The old "illusion of damsels" dungeon ruse

Bullgrit · Aug 28, 2009

Going purely from memory here (because all my D&D stuff is packed for moving):

In AD&D1 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth there's the room in the dungeon of natural caverns where the dao have set up a big illusion of a harem.

In AD&D1 White Plume Mountain there's a flooded room with some kind of deceptive water-women-creature thingies.

In one of the original D&D3 adventures, there's a demon-disguised-as-a-damsel that tries to get the PCs to free it from its restraining circle.

There are other examples of these kinds of illusory rooms in dungeons, especially with some kind of damsels, throughout D&D's adventure module history. Some of them, like the Lost Caverns example, that I just can't see how anyone could possibly be fooled by. (I mean, it's a harem room in the middle of a series of natural caverns and tunnels.)

Did any Players/PCs actually, ever, get suckered by these kinds of set ups? If so, how old were the Players?

Bullgrit

kitsune9 · Aug 28, 2009

Not really. I ran a dungeon module where there was a trapped woman who a "damsel" but trying to lure the PC's into freeing her. They didn't buy it for a second because they were in a dungeon.

Having damsels inside prisons in the dungeon is a little bit more convincing.

Aramax · Aug 28, 2009

I've suckered players with far less,you run it right and somebody will fall for it.

Ferret · Aug 28, 2009

It's threads like this that make me want to put damsels in distress into dungeons.

Then when they are freed form the dungeon destroy towns, as they are actually demons in disguise.

Victim · Aug 28, 2009

Not in my experience. But I never really found the non trap versions of the situation to be particularly appealing either, so they're a solution in need of a problem.

But of course the evil damsels or other disguised prisoners has been massively overused IMO. So being paranoid with people found in a dungeon has become standard operating procedure in most games I've been in - without any metagame reasons to think otherwise anyway.

Piratecat · Aug 28, 2009

I've had fantastic success with this. Heck, I once suckered the party into releasing an arch-devil. The trick is to intersperse it with real prisoners.

kilamanjaro · Aug 28, 2009

I'm embarrassed to admit that I've fallen victim to this. In Undermountain there was a room with a mermaid chained to a wall at the bottom of a pool. My monk jumped in to free her. The pool was acid and the mermaid was an illusion. In my defense, we had seen much stranger things in Undermountain and something about the way the DM presented it made me throw caution to the wind.

Aloïsius · Aug 28, 2009

kilamanjaro said:
In my defense, we had seen much stranger things in Undermountain and something about the way the DM presented it made me throw caution to the wind.

It probably involved the mermaid being somewhat naked

As for the damsel in distress trap, in published adventures it always ring the paranoiac bell in every player I have see. Mostly because they don't belong where they are. Homemade similar situations tends to be more efficient. One example : the PC's mission is to save such a damsel in distress, but, among the guardians of the dungeon, there is a fake...

Crothian · Aug 29, 2009

I did this just last year to group of experienced D&D players who have been playing with me as DM for years. Everyone is in their thirties. It is all in presentation.

Huw · Aug 29, 2009

With the right setup, works a treat. I've successfully pulled it off twice. Once with a conventional "women in cell in evil temple" (disguised undead - heucuvae), once with "We poor defenceless women need an escort through the horrible wilderness" (undead again, this time vampires).

I also pulled it off in a non-trap form. The wizard whose tower the party were exploring had a hawaiian theme bar in one room, complete with illusion of sea and sand. The drinks were real, as was the golem disguised as a waitress. The players spent a lot of time there, in character, and it was safe as they hadn't triggered any hostile response from the golem.

EDIT: You asked for age. Players were between 17 and 22 IIRC.