Loki's dogma: I need pranks and trickery

[atom crash]

I have a player in my campaign who runs a cleric of Loki (Norse god of fire and trickery). Loki's dogma teaches followers they should play pranks and trick people, in order to promote "enlightenment." When the faithful get together, they share stories of the pranks they've pulled. Now that this character's faith and service to Loki is playing a larger role in his character development, I want to detail this aspect more thoroughly.

The trouble is, I'm running out of ideas for decent pranks. My creative juices are running dry on this one.

Ideally, these pranks should be more than just the kind of things teenagers do to irritate people, like rolling someone's yard or leaving bags of flaming dog crap on the front step. They should somehow serve to teach the prankd person a lesson (for example, a follower of Loki could hide someone's favorite possession in order to teach them they shouldn't be too tied to material possessions). Irony is an added plus. And while the faithful usually spurn authority and don't necessarily adhere to the rules of the city, it's not required that the pranks break any laws.

Anyone got any ideas? Please help me put together a list of a dozen or so standard pranks. Thanks.

 

[ivocaliban]

This link may be of no use to you, but it contains various descriptions and stories regarding trickster deities of varying faiths. They may prove inspirational in discovering new pranks to play on the unwary.

 

[Daesumnor]

You should check out Hackmaster by Kenzerco (http://www.kenzerco.com/rpg/hackmaster/). It has heaps of prankster cantrips - albeit teenager ones, but you could modify them.

It also has dances (Such as the Manu Weasel Dance, that damages peoples Honour).

 

[Dinkeldog]

Loki is big on transformations. Make sure a priest of Loki has access to both Polymorph and Baleful Polymorph (and Polymorph Any Object at higher levels). Then Polymorph someone's favorite pet into a hated creature and let the someone be the cause of the demise of their pet. Do the same with loved ones, friends and allies.

A priest of Loki should rarely be the direct cause of someone's demise--always let someone else be tricked into doing it. Lie. Spread rumors. Incite jealous rages. Tell the king that his best friend and the Captain of his Personal Guard is having an affair with the queen. The priest can even polymorph into the best friend's form and seduce the queen to add to the "evidence". Hey, bring the charges up yourself. Then once you've gotten the queen exiled and yourself installed in the Captain's position, let an assassin into the castle to do the dirty work and install yourself as regent for the 2-year old prince.

Think destabilization. Get yourself proclaimed mayor of a border town and then when the barbarians come through, let them by. Of course, you've already cut a deal with the barbarians. Then at the appropriate time, "find" a "secret message" to the barbarian leader that gives the time and location of their next strike and let the leader of the local army know so he can set an ambush and obliterate the barbarians. As a bonus, you're a hero.

 

[LostSoul]

I think it would have to depend on the person you wanted to trick. Someone who is a braggart should be tricked into bragging about something loudly, so everyone hears, then the truth of the matter comes out. Someone who thinks he's got no fear should run away screaming like a baby. Someone who is judgemental of others should be put into their shoes. That sort of thing.

Pretty vague advice... sorry about that.

 

[arscott]

question:

Loki stories show two conflicting images of the god. The first is a mischivious trickster who travels around with odin and thor getting in brawls with the occasional giant or two. The second is the jealous and evil dude who engineers the death of Baldur and fights against the gods at the great battle of ragnorok. Which one are we talking about here?

 

[Umbran]

Which one are we talking about here?

By the description, I'd guess the kinder, gentler Loki. The nasty one is big on bringing down the establishment, getting revenge, and so forth. "Enlightenment", even in quotes, is not the focus of the guy who gets Baldur killed.

One way to figure out good pranks is to first design the target. Make up an NPC with a character flaw first, then figure out how to prank that person so that they'd learn something about that flaw. The NPC will have some aspect of his life that stands as a symbol of what is wrong with him or her. The prank will involve that symbol in some way.

 

[arscott]

Might want to check out joey skaggs. He's quite possably the most famous prankster living today.

http://www.joeyskaggs.com/html/home.html

 

[atom crash]

Thanks for the suggestions, and please keep them coming.

The accounts of Loki depict him getting the gods into trouble with his pranks, then they call upon him to get them out of trouble with his glib tongue and then they are appreciative of him. He's generally depicted as a prankster, not an evil guy. His prank kills Baldur, signalling Ragnarok's approach, but he doesn't turn against the Aesir (the other gods) and side with the giants until after they kill his son and chain him up. From Loki's perspective, his choice was forced by the actions of the other gods. He just wanted Baldur's vanity to be knocked down a notch or two.

Since Polymorph and Baleful Polymorph aren't on the cleric's spell list, that won't help this priest much. The meta-plot of the campaign puts the PCs at odds with the Sea Captain of Freeport, but they've been unable to get near him so far. They'd love to prank the Sea Lord, but it's way beyond their ability at this point.

Anyway, the Joey Skaggs link is great as an inspiration piece. This is exactly the kind of stuff Loki's followers would do. But I still have to translate this "culture jamming" or "media jamming" to my campaign.

These are some examples along the lines I'm looking for -- something that doesn't require a high level of magic or massive ranks in skills to pull off; these are pranks that the low level initiates of Loki might pull off:

The followers of Loki could free the animals from a shop that sells them as exotic pets. Let them run free through the streets. Or they could follow someone home after buying such a pet to find out where they live, break in later and free the pet. Perhaps even free the pet and place the person in a large cage. If there are two merchants in fierce competition with each other, both claiming their wares are superior, the followers of Loki could switch the merchants' goods.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I really have to think Loki would get a kick out of any 'hot foot' prank.