.

Doing this when, in fact, nothing has happened to the character may get you lynched


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## Moe Ronalds

Umbran said:
			
		

> *At an appropriately tense moment, roll a die, and scowl for a moment.  In a solemn tone, ask the player for their character sheet.  Hold it up, and rip it in half, slowly.
> 
> Doing this when, in fact, nothing has happened to the character may get you lynched  *




You could set it down for a second, and then pull out another sheet (provided you have a DM screen) and rip that in half. Even better if you can get a copy of their sheet beforehand.

16: When the players enter a room, describe a powerful, and angry, looking NPC, then take out Deities and Demigods, and start to flip through
17: If the players have a bag of holding, start to laugh maniacaly (sp?) and roll a die whenever they reach for something. 
18: This one only works if your ugly, explain that you have joined a nudist cult and after this session it will be a sin worthy of beheading if you come to a session clothed ever again. 
19: Explain that you've discovered christianity, pull out a lighter, and start throwing dirty looks at all of them.
20: Gnomes, lots of mean, angry little gnomes.


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## Zack2216

21) if a character, minion, or pet goes ahead of the party to scout whats on the other side of a door, say the door shuts after the said person walks through. If the characters walk through the door, say that when they open it, "you see (insert said person), or whats left of it/him/her."

My dm did that when my party members forced my druid's animal companion through a door. We waited a little bit, opened the door and my DM pulled this one on me. But it turns out that nothing really happened.


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## 333 Dave

What are we on? 22?

22: Put weird runes all over an untrapped door into an empty room.


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## Zappo

23: have them find, very early in the adventure, an item which radiates magic of overwhelming power, cannot be identified except for its magic school, and is only useful at the _end_ of the adventure.


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## Carnifex

24) Confront the party with a lone red abishai. As they attack, say, 'Okay, the baatezu archmage casts quickened Haste, then Time Stop.'

25) In a non-combat situation, suddenly ask everyone to roll Initiatives. On the sheet which you write them all down on, write a score for someone called 'Assassin.'


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## Feliath

I'd like to point out that there are two #10:s. Therefore I number this:

27) Intentionally make a letter handout which seems like nonsense but which contains a perversely hard and well hidden riddle. Make it in such a way that it's obvious something is up with the thing. Intimate to the players that it's all _so very obvious_, and laugh evilly.

28) Constantly have the PCs encounter people they've never met but who seem to know them eerily well, then have these people come back.

29) Let the PCs find a baby, under obviously supernatural circumstances, which is about 7 months old, can barely sit on its own, and which from time to time scribbles low-level spells, equivalent to scrolls, in the sand. Bizarrely (yet empirically proven), the PCs will react to this with a combo of "Yay! Magic baby!" and "We must kill the baby. Devil Baby!" Also make it invulnerable. Never let it grow up.

Hmm, I need to think some up that I haven't actually _done_.

BTW, I've also done #23.  

/Feliath - very evil


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## Feliath

*Ooh! Ooh! Some omre!*

Here we go, brand new ones exclusively for this thread.

30) Begin passing one player notes with writing along the lines of "*PC*'s food is poisoned" or "That man is out to kill you all". Let the first two or three be true, but allow for this to be possible as coincidences. The player will believe he has acquired a psionic danger sense. Keep passing notes - "The barmaid is a demon in disguise. You need to kill her". Now let them all be false. Presto: PC suffering from paranoid dementia.   

31) Make a d20 table of everyday items. At the start of every session, secretly roll on this table. Now, treat every occurrence of the rolled item this session as Ochre Jelly. 

32) Every time one of the characters drinks something, look mildly surprised, and roll a die. Sometimes mutter something like "Again?" or "Won't they _ever_ learn?"

33) Describe how the PCs encounter a short, blue man with a large nose wearing a white hat and white pants. Tell them he is "two apples tall" and has an odd speech impediment. 

/Feliath - evil but also tired; most of these suck


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## mmadsen

*Re: Ooh! Ooh! Some omre!*



> Describe how the PCs encounter a short, blue man with a large nose wearing a white hat and white pants. Tell them he is "two apples tall" and has an odd speech impediment.




Three apples high.   The Smurfs are Belgian (created by Peyo), and the French equivalent of "pint-sized" is..."three apples high".


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## Al

34) Have the book open at the page with the Tarrasque on.
35) Ask the PCs what their saves are...constantly.  Then make some rolls and say 'interesting'.
36) Announce that the new Netbook you found has some very 'interesting' spells...before introducing the new evil archmage.
37) Tell them you think the latest convesion of Demogorgon was particularly well done.


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## Moe Ronalds

37) A whole session full of corny jokes, and NPCs based on various celebrities. (A court Jester called Jaraesahnfeld (based on Jerry Seinfield) or a neurotic carpenter called Allen (Woody Allen) for example) if your players have a non-idiotic sense of humor, and/or like a serious campaign, this should really annoy them.
38) NPCs with 18 intelligence who's don't got grammar good. (I suppose this could be Yoda...) 
39) Plots painfully obviously based on bad movies (the party encounters two young rogues trying to save their thief parents from a flamboyant Bard ala spy kids)


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## Anabstercorian

40) Use disguise to make otherwise straightforward encounters appear nigh impossible to overcome - A troll in full plate looks like any other giant, especially if it wields a flaming or acidic sword.

41) Introduce annoyingly sexual, perverted, or just plain nasty NPC villains.

42) Introduce annoyingly sexual, perverted, or just plain nasty NPC *allies*.

43) Send demon paladins at your party for some trumped up reason or another and fine your players experience for killing a good creature afterwards.  This works best if your characters are hip deep in the lower levels of the abyss in the inner chambers of Demogorgon or some such.

44) Have angels follow your characters around all the time.  They never speak and flit away when confronted with anger, only to return later.  Never explain why.  This works best if the angels giggle at the players misfortune before healing them and tsk-tsk them when they do something ethically shifty.

45) Whenever a player hires NPC's, they turn out to be a demon in disguise.  Always.  No matter what.


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## Draxus the Tainted

46. When one of your players spends almost all of their money on a powerful magic item, have it stolen from them before they can use it.


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## HalfElfSorcerer

47.  End a session with a cliffhanger like, "the door opens and a mysterious figure steps through."  Next session, as combat starts, announce that "since the Epic Level Handbook hasn't come out yet, I had to make a few guesses here."
48.  Make constant, archaic refrences to Monty Python.  If someone mentions John Cleese, mutter some inconprehensible prayer.


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## Craer

49:  Have the enemies strap babies to their chests on top of their armor and engage in melee fighting.   

A privateer feline?  What?

-Craer


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## arwink

50)  After killing a major NPC the party has spent months tracking, who has already come back at least once in a state of undeath, throw out the idea "Gee, it'd suck if that was just some vampiric doppleganger."

Run like hell for the exits


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## Chimera

"You see a rather nice looking young girl, approximately seven or eight years old.  She is wearing a little frilly dress and holding a floppy cloth doll.  She looks in your direction and smiles sweetly."

"Ervin (npc) and his boys scream in terror and run off in random directions.  Orgol the cleric is on his knees, muttering prayers under his breath while staring at the little girl in stark, raving terror.  Redgar has passed out cold."

"Roll Initiative"


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## Arravis

Ask the players to roll initiative for normal conversations with NPC's.  This really throws them off, lol.


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## Black Omega

51.  During a nightime ambush, only ask the two PC's on guard to roll init.  Comment that unless one of the two live long enough to wake the others up, they won't be needing init anyway.


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## Jack Haggerty

52.  Begin the game by saying, "Everyone please roll for Initiative."

53.  Begin the game by saying, "Everyone please roll for a Fortitude Save."

54.  Begin the game by saying, "Everyone please roll for a Reflex Save."

55.  Begin the game by saying, "Everyone please roll for a Will Save."*


*This is especially diabolical if you happen to be playing Call of Cthulu.


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## Oracular Vision

56. One I read here recently, talk about the dozen or so literary sources you used to make the adventure, when all you really did was copy out some monster manual stat blocks and put them in a town...

57.  Give one player each new town they enter a girlfriend. Make the girlfriend want things from them, need money for a new cow, etc. Sometimes the new girlfriend is actually something else, a succubus, or a rogue who really wants all their stuff, or is just a barmaid who wants to get in on the good thing of rich adventurers. The party will eventually laugh at the misfortune of the victim, and they will all run from all women encountered. This gets to be really funny as a running gag, so to speak.

58. Every time you reach for a monster miniature, say, "I barely got this lich painted in time..."

59. Let them buy magic out the wazoo, then send them to a suppressed magic zone...

60. Keep a running total of all the bad guys they never got around to finishing off, and have them join together to eliminate the party. My party can't even go back to where they started, as there are hundreds of enemies there waiting....

61. Let them pick all the broken Prestige Classes they want, then make it impossible for them to find any other members of that class to advance...

62. Give them lethal enemies and restrict their ability to heal by making the gods unavailable...

63. Build a huge dungeon but make a simple back-door way in to where the bad guy/artifact/treasure is, that could have been found with just a few minutes of searching...

64. Here's my latest plan - make a blue shimmering curtain of energy be between every hallway and door, and make it chime when it is crossed...they are sure something is coming...

65. Put traps everywhere for no good reason, but leave the actual way to the treasure unguarded.

Too easy to make these really...


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## Jack Haggerty

Oracular Vision said:
			
		

> *58. Every time you reach for a monster miniature, say, "I barely got this lich painted in time..."*




Or...

66. Say something along the lines of, "I just got my hands on this great Pit Fiend figurine, and I didn't want it to go to waste..."


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## Frostmarrow

67. [Classic] When the PC's are returning home with some hard-earned loot tell them they approach and enter a strange mist. Tell them that they lose track of time but that they eventually exit the mist and find themselves on a moor.


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## Zappo

Frostmarrow said:
			
		

> *67. [Classic] When the PC's are returning home with some hard-earned loot tell them they approach and enter a strange mist. Tell them that they lose track of time but that they eventually exit the mist and find themselves on a moor. *



I have a player who DMs Ravenloft for another group. I wonder what he would say.

68. Every now and then, require a Will save. No matter the result, smile and say: "well, well...".


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## Moe Ronalds

69. When describing the big baddie, leave your DMG open to the page on Major Artifacts
70. (Okay, this idea I'm actually using) An insanely powerful intelligent magic weapon, that hates combat, and has an insanely high ego, and also refuses to be sold, and insists upon always being taken along. Give the magic weapon an extremely annoying personality (for example, if it's a Holy Avenger, have it think that it's the spirit of Heironeus trapped inside a sword)


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## Nightchilde-2

68.  Orcs that act with intelligence and forethought.    I nearly wiped out my 5th-level party with a few orcs that planned ahead.  Once the patrol fired off their thunderstones as alarms to alert the rest of the nearby orcs, things got ugly.

69.  Make good use of weird architecture (Stronghold Builder's Guidebook has some great examples).  Again, in the Friday night session, the party was exploring the House of Stone, which had been deserted for centuries (and, at least the ground level, had been claimed by the aforementioned orcs), when they came across a room full of completely preserved meat (near the kitchen; this is a wondrous architecture item from the SBG).  Especially once the wizard cast Detect Magic and found out the entire room was, essentially, magical, they freaked out.

70.  Hint at something big and very nasty lurking outside of the PCs' line of sight.  Once again, Friday night (wow, that was a good PC-freaking session), the PCs threw something down Stoneturn Well, and got back the sound of some massive beast growling.  Now they won't go down to the lower levels.  

71.  Have a dragon use it's breath weapon to drop a ceiling on the PCs.  This is amazingly effective.  

72.  Monsters with class levels.  In our old campaign, at around character level 10, the PCs came across a room with a goblin in it.  They said, almost in unison, "Just one goblin?!?!?!"  A disintigrate, mage armor and a couple of fingers of death later and they got the clue.  Also, remember, a kobold barbarian makes use of d12 hit dice.  And 2-3 levels of fighter added to an orc make previously cannon fodder baddies nasty for lower-level parties.


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## Sir Hawkeye

69. Convince the party to let an advanced pit fiend join them (using threats by the fiend if necessary). The pit fiend doesn't help them in combat. He just follows them and occasionally laughs evilly. Party becomes extremely paranoid.


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## Harlock

Nightchilde-2 said:
			
		

> *72.  Monsters with class levels.  In our old campaign, at around character level 10, the PCs came across a room with a goblin in it.  They said, almost in unison, "Just one goblin?!?!?!"  A disintigrate, mage armor and a couple of fingers of death later and they got the clue.  Also, remember, a kobold barbarian makes use of d12 hit dice.  And 2-3 levels of fighter added to an orc make previously cannon fodder baddies nasty for lower-level parties. *




This works extremely well.  I had a party of 15th level (Psion/Slayer, Rogue, Barbarian, Cleric) who were walking down a corridor hall. One of them spotted a lone kobold who was ducking back behind a door and slammed it shut.  That kobold had two friends with him. They were a 16th level adventuring party. One barbarian, one wizard (already had improved invis. up) and a cleric.  Needless to say when my group of badasses came in and saw only two kobolds they laughed. The kobolds told them to leave or die so my PCs decided it was time to teach them a lesson.  Once the Kob Cler. Flame Striked a few times and the barbarian had gotten buffed up by a mage they couldn't see the characters finally started to understand they were in for the fight of the session.  It was great fun and now my players think hard about every encounter because they never know what I may throw in there next.  I know: kobold succubus, Dire kangaroo, and a chupacabra Dire Lemur.


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## der_kluge

I think we're on 77 - the number got screwed up a bit here.

77. Randomly rip off small sheets of paper out of your notebook, and write "  " or "this note doesn't say anything" and give them to random players.

78. Write notes that say nothing and give them only to the rogues in the group.  Occasionally have them roll a D20.  Everyone else will constantly be checking their gear.

79. When the PC find a treasure chest, give it a false bottom.  When the PCs say "I search the bottom for any other compartments", have them find it - but there's nothing in it.


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## Sureal

*Freak the players*

80.  Amid the assortment of of mini's you plan to use for the night conspicuously place your Bloodthirster of Khorne


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## Sesostris

Have the main artifact in the center of the large, monster-infested, trap-riddled dungeon be on a pedestal in a very large unguarded room that radiates no magic at all. No PC will dare just go in and take it.

My old GM used this one on my party, and it stopped us for half a session.


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## jrtyler

#81.  Put the PCs in a long corridor that they have to go through.  Then line the corridor with Leomunds traps.  However every once in a while put in a really nasty real trap.  After they've gotten tired of finding false traps, they'll most likely ignore it thinking its fake.  Then the real fun begins.


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## Oracular Vision

82. Incorporeal treasure

83. Evil Wizard's Guild as a customer that always screws the party out of some of the treasure. What are they going to do, steal it back?

84. This is from another thread, don't remember the author...give a bad guy elemental resistance from fire/15, and a necklace of fireballs...he throws one down at his own feet after running in among the party, and keeps doing it over and over....

85. Use murder holes for ambushes, the party can't even fire back until they get around them...

86. Always trap the slippery bridge across the bottomless chasm...

87. Wall of Force is always a nasty surprise if the bad guy had time to put it up before the party arrives...no arrows, no spells through it...no running through it....


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## bwgwl

die_kluge said:
			
		

> *77. Randomly rip off small sheets of paper out of your notebook, and write "  " or "this note doesn't say anything" and give them to random players.*




heh. i always do this. if i need to send an actual relevant plot-related note to a player, i'll give stupid non sequitur notes to everyone else, like "You are distracted by a nearby leaf." or "Your nose itches. You REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to scratch it. Now. Really."

that way, only the player that gets the plot-related note will actually know his character knows something important. everyone else can keep guessing...

here's another one:

88. if the players write up detailed backgrounds for their PCs that include old enemies from before the campaign started, make sure these enemies all know each other and are working together to destroy the party... works best in a system like GURPS or HERO that has a "Hunted" or "Enemy" disadvantage that players can take. instant conspiracy!

89. every once in a while, when a player makes an exceptionally BAD roll, like a 1 or 2 for a Move Silently or Open Lock check, a Search, whatever -- let them succeed anyways. "It appears the guard didn't really hear you." "The lock pops open." "Hey! You managed to find something!" they'll be totally paranoid about the event. players can handle a 20 failing better than they can a 1 succeeding.


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## Lela

90. When the Sorceror or Wizard in the group dies, bring them back as a ghost who is completely under DM control.  Have him pop in and out screaming BOO or alerting enemys.  If a party finds a potion or scroll and can't identify it, have him show up, do Alchamy or Spellcraft and laugh histarically.  He then fades out.  This got so annoying that our cleric actually Turned him.  The cleric is played by the same guy.

I currently have this going on right now.  The party found a potion of love and couldn't figure out what it was.  The ghost knew though, and thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.  I roll a d30, every time it's 20 or above he can appear.  If it's a 30 he can attack for one or two rounds.


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## Magic Rub

91. Have the party find a (or more then one) naked & dead body(ies) face down in the mud (or where ever) when they flip it over they'll find that it's an existing party member(s). (that same person/people should be there as well) When they try to find anything out about the body(ies), all that they get is that the "body" die's in a few days time. Oh & It can't be Res'd. So that means the body(ies) is/are from a future that is yet to come, but may never come depending on thier actions.  

Oh the fear... This was so much fun!


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## Sodalis

92) have them wander into a forgotten lair/ castle/ whatnot of an ubermage.  He sits atop his throne with a pet red-dragon

behind the scenes- the mage is just a lvl 1 gnome with cantrips.  the pet dragon is just a gift from a friend that is actually a polymorphed sheep.  

93) just keep rolling randomly behind you  screen and look up every once ina while and say, "keep going..."

94) have a psion and his cohort (ogre) confront them.  teh psion will have polymorphed intoa  toad and pretend to be the ogre's animal companion- and buff him up with spells... the players will never suspect the toad.... MWAHAHAHAHAHAH


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## HalfElfSorcerer

95.  Bring a party popper, party hat and party horn with you to the session and hide them behind the screen.  As you describe a climactic scene involving an important NPC (apparently) in a dark room, build tension slowly.  Say this: "The shadowy figure mutters a few words and the room fills with light."  Put on the hat, blow the horn, pop the popper.  Have it be a surprise  party for one of the characters.  Make sure the characters have fought a bunch of tough monsters to get here.


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## Psychotic Jim

96.  This one only works if you have one player playing a minotaur or other beastofburden/man hybrid.  Have all the other players gang up on the minotaur (or whatever) character and carve him up into jerky and eat him.  Then serve steak for dinner for your role-playing guests.

This actually happened once (a long time ago back in the early years of high school).  Basically one player was playing an annoying half-cow/half-man who was always singing "Moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo" constantly.  The other players quickly got tired of this adn ambushed the character and ate him.  Then the host's mom served steak quite unexpectecly the same night.  All the player of the half-man/half-cow could say was,  "You planned this, didn't you!"


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## Zappo

97. Have a PC killed and replaced by a doppelganger or similar creature, but do it stealthily and don't allow other players to know that. Let the PC's player keep playing the doppelganger. See how long it can go.

IMC, it went on for a couple of months. On top of that, the creature wasn't a doppelganger, but a visage from Dead Gods. Whose illusionary powers are almost limitless, and can Dominate at will. So, every now and then, in critical moments, a character would get dominated and attack the others, and the players would freak out trying to understand who or what did it. They never found out until the end of the adventure.

Not to be pedantic, but the point of the thread seems to be to creep out the players, not to kill the PCs... so I don't know if killer tactics for villains are what we're looking for...


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## The Sigil

*Clichéed, but...*

98.) This may be a bit clichéd, but go watch Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey... why?

That's right, have the PCs meet "themselves", ostensibly from the future.  Except these are the "evil us's" who are bent on destroying the party.  Fun lines are things like, "yeah, we thought it was weird when we us's were you us's and we us's were telling us us's what we us's are telling you us's right now."

Of course, the idea is that the "evil PCs" play along and even help the PCs out... until it comes time to off them.

Which reminds me... nothing works better to frustrate a party than an NPC party that is clones of that party.  The PCs - especially the munchkins - HATE facing themselves. 

99.) Similar to the above, but have the PCs travel forward in time to an alternate universe where they are bad guys.  Now the question becomes, "since we're now the bad guys, do we kill ourselves?"  Furthermore, the PCs should think, "hey, we can't lose; if the bad versions of us kill the good versions of us now, the bad versions of us will never exist and we get a paradox."

Of course, since this is an alternate universe, there IS no paradox if a PC is killed.

For even more fun, you might try to talk the party into committing suicide to stop themselves...

Ah, the mind games. 

--The Sigil


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## The Sigil

*#100!*

For good measure, here's #100....

100.) Use an airlock - big enough for 1 PC at a time only - to restrict access between levels of a dungeon.  Pulled this on my PCs and it took them three real-time hours to figure it out and get everybody through.

Why do they freak out?  They wonder, "why do we have to be separated? What's in the airlock?  Was the guy who went through replaced by a doppleganger?"  The list goes on and on. 

--The Sigil


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## Craer

I'll turn this into a netbook if we break 125 or so, or if the thread drops off the second page.  Or something.

101.  When describing a scene filled with suspence/horror, dim the lights and whatnot, but always keep moving.  Walk behind players, lean down and whisper in their ears, turn around, but always keep moving.  Very disturbing if done right.

-Craer

edit - you people post so quickly that the number was off by two.


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## HalfElfSorcerer

Craer - I would love to see this become a netbook.  However, check the name of the thread: "One THOUSAND Ways to Freak Out Your Players."  It would be advisable to see how far we get towards our goal first.  I'll do my best to keep this on the first page by posting my new ideas.  Speaking of which...

102. Have the Manual of the Planes out and open to some Lower Plane.  Whenever a character does ANYTHING, roll d% dice.  At some point during the session, have the party sucked into the plane the book is open to after you roll the dice.


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## Xarlen

Harlock said:
			
		

> *
> 
> This works extremely well.  I had a party of 15th level (Psion/Slayer, Rogue, Barbarian, Cleric) who were walking down a corridor hall. One of them spotted a lone kobold who was ducking back behind a door and slammed it shut.  That kobold had two friends with him. They were a 16th level adventuring party. One barbarian, one wizard (already had improved invis. up) and a cleric.  Needless to say when my group of badasses came in and saw only two kobolds they laughed. The kobolds told them to leave or die so my PCs decided it was time to teach them a lesson.  Once the Kob Cler. Flame Striked a few times and the barbarian had gotten buffed up by a mage they couldn't see the characters finally started to understand they were in for the fight of the session.  It was great fun and now my players think hard about every encounter because they never know what I may throw in there next.  I know: kobold succubus, Dire kangaroo, and a chupacabra Dire Lemur. *




I *Love* kobolds.

Here's a little suggestion. A kobold Clr7/Bar1 or 2. Buff him with Endurances, Divine Favor, so forth. Then drop a Divine Power, and Rage. Str of 22 kobold.


----------



## SonOfLilith

102) Say "are you sure?" befor the PC's do anything. Works really well if you have a reputation of being an evil DM.

103) Start to say somthing like "Think about it..." "Or you're character knows that...", But then just say "Forget it.  What are you doing now?"

104) Repition. Always point out something that seems to be occuring everywhere. For example, always mention that the door knob is a greenish-silver. If the PC's felt the wrath of a trapped door (or even better, a couple), they'll always think twice befor touching it.


----------



## DM with a vengence

105) More of an annoyance than a freak, when they fight against small humanoids, make then crouch in 5' high corridors through the entire dungeon.
After all, why should goblins make a 10' ceiling just to make us happy.

106) As there walking along, they hear a rustling in the bush. When they go to investigate they find a small, harmless forest animal who runs away.  Repeat until they ignore rustling in the bushes.  Now hit them with an ambush.


----------



## Kitsune

107.  Have the party find an item that is distinctive to one member but not unique enough to make them suspicious (i.e. a holy symbol of the cleric's religion, a coat of arms with the fighter's family crest).  Then put the party way back in time and put that one member in mortal danger.  Works best in ancient temples of evil with sacrifice-happy priests.

I managed to really freak out the cleric when, in the middle of a fight in the temple's main room, an iron golem grabs him and starts dragging him back to the room where they found the holy symbol.  Only then did it dawn on him...


----------



## novyet

108. Have ordinary objects become possessed by demonic spirits, and influence normal people, ala the dolls in shadowrun.
109. Remember the demon from the movie Fallen? Heh heh.  Try using that on a group of players and see what happens. Try explaining that one to a magistrate or a paladin afterward.


----------



## barsoomcore

110. Have an uber-bad guy, somebody who used to torture babies and devour people's brains, somebody the party have been tryng to kill for ages, have a change of heart. They're sincerely horrified at what they've done and want to try and if not make amends, at least live a good life from now on. It has to be totally sincere and believable (in my campaign she fell in love with a party member and realised she couldn't be loved by the PC unless she made some drastic changes in her lifestyle), but it will truly mess with their heads.


----------



## Wyrm Pilot

Lessee, the score is... there was an unnumbered entry between 50 & 51, 69 twice, a skip from 72 to 77, an extra between 80 & 81, and two 102's, so this is...

111 (gee, the math comes out even!). Have every NPC speak entirely in blank verse. Including the children, drunks, magistrates, kobolds, etc. Every Tuesday and no other time.

112. Have a tribe of orcs all named Bruce, who keep their ale in small, lightweight metal cylinders. *Do not* give them Australian accents.

113. Introduce the Xaositects in your grungy, simulationist, low-fantasy, Hârn-fusion, backwoods D&D campaign. Introduce them slowly, starting with one, then another two a few sessions later, etc. Eventually the PC's find the town where they're coming from (on your world, anyway). This place should have a store selling wax lips.


----------



## Oracular Vision

114.  The tripwire room, 40 x 40 ft, filled with garbage, empty boxes, bones, rats, stirges, etc., and also filled with tripwires in every square, hundreds of them like spaghetti in all directions...then make an empty corridor where the real trap is...

115. Fun with teleporters - make an otherwise nondescript hallway a teleporter, put some mist in the whole area, and have the characters continually teleport to two rooms back, see how many times you can get them to walk the same hallway before they figure it out...

116. Fun with time travel - have the party hear movement just ahead (it is themselves about 30 seconds into the future), and let them chase themselves...maybe they will fireball or do some long ranged stuff to themselves! Fun fun fun...

117. Fun with moss - make the entire dungeon tilt down at a 30 degree angle and have the floors all covered with moss, balance check to stand, or fall and slide into walls, etc...

118. Fun with water - Make the entire dungeon filled with water, and make it filthy nasty Star Wars Episode IV trash compactor-type nasty, and let the party hear things splashing, or catch a glimpse of an eye, but nothing ever actually happens - until they get to the way into the bad guy's lair, and its a huge plug in the floor, which of course will flood the bad guy's lair if it is pulled, and if they do it also causes huge quantities of water to rush in and send them tumbling down into the horrors below unprepared...


----------



## Lela

119. Use the MoP Plane of Mirrors.  Once inside the party members run into themselves, who pretend to look stunned that they're seeing themselves (a perfect immitation of the party).  A Glabuzu then rushes in, slaughtering the opposing party members and turns to them and growls.  The Glabuzu is actually a Paladin of Ilmater and was only defending the warriors of good from their evil counterparts.
This works best when you have a low-level party.  They DON'T want to attack that thing, so they are more likely to talk then fight--not that they could do any damage anyway.


----------



## eXodus

*120.*

my party was exploring a underground wererat cult site.

upon getting to a door they heard someone talking. they then heard crunching sounds. 

the party kicked open the door and saw a man with a baby by the ankle over a large pen with the largest direrat they had ever seen in it.

the halfling cleric/rogue ran into the room and tried to take the crying baby from the man.

the baby stopped crying.

right after the halfling got smacked with it. 

tha party never quite got over that.


----------



## Eternalknight

121.  If a party member dies, take that player aside and tell him that, instead of going straight to hell, his soul has been 'rescued' by a demon, and that the demon wants to make a deal with him. The demon will send the charactre back to the mortal world to complete a task. If he slays an important PC or NPC within a year and a day, the demon will restore him to life permanently.  Then have the dead PC turn up in the next room the characters enter, apparently alive and well.

I pulled this is in a King Arthur campaign I ran.  The character accepted the demon's offer to kill the important NPC.  Needless to say, the rest of the PC's were pretty freaked out when the recently resurrected PC murdered King Arthur and Merlin right in front of them!!!  The silnce in the room was deafening!!!


----------



## The Root Of All Evil

*The ease of freaking newbies.*

122) During their first session ever, I had a party of four spot a dead pig during a trek in the woods. It took them five minutes to even approach it at which point they poked it with a five foot stick. Henceforth, it's been a running gag; "Careful! It might be a dead pig!"


----------



## Eternalknight

This one is stolen shamelessly from whoever the editor of Dragon was at the time...

123.  Have the PC's meet a witch/seer/mystic/fortune teller who offers to predict their future for a measly sum.  She looks shocked, almost speecheless... all she matters to stutter out is "It's... it's.... abominable!!!!"  Later on, while the PC's are travelling overland, they find a cow standing in their path.  If the PC's approach, allow them to make Listen checks to hear a faint ticking noise.  If they come closer to the cow, the cow explodes, doing bucket loads of damage to them.  Explain to them the mystic's vision just came true:  abominable was really a-bomb-in-a-bull!!!


----------



## Altin

124. This is a good 'on the road' type encounter to really freak players out, one which I've pulled in various guises on unsuspecting parties over the years. 

Whilst treking through a fairly uncivilised area, the players come across an Inn (or a Monastry willing to provide shelter) in the middle of nowhere just before sunset. The people there are freindly, the food is cheap, the ale is good and the beds are comfortable. For maximum effect, play up how nice and pleasant everything is. Then, after they've gone to sleep, have one Pc wake up in the middle of the night. The bed he's in is grimy and sticky, he feels a rat scurrying around his feet, the room around him looks like it has aged several hundred years. The former inhabitants have either vanished or are skeletal remains (animated ones, if you are feeling sadistic). As the rest of the party is woken up, quiet, disembodied chanting (growing increasingly louder) can be heard from somewhere close, accompanied by objects moving at their own volition, walls bleeding and so forth. In my experience, most groups run for the hills at this point. 

The next morning, the place has completely disappeared, leaving no sign that it ever existed. It has even vanished from their maps and when they try to talk about it, they find themselves unable to do so. Sure to make your players paranoid about freindly NPCs and unwilling to stay at nice taverns. 

Yours,

          Altin


----------



## vraad

*Pit Trap*

125.  Did this one to my PCs, now they're paranoid about pit traps..  Have a 5' hallway set up with 5 - 5'x5' pit traps.  The party can walk across the pits without problem until they get to the last one.  When the last trap is trigered, it's a chain reaction with the others.  You end up with a person in each pit.  Make the walls unbeievably smooth so climbing is a really big issue.  Once they start to find their way out of the pits (only let one or two out before you do this), bring in the guards with bows.  One more thing, the pits should be at least 10' deep.


----------



## F5

126:  This trick works best on a party who's low enough level to still need to buy horses & mounts, but high enough to have made some enemies.
The PCs are arranging for transport, and they take the best horses the stable has to offer (naturally).  
Have them find out an an inopportune time that several of the horses they're riding now are really the band of Orcs that they slaughtered a few adventures ago, who have been reincarnated by an orcish druid, and are patiently waiting for their revenge.
They'll start to look at all of their animal companions a little differently after an encounter with a bunch of raging, vengeful orc-horses with a few levels of Barbarian...


----------



## alsih2o

127i think) give the fighter dude that +whatever weapon he has been dying for, and give it a puching hilt....with a poison needle fitted inside


----------



## alsih2o

128- horshoes of speed, with a pemanent grease when you try to stop

129 let them find a litter of blink dog puppies..hard to keep in a sack, likely to pop out just when the p.c.'s really need to be quiet


----------



## am181d

130)  (from my current dungeon)  Require players to swim through a pool of oil in order to get through one room, them make them fight a fire elemental in the next.

BONUS POINTS: Place the exit under the surface and put the fire elemental at the bottom of the stairs in the next room.

131)  (also from my current dungeon)  Place a silence spell on an entire dungeon (or dungeon section) so the players can't talk.

BONUS POINTS: Place improved invisibility on the monsters and give them poisoned weapons.  When the PCs start making Fort saves, they won't no if its from a creature or a spell or a trap.


----------



## Ghile Morduk

*Drivin your PCs NUTS*

132<--  A real handy fairie, with a few levels of sorcerer and thief tossed in, with a few feats to up his save for the sleep spell he likes to use. Have him take an item from one PC and put it into another pack, and repeat to adnosium. And when things get tough drop the dc 24 sleep spell and start over. Worked for my party.


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

133.  Announce you are sick of dice, and are going to use arbitrary rulings instead.  Insist that the players are not allowed to do the same thing, because it hasn't been playtested and might be broken.


----------



## apsuman

*134?*

134.  (this was for 2e, don't know if it still works).  Have CE NPC "Surrender" to the party, make sure the paladin disarms him of his 17 ego CE sword.  IIRC, that would be 34 points of damage just from touching the weapon.

g!


----------



## Oracular Vision

135. Make all your NPC's speak in some sort of moronic code, never saying anything usefull.

Example:
PARTY: Where is the church?
NPC: It is where it should be, but not where it could have been
PARTY: Okay, forget you. You there! Where is the Church?
2nd NPC: It is next to the big tree, behind the other big tree...

136. The Festival - This is from the old Star Trek episode, make the next town the party shows up in have a "festival," where everything is legal, and even murder is not mentioned after the festival. Have the festival start just after the party goes to sleep, they hear everyone in town shrieking, everyone is fighting everyone or stealing everything, the party will not be able to figure it out (outsiders are not invited to the festival)...its all the idea of some CN god of course...

137. Communicable diseases are never used enough in DND I think, so make the next player who fails his FORT save vs. disease be a carrier, spreading the disease through every town and village, and one new PC each day until they get it healed up...

138. The abandoned village, make it like it was in the Bermuda Triangle, with food still on the table, fires still burning, etc., but no people (they were all turned incorporeal by some demon instantly...) If I found such, I'd run for the hills...

139. Templars of the Lich-King - give the party some real enemies who can teleport in and hit them anytime, until they leave the lich-king's abode. Nowhere is safe, and unless they figure out they should turn back, its death death death...


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

140.  Before the session, bake a cake.  Do not bring out your D&D stuff.  Take the cake to the table.  When your players show up, act confused.  Ask what those books they have are.  Ask why X didn't bring his cookies, why Y didn't bring his pie.  Feign ignorance of Dungeons and Dragons.  In other words, act in all respects like tonight is the weekly gathering of the local baking club.  Keep it up as long as you can keep a straight face.


----------



## alsih2o

141 gelatinous golem, ochre golem, slime golem


----------



## Khorod

142. The Manual of the Planes and Deities and Demigods open next to you, ask the players under what conditions the 'PC's don't make morale checks' rule should be dropped.

143.  Whenever facing a building, object, etc, with nothing unusual about it, if the players insist on making spot/search checks, describe its mundane features in detail and at length.  Smile briefly at some point during the description.

144. Intimate to the players that you REALLY like massive wizard duels, then have a guy dressed in robes who looks a little like the campaign's evil archmage come up and tap the party's wizard on the shoulder.  The guy should be at best a stage magician, but maybe the robe is magical to throw off detect magics...

145. Laugh evilly for a couple minutes whenever the players make a wish, but always make the wish be exactly what they intended.  Works best if coincidence supports the evil laughter.


----------



## gamecat

146: Make Irritating product references: Potions of Fly appear in blue-and-silver flasks with red minotaur shillohuettes on them. When drank, the imbiber feels compelled to shout "Red Bull gives you WIIINGS!!"


----------



## Deedlit

147.Have the PCs find a mages academy, with many powerful archmages.  During a discussion with the PCs, each of them gives a PC the middle finger.  Then, ask the PCs to roll fortitude saves
148.(I got this one from record of lodoss war, but I might have forgot some details)Have a great battle brew in a volcano for a powerful artifact, which the PCs have been questing after.  The BBEG wants the artifact as well, and aligns with the PCs to slay the dragon.  Then, while they battle the BBEG, have the artifact fall into the volcano, and the BBEG jumps in as well, his dreams ruined.  A few adventures later, have the BBEG return, with blue skin, only he is not evil, and never was(Though he appeared to be) but give him other motives to work against the party.


----------



## The Sigil

*Even better...*



			
				Oracular Vision said:
			
		

> 135. Make all your NPC's speak in some sort of moronic code, never saying anything usefull.
> 
> Example:
> PARTY: Where is the church?
> NPC: It is where it should be, but not where it could have been
> PARTY: Okay, forget you. You there! Where is the Church?
> 2nd NPC: It is next to the big tree, behind the other big tree...



149.) Similar to the above but more annoying... villagers always refer to things that happened 10 years ago and assume that the PCs are locals and know what they are talking about.  "You want to get to the church?  Okay, go down the road then turn right where the oak tree used to be and then turn left at the barn that used to be owned by Farmer Brown - no, wait, the barn that used to be owned by the OTHER Farmer Brown, my bad."

150.) Better even than the above... have the villagers always refer to things that are going to happen 10 years in the future... "You want to get to the church?  Okay, go down the road and turn right at the oak tree that's going to be hit by lightning in a storm next week.  After that, turn left at the Barn where Farmer Brown is going to have his affair and then murder his lover to cover it up.  No, the other Farmer Brown (my bad) - his lover is going to be Farmer Brown's daughter.  Oh, and duck 32 steps after you turn or in the ambush an orc arrow is going to catch you in the face."  Everybody knows the future in this town... and nobody thinks it's weird.

151.) This one works best when the PCs are dungeoncrawling, particularly in caverns... have prepared a #10 can or a bongo or something and play little drumming patterns on it now and again.  Mumble, "drums, drums in the deep..."

152.)  Have the PCs surrounded by goblins but don't feel like killing them yet?  Have the PCs fight against unending hordes and just when they realize their situation is hopeless, have the goblins shriek and run away (think about the appearance of the Balrog in LotR the Movie).

153.)  Odd environments with yucky stuff can do it.  It's amazing how many PCs won't go near the area of the dungeon that's covered in 2 feet of water with slightly glowing blue algae on top of the water.

154.) When the PCs kill a monster, have a contingency polymorph then alter self spell on it to polymorph it into a likeness of the PC (remember Luke killing Darth Vader in the tree on Dagobah).

155.) Or it polymorphs into the likeness of a PC's mother/father/ significant other.

--The Sigil


----------



## The Sigil

*More...*

156.) Have the PCs hear of a bard singing about the Head of Vecna.

157.) A mysterious voice says, "Mer" while they are dungeoncrawling.

158.) Stick the PCs in mist in a dungeon.  Works even better if the mist is animate.

--The Sigil


----------



## Moe Ronalds

159. End the climax of your campaign, while the PCs, and the big baddie both about to kill eachother, the winner being left to the flip of a coin, with the phrase- And you wake up, realizing, it was all a dream...


----------



## 333 Dave

Moe Ronalds said:
			
		

> *159. End the climax of your campaign, while the PCs, and the big baddie both about to kill eachother, the winner being left to the flip of a coin, with the phrase- And you wake up, realizing, it was all a dream... *




Its ways to freak out the PCs, not get lynched!!!


160. All identification they're carrying becomes blank. This works better in CoC or something where there actually is identification. The player only noticed that one of his business cards was blank, but they're all compleatly white....


----------



## RingXero

161:  Pile up a stack of Grimtooth books on top of the table where the players can see them, announce you have been doing some reading lately.....


----------



## alsih2o

162 n.pc.'s based on bill cosby, circa the pudding commercials

163. n.p.c.s based on harry potter


----------



## River

Nightchilde-2 said:
			
		

> *
> 72.  Monsters with class levels.  *




Trolls who start casting Resist Fire and Resist acid are particularly fun!


----------



## River

164:  have the PC's encounter an awakened warhorse with 5 paldain levels on a quest to find its "Special Rider."  If any PC steps up to the plate 4d6'em and have the character dragged off on a horse quest.  

165: Rust monster wave assault.

166: Night of the full moon, Pc's encounter an undead too powerful for them to deal with.  Have it throw a bag of coins at a particular players feet and say "My master is much pleased with your services."  

167:  Have the main villian scry on the players constantly.


----------



## The Root Of All Evil

168: Have the PC's attend a social call of some might-be enemy of unknown hostility as host. The event is set in a large locale with lots of witnesses and non-combatants but also quite a few servants and well-behaved guards. When socially engaged, preferably with the host, have them note that said buffer, witnesses and non-combatants, is gradually and discreetly filtering out and leaving the scene...


----------



## Heretic Apostate

169.  Have the players fight the dreaded "gazebo."  (And I'm STILL trying to find that particular comic, either the KotDT or the Hackmaster....)


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

170.  Whenever the PCs go to a place like a carriage depot, rent-a-horse, etc, have them be accosted by proselytizing (sp?) clerics who try and get them to convert.  If the PCs refuse, have the clerics attack immediately.


----------



## Ashrem Bayle

171. Tell your players you can't run a game this week because you have to spend all your free time working on a new setting for a contest..


----------



## 333 Dave

172. Make a room a perfectly sterile white cube. When you finish describing it take out your stopwatch and time how long it takes before the wizard says "I cast Detect Magic".


----------



## Xarlen

This may not work in a Fantasy campagn but...

173) Blood. When they wake up, there's blood in the sink, the toilet, the shower, the pool (We slept in waterbeds with fish at a hotel; the fish were dead, and blood was in the water).


----------



## clockworkjoe

174. In the next room the players explore, have a human butler stand there at perfect attention. He is just a butler, waiting to serve the players drinks.


----------



## Tolen Mar

175 

In the middle of a pitched battle, just when both sides have started skirmishing:

A strange little man appears from nowhere, looks around at the chaos and then says "You all are making too much noise!  Cant a guy get some quite around here?"

At which point all sound is eliminated from the battlefield, regardless of how much armor is moving around, or swords being struck against swords, or people shouting.  

Then he says "Much better!" Smiles and vanishes...


----------



## Cullain

> 166: Night of the full moon, Pc's encounter an undead too powerful for them to deal with. Have it throw a bag of coins at a particular players feet and say "My master is much pleased with your services."




I did something similar to this to my players, once.  They had just finished a quest.  The big bad of the campaign teleprted in, told one of the players "you have fulfilled your end of the bargain magnificently," tossed him a bag of coins, and teleported away.  The resulting confusion on my players part was priceless.

Cullain


----------



## FireLance

176. All enemies try to inflict subdual damage on the PCs.  Some players fear capture more than death.

177. One particular type of animal (crow, cat, rat, dog, owl) appears wherever the PCs go and always seems to be observing them.  If the PCs kill it, another one shows up later.


----------



## Grundle

Heretic Apostate said:
			
		

> *169.  Have the players fight the dreaded "gazebo."  (And I'm STILL trying to find that particular comic, either the KotDT or the Hackmaster....) *




Ah, the dreaded gazebo, bane of heros everywhere...

http://www.duke.edu/web/DRAGO/humor/gazebo.html


The head of vecna is also priceless...

http://home.hiwaay.net/~srberry/gurps/Vecna.html


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

178.  Have an old lady walk up to the PCs, sneer, and whack the most heavily armed character with an umbrella.  Once the players start lauging, announce that he takes 29 damage on a crit from a _+5 keen umbrella_.  Then, a pie appears amongst the PCs and the old lady moves rather far away.  2 rounds later, the characters all take 51 points of fruit damage from a _delayed action pie_ spell.  Keep it up like this until you begin to recieve death threats.


----------



## Artoomis

gamecat said:
			
		

> *146: Make Irritating product references: Potions of Fly appear in blue-and-silver flasks with red minotaur shillohuettes on them. When drank, the imbiber feels compelled to shout "Red Bull gives you WIIINGS!!"
> *




179.  Make all your notes that you hand out to your players be in a really irritating red-on-black color scheme.


----------



## gamecat

Artoomis said:
			
		

> *
> 
> 179.  Make all your notes that you hand out to your players be in a really irritating red-on-black color scheme. *




180. Repeatedly ask your players about the most problematic rules, and write a list.


----------



## wolff96

clockworkjoe said:
			
		

> *174. In the next room the players explore, have a human butler stand there at perfect attention. He is just a butler, waiting to serve the players drinks. *




I did that with a skeleton in Heart of Nightfang Spire. It was in one of the empty rooms in the tower. I decided (just for my own personal amusement) to have it be a sort of reception room for important guests.

A skeleton stood inside the room and offered them drinks. All of the bottles in the room had long since evaporated or the alcohol turned to vinegar -- the water still worked, though. The thoroughly confused PCs stopped in the room, had a glass of water (after the cleric verified it as being pure), and then left.

I got three seperate e-mails later, all variations on the same theme of "What in the $&*# was THAT??"


----------



## Lela

Artoomis said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Touché
> 
> Seriously, though, that color combination is really hard on the eyes. *




I've found that highlighting his text (with my mouse) really helps.

181. Always show up to your games late.  Sit there and unpack while all the players wait for you to be ready--having already unpacked themselves.  This works best if the game is at your house.


----------



## Ilen

River said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Trolls who start casting Resist Fire and Resist acid are particularly fun! *




If you want fun with trolls you make them face a Half-Dragon (Red)/Troll with a Ring of Elemental Immunity (Acid). Or inversely a Half-Dragon (Black)/Troll with a Ring of Elemental Immunity (Fire)


----------



## Khorod

182. All handouts to players in metaphorical limmerick, attempting to maintain the grammar of the campaign setting- olde english...

There once was a Raven O' Burlap...

183. Use the grammar-humor books "Get the to a Punnery" and "Anguished English I-II" as the primary source material for your campaign.


----------



## Xarlen

Ilen said:
			
		

> *
> 
> If you want fun with trolls you make them face a Half-Dragon (Red)/Troll with a Ring of Elemental Immunity (Acid). Or inversely a Half-Dragon (Black)/Troll with a Ring of Elemental Immunity (Fire) *




All I have to say to this is: beat him into submission, wait until he's 'dead', and yank the ring off. Then get him.


----------



## Lela

Xarlen said:
			
		

> *
> 
> All I have to say to this is: beat him into submission, wait until he's 'dead', and yank the ring off. Then get him. *




184. Send a Half-Celestial/ Half Dragon (Red) Troll after the party.  He's immune to both Fire and Acid.  And, most importantly, it's possible strictly according to the rules.  Essentialy, the troll can't die.  He should be a long-term fixture in the campaign.

(How?:  The template says you keep all of the base creatures special qualities.  Thus, when you add a second generation (Red Dragon for instance) you don't reduce, or change, all the special qualities that are already inherent.)


----------



## Xarlen

Ah ah! Not so fast. 

It says that the Half-Celestial template can't be added to any 'non-evil' creature. Now, if this means that anyone who's half celestial can't be evil (Why *not*? It's their parents that slept the angel, not them; an evil half-angel or fallen angel would be neat), or that the race or parent can't be evil... 

To be quite honest, I don't see a half-red dragon troll being good, and thus breeding with an angel. Secondly, how could the children be 'Half this/half that' troll? Wouldn't it be a Quarter?


----------



## Bonedagger

Xarlen said:
			
		

> *Ah ah! Not so fast.
> 
> It says that the Half-Celestial template can't be added to any 'non-evil' creature. Now, if this means that anyone who's half celestial can't be evil (Why *not*? It's their parents that slept the angel, not them; an evil half-angel or fallen angel would be neat), or that the race or parent can't be evil...
> 
> To be quite honest, I don't see a half-red dragon troll being good, and thus breeding with an angel. Secondly, how could the children be 'Half this/half that' troll? Wouldn't it be a Quarter? *




Why not? Celestails can become evil. 

(Example: The Archduke Baalzebul (Also knowen as "Baal") who rules the 7th layer in the nine hells is a former Celestial Archon who joined the Devilfaction)

I think I'm just repeating myself from other treads but when it comes to Outsiders the MM only delivers discount information.


----------



## Xarlen

Bonedagger said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Why not? Celestails can become evil.
> 
> *




From the SRD 







> "Half-celestial" is a template that can be added to any corporeal creature with an Intelligence score of 4 or more and *nonevil alignment* (referred to hereafter as the "base creature").


----------



## Bonedagger

Xarlen said:
			
		

> *
> 
> From the SRD
> 
> "Half-celestial" is a template that can be added to any corporeal creature with an Intelligence score of 4 or more and nonevil alignment (referred to hereafter as the "base creature").*




It was a rhetorical question.


----------



## Xarlen

Well, to me, Celestials and Devils/Demons, they *are* their aligment. The Embodiment. They're the only places where there are no shades of gray; no 'good' side to a demon. 

Given that, a celestial is not going to 'love' an evil thing, because it's Evil. If an angel becomes evil, it falls. If a demon becomes good, it rises. But I don't see them going wishy washy, being a 'good' side to a devil, a 'bad' side to an angel.


----------



## Mustrum_Ridcully

Make him a Trollranger level 4 with some wands of Resist Elements.  Beeing a real character, he would gain additonal 10 point-buy ability points (since all NPC creatures in the DMG are made with 15 point buy or 3d6 roll method), and so you could boost his Wisdom and Intelligence.
Now you have a troll that can attempt to hide and move silently, fight with two Bastard Swords (not really useful, his natural attacks are better) and can cast some spells. (Entangle?  )
All for a mere CR of 10? 11? (Not sure about the base CR of the troll, don`t have my MM here  )
Okay, he is not immune to fire and acid, but he is still nasty, isn`t he? 

Mustrum "who loves giving monsters class levels, especially with DragonStar - Ettin using two light machineguns are awesome..." Ridcully


----------



## Bonedagger

Xarlen said:
			
		

> *Well, to me, Celestials and Devils/Demons, they *are* their aligment. The Embodiment. They're the only places where there are no shades of gray; no 'good' side to a demon.
> 
> Given that, a celestial is not going to 'love' an evil thing, because it's Evil. If an angel becomes evil, it falls. If a demon becomes good, it rises. But I don't see them going wishy washy, being a 'good' side to a devil, a 'bad' side to an angel. *




I guess you never have played planescape

In this case half-celestial represent a bunch of stats. That doesn't mean that you carn't call him a fiend. The "rules" doesn't say anything about weather these powers comes from a outside source though.

But in a game people should of cause chose the solution that makes for the best story.


----------



## Xarlen

No, I havn't. I just think that there shouldn't be any moral dilemma in blowing a demon away. An orc? Yes. A drow? Sure. These are not embodiments of evil, and could be in the right, in some situations, all are individuals. 

Fiends, themselves, I don't see them having any good in them. I really don't see a Balor passing up the chance to get away with toasting a schoolhouse full of children. 

Does this mean I don't feel that half-fiends, tieflings and such should be like their parents? No! Oh no. An evil half-celestial? Sure! Tiefling paladin? All right! Half-Red dragon Cleric of Tyr? Right on! 

In my world, the *ONLY* things that are solid and alike in aligment matters *are* embodiments. I don't see a LN Slaad, for example. 

Everything otherwise with intelligence is subject to reason. A good or neutral (or hey, LE) red dragon? Sure as pie! A fiendish gold dragon? Ooooh ya. A neutral illithid? Okay. A good beholder? Like, almost never, but it's *possible*, right?


----------



## Evilboy

185:  Start subtle product placement in your campaign, with either real or imaginary product brands.  Continue to make more and more blatant placements until every bartender has a thirty-second monologue prepared for Dave's Daring Dwarven Brew.

186:  Have powerful NPC villains and adventuring allies begin wearing endorsed armor or equipment, much like a professional athlete. 

"Just so you know, before I slay you with my sword, notice its great design, effecient and beautiful hilt and the care that was put into the vorpal enchantment.  Anybody can make a vorpal sword, but only Everald's Excellent Echantments Incorporated can make a sword so good, its evil."

187:  Have an NPC, at a very intimate moment, confess that "sometimes, it feels like, I don't know, you, me, we're not even real.  How do we know that our actions are our own?  How are our fates decided?  Doesn't this ever feel like some sick game to you?  Haven't you really wondered what luck really is?"

188:  Have a high-level dwarven cleric NPC who blatantly abuses their high HP.  "Oh, its just a 170 foot drop, nothing that I can't handle.  Ah, heck, that orc was just playin, it would take another twenty or so swipes before I'd even feel it!."

189:  Have every villain, every orc, every demon, every single individual who they could ever slay and loot be carrying 50' of rope.  Have absolutely no terrain that would call for it.

190:  Have a wizard begin using communication spells (whispering wind, illusions, telepathy, etc.) to send out "chain letters", saying that the party must pass the message on or horrible fates will ensue.  Ensure the message is properly cryptic and/or stupid.


- Evilboy


----------



## Bonedagger

right on. It's just in planescape Celestials and fiends aren't the ultimative embodiment of good and evil. Very close but not perfect.


----------



## Xarlen

As a side note, I also think a lot of outsiders (Celestials, Fiends) should be spirits, in a sense. Only should be on the material plane for a good chunk of time unless they've taken possession of a body (And thus it becomes their own, allowing them to change the body to their form), or require soul sacrifices.

Of course, summoned monsters aren't here long enough, this is for stays on the material realm more then, say, a month.

Sorry to Hijack the thread.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

191: 3/4 of the way through the adventure, start theorizing how to make the most badass troll you can. 

192:Give the PCs a 'pet' puppy that follows them everywhere, getting into trouble. If they mistreat the puppy, make it a hound archon in disguise that proceeds to beat the living $#!+ outta them. 

193:Give NPCs strange addictions, like pudding or waffles.

194:Use a cool idea and or villain, for every other adventure. 

195:If you're bilingual, change languages half way through the game, look surprised when the other players can't tell what the hell you're talking about. Get frustrated, kick over the table, and go into the next room to wail- still in the other language. If they start to leave, say in clear english; Oh, you're leaving now? Too bad, we had oh so much fun didn't we? Goodbye!

196: To one session, wear flannal, and make every NPC and PC somehow related to one another. Give your adventure titles like; D&D, Episode 12, THe Troll Get's Pissed, start humming the star wars theme. 

197: Incorporate cheese into your campaign whenever the opportunity arises. If it doesn't, then randomly just scream out "Cheese" at the tops of your lungs. 

198arody popular products, have the kings children play with "Senor Potato Brains" 

199: say you've sworn off dice and sense, and from now on, you only play LARPs.

200: Have wandering bards play heavy metal and rap music. 

201: At jousting tournaments, have people in the stands singing "We will we will rock you"


----------



## wolff96

Lela said:
			
		

> *184. Send a Half-Celestial/ Half Dragon (Red) Troll after the party.  He's immune to both Fire and Acid.  And, most importantly, it's possible strictly according to the rules.  Essentialy, the troll can't die.  He should be a long-term fixture in the campaign.
> *




Why should he be?

All it takes is two or three inches of water.  Beat him unconscious, drag him to the nearest mud puddle, and drown the thing.  Regeneration can't help you if you drown.

Sure, it's ignominious. But it WORKS.

Sorry for the hijack.


----------



## DM with a vengence

202)  Have the players run into obvious D&D representations of themeselves (wearing the same clothing, same mannerisms etc.).

203)  Make the characters fight the players avatars in the game world.

204) When the players ask about how they got statted, give them really bad stats.  ("Bob, I was feeling generous so you're a Male Gnome Com2 with 5 Str, 7 Dex, 11 Con, 4 Int, 3 Wis and 1 Cha.")

205) Have a smelly mumbling bum show up and follow the players around until they give him money.  He'll follow them anywhere, even through teleports and plane shifts, and won't leave until he has cash.  Even if killed he returns.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

> 204) When the players ask about how they got statted, give them really bad stats. ("Bob, I was feeling generous so you're a Male Gnome Com2 with 5 Str, 7 Dex, 11 Con, 4 Int, 3 Wis and 1 Cha.")




That's just not nice...


----------



## Lela

Moe Ronalds said:
			
		

> *
> 
> That's just not nice... *




I'm sure that if we knew Bob, we would understand.

206.  When you use the obvious player avatar, switch gender.  Still make it obvious who each character is though.


----------



## jrtyler

Her'e a fun one:

207:  Have PC's who are compulsive mappers?  Put them in a roughly square dungeon with large rooms at each corner.  Each of these rooms should be identical.  Make the door look like it has a strange lock on the inside (a la a submarine hatch).  If the door is closed, the PC's hear a whirring noise and experience a feeling of vertical movement.  Then when it stops, the door automatically unlocks. They'll think its an elevator. However the sound and movement feelings are actually illusion.  The PC's never went anywhere, but when they get out, they'll most likely start mapping a different level.  This works best if you:

208:  Make the walls of the dungeon have a permanant ward that erases any marks made on them within a minute or two of being made.

209:  If you wanna be even more twisted, make the room a teleporter chamber that tleports them to one of the other rooms.  Have two hatch doors in each room.  One will be false and won't open.  However once they've been telported, the door that wouldn't open is the real door in this room.


----------



## Leopold

you just saw or are planning on using material from The Cube..


----------



## James McMurray

208: Eat their pets. If thst doesn't freak the players out nothing will. Of course, it'll probably cost you some jail time, and definitely cost you somefriends.


----------



## clark411

209)

In a dungeon that has quite a few pits or chasms in it, have the players run across a pair of boots on a ledge (preferably with another higher ledge above it).  Make them glow, and tell anyone that touches them that they are strongly compelled to wear them.   Allow them to be self identifiable as "Boots of Springing and Lemming"


----------



## Vurt

210) Simulate a party member getting trapped in a room and cut off from the rest of the party by locking the player in the washroom the next time they go take a wiz.

Alternately, take the manuals with you and lock the room you're playing in, then sit outside the door to talk them out of it.  This could have unfortunate repercussions, however, if you let the players tank up on beer and pop beforehand.

-- Vurt


----------



## Moe Ronalds

211) A guy that walks around with a magic shell next to his ear, saying: Can you hear me now? *pause* Good.


----------



## 333 Dave

212. Right in the middle of calculating experience points fake an epileptic seizure.


----------



## Sodalis

213- have a long grueling adventure culminate to the PCs finally meeting an old adversary from when they ere still lvl 1- and now that they are lvl 20- you would expect that he is too.  He is dressed in magic with a badass sword and a halo (either holy or evil).  He taunts the PCs and tells them that they have ruined his plans for thelast time.  when the PCs attack (either magic or arrow) he is immediately slain.  Act grumpy and surprised- slam your books shut and say, "Game over- he's dead..."

214- have a young boy being chased through the woods come up to the pCs.  His chaser is a orc.  After the orc sees them, he either turns and runs, or is slain by the PCs.  Have the lil boy hug one of the pCs and when he isnt paying attention- it PM into a ogre mage withe its grips already around him.  crunch his bones....

215- have them enter a room that is pure white. in the middle is a pedastol with a pie on top of it.  

216- have your story all scripted out- and whenever the PCs ask the NPCs any questions, have them speak backwards...


----------



## Broken Fang

Oh no...here we go #215 - What kind of pie?


----------



## Sodalis

> Broken Fang
> 
> Oh no...here we go #215 - What kind of pie?



well- ths being America and all-  apple

just somethign from the "imagination" thread


----------



## Moe Ronalds

217) When the players verify that the pie is, in fact, apple, start playing Bye Bye Miss American Pie. 

218) Make golems made out of the stupidest materials, example: Spam, Feces, Hair, Spit, Cats, flour, flowers, pizza or fingernail clippings. 

219) Make your next Arch-Villain extremely flamboyant, and girly. Give him a pet pitbull that he dresses up in outfits exactly like his (which tend to resemble those of Mimi on the drew carrey show, and, if you want to be real sick, make them rather... revealing.) Make him a huge show off as well. 

220) Make it so that gnomes in your campaign world everywhere are being turned to the darkside by an evil god. Make some of them the most evil beings you can think of, and rather twisted individuals. (You step into the cottage and see a smiling, red-faced gnome with blue eyes. He politely greets you and- Player1: GNOME!!!! KILL IT!!!!!!) Oh wait, I forgot, I'm already doing that.

221) Every other adventure is dark, scary, and has totally sick villains, make the adventures borderline acceptable, the sort of stuff that you'd nearly throw up after hearing.  All the others are like the three stooges strike back, or looney toons.


----------



## 333 Dave

222: The characters are walking through a dungeon when they come upon a similar party of adventurers, who immediatly scream "ORCS!" and attack the PCs.

223: Same as above, only have the NPC adventurers actually BE orcs.


----------



## Evilboy

224:  The PCs are hired to guard a 10x10 dungeon room with a chest in it.

225:  Have the PCs make Scry checks every twelve minutes, play time, on the dot.  Try to be inconspicous about the timing if possible, and act like its a coincidence if they confront you.

226:  Kobold Psychic-Warrior with a brilliant energy bastard sword who walks like a muppet and throws out philosophical cliche's left and right.  If pressured, he will demand that they stand on their heads.

- Evilboy


----------



## Amrynn Moonshadow

227 - use odd number sided die . . .

228 - invent odd number sided die

229 - include rituals for more than just magic, and holy events. like ritual farming, or ritual food ordering. have the pc's be punished by town elders for not following the rituals correctly when they stumble into town, and ask for rooms

230 - have a new technological breakthrough occur by the twisted experiments between gnomish alchemists and halfling tailors -- the invention of velcro

231 - make coin money worthless, and have everything be worth a song . . . so the pc's have to sing for everything, and have the quality of their singing determine the quality of the equipment / service they recieve

232 - get really tired of trying hard, all the npc's are based on the real life players of the game. get back at them by putting them in compromising situations. tired of a guy named ted who always whines about stuff when it doesn't favor his PC? enter the npc teddus who also whines . . .

233 - weave in the storyline of an organized crime ring, make it blantantly obvious that you're stealing ideas, mannerisms, codes, characters and even accents from the steriotypical view of the mafia we have in the media (movies like goodfellas, godfather and so on). the catch is to do it very poorly to the point that it takes away from the game

234 - try to invovle that sketch from monty python where you have to return a dead parrot to a petstore, only to be confused as to the actual location of the store, and who sold it to you. use lots of portals, enchantment spells and no good, lying petstore owners.

235 - planet of the apes D20 (and not the crappy new one either!)

236 - mind flayers who liberate slaves . . . what are their motives

237 - replace die rolls with the spinner from twister. try to DM with the results you get from it

238 - sock puppet golem . . . but what's the thing that's animating it?

239 - doppleanger slumber party . . . for those PC's who like to score with tavern wenches, only to wake up in the morning while they are getting murdered

240 - have a npc villian have the expert tactician feat (choose which un-erratted version suits you best), also create a new feat called improved expert tactician, and give that npc that feat as well. freak out your players when he gets two turns in a row.

241 - have a point during a tense political moment between the pc's and the main badguy mastermind center around a seemingly friendly game of chess in a public place, a noble's party or something like that. notice how he cheats -- in your favor.

242 - have the pc's escape from near certain death into the waiting, hungry maw of certain death

243 - force one of the pc's to get married to a rich, overbearing dwarf's daughter in some grand mistake, something about your stealing of her virtues, and some other ever so delightful misunderstandings.

244 - have one of the pc's captured by orcs. have him take it orc style as a prisoner, let that be a lesson to the pc's not to take the orcs seriously.

245 - re-read to them things you've already read to them. make these tiny, minor detail descriptions. make a point to describe the settings of some places. "you once again find yourselves summoned to the red velvet halls of the manor. inside you are quickly moved passed the rouge room to the richly crimson tones of red velvet hall . . . "

246 - before announcing you've rolled a critical hit, having the villians do massive dammage to the pc's, quietly get out of your chair, gather/compose yourself quietly for a moment, and then burst into your critical hit interpretive dance routine. (which is a mix of the running man, stirring the pot, and something you like to call "the penetrada")

247 - during the dance, if it comes at a life or death situation for the pc's you may decide to use the 3rd person chant "Go DM! Go Dm! Go DM!" while stirring the pot.

248 - work all week on a flash animation of what a really creepy dungeon looks like . . . then proceede to tell the players that the campaign is taking a new turn, away from dungeon crawling, and into loan management, and land equity taxes.

249 - end each session with that cheesy narration ending from the adam west campy batman show from the 60's. "same bat channel . . . same bat time . . ."

250 - figure out a way to bring visual aids to the table. "after investigating the farm, you only see some signs of a struggle, and this decapatated cow carcass . . ." lift sheet over cow carcass and show players . . .

251 - use your sisters barbie dolls instead of hand painted models. have the players catch you spending more time combing the "giantess' " hair, and less time actually paying attention to the game.


----------



## Lela

1/4 of the way done!

Party time!

252.  Have disco music run throughout the session.  The next time, make it show-toons.


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

Hey, we are 1/4 of the way there! Awesome!  I just wish the thread hadn't been hijacked by people arguing over half-celestial/half-dragon trolls.  Oh well.

253.  In an adventure, have a character pick up a sword with an _alter self_ enchantment that turns the player into a large, upright-walking rabbit.  This is a curse that requires somthing special to fix, so the players can't get rid of it easily.  Soon after, have the next evil humanoids your players encounter start singing "Kill the rabbit, kill the rabbit...," a la Elmer Fudd in the old Bugs Bunny cartoon.  Have them make references to their "spear and magic helmet."   Act completely normal otherwise.


----------



## 333 Dave

253 works best if you memorize that whole episode of Looney Tunes.

254: Have a white rabbit run in front of them, stop breifly to say "I'm late I'm late I'm late!" then run off. All attempts to track it lead nowhere.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

255) Magnets. Big, powerful magnets.


----------



## Broken Fang

#256  - added to #255 Wizard with lighting bolts/shocking grasp/anything else that deals with electricity = electric magnets

#257 there is probably a lightning elemental in some supplement...bind it to the magnet for a perpetual charging electric magnet.

#258 place it as a trap used by the eveil wizard and have fun watching the plate wearing fighters try to remove themselves from the wall


----------



## Broken Fang

#259 after defeating a wizard they players find a spell book, but all the spells are empty.  have fun watching as they try to discover the method of how the spells were hidden - when they return his dead body have the constable thank them for the capture of the sorcerer.  *This is damn funny esp. if he uses pre-casts already and it really looks like he only had the proper # of spells aas a wizard of some level. *


----------



## Samhaine

#260  An Iron golem with a compartment inside it for a pissed off Fire Elemental (which targets the golem every round).

#261  6th level Half Dragon sorcerer (red, brass, or gold) and his half dragon sibling cronies (tanks, rogues, etc).  Mirror Image and a small room to fight in (putting the sorcerer completely out of reach is just nasty).  Fireball dropped 3 or 4 times in the dead center of the fray where it does nothing to the enemies (and shouldnt pop the Mirror Images, by my reading, if they mirror someone immune to it).


----------



## Trevalon Moonleirion

> 32) Every time one of the characters drinks something, look mildly surprised, and roll a die. Sometimes mutter something like "Again?" or "Won't they ever learn?"




Not sure who posted that, but it's good...   And it's so true for my players now... espeically since I've been using Monte Cook's potion identifying rules, and ESPECIALLY since last session our cleric tried to identify _sovereign glue_ with the tasting method... MWAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAA!


----------



## Sodalis

261) if they buy meat without specifying salted meat, have them eat it and make a will save every minute, or else they get the runs.. i believe it is called Cthulu's revenge... 

262) work really fast through the history of the earth as a dungeon crawl- room 1) ocre jelly, room 2) gelatinous cube, room 3) gaint fish, 4) amphibians 5) lizard folk 6) dinosaurs 7) giant birds 8) small mammals 9) larger mammals 10)dire animals 11)lesser humanoids (bugbear/gnolls) 12) human NPCs 13) alien life forms...

263) work backwards through time a la 262

264) hav them role play eating- if they forgte to mention they are chewing food- make them make a fort save or they choke.

265) punish them for not following the conventions of a town- something you never mentioned before in your life- make it trivial like not burping after a meal

266) play inside out town- where people farm inside the barn and sleep under a mattress outside of th house.  

267) have a high powered wizard trap his spell book- he knows never to turn to page 666.  When the PCs flip through the book after killing the wiz- KABOOOOMMMMMMM!!!


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

268. Place a permenant _teleport_ effect in a doorway in a dungeon that teleports them back a couple rooms.  As you repeat the room descriptions, do not deviate whatsoever from your previous description of the room.  If a player points out that they already saw this room, look at them oddly and mutter something about deja vu.


----------



## Sodalis

269) aftre describing the eerie sounds and dank appearance of a dungeon, lean over to one of the plaeyrs and scream, "BOOO!"

270) flicker thelights on and off during combat

271) eat cookies and spit crumbs all over their characetr sheets


----------



## Amrynn Moonshadow

272. flicker the lights on and off during npc dialogue

273. have a moat be built around your home . . . but no drawbridge

274. have creative treasure . . . "the king says that as a reward, you can have what's in vault number one, vault number two, or what's in the box!"


----------



## Sodalis

crowd: "the box, the box, the box...."

player: "I'll take the box."

and you get- absolutely nothing- you sostupid... STUPID!!


----------



## Avarice

275.  Choose a particular d20 from your collection.  Begin referring to it as 'my precious'.  Carry it around in it's own dice bag, and bring it out only when the really big nasties make an appearance.  When that occassion arrises, stroke the d20 lovingly while whispering endearments to it.  Hiss menacingly if any of your players try to touch it.


----------



## Avarice

276.  Instead of using miniatures to represent your player's characters, construct little voodoo dolls.  Make sure to ask your players for hair samples.


----------



## Avarice

*Oh, maybe just one more!*

277. As your PCs round a corner in an otherwise empty, bone-strewn dungeon, begin drawing an ENORMOUS room on your battle mat.  Off-handedly mention as you are doing so that 'It never really made sense to me why great wyrms don't gather in flocks.'


----------



## Tolen Mar

Avarice said:
			
		

> *275.  Choose a particular d20 from your collection.  Begin referring to it as 'my precious'.  Carry it around in it's own dice bag, and bring it out only when the really big nasties make an appearance.  When that occassion arrises, stroke the d20 lovingly while whispering endearments to it.  Hiss menacingly if any of your players try to touch it. *




Thats just fantastic!  One of my friends and I are always talking about LoTR and the Silmarillion.  If I started that, I really do think he would freak!

#278: pull out the astrology charts, and once the game is halfway over, consult them.  Moments later, pack everything up and declare the planets arent in line.  To be really cruel, dont resolve the cliffhanger next session...


----------



## BrooklynKnight

279: (Taken from my own game)

Just as the players are combating a room filled of enslaved orcs by a naked drow preistess have the room start rumbling. The preistess teleports out as the remaining orcs get dispatched easily.....just as the players wonder wtf is going on.........

CRASH! through the wall comes something that can only be described ass.

A Giant with the head of a drow, the body of a hairy russian, and the feet of al bundy! Have him carry a bag of everylasting shoes that allows him to throw one random shoe at a character for 1d4 damage. If any characters get within 25 feet of him they must make a Fort Save against DC 30 or take 1d6 "stink" damage. If they take 4 or more rounds of this damage, start draining CON.


----------



## Avarice

*Schroedinger's Adventurer*

A little something to torment your more scientifically minded players:

280.  Have the party stumble across a teleport trap.  They re-appear in a 10' x 10' metal-walled room, with no apparent exits.  In the center of the room is a table containing a bowl full of a softly glowing, sand-like substance, a sealed glass vial, and a book entitled 'Quantum Physics for Dumbies'.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

281) Get three of the players to help you with this one, and recreate the "Dungeons and Dragons" skit by Dr. Demento

282) Play the above mentioned skit non-stop on your stereo. 

283) If your players are evil like mine and don't like comedy (it pains me at night to realize I have players that satanic) start a Malls and Morons game, right after last session's cliffhanger of ungodly proportions.

284)  Declair to your party cleric that the gods are at war, and that there were a few casualties. Then, proceed to scribble his god out of your player's handbook. (why anyone would ACTUALLY do something this blasphemous is beyond my comprehension, but...)


----------



## 333 Dave

285: As 284, but scribble it out of HIS PHB instead of yours.


----------



## Sodalis

> ArthurQ:
> A Giant with the head of a drow, the body of a hairy russian, and the feet of al bundy!



BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Al Bndy's feet-  that's priceless.

Also have him about as smart as Bob Rooney..


----------



## apsuman

285.  Have NPC villians cast obvious spells, with enormous inappropriate damage.

 "Thangor mumers and gestures and 3 glowing missles appear by his side and he dispatches them toward you, Mialee, and Jozan, they strike unerringly.  Everyone roll 2d12 for damage."

g!


----------



## Sodalis

> apsuman
> 285. Have NPC villians cast obvious spells, with enormous inappropriate damage.



why should MM be a lower level spell with the more powerful guys not being able to use it at a higher level/ (more powerfully i mean)

it only scales to 5d4... why?  

i would rule that it can take up a spell slot higher and do damage of one die higher- and also more damage dice...

MM is lvl 1 slot- dealing max 5d4+5
if you bump to lvl 2 slot- deals max damage 5d6+5 or 6d4+6
lvl3- 5d8+5 or 7d4+7 
lvl4- 5d10+5 or 8d4+8 
lvl5- 5d12+5 or 9d4+9
and so on...

obviously increasing HD will have a higher total- but someone might like the scaling D4 for flavor


----------



## apsuman

Sodalis said:
			
		

> *
> why should MM be a lower level spell with the more powerful guys not being able to use it at a higher level/ (more powerfully i mean)
> 
> it only scales to 5d4... why?
> 
> *




Because that's the rule.

I am with you, I wish some spells would scale.  but if you play a standard DnD and you really want to drive your players batty, this is the way to do it, which takes me to number 286.

*286.* Eventually one will succeed at a spellcraft check to see the spell Thangor is casting... tell them Magic Missle.

g!


----------



## Sodalis

287) make the trigger word for a magic item a common word like *I*, and so every time they say "I" have the spell go off... this is especially cruel if you have a wand that does that- and since he accidentally triggered it, it casts in the direction of the way the wand was facing- usually straight down..  

288)Have a monk NPC wear lots of temporary tatoos.  That way- every time they see him, he looks a lil different- and if they know their stuff- wil think he is atatooed monk..


----------



## Moe Ronalds

289) Have the players travel in a small ship called the S.S. Carp, have it crash. Have them, and 7 other people survive. A 10th level expert named Skippy (the captain), A high level aristocrat named Howie Jr, with his wife (five levels lower than Howie Jr.) Spicey, an attractive female bard, an attractive commoner named Marry, a scientist, and a 5th level expert sailor named Lungalose.


----------



## Sodalis

> Moe Ronalds
> 289) Have the players travel in a small ship called the S.S. Carp, have it crash. Have them, and 7 other people survive. A 10th level expert named Skippy (the captain), A high level aristocrat named Howie Jr, with his wife (five levels lower than Howie Jr.) Spicey, an attractive female bard, an attractive commoner named Marry, a scientist, and a 5th level expert sailor named Lungalose.




how will you explain to them that they cant use their magic to wisp them off the island witha single spell?

the funnier thing woul dbe to see how they play with no lights, no phone, no motor car, not a single luxury. like robinson caruso, as primitive as can be.,.....


----------



## Sodalis

290) When they come over for the game, say that you bought cool new minis and want to use them this game.  And then pass out cookies as the minis.

291) use the bases of the minis (spare ones- dont rip your existing minis off ) as characters that are invisible.  And swap them in and out as they become visible. (it got a chuckle- giggle- flat out laughter out of me when my DM first did that)

292) have you heard of the bomb in the bull?


----------



## peralay

293   Be really clever with curses.  Have characters develop awareness of their items which seem totally inappropriate.   Example:    Keep telling your archer character that his sword is right there in his scabbard.  Every time he wants to use an arrow, say "your sword's right here".  It becomes a mental effort to draw an arrow instead of the sword.   The players start suspecting that the guy is going crazy.


----------



## Magic Rub

294: Show up naked

295: Wear just a custom speedo that says DM on the rear. Insist on showing them that you're the DM countless times!


----------



## Helspar

296) "Huh!? I didn't think you guys would defeat that beholder! Let's see whats under "C"..."

297) Dice? I don't need no dice. I'm role-playing. (This actually happened once.)

298) Have a vicious demonic wiener dog loose under the game table.

299) Find something to use the thirty sided die for.


----------



## Helspar

300) Eat all the pizza.

301) Begin each session by reading the Players vs Characters section out of the old Basic set. Be stern and allow no interuptions.

302) Eat all the chips.

303) Switch any off topic conversation onto Tom Hanks excellent performance in that Mazes and Monsters movie.

304) Eat all the gummi bears.

305) Show your distrust of them by taking all your DM material with you when you go to the can.

306) "Oh, think you've made your save eh? We'll see about that..."

307) Eat all the teddy-bear shaped ice cubes.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

> 298) Have a vicious demonic wiener dog loose under the game table.




you mean a vicious, fiendish  weiner dog don't you?


----------



## Wikidogre

308) use an evil halfling with toretts syndrome, as a leader of a thieves guild. very fun, done it b4.


----------



## Wikidogre

309) let me roleplay my estranged halfling barbarian, who is insistant that he is a re-incarnated thunderbeast. he is follower of uthgar, i also have a cheap leather cap, with buttons for eyes on it, his favorite thing to do is to flash people, and run up and bit them claiming them for sacrifice to the thunder beasts. very humerous!


----------



## Helspar

310) Every time one of the PCs do something in excellent character say: "Yeah thats just like that scene in the D&D movie you know..." Proceed with lengthy description of scene from movie. **

311) Crush a die with a sledgehammer when it gives you a bad roll as an "example" to the other dice.

312) Sit in an imposing position to the players, such as an elevated chair, so you can look down upon their actions. The higher you are above them, the more freaked out they will be, especially if you keep something within armsreach to smite them when they engage in behavior "unbefitting MY players"

313) Wear a cape.


**If you can actually do this maybe we should switch this to 1000 ways to alienate your friends


----------



## Noldor Elf

314) Put all your gaming books on a one pile on table and some point during gaming take the one in the bottom by dragging it away from players saying "I need just this one..." (Can anybody say avalance?)


----------



## Broken Fang

315) Pixe Barbarian!


----------



## Marimmar

316) Always attack them when the party wants to rest to face a big battle the next day

317) Everytime you roll a d20 mumble 'incredible, this die never rolls below 16 today...' 

318) Never fail a single saving throw (this really freaks out mages)

319) Everytime your players think they convinced an NPC let the NPC reconsider and again say 'no'. Repeat until they want to lynch you.

320) Only hand out treasure you rolled up randomly on the lowest treasure charts you find. Your players with level 10 characters will love to find a shuriken +1 after defeating a beholder.

321) Let some NPC fight with an insanely powerful item that anyone recognizes on sight and after the PCs defeat the NPC anounce to them that you didn't want to have such a powerful item in the campaign and change it to some minor and useless item.

322) Do not let PCs buy magic items and never hand out magic weapons as treasure (this will really annoy fighter types of level 5+)

323) Invent absolutely useless magic items as treasure like the powerful 'blanket of hiding' which allows a single PC to hide under it when lying absolutely still by providing an incredible +2 bonus on hide checks.

324) Always have monsters and NPC perfectly prepared to exploit any weaknesses or repetitive combat tactics the players may have.

All the above happened in our campaigns...


----------



## Marimmar

More...

325) Take a look at the player's character sheet and give them only so many XP at the end of the session to keep them 1 point below the next level. (make this some number between 50-100 points to avoid being lynched)

326) Act like one of the party members got a cursed item after the treasure is shared and pretend being all agitated and gleeful and unable to wait 'til next week to see the curses results and that the other players will have their fun as well.


----------



## Marimmar

...even more

327) Pull out your 1st edition DMG and tell them how much better the rules were in that book and that you'll incorporate some of the rules found therin instead of the 3E DMG.

328) Change things your players think are normal and constantly let them fight neutral gnolls, normal soldiers that are level 6+, simply put let them constantly encounter things the think ain't right.

329) Force them to show you where in the rules it says that a longsword does 1d8 points of damage and when they show you make repeated whining remarks about too powerful normal items and changing the rules.

330) Demand to receive a copy of all player's character sheets after they advanced a level (that freaks out all those cheaters out there)

331) Demand that everyone always keeps book about the weight of their equipment and constantly ask them if they can really move that fast with all that stuff on their backs.

332) Introduce hazards like little walls to climb, iced passages to balance over or broken bridges to jump across. Anything that requires a skill use that has an armor check penalty will assuredly grind your campaign to a halt when the fighters start whining about being unable to hop over that 5' chasm.  

333) Constantly demand skill uses for skills that are rarely or never used like Craft Carpentry, Knowledge Laws, Innuendo or Intuit Direction.

334) Another way to freak out fighter types is to have adventures where not a single fight happens. Since they have no useful skills they cannot do anything but sit around being bored.

335) At the start of a session make a PC stricken by madness and take control of his character. Endless boredom for that player.

336) At the start of the next session kill that PC and let the player wait for the other players to resurrect him. Another session of boredom.

337) After resurrecting a chaotic neutral character have his temple demand some grisly task of him as payment for his return to life, like burning down an orphanage or killing five priests of a lawful good god.

okay, we beat the first third...


----------



## The Root Of All Evil

Marimmar said:
			
		

> *...even more
> 
> okay, we beat the first third...  *




Sure, but roughly one third of that really doesn't fit in the concept. A lot of posts range from bugging players to bogging down the game. Don't get me wrong though; most of these are hilarious but come on guys, let's have some focus!


----------



## Marimmar

The Root Of All Evil said:
			
		

> *
> ...roughly one third of that really doesn't fit in the concept.  *




*scratches his head* isn't freaking out your players about getting negative reactions from your players?

How about some _focused_ examples?

~Marimmar


----------



## The Root Of All Evil

Let's not get bogged down in a discussion about definitions but since you're asking, here are my two cents: No, it's not about getting negative reactions from players. It's about heightening the gaming experience by making the players scared of losing their lives, rightfully pillaged property, already threadbare sanity and, in some cases, virginity.... Again, don't get me wrong; I'm having the time of my life reading about umpteen ways of making your players pissed off - It's just not something to pat ourselves on backs about and call "One Thousand Ways to Freak Out Your Players".


----------



## 333 Dave

ARRGGG!!!! WHY DID YOU PREVENT ME FROM DOING NUMBER THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THREE?! NOW YOU WILL FEEL MY WRATH!

The True #333: Always have things appear in groups of three for no real reason. Three rooms in a row with three orcs each carrying three gold pieces, for example.


----------



## Marimmar

I understand you Root of All Evil, so here comes another one to freak out your Players.

338) When playing with your 2nd level party, hand them a holy avenger, a vorpal sword, a ring of invisibility a mace of disruption and robe of the archmagi. I bet they'll be torn between having fun getting their dream items and fearing a monty haul campaign.

339) Let the party find a deck of many things


PS: It's okay to double post #333 since the 'A-bomb-in-a-bull' thing was posted twice.

~Marimmar


----------



## Broken Fang

340) Make sure that all large creatures use huge weapons/shields...this way the PC's have nothing they can use.


----------



## Helspar

Oh, I thought this was a humorous thread, sorry. But anyways...

341) Have them encounter a "Nilbog". Some of you laugh, some need an explanation. See 1st Ed MM2.

342) End each session with: "Man am I ever kicking your guys butts!" 

343) On the same vein, have a non-playing accomplice come in and ask "Who's winning?"

Sorry about the last two, I couldn't help myself


----------



## The Root Of All Evil

Marimmar said:
			
		

> *
> 339) Let the party find a deck of many things
> *




THAT ONE is great - PCs ALWAYS nervously debate how many cards to draw and ALWAYS draw too many!


----------



## Marimmar

The Root Of All Evil said:
			
		

> *THAT ONE is great - PCs ALWAYS nervously debate how many cards to draw and ALWAYS draw too many! *




The deck of many things appeared twice in our games and it almost ended one adventure - the PCs were in Lolth's domain when one of two fighters drew the imprisonment card - and ended a quest for a holy avenger sword when the party's paladin drew 'the void' and was catatonic from that point on.

For the record:

344) Have your mom frequently enter the room and let her ask if she can serve some lemonade or cookies.

345) Having a player that insists on watching his/her daily soap while in the midst of an adventure/fight.

346) Having a player that insists on ironing his shirts during the role playing intensive moments of the adventure.

...still all that happened in one of our group's campaigns.


----------



## Belgarath

These are actually things that I have had a PC/NPC illusionist named Garith do.

347. cast Nystals Magic Aura on normal items. This worked very well when he was with a low level party.

348. Garith had a raccoon familiar with the familiar buffing spells from 2nd edition named MARC (Magically Augumented Raccoon Companion). He used to have MARC attach himself to one of the PCs and play and being a talking pet for that PC.

349. When he was low level, he used to cast illusion spells to make him seem even more powerful.

350. Use illusion to disquise himself as a fighter, then have him cast spells in what appears to be full plate armor.

351. Hang around the party invisible (improved) and randomly cast illusions. Since the party did not know he was there to begin with, they didnt know they were illusions.

352. He devised a cantrip that allow him to set up a very small electrical charge around his body. He would cast it, touch a female PC and explain it was "chemistry".


----------



## Clear Dragon

353: Have them polymorphed into dairy cows as punishment for some minor crime, after a month of forced grazing and milking maybe they will learn not to start tavern brawls.

354: Have some side effects carry over from the above, fondness for chewing their food for a long time, tender "udders". and so forth.


----------



## Zappo

355: Have an evil sorcerer Polymorph Any Object one of them into a carrot and threaten to eat him.

356: ...or threaten to summon a Fiendish Dire Rabbit on the carrot.


----------



## Helspar

357) Take a page from Gygax's "101 ways to kill characters": Sphere of Annihilation traps. (You've all lost someone in there.)


----------



## Kargin el Tomath

I have no idea what the number is now so who ever is next count these five also...

If the party is mainly composed of Fighters and Rogues stick them on a ship lost at sea with no food or fresh water.

Kill all of the gods (not only will this completely freak out the players because it will cause them to wonder who killed the gods but it will also set up a cool storyline for them. Also it will make that 17th Level Cleric/Divine Disciple have to work all that much harder.)

Have them fight a Dragon with a breath weapon of acid. Then make them roll saving throws for every item they have.

Every day there character doesn't use the bathroom, make them lose 1 temporary Charisma point for pissing in their armor and reaking like a baby's diaper. (I actually do this one. Now every one of my players make it a point to state they are using the bathroom.)

Force them to cross an ocean that was turned into one giagantic Pool of Radience.


----------



## Al

> 347. cast Nystals Magic Aura on normal items. This worked very well when he was with a low level party.




I remember once creating a travelling con-artist posing as a magic item dealer who used this to fleece unwitting PCs...unfortunately, they never met her, but it would certainly have relieved them of their hard-fought gold.


----------



## Kargin el Tomath

363. Put an NPC Paladin in their group who will NOT lie at all. When they're confronted by the Dukes men about the Rogue in the party that stole froma shop he owned...well...let's just say the rest of the Party won't even consider being mad at the Rogue. They'll be too upset with the Paladin.

364. Let them find a nest. With about fifty small size Terrerasque hatchlings that have only 1 HP each. When the PC on your left says, "I thought there was only one in existance" you will then be able to reply, "No one knows where the terrerasque came from let alone how many there truly are." it's at this point that then realize the mother isn't far away at all.

365.Give each player an Arquebus but use 2E rules. A 505 chance for it to blow up in your face every time it's fired destroying not only the weapon but your face as well. And the kick to it. in order for them to get the weapon they have to give up their most valued possesion.

366.Invent Gnomish steam engine trains. Then watch the hit points crumble as they all try to hop on one.

367.If in Forgotten Realms apply the rule that most DMs forget. The rule of some areas being "dead" when it comes to magic. No spells can be cast then and magical items won't work.


----------



## Schmoe

It seems like some of these suggestions are heading more toward "How to annoy your players" rather than "How to freak out your players."  Anyway...


368.)  Have the wizard's familiar begin sprouting tentacles at random times.  Then have the wizard wake up one morning with an eye on the palm of his hand.

369.)  Find a Wild Surge chart.  Then have the party unknowingly walk into an area of wild magic, where every spell creates a surge.  This works best when using the surge chart from the 2E Tome of Magic.

370.)  While the party is away from home, have a player's mother slain by a demon, who then impersonates his mother and dominates his kid sister.  The sister is commanded to lure lecherous men to their deaths by enticing them with forbidden pleasures.  When the player returns, allow him to investigate the dissappearances of some dirty, powerful old men and come across clues of gruesome deaths.  Find some excuse that prevents the character from meeting his mother.  Then have his sister come find him because "Mommy wants to talk to you."

371.)  Rig all of the lights in your room so that you can switch them off with a remote control switch.  Then set up some very bright white lights (maybe something like a camera flash) behind the curtains, also controlled by remote switch.  Put a tape with a booming crack of thunder in your stereo with surround sound, and crank it up.  Make sure the players don't know about any of this.  At some dramatic point in the session, turn off the lights in the room, then immediately hit play on the stereo and trigger the flash behind the curtains.


----------



## DM with a vengence

372)  Take the D&D character test (it's been posted a few times) and then act like your character.  For example, if you test as a NE Thief Assassin, steal other people's dice and then try to assassinate them by stabbing them with forks.

373) Spike the chips and drinks with Tabasco Sauce.

374) Take one of the players aside (but still in hearing range of everybody) and say that their playing the game quite well, and that you'll introduct them to the Coven tomorrow.

375) Start playing with the CoC magic rules.  Don't tell them until all their spellcasters are insane and unconcious.

376) Each time a character dies, hold a funeral for them.  Change into black clothing, and make a long speach, then bury the character sheet in the backyard and make the player lay chips on the grave on the anniversary of its death.


----------



## lupis3000

*378*

378: you tell your players you walk in a door and all your loot armor and wepions are gone and you see 5 black dragons!


----------



## Scarab

379: Have a non-player friend call one of the players in the middle of a session, pretend to be the main bad guy, threaten the player and say he/she knows all about what the party is planning, laugh and hang up.


----------



## lupis3000

*380*

380: pay some one to break into your house dressed as a druid and get him to sacerfice you on the game table but he doesnt realy stab you o ya fake blood too


----------



## lupis3000

*381*

381: tell your players your quiting DnD and decided to play neverwinternights insted


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

382. Get a clock that ticks, and record the ticking for as long as makes sense on a tape recorder.  Play the ticking during your next session very loudly.  Offer no explanation.


----------



## Helspar

383) Repeatedly lament that your d12 doesn't get enough use.

384) Use the "Pop-a-dice" from Trouble for all your rolls.

385) When organizing the session ask your player's wives/girlfriends to join in on the play. (Works best if wife/girlfriend thinks that player is doing something like going to the bar.)

386) Bring someone just to "observe".

387) Never, but  NEVER let them see you cry.

388) "YOU! I didn't say you could leave that corner! And you're going to stay there until you can come out and role-play properly. And the rest of you... DON'T LOOK AT HIM! He Brought this on himself!"


----------



## Lela

Helspar said:
			
		

> *
> 
> 388) "YOU! I didn't say you could leave that corner! And you're going to stay there until you can come out and role-play properly. And the rest of you... DON'T LOOK AT HIM! He Brought this on himself!" *




LOL!!!  That will definatally freak them out.

389) Leave weapons (arrows, swords, daggers) laying around your house when the the players show up.  Make it look as if you tried to hide them but didn't have enough time.  Have, at least, one of them be covered in fake blood.  Act suspicious if they ask you about them.

[Edit:  I screwed the numbers up.  The next one should be 390, not 400.  Sorry.]


----------



## Marimmar

390) Whenever a PC listens at a door and fumbles, tell your players that he overhears 50 fire giants conversing with 3 ancient red dragons.

(I have no idea why my players believed me when they were only 4th level and listening at a potato cellar door )

~Marimmar

[Edit: corrected the running number]


----------



## Kargin el Tomath

391. Have the PCs wander into a village with a cemetary. They make it to the Red Dragon Inn (every town has one) and when they do they find a poster with an ad saying the citizens need help dispersing of the evil in the town. Obviously the PCs will got to the cemetary where they will encounter several Zombies and Skeletons and one bad asss Mummy (if you have a paladin in your party this will turn out really good.) After they've killed off the Zombies and Skeletons have the Mummy inform them that the people of the twon are the evil ones and the dwellers of the cemetary are actually the ones who need help!

392.Create a dwarf with an intelligence of 2. He's a good soul but loves to eat and if any of the party members ever have an injury, have the dwarf get that "hungry" look in his eyes. But remember to play him as kind hearted. Also to inflict how much of an idiot he is, let his finger get lopped off and let him eat it since he's always hungry.


----------



## The Furious Puffin

393)

Plonk a copy of Starcraft, Call of Cthulhu (The orginal Choasium release), Star Wars, the PHB, Mekton and Cyberpunk 2020 on the desk and annouce you are going to run a cross over game today, but you just have to finalise the game system. 

Then pull out a large folder stuffed with looseleaf handwritten notes with no page numbers


----------



## Kargin el Tomath

394. Let them easily kill a diety or two. then award XP. After they level up their characters, inform them that it was all just a dream sequence and no actual experience was given.

395.Introduced a crazed Epic Level Wizard to the game, who casts a spell to where no one on the planet can die. The PC's will constantly encounter people begging to be killed because of pains and old age. As soon as they kill just one WHAM! Alignment changes for everyone (no one tried to stop the killing)!!

396. Afflict them all with arthritis. Every time they go to use a weapon or cast a spell have the arthritis kick in!

397. Give out Belts of Femininity ALL the time.

398. Watch them squirm when they are accused of killing hundreds of babies in an orphange fire that was caused by the dragon they just battled near a large village. 

399.Tell them to read this list and inform them that you plann on using all of these suggestions (I did and my players haven't been the same since!)

And on that note I will be generous enough to award #400 to the next person......


----------



## Alaska Roberts

400. The big one - Fill a campaign world with creatures that can't be crit'd, have insane Damage Redution, Spell Resitance and Saves ( I like constructs personally), take all their magic weapons, rip there bag of holding, burn the flying carpet, cancel out all spells and remove all contact with their gods.  That should hold them for a night or 2.......

Alaska


----------



## Psychotic Jim

Kargin el Tomath said:
			
		

> *
> 
> 397. Give out Belts of Femininity ALL the time.
> 
> *



Have you ever read Knights of the Dinner Table.  Don't use this one too often or the players will learn to take advantage of the situation . 

401.  Make the characters encounter some wise, all-knowing sphinx who can give them knowledge (or whatever) if they can answer all of its riddles.  Make up a whole bunch of riddles whose answers are all philosophical and enlightening and make the riddles meaningful.  Then, as the last riddle, have the sphinx ask the PCs, "I am a small, dark, stinky place where people dump their refuse.  A crescent moon identifies me from the outside.  What am I?"
Answer:  An outhouse.


----------



## Altin

In response to 401): LOL! Oh yes, this would be priceless. Only problem is you'd have to work out the serious riddles so this isn't an easy one to plug in.

Meanwhile, since I'm posting:

402) This one only works for a party which travels around a fair bit. Someone about mentioned that every town has a Red Dragon Inn, meaning that every town has your average stereotypical tavern. 

But imagine if every town did have a Red Dragon Inn or, more to the point _the_ Red Dragon Inn. Same place, same barkeeper, same barmaids, same mysterious old guy in the corner, same menu - everything! The owner and everyone else don't recognise the PCs (unless they've been in this particular inn before) and claims ignorance of any other Red Dragon Inns. The Inn stays the same regardless of cultural setting and turns up in the wierdest places (in dormant volcanoes, on other planes of existance, in dungeons, ect.). For maximum effect, have the campaign start in one of these taverns.

Enjoy. 

Yours,
Altin


----------



## Psychotic Jim

This would be especially freaky if you did this in Ravenloft.
"Oh my god, we're being stalked by a _tavern._


----------



## Cross

This happened to us in one of our campaigns.  Weirded us out for days.

403)  Have the PC's encounter normal sized human looking creatures with oddly colored skin.  These are actually Giant children.  Have them make constant references to Mommy and Daddy, and how they'll be back real soon now.  Works best for level 2-3 characters.

404)  Uniducks.  Flocks of uniducks.  Wandering around in the dungeon.  Eating seeds and stuff.  When threatened, they quack mildly.  It almost gave our wizard apoplexy trying to figure out what they were.

-Cross


----------



## Helspar

405) You want the twenty-sider? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TWENTY-SIDER!

406) Coach your players' die rolling, convince them that, yes, with some practice, they can get better results.


----------



## Lela

What's a Uniduck?


----------



## lupis3000

*407*

407: tell your players that monsters use the D&DA rules to hit so monsters have to roll under your AC to hit hehe


----------



## Lady Starhawk

*I interrupt this thread for this unimportant comment:*

Cross:
Looks like someone either read or ran through the first level of Castle Greyhawk   I have played (and DM'd) some levels, weird stuff in there, major freak out player stuff in there  definately an expect the unexpected adventure, freaked us out pretty good as players.

(Uniducks, minature giants <hill guy, storm guy, cloud guy etc. the size of normal people>, miniotaurs <small minotaurs>, gummy-werebears, and dough golems to name just a few that stick out in my mind)

Those were better days with my old gaming group <sigh>.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread 
Lady Starhawk


----------



## lupis3000

*409*

409: tell all your players that every thing you do in the game you have to do in real life!!!


----------



## Cross

Lela:  Exactly what you'd expect.  Duck, with a horn on it's head.  It apparently talks.  It disturbed the hell out of me.  8)

Lady Starhawk:  Well, we WERE probably running through a converted Castle Greyhawk...until we fought a troll.  And then, got real smart, and tried to TORCH the unconscious troll.  In a wooden room.  Which promptly caught on fire.  As did the vast majority of the rest of the place.  We're now sitting outside the castle, looking at each other with REALLY dumb expressions on our faces.  The uniducks were displeased, to say the least.

*sigh*  Stupid burning wood....8)

-Cross


----------



## FireLance

Can't remember if this was done already, but...

PCs hate losing items, especially magic items.

410. Have them repeatedly attacked by rust monsters.

411. Hit them with _Mordenkainen's Disjunction_ traps.

412. Have them encounter a group of fighters whose favourite tactic is to attack their weapons and armour.


----------



## Magic Rub

413. Implement a new rule that banishes dice & modifiers. In their place all will now have to - paper, rock, scissors for every "roll", using your now useless skill points for re-trying.


----------



## Clear Dragon

414. hmm uniduck = one duck... 
throw the following item into your campaign

Introducing the One Duck,

_One Duck to rule them all, One Duck to find them,_
_One Duck to bring them all and in the darkness bind them._

The One Duck is an artifact, when first identified seems to be a duck of invisibility. Its true power is the ability to scry on and command all the ducks in the world. 

Your party can choose to destroy it by burning it in the nest/pond from whence it came or they can try to use its power (though ultimately this will lead to ruin) by slipping it on someones finger.


----------



## MutantHamster

415) Make the final encounter of your adventure "Maliko, Opossum of Doom", a tiny animl with a cr of 56


----------



## Sodalis

416) have a wise wizard be the last stop to retrieve information about an artifact.  He is old and enjoys spelling bees- so if you can spell all three words that he says, he will give you the information: and you must follow the instructions exactly:

wiz: "spell 'neighbor'"
player "N E I G H B O R"
wiz: "receipt"
player: "R E C E I P T"
wiz: scream out "WRONG!!!"
the player wil then proceed to respell receipt.  the third word was actually "wrong"

edit: damn you for beatin me to it


----------



## Voadam

417) Leave a scroll lying around that just says "Hastur, Hastur, Hastur"

Works best if picked up by a PC who knows nothing about Chthulhu, but other members of the party do.

418) Anytime a named fiend, evil god, or cthulhu mythos being is named, roll dice, and assign a chance for the being to respond to their name being called with a spell(ability), sending a minion, or showing up on the spot.

This worked great when the renegade drow in my party started saying "Lolth! Lolth Loth!" as a blasphemous curse of frustration and a Yochlol showed up.


----------



## edbonny

*Forgetful when wet...*

Get your PCs on the frozen Styx River on the 5th layer of Hell (or Baator).
Then throw a bunch of styx devils at them.
Now have the devils cast fireballs (melts the ice which makes ice floes which separates party which causes panic)...

Those evil l'il devils really want to get your PCs wet and "forgetful." Try some of these tasty tactics on your hapless adventurers. Make sure the devils are smiling and smirking through entire encounter.
a) devil swims over to PC standing on an ice floe and playfully splashes river water on PC.
b) devil flies upward smashing through the ice that PC is standing on, hopefully knocking PC into river or at least making her ice floe that much smaller.
c) devil flies into PC attempting to bull rush PC off ice floe and into river.
d) devil grabs a hold of ice floe (with PC on it) and rocks floe up and down in the water.

Keep those devils smiling. As for your PCs stricken with forgetfulness, there's always an archdevil nearby willing to restore their minds... for a price. Of course, the archdevil probably arranged for the PCs to be attacked there in the first place but such is life in the Hells.


----------



## James McMurray

Ok, this is the second time in two days I've seen a reference to a scroll that just says "Hastur Hastur Hastur." The other was in a KoDT bundle of trouble. What is the reference to?

Also, to stay on topic:

(Counting the previous post as a single suggestion)

419) Always play an NPC (or DM-PC) in your group. Switch out every now and then when you get bored. The party will come to expect it, and if all of the characters you have played so far have been trustworthy, they will stop worrying about the strangers they let into their confidence. Then, have an NPC (a disguised Red Dragon) turn on them and use them for his own goals.

They'll go from overtrusting to over-paranoid in a matter of seconds.


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

C'mon, people, don't let the thread die.
420. Two words: silly string.
421. Name NPC villians after family members of the players.  Give massive experience penalties for failing to finish off a villian in combat.


----------



## spunky_mutters

422. Name monsters for maximum effect. As per an old DM - "Radiation Dragon"

Of course if it's a squirrel they'll be let down. You have to meet their deadly expectations.

423. Have an NPC ask for something nonsensical in return for info/item. Knucklebone of an ass, Horn of halfling, etc.


----------



## spunky_mutters

424. "The sun is momentarily blocked by the shadow of something large passing overhead." Of course they can never spot it.


----------



## spunky_mutters

425. Players always freak out if they get some meaningless random malady. If they have joint pain they think they're slowly transforming into a demon or something. A headache is some sort of psychic attack. You can really torment them. Tie it into eating sausage at their favourite tavern or something. They'll probably never tie the two together.

Totally OT, but in an earlier post I thought that I read ...my D12 doesn't get enough ass...  I nearly fell off my chair.


----------



## spunky_mutters

Jeez. I'm feeling like I should maybe stop posting and get some work done.

426. Every couple of weeks game time, have a player (same player every time) make a reflex save while eating. If he fails, he takes 1 point of damage from something sharp in his food. It should be creature-based, like a quill or a tooth or something. The kitchen staff have no idea what he's talking about. Neither do the guys who pack his iron rations. Stagger the incidence to prevent him from seeing it coming. After a while it will be driving him crazy.


----------



## Nish

427) Two words: lich mime.

If your players have sanity to lose, that should take care of it for them.


----------



## Lela

Nish said:
			
		

> *427) Two words: lich mime.
> 
> *




That's just wrong.  Very Wrong.

427B) Vamp Mime
427C) Red Dragon Mime
477D) Nymph Mime


----------



## MeepoTheMighty

428)  Let the party find a skeleton key, a rope, and a pistol.  Then let them meet themselves from ten minutes in the future and make them give up the skeleton key, rope, and pistol.


429)  When the party searches a room for treasure, let them find a small sack.  If your players are anything like mine, they'll immediately say, "is it a bag of holding?"  Think about it for a second, and then say "yes..yes it is."  Of course, it's just a normal sack. Or, if you're evil, it's a bag of half-holding....it takes half of what you put in as a storage fee. 


430) Have a stuffy "antiques roadshow" type of person be the local sage in town who identifies magic items.  Have him go on for hours about the details of every little item, telling the pcs where and when it was made, point out tiny intricacies which mean nothing except to experts.  Estimate the item's value at "eh..about a gold piece or so"


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

431. This one is based on something from a DM I once had.  When the players enter a city for the first time, have a halfling walk up to them and say "There is no halfling mafia." Repeat several times.  When the players finally take the time to ask some random passerby about this, say this:
"All the halflings in the area look towards you and shout 'There is no halfling mafia.'"  Keep up references to the allegedly nonexisten mafia as long as the players are in the city.  Never actually allow them to notice mafia operations except for the strange halfling behavior.


----------



## FireLance

432. After an extremely difficult battle with an adult red dragon, a loud voice booms out "Who killed my familiar?"


----------



## Mathew_Freeman

(apologies if this has been done, but I've come into this thread somewhat late!)

433. When the PC's have rolled up their new characters, have spent hours coming up with clever backgrounds, unique combinations of prestige classes and feats, spell lists, items, personality quirks and extended manners of expression...take them all in, shuffle them, and deal them out randomly. Tell everyone that they have to play the character like the person that rolled it up.


----------



## Lela

Tallarn said:
			
		

> *(apologies if this has been done, but I've come into this thread somewhat late!)
> 
> 433. When the PC's have rolled up their new characters, have spent hours coming up with clever backgrounds, unique combinations of prestige classes and feats, spell lists, items, personality quirks and extended manners of expression...take them all in, shuffle them, and deal them out randomly. Tell everyone that they have to play the character like the person that rolled it up. *




That WOULD be a challange.  Of course, after you do this, duck and run.  As if a Litch Mime where chasing you.

434. Tell the players that you want to try DMing an evil campaign.  Tell them to use any monster/class/PrC/feat/etc. they find in the offical books and to create the best evil PC they can.  Tell them the good guys are going to be after them and that the good guys always win.  When they've spent hours getting all of it together and hand-crafted them to perfection, take the sheets and thank them for creating the campaign's villians.  Then have them roll up first level characters using the core books.


----------



## Zappo

435. (for modern/sci-fi games) Have one of them receive a spam e-mail titled "Armageddon Survival Kit" which states "Now You Can Immediately Discover, and begin learning, the simple plan how to guarantee your freedom, safety and immortality; if you follow it faithfully, without deviation. No other plan will work! You won't survive these "End Times"* without this!", and asks 50$ for a kit to survive the End of the World. Includes a list of sites with the proof that the apocalypse is starting.

This has actually happened to me five minutes ago. It didn't freak me out (actually, it sorta cheered me up), but I reckon it could work in the right campaign.


----------



## Lela

Zappo said:
			
		

> *435. (for modern/sci-fi games) Have one of them receive a spam e-mail titled "Armageddon Survival Kit" which states "Now You Can Immediately Discover, and begin learning, the simple plan how to guarantee your freedom, safety and immortality; if you follow it faithfully, without deviation. No other plan will work! You won't survive these "End Times"* without this!", and asks 50$ for a kit to survive the End of the World. Includes a list of sites with the proof that the apocalypse is starting.
> 
> This has actually happened to me five minutes ago. It didn't freak me out (actually, it sorta cheered me up), but I reckon it could work in the right campaign. *




Give us a site!  Give us a site!


----------



## Deedlit

436:Have the BBEG be an evil wizard for a while.  Never let his familiar be seen.  Then, when they meet face-to-face, have him lose after a long hard battle, and kill off at least one PC in the process.  The next day, they hear reports of a raven having paid a cleric of a very greedy deity, and the wizard has been raised from the dead.
437:As 436, but you let the familiar be seen, it must be a high level game and he is a lich(But didn't use any of his powers) who was perpertually using alter self to appear to be living.


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

438.  Have the characters enter a city where one street is populated by a large yellow bird, various strange puppet-like monsters, something that looks vaguely like a furry brown elephant, a hord of preschoolers, and a very interracial group of human adults.


----------



## Zappo

Lela said:
			
		

> *Give us a site!  Give us a site! *



I'll give you the full text:

*****************************************
                        A R M A G E D D O N

                       S U R V I V A L - K I T
*****************************************

Now You Can Immediately Discover, and begin learning, the simple plan how to guarantee your freedom, safety and immortality; if you follow it faithfully, without deviation.

No other plan will work!

You won't survive these "End Times"* without this! So you can forget the rest.

* http://members.lycos.co.uk/jahtruth/signs.htm
or
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atrium/2012/signs.htm
or
http://100777.com/jah/signs.htm

Unique & Authoritative Information Library and Straight-forward Daily-Tuition comes complete on ONE convenient CD.

Send US$50 (outside of Europe) for your personal pocket-sized Survival-Kit on CD (inside Europe 50 Euros).

Please specify whether for PC, or Mac.

This is a one-time payment with no hidden extras.

Please follow the links just below the address* to instantly and securely order electronically, via Paypal.

Or make cheque/money order payable to JAH, or send cash as the easiest method and send payment to:-

JAH,
P.O. Box 561,
The Way Home - 6205,
Gibraltar
(via London).

* http://members.lycos.co.uk/jahtruth/ask.htm
or
http://100777.com/jah/ask.htm
or
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atrium/2012/ask.htm
or
http://www.hostultra.com/~jah/ask.htm
or
http://snow.prohosting.com/jahmp/ask.htm
or
http://jahmp.netfirms.com/ask.htm

The Armageddon Survival-Plan - "The Way home or face The Fire" - is also available separately, in print, as a Book, from the same source, for US $20 (outside of Europe), or GBP £10 (inside Europe)

http://members.lycos.co.uk/jahtruth/wayad.htm
or
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atrium/2012/wayad.htm
or
http://100777.com/jah/wayad.htm

**********************************************




If the world is ending, I wonder what does he do with the money?


----------



## Privateer

A note for the poster looking for the explaination of what "Hastur Hastur Hastur" means: Hastur is in the Cthulu (forgive me if I misspell anything) mythos, and by speaking his name three times there is a chance that he can manifest in front of you.
Buh bye, player!
And now, back to your regulary schedualed player freaking-out and horrible spelling on my part.


----------



## Delemental

*Back to the list...*

439. Contrive to have one of the characters separated from the rest of the group, even if it's just for a moment or two.  As the game progresses, ask the entire party to make random Will saves... except for that one player.  Have that player find all the secret doors and hidden chambers, regardless of what they roll on Spot or Search checks.  When traps go off, the character is always in a position to take minimal or no damage (just happened to be behind the pillar when the fireball went off, the fighter was between them and the crossbow, etc).


----------



## Xarlen

440) In any situation where the rogue is going to need to make search checks, or open lock checks, have Traps and Treachery, and the second book just sitting there on the table. Have several book marks in the pages. Inform him he doesn't find any traps, every time he rolls, no matter the roll.


----------



## Delemental

441.  Ask the players to be very specific on meaningless details - "So, do you examine the blue painting first, or the green one?"  "Do you put more weight on your left foot or your right while you're standing there waiting for the rogue to pick the lock?"  "Exactly how many of those little muffins do you think your character ate at the inn this morning?"

442.  Just before you're about to spring your first encounter, look up at the players and say, "This whole CR/EL thing confuses me.  I just add up all your levels to determine the Encounter Level, right?"

443.  Fire elementals disguised with illusions to look like trolls.

444.  Before the game starts, make an off-hand comment about how glad you are that SOMEONE finally came up with realistic rules for explosive decompression in 3rd edition.

445.  If your group is potion-happy, announce after they've just finished downing a variety of potions that you've decided to re-introduce the Potion Miscibility Tables from 1e.


----------



## Lela

Zappo said:
			
		

> *
> If the world is ending, I wonder what does he do with the money? *




I wonder what happens to all those people who died before now. "Nope, you died before the advent of computers.  Please check in with the guy with the tail and horns."


----------



## Fade

Zappo said:
			
		

> *You won't survive these "End Times"* without this!"/B]*



*

Does anyone else notice an inherent contradiction here?*


----------



## Lela

Fade said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Does anyone else notice an inherent contradiction here? *




Um, not really.


446) Constantly ask nonsesical questions, such as, "What are you going to do about that tree you just passed?", "Do you look at that building to your left?", and "What do you think about the barmaids dress?"  Make sure nothing is different about one tree to another or one barmaid's dress from any other one in the city.  Just keep asking.


----------



## babomb

447.) One of the other PCs becomes the wizard's familiar.


----------



## Helspar

448) "So you draw your sword, the ork draws his H&K Mp-5! Ooooh! you take 93 points of damage. You're dead?! I don't know why you guys keep using swords and stuff..."

449) Three words: Tactical Nuclear Weapons.

450) "No, I believe you're wrong on that count, Jar-Jar makes that movie."

451) Sorry, I was blocking you out again. What was that idea again?


----------



## Altin

MeepoTheMighty said:
			
		

> *428)  Let the party find a skeleton key, a rope, and a pistol.  Then let them meet themselves from ten minutes in the future and make them give up the skeleton key, rope, and pistol. *




The really sadistic 'Groundhog Day' version of this goes like this - 

DM: 'you are traveling down a rough-hewn stone corridor, about ten feet wide. Soon you arrive at an intersection. From your right you hear the sound of something approaching, a group of people you think.'

(note player reactions, write down what they did, adjust the following for their actions)

DM: 'The group comes into view and you see that they look exactly like you. (Point to the a player) The one who looks like you exclaims - 'look, its gone!'. Then they notice you. They look momentarily taken aback then (Point to the 'leader' PC) the one who looks like you steps up to you and says: "Look, we haven't isn't much time - take these (hands him the gun, skeleton key, rope and any major artefacts you feel like throwing in there) and follow the corridor straight ahead. Oh, and see you around." They then depart down the corridor opposite the one they came in from. They're about twenty meters down when the passage they've just traveled down suddenly collapses in on itself." 

Keep note of anything the players do during this encounter. After it concludes, they will probably head down the corridor directed by their future selves. If not, the other corridor seems to end in a dead end 30 ft down. No amount of searching reveals where the other guys might have come from. 

Now, they travel down the central corridor for about 10 minutes. It winds and turns, eventually doubling back on itself and ends in a fairly obvious one-way secret door. If they go through, they find themselves in a corridor with an intersection about 30 ft ahead (the cave-in is now gone). No amount of searching reveals the door they just came through. 

Now the fun begins. As they approach the intersection, they encounter their 'past' selves doing whatever they themselves were doing ten minutes back. However, the catch is that they now have to do exactly what their future selves did to prevent a rift in the space-time continuum (Star Trek-style!). The moment they deviate from the exact sequence and wording you described 10 minutes back, the following happens:

DM: As you perform that action, everyone hears a strange ripping sound, as if something being torn apart, then there is a sudden flash of intensly bright light which blinds you all for a moment. When your sight returns, you are traveling down a rough-hewn stone corridor, about ten feet wide. Soon you arrive at an intersection. From your right you hear the sound of something approaching, a group of people you think.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Works best if your group is a bit dim (or not trekkies) and doesn't figure out what is going on until they've been through a few times  

Yours,

        Altin


----------



## SonOfLilith

452) Pull a Black Couldron (sp?). Have the quest be to destroy a powerful artifact, capable of turing people into undead slaves. However, the only way to destroy it is to sacrifice your life and go into it willingly. If it is a good party, or even chatic neutral, or neutral evil (thats pushing it a little), the players will be put into quite a conundrum.


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

453.  Recreate Poe's "The Telltale Heart."  Have the PCs crawl through a dungeon.  In the next to last room, tell them they hear a scream from up ahead. When they enter the last room, have a human greet them cordially and have them sit down at a table. Strike up a conversation, with the human getting more and more nervous.  You know the ending...


----------



## Harlock

454.  Flaming Shield.  Sure it's +5 but you take damage every round you hold it.


----------



## Femerus the Gnecro

*numba 455 - 457*

455.  have your players roll up their PC's with 4d6, but have them drop the highest die instead of the lowest.

456.  make them choose classes and races first.

457.  don't let them change the order of their stats once rolled 

-Femerus


----------



## clark411

Place a spear and a helmet on a pedestal in a dungeon.  Have the two be immovable, but detect as magic.  Set up a magic trap that casts Power Word: Kill on whomever quotes Elmer with "Speaw and Magic Helmut!" or something to that effect.

note- best used when players never stop Out of game gabbering.


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

> Place a spear and a helmet on a pedestal in a dungeon. Have the two be immovable, but detect as magic. Set up a magic trap that casts Power Word: Kill on whomever quotes Elmer with "Speaw and Magic Helmut!" or something to that effect.




Reminds me of one I posted earlier.  The thing is, that cartoon really, _really_, _*REALLY*_ bugs me sometimes (no pun intended).  But I digress.

459.  Work a Monty Python sketch into EVERYTHING.  For example, in one tavern, everything on the menu includes Spam.  A party of vikings sits at a table, and once in a while breaks into song...
"Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam,
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam,
Lovely Spaaaaam, wonderful spaaaaam!"


----------



## Delemental

460. Have the PCs attending a fancy dinner party hosted by a local noble.  During dessert, pass everyone a note saying "you detect a subtle almond taste in your wine".  (This works best with paranoid players who have enough real-world knowledge of poisons to know what an almond taste usually means).  After getting their reactions (spitting out liquid, dumping glasses out on floor, whatever), have the local lord become furious with them for their horrendous manners and wasting his fine almond liqueur.


----------



## clark411

461.

Have your players come across an adventure hook that takes them to a village far away, where farmers are worshipping the Great Mother, thinking they are praying to Chauntea.   Problems have arisen with the corn having eyestalks where the kernels should be, and where eye tomatoes are sputtering weak rays of frost at people trying to pick them.

462.

Introduce a Pygmalion Golem into the game.  Whenever anyone doesn't believe its real, it drops dead for a few hours, then gets up, and acts as if nothing happened.


----------



## Daebryn Bladestorm

463.

Have the party be picked up by a magical vortex and deposited in a halfling village being terrorized by an evil sorceress and her army of flying goblins. 

Inform them that the only way to defeat the sorceress is to seek out a certain great and powerful wizard for advice. 

Make sure that at some point in the adventure you have the sorceress say "I'll get you my pretties, and your little dog to!"


----------



## Ferret

*464.*

Create Ken and barbie creatures based on ogres(Barbied be tall in real life.) When they die, crawl into the corner and Cry.


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

465.  Once d20 Supers comes out, re-create Inspector Gadget (it has to be possible).  Check your TV listings for the show, watch an episode, and take notes.  Re-create that episode in your game, with the party meeting Inspector Gadget, Penny, and Brain, and learning that an evil villian known as Dr. Claw is planning some nefarious scheme or another.  If you're really twisted, give Penny supernaturally high Intelligence and Wisdom scores.


----------



## clark411

466.

If your players insist on playing Diablo-style, announce at the beginning of the game that you will be setting the difficulty to "Hell", "Nightmare", or what have you.  Then pull out a d30 and say "All enemies will be using these for skill checks and attack rolls."


----------



## VoodooGroves

I played in a campaign once where every session was a "save the world from unspeakable horror" kind of deal.  Only trouble is, if they stop the bad guy from doing the ritual, they couldn't notice any difference.  If the bad guy completed the ritual, they couldn't notice any difference.

Every once in a while I'd assigne random bonuses and penalties.  For no good reason, mostly just to be a pest.  There was an overall plot (basically, trying to stop this series of rituals) and after the last scheduled session I announced that the next campaign would be set 20 years later dealing with the repurcussions of the completed / stopped rituals.

I had no intention of ever running that campaign, but oddly, folks still talk about it.  Now my secret is out...


----------



## Leopold

468. (probably mentioned but one i used last nite) The PC's fall asleep for the evening. Pull each PC when it's their turn to sleep (they have watches) into a seperate room and tell them to bring a D20 and you bring a stack of paper folded up (works best when you have multiple sheets folded in half). Tell them to roll the D20, if they ask what kind of roll, tell them to just roll the dice. When they roll, skim down the paper (my sheets were empty on blank paper), shake your head or nod (pick one and alternate) and then tell the PC that they see each of the other PC's in their sitting around a campfire similar to tonites (if the pc's have a hot camp make it cold, cold make it hot). Repeat to all PC's in turn.  In the end the ones when you shook your head started looking around asking questions to each other when they woke up, they were combing the surrounding wood, looking for magical items, casting detect magic, etc. Paranoia....


----------



## Helspar

469) "Not bad, Not bad. You guys should make another level for this wad of Xp, but I'm sort of disappointed. You could have gotten so much more. Let's see... You missed the blind beggar, the shopkeep, the tavern owner, not to mention all the horses you left alive! There was the two serving girls..."


----------



## Forrester

#470) Tell them that the Drow have been working on a mithril/adamantine alloy that only Drow can use . . . I just sent this one out to the party in my campaign. I can hardly wait for their reactions .


----------



## Jolly Giant

Just put my players through a really HUGE dungeon with all the stuff from this thread i could cram into it, ending in anti-climatic teleport to a perfectly safe, familiar location... _Boy. did they freak out!_


----------



## Zappo

471. Have the players find and activate a mysterious and unidentified artefact. When they activate it, say "Well, well, MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!" and nothing else.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

472. Invent a new breed of dire rat with electrical powers. Name it Pikachu.


----------



## Silver Dragon

Well, here's an interesting one... I recently bought a SB Audigy platinum card. This sucker can do real-time digital signal processing. In english, that means you hook up a headset mic, and suddenly you become the Borg, Darth Vader, or the super villian that's about to massacre the players.

At first they'll ask why you have a headset on, but once they hear the obviously evil voice of their enemy, they might react a bit differently than they would normally. Another cool thing it can do is reverse the gender of your voice. An interesting way to role play the opposite sex


----------



## Lela

Silver Dragon said:
			
		

> *Well, here's an interesting one... I recently bought a SB Audigy platinum card. This sucker can do real-time digital signal processing. In english, that means you hook up a headset mic, and suddenly you become the Borg, Darth Vader, or the super villian that's about to massacre the players.*




Is this what you're refering too?  Or is it this one?  Either way, too expensive for me.  For now. [insert evil DM laughter]



			
				Silver Dragon said:
			
		

> Another cool thing it can do is reverse the gender of your voice. An interesting way to role play the opposite sex  [/B]




This would be awsome.  Now, I _so_ want it.  Anyone feeling genorious?


----------



## Edena_of_Neith

Ways to freak out your players:

  #473:  Require that all elven PCs (including ones already in play) be forbidden to harm or kill their own kind (including evil elves), with the additional power that they always recognize their own kind upon contact.

  #474:  Require that all elves (including ones already in play) photosynthesize, thus having green skin, and thus having to wear as little clothing as possible at all times.

  #475:  Require that all elves (including ones already in play) be required to eat leaves and insects as a main staple of their diet.

  #476:  Require that all elves (including ones already in play) be required to eat their opponents alive, except where infeasible (eating a troll, or eating a green slime, would be infeasible.)

  #477:  Require that all human characters except paladins be of evil alignment, citing historical precedent (remember you're the DM, and so your arguments for historical precedent are the biggest arguments, as it were.)

  #478:  Require that all dwarves actually be of good alignment (instead of the dour, grim, almost evil stance of many, if not most, dwarves ...)

  #479:  Make your halfling PCs actually sit and EAT the 10 odd meals a day cited by Pippin in LOTR: FOTR.  

  #480:  Allow a kender PC in your group (works every time.)

  #482:  Force your players to fight a Chosen of Mystra (also works every time.)

  #483:  Declare that since you, as a player, had a character of 160th level, you sanction any of their characters attaining 160th level (Note - the older the players, the better.)

  #484:  Allow evil characters in your group, then disallow any attempts to harm, kill, or steal from others in the group (this one WORKS.)

  #485:  Disallow evil characters from casting Cure spells of any sort (and disallow good characters from casting Harm spells of any sort also.)

  #486:  Allow your players the chance to turn into demihuman/grey ooze symbiotic beings, with all the advantages and powers of both.

  #487:  Run ANY campaign world, then have Defilers from the Dark Sun Setting show up on the scene.

  #488:  Have your NPCs talk back, as it were, to the party Cavalier (works every time - that doesn't freak out the group, but the Cavalier's response invariably DOES.)

  Edena_of_Neith


----------



## Edena_of_Neith

One more thing:

  #489:  

  Make sure your players know about the Ravenloft setting.
  Start a Campaign in which your players are playing their favorite characters.

  Put your players in a moral dilemma, in which all the choices are evil, and they must take one of them.

  Then inform them that it is getting misty outside.

  Just before you talk about the mistiness, make sure your players manage a glance at the Ravenloft hardbound book you are supposedly hiding behind your DM screen.

  As an alternative, have an enemy throw an illusion spell on the party that causes them to believe they have been teleported or gated to Ravenloft - after all, a powerful spellcasting opponent CAN easily teleport or otherwise send a PC to Ravenloft (a good way to give high level PCs the shivers, and cause them not to be too overconfident.)


----------



## Silver Dragon

The second link (the ex version is external, the other one takes up a drive bay). It's cool, but if that's the only reason you'd get it, then maybe give some free DSP software a try first (lower quality, though). I had a heck of a time finding a free DSP, and the only one I ever found was shareware and was very limited. If I had a link, I'd give it... sorry.





			
				Lela said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Is this what you're refering too?  Or is it this one?  Either way, too expensive for me.  For now. [insert evil DM laughter]
> 
> 
> 
> This would be awsome.  Now, I so want it.  Anyone feeling genorious?  *


----------



## Altmann

*Musics*

#490. Give musics to big baddies : each time the bad guy has just appeared, play his music.

After they are accustomed to this idea, play the baddies' music without them seeing him.

(I do this regularely - it works).

#491. Give musics to situations. Accustom your players to musical countdowns - for example, when the music is over, the ritual is finished. 

(idem)

#492. Use Mozart's _Dies Iræ_ for your bad guy. Then, possibly after the death of the bad guy, while your PCs are standing in front of a very heavy door, of a complex machinery, or of a portal, play Cruciform's _Dies Iræ_.

Cruciform's version is a remix on Mozart, which keeps repeating the first few measures during about two minutes - very stressing. Especially combined with point #491 - you never know when the music is about to end.

(Dies Iræ was the music I used for a "nice" NPC named Azraël, who slaughtered just about everyone the PCs knew, including some PCs as well as most Gods, during almost 1 year of campaign. Then, one year later, in another campaign, rumors started spreading about someone trying to resurrect or clone Azraël. I played this music when they discovered a huge machinery which they suspected was the cloning device. Actually, it was not, but it was even more evil. Anyway, we ended up destroying the whole universe in that game session.  )

#493. OK, here you are. Your Very Bad Guy is so powerful he could manage to teleport in, kill just about anybody, and teleport out.

Play his music. Have him kill everyone in sight (in the case of Azraël, works best if the PCs have an army of 1 million men with them). Sane PCs should run like Hell. Have the bad guy pursue them, no matter what they do, including teleporting, portals, ... Have him kill their mounts.

Suddenly, the music stops and the bad guy disappears while in the middle of an action. Works best if you can program your music player to stop after, say, 1 minute.


#494. Find musics which are closely related to the NPCs. Don't hesitate to include hints in the music, if the players listen to the lyrics.

I remember opening wide eyes when realizing that my high-level Neutral Evil character's best friend's music was Era : "I will save you from yourself."

Similarely, I remember having players of mine open the same wide eyes when they realized that the lyrics for the NPC they had been helping were on the lines of "I infect you". Of course, they realized it too late


----------



## Altmann

*Badass Big Boss*

#495. Have the PCs work for the Good King of the land. Start far away from the capital, then progressively, work their way to the palace. As they get closer to meeting the king for their reward, have them understand that although the king may be good for the country in general, he is no saint. He might even be, say, a serial rapist. Oh, and he want to meet the she-elf of the party to, er..., congratulate her in private.

No problem if there are no women in the party. After all, the king has, er..., what he calls "exquisite and exhaustive tastes". 

I have such a king in my campaign. After having met him just minutes, my mostly Loyal mostly Good team decided to kill him, for the country would be much better of with another king.


----------



## Altmann

*Kill the PCs*

#496. Kill the PCs. 

I mean it, really. I played in a campaign in which one of the PCs had really pissed off the whole royal family, especially the prince leading the Royal Guard. Well, the PC, which happened to be a high-ranking officer in an  allied army made the mistake of returning to the royal palace. Rumor says he died under torture.

Did I mention that in this country, the royal family was composed of semi-gods ? Resistance would have been extremely futile.


#497. Ascend the PCs.

On the other hand, sometimes, PCs do grow strong, powerful, and Really Good or Really Evil. And sometimes they do the right things to ascend to Higher Power.

Suppose, say, that one of the PCs, comrade-in-arms to the others, is eventually witnessed by the others sacrificing his own wife and mother to some unknown deity, in a place of High Power. Nothing scares the other PCs more than his "I'll be back".

(I played this PC - which turned NPC at this point. He has been a Damokles sword above everyone's head since then. To my defense, the PC had grown quite mad after having been cursed by not just one, but _two_ deities in person.)


On the other hand, what happens if a PC do-gooder eventually ascends to the status of right-arm of a deity ? And if this PC happens to have a very definite view of Absolute Goodness.

(I GMed this PC - which actually didn't turn NPC at this point. However, the other PC were so affraid of him and of his Absolute Goodness, that they eventually murdered him while he was undergoing a ritual which would have made the whole world a better place. Kind of)


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

I'm just gonna bring it up to the big 500 here...

498.  Add realistic sound effects for your monsters.  Start with normal stuff like battle roars and twanging bows, then move on to screams of pain and limbs falling off.

499.  Once in a while, have the PCs open a door in a dungeon, tavern, inn, whatever, and see a bunch of very godly looking creatures sitting around a table in a room.  Have one of them look over each time and say something to the effect of "What the...not again...we'll have to find  a different place," and lead the others out.  Have them all act disgruntled and irritated, but make no shows of power.

Uh oh, here comes the big halfway point, I better make it good...

*500!* Make all items intelligent with superhigh egos, but make sure their alignments and intentions match that of at least one party member.  Have the players get used to the fact that someone will be able to use each weapon without a conflict.  Then, let them pick up chaotic evils with egos of 40.


----------



## 333 Dave

501: Bald guy in grey robes who stands almost straigth and never makes noise. He guards a door, and if the PCs attack him he'll just stand there and the weapons will do no damage (as if hitting an adamantine wall). He'll answer yes or no questions by nodding. If the PCs offer him something (like a tindertwig, but not coins or weapons) he'll take the item and swallow it whole, then let that PC pass. Have this weird guy appear over and over with no real reason to be there (like in the middle of a goblin cavern for example). Very fun, and you get to pantomime his actions .


----------



## 333 Dave

Just thought of another one: 

502: Have a room with a swirling portal in it. Have the portal grow slowly but steadily. Have a chalk outline where presumably the portal will stop growing. If the PCs jump in the portal they take 3d6 damage and are then spewed back out and land in the same square they jumped from. However, if they throw or shoot anything into the portal it dissapears.
To combine with Edena's ritual countdown music, use Metallica's Call of Ktulu (yes they spelt it like that). Over 8 minutes of watching players squirm .


----------



## Altmann

#503. (variant on #500) 

Consider one artifact. 

If it knows more magic than you, it's probably smarter than you.

If it looks older than you, it's probably.

If it is smarter and older than you, it probably has its own agenda.


#504. (from _Listen up, you primitive screwheads !_, the GM guide to Cyberpunk) Make your PCs dependant on one source of power. Then starve them.

For example, have them quest for a powerful artifact. Have them learn of ways to make the artifact more powerful, and then even more powerful. Until the day their small party rivals kings and their armies.

Then have the artifact leave. "Thanks ! You gave me my memory back. Bye." Then let the kings and armies drop by.


#505. (Variant on #504). Make your PCs dependant on one source of power. Then turn it against them.

"Thanks ! You gave me my memory back. Now, I can complete my initial task and destroy this island."


#506. (Variant on #505). Make your PCs dependant on one source of power. Then let the source of power blackmail them.

"OK. Now, you have angered the king. I might be able to help you out. But I will need this gem first."

(Of course, you don't have to use blackmail. You may also use compulsion. But it's less of a dilemma for PCs when they have no choice.)


----------



## Altmann

#507. PCs meet 5 Orcs. PCs crush 5 Orcs. GM mumbles. GMs searches his bag and produces about 500 pages of encounter sheets and biffs down "light infantry scout" Orcs #12,501, #14,404, #11,301, #19,349


Variant : PCs meet 5 Orcs. PCs crush 5 Orcs. GM smiles. GM turns on computer, boots up Maple (or Mathematica, Mupad, ...), and load script "Mass Melee".


----------



## Spider_Jerusalem

Not sure if this one has been done.

508: 
At the end of the last session, make sure that you emphasize that you thought it was the greatest session you, and your players have ever done. 

In the next session, you DM an exact replica of the previous session - even the date, time and characters actions are all the same - EXACTLY. Sorta like Groundhog Day. 

Repeat as necessary.

Never admit it is the same.


509:
Have an NPC that has audience monologues - he/she knows the cameras are there and speaks in meta-game language... "Little did the party know that I had cast Sanctuary; the first level cleric spell that can be found in page two hundred and forty seven in the players handbook."

Then introduce audience participation - so the characters meet adoring fans that follow their travels on the tv screens your NPC talks to.


----------



## Magic Rub

Spider_Jerusalem said:
			
		

> *508:
> At the end of the last session, make sure that you emphasize that you thought it was the greatest session you, and your players have ever done.
> 
> In the next session, you DM an exact replica of the previous session - even the date, time and characters actions are all the same - EXACTLY. Sorta like Groundhog Day.
> 
> Repeat as necessary.
> 
> Never admit it is the same.
> *




I've done this! It took my players 4 sessions to figure out what the hell was going on. It involved another (nonrelated) NPC party that screwed things up in trying to defeat a wizard. The PC party had to put there quest on a side line to fix the time stream.  A long story for another time...



510: Have a curse placed on the entire world, 'Silence' (as per the spell but a global area of effect) and your PC's have to figure out how to bring back sound to the world.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

511: Have adventurers enter a town of seemingly friendly commoners. Have the mages in the party led to the center of town for a "roast". Watch the players squirm as their characters are suddenly, and rudely, tied to big stakes.

512: Have a music contest between the party bard and a strange-looking man that's just entered town. Start playing the devil went down to georgia.


----------



## Clear Dragon

513: Have a village or town terrorized by a CN druid of high level who has created a mass awaken spell and has all the livestock and nearby forest creatures planning a revolution. 

514: Continue the Animal Farm style fun by having the PCs stumble upon this a little farther along, humanoids have been completly ousted or are used as slave labor. Give the awakened creatures some class levels. To really freak them out describe the red light distrinct of town in full detail. Perhaps they need to go there (disguised either by illusions or polymorph) and "interact" to gain information.

515: To really freak them out describe the red light district of town in detail. Or worse, perhaps they need to go there (disguised either by illusions or polymorph) and "interact" to gain information.


----------



## Doc_Klueless

River said:
			
		

> * 166: Night of the full moon, Pc's encounter an undead too powerful for them to deal with.  Have it throw a bag of coins at a particular players feet and say "My master is much pleased with your services."   *




Oooooo, eeeevil. I love this one.

516: In a room with treasure have an urn in the corner. When the PCs lift the lid a silver skinned humanoid stands up out of the urn (doesn't matter how big the urn is), snatches the lid out of the offending PC's hand, yells, "By all the holy gods, it doesn't matter where I go, I can't get _any_ sleep!" He drops back into the urn, lid rattling closed and then the urn disappears. Over the next year of real-time playing, have the urn appear a couple of more times.

Worked well when I used it. The players all looked slack jawed for a moment then burst out laughing (I was running a serious campaign at the time and decided some levity was needed.)


----------



## schporto

More in the paranoid players line:

517:  Allow your players to rull 5d6 and drop the 2 lowest rolls.  Mumble "You're gonna need it."

518:  Put action figures (gi joes, whatever) in with your normal lead figures.

519: (a bit of a setup) Trim down the pages you have in front.  Make sure the players see that you only have 2 maybe 3 papers in front of you (not counting scrap).  Then show up once with a good sheaf of papers, even if you still only need 3.

520: Pretend you're counting a bunch of objects, monsters whatever.  So they run into 4 monsters.  Once they've all rolled inititive, say "hang on".  Dance your finger around like your counting things for a few seconds, roll the eyes a bit, etc.  "Ok let's go"  They'll be sure there's another bunch of baddies comming around the corner.


----------



## Spider_Jerusalem

521:
After having your major bad guy killed, have a session full of paranoia where the PC's are hunted by mysterious stalkers who wait in the shadowy darkness.

Then when the players go home, pay off some criminals to break into their homes and scare the **** out of them. Tell the criminals to scream the bad guys name over and over as they beat your friends senseless.

You know what. I should rethink that one.

522:
Come to the session with all your d20 completely covered in white paint. When you roll them, write on that side whatever number was needed to pass until you have exhausted all 20 options. Fake a seizure if the players mention your dice.

523: 
In the middle of a huge mage duel, have the evil necromancer draw twin magnums. Begin shooting.


----------



## alsih2o

524 create a group of bad guy bards based on george clinton and the p-funk allstars


----------



## Savage Wombat

525: In the middle of a mage duel, have the evil Necromancer draw twin magnums of champagne and being firing corks at the PCs.


----------



## Spider_Jerusalem

526: In the middle of a mage duel, have the evil Necromancer draw twin magnums of champagne and a lovely little coffee table. Make friends.


----------



## alsih2o

527 in the middle of a mages duel, have the evil necromancer pull out twin magnum, p.i.'s and start a bad 80's t.v. marathon!


----------



## Moe Ronalds

526: Were-Teddy Bears. 

527: Make a very... colorful... wizard character. Make his familiar a chihuaua that he dresses in colorful costumes that match his. 

528: Make adventures out of old episodes of Happy Days

529: When the party mage dies, have a troop of brightly-dressed midgits enter the gaming room and sing ding dong the witch is dead.

530: Randomly declare one of the characters to be "The True Lord of Otto's Irresistable Dance"


----------



## DM with a vengence

531) Give major villains deviant sexual tendancies.  If it worked for Frank Herbert, it can work for you.

532) Give the good guys deviant sexual tendancies.  If it worked with the bad guys, it'll work even better with the good guys.

533) Have the ruler of the town be evil and detect as evil.

534) When they kill him, the town proclaims the PCs the new rulers and promptly begins a celebratory riot.


----------



## Creamsteak

I actually had to write this out, because I wanted to contribute to this thread and had NO CLUE what to add… so here is mine:

535) In memory of gauntlet:

When the PCs are hunting something down, let them find and identify two different teleportation circles. Both Circles lead to the same place, so don’t worry about the actual decision the players make about which one to enter. Smile after they are teleported into a large square room lined with either walls of force/wind/prismatic and let them hear a methodic laugh. If the party tries to split up, the teleportation circles are set on a contingency that requires that “X” number of people must stand in the circle for it to work.

The PC’s have entered level 1 of the “Game.” All PCs, no matter what level, start on floor 1. Figure out how much experience the party needs in order to level up one time, and figure out how many Kobolds that will take. They must fight through that many kobolds to get out of floor one. Once again they are presented with two teleportation circles after they clear out that floor. No matter what circle they take, they end up on the floor matching the party’s new level. Do the same thing you did with the kobolds, with the new creatures.

All of these rooms must be square.

1: Kobolds
2: Medium Sized Skeletons
3: Medium Sized Zombies
4: Medium Sized Monstrous Spider
5: Large Vipers
6: Shadows
7: Minotaurs (Now getting wickeder)
8: Wraiths
9: Xill
10: Hydra (8 headed)
11: Mind Flayers
(Continue on down the list if necessary, gradually increasing difficulty.

When the PCs die, count up all their experience and tell them they earned an extra life. Take away most of their experience (you should have this figured out beforehand) so they are left with just enough to “almost” reach the next level, and take away the rest from them. Start them in the first room with two portals, they should choose the other path (other teleportation circle). Let that circle lead them where they want to go.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

536: 5 words--- Dungeons and Dragons the Musical


----------



## James McMurray

537: Introdue the Baatorian Legal Association to a few games. Have the party enter into contracts with devils.


----------



## MeepoTheMighty

538)  In the middle of a mage duel, have the evil Necromancer draw twin magnums that, when fired, produce flags with *BANG* written on them.


----------



## alsih2o

539. make them come up with 1000 ways to do something


----------



## Bob5th

540. Early in their career have them fight and capture twins. About 10 to 12 levels later have them fight one of the twins again. He should give them a good challenge. After they defeat him mumble something like "So much for the easy one."


----------



## Altmann

541. Have them meet a seemingly insignificant NPC. Have him be a pain. Say he is the son of some important guildmaster. Have them bear him for some sessions. Then, much later, have them meet the father - only he has no son.


542. The PCs have just been hired to bring a safe box to some king. The security of the box is very important and they should not open it under any circumstance. Only, by accident, the box does open. And it contains but one paper "Dispatch the bearers of the message".


543. Variant on 542. : It contains a barely living dwarf.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

544: Introduce an over-weight jolly man who keeps midgit elf slaves. 

545: A troupe of Bards that pop up constantly singing Spammity Spam! Wonderful Spam Spam Spam Spam....


----------



## SpuneDagr

546.

During a dungeon crawl, have the PC's come upon a pool of filled with rotting corpses. There are two massive chains that go up into the ceiling and down into the goo. When the PC's step on a pressure plate, they hear a loud rumbling, grinding sound as the chains start to pull out of the pool. They tug up a gargantuan (or larger) zombie made up from the thousands of corpses in the pool.

That was a lot of fun to do.


----------



## DungeonKeeperUK

Always keep a Dragon in your boc pof minatures for the game, and acidenly leave the box open for a litle while...

I did this one after I caught the players snaeking a look in the box to see what they may come up against....
Worked a treat....


----------



## DerianCypher

#547 - when joining up with your group for a session make it well known that you just bought the ELH handbook. Now, later on when they encounter a mob (make sure you don't describe it quite yet) get out the ELH without being overly obvious. Now, place it open where one of the players can see the picture of the mob and begin describing it. Finish it off with something like "You had disturbed my lair! Prepare to die!"


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

548.  Have them enter a town where _everyone_ is a paladin.  That includes kids.  All the townspeople are constantly detecting for evil and making sure the party doesn't do anything against the paladin's code.


----------



## Helspar

549) There is never any reason to argue with the players, waving the gun around will pretty much get them to see things your way.

550) Eat continuously through out the entire session. End every line with "gotta bulk up"


----------



## Privateer

551) Confront the players with a gigantic, empty room.  Have no traps, no monsters... nothing in it, in short.  Hours of DM fun!  ("Are there any carvings on the walls?" "No." "Hmmm...")

552) (This one is verified by me; I've done this on occasion, and it never fails to work)  Once one of the players has announced his intent to do something you know will result negatively.  Calmly (and without provoking suspicion) get up and get behind the players chair, quoting small details about the action leading up to the Inevitable Doom; once you reach the Inevitable Doom, grab the back of the players chair, tilt it on the back two legs, and let them dangle there, unsupported save for you.  I call it "The Ultimate Wake up Call."  Be certain you can support their weight, however.  Also, avoid using on players with heart conditions.

Wheee, I'm evil! 

(Edit: Curse my propensity to use the same word twice in a sentence!)


----------



## Bob5th

Altmann said:
			
		

> *
> 542. The PCs have just been hired to bring a safe box to some king. The security of the box is very important and they should not open it under any circumstance. Only, by accident, the box does open. And it contains but one paper "Dispatch the bearers of the message".
> *




553. After you know they have read this one have their PCs get asked to transport a sfae box that is not to be opened. Might work best if it doesn't contain the not in the above one.


----------



## Eccles

554. As part of a long and convoluted time-travel campaign, probably one of the best you've run, give the players the option to (a) carry on and fight the bad guy (who they accidentally created at the beginning of the campaign) in 100 different time zones, or (b) unwrite the timelines and make everything disappear.

You have to be prepared. Keep a copy of their 1st level character sheets handy and tear up the old ones.

555. Re-introduce the "Head of Vecna"...


----------



## Eccles

556. After the high-level PCs are forced to flee from a fight against several hundred goblins, obviously calculate XP for all of the goblins, and then smugly announce that 47 of them just levelled.

557. As 556, but then immediately roll hit dice for the goblins and send 47 1st level suicide barbarian goblins with maxed-out 1st level hit-dice at the (still fleeing) party.


----------



## Sodalis

557) send them to fight a rickety old man.  the weakesta nd most fragile thing they have ever seen.  lvl 20 monk

558) have a huge campaign build up to a climactic battle with the Big Baddie.  the first attack (spell or melee or ranged) that flies at him kills him. Gather up belongings and start handing out XP


----------



## Eccles

A nice easy one:

559. Give them a really substantial reading list (including Milton and Dostoyevsky) to read before the game begins "to get them in the mood"


----------



## Jolly Giant

(What's with the bumps?!? Why do people keep posting them?)

560 When the PCs start feeling good about themselves, thinking they're really powerful: Hit them with something that is so far over their powerlevel, it's blindingly obvious they stand absolutely no chance of defeating it. A vampire casting level 9 spells, for instance, is good against lvl 10 PCs.  Make the foe really annoying and obnoxious, laughing at them for being so weak and amateurish. Really rub their noses in it. They'll hate you forever!


----------



## 333 Dave

561: "You hear chanting down the hall... any of you speak infernal? Yes? They're saying 'And we sacrfice to you, Dark Lord, this unholy shrine of evil, and all that is within it...' "

562: Blood rain. Yeah, its cliché, but it works. Alternativly, you can have oil rain or (if you don't mind a foul smelling campaign) urine rain.


----------



## James McMurray

Extension to 561.

563: You hear chanting from ahead. Does anyone speak infernal? Ok, it is a prayer to Heironious. Sound like someone is regaining their spells for the day.

[edit]

To be even freakier, make sure the cleric realizes the guy prayed for and Unholy Blight or a Chaos Hammer.

[/edit]


----------



## MeepoTheMighty

James's sig made me think of this one...

564)  Devise a gigantic campaign that takes a few hundred hours of play time to complete.  As the party is working its way through the bad guy's dungeon lair, have them encounter a door that can only be open by a singing bard.  (The party has no bard, of course).  Suddenly recall that you forgot to tell the players they were playing Bard's Tale d20.


----------



## terrestrialboy

This scared my players thoroughly enough.

The players get told of a horrible pirate on the seas.  They finally meet him and his fleet of twelve ships.
They are taken aboard and see that the ENTIRE fleet is made up of gnomes.  They find the pirate's name is the Dread Pirate Goodbooty and his flagship is the flaming Queen.
During odd times when nothing is happening, the gnomes would break into song (usually 'In the Navy").
My players would cower and cover their butts (really!).

Ethan Parker


----------



## gamecat

566: give your npcs bizzarre speech patterns; Mercanes end every sentence with a high-pitched "hmmmmmm?"...


----------



## Bob5th

567. Great Red Wyrm with a miror image cast on him  right before he encounters the PCs.


----------



## Helspar

568) Keep your players in line with some "tough love." I hurt you guys _'cause I care_... Now don't make me use that stick again.

569) Dice rollin'  off the table. That's a paddlin'.

570) TPK! YES! YES! Who's your daddy!


----------



## Helspar

571) "Dress up" your players. To be fair, allow them "casual days" or "hawaiian shirt days."


----------



## Zigmutt

572) eat raw meat at the table...


----------



## Avatar_V

DLXXIII) Anything new about themselves to discover is good. I had a character once, who was descended from one of the deities in my homebrew who shot fire from his hands. Well, as she matured, she suddenly developed this ability. Scared the heck out of her and since I kept most of the stats about it secret from her and just described it, the players were pretty worked up. Every time they saw some sort of enemy they would have the conversation: "Quick, fry it!" "No, I don't know how often I can do it..." "If you don't know how it works, I wouldn't do it" "But it's so cool!" I guess you could say it freaked them out.


----------



## Eccles

574. Evil Clones.

That's it. Just evil clones.


----------



## Vurt

575.  Walk in disheveled and without pants.  Mutter something about how you were too busy working on this new dungeon level and the big baddie to shower this morning as you pull out your notes.  I said: _your notes_!


----------



## Eccles

576. Drop hints over ICQ to one of the players in your brand new campaign that it's a real shame they haven't got a cleric for... But I may already have said too much!

(Just did this, and it was immensely satisfying...)


----------



## Moe Ronalds

577) after a TPK, put on a party hat, hand out party favors, and toss confette... made out of their character sheets.


----------



## Fenes 2

578) After over a year of playing the same campaign, lead the PCs through number of increasingly strange quests, culmilating with reality altering events. Then announce that the PCs just woke up in a cell and that the whole last years was just a Matrix-Style VR world used by aliens. Continue the campaign in the "real" world of that campaign - complete with Spaceships and Space Marines.
(Happened to me.)

Edit : Added number


----------



## Darklone

Some things that happened in a group I left:

579) Never give a character a chance to shine with an action except if it's the big boss char who has a few levels more than the rest of the group.

580) Use no DC lower than 35 for things such as climbing stairs or hopping over a chair on the floor.


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

581.  Have the same mundane object show up all over the place.  For example:
Session 1: "...You walk through the door and find yourself in a 30 by 30 foot room.  There is a door to the north, and a small pile of junk in the corner.  A small, red clay jar is on top of the pile."
Session 2: "...The tavern is well-furnished, bright, and warm.  There is a lot of hubbub coming from the customers.  As you approach the counter, you notice a small red clay jar on the counter just before the barkeep picks it up and puts it away."
Session 3: "...The town, though small, is bustling with activity.  There are children playing, women haning laundry on the line, and a man carrying a small red clay jar into his house.
Keep it up forever.


----------



## Clear Dragon

582: Of course never allow the players to obtain one of the clay pots for study, and should they try to craft their own have it impossible for them to find the correct color of clay orshade of glaze(or the ingredients to make it). Perhaps have the pots detect as evil (the red clay is from a layer of the abyss or equally appropriate place).


----------



## Astragoth

583)This is what my DM did to us.... and some of us are leaving therapy right now........


during the campaign we had the pleasure of watching some guys in black armor absolutely WASTING some of the opposition we had serious difficulties defeating with. over the course of the campaign we found out that those guys in black armor were indeed baddies who were chasing the exact same item we were..... for reasons not disclosed but it wasn't too hard figuring out that it wasn't good. we also learned they were rather unhappy about our progress.

now this happens.... after fighting our way through the first lvl of a dungeon we encounter a maze with is filled with doors with riddles... 

so we ponder about 5 minutes about the first riddle, get it right and enter. Door closes behind us. ( we are talking massive stone doors here... there was no way we could bash them open). Same thing at second door.. we go through that one as well and it closes behind us.  A little bit too relaxed and comfortable (enjoying snacks and beer over a good set of riddles, I think someone mentioned the dreaded phrase: aaah... finally a relaxed session) we start at the riddle of the third door.
 and 

WHAM!!!! 

the first door explodes in a massive shower of rockshards and sounds.

I can tell you... solving riddles under extreme timepressure is JUST NOT FUNNY. We were exhausted at the end of the session with literally sweat in our hands... although ome people got remarkably creative under pressure (big cheers to Ingrid who solved three riddles in a row within 5 seconds.... the DM was not happy about that) all in all it freaked us out completely


----------



## Moe Ronalds

584) Like 583, but have the big baddie that was chasing them meet them when they get out of the maze.


----------



## Helspar

585) "No! We can play when you guys are finished making those keychains. We gotta pay for this operation somehow. Now quit whining and get back to work!"


586) The Miserable Cubicle. 'nuff said.

587) Let Nylarlathotep play. 

588) Introduce the _Dragonstar_ tm campaign!

589) Be a "Chaotic Dietosser"

590) Carry around the "You are now *EVIL*" cards from _Talisman_. Use them as business cards.

591) "Psst! I think he's talking to you!"


----------



## Cedric

586) Put the PCs through a dungeon with a large number of hard to spot, increasingly difficult series of traps with AoE attacks...everytime they fail their saves, start rolling saves for their gear. 

587)...continued from 586...make it clear the only way out is to keep going forward.

Cedric


----------



## Dispater

588
The party kills a bad guy. Let them anihlate him completely. Then scratch your head flip in the PHB, and ask them what level True Ressurection is.

589
Have the party attacked everywhere, everytime. Even in their beds, where there awaits assassin pillow-goblin

590
For mood music, put on Britney Spears.

592
Inform the players (whom are all mages) that you have taken the opportunity to change the magic system... again.

591 (inspired by KODT)
Leave the film cover of "Deliverance" near the gaming table. Start the session by saying> "So, I was watching this film while I wrote the adventure last night..."


----------



## Nvvyn

592. When the PC's enter a dungeon room, Say they see a very powerful looking warrior with his back to the group.  Upon closer examination, tell them they see three red X's on the back of his neck   XxX


----------



## Moe Ronalds

593) Convince one of the party members to take on an ancient red dragon alone.


----------



## Clear Dragon

594: If they are constantly polymorphing into to trolls or other monstrous humanoids for combat here is a nice solution. Unbeknownst to them Trolls(or whatever they poly into) have a well defined mating season. The pheremones released by the species this time of year(month, day) lures all nearby members together where they fight for mates(often to the death).  

595: Have an NPC wizard(transmuter) who actually gets a thrill out of this stuff.


----------



## MeepoTheMighty

Helspar said:
			
		

> *
> 
> 569) Dice rollin'  off the table. That's a paddlin'.
> 
> *





Talkin' out of turn..that's a paddlin'. 

Looking out the window, that's a paddlin'

Staring at my sandals...that's a paddlin'

Paddlin the school canoe... oooh, you better believe that's a paddlin'


----------



## takyris

596) The party enters combat with a villain they've only got sketchy information about.  They're thinking that it's gonna be a tough but not deadly fight...

Say, "Okay, round one, he casts a Quickened haste, then Dimensional Anchor on Player1, then with his extra partial action, Dimensional Anchor on Player2."

The party snickers at him for wasting spells, charges in, does their first round stuff.

NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO...

"Okay, next round, he's casting Quickened Dimensional Anchor on Player3, Dimensional Anchor on Player4, and as his extra partial action, Dimensional Anchor on Player5."

Maybe it's just my group... the idea of someone who would burn that many spell slots, including an 8th level slot for quickening, just to make sure that no one teleported away, would freak my players out quite a bit.


-Tacky


----------



## 333 Dave

I must say that *596* is *PURE EVIL (TM)*. Thats great! 

597: (continued from 596) After he's done DA'ing everyone, have him Dimension Door away then start pelting them with arrows and weak ass spells (he wasted all his good slots on DA). Repeat. If the players find him later, he has Boots of Dimension Door and a Ring of Dimensional Anchor.


----------



## Altin

598. This to be used only after an extended dungeoncrawl of some description, or at least at the end of a particuarly long section of the adventure that has ostensibly just been completed, leaving the party almost totally exhausted. Describe the party walking back outside the dungeon/to their hangout. Remark on the weather, describe the local ambient noise (I'm sure extensive and detailed description of insignificant details was noted earlier as another way to freak out your players). Then, in the same tone of voice, describe a known NPC (or their steeds or whatever else is at hand) lying on the ground in a pool of blood. 

Finally, say "And then all hell breaks loose." Then begin to pack up your books and notes, thank the players for the session and say you hope to see them all there next week. 

Fairly standard cliffhanger but the players won't be expecting it and, if delivered properly, it will have them bombarding you with nervous e-mails between sessions. 

Yours,
Altin


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

599.  In a large, empty cavern, have the players make spot checks.  No matter what the result, don't allow them to see anything.  Then, have them take breath weapon damage from some dragon every round.  Still allow them to see nothing. _See invisibility_ fails to work.   After a while, have them suddenly see the dragon.  If questioned later, tell them the dragon was just "hiding very well."


----------



## Creamsteak

600: Tell everyone about the dreaded Night Trolls, the creatures that killed the Emporer's sons, the creatures that slaughtered the order of the Knights of the Temple of the Moon of the Sun. Don't forget to explain that Night Trolls fight from as far away as possible, that they are all 17th level spellcasters, and use long range attack spells at the best possible range, and can teleport and heal at will.

Later have the characters encounter a dark skinned troll at night, don't edit it's stats at all, but give it a greatsword and a few levels in illusionist. Use the illusions to make the encounter seem like the real thing, trying to get the party to do it again. Have the same troll track them down repeatedly till it backs the party into a corner.

Smile wickedly when it says, "Hello, my name is (Insert), and I need your help with (Insert plot hook here)."

Don't ever tell them that it isn't a night troll. If they kill it, let them encounter the real thing  sometime later.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

601) Before starting a new adventure, mention to the players that you've been experimenting to see just how many templates could be added to one creature.


----------



## Deedlit

602:Have every enemy the PCs have encountered in the past come up to them together, and offer them help, saying that they will need it.


----------



## Privateer

603.  Describe the town's bakery in deep detail; the tastes of the rolls, the sweet smell of the sticky-buns.  Offer no explaination for your intense description.  Never use the bakery again.

604.  As an alternative to 603, use the bakery again, but in an orcish cavern.  Have the bakery be exactly the same, but carry orcish baked goods.  For instance...

pie.

605.  When you comment on "all hell breaks loose," start looking in the MM under "demons."  What's wrong with saying it like it is?

Edit to 605 --- or devils, whichever it is.  Could have sworn devils were abyssal.

606.  Hand a player money under the table.  Constantly.  If discovered, say it was for helping paint your house, and then continue passing money and winking slightly.  Best used if player has no idea what you are doing.

607.  Keep RttoEE on hand.  Make it obvious that you are running it; then use a different module or one of your own creations.


----------



## Oogar

608. Recently I had a Yuan-Ti Ranger with a Gauntlet of Rust and riding a Large Sized Rust Monster, encounter my party. I am pretty sure they hate me, and I do believe that one or two were a bit freaked out. The rust monster only managed to eat a +1 rapier and a +1 breastplate though *sigh*. If you do this, remember to take the feat "Mounted Combat" for the Rider.


Edit, corrected Number


----------



## gamecat

609. Replace the hit points system with aim-n-flame blasts at character sheets.

610. Have a one-way conversation with your DMG: "Should we throw 'em a curveball?" *put your ear to the book* "Yeah, I guess we should."


----------



## 333 Dave

611: The party finds a small campfire in the middle of a dungeon. If they touch it at all, it jumps up into humanoid form and starts dancing. It will follow whoever touched it constantly, jumping around and setting things on fire. It will always dance out of reach if they try to attack it. 

612: Same as above, only have the fire be green or some equally un-firelike color.

EDIT: Razzin frazzin posting while I'm typing...


----------



## Moe Ronalds

613) Have a villain invite the players to dinner. Have them not detect any poisons in their goblets, and give them little place cards. Have one of the servants look increasingly nervous, as the villain starts winking at one of the party members of the opposite sex. Tell a party member of the same sex that he has suddenly fallen passionately in love with the villain due to a love potion in his drink. Have the nervous servant smack himself in the face and start sobbing after he realizes what he's done.


----------



## gamecat

614. Replace the hit points system with aim-n-flame blasts at your players.


----------



## Eccles

615. After your PCs have finished fighting off some horrendous nasty from the _n_th level of the Abyss, have a number of pople in black-lacquered full plate _Teleport_ in, each wielding a wand of seriously empowered hypnotism. They zap each party member and tell them that the creature they just fought was a kobold empowered by a mage acting under the malign influences of the planets. Then they _Disintegrate_ the remains of the monster and all _Teleport_ away.

The players should be looking over their shoulders for signs of the Men in Black Full Plate Armour for weeks to come...


----------



## Altin

Eccles, 615 is so, so evil that I can't believe I didn't think of it myself. However, if I may offer a variation on the same theme:

616. As 615, except the MIB are all reasonably high-level Bards. Why bards? Because the 4th level spell Modify Memory (p 230 of my PHB) is the D&D answer to the 'flashy thing'. Sure, those guys are not going to be wearing plate but their ability to quite literally erase the PCs memories should come as something of a shock to your player's (especially as most people who don't play Bards often aren't even aware of the spell).

Yours,
Altin


----------



## Eccles

617. Just thought of this one, and it'll only work on players of the most paranoid variety.

A bag of infinite gold. Every time they open it, it's full of gold. 

(NB. The fact that it's an open, mobile portal to the Sultan of Calimshan's personal treasury should not be revealed to the players for some time).

Some time later, the trapped, explosive, cursed, or locating coins all start pouring out of the bag, and the innkeeper they paid 2 days ago gets thoroughly nuked by the 3 genies homing in on one specific coin. 

Every shop or inn they go to gets totally destroyed... 2 days (or whatever the travelling time for a hasted genie) after they spent the coin there...

[edit] - Number Change


----------



## Moe Ronalds

618) Put a famous high-level bard/aristocrat in your campaign. After your players get to remembering who he is, have him change his name to an unpronouncable symbol.


----------



## Mathew_Freeman

619. Randomly generate personality traits for every single person the PC's meet, and then regenerate them if they meet them again. 

PS: Love the Halfling mafia idea, by the way.


----------



## Zog

# 620 - Let the low level PCs find a box.  A simple carved box, made of bone.  Maker's mark on the bottom.   Not magical.  When they finally get around to selling or appraising it, have the good shopkeeper faint.  Then offer to help them auction it off, suggest the starting price should be 'around 4 million gold'.

They can't believe I would simply let they have 4 million gold with no strings.  They don't really believe the story of why this box is worth 4 mil (oh, these are collector items, very rare.  They have become a status symbol.  The very wealthy but not yet respected will pay anything for one.)

And so, they think.  And wonder.  And worry.


----------



## Lela

gamecat said:
			
		

> *614. Replace the hit points system with aim-n-flame blasts at your players. *




Just a note, gamecat, this is an exact repeat of #609 (also your's).  All those after this should be one number back.

*Making the next "WAY TO FREAK OUT OUR PLAYERS" be #620.*


----------



## 333 Dave

Lela said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Just a note, gamecat, this is an exact repeat of #609 (also your's).  All those after this should be one number back.
> 
> Making the next "WAY TO FREAK OUT OUR PLAYERS" be #620. *




609 was directed at character sheets.
614 was directed at _players_!


621: Tell them you've been doing some expirimenting with making your own monsters, then throw all straight-out-of-the-book monsters at them.


----------



## Bihor

622: Have the PCs encounter a good dragon, he's all nice but , someone has put a geas on it to kill good folks:''it was a nice talk, but I have to kill you now''


----------



## DerianCypher

623) Throw a great wyrm force dragon at them


----------



## takyris

624) [Did to players last night]  At the end of the night, after an evil villain (in my case, a goblin monk) is descibed as having sold his soul to gain a way to truly destroy the PCs, have the players be unable to discover exactly what happened, where he is now, or what's going on. 

Then begin asking for Will saves and rolling dice.  Ignore the first few -- no response, no matter what happens.

Finally, at the end of the night, make one more round, note anyone who beats, say, 20, and then wait for a good opportunity to take control of the PCs to say the following:

Player1 (made save): Hey, everyone alright?

Player2 (made save): Yeah, I'm okay, but what happened to Player4?

Player3 (failed save): Player4?  What are you talking about?  That guy died in our very first adventure all those years ago when that goblin monk came in out of nowhere and killed him.

Tell Player4 that due to a slight alteration in the time stream, he will now be playing a dwarven wizard, and not a human sorcerer, since his human sorcerer died at second level several years ago.

Then thank them for a great session, pack up your books, and leave.

625) [which, frankly, the players just did to themselves] Let them figure all this out about a half-hour after they just killed the Succubus who sent the goblin monk back in time, and who is the only creature that had the power to send the PCs back in time after their enemy as well.

-Tacky


----------



## Deedlit

626:Have a kender try to give the party a drink of water.  Though he warns them, it gets lost in the details of his kender tale, which of course no one believes.  When a party member drinks the water, inform them that the water was from Jukensekyo(I think that is what it is called, that cursed spring in ranma 1/2), and that they will change gender when cold water is splashed on them, and hot water changes them back.


----------



## Psychotic Jim

*The King of the Dead*

Have the characters fight through legions of undead throughout a campaign; all of these undead take orders from a evil overlord called the King of the Dead.  After traveling thousands of miles, getting past who knows what kinds of traps and perils, the party breaks into the King's throne room.  Have the PCs meet up with an Undead Elvis Presley.  So that is where he has been all these years...


----------



## Zog

#628 - Using background music, After a mighty battle, when the evil uber-bad guy is nigh defeated stop the cool battle music.  He cries out something about 'no, I can not fail, I must live!'

Then start the music again, only this time instead of battle music a little song whose refrain is 'Once more in the name of Love!" 

If the players don't react in about two seconds - 'I did it all for so-and-so's 'insert campaign appropriate person of the opposite (or not) sex' love!  I wish I was fully healed!'

"Once More....!"


----------



## Zog

#629  - (because I doubled posted, I must come up with another....)

Again with the background music.  Start the battle music as the party is shopping.  Just sit back and grin.  Don't ask them to roll for init, just wait.  Counting slowly to six.

Then start asking for saving throws.

Count to six again.

Repeat until they strangle you or run screaming from the shop.


----------



## Eccles

630. A high-level Celestial mage casting 'Summon Human VII' and yoinking them onto the celestial plane for 14 rounds or until they die. 

Once the time ends or they die, they are returned to the Prime with full health and equipment.

631. As 630 above, but every time the summoning mage clearly mutters "See how *you* damn well like it!"


----------



## Savage Wombat

632.  Everything in your campaign has at least two levels of rogue.  Everything.  Even inanimate objects.

"Nope, sorry, the door made it's reflex save.  It is unharmed by the Meteor Swarm."

"The fiendish tyrannosaurs nimbly tumble out of the way of your lightning bolts."

"Make a spot check ... nope, you don't see the statue any more.  It's hiding too well."


----------



## Helspar

633) "Shut up curse you or I'll run you through! OK that's settled, back in character."

634) Eat all the jellybeans.

635) "The first rule of our game sessions is no one _talks _about our game sessions..."


----------



## Creamsteak

Eccles said:
			
		

> *630. A high-level Celestial mage casting 'Summon Human VII' and yoinking them onto the celestial plane for 14 rounds or until they die.
> 
> Once the time ends or they die, they are returned to the Prime with full health and equipment.
> 
> 631. As 630 above, but every time the summoning mage clearly mutters "See how you damn well like it!" *




Absolutely Fantastical!!!111

Hmm...

636) Force the Players to overcome traps for experience, and ONLY traps for experience. Dungeons never contain encounters, or anything remotely tangible to possess any valuable treasure.

637) Same as 636, but after the characters get to 10th level with no treasure and nothing but experience at dodging traps, have then encounter a standard beasty for thier level .


----------



## 333 Dave

638: Introduce a "Strip RPing" rule where everytime your character is hit you must remove an article of clothing.


----------



## DM with a vengence

639) Roleplay with sock puppets.
640) Have them kill a monster, then the next day, its mother shows up and complains.


----------



## gamecat

641) Games within games: Disintigrate into clue or monopoly within D&D: "hey Tordek, I'll give you 500 gp and this "Get out of Dungeon free" card for your boardwalk!"


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

642.  For one session - prefferably near April Fool's Day - have magic get very silly.  I present the following examples:
a) When the cleric prays for spells, say s/he hears the following: "Hi, you've reached [god].  I'm not here to answer your prayers right now, so please leave a message after the beep.  Bye!  *beep*"
b) Have the writing in the wizard's spellbook suddenly change into Spanish.  If he casts read magic, it turns into pig Latin.
c) Animal companions and familiars all start acting very animal-like.  Owls fly off to look for mice, cats go after milk, and toads go up to the Damsel In Distress for the current adventure and claim to be a prince.


----------



## Wanderer At Dusk

643. Refer to the Characters by there Players names in the campaign and refer to the players by there Characters names out of the game

644. Bring the wrong edition rule books and attempt to run a game insisting they are the edition correct

645. Threaten to make the players character histories for them if they don't make one on there own to your specifications (I've had some real fun with that one)

646. Try to describe something very important to the campaign while eating something like a peanut butter sandwich without any beverage and act angered when they don't understand you

647. If one of your players is a monk, paladin or cleric have any money promised to them by a patron be directly donated to there temple or order

648. If one or more of your players are also a DMs be sure to buy supplements they do not have, preferably ones with many monsters or spells

649. Get the epic level handbook, declare your intent to run an epic level campaign at any level the Players wish (the higher the better) then pull the old thanks for making the villans on them handing them blank character sheets and saying new 1st level characters (if you already pulled the thanks for making the villans on them it's not as satisfying sorry i can't remember what number that one was)


----------



## 333 Dave

650: Pick a random number. If you want, roll 1d1000 to find out which number it is. Have that number appear over and over with no apparent connection or relevance. Try to avoid the numbers 13, 42, 420, 666, etc.

11 more till 666!


----------



## Altin

333 Dave said:
			
		

> *650: Pick a random number. If you want, roll 1d1000 to find out which number it is. Have that number appear over and over with no apparent connection or relevance. *




651. Variation on the same theme: have the number be counting down so that each time it appears, it is one less than the previous time. Have fun watching the players freak out as it reaches single digits. 

Yours,
Altin


----------



## Inconsequenti-AL

652. Here's one I used: Gave a (quite greedy) player a moderately powerful, intelligent and very evil magic weapon. He suffered for a few weeks being messed about and trying to get rid of it. After this got a bit boring I offered him the choice of 1) undertaking a difficult quest to destroy it or 2) selling it to a minor nobleman for a few thousand gold. He took option 2. The best bit was him trying to apologise to the rest of the party when this nobleman returned a few months later - a fully corrupted and very unpleasant Blackguard, with a real thing about killing the party. Amused me for a good few sessions.


----------



## Cao Cao

653)   2 words    Vorpal Chickens 

My players never messed with farm animals again.


----------



## Wanderer At Dusk

654. Find out what every players greatest fear is and build an entire adventure around it specifically targeting one players fears, be sure to have pictures on hand to reinforce this

655. Name your dice, names like Keithslayer and Paladinbane. Tell your players your dices names as you roll them


----------



## 333 Dave

656: Name your dice things like Mr. Oogly-boogly and Sir Fluffy Bunnies.

657: Name NPCs things like Mr. Oogly-Boogly and Sir Fluffy Bunnies.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

658) When you roll a critical hit, moan with delight and scream: "Yes! Yes! Oh god YES!"


----------



## Wanderer At Dusk

659) Where plastic fangs for a session and constantly smile at your players in an evil way Have them encounter vampire like npcs at night, but really there just normal people that like to dress up in black and such. Never make them actual vampires.

660) Give your players nicknames, like your dice, refer to them as that until they respond to those names then come up with new ones


----------



## Zog

#661  - Introduce a recurring NPC, who has a distinctive, and annoying, accent.  A very bad french, elvis, etc.

#662 - Make the PCs rely on this NPC for vital information / life-saving deeds

#663 - Have the NPC be a Southern Baptist Style Preacher.
  By the POWER of *god or goddess here* BE-A HEALED!!!!!

#664 - In a different game, different campaign world, simply mention the existance of a 'forceful' holy man.  And then duck as they throw things at you in horror.

Guilty of all four.     Ah, the joys in inflicting permenant psyche damage to my poor little players.


----------



## Wanderer At Dusk

665. Oh this is exceptionally fun!   In your campaign have either a pc or npc bard right songs about how every other pc that has died in the past. 
"Brave Sir Keith was slain by the dragon on the hill, 
before he could use any skill, 
lost he was without a chance,
above his head the challenge was,
 poor Sir Keith ... poor Sir Keith"

When ever the players enter a town where another bard is they here the songs, as it has become very popular in the region. This is especially good if you or your player have any musical tallent. My player who plays the bard plays the guitar rather well.

And I leave the next number to someone else, make it devious.


----------



## Anabstercorian

#666:

Make ANY NPC say the following, and rehearse this line all week before the game to make sure it has the appropriate effect.
"You'll be bleeding and screaming like a virgin raped before I'm through with you...  Just like your sister/mother/fiancee."

Then tell them it's a spell-like ability and they have to roll a will save or be Shaken. :-D


----------



## 333 Dave

Oh come on, what kind of lame 666 is that?! I Hereby dub that number 667 and the following is 666:

666: Have the players come across a town where common isn't spoken, instead everyone speaks Infernal (or Abysall, your choice). Have all the residents not think anything is odd except the language the PCs are using. If they stay for the night, when they wake up in the morning everybody is speaking common normally but the PCs can only speak infernal. Have everybody think nothing is odd except the language the PCs are using.


----------



## Mercule

668> Give one of the LG PCs a multiple personality.  Make it warped and evil.  Then just have it shut up one day.

669> Let them find an intelligent, talking sword that was previously held by a _very_ competant wielder.  The sword periodically starts chanting "Demogorgon, Demogorgon, Demogorgon, Demogorgon, etc.". 

This was much creepier in 1E where a greater fiend might hear it's name.


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

670.  Stirges.  Lots of stirges.  Hundreds upon hundreds of stirges.


----------



## takyris

671. Go "NeverWinter" on them. When they try to sell something, declare over and over again in the same flat voice that "You cannot sell plot items."  Have minotaurs using +3 Vorpal Greataxes that disappear with the minotaur when it dies.  Have the Wizard's familiar charge and attack any known enemies as soon as it sees them.

-Tacky


----------



## provik

*Creeping Out Players*

1)   The assassin with disguise.  It attacks the party, but they never know exactly *who* it's trying to kill and it always flees after it's initial attack.  It's actually been sent to kill the good NPC disguised as one of their retainers.

2)    Hand a "new" player a character to play.  Modify the character sheet (preferably done in an automated character creator) to say "Lawful Good" under alignment and let one or more of the players "accidentally" see the character sheet.
       Tell the "Lawful Good" player character that they have some particular goal (such as stealing an item from the party, or delaying/killing one or more party members, crippling the party, etc.)  Explain to them that they are not lawful good and they are actually evil.
        Offer this player 1,000 XP to play this role.  Explaining further that the other players will also gain 1,000 XP bonus if they play the role correctly.
        Watch this particularly evil player get two PC's in one room.  As the barbarian is forcing open the door, he asks, "Let me cast a spell on you."
         "Okay, bull's strength?" asks the barbarian.
         "Sure.  Do you accept my divine power?" he asks.
         "Yeah." says the barbarian.  
         "GM, he's held for 6 rounds and I sneak attack the wizard." explains the evil player.
         "What?  Don't I get a save?" asks the player.  
         "No, you voluntarily forego your save when you allow spells to be cast on you by party members." I reply and gleefully ask for the sneak attack roll and damage.

         Just to be evil.  I introduced the actual new player the next week and watch them *not* trust them.  Ever.

        Now just before spell casting, everyone says, "Do you accept my divine power?"


----------



## provik

*Bribe With Levels*

Offer PC's secret deals from NPC's.  

Have one of the PC's mentors explain to them.  

You may gain power as a sorcerer (3 levels).  Tell the player that these levels act like monster levels, and do *not* modify your ECL for experience purposes.

Only one hitch.  If they tell *anyone* where this power comes from, they lose their powers.

Do this with each character, except make a different sort of deal with each one.  Watch them  their eyebrows when fellow PC's do things and have feats that their normal levels won't allow.  Watch the paranoia grow as each one of them accepted this near irresistable deal.

Watch a good party turn nuetral and eventually some turn evil to protect that which they bargained and now rely on for their power and further advancement.

Watch when they find out they are carrying portions of a powerful deity's soul.  Watch as they are called to a ceremony to bind this evil deity.  Watch them stare in horror when just as the deity's body appears, it asks the Lawful Good high priest, "Have you collected the portions of my shattered soul?"

Watch the Lawful Good high priest turn to the PC's and say, "Yes, the sacrificial vessels have come to worship at your altar."  Watch them scramble as the binding sticks the acolytes are carrying are actually daggers designed to release the trapped spirits.

Watch as the players defenses to keep attackers out of the final ceremony keep them trapped in the temple with the evil acolytes as the great deity is taking shape, each time a player character is stabbed, it gains more of its power (the NPC sacrifices were stabbed first as an illustration to the PC's).

Watch them all accuse each other of making deals as they fight for their lives.  Watch them all die, their powers weakened and stolen.  Explain to the wizard that the archangel that might have saved them was trapped in his tower and he refused to free him because he was the bound source of power for this incredibly powerful tower.  Explain to him and scroll that would have "released the power of the tower", sitting in his backpack now, and useless, was their key to salvation.

Watch nobody ever make a deal with the GM again and every time someone walks away with the GM, watch the other players give him the 3rd degree.

Execute this plan over a period of eight real months.

I'm a bastard.


----------



## provik

*Free Saves*

Have a dying player character (one who failed a save) by saved by a moment of whimsy.  Mark him visibly with the sign of the god of luck/chaos (such as his eyes show the lightning of Enkili in the Scarred Lands).

Watch him always waiting for the other shoe to drop (the failed save at the worst possible time).

Heh heh.  I love it.

Provik


----------



## Wanderer At Dusk

676. Always ask Pc's if there sure they want to do something, role some dice laugh evily and then stop laughing and mutter a curse under your breath. Paranoia will spread...


----------



## hong

takyris said:
			
		

> *671. Go "NeverWinter" on them. *




Alternatively:

678. Go "Baldur's Gate" on them. Every time they try to leave town, or enter a dungeon, or go to the toilet, declare that "you must gather your party before venturing forth".


Hong "frick, I HATED that" Ooi


----------



## Croaker

679-Ask a player to make a Will save.  Regardless of the result, pass them a note reading "Act normally for now..."

680-When a character casts detect magic on a heap of treasure, pass them a note reading "You detect an aura of Enchantment/Illusion/Necromancy/Transmutation on character X"  

681-When a character casts a spell on an apparently minor creature (such as Charm Person on a barmaid) ask for a Caster Level check.  Regardless of the result, say "Your spell appears to work."

682-During normal conversation with an NPC, ask the players what their Sense Motive score is.  Roll some dice, and say "He seems sincere..."


----------



## Mathew_Freeman

683. Do not let the players have any treasure unless they specifically tell you that they are picking up, where they are storing it, what their new encumberance is and how fast they can move now.

684. After they've had a seemingly random encounter, give out the usual measly 2gp, and when the players pick it up say 'Hmm...OK' and make a note on a piece of paper.


----------



## Tharkun

685.  Have the PCs dream of their next fight and they win.  Have them keep dreaming of things that they do and then they start to prepare for those things and you subtly change a few important things about the baddies they face.


----------



## Xaynar

#686   Have the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse show up ready to duke it out with the party. Strangely, when they get closer, one is red, one is purple, one is green, and the last is yellow. They go by the names: Po, Tinky Winky, Dipsy, and LaLa. They also have strange "windows to another place" on the breastplate of their armor.


----------



## Ace

#687 Never have the enemy Wizards use normal spells. .  Cast bizzare spells from any source you can find them in make them effective but odd choices

#688 Make false Prophecys. Have the players "Chosen Saviors etc etc" and have it turn out to be bunk. 

#689 Have all of your goblins talk in Doctor Suess or Legend style rhymes. Write these up first though its hard to rhyme on the spot sometimes. Say stuff like "look a party for to slay, kill them all before break of day"

#690 Get cheesy. Have hasted improved invisible caster with metamagic rods range extending  doing summon spells and never attack directly. For examle evil spell caster summons findish dire bison it attacks from a barn . Bats from the air. Try not to let on there is a spell caster about

#691 Alter the FX on spells. Black light globes instead of dancing light. Yellow fire for a lightning bolt. Evil healing spells that summon little mouths and hands  to gibber and scream blasphemy as they sew wounds shut. The sort of thing

#692 Use Bizzare but effective class combos. 

#693 Use false annihaltion spells. Have one mage cast a hybrid spell thats cast Blindness Deafness and Mute as well as Invisibilty and Hold Person on a target. Then use illusions of some awful fate. Rinse Repeat... 

#694 Give the attacking monsters a lot of one shot quickened items. Give them PC levels of items but all of them are disposable. Use up as many as you can in the fight, basically a spell or two every round.  Have any  the items captured all have some wierd sigil on them.
Let the players wonder who the maker is


----------



## Ace

#695 Another thing that just occured to me. Use subdual attacks only in combat. Players freak out when they wonder what you are going to do with them when you capture them. 
If you really want to mess with them when the players capture a "bad guy" make him good aligned or explain "We just don't like to kill if we can avoid it"


----------



## barsoomcore

# 696:  Party of less than 10th level, they're helping out a deity of some sort. Before the climactic scene the god says, "I'm going to need some help." She invests several of the PCs with divine ranks -- rattling off the long list of new abilities will produce the following effect:

Elation and Excitement as they hear about heir new AC, Save and other bonuses and resistances.
Terror and Dread as they realise the deity thinks they're going to NEED these abilities...

EDIT: Number


----------



## LoPaC

697) Bring a CD player, and says its for the funeral music you brought.......ok, thats sick, im sorry

698) Everytime they walk through a doorway or the like, roll a d20.

699) Have NCP townspeople keep mistaking tehm for someone else, good or bad.

699 1/2) Evil undead NPC clones, especially in Ravenloft.  Just for the fun of it, to see which person would come out victorious.


----------



## Suldulin

700: have the party be ambushed by trollocs(or other typical baddie for non-WoT worlds), have one of said trollocs be carrying an odd amulet(pentagram with a sytilzed human skull in the center for example) have none of the party regonize it as far as what the symbol may be specifically for, and have it pretty much seem to be nothing more then a peice of metal, save for the fact that the mirror worlder druid's animal companion 'dislikes' it. . .  also have the animal companion feel 'uneasy' but have the druid be unable to determine the source of the uneasy feeling. . . *chuckles and waves to any from his game that might happen upon this*


----------



## Immortius

701.  Always begin a description with "It appears..."  This will infuriate players to no end.

702. Start a session by reminding players of that whenever they take more then 50 damage, they have to save vs. death.


----------



## LonePaladin

703.  Answer two or three questions per session with "Yes--WAIT!  No!"

704.  Answer two or three questions per session with "No--WAIT!  Yes!"

705.  Answer "You don't know" to every question you can get away with.

[Edit for 705.  I've been using this one for so long, it takes a serious act of will to avoid answering normal, non-game-related questions with "You don't know."  Makes working a customer-service job a royal pain, I tell you.]


----------



## Zappo

706. Instead of "You don't know", answer with "I don't know".

I've used this one too and it _really_ annoys players (and sometimes freaks them out somewhat).


----------



## 333 Dave

That wasn't a bump, was it gamecat?

703: Every 5 minutes roll 1d20 for each player in the group. Try to make this exactly 5 minutes. Wear a watch. Check constantly. Never have anything happen. Just keep checking and rolling.


----------



## Psychotic Jim

708?. Whenever the party come up with a brilliant, strategic plan, yell as loudly and obnoxiously as possible. "Simpsons did it! Simpsons did it! Simpsons did it!"


----------



## Eccles

709. Despite the fact that it's a WFRP book, bring 'Realms of Chaos - The Lost & The Damned' to the gaming table.

Since the book has 200+ chaotic and evil weapons and about 400 different mutations just makes my players... edgy....


----------



## s/LaSH

710: How to inspire in-game hate in players.

A man walks into a tavern carefully carrying a sack. The sack occasionally twitches and mews. He sits down, politely asks for two pieces of toast - with butter. While they're coming, he pulls out a napkin and spreads it on the table/bar, then reaches into his sack and pulls out a kitten. He strokes the kitten. The toast arrives. He tickles the kitten under its chin, breaks its neck, and puts it between the pieces of toast.

(OK, I got this one out of a book, but it's a good one. Sadly, I forget the title/author.)


----------



## s/LaSH

Just for bumping's sake, I guess I'll post my evil plots individually. But I'll space them out. Rationing the evil is a good way to go.

711: The Egg

An egg falls out of the sky and hits someone. A big egg. It does little or no damage, has no adverse effects, and is never explained. If the eggshell is examined, it has markings that resemble writing in Draconic, but cannot be deciphered. And there is nothing inside the egg either but a normal (yet massive) yolk... now probably draped all over some poor player.

Bonus points if this happens indoors.

Extra bonus points if it happens to the King while the players are visiting him.


----------



## s/LaSH

712: Screw with the natural order of the campaign setting.

Large carnivorous sheep chase small, domestic, vegetarian lions. Trees grow in rivers or streams; hills are covered in seaweed. Wingless bats and flying rats. Snow falls in the valleys, while mountaintops are fertile and warm. Giant land octopi lurk behind boulders; ostriches are cliff-dwellers and are never found on level ground. To continue the theme, monsters are found in places you wouldn't expect: aboleths roam the deserts in large herds, local drow worship Pelor, red dragons live in ponds. More importantly, nobody thinks this is weird except the players.

If you're doing your job right, a player will eventually confide in you that they were wondering what the green pointy stuff on the lawn was for a moment while they were coming over for the gaming session. Or that they're now scared of sheep.


----------



## DispelAkimbo

713. Don't start your campaign in an inn or tavern.

714. Each time a character rests, have them awaken with a new scar or tattoo on them that they dont remember getting (Warning: doesnt work if the characters were out drinking the night before).

715. Whenever the group is in a city and discussing their next move, have npc passersby offer alternative suggestions and then look offended when it gets told it was meant to be a private discussion.

716. Create a new spell - 'Summon Dwarven Pirates I'.

717. Give Ogres English accents (or american if you are an English group).

718. Have all npc bards play only 'wobble-boards' and no other instrument.

719. Use the 'Bolster Undead' ability but through role-play make it seem that the villain is simply ordering the undead to attack, then let the players think those 1HD skeletons are actually 12HD etc.

720. Vampiric Tanar'ri

721. In the next bar-brawl, have npcs start using 'steel chairs' and shouting at each other to 'get the tables!'.

722. Make all elves short, bearded and stocky.


----------



## Zappo

This is old and cliché, but it always works:

723. "You walk in the fog for about half an hour. Then you look behind your back, and you realize that you are still exactly where you started..."

724. "You awake in the morning, and realize that the sky has become blood red".


----------



## Bragg Battleaxe

725. Have a black goat walk across the room in which a PC is staying just as they drift off to sleep. Better yet, the goat moves sideways and has yellow, corpse-like eyes.

726. Drool occasionaly as you run the game.


----------



## Bob5th

727. Tell your player that you think it will take 50000 orcs to kill a level 20 fighter and that you plan on confirming it.


----------



## s/LaSH

Natural dysfunctions are always good...

728 In a sunny town, it suddenly snows at midsummer noon.

729 The sun rises in the West one day.

730 You go down to the beach and notice hundreds of drowned rabbits washing up on the shore, too many to have been lost from a wrecked ship.

731 A local river starts flowing upstream (this can screw up local irrigation systems).

If there is a reason, it's bound to be well-hidden and backed by powerful beings... but who said there had to be a reason?


----------



## s/LaSH

732: Mirage Arcana Is Quite Powerful

This depends on the DM, but I'd suggest allowing _Mirage Arcana_ to do the following: Sun fades away, grass withers, dark towers erupt from the soil. Suddenly it's night in a blighted wasteland. Of course, it cannot affect visibility in this manner (that would make the spell too powerful), but if an evil sorcerer casts a quick spell and the _sun goes out_, most players should freak.


----------



## Prince Atom

733.  Just before you start the game, roll a d20 (any d20) several times and note how many naturals you get (or not, that part's optional).  When the players ask what you're doing, tell them you're estimating how lethal the game will be based on how you're rolling.

I have a DM who does this, and she certainly seems to be right most of the time!

TWK


----------



## hammymchamham

734. Start a new campaign with 'I've decided to make this a true D20 system. Use a d20 to determine your stats. For weapon damage you will use a d20, divided by 2 or 3 depending on the weapon.'

735. After the PC's have a tuff time beating a monster/npc, say 'Man, I knew using that d30 might give that monster/npc an unfair edge over your party.'

736. After the PC's trounce a monster/npc, say 'Next time I'm using my D30.'

737. (This one really freaked out my players) As the PCs approach a baddy they have been hunting down for a short while (or a seemingly random encounter), introduce Improved Sunder from S&F. Be sure to use a weapon that will slice through their weapons in one hit (most of the time). The Druid droped his +2 Scimitar, and ended up being the only one who died from that encounter. Just shows some PC's are more willing to die than give up magic items.

738. As the PC's are walking in a seemingly random duengon, have the ink on the map they are trying to draw slowly evaporate, have any markings on walls disapear, and any items left on the ground disapear after a few minutes. Have many doors which will 'transport' the PCs to the begining of the maze (or if you want to be crazy/mean, to a random place on the map).

739. Have an NPC run by the PC's as they walk down a trail screaming 'Run for your life! Theirs a herd of Tarasques!!!'


----------



## The Forsaken One

#740  Suddenly cancel out all arcane magic for a short while and you'll all see them go ballistic.


----------



## Bagpuss

Male DM's - Turn up to the game in a brides outfit, full make-up, complete with flowers. 

Female DM's - Just turn up there are so few of you its a shock to see one anyway.


More seriously...

Kill a PC via poison or some evil sorcery then for some strange reason "Raise Dead" does not work on them. Then take the player outside "to explain how you are going to work their new character in the campaign". Outside explain to the player that the reason raise dead doesn't work is because they arn't dead just in some suspended animation 'death-like' state, they can't tell anyone else at the table and must pretend to roll up a new character while the game unfolds.

When you go back in ask what the other players want to do with the PC's body, items, etc. Smirk to yourself as they suggest a viking funeral, and watch the other player sweat.

If you are feeling nice, have the heat of the fire bring the character round. If you in a bad mood they might be buried alive in which case have the player come round after they are 6 feet under.


----------



## DerianCypher

744) Let a major plot event (one that involves the death of  aPC) accidently slip to a player when talking with him/her alone. Tell them not to tell the rest of the players. When playing keep making it seem like that event is drawing near and watch the player sweat.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

745) Create a villain that's a flying boy who is extremely skilled with a rapier. Have him actually be very old, and having been driven insane from watching all his friends and family whither and die of old age, he's taken to kidnapping children from their bedrooms, and leading them to great ledges, then telling them they can fly if they "think happy thoughts", he then laughs insanely as they fall to their doom. Give him a bright green, pointy outfit, an evil Grig cohort, and several young boys in animal outifts as followers.


----------



## Xarlen

s/LaSH said:
			
		

> *732: Mirage Arcana Is Quite Powerful
> 
> This depends on the DM, but I'd suggest allowing Mirage Arcana to do the following: Sun fades away, grass withers, dark towers erupt from the soil. Suddenly it's night in a blighted wasteland. Of course, it cannot affect visibility in this manner (that would make the spell too powerful), but if an evil sorcerer casts a quick spell and the sun goes out, most players should freak. *




732b. Do this while the players are fighting a vampire, or going to his lair in the day time.


----------



## Airwolf

Well, you all know that old saying.....

"A picture is worth a thousand words" so, 

Look at 746 

BTW, what ever happenend to The Burned Man?


----------



## hammymchamham

747. Introduce an enemy named 'Cats.' Have him talk in bad english. Do not forget to include 'You have no chance to survive make your time' when the PCs have their final showdown with Cats.

748. Introduce a magic item named 'Zigs.' When your PC's have some Zigs, be sure to tell them to 'Launch all Zigs' durring a battle.


----------



## GILGAMESH

748. Before starting the days campaign. The Dm should gather the players together and tell them that he intends to start taking the game alot more seriously, so they should take it as a warning. And say no more about it. Then right away in the game the DM should announce that he has failed a roll and he's about to get serious! DM pulls out a block and a good sharp knife, and takes off a part of a finger at the knuckle, wrap it right away then look at his players and say "hope your dice roll better for you." Smile ,wipe off the knife and announce what the AC(or what ever is to be rolled next) then slide the block and knife over to them. That should freak them out


----------



## s/LaSH

749 Blight Their Innocence

Introduce an NPC who resembles Bugs Bunny in every regard - except instead of carrots, he munches on kittens. This is even worse if you keep Bugs' other characteristics, because he's not a bad guy; he'll stick up for the underdog, defend woodland creatures, act as a charismatic leader when trouble looms, and _eat kittens_.

Now watch the PCs squirm as they wonder whether to trust this character they all know and love... sure, he _acts_ nice most of the time, but when he's idly chewing on a kitten, even the druid is likely to try and smack him in with a _shillelagh_. Just keep Bugs friendly to the PCs (he's a toon, he's practically indestructible, and they can't even hurt his feelings if you play him dense enough).


----------



## s/LaSH

Three quarters of the way there...

750: Worg E. Coyote

Ever noticed that a worg is roughly as intelligent as Wile E. Coyote? They have enough strength and smarts to set up a whole sequence of death-traps in the woods. Only problem is, PCs don't have the evasive abilities of Road Runners. Worgs could, with a little persistance, set up pit-traps, rolling boulders, even seesaw-style catapults, all in a small area of hilly forest. A gifted individual could even prepare snares or trip-wires (getting a supply of rope is the hard part).

Then they hide in the bushes and call for help (remember, worgs can speak; it's a quick way to get people into your traps). PCs run into the woods to find the person in distress, fall in a hole, then have a tree dropped on their head. When they get out, there's a pack of wolves standing just out of bow shot, just staring at them. Players proceed to get more and more paranoid, and eventually conclude that they're up against werewolves.

The bad news is, werewolves are weaker than worgs.

Bonus points if you can get a PC to eat belladonna over and over (remember, it's poisonous).


See, Looney Tunes adapts quite well to RPGs with just a few minor tweaks...


----------



## Jeph

751: Hi, call me Dragon.

PCs open a door or something. Big dragon head Chomps them down, spatters blood everywhere, sickening bone crunch.....

Character jsut got teleported to some dungoen, but boy, can you bet the other PCs will be parnoid about that room!


----------



## s/LaSH

750b: Unlikely allies

What do the worgs do with people they catch in their traps? Well, they eat them of course. But what do they do with their treasure, equipment etc?

Make an alliance with a local Assassins Guild. The worgs go into town (!) every few weeks dragging a bag filled with loot. The assassins trade them a bunch of acid, contact poison, rope, crossbows... everything a trap-maker needs. If a worg is spotted in town, a guild member just pretends the worg is their dog... better yet, their seeing eye dog. People never hassle the poor blind man.

This affords the worgs an opportunity to spy on PCs with impunity. If they're making plans in the tavern, a blind man walks in with a large dog who listens to everything they're saying. If they're walking down the street, there's a large, wolf-like dog standing in an alley. If they're camping in the fields, there's a canine stalking around just outside the circle of firelight. The worgs know everything about the PCs, and never let themselves get caught. This justifies the DM asking for ridiculously difficult spot checks every five minutes... and all you say if they succeed is, "You see a large dog running down the street."

The eventual outcome: "We're walking through the woods and Tordek suddenly falls in a ten-foot-deep pit of acid? What the hell? And why didn't those mysterious dogs set off the trap?"


You'd think it would be easier to spot an evil, intelligent wolf on High Street. Sadly, dogs are very common in any medieval mileu.


----------



## s/LaSH

752: Happy Friendly Spiders

For those of you who haven't (or have) played Exile (or Avernum) from Spiderweb Software (http://www.spidweb.com), introduce a whole settlement of intelligent, talking, man-sized spiders. Who are very friendly. Honestly friendly. They all talk in high, cutesy voices, are dreadfully pacifistic, and every single one of them is named Spider. One of them shyly admits that it finds one of the PCs 'cute'. And the catch? The spiders are _absolutely sincere._ They really are that nice. Keep it up, and wait for the PCs to break and run screaming for the hills.


----------



## Kyramus

753: Make a journal of an npc that is written 10 years before. Make him sane at the beginning and end insane proclaiming himself to be vecna.

754: slip hidden notes between the folds of the said journal above. notes that lead the players somewhere or hints at it.

755: Make clones of the pc's. use mindwipe and make them think they are some other class. watch as the Fighter meet up with his wizard counterpart.


----------



## Neo

756.  When a player dies have him Reincarnated as something silly like a Badger, or Donkey or Pixie

757.  Have a magical trap which turns the PC into a clown

758.  when you sue an encounter thats particularly tough and your players gripe as they struggle to get the advantage,...wait utnil they do and then bring out an Iron Golem 

759.  Have your players hit on by a Bearded Dwarven Belly Dancer

760.  Have a Dwarf offer to buy the group a drink or lend them some coin, and see how paranoid they get.

761.  Use a halfling in your game, no more details are necessary for this, the word halfling should be enough to frighten anyone.

762.  Menton that that Halfling is actually a Kender, and watch how quick peoples valuables get secreted away.

763.  Roleplay an NPC love interest and tell the player thier interested in that you love them....see how they squirm.

764.  Use a monster that scares the hell out of the group....and then have a dragon pass by overhead.

765.  Give the player an Intelligent Item that hits on them.

766.  Kill the PC's families, kidnap thier siblings and generally abuse their family ties

767.  Give them ar really powerful, really expensive item.....and then steal it back.

768.  Have the players meet a Dragon, and once they've defeated it have them discover it had been robbed earlier in the week by another adventuring party and despite all that effort thiers no tresure to haul away.


----------



## hammymchamham

757. Start a campaign, force everyone to be of Good alignment (or Evil). Have a freak accident occur that causes the players to be thrown into the future. When in the future, have the PC's meet their future self. Have the furuture PC's be of evil alignment (or good). Then have the PC's thrown back into the past.

This could be interesting, because your players who are of one alignment could start acting of another because they think you want them to. Or they will freak out wondering what you have planned that could drastically change ALL of their alignments.


----------



## BBrendolfus

758: The kingdom goes to war and levies a 10% tax on all coinage (done)


----------



## brun

759-For bid eating while playing

760-play every dream they have

761-Tell one of your players he's suddenly vegetarian

762-make the moon(s) disappear for no reason

763-make the moon(s) disappear for a reason


----------



## Creamsteak

764- The Player Character's enter a city with a strange population. The entire populace of this city consists of intelligent magical items. All of them communicate through speach. For example, the Blacksmith is a forging hammer, the Bartender is a Gauntlet of Ogre Power, and the City Council is made up of 12 Potions of Cure Light Wounds.

765- Intoduce to said town, a group of Epic Level Forsakers.

766- Have Intelligent trees made through intelligent Quaal's feather tokens. It's also possible to do the same with a whip.

767- The cities guards are made of Hands of the Mage equiped with whatever weapons (under 5 pounds) they could carry.

768- Have the intelligent items speak like Pokemon. (The Dagger screams out "Dagger Dagger!" over and over again.

769- Intelligent Figurines of Wonderous power. (They come to life on thier own, can call out thier own command word).

770- Have the town's social structure consist of classes based on what kind of item you are. If your a farm utensil, of any kind, you are a slave. If you are a weapon of any kind, you are a warrior. If your a tool, you do whatever the tool does. And if you are a potion, your an aristocrat (because intelligent potions are the most important items ever). If your a wonderous item your probably important or something.

771- The player characters want to have a meal in this new town. They are told to go to the bar. They are each given a spoon and an empty bowl. The spoons are Murlynd's spoons, and although they supply the meal, the players will be arrested if they attempt to the spoons into thier mouths in any way.


----------



## s/LaSH

772: Invisible Godwar

Stage an invisible war in the background of the campaign, initially unrelated to the PC's adventures. First-level PCs come across a dead silver wyrm lying in a field, killed by a blow to the sternum. A little later, they see a small army of vrock tanar'ri flying across the sky, from one stretch of wilderness to another. They come across a planetar nailed to a rock; if they pull the nails free, the planetar thanks them and flies off without explaination. Later, an illithid inquisition runs screaming in fear down the corridor of a dungeon towards the PCs and _plane shift_s out before anyone can react (illithids can speak aloud, they just don't normally).

Nobody they talk to knows what's happening, and most people discount them as crazy. "If there really were these vast battles going on, don't you think I'd have seen them?"

Of course, the PCs never see the battles either... just the aftermath.


----------



## s/LaSH

773: Nobody's mentioned this before...

"Having defeated the vampire brood, you take the road back to Waterdeep to claim your reward. As you crest the last hill, you see the city spread out before you; the sky is blue, the birds are singing, and you can see the streets bustling with industry. Then it sort of bulges upwards, before exploding in a shower of molten rock.
  "The shockwave knocks you off your feet and sends you tumbling backwards down the hill. By the time you regain your feet, pieces of stone and brick are falling out of the sky all around you. The sky is black with ash and smoke; lightning dances in the mile-high mushroom cloud. Suddenly, it's very cold. You walk up the hill and supress the urge to vomit.
  "Waterdeep just got half a mile deeper and the crater extends far beyond the former city limits. If you listen hard, you can hear the ocean rushing in to fill the gap. Looks like you won't be getting that reward any time soon. "

OK, so I don't know much about Waterdeep, but you can apply this to any big city the PCs care about. You just have to be willing to make BIG changes to established settings...


----------



## s/LaSH

774: Scary phone-calls

Take a leaf out of Majestic and keep the game going even when you're not playing. How? Get someone the players don't know and get them to make threatening phonecalls at unusual hours. Give them a script if you like. *RING* *RING* "Hello? Hello? It's 2AM, who is this?" "I am Blacktor the Destroyer. You shall know my wrath, puny human. HAHAHA!" *CLICK* "... hello?" Give each player a call on a different night all through the week.

Next gaming session, introduce Blacktor the Destroyer, who you just created that morning. Deny all knowledge of the phonecalls.

(You know, this could also work with that Audigy voice-alteration thing if all your friends are gamers... just look out for people with caller ID.)


I know people have suggested similar things, but this version doesn't involve killing the players afterwards and is actually feasible for the less devoted DM, such as myself.


----------



## s/LaSH

Here's some ideas from ChronoTrigger, the game from SquareSoft...


775: No, I'm not the worst thing you have to deal with.

You have a villain? He's evil, seemingly all-powerful, and the players hate him for many good reasons? He's yesterday's news. If villain #1 is so nasty, what happens when you stumble across the thing he fears most? And I'm not talking about truth and kindness. I'm talking about villain #2, who replaces #1 as the focus of the campaign, possibly to the extent that villain #1 joins the heroes to stop #2.

Villain #2 is far more powerful than #1. If the PCs never had a hope of defeating #1, make it abundantly clear that they can't even scratch #2... but they have to try.

Example: *SPOILERS AHEAD*
Magus was conquering the world with his inhuman armies, his awesome dark magics, and his spooky, inaccessible castle. The heroes had to stop him summoning the world-devouring monster Lavos. And eventually, after a titanic battle, they did. At which point he revealed that he was summoning Lavos to destroy it and save the world from its eventual fate, and that they'd just screwed everything up. Eventually, they fought Lavos, and saved the world, but if you think it's harder than it sounds, you're right. Lavos arrives by emerging from a continent. The lava fallout from his emergence alone causes global devastation... and that's just his outer shell. Inside, he's much tougher. Of course, this wouldn't work if the PCs couldn't find out about it; in this case, they witness it from the safety of a time machine and don't have to fight Lavos immediately. (If they do, they die fairly quickly.)


----------



## s/LaSH

776: I Am God

That final villain? The one who's going to destroy all that's good and true in the world (if not the world itself)? Make him (or her) God. Well, make them creator of life and the world in the first place. They're powerful enough to devote a billion years to creating life. And they're powerful enough to not care about it if it all goes away.

Consider the Elder Gods from an H.P. Lovecraft-esque universe. Alien, all-powerful, and immense beyond human comprehension. They created the world, then went away to somewhere we're incapable of knowing. Now they want it back. Not as bad as the next one, though...

Example: *SPOILERS*
In Chrono Trigger, when you hack open the outer shell of the final boss Lavos, you find an inner form, and before you fight it, one of your characters discovers that Lavos is radiating an incredible spectrum of life energy. From there, they discover that he actually created life on Earth, and has been guiding evolution ever since. He's been sleeping in the planet's core for millions or billions of years, waiting for the right time to emerge... and to eat all life. After which, he leaves and finds another planet, which he populates in a similar fashion... and eats that, too. It makes the PCs feel very very small.


----------



## s/LaSH

*777: No, the moon doesn't vanish...*

"You make camp by the roadside. The night is warm and fine; the stars twinkle merrily in the heavens. A full moon rises above the horizon and blows up. A few minutes later, flaming meteors start skimming across the sky. One lands a few miles away, the impact uprooting large trees in your vicinity and carving a mile-wide crater in the earth; flaming debris lands around you. The whole countryside is aflame. Needless to say, you get very little sleep tonight."

This is even worse on worlds where the moons have theological significance, such as certain ages of Krynn. "Oh my Gods, Lunitari just blew up and took a chunk out of Solamnia!" Very useful if you want to make the Cataclysm a minor footnote in history... less so if you actually have respect for official chronology, but really: Who cares about that when it comes to psychological domination over your players?


----------



## Zappo

Just a note: I did nuke Palanthas in a Dragonlance campaign.


----------



## brun

-The Energy Ball

778. Place a ball of swirling energies in the center of room in a dungeon.I f detected, it is neither good/evil, magic, chaotic/lawful. It seems it deosn't even exits.If inspected or touched, nothing can be found (or it might feel cold), but when *chosen player* touches it, ask to see for his character sheet,and:" you see a flash of green light, quite sort, but as you look for an explanation, the only thing you can find is a small amount of orange dust, where *chosen character* was standing." Use your most evil/gleeful/devious look and tear the character sheet apart. "It seems your buddy has just been desintegrated"

779. A few rooms later when the players are inspecting for scret doors/traps, let them only find a small amount of orange dust on the floor.

780. Another fw rooms later, the PCs enter a room in the middle of which sits a large sarcophagus. When they open it, tthey see that it is filled with some kind of organic soup and tissues, under which lies the desintegrated PC. He is comatose untill taken out of the sarcophagus, at which time he simply awakens *and you hand the payer a copy of his character sheet that you had previously made *. He is totally normal, and every thing is as if nothing had happened.


----------



## Al

creamsteak said:
			
		

> *771- The player characters want to have a meal in this new town. They are told to go to the bar. They are each given a spoon and an empty bowl. The spoons are Murlynd's spoons, and although they supply the meal, the players will be arrested if they attempt to the spoons into thier mouths in any way. *




Variation (781.) Wherever the players go for food, they are greeted by smiling young men and women behind a desk.  When they ask for a meal, the young man/woman grabs a bowl, puts a Murlynd's Spoon in it, removes spoon and hand the bowl to the PC.  S/He then says: 'Enjoy your Happy Meal.  Come to McMurlynd's again'

782. Have said chain run by an archlich.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

783) Your characters enter a forest that is said to have powerful magic surrounding it. No one has ever exited this forest alive, but it is rumored that a great monster exists within it. The characters enter, and after a while they note that the ground seems to be made out of stone, as though they had entered a dungeon, yet the sky is still visible, and trees still abound. It is night time. Ahead, in the darkness, the characters see two bright lights. Those with darkvision can make out a roaring creature with stubby legs, a smooth shell for a frame, and a grinning steel maw. Despite it's small legs, the creature moves at incredible speed. A spot check (DC 15) reveals that parts of the creature's skin seems to be incredibly thin and see-through, and the characters can see into the characters stomach, inside of which there is a human body, that seems as though they were frozen with fear when they died. If the characters defeat the monster, the person inside beats a hole out of the creature's stomach, and in an angry tone, he yells: You B******S F***IN TOTALLED MY CAR!!!!!


----------



## s/LaSH

783b: Extend this for an unnecessary amount of time, and apply it to nearly anything else you can think of. The transparent monsters speed off before PCs can reach them; PCs encounter walls of force that cannot be removed with normal magic; strange voices come from all around but there's no magic aura to create them (cars, bulletproof glass, and PA systems). Whole rooms are filled with ice and wind for no apparent reason (walk-in freezers). Find a masterwork clock that's small enough to wear on your wrist.

Even worse, introduce infrared security laser tripwires. They're completely invisible, nonphysical, and damn hard to locate. Of course, if these tripwires are in use, they're probably hooked up to a machine-gun trap, not some wussy spear thrower.


----------



## s/LaSH

*784: I'm Far More Powerful Than You Earthlings*

Introduce a character who's clearly out of DragonBallZ... as a villain, naturally. This only works if your players are familiar with the show... but it should be enough to freak them out if they are.

Example: They're fighting an evil monk who's slowly getting worn down. When it looks like the PCs are going to win, the monk erupts in golden fire, his hair rises up and turns gold, and he suddenly looks a hell of a lot more confident. (I don't have the Epic book, but I imagine you'd need it to portray a Super Saiyan. Rocks break on their open eyes, you know. The weakest super saiyan is a walking nuclear war.)

Example: Introduce a short, smiling, feminine-looking man with white skin, horns, and purple armour. Give him a couple of henchmen, one of whom is bloated and pink, and covered in spikes, and the other of whom is beautiful, long-haired and completely green. If they still don't get it, transform Freezer (for it is he) into one of his innumberable higher (more powerful) forms. "He grows to ten feet tall, his armour breaks off, and his entire frame ripples with muscle. He still looks bored as you batter him with greatswords - to little effect."

Example: The PCs are sent after a pair of twins who've been causing havoc. One is a blonde girl, the other a dark-haired boy, both in their late teens. They're incredibly strong if the PCs catch them (Epic-level monks with a few levels of sorcerer thrown in for fireballs - and their magic is utterly undetectable, making tracking nearly impossible), but they're not the real problem. When a whole town is found empty, they realise a hideous, inhuman monster is hunting these twins to attain his full power. For real kicks, allow the monster to devour the twins (he's even stronger than they are, BEFORE he absorbs them and gains world-shattering strength).

Example: The PCs are attacked by old foes, who are inexplicably stronger. But they don't want to kill the heroes; they just energy drain the strongest fighter with a strange device and run away. The PCs discover that the energy is being taken to an evil wizard who wants to use it to free an immensely powerful demon. Worse still, the wizard is able to cast a spell that magnifies the evil in your heart, putting you under his control (and making you far more powerful). If the PCs are unusually thick, mention that the wizard is an alien creature, three feet tall and covered in wrinkled yellow skin, and make him yell "Boo!" at every opportunity.


----------



## s/LaSH

*785: The Fate Of The World Lies In Your Hands*

The PCs are invited to a martial arts tournament on a remote island. When they get there, they find a number of familiar faces - villains, other heroes, even a number of demigods or full-fledged gods. Reveal that they are to compete in a tourney to determine whether another world can invade this one... and the gods are there to compete too.

Yes, they've walked into Mortal Kombat. But with one major twist: Goro (or boss character of choice) isn't a halfdragon, he's a full dragon with Monk levels. Reveal this when it's too late to back out. Heck, make him an evil Gold - they can polymorph into a smaller form.

And then they have to fight his master...


----------



## Phowett

786. When the characters approach a huge boulder, tell them they hear a loud, vicious hiss and grunts. When the characters reach the other side of the boulder they will find nothing, but will hear the osund where they once were. They will circle again, and the same thing will happen. Later on, when they are traveling in an open area, they will hear the sound again behind them. They will turn around and see the same boulder behind them. But, as usual, nothing will be found. Repeat as many times as you can.

OK, after a while, this will annoy your players.


----------



## Creamsteak

787. Every time the players finally corner an Evil alligned NPC, he fully submits to them and gives them all his magic items and works with them. After they party accumulates 3-10 such NPCs, they all decide to finish what they started by ganging up on the PCs.


----------



## Psychotic Jim

s/LaSH said:
			
		

> *785: The Fate Of The World Lies In Your Hands
> 
> The PCs are invited to a martial arts tournament on a remote island. When they get there, they find a number of familiar faces - villains, other heroes, even a number of demigods or full-fledged gods. Reveal that they are to compete in a tourney to determine whether another world can invade this one... and the gods are there to compete too.
> 
> Yes, they've walked into Mortal Kombat. But with one major twist: Goro (or boss character of choice) isn't a halfdragon, he's a full dragon with Monk levels. Reveal this when it's too late to back out. Heck, make him an evil Gold - they can polymorph into a smaller form.
> 
> And then they have to fight his master... *




785b. Variation: Have the contest being held by the denizens of the alternate reality be secretly running the contest to see if the heroes' reality is threatening to the existence of the alternate reality/dimesion/world. By winning the competition, the PCs are proving that their dimension is dangerous to justify a "preemptive invasion" by the paranoid alternate dimension denizens who fear (perhaps correctly or not) that the people of the PC's dimension are dangerous, war-like and hostile.
   The seemingly malevolent and terrifying boss character and his mysterious master are actually beings sympathetic to the plight of the PCs and their homeworld and do not want to see an invasion.  Thus these "enemies" are secretly fighting to make sure to save the heroes' homeworld from invasion by proving that none of the heroes or other challengers are a geniune threat to the alternate reality/dimension.


----------



## brun

788. After putting several of the ideas from this list in EVERY gaming session, sudenly stop.


----------



## blaster219

*Numbered Items*

789a Everytime you hand out an item (magical or none magical) that has been bought during play or "salvaged from the fallen foe" have the player writedown a number next to it. Increment this number by one each time. Then at random intervals, ask which player has item X.

789b Variation on the above, when asking a player to write a * next to the number.


----------



## Mathew_Freeman

790. Tell your players about this thread, and keep reminding them about all the fantastic ideas you've had since starting to read it.


----------



## Deedlit

791.Run a city-based political adventure(Like Piratecat's), set in Kendermore, Hylo, Balifor, or a similar location.  Run in an era without the afflicted kender.


----------



## hammymchamham

792. At the start of the adventure, as the PCs are traveling from City A to City B, have the PC's make CON checks every hour. Set the DC to 5 (so that most SHOULD make the first couple). This will work really well if all the PCs make their saves the first few times.  Increase the DC by 1 after each check, so Hour 1 DC 5, Hour 2 DC 6, Hour 3 DC 7, etc. When one (or more PC's) fail, tell them 'You feel very uncofortable, like your bladder is going to explode at any moment.' Don't reveal that this is because, well, the PC had too much Ale and now needs to pee. This just may freak the Player out, thinking they have some disease which may kill them. The next hour, have the PC's who passed their save make CON checks. If they pass, rinse and repeat. If they fail, tell them the same info. For those that failed the previous hour, make another CON check, if they pass, tell them the pain is receeding and is bearable, but your bladder still feels like it might explode. If they fail the CON check, have them make a Will Save (same DC as the CON check). If they pass, all is good (heck, pass them a note that says 'Act normal for now' as mentioned above to really drive up the fear). If they fail their will save, say to the failed PC (who may think he is about to die), 'You feel a slight tickle of water run down your leg, when you realize its not water, but urine.'


793. Use ability checks/saving throws in other interesting ways, like above. Mix in a few that truely have dire consequences. Your PCs will never know if their checks are a matter of life or death, or wether they need to use the outhouse.


----------



## MeepoTheMighty

Al said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Variation (781.) Wherever the players go for food, they are greeted by smiling young men and women behind a desk.  When they ask for a meal, the young man/woman grabs a bowl, puts a Murlynd's Spoon in it, removes spoon and hand the bowl to the PC.  S/He then says: 'Enjoy your Happy Meal.  Come to McMurlynd's again'
> 
> 782. Have said chain run by an archlich. *




822.  Have said archlich be dressed in a bright yellow jumpsuit, floppy red shoes, white makeup and red wig.

823.  Have the archlich hire the party to retrieve stolen valuables from the Hamburglar.  

824.  When they succeed in the quest, have them get a reward from Mayor McCheese.


----------



## s/LaSH

*825: Bone*

Human bone is scary if you're in the right mood. Here's two uses:

Give a villain a suit made entirely out of human bone. Skulls for pauldrons, jawbones in unexpected places, femurs and scapulae making up splints and plates. The more detail the better. If you want, make it entirely out of fingerbones... or teeth. I'd treat it as splint or chainmail, depending on how heavy the armour is. (Bonus points for not revealing that inside all that bone is a living creature... watch as the cleric wastes their turns on something that just laughs.)

Put skulls on spikes. Sure, we've all seen this. But if you put the spikes out of reach, and then allow the skulls to turn and look at the PCs, you've got an eerie sentinel that they can't very easily do anything about.

Both of these are from my webcomic, incidentally (I decided that, since they were already up, I could breach the veil of silence).


----------



## brun

826.
 When the PCs are about to enter the BBEG's lair, describe (in a manner that all players should clearly recognize him) a beaten and scared Elminster running from it. Bonus points if your PCs are 1st level and/or seen Elminster in action previously.


----------



## DM with a vengence

827.  The party enters a 10*10'.  In this room is a dead orc and an empty pie tin.  In the pie tin are a few crumbs of crust and some fruit filling.

828.  In the middle of an adventure the party stumbles on a room filled with dead orcs.  Scattered around this room are assorted items of cookware, such as pots, baking sheets, and rolling pins.  The room is covered in flour and sugar and fruit rolls under foot in the blood of orcs.

829.  Someone shoots an arrow at the party from long range and runs away. When they find his position, they find an empty pie tin as 827.


----------



## hammymchamham

830. When the party is at high levels (ie 17+) and they are in some duengon, have the party open a door and behind the door:

'You see a naked Goblin sitting in a tub full of soapy water. Roll initiative.' Have the goblin be a normal Goblin. Sure, in the long run it won't freak them out,  but for a few seconds they'll be trying to figure out what is special about the goblin.


----------



## Someguy

831-Chuckle a little whenever they do anything...just a quick one too...not too long...


----------



## s/LaSH

*832: Overwhelming Odds*

This one works best against players who don't yet know how lethal they can be at high levels: Throw them into a room with a hundred-plus zombies all around them.

I did this once to a 7th level party. I think the point man took one hit. Then they went into the next room... which was identical to the first, much to their delight. They finished the dungeon and immediately complained that they'd forgotten to clean out the _other_ areas filled in such a fashion (they couldn't go back for reasons I cannot divulge).

It doesn't freak out the players for long. The primary reason for this is to give them an incredible rush at overcoming such odds. Consider it pop-culture karma: for every low, there will be a high.


----------



## DM with a vengence

brun said:
			
		

> *sorry for my ignorance (oh! damn me!) but what's with the orcs and pies  **I feel so tiny** *




Go here The World's Shortest (Yet Technically Complete) Adventure 

833:  Cheesy accents, give each race a distinct, and annoying accent.  (Bonus points if you can't do accents.)


----------



## Deedlit

833. Have a low-level party approach a band of kobolds. This will only work if the players are not yet sure of the campaign setting, Are familiar with Lodoss War, and have little knowledge what gaming world they are in.  Make sure you describe them as ordinary kobolds, not some group of kobold uber-mages.  When hostilities ensue, keep every roll secret.  Describe as the PC's fall easily to the group of Kobolds.  After the TPK, or fleeing of the survivors, make sure they come across a well-known area of Lodoss, like the Holy Kingdom of Valis.


----------



## Khorod

834: Have an insane, fearful, inferior-feeling goblin with freakishly high strength and constitution.  He follows the characters around and whenever they pursue him, he runs away.  When they catch him, he throughs the knight in shining armor around.

835: Said Goblin has a pair of magical boots.  These boots multiply his running speeds several times over.  They also make the goblin run in the opposite direction from where he intends to go.  But he never notices.  (As we know, the goblin a) follows PCs, and b) runs away from danger, so he will always be at the player's destination in a panic whenever they arrive).

836: Have your player's come up with a list of 1000 things that would scare or freak their party out.  Take this list, and tell them you will have it entered into DM's Familiar, RPM, or whatever by the next session.  It will take some careful manipulation to get them to do this, and then for them to turn it over, as it is suspicious.

837: The players hear a titanic battle around the bend.  Cat shrieks and titanous roars.  The stink of sulfur and brimstone fills the air.  The PC's round the corner to see a small green cat licking its paws as the body of a demon appears to vanish into the air.

838: Have your game exposition be a talking green cat that always turns up when he is least expected, insists on being treated royally, and gets indignant if there is no milk.

839: Get into the habbit of appearing intensely bored with regular encounters for a couple sessions.  In the last one, yawn at all the encounters, including the one with the big, bad, final boss.  As the players approach the corpse of the great enemy, have a whispery, yet somehow deep voice call out: "who has harmed my trusty butler?"

840: Every time the character's use anachronisms, have a dandelion grow out of their left ear in a 2 minute interval.  Just for one session though, that would get tiresome after one session.


----------



## Mathew_Freeman

835: Turn up to the session with a large bottle with a vodka sticker on the front. Have it filled with water. Swig from it every now and again. Pretend to get drunk. Very drunk. If anyone says anything, just mumble "Ish fine. She'll come back to me shoon..."


----------



## brun

thanks for the orc& pie explanation

836. Be lucky. Be very lucky....


----------



## Blue_Cerberus

837: Give the party wizard a spellbook (preferrably from a highly reputable/trustworthy source). The pages of the book are skinned and tanned human faces with a rune tattooed on the foreheads. Speaking the rune causes the face to animate and speak the formula of the spell so the wizard can listen to the book and memorize spells that way. Include really useful spells that can save the party's bacon, and some spells that are questionable in terms of morality. Encourage a slow slide to the dark side. 

838: as above, but the contents will be things like Protection from Evil, Undeath to Death, Power Word: kill demons and the like.

839: Fun with reincarnation. Have someone brought back as something almost like his previous form, but with a few disturbing differences. Don't tell him what race he is now. For example, pureblood yuan-ti can pass for human...


----------



## Zappo

846: The whole party has been Mind Blasted by an illithid, except one member who is being grappled and is about to have his brain eaten. Between his turn and the turn when the Illithid would kill him, a Balor appears in cloud of smoke and stench of sulphur, lops the mind flayer's head off with his vorpal blade, and then vanishes into thin air.


----------



## brun

847. Be unlucky. Be very unlucky...
      bonus points if you actually manage to do it
      more bonus points if you do it between 2 shots of number 836


----------



## Zappo

848. As the characters are about to enter a dark cave, one or more kenders get out of it screaming like hell with a terrorized expression and running as fast as they can.

849. As the characters are about to enter a dark cave, one or more Pit Fiends get out of it screaming like hell with a terrorized expression and flying as fast as they can.

850. As the characters are about to enter a dark cave, the campaign's main villain gets out of it screaming like hell with a terrorized expression and moving as fast as (s)he can.


----------



## The Sigil

851. When you sit down to begin play, bust out a Rifts book and tell the players you're anxious to see if they can bring down your converted Glitter Boy.

852. Bring a BIG knife to the gaming table (sword if you can) and halfway through a dramatic combat, whip it out and plunge it into the table amongst the miniatures.  Look at it for a moment, then say, "no, the scale's all wrong; it would be much bigger than that..."

853. Ask anyone if they have a gerbil you can use as a miniature.

854.  Ask anyone if they have a cat you can use as a miniature.

855.  Ask everyone, "can we play outside, I'm going to need to use my car as a miniature tonight?"


----------



## DerianCypher

856. As your PCs enter the room where the final battle with the big bad villain have said villain holding Elminster by the neck and eventually kill him. As Elminster drops dead the Villain laughs sadistically and eyes the room where a few dozen men in bright armor with heavily enchanted weapons lay dead. Also have lying dead a drow dual wielding scimitars. Once the party has gotten a feel for all the death he has caused have him say, "Only 27! A little low for before breakfeast[lunch/dinner], don't you think?"

[Edited for number fixing]


----------



## brun

skimming through my memory....
857. Have the PCs walk through a portal and end up in a labyrinth. The exit is a portal in the middle.

Oh, and the labyrinth, is floating 200ft in the air, it has no outer wall, and the floor and walls are invisible. A nd it all is an anti magic field. Have fun...


----------



## Lela

brun said:
			
		

> *skimming through my memory....
> 857. Have the PCs walk through a portal and end up in a labyrinth. The exit is a portal in the middle.
> 
> Oh, and the labyrinth, is floating 200ft in the air, it has no outer wall, and the floor and walls are invisible. A nd it all is an anti magic field. Have fun... *




Sounds nice, but how would you work it?  It doesn't fit into D&D rules too well.

Oh, and *BUMP*


----------



## Mercule

Lela said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Sounds nice, but how would you work it?  It doesn't fit into D&D rules too well.
> 
> Oh, and BUMP *




Cables that run to anchors _outside_ the AM field.


----------



## Lela

Mercule said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Cables that run to anchors _outside_ the AM field. *




What I mean is, how would risk them falling outside the field?  It all works in theory, but when they get to walless sides, what do you have them roll, a sudden balance check as they fail to run into the wall?  I can see myself falling in RL but the way the rules work it's a little harder.


----------



## The Sigil

858. Settle in behind your DM screen, clear your throat, and when your players settle down, say, "Mer!"

859. SKUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

860. For loads of fun, there's nothing quite like whipping out a paper shredder and placing it next to you... "oh, Betsy, you're going to be well-fed tonight."

--The Sigil


----------



## The Sigil

861. Tell them you have a character based on a LARP you saw... it's a mage...  "Lighting Bolt!  Lightning Bolt!  Lightning Bolt!  Lightning Bolt!  Lightning Bolt!  Lightning Bolt!" http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23404

862. Three little words: Slaad cow farms.

863. Five little words: Awakened (wizard) cow slaad farms.

864. Tell the PCs that the Gods are angry and will punish anyone who takes their name in vain.  Make sure you tell them that the two main Gods in the pantheon are "It" and "The."

865. Point out to the PCs that you are using them to test the other 135 ways we need to list in order to reach 1000.

--The Sigil


----------



## s/LaSH

Lela said:
			
		

> *
> About invisible flying labyrinths:
> 
> Sounds nice, but how would you work it?  It doesn't fit into D&D rules too well.
> 
> Oh, and BUMP *




_Antimagic fields_ don't affect _wall of force_.

'Nuff said.

Well, not quite, but _permanency_ affects _wall of force_.

You don't even need to anchor the walls, according to the PHB entry; I find no mention of it needing a solid surface. In fact, you can't form it where something would interrupt it... by that token, long grass could interfere with the spell, although I wouldn't take it that far. A _wall of force_ floating in the sky is quite natural.

_Antimagic field_, however, is 'centered on you' and cannot become permanent. I think you'd have to use epic magic to create an immobile, permanent field, and that might interfere with the _walls of force_... you might have to do without the antimagic, or have some kind of _dimensional anchor_ trap at the beginning to keep the PCs from teleporting out.

Nice idea, though.


----------



## Lela

s/LaSH said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Antimagic fields don't affect wall of force.
> 
> 'Nuff said.
> 
> Well, not quite, but permanency affects wall of force.
> 
> You don't even need to anchor the walls, according to the PHB entry; I find no mention of it needing a solid surface. In fact, you can't form it where something would interrupt it... by that token, long grass could interfere with the spell, although I wouldn't take it that far. A wall of force floating in the sky is quite natural.
> 
> Antimagic field, however, is 'centered on you' and cannot become permanent. I think you'd have to use epic magic to create an immobile, permanent field, and that might interfere with the walls of force... you might have to do without the antimagic, or have some kind of dimensional anchor trap at the beginning to keep the PCs from teleporting out.
> 
> Nice idea, though. *




Not what I ment (see my above post).  If they were to answer that question, I can just respond with one of two words, "Religion" or "Politics."  And I can always expand on it from there.

I'm wondering how you would screw the PCs on the no sides thing (again, see above).


----------



## brun

well actually, I used my labyrinth in the 2nd edition, and the players weren't able to teleport because they were too low in levels. And if I remember correctly, was just in the arrival area (to freak them out)and I had placed the final villain, a wizard, in the middle. They were really scared when he started throwing fireballs at them (they assumed the anti-magic field covered the entire maze).

Maybe that's ennough to cout as number 866?


----------



## DerianCypher

866) TPK

867) Have them walk through pools of acid that are odorless and colorless that destroy any magical boots they are wearing.

868) Have the party walk under a very small waterfall that is actually made up of acid that consumes all their magical clothing and perhaps even jewlery  

869) Have NPCs start doing sub-dual damage


----------



## hammymchamham

870. Have NPC rogues flanking using Saps

871. Have all potions neatly labled, except have cursed ones labled as what they are intended. For example, all Cure Light Wounds are lable as such, even those that act as Inflict Light Wounds.

872. Introduce a halfling Paladin (or black gaurd) with mounted combat. As his special mount, have an elven ranger.


----------



## DM with a vengence

871: Have your initial group of low-level humanoids, kobolds, goblins, kender and so on, attack chanting "We're gonna cut'cher *TONKERS* off! We're gonna cut'cher *TONKERS* off!"


----------



## brun

874. Introduce a powerful kender sorcerer
        I know that'd be more than ennough to freak me out !


----------



## Cerubus Dark

Draxus the Tainted said:
			
		

> *46. When one of your players spends almost all of their money on a powerful magic item, have it stolen from them before they can use it. *





Pfft, did this one.  I would let them find it later only to steal it from them again.   The party wizard got so annoyed he destroyed the item.


----------



## Cerubus Dark

Oracular Vision said:
			
		

> 87. Wall of Force is always a nasty surprise if the bad guy had time to put it up before the party arrives...no arrows, no spells through it...no running through it.... [/B]



Actually got to use this one.  Or at least a strange twist on it.

The Head Villain was running down a bridge and "slide under the closing porticuls and there was a small 10 foot gap to jump over.  The party Monk decided to jump the gap and "SMACK" right into the wall.  Needless to say the gators feed well that night.


----------



## Deedlit

875: Have a kender head the conclave
876: Inform the PCs that to do something incredibly important to them,(Save the world, bring back the gods, conquer the world, it depends on the party.) they must spend a month in Kendermore, and role-play out each day.


----------



## brun

875. Introduce a kender who never lies, is always helpful and never steals anything. The players will either be on their gardfor a long time, or attack it, thinking it is possessed or something


----------



## Deedlit

Brun: All kender are like that.  Some exaggerate a lot, and over time the tales have no truth, but they don't tell them as lies, as they believe them true, kender are always helpful though they may wander off or find something more interesting then helping out, and no kender steals, they just borrow.

And that should be #877


----------



## DM with a vengence

878) Have the low-level, small, humanoid grunts (kobolds, goblins, kender and so on) attack chanting.  "We're gonna cut 'cher *TONKERS* off! We're gonna cut 'cher *TONKERS* off!"  Describe how they swing their weapons towards the PC's groins.

879) After defeating the grunts and other assorted monsters, they reach the lair of the BBEG, who intones dramatically.  "Now I'm gonna cut your *TONKERS* off!"

880) He is sitting on a giant rotting mound of... How can I put this so as to not get Eric's Grandma riled up?  Oh yeah, that's it...
*TONKERS!!!*

881)  Give this bad guy or any other the Power Word: Castration spell.

882) Regeneration does not work on area affected by Power Word: Castration, you need an expensive Wish or Miracle.

883)  They reach town, and find all the children playing a game like a combination between marbles and hop-scotch, but with the chant "We're gonna cut 'cher *TONKERS* off!"


----------



## Dispater

830: Make all prestige classes available to LG kobolds only.


----------



## Cerubus Dark

Dispater said:
			
		

> *830: Make all prestige classes available to LG kobolds only. *




830b:  All Kobolds have 25/+3 DR and act as if hasted.  That will teach the PC's they are not little soccer balls.


oops wrong number


----------



## brun

885. Have the big bad guy be a pink freak with the new spell: people-to-candy.
  ( yes, DBZ is playing right now)


----------



## Psychotic Jim

886. 4 words: Evil Demigod Circus Midgets.  Now that's EEVVILL!


----------



## Creamsteak

887. Give the PCs a magical pencil. Don't let it identify as magic of any kind, but when they draw ANYTHING it comes to life as itself. Let the first few be mundain and relatively simple, but the second they draw something for the sake of using it as a creature, weapon, or anything useful, give it the stats of one of the members of the party, and make it VERY evil.

888. The same as 887, only give the pencil to the bad guys, and make everything they draw be like the bad guy, with the same stats, and equally evil.


----------



## Cerubus Dark

889:  Polymophed Great Red Wyrms.  With 6 Epic Level Spells, Protected by Iron Golems that Breath Fire instead of Posion Gas.   

890:  A Villain NPC that looks and acts like Richard Simmons, that alone should scare the bejessus out of them.


----------



## MerakSpielman

> *
> 890:  A Villain NPC that looks and acts like Richard Simmons, that alone should scare the bejessus out of them. *




891: Except he's a bard and keeps "inspiring" his henchmen with his own... _unique_ brand of performance.


----------



## s/LaSH

*892: So... White...*

Introduce a pair of elves who own an albino tiger. These elves wear white tights and loose white shirts, and are generally flamboyant. And as they are spellcasters, when it comes time to cast anything they look at each other and say in tandem, "It's magic time!"

Maybe this is just me, but those two have freaked me out ever since I saw a skit on Mad TV. "Siegfried and Roy: Magicians on the Street." A mix of cop shows and magic shows. Two images stayed with me. The first was the two turning to face the camera and _smiling_ so very... suggestively. The second was a scene where the duo are riding through the streets in a motorbike with a sidecar, and Siegfried says, "It's freezing out here, Roy, my neeples are all hard!"

Just use that sort of thing. The more ridiculously camp the better. Just don't forget to DM the cheesy, suggestive, sinister grin every time the duo shows up. All right, so it's silly... but even silly has its sinister side, and soon you'll be able to scare players just by smiling at them.

Bonus points if you grin broadly while roleplaying another, unrelated character (like the gruff bartender at the Red Dragon) and the players actually look for 'those elves'.

Bonus points if you grin broadly at any time and the players take a collective step backwards.


----------



## HalfElfSorcerer

893.  When the players go to sleep the night after they discover the BBEG's plans/a powerful new spell/corruption in the government, have them wake up in what appears to the same room.  When they go to the window, however, have them find themselves in a charming little villiage, with horse-drawn carriage taxis that only go as far the limits of the city.  Have them be invited to a location known as "the Green Dome" for a meeting with "number 2."  Engage in all sorts of devilry to try and have the BBEG's plans/spell/corruption discovered by the town "leadership."  Make it unclear why this information is wanted.  Give meta-game experience to the first player who realizes they are in a warped rip-off of the cult classic "The Prisoner."


----------



## brun

894. Tell your players about this thread, but do notuse any of its content.They will always be on their gard...

895. Make up an entry in this thread of something really freaky/hellish/cheap-shot that you have not yet used, but that fits nicely in your campaign (give specifics about names, etc...). Subtly get at least oe of your players to read the entry. Enjoy !


----------



## Guilt Puppy

896. When you're already certain that an enemy's attack roll hits your players, instead of "does a 28 hit?", why not ask "does a 64 hit?"


----------



## Draxus the Tainted

I've not been keeping track with all the posts, I dunno if something similiar to this has been said, I doubt it though, but here it goes.

897. Pick up a copy of the MM2, and take every creature in the book and add all it's stuff into one HUGE creature. Everything like the ability scores, the feats, hit points, special abilities, spell like abilities, supernatural abilities, natural armor, special attacks, etc. Everything including the kitchen sink! And as the campaign goes along, have everyone refer to a legendary creature named "Ungeheuer Handbuch Zwei" (MM2 in German if I'm not mistaken, correct me if I'm wrong, I used a translator. Use some other language if your players speak German.) After a few sessions have the PC's finally run into the big baddy! And when they finally discover what it is, and have died to it, give them awhile to be so mad at you that they want to hurt you physically. When next session comes around, tell them it is morning and they have awaken in an inn after having the worst nightmare about something called "Ungeheuer Handbuch Zwei!"

To be even more evil, don't have them wake in an inn, but instead make new characters because they died!

Maybe it isn't that much to you guys, but it would be so funny to me, to see the reactions on my players faces!


----------



## s/LaSH

*898: Serious Identity Crisis*

This is just creepy. I hate myself already for the idea. Have a monster that can morph into an exact duplicate of a PC, and has an attack that instantly kills the target. Then the monster acquires all the memories, personality, abilities etc. of the PC. Then give control of the monster to the player of that PC.

Then watch as the PC goes slowly mad trying to analyse their own identity, while everybody else tries to kill them.

Bonus points if you allow the PC's old body to be _raised_.

Extra bonus points if you _don't_ inhabit the old body with an evil spirit, but bring back the real PC.


----------



## holomachamp

At the beginning of next session, walk in with a bottle full of vodka smash it on the table. say the bottle will do the talking and leave the room.


----------



## hammymchamham

I guess its 900 now

900. Introduce a musical instrument artifact thats intellegent that is LG in alignment, and is obsessed with one thing, and that is "He only speaks the truth." Make it a Sitar. Give said Sitar a curse where the Bard (or who ever uses it) can't get rid of it short a Wish or Miracle. Give the Sitar a couple abilities that make it atractive. Have the Sitar attempt to turn the bard to be LG.

yes, stolen from Moulin Rouge, but it could freak some members of the party out


----------



## Moe Ronalds

901) "accidentally" leave the character sheet of the evil dude that the players are just about to face behind when you go to the bathroom. Put it in plain view. Make it innacurate to what the actual villain is... Say, a few... hundred, levels higher than what he really is.


----------



## Oogar

*A dash of Steven King*

902 - A small Zombie Child, or Animal, which the the NPCs that are "with" the zombie treat as if it were normal and living. Bonus points if the decay is insignificant to begin with, but small things start being mentioned. "The old mans cat looks like it might have a touch of the Mange" next day " There is a fly that seems to be pestering the cat, but the cat does not swat at it" later "The cat's ear seems to have been chewed off recently, there are a couple small wounds on the cat as well" and even later "The cat does not seem to be healing well, but he seem in fine spirits, dispite the fact that you think you can see a patch of his skull through the fur still on his head"

Well, it would freak me out a little


Number Edit


----------



## Guilt Puppy

903. Give one of your major enemies a henchman that stays in the shadows and isn't seen by the PCs for quite a while. Name him "Balor." Great reactions when they _detect thoughts_ on one of his allies.


----------



## Moe Ronalds

900b: In your deeds not words game, let your characters see the villain's name only, and only long enough for them to read it before you pretend to realize they can see it. For the villain's name, put "Galactus"


Edit: Galactus *is* the name of the guy that eats planets and whatnot, right?


----------



## Creamsteak

904: Every single time there is a need for a climb check, swim check, balance check, or any other check that involves getting from point A to point B or die, have a convenient rope for the players to use. Always a perfectly fine, very high quality, steel chain, or a silk rope.

After about two sessions where the ropes don't do anything negative, start having the ropes turn out to be a very bad idea to use.

a) The rope turns out to be animated, or a creature

b) The rope is a trap, is brittle, or is cut by someone else

c) The rope is covered in a contact poison, has a slippery substance rubbed all over the last 10-20 feet of it, or is an illusion in the middle and is held in place by a spell

d) The enemy casts an entagling spell or animation spell on the rope, to tie up the person holding it

Really a multi-faceted idea, since there are quite limitless combinations of ways to simply screw someone over with a chain or rope... just remember to motivate them to want to use it the first couple times, before you get them...


----------



## 333 Dave

905(ish) : Going back to the old bad guy theme song idea, play the BBEG's theme song when they return to the tavern after an adventure. Bonus points if the BBEGs Good Twin runs the bar.


----------



## hammymchamham

907) Bring a pig to the game and a dagger. Tell your players 'Tonight we make our sacrfice to Satan for allowing us to play tonight." I guess this will work best if you have one or two really new players and you can borrow someones pig. Of course, don't actually do the sacfice, unless thats you thing.


----------



## Mercule

908) Let the PCs find out that the BBEG is a red dragon.  Let them prep to their hearts' desire.  They will no doubt be cautiously expectant.  When they finally face the red dragon, only then do they discover that it has a _mate_ sharing its lair.

*chuckle*  I still have probably a month of play before they discover the horrible truth.


----------



## Zappo

909) As 908, and the dragon is actually a white cloaked in illusion.


----------



## Magic Rub

910) All of the monsters you use are "The Munsters", Like Eddie Herman, Grandpa, & the whole gang, But give them HUGE CR's so the fights are nasty. Every time there's a fight play the theme song from the TV show. After about 2 hours your players will cry at the sound of that song, & as a side effect they'll never be able to watch the show again!

911) After you've used "The Munsters" Trick for a bit Start playing old TV & Movie theme songs & dittys for everything & see what happens. They enter a town play "Petticoat Junction". They talk to the towns gaurd play "Dragnet". 

912) Have all NPC bards sing & play old TV & Movie theme songs & dittys. The Theme from "The Beverlyhillbillies", or "The Dukes of Hazzard" just to name a few good examples. "Come & listen to a story 'bout a man named Jed..." It just screams Bards Tale don't it


----------



## MerakSpielman

hammymchamham said:
			
		

> *907) Bring a pig to the game and a dagger. Tell your players 'Tonight we make our sacrfice to Satan for allowing us to play tonight." I guess this will work best if you have one or two really new players and you can borrow someones pig. Of course, don't actually do the sacfice, unless thats you thing. *




913: Instead, bring a cute, friendly pig. You can get them reasonably cheap in the country (not one of those expensive pot-bellied pigs). Bring it to several games. Let the players get used to it, even those that at first think a pet pig is a bit odd. Give it a cute, cuddly name and teach it a trick or two.

Then one day, when the players show up, have some BBQ pork chops on the table and no pig anywhere to be seen.

Say nothing. Pretend you never had a pig if asked. Eat your pork chops loudly and occasionally mutter under your breath something that sounds kind of like the pigs name.

It's up to you if you want to really slaughter the pig or just give it away and buy pork chops, but never tell your players the truth.


----------



## MerakSpielman

MerakSpielman said:
			
		

> *
> 
> 913: Instead, bring a cute, friendly pig. You can get them reasonably cheap in the country (not one of those expensive pot-bellied pigs). Bring it to several games. Let the players get used to it, even those that at first think a pet pig is a bit odd. Give it a cute, cuddly name and teach it a trick or two.
> 
> Then one day, when the players show up, have some BBQ pork chops on the table and no pig anywhere to be seen.
> 
> Say nothing. Pretend you never had a pig if asked. Eat your pork chops loudly and occasionally mutter under your breath something that sounds kind of like the pigs name.
> 
> It's up to you if you want to really slaughter the pig or just give it away and buy pork chops, but never tell your players the truth. *




914: Do this with other kinds of pets, but just lock them in a room on BBQ night and serve pork chops.

915: Do this with the household child, and wait for a night that they're away to pull the prank. Serve pork chops (hopefully people can tell that they're really pork and won't get TOO freaked out)


----------



## Xarlen

916) Bring up childhood fears, in idle conversation. Admit your own, let your players tell theirs. Casually ask what their characters fear.

Three months later, have the characters break into a tomb. A coffin, perhaps of stone, or some odd material (Jade?) is in one corner. They open it.

That night, have a PC roll a will save against a Nightmare spell. Describe the nightmare paticularly. Repeat this, as they go on down their adventure (Take characters aside, when doing this perhaps). Now, while they're having a fight with an enemy, traveling through boring situations, having NPC RP, have them make a Will save. If they fail, (Let us take the example of snakes) a snake is crawling up their leg. Do this repeatedly.

Start throwing Suggestions at the party, as well as covering PCs with illusions of that fear. As well as Fear spells, and finally, Phantasmal Killers.

If the PCs aren't going nuts, attacking eachother, or hiding, and they're using True Seeing, have them find an Incorperal being hovering amid them. The steady fear that they've been enducing has been Feeding him. He's now a Nasty Incorperal Outsider. 

917) Let them kill him.

Repeat, 3 months later.

917b) Have one character have a nightmare, three months later. It's just a nightmare.


----------



## brun

918. Use a fly. Every now and then, describe a fly annoying them. It then goes on to do whatever flies do.

919. Have the fly detect as magical. (it uses the fly spell)

920. The fly is chaotic neutral.


----------



## s/LaSH

Zappo said:
			
		

> *909) As 908, and the dragon is actually a white cloaked in illusion. *




Or just painted red. Seriously. Get a few buckets of red paint and douse yourself in the stuff. If you have minions, get them to do it for you. Just be careful to get rid of the evidence afterwards.

I saw this in Adventurers! once. If you haven't read it, do so; it's about a console RPG and is hilarious.


----------



## Femerus the Gnecro

s/LaSH said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Or just painted red. Seriously. Get a few buckets of red paint and douse yourself in the stuff. *




Remember, this is a dragon we're talking about.  

Have it cast simulacrum, then have the simulacrum cast polymorph other, making the white dragon look exactly like a red.  

Or be meaner and have a red dragon turn itself white.  It'll work wonders against the horribly meta idea that everyone is born knowning what energy attacks work vs specific color dragons.

-F


----------



## hammymchamham

921 I think?

921. Ban mountain dew* from your games.

*insert favorite drink or snack here


----------



## MerakSpielman

922: Insist that the players need to learn all the languages on the character sheet.

923: a few days after 922, hand out a map to some great and wonderful artifact - written in Celestial.

924: if the characters actually manage to follow the map, have it lead through the lands of various different races. Have them stopped by customs officials at all borders. Have them stopped by patrols often. Speak in the languages of the races when representing these NPCs. Have them get hostile if the PCs don't speak in that language.


----------



## Deedlit

925.(I got this directly from FFVII) Have the party travel through a dangerous land, with fearsome beasts.  The party must survive, though feel free for them to have their butts handed to them, and only survive due to the mistake of one of them.  Next, you see one of those beasts impaled on the favored weapon of the BBEG, with the BBEG's name written on it.


----------



## Clear Dragon

926.
Adventurer's (un)luck.

Also inspired from Final Fantasy series. Have the party be warned that the road they must travel on is watched by many dangerous beasts and monsters. Have them encounter many frail looking travellers along the route who make the journey unscathed, but the party themselves barely make it alive. Ambushes always occur a split second before or after talking to an NPC, and even if the PCs try to force the encounter towards one, the attacking monster or bandits ignore anything except the PCs.


----------



## hammymchamham

don't forget to play the FF battle music when the win...or when their is a TPK. Actually, the losing music would be a wonderful fan fair for the bad guy


----------



## Moe Ronalds

927: A Celestial that thinks it's a shade called Deeandee (or something like that) that raps about it's stupid mother and stuff like that. (In case you couldn't tell, the real slime shady started playing on a CD I burned a while back)


----------



## 333 Dave

929: The fly also has 1000hp, SR and AC of 90.


----------



## Lela

333 Dave said:
			
		

> *929: The fly also has 1000hp, SR and AC of 90. *




*930:* When personal bodily harm becomes imminent, finally reveal that the Fly has a Cha of 38 and goes by the name Super Fly.

Be sure to adjust your voice for maximum effect.


----------



## The Sigil

931. Let your players know that all OOC conversation must be done in Quenya (sp?)

932. Dump a box of hammers - meticulously painted - on the game board.  When the players ask what they are for, tell them you've heard that Warhammers are all the rage among miniatures enthusiasts.

933.  Lightning bolt!  Lightning Bolt!  Lightning Bolt!  Lightning Bolt!  Lightning Bolt!  Lightning Bolt!  Lightning Bolt!  Lightning Bolt! (need I say more)?


----------



## The Sigil

934. In honor of National Talk Like a Pirate(Cat) Day: Start your gaming session thusly:

Aye! Today be the day to prepare the plank and ready the chum!
There be enemies abreast and I'm about to prepare the platter! There be new plebs about, and 'tis green ahoy! 

All hands on deck and there be no holdin' the turmoil! All ye greenies must be steady on the cant! 

Loose translation:

New campaign starting TONIGHT! Everyone has to talk like a pirate for the entire sesssion!


----------



## The Sigil

935.  Put out a plate of small, fuzzy, critters.  Put them in the microwave.  Tell everyone warmhamsters are all the rage.


----------



## Magic Rub

Zappo said:
			
		

> *Who ate #928? *




*928)* Ask your players sporadically, but repeatedly *"Who ate #928?"*


----------



## Magic Rub

936) Pick a player at the start of a game & look only at that player regardless of who you're talking to for the entire game.


----------



## 333 Dave

937. Introduce a 7ft tall, 400 lb, furry, fanged Tasslehoff to your game.
938. Make it so that the players objective is to protect the creature from 937 'untill I return'.


----------



## Cerubus Dark

939:  Every Shop Keeper is named Martha Stewert, and everything they sell is cursed -2.

940: Make the Evil Martha's Immortal


----------



## The Sigil

941.) Create a village in which every NPC is actually a doppelganger.  The PCs crash in the village for the night and the next morning, everyone in town looks just like PC A.  At noon, all of them simultaneously turn into PC B (except any that the PCs can see, who wait until the PCs are out of sight before they change).  At dusk, they all turn into PC C.  Wash, rinse, repeat.

942.) Have the PCs sent to a cave to discover a lost bit of lore.  Guarding the cave is a rabbit with big nasty sharp pointy teeth (rarr!).

943.) "This world has no horses.  All long-distance transportation is done via the miracle of the Gnomish Catapult Air Express."

944.)  Make sure the Gnomish Catapult Air Express has lots of connections on its flights.

945.)  Every NPC uses the GCAE - "what, it's no big deal!  We do it all the time!  Perfectly safe!"

946.)  When the PCs use the GCAE to get from place to place, every town is filled with doppelgangers that look like a given PC.  Thanks to scrying "technocery" they change just before the PC arrives to look like him.

947.)  Make drow irrevocably good and all high elves irrevocably evil.

948.) Say, "no elf PCs!"

949.)  The PCs encounter a round black sphere with a candle wick (burning) sticking out of it.  When the wick burns down, the sphere changes color to green and yellow polkadots with red lettering saying, "boom!" on it.

950.)  No NPC ever uses pronouns or proper nouns when referring to people - only names.  IOW, it's never, "what can I do for you gentlemen" at the bar, but rather "what can I do for Thron the Mighty, Feldspar the Wimpy, and Sir Robin the not-quite-so-brave-as-sir-lancelot?"  Then, "we thank Thron the Mighty, for Thron the Mighty's patronage of Hippy Bob's Tavern on the Hill."  Works especially well when NPCs should have no reason to know the PCs' full names and titles.

951.) As above, but also mention something the PCs did last week, as in "what can I do for Thron the Mighty who yesterday slew the Bonzo the orc chieftan, Feldspar the Wimpy who not six hours ago deflowered Princess Virginia in the barn behind the third watchtower on King Steven's summer estate, and Sir Robin the not-quite-so-brave-as-sir-lancelot who choked on last Tuesday's undercooked supper and lied about enjoying it."


----------



## MerakSpielman

952: Talk like a bad narrator of a hidden camera show, to the point of giving away importent information.
   "What the party doesn't know is that there is a huge red dragon behind that door! Let's watch!"

953: Talk like a bad host of a Survivor TV show. Ask your players to vote a member off after each game.

954: Talk like the narrator of a bad nature documentery. 
  "As the fearless owlbear  stalks its prey, you can see the distinctive plumage of the Northern Spotted variety, currently in danger of extinction due to regional overlogging."


----------



## Savage Wombat

955.   Just as the heroes draw near to the last few miles of their 1000 mile journey, tell them "On second thought, that's just too easy - let's make it 10,000 instead."


----------



## thickeyebrows

956: replace all plot dependant nouns by using the word " jawn" as substitute, then fly into a rage when they don't have any clue what to do.


----------



## brun

957. Pick a color. Every baddy in the game wears these colors, regardless of affiliation ( they just like orange sooo much!).

958. After using 941 long ennough, every one wears these colors (fashion spreads, and orange makes me look good!)


----------



## MeepoTheMighty

I pulled this one on my party once:

959)  As the party travels through the forest, they come to a small (~1 foot wide) stream.  A log serves as a crude bridge over the stream, and it's guarded by a bugbear who demands a toll.  The players laugh, step over the stream, and move on.

After the party goes to sleep for the night, they are attacked by a raiding party of a dozen or so bugbears, led by this guy.

After slaughtering half the party, the bugbears tie up the survivors and take a silver piece from each of them, and say  "You forgot to pay the toll!"


----------



## brun

*the black box*

960. Have someone (I used an orc priest of Grumsh) deliver a black box to the party. The bearer is evil (if detected), but seems trustworthy (he does not lie). He gives the PCs the black box and no explaination other than not oppening the box "before the time was right", saying he has urgent business to attend. About 15 minutes later, screams and noises alert the PCs; the orc is found dead, by his own weapon (he killed himself, deliberately).

Now the fun begins. There seems to be no way to open the box, it is deep black in color, has no inscription and is heavier than it would appear. If detected, it is enchanted with an overwhelming magic that cannot be identified or dispelled. 

961. The box foolows the players. If the ever forget it, give it or try to get rid of it, the players find that it is some distance (between 20 to 300 ft) away. The box still does nothing.

962. The box grants their deepest desires, unperverted. When they are in need, the box grants wishes. (When locked up in a cell and striped of everything, they wake up and find the door open. A few corridors down,they find the black box.) Try to not make so obvious that the two are related.

963. Each time a wish is granted (and as the PCs will eventually link it with the black box, it will increase in frequency---> "you find your lost shocking greataxe +4 in the sands of the desert"), have some nasty demon or devil appear anywhere within 5 miles. They are bent on killing, and not necessarely the PCs... and they have time... 

I used all these.


----------



## The Sigil

*Re: the black box*

964.) Have the PCs find a great big wooden box floating in a convenient bay.  When they open it up, they find a *thump-thump-thump* (sound of you slapping something heavy three times - don't ever actually give them more info than this).  This item is cursed - they can never be rid of it - and nobody will want to speak to them after they obtain it.

_While I was walking down the beach 
one bright and sunny day,
I saw a great big wooden box 
a-floating in the bay.
I pulled it in and opened it up 
and much to my surprise--
Oh, I discovered a  *thump-thump-thump*  
right before my eyes!
Oh, I discovered a  *thump-thump-thump*  
right before my eyes.!

I picked it up and ran to town
as happy as a kind.
I took it to a guy I knew
who'd buy most anything.
But his is what he holered at me
as I walked in his shop.
Oh, get out of here with that *thump-thump-thump*  
before I call a cop.
Oh, get out of here with that  *thump-thump-thump*  
before I call a cop.

I turned around ang got right out,
a-running for my life;
And then I took it home with me
to give it to my wife.
But this is what she holldered at me
as I walked in the door,
Oh, get out of here with that  *thump-thump-thump*  
and don't come back no more.
Oh, get out of here with that  *thump-thump-thump*  
and don't come back no more.

I wandered all around the town
until I chanced to meet
A hobo who was looking for a handout on the street.
He said he'd take most any old thing,
he was a desperate man.
But when I showed him the  *thump-thump-thump*  
he turned around and ran.
But when I showed him the  *thump-thump-thump*  
he turned around and ran.

I wandered on for many years a victim of my fate
Until one day I came upon St. Peter at the gate.
And when I tried to take it inside
he told me where to go!
Get out of here with that  *thump-thump-thump*  
and take it down below.
Get out of here with that  *thump-thump-thump*  
and take it down below.

The moral of this story is:
if you're out on the beach
And you should see a great big box,
and it's within your reach,
Don't ever stop and ope it up,
that's my advice to you.
'Cause you'll never get rid of the  *thump-thump-thump*  
no matter what you do.
Oh, you'll never get rid of the  *thump-thump-thump*  
no matter what you do._

--The Sigil


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## Bob5th

A truely evil one.

965. After your players are starting to really like Meepo kill him. 

(Let it stand for the record that I do like Meepo.)


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## thickeyebrows

*.*

966: instead of rolling for long, drawn out melee combat, set up 2 mixing tables and scratch battle it out with the big bad evil villain.

967:keep remarking every 4 minutes how you " can't get enough of that golden crisp."

968: have all semantic movement of all npcs be relayed via karate chop


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## Grim

969: Have the final fight with the BBEG be a cookoff, a la Iron Chef. Have the players actually eat whatever they cook.


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## Suldulin

970: while the party hunts the BBEG and the pc's discuss what to do about the band of trolloc's led by a myrddraal that are hunting them, have the npc in the party ask "Can you determine his direction still, or do you need to cast another spell?"

and when the pc answer with a negative have the npc respond with "Alright..." he mumbles. "You have no idea where he is right now, in other words?"


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## Wanderer At Dusk

971) constantly repeat something related to a very simple rule every single session, example "now remember that you add the following modifiers to your attack" be sure to only pull this on experienced players. 

972) whenever you talk move your hands around, the more motion the better

973) after doing both 971 and 972 suddenly stop for several months.

974) have commoners in every settlement politely ask the pcs for their souls, never offer any explanation. If they give someone their soul they can't be raised, no matter what.

975) invite everyone to your house for a session, have a friend not in the group call halfway through the session or earlier if you prefer. say something like the following "Guys i've got to go pick up the dry cleaning i'm going to have to ask you to leave" 
*bonus points if you actually do have to pick up dry cleaning or such 
** further bonus points if you fake it and actually have something like that in your trunk and just go driving around for an hour or so.


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## HalfElfSorcerer

Only 25 left.  Which means we should set some ground rules for number 1000.  DO NOT post a number 1000 without careful contemplation.  Is it evil?  Will it warp your player's minds?  Or is it really idiotic and lame?  DO NOT post a number 1000 until you are positive of its quality.  I have enjoyed watching this thread over the months, and I am excited to reach my/our goal.  BTW, if anyone out there has the spare time to make them all into a document...well, I won't make you, but I'll find out who your DM is and have them pull one of the 1000 on you.  You've been warned.


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## Zappo

There are dozens that are very lame or that are aimed at killing off the PCs, rather than freaking out the players. There's got to be some pruning. I think we could safely go on beyond 1000 for a while. If the 1000th one sounds bad, just exchange it for the best one.


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## Moe Ronalds

976) Have a wise, old goblin epic-level paladin NPC with extremely poor grammar appear in a game. 

977) Introduce the powerpuff girls into your game. 

978) A god of humor with funny hair named Jeraysahnfeld.  

979) No matter what game you're playing, somehow find a way to translate a character from one game into that system. For example, in an immortal's campaign, make him the god of the sun. Then in malls and morons, make him to owner of a tanning spa. Always give him the same name, title, and looks, even when it would be ludicrous to do so (Argrunk the burly highest level soldier in the king's army for D&D turned into Argrunk the fry cook for Malls and Morons for example)

980) Every session be sure to make at least one reference to the "Dungeons and Dragons" skit from Dr. Demento

My players cry themselves to sleep at night.


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## Privateer

981) Make some of your gargoyles look like small statues of celestials or fairies.

He hee, can't wait to use this one!


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## s/LaSH

*982: I Am The Chosen One!*

In a campaign replete with destiny and powerful heroes walking the Earth, begin to drop hints about a so-called 'Chosen One' who will vanquish evil etc. Mentions of the prophecy are carved on the walls of ancient ruins; astrologers mention it at strange times; evil cults attack pregnant women to find the 'Chosen One' and stop them from attaining their destiny.

Eventually, single out a PC (or all of them) and reveal that they are The Chosen One. (They draw the sword from the stone or something like that.) Encourage them to use this fact to their advantage (saying 'I am the Chosen One!' gives them bonuses to Intimidate or attack rolls, for example).

And when they've gotten used to this, introduce a mysterious figure as an antagonist. They don't have to be evil, just spooky. When the Chosen One confronts them, and declares "I am the Chosen One!", the mysterious figure just says this:

"I am the one who chose."

Proceed to make the Chosen One feel very small.


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## Darkness

983: Tell them that you dislike awarding XP for killing monsters on principle and will abolish it, and then proceed to run Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.


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## demiurge1138

This is my first post, so be patient.
984: (Inspired by Dragon 300) Tell the PCs that the town where they are staying has been plagued by rust dragons. Occasionally have entire blacksmiths and armories decimated by "flyby rustings".

985: Apply personality traits of evil characters to helpful NPCs. Even if the king's adviser is always aiding the party and once saved them from death, if he wears all black and laughs at inoppurtune moments, the party will be severly un-nerved.

986: Paragon kobolds. *Lots* of paragon kobolds.

Demiurge


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## Creamsteak

So close it burns doesn't it?

987: "Accidently" let the players think your using a random encounter table. Then "Accidently" let the players see the random encounter table. In slot 100 on d% have the word "Azathoth" Written there. He's a fricken DR 20 CR 50 72 HD God... and as far as your group needs to be concerned he should be "just another random encounter."

The explanation I give, for why it could be random is this: "It dwells beyond normal space-time at the center of all existence, where its amorphous body writhes unceasingly to the monotonous piping of a flute." Quoted from the Call of Cthulhu group.

Actually, if your running a level 50 game... you stand a slight chance to kill Azathoth... if you can do about 1500 damage a round and can keep your health over 750.

Edit: Ah, and lo! Look good sir, by random probability, the post to mention our good lord Azathoth was the 666th post in the thread! Ha, lo, tis true power our master has over these mortals!


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## Lucius Foxhound

988: Have a high level illusionist hunt the party, constantly casting illusions of monsters for the party to fight.  Give the illusionist Greater Spell Focus and Fox's Cunning spells to make the DC for the illusions impossibly high.  After they defeat, oh, 20 or so seemingly powerful monsters (who never seem to do any real damage to the party, but react appropriately to all the wounds they do to them) and reach the end of the adventure, tell them they get no experience points since everything they fought was an illiusion.


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## The Sigil

989. The PCs find themselves in a village where the main foods are all cabbage derivatives.  You know, cole slaw, sauerkraut, stuffed cabbage, salad with cabbage instead of lettuce, and so forth.  As the PCs exit town, they see the local farmers toiling in the cabbage fields.  A cart loaded with cabbage rolls by them - let them see the little heads and arms attachd to the cabbage (patch kids).  Or maybe this belongs in the book of Vile Darkness... 

990. Bust out your old 1e or 2e DMG - all spells now work just like a wand of wonder.

991.  When the PCs confront the big evil bad guy, have him only speak in pleasant whispers - though he utters the cliche BEBG stuff like, "why am I constantly surrounded by idiots?" and "when I complete this, the world will be mine!"

992.  When the PCs confront the BBEG, they find a construct.  After beating it to a bloody pulp, the head falls off the construct, revealing a mouse with a large head.  ("Whadd're we gonna do tonight, Brain?")

993.  When the PCs arrive to game, let everyone sit down around the table.  Then say, "okay, now everyone pass your character sheets and dice one place to the right."

994.  When the PC to your left tries to pass his character sheet and dice to the PC at your right, stop him and say, "oh, no" - then take his character sheet and give the PC at your right the DM screen and all the trappings.

995.  Have 'random draw a character night' - everyone makes five characters and then everybody throws the character sheets into a pile and you have each PC draw one sheet from the "deck" and play that character.  Repeat with each session (works best over the long term).

996.  Announce to the PCs that their characters have been thrown through a dimensional vortex.  Put them on Rifts earth.  Naked.  With D&D power, not Palladium power, in their spells.

997.  Set all the clock alarms in the house to go off at exactly the same time - preferably about an hour into the session.  Jump up and scream, "trap! trap!  You weren't fast enough!"

998.  Ask the PCs to dress "in character" for Halloween.  Answer the door in the leather spider getup of a drow priestess.

999.  Speak entirely in Pig Latin.  The whole session.  Don't explain yourself.

1000. Invite Colonel Pladoh over - or if you can't get him, get some older uncle - and introduce the PCs as they arrive to "Gary Gygax, creator of D&D."  Explain that he's just going to watch the session to see how D&D has changed over the years.  About halfway through the session, the alarms go off (see #997) and Gary (or faux Gary) feigns a heart attack.  Freak out.  Tell your players that you have to find a place to dump the body, as if anyone ever found out you killed THE Gary Gygax, the ENWorlders would have your head.

As a bonus...

1001. Tell the PCs that you will be running a Bluffside campaign, hosted by THG_Hal - and that he will be doing it in the manner alluded to on Mortality Radio - as "buff in Bluff."  Or perhaps invite the Mystic Eye over too (not the people, just that spooky eye).

Hooray!  One Thousand!!!

--The Sigil


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## Mathew_Freeman

#1000 deserves a special place all of its own. That is an incredible idea. I wonder if he'd ever agree to do it? (Someone else ask him, I'm too scared!)


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## The Sigil

*Thanks.*



			
				Tallarn said:
			
		

> *#1000 deserves a special place all of its own. That is an incredible idea. I wonder if he'd ever agree to do it? (Someone else ask him, I'm too scared!) *



Why do you think I saved it for #1,000? 

*thinks South Park - does best Cartman voice (which is not good at all)* 
"Omigod!  We killed Gary!"

--The Sigil


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## Darkness

Hmm... Should we close and archive this thread now that it's finished?


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## s/LaSH

Darkness said:
			
		

> *Hmm... Should we close and archive this thread now that it's finished?  *




It's not 'finished'... the only reason I'm not posting things from my campaign is that I'm doing a webcomic based on it and don't want to leak major plot spoilers. Unfortunately, at this rate I won't have any of the really good ones until late 2004. Oh well. Um, I have some really nasty ideas there, though.

Please don't take away this wonderful thread... I'll try to contribute as often as possible. Everybody else should, too. Because there are a few lame ones in here. We owe it to the world to come up with EVEN MORE evil plans and soul-scarring plots!

Beg beg beg.

*1002: The Festival*

Find The Festival by H. P. Lovecraft at http://gizmology.net/lovecraft/index.html (don't worry, it's a short read). Plunge the players into it without warning. This works even better when they're in a village that they know is friendly - or their home base where they all grew up.

It works even better when you trick the PCs into thinking it's a non-combat occasion and convince them to leave their sword at the tavern, so they're unable to attack anything when things get freaky.

And it's a no-win situation. Whatever the PCs do, they're outnumbered or outgunned until they are either beaten unconscious by concerned relatives or run screaming into the night. They're found drifting in the harbour the next morning. The ending of The Festival is a good way to finish the adventure.

Sure, there's a little work required... but if you turn all the lights off while playing and use enough of Lovecraft's original dialogue, you'll have some seriously spooked players.

And sure, there's already a Cthulhu RPG, but suddenly throwing madness and strangeness of that calibre into a high fantasy campaign and making the players helpless is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Bonus points if you pretend the whole adventure never happened.

Extra bonus points if you can get the players to follow the exact course of action the protagonist in the story did.


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## Darkness

s/LASH:

The thread's title is "1,000 ways to freak out your players" - and it has just reached 1,000.
That's my sole reason for asking. 

edit for clarity: That is, if the thread's originator thinks that's enough, I'll archive it; otherwise, the thread continues until Piratecat closes it because of an excessive number of replies (probably at 800-900, judging from past experience).


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## Creamsteak

Keep it up, but set a due date or something. Give everyone two weeks... if they still want to contribute they will.


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## Lela

creamsteak said:
			
		

> *Keep it up, but set a due date or something. Give everyone two weeks... if they still want to contribute they will. *




I agree

After that, how about a thread titled, *"Another 1000 ways to freak out your players"  ?*

That way we take it easy on the boards by way of bandwidth and still get to continue the fun.


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## Noldor Elf

That 1000 was great!

So this is 1003 (or replacement #2):

Let the PCs find a prophecy which clearly describes one of the players as the hero (not by name, but outfit, style, companions). The prophecy is about completing a task that group is trying to finish at that time.
In the prophecy is describet that the hero should look out the biting tip (arrow). The hero can avoid two of them, but the third will run throught his hearth.

I did this to my group: after a bow trap (barely missed) and orc ambush (only one without taking hit) our hero (the main fighter) was so nervous he hided behind a fountain in final battle against a BBEG (how was armed with a crossbow)


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## The Sigil

Tallarn said:
			
		

> *#1000 deserves a special place all of its own. That is an incredible idea. I wonder if he'd ever agree to do it? (Someone else ask him, I'm too scared!) *



The answer is, yes he would.   Scroll up the following thread a couple of posts to find him saying "yes..."

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?postid=390499#post390499

Way to go, Gary!  

--The Sigil


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## HalfElfSorcerer

*We did it!!!*

Hooray!!!  We did it!!!  I hope this gets in the news tomorrow.  Archiving the thread is fine with me, as long as it gets a permenant, irrevocable link to it on the front page.  Maybe not for volumes 2 through 7  but as far as I know, this community-wide success at such a large goal is unprecedented.  I think that deserves a piece of the pie on the main page.  A second thread would be fine, but I would feel guilty starting it.  Someone else can go ahead and start it with 1005.

1004.  Go to a custom cap place and get a hat that says "No."  Call it your DM hat.  Point to it in response to all questions during your game session.  "Do I make the save?" [Point to hat.]  "Did I beat the trap?" [Point to hat.]  "Can I go to the bathroom?" [Point to hat.]


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## Lela

So, has anybody started the next thread?


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## Airwolf

Lela said:
			
		

> *So, has anybody started the next thread? *




Yep, Moe Ronalds started one.  You can find it here.  So far it only has a few posts in it.

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?threadid=25782

Enjoy!


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## Creamsteak

Ok. I'm officially overwhelmed. I printed out 91 pages of this thread, condensed completely... two columns, minimal margins, 8 point font, tight spacing...

It is a bit much. So I ask... what can we do with this thing if I go ahead and spend 20+ hours editing it? What can we do with this thing if I spend 40+ hours editing it? What can we do if I take the time to get this thing up to true PDF publishing level?

I ask because I'm really getting killed here. I took 2 hours to edit the thing by hand, with a perfect red pen, and used the whole thing up. Keep in mind this was a full 19 pages of hand editing, crunching, pulling, and shaping, so 2 hours was still a bit fast.


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## Creamsteak

1-101 done. I might still need to take out some "them"s that are references to player characters, and some "IMC" comments, but I think I removed plenty of the bad material.


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