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!

 

[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

 

[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)

 

[Eternalknight]

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

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[Zappo]

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

 

[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

 

[Zappo]

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

 

[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....