One Thousand Ways to Freak Out Your Players

[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.

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".