One Thousand Ways to Freak Out Your Players

[Al]

771- The player characters want to have a meal in this new town. They are told to go to the bar. They are each given a spoon and an empty bowl. The spoons are Murlynd's spoons, and although they supply the meal, the players will be arrested if they attempt to the spoons into thier mouths in any way.

Variation (781.) Wherever the players go for food, they are greeted by smiling young men and women behind a desk. When they ask for a meal, the young man/woman grabs a bowl, puts a Murlynd's Spoon in it, removes spoon and hand the bowl to the PC. S/He then says: 'Enjoy your Happy Meal. Come to McMurlynd's again'

782. Have said chain run by an archlich.

 

[Moe Ronalds]

783) Your characters enter a forest that is said to have powerful magic surrounding it. No one has ever exited this forest alive, but it is rumored that a great monster exists within it. The characters enter, and after a while they note that the ground seems to be made out of stone, as though they had entered a dungeon, yet the sky is still visible, and trees still abound. It is night time. Ahead, in the darkness, the characters see two bright lights. Those with darkvision can make out a roaring creature with stubby legs, a smooth shell for a frame, and a grinning steel maw. Despite it's small legs, the creature moves at incredible speed. A spot check (DC 15) reveals that parts of the creature's skin seems to be incredibly thin and see-through, and the characters can see into the characters stomach, inside of which there is a human body, that seems as though they were frozen with fear when they died. If the characters defeat the monster, the person inside beats a hole out of the creature's stomach, and in an angry tone, he yells: You B******S F***IN TOTALLED MY CAR!!!!!

 

[s/LaSH]

783b: Extend this for an unnecessary amount of time, and apply it to nearly anything else you can think of. The transparent monsters speed off before PCs can reach them; PCs encounter walls of force that cannot be removed with normal magic; strange voices come from all around but there's no magic aura to create them (cars, bulletproof glass, and PA systems). Whole rooms are filled with ice and wind for no apparent reason (walk-in freezers). Find a masterwork clock that's small enough to wear on your wrist.

Even worse, introduce infrared security laser tripwires. They're completely invisible, nonphysical, and damn hard to locate. Of course, if these tripwires are in use, they're probably hooked up to a machine-gun trap, not some wussy spear thrower.

 

[s/LaSH]

784: I'm Far More Powerful Than You Earthlings

Introduce a character who's clearly out of DragonBallZ... as a villain, naturally. This only works if your players are familiar with the show... but it should be enough to freak them out if they are.

Example: They're fighting an evil monk who's slowly getting worn down. When it looks like the PCs are going to win, the monk erupts in golden fire, his hair rises up and turns gold, and he suddenly looks a hell of a lot more confident. (I don't have the Epic book, but I imagine you'd need it to portray a Super Saiyan. Rocks break on their open eyes, you know. The weakest super saiyan is a walking nuclear war.)

Example: Introduce a short, smiling, feminine-looking man with white skin, horns, and purple armour. Give him a couple of henchmen, one of whom is bloated and pink, and covered in spikes, and the other of whom is beautiful, long-haired and completely green. If they still don't get it, transform Freezer (for it is he) into one of his innumberable higher (more powerful) forms. "He grows to ten feet tall, his armour breaks off, and his entire frame ripples with muscle. He still looks bored as you batter him with greatswords - to little effect."

Example: The PCs are sent after a pair of twins who've been causing havoc. One is a blonde girl, the other a dark-haired boy, both in their late teens. They're incredibly strong if the PCs catch them (Epic-level monks with a few levels of sorcerer thrown in for fireballs - and their magic is utterly undetectable, making tracking nearly impossible), but they're not the real problem. When a whole town is found empty, they realise a hideous, inhuman monster is hunting these twins to attain his full power. For real kicks, allow the monster to devour the twins (he's even stronger than they are, BEFORE he absorbs them and gains world-shattering strength).

Example: The PCs are attacked by old foes, who are inexplicably stronger. But they don't want to kill the heroes; they just energy drain the strongest fighter with a strange device and run away. The PCs discover that the energy is being taken to an evil wizard who wants to use it to free an immensely powerful demon. Worse still, the wizard is able to cast a spell that magnifies the evil in your heart, putting you under his control (and making you far more powerful). If the PCs are unusually thick, mention that the wizard is an alien creature, three feet tall and covered in wrinkled yellow skin, and make him yell "Boo!" at every opportunity.

 

[s/LaSH]

785: The Fate Of The World Lies In Your Hands

The PCs are invited to a martial arts tournament on a remote island. When they get there, they find a number of familiar faces - villains, other heroes, even a number of demigods or full-fledged gods. Reveal that they are to compete in a tourney to determine whether another world can invade this one... and the gods are there to compete too.

Yes, they've walked into Mortal Kombat. But with one major twist: Goro (or boss character of choice) isn't a halfdragon, he's a full dragon with Monk levels. Reveal this when it's too late to back out. Heck, make him an evil Gold - they can polymorph into a smaller form.

And then they have to fight his master...

 

[Phowett]

786. When the characters approach a huge boulder, tell them they hear a loud, vicious hiss and grunts. When the characters reach the other side of the boulder they will find nothing, but will hear the osund where they once were. They will circle again, and the same thing will happen. Later on, when they are traveling in an open area, they will hear the sound again behind them. They will turn around and see the same boulder behind them. But, as usual, nothing will be found. Repeat as many times as you can.

OK, after a while, this will annoy your players.

 

[Creamsteak]

787. Every time the players finally corner an Evil alligned NPC, he fully submits to them and gives them all his magic items and works with them. After they party accumulates 3-10 such NPCs, they all decide to finish what they started by ganging up on the PCs.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

785: The Fate Of The World Lies In Your Hands

The PCs are invited to a martial arts tournament on a remote island. When they get there, they find a number of familiar faces - villains, other heroes, even a number of demigods or full-fledged gods. Reveal that they are to compete in a tourney to determine whether another world can invade this one... and the gods are there to compete too.

Yes, they've walked into Mortal Kombat. But with one major twist: Goro (or boss character of choice) isn't a halfdragon, he's a full dragon with Monk levels. Reveal this when it's too late to back out. Heck, make him an evil Gold - they can polymorph into a smaller form.

And then they have to fight his master...

785b. Variation: Have the contest being held by the denizens of the alternate reality be secretly running the contest to see if the heroes' reality is threatening to the existence of the alternate reality/dimesion/world. By winning the competition, the PCs are proving that their dimension is dangerous to justify a "preemptive invasion" by the paranoid alternate dimension denizens who fear (perhaps correctly or not) that the people of the PC's dimension are dangerous, war-like and hostile.
The seemingly malevolent and terrifying boss character and his mysterious master are actually beings sympathetic to the plight of the PCs and their homeworld and do not want to see an invasion. Thus these "enemies" are secretly fighting to make sure to save the heroes' homeworld from invasion by proving that none of the heroes or other challengers are a geniune threat to the alternate reality/dimension.

 

[brun]

788. After putting several of the ideas from this list in EVERY gaming session, sudenly stop.

 

[blaster219]

Numbered Items

789a Everytime you hand out an item (magical or none magical) that has been bought during play or "salvaged from the fallen foe" have the player writedown a number next to it. Increment this number by one each time. Then at random intervals, ask which player has item X.

789b Variation on the above, when asking a player to write a * next to the number.