One Thousand Ways to Freak Out Your Players

[Marimmar]

316) Always attack them when the party wants to rest to face a big battle the next day

317) Everytime you roll a d20 mumble 'incredible, this die never rolls below 16 today...'

318) Never fail a single saving throw (this really freaks out mages)

319) Everytime your players think they convinced an NPC let the NPC reconsider and again say 'no'. Repeat until they want to lynch you.

320) Only hand out treasure you rolled up randomly on the lowest treasure charts you find. Your players with level 10 characters will love to find a shuriken +1 after defeating a beholder.

321) Let some NPC fight with an insanely powerful item that anyone recognizes on sight and after the PCs defeat the NPC anounce to them that you didn't want to have such a powerful item in the campaign and change it to some minor and useless item.

322) Do not let PCs buy magic items and never hand out magic weapons as treasure (this will really annoy fighter types of level 5+)

323) Invent absolutely useless magic items as treasure like the powerful 'blanket of hiding' which allows a single PC to hide under it when lying absolutely still by providing an incredible +2 bonus on hide checks.

324) Always have monsters and NPC perfectly prepared to exploit any weaknesses or repetitive combat tactics the players may have.

All the above happened in our campaigns...

 

[Marimmar]

More...

325) Take a look at the player's character sheet and give them only so many XP at the end of the session to keep them 1 point below the next level. (make this some number between 50-100 points to avoid being lynched)

326) Act like one of the party members got a cursed item after the treasure is shared and pretend being all agitated and gleeful and unable to wait 'til next week to see the curses results and that the other players will have their fun as well.

 

[Marimmar]

...even more

327) Pull out your 1st edition DMG and tell them how much better the rules were in that book and that you'll incorporate some of the rules found therin instead of the 3E DMG.

328) Change things your players think are normal and constantly let them fight neutral gnolls, normal soldiers that are level 6+, simply put let them constantly encounter things the think ain't right.

329) Force them to show you where in the rules it says that a longsword does 1d8 points of damage and when they show you make repeated whining remarks about too powerful normal items and changing the rules.

330) Demand to receive a copy of all player's character sheets after they advanced a level (that freaks out all those cheaters out there)

331) Demand that everyone always keeps book about the weight of their equipment and constantly ask them if they can really move that fast with all that stuff on their backs.

332) Introduce hazards like little walls to climb, iced passages to balance over or broken bridges to jump across. Anything that requires a skill use that has an armor check penalty will assuredly grind your campaign to a halt when the fighters start whining about being unable to hop over that 5' chasm.

333) Constantly demand skill uses for skills that are rarely or never used like Craft Carpentry, Knowledge Laws, Innuendo or Intuit Direction.

334) Another way to freak out fighter types is to have adventures where not a single fight happens. Since they have no useful skills they cannot do anything but sit around being bored.

335) At the start of a session make a PC stricken by madness and take control of his character. Endless boredom for that player.

336) At the start of the next session kill that PC and let the player wait for the other players to resurrect him. Another session of boredom.

337) After resurrecting a chaotic neutral character have his temple demand some grisly task of him as payment for his return to life, like burning down an orphanage or killing five priests of a lawful good god.

okay, we beat the first third...

 

[The Root Of All Evil]

...even more

okay, we beat the first third...

Sure, but roughly one third of that really doesn't fit in the concept. A lot of posts range from bugging players to bogging down the game. Don't get me wrong though; most of these are hilarious but come on guys, let's have some focus!

 

[Marimmar]

...roughly one third of that really doesn't fit in the concept.

*scratches his head* isn't freaking out your players about getting negative reactions from your players?

How about some focused examples?

~Marimmar

 

[The Root Of All Evil]

Let's not get bogged down in a discussion about definitions but since you're asking, here are my two cents: No, it's not about getting negative reactions from players. It's about heightening the gaming experience by making the players scared of losing their lives, rightfully pillaged property, already threadbare sanity and, in some cases, virginity.... Again, don't get me wrong; I'm having the time of my life reading about umpteen ways of making your players pissed off - It's just not something to pat ourselves on backs about and call "One Thousand Ways to Freak Out Your Players".

 

[333 Dave]

ARRGGG!!!! WHY DID YOU PREVENT ME FROM DOING NUMBER THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THREE?! NOW YOU WILL FEEL MY WRATH!

The True #333: Always have things appear in groups of three for no real reason. Three rooms in a row with three orcs each carrying three gold pieces, for example.

 

[Marimmar]

I understand you Root of All Evil, so here comes another one to freak out your Players.

338) When playing with your 2nd level party, hand them a holy avenger, a vorpal sword, a ring of invisibility a mace of disruption and robe of the archmagi. I bet they'll be torn between having fun getting their dream items and fearing a monty haul campaign.

339) Let the party find a deck of many things


PS: It's okay to double post #333 since the 'A-bomb-in-a-bull' thing was posted twice.

~Marimmar

 

[Broken Fang]

340) Make sure that all large creatures use huge weapons/shields...this way the PC's have nothing they can use.

 

[Helspar]

Oh, I thought this was a humorous thread, sorry. But anyways...

341) Have them encounter a "Nilbog". Some of you laugh, some need an explanation. See 1st Ed MM2.

342) End each session with: "Man am I ever kicking your guys butts!"

343) On the same vein, have a non-playing accomplice come in and ask "Who's winning?"

Sorry about the last two, I couldn't help myself