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One Thousand Ways to Freak Out Your Players

708?. Whenever the party come up with a brilliant, strategic plan, yell as loudly and obnoxiously as possible. "Simpsons did it! Simpsons did it! Simpsons did it!"
 

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709. Despite the fact that it's a WFRP book, bring 'Realms of Chaos - The Lost & The Damned' to the gaming table.

Since the book has 200+ chaotic and evil weapons and about 400 different mutations just makes my players... edgy....
 

710: How to inspire in-game hate in players.

A man walks into a tavern carefully carrying a sack. The sack occasionally twitches and mews. He sits down, politely asks for two pieces of toast - with butter. While they're coming, he pulls out a napkin and spreads it on the table/bar, then reaches into his sack and pulls out a kitten. He strokes the kitten. The toast arrives. He tickles the kitten under its chin, breaks its neck, and puts it between the pieces of toast.

(OK, I got this one out of a book, but it's a good one. Sadly, I forget the title/author.)
 

Just for bumping's sake, I guess I'll post my evil plots individually. But I'll space them out. Rationing the evil is a good way to go.

711: The Egg

An egg falls out of the sky and hits someone. A big egg. It does little or no damage, has no adverse effects, and is never explained. If the eggshell is examined, it has markings that resemble writing in Draconic, but cannot be deciphered. And there is nothing inside the egg either but a normal (yet massive) yolk... now probably draped all over some poor player.

Bonus points if this happens indoors.

Extra bonus points if it happens to the King while the players are visiting him.
 

712: Screw with the natural order of the campaign setting.

Large carnivorous sheep chase small, domestic, vegetarian lions. Trees grow in rivers or streams; hills are covered in seaweed. Wingless bats and flying rats. Snow falls in the valleys, while mountaintops are fertile and warm. Giant land octopi lurk behind boulders; ostriches are cliff-dwellers and are never found on level ground. To continue the theme, monsters are found in places you wouldn't expect: aboleths roam the deserts in large herds, local drow worship Pelor, red dragons live in ponds. More importantly, nobody thinks this is weird except the players.

If you're doing your job right, a player will eventually confide in you that they were wondering what the green pointy stuff on the lawn was for a moment while they were coming over for the gaming session. Or that they're now scared of sheep.
 

713. Don't start your campaign in an inn or tavern.

714. Each time a character rests, have them awaken with a new scar or tattoo on them that they dont remember getting (Warning: doesnt work if the characters were out drinking the night before).

715. Whenever the group is in a city and discussing their next move, have npc passersby offer alternative suggestions and then look offended when it gets told it was meant to be a private discussion.

716. Create a new spell - 'Summon Dwarven Pirates I'.

717. Give Ogres English accents (or american if you are an English group).

718. Have all npc bards play only 'wobble-boards' and no other instrument.

719. Use the 'Bolster Undead' ability but through role-play make it seem that the villain is simply ordering the undead to attack, then let the players think those 1HD skeletons are actually 12HD etc.

720. Vampiric Tanar'ri

721. In the next bar-brawl, have npcs start using 'steel chairs' and shouting at each other to 'get the tables!'.

722. Make all elves short, bearded and stocky.
 

This is old and cliché, but it always works:

723. "You walk in the fog for about half an hour. Then you look behind your back, and you realize that you are still exactly where you started..."

724. "You awake in the morning, and realize that the sky has become blood red".
 

725. Have a black goat walk across the room in which a PC is staying just as they drift off to sleep. Better yet, the goat moves sideways and has yellow, corpse-like eyes.

726. Drool occasionaly as you run the game.
 


Natural dysfunctions are always good...

728 In a sunny town, it suddenly snows at midsummer noon.

729 The sun rises in the West one day.

730 You go down to the beach and notice hundreds of drowned rabbits washing up on the shore, too many to have been lost from a wrecked ship.

731 A local river starts flowing upstream (this can screw up local irrigation systems).

If there is a reason, it's bound to be well-hidden and backed by powerful beings... but who said there had to be a reason?
 

Into the Woods

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