One Thousand Ways to Freak Out Your Players

[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]

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]

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

Does anyone else notice an inherent contradiction here?

 

[Lela]

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]

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...