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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kafkonia" data-source="post: 2943048" data-attributes="member: 40261">The problem, as with most misdirection tricks in actual play, is that the situation only ever occurs when it is a trick.If you've been sprinkling in real damsels in distress on a semi-regular basis, they're more likely to fall for the trick. Have the occasional beasty abduct the princess/fair maiden/farmer's daughter for real before bringing out the succubus or whathaveyou. Misdirection only works when you're subverting expectations, and you have to set those expectations up first -- especially when players are naturally going to be skeptical about the situation.Of course, there are two ways of establishing this sort of expectation -- Pavlovian and Skinnerian. For many DMs, myself included, the first thought is always the Skinnerian response: "The players will learn if they're punished for the wrong action." But from what I've learned, studies show that Pavlovian "reward the right action" approaches work better (now, mind you, those studies weren't in DnD contexts...)Here's an idea I'll throw out off the cuff: The monster abducts the farmer's daughter. The heroes, who happened to be passing by the farm, are called on to rescue her. The track the monster to its lair, fight some minor beasties, and rescue the daughter -- but the monster escapes, perhaps after a short battle.As they come to the village just past the farm, they hear tell of a monster abducting young women. They track the monster again to a similar hideout (or the same one, depending on the monster's mindest.) They do battle, and again the baddie escapes, but they're getting an idea of his favoured prey now.They either stake out the town, or move on to somewhere where a landed noble lives (whichever makes more sense for the party and adventuring world.) There's another abduction, they track him again but this time it takes a bit longer. They find the lady in question, she's in shock or unconscious. They go to help her, and something falls out of a small alcove -- the half-eaten body of the real young lady. The "unconscious" victim then reveals herself as the monster and attempts to eat the adventurers, effectively having used the young woman as bait (much as a fisherman would use a worm or smaller fish to lure in the bigger ones.)</blockquote>

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