One Thousand Ways to Freak Out Your Players

[Moe Ronalds]

544: Introduce an over-weight jolly man who keeps midgit elf slaves.

545: A troupe of Bards that pop up constantly singing Spammity Spam! Wonderful Spam Spam Spam Spam....

 

[SpuneDagr]

546.

During a dungeon crawl, have the PC's come upon a pool of filled with rotting corpses. There are two massive chains that go up into the ceiling and down into the goo. When the PC's step on a pressure plate, they hear a loud rumbling, grinding sound as the chains start to pull out of the pool. They tug up a gargantuan (or larger) zombie made up from the thousands of corpses in the pool.

That was a lot of fun to do.

 

[DungeonKeeperUK]

Always keep a Dragon in your boc pof minatures for the game, and acidenly leave the box open for a litle while...

I did this one after I caught the players snaeking a look in the box to see what they may come up against....
Worked a treat....

 

[DerianCypher]

#547 - when joining up with your group for a session make it well known that you just bought the ELH handbook. Now, later on when they encounter a mob (make sure you don't describe it quite yet) get out the ELH without being overly obvious. Now, place it open where one of the players can see the picture of the mob and begin describing it. Finish it off with something like "You had disturbed my lair! Prepare to die!"

 

[HalfElfSorcerer]

548. Have them enter a town where everyone is a paladin. That includes kids. All the townspeople are constantly detecting for evil and making sure the party doesn't do anything against the paladin's code.

 

[Helspar]

549) There is never any reason to argue with the players, waving the gun around will pretty much get them to see things your way.

550) Eat continuously through out the entire session. End every line with "gotta bulk up"

 

[Privateer]

551) Confront the players with a gigantic, empty room. Have no traps, no monsters... nothing in it, in short. Hours of DM fun! ("Are there any carvings on the walls?" "No." "Hmmm...")

552) (This one is verified by me; I've done this on occasion, and it never fails to work) Once one of the players has announced his intent to do something you know will result negatively. Calmly (and without provoking suspicion) get up and get behind the players chair, quoting small details about the action leading up to the Inevitable Doom; once you reach the Inevitable Doom, grab the back of the players chair, tilt it on the back two legs, and let them dangle there, unsupported save for you. I call it "The Ultimate Wake up Call." Be certain you can support their weight, however. Also, avoid using on players with heart conditions.

Wheee, I'm evil!

(Edit: Curse my propensity to use the same word twice in a sentence!)

 

[Bob5th]

542. The PCs have just been hired to bring a safe box to some king. The security of the box is very important and they should not open it under any circumstance. Only, by accident, the box does open. And it contains but one paper "Dispatch the bearers of the message".

553. After you know they have read this one have their PCs get asked to transport a sfae box that is not to be opened. Might work best if it doesn't contain the not in the above one.

 

[Eccles]

554. As part of a long and convoluted time-travel campaign, probably one of the best you've run, give the players the option to (a) carry on and fight the bad guy (who they accidentally created at the beginning of the campaign) in 100 different time zones, or (b) unwrite the timelines and make everything disappear.

You have to be prepared. Keep a copy of their 1st level character sheets handy and tear up the old ones.

555. Re-introduce the "Head of Vecna"...

 

[Eccles]

556. After the high-level PCs are forced to flee from a fight against several hundred goblins, obviously calculate XP for all of the goblins, and then smugly announce that 47 of them just levelled.

557. As 556, but then immediately roll hit dice for the goblins and send 47 1st level suicide barbarian goblins with maxed-out 1st level hit-dice at the (still fleeing) party.