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Thrawn183
2009-02-08, 08:53 PM
So I've been trying to add joke encounters into my current D&D campaign to provide some moments of levity because my group likes to play for around 8 hours straight and we can get into a real hack'n slash fest if I don't watch myself.

So far I've been using random traps to try and see if the party will waste resources on something that isn't a threat (like a poison gas trap that puts you to sleep for 5 min. when there are no enemies around)

I had a room where one character got charmed by the desk (made their save :smallfrown:) and another got dominated by a leg lamp so he carries it around now. This of course being a blatant Anchorman reference.

I had a gnome frenzied berzerker that was introduced as the son of the dwarven king and enterred a frenzy if anybody tried to tell him he was actually a gnome.

I grabbed one off the wizards boards where two ogre psychic warriors, one with fling enemy and one with knockback, play baseball with you. I added a merciful weapon so my players wouldn't murder them in half a round.

I had a flock of griffons dive bomb the party on the road and try and hit them with "biological waste."

I'm currently building a character that is extremely resistant to harm because of high AC, and saves combined with evasion and mettle.

My greatest plan yet? I was talking with one of the players after the last session about the rules for being in water and how if you are chest deep in water you have improved cover granting you +8 to AC and +4 to reflex saves. We we joking about standing in a 5 foot tank of water to try and abuse the rules which eventually evolved into a riding around in a water tank mounted on a tricycle. The entire thing would be shoddily made but have a decanter of endless water so the thing is constantly spraying water all over the place but stays full.

Then, while brainstorming, I was struck by inspiration. I could make the tank a special mount for a paladin, giving it easily made stats. It would move by peddling and spraying water. Add in some nozzles that swivel in opposite directions and the thing spins around when the Paladin uses Whirlwind Attack. I'm debating using a mount with attacks and flavoring them as targetted jets of water. Anyhow, I think I can make it absolutely hilarious.

What are your best joke encounters?

Canadian
2009-02-08, 08:55 PM
Anything that happens in a tavern.

Michaelos
2009-02-08, 09:52 PM
The PCs found an effect that was similar to a Mirror of Opposition. One of the PCs pointed out that they knew a frail princess who had 0 max hp. We then tried to think "How would an unarmed princess, who can't take a standard action without beginning to bleed to death, attempt to kill an unarmed princess who can't take a standard action without beginning to bleed to death?" The best result I could come up with was to say nasty things at the other person and hope they get depressed enough to suicide.

KillianHawkeye
2009-02-08, 11:42 PM
The PCs found an effect that was similar to a Mirror of Opposition. One of the PCs pointed out that they knew a frail princess who had 0 max hp. We then tried to think "How would an unarmed princess, who can't take a standard action without beginning to bleed to death, attempt to kill an unarmed princess who can't take a standard action without beginning to bleed to death?" The best result I could come up with was to say nasty things at the other person and hope they get depressed enough to suicide.

Huh??

Don't the characters in your world get the minimum 1 hp per Hit Die??
:smallconfused::smallconfused::smallconfused:

afroakuma
2009-02-08, 11:47 PM
Thrawn: try this one out (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5749075&postcount=366).

It's a living dungeon complete with shifting walls and a plethora of illusions whose only goal is to annoy your party and waste their time. It's also filled with illusory harems and enjoys teasing its "guests."

PrismaticPIA
2009-02-09, 12:26 AM
Wall of Insults. Best...encounter....ever.

Kurald Galain
2009-02-09, 04:42 AM
A classic one, I once had a party of level 8 or so ambushed by a group of first-level rogues, who had a lot of bravado but not much else in the way of a threat.

Another time, there was a magical gem as treasure, that granted the possessor one wish. No, not a Wish. The catch is that the party didn't know that, so the first time the fighter who carried it expressed a desire for something, it would appear.

Totally Guy
2009-02-09, 05:38 AM
Ogre miniatures carrying pieces of a gingerbread house that I'd bought.

The players had to assemble it with icing sugar at gaming table.

Flickerdart
2009-02-09, 07:53 AM
You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.

afroakuma
2009-02-09, 07:56 AM
You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.

/thread :smallbiggrin:

BobVosh
2009-02-09, 08:17 AM
You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.

A gazebo? What color is it?


Hmm, I had fun with a doppelganger chameleon once. Queen Doppolpopolus. My favorite thing to do with it was to use my pants enchanted with Blinding (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicArmor.htm#blinding). I would grab my crotch, do a pelvic thrust, and activate the blinding function :D

Celeres
2009-02-09, 08:38 AM
we found an axe that was neutral good aligned.

if you failed your will save, you became neutral good.

it was called "The Axe of Random Kindness"

Prometheus
2009-02-09, 02:45 PM
Selling the PCs cursed or fake items is always fun (give them outrageous deals so that a) they don't waste that much money and b) a healthy dose of skepticism could have saved them).

Have a drug that simultaneously produces powerful hallucinations and dramatically enhances magical power. Throw like three illusions (with Will saves) at him a round and keep the description of events to that player and the other PCs separate. It could even become a major plot device if it is used or sought by some NPC.

TheCountAlucard
2009-02-09, 04:10 PM
...Queen Doppolpopolus...

!!!

(bashes with a wrench)

One I had that was rather fun had the PCs finding this massive, ornate key. They carried the key with them into the dungeon, where they eventually found a massive, iron door. As they approached it, the door cried out, "Ah, you brought the key! Hurry, unlock me!" Once they unlocked the door, it burst free of its hinges and fled from the dungeon, screaming, "I'm free, I'M FREE!"

MCerberus
2009-02-09, 04:14 PM
One time our DM had us going back in time. We, naturally, screwed with the timeline in a way he did not anticipate. When we got back to the present, he told us,

"You've created a time Pterodox. You can't go changing the future like that. Roll for initiative."

theMycon
2009-02-09, 10:59 PM
An encounter I call "The Alamo". The specifics are interchangable. It's more an experiment in group psychology than a joke encounter.

Make it clear there are well-defended "enemies" in a fortress, cave, slightly out of the way. Make it clear they have no intention of leaving, and pose no threat to the world around them, even tangentially. Make these "enemies" only bad guys by relation, who are entirely sidesteppable with almost no negative consequences, but there's no need to make them good. Part of the point of this thought experiment is that there is no real plot existing beforehand, so they have no special reason to go in. Consider giving them a time-sensitive objective if you want to lead them away for a while (they may mean to come back & forget about it).

Ideally, attacking them head-on should be about an even fight, and trying to be clever should produce a long battle where none of the PC's die, but they lose a lot of resources*. At least one person in a group will always be willing to waste a day on it. About 1 in 10 will say "we can come back to it later." Almost no-one can avoid the allure of loot & XP (and maybe our own summer-fortress, for retirement or vacation!). About half will, once their inside and hurting-but-not-gonna-die, suddenly realize they have no reason to be here. Most of those will still finish the job regardless.

Take notes on reaction, planning, & discussion. Once you have the "party thought process" written down**, then it makes planning the rest of the campaign much easier.



*darkness, invisibilty & non-threatening traps help. So does fudging rolls so PCs get in the "oh god I'm gonna die... run" range a long while before they die. Leave a slightly obvious opening so the PC's take the one "expected clever" route. Try for fallback positions, so either side can leave the moment things go sour.
**I'd call it the "gestalt mind of the party", but Gestalt has a different meaning in D&D.

Knaight
2009-02-09, 11:15 PM
I've had a few involving guards. The first was negotiation, and not an encounter, where a player put an acidic sword down in the ground, point first, and it started burrowing when they weren't looking until they grabbed the handle at the last minute. The player had two swords which were both pretty fancy and semi-magical, and this sort of thing was a running joke. The second was when the players had managed to run afoul of some grunt guards when infiltrating a palace. The guards attacked in a pretty empty, dark corridor, with lots of hall ways, and everybody was coming out of hallways for a while hitting people. Then one of the players proceeded to light three guards on fire and one of the others busts out with a "screw it I'm not paid enough to see these guys". The rest immediately started looking in the wrong direction, and they left.

Giving guards funny lines is always entertaining, and usually works.

Tam_OConnor
2009-02-10, 03:11 AM
Well, one of my campaigns is a refuge in audacity sort of deal. While crossing an ocean of blood on a tendon-bridge, they proceeded to harpoon a white blood cell and ride it. Let me emphasis that point: THEY HARPOONED AND RODE A WHITE BLOOD CELL!

Kesnit
2009-02-10, 07:34 AM
You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.

I know this is a reference to some campaign, but can't for the life of me think what it means.

Muad'dib
2009-02-10, 09:04 AM
I know this is a reference to some campaign, but can't for the life of me think what it means.

Google "eric and the Gazebo" and it should be the first five links.

Ernir
2009-02-10, 12:46 PM
Well, I had my group recently run into a band of tree-cows. Bison stats, except with a climb speed of 20' and a huge racial bonus on climb checks. And they were coloured a bright green.

The encounter began as the cows jumped at them from the treetops. Nearly killed two 7th level characters, too...


(bashes with a wrench)
Remove the "r" from that and it becomes more appropriate for the thread. :smallbiggrin:

Kesnit
2009-02-10, 01:52 PM
Google "eric and the Gazebo" and it should be the first five links.

(snicker) There's even a Wikipedia page about that.

Poor Eric... :smallfrown:

Darth Stabber
2009-02-10, 03:09 PM
Three Words: Mindflayer Barbershop Quartet. That is all.

Bugbeartrap
2009-02-10, 03:41 PM
One time our DM had us going back in time. We, naturally, screwed with the timeline in a way he did not anticipate. When we got back to the present, he told us,

"You've created a time Pterodox. You can't go changing the future like that. Roll for initiative."

is a time Pterodox a large flying dinosaur that attempts to reconcile fraying timelines by devouring those who would mess with the original timeline?

Deth Muncher
2009-02-13, 10:19 PM
is a time Pterodox a large flying dinosaur that attempts to reconcile fraying timelines by devouring those who would mess with the original timeline?

Actually, it means it rides around time in a phonebooth, having crazy adventures, fighting B-Movie-esque robots and uses odd devices like Sonic Screwdrivers.

Hal
2009-02-14, 09:29 AM
You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.

If I ever get to sit in the DM's chair again, I intend for my players to fight a Paladin with a gazebo mount.

Zen Monkey
2009-02-14, 11:14 AM
A few that I've reused:

1. A group of ogres are standing in a field. When the PC's approach, one holds out his hand and states "toll bridge." There is no bridge within sight, and the monsters have no concept of what the phrase means, just that it results in people giving up money somehow. The PC's usually explain the concept, often by just walking around them to demonstrate the point, before negotiations break down.

2. If you take players from level one to mid or high level, have them get randomly ambushed by low level bandits. It's a fun reminder of how far they've come from what used to be a tough encounter.

3. Ransom demands for a missing villager are made in crude handwriting and signed "not the goblins"

Tempest Fennac
2009-02-14, 01:20 PM
I'm running a solo game for a friend who's a new player*. They wanted a really easy fight while escorting a peasant child back to his home village after the kid was rescued from a couple of random demons. I decided to have what I described as a Wild Sammich attack the player and the only way to defeat it was to grapple it and bite it (the peasant child figured this out after the first time it split in 2 due to being attacked with a hammer). The player was then shocked by the lack of cake, so I sprung this enemy on them earlier:

Giant chocholate cake with strawberry icing and cherries and 100s and 1000s as topping. (Medium Construct).

Str: 20. Dex: 12. Con: - Int: - Wis: 10. Cha: 18.

HPs: 79. Saves: +3 for Fort and Will, 4 for Reflex. BAB: 6.

Special Attacks: Cherry Shot (same as Magic Missile), Icing Line (20' line, Reflex save vs. DC 15 for half damage, deals 5d6 damage).

Can Levitate in order to slam down on opponants to grapple them. Grappling didn;t provoke an AAO, but the cake needed a normal attack rather then a touch attack to grapple. Once grappled, the victim took 1d10+ BAB damage/round due to the weight.


BAB reduced by 1 whenever 2 Slashing attacks hit it in consecutive rounds due to a slice being removed.

Damage Reduction 15/Slashing.

When the player decided to have their character lick the icing sugar off themselves before cleaning themselves with a Prestigitation I decided that if the character failed a DC 15 Fort save, their scales would turn bright red until a Remove Curse spell was used. The only other effects of this would have been itching during the change.

*He's playing as an LA 0 Lizardfolk Battle Sorcerer with full Sorcerer spell Progression and Abjurant Champion levels. The character is level 9 at the minute.

MCerberus
2009-02-14, 01:42 PM
is a time Pterodox a large flying dinosaur that attempts to reconcile fraying timelines by devouring those who would mess with the original timeline?

It was some kind of inevitable that summoned snakes and was shaped as a flying dinosaur.

herrhauptmann
2009-02-14, 04:55 PM
Never done it, but I'm planning on throwing out the head of vecna next time I go home.

Aron Times
2009-02-14, 06:18 PM
Shortly after Eberron was released, I ran a game for some friends of mine. One of my players was Vincent John, who played a monk.

Anyway, I did a solo intro adventure for him where his character's master gives him a final test to become a full-fledged monk. His master burned some sacred herbs that gave off a sweet smell.

He then found himself in a strange place filled with doors. Many, many doors. Vincent John's character opened one door to find himself in an open field, where he encountered something... I can't recall the details of his intro adventure except that it was pretty weird and psychedelic (*hint* *hint*).

He passed the final test, and found himself back where he came from. His master congratulated him, and gave him a pack of five-pointed herbs for future meditation.

The whole table exploded into laughter as the monk took the "Holy Roots of Marley" (that's what my players called the sacred herbs).

Froogleyboy
2009-02-15, 08:19 AM
Shortly after Eberron was released, I ran a game for some friends of mine. One of my players was Vincent John, who played a monk.

Anyway, I did a solo intro adventure for him where his character's master gives him a final test to become a full-fledged monk. His master burned some sacred herbs that gave off a sweet smell.

He then found himself in a strange place filled with doors. Many, many doors. Vincent John's character opened one door to find himself in an open field, where he encountered something... I can't recall the details of his intro adventure except that it was pretty weird and psychedelic (*hint* *hint*).

He passed the final test, and found himself back where he came from. His master congratulated him, and gave him a pack of five-pointed herbs for future meditation.

The whole table exploded into laughter as the monk took the "Holy Roots of Marley" (that's what my players called the sacred herbs).

I HAVE to try that with my samurai

Thrawn183
2009-02-15, 11:14 AM
I'm thinking of running a bar fight in the style of chuck norris. Lots of people getting disarmed with kicks while others get tossed on bars and run the length while breaking all the bottles.

Thankfully Iron Heroes has some awesome applications for Grapple that actually make this possible without too much improv.

Kami2awa
2009-02-15, 11:42 AM
A gazebo? What color is it?


Hmm, I had fun with a doppelganger chameleon once. Queen Doppolpopolus. My favorite thing to do with it was to use my pants enchanted with Blinding (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicArmor.htm#blinding). I would grab my crotch, do a pelvic thrust, and activate the blinding function :D

Surely it should be confusion? To drive them ins-ay-yay-yay-ee-ee-ane...

Book Wyrm
2009-02-15, 10:52 PM
1. A Storm Giant (tall and green) and a Fire Giant ("short" and red) attack a party by trying to jump on them. The loot consists of large magical mushrooms, gold coins, feathers, and fiery flowers.

2. Rat King (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_king)

3. Little Red Riding Hood and her Big Bad Wolf Companion

Bandededed
2009-02-16, 08:04 AM
I don't DM too much, but one of my favorite memories from when I did was during a haunted mansion, break-in-the door and kill the lich style game. The barbarian / frenzied berserker was complaining because he'd picked up great cleave at some point (I had reduced the feat prereq's for FB) and never got to use it.

So I had him fall through the floor to the basement (I gave him a save!). He was then mobbed by tiny zombies. :smallbiggrin: At first he was scared senseless - then he attacked on.

The entire game broke down for a few minutes as we sat there imagining what was happening down there.

DigoDragon
2009-02-16, 10:59 AM
I've had two giants play bowling, using a boulder and several small log cabins. I can't blame the PCs for avoiding that encounter.

Also had this evil wizard start a furnature yard sale. Made some money AND attacked the PCs with deadly animated furnature. :smallbiggrin:

Rowan Arquest
2009-02-17, 12:15 PM
Not so much of a joke encounter and definitely didn't start as one. The party was fighting a Pleasure Devil (woo enchantments). It was just 2 of the PC's at first and wasn't going so good for them but more of the PCs got involved when they saw the commotion. The Pleasure Devil had taken damage and was outnumbered 4:1 and they kept making their saves so I see if she has an ace up her sleeve, and I fall back on summoning (yah, I know that is pure cheese), but I noticed that she can summon Harvester Devils, :smallamused: so she succeeds and poof, harvester devil and she flies out of range. One of them attacks the harvester but they are under the effects of sanctuary agains nonoutsiders.. and the save was failed so the attack didn't work. None of the people have read FC2 so they're all like WTF and the harvester devil goes into a sales pitch, "Wealth, sex, power, only for the one time cost of your immortal soul." they refuse and realize CRAP, the pleasure devil plane shifted and is gone..... wow. then the harvester plane shifts with a wave and a smile. :smallamused:

Haven
2009-03-08, 01:15 PM
Well, one of my campaigns is a refuge in audacity sort of deal. While crossing an ocean of blood on a tendon-bridge, they proceeded to harpoon a white blood cell and ride it. Let me emphasis that point: THEY HARPOONED AND RODE A WHITE BLOOD CELL!

OUTRAGEOUS!

Froogleyboy
2009-03-08, 01:24 PM
Ogre miniatures carrying pieces of a gingerbread house that I'd bought.

The players had to assemble it with icing sugar at gaming table.

Where did you find those

Totally Guy
2009-03-08, 02:22 PM
Where did you find those

The gingerbread house kit I bought from a wholesaler. It just so happened that the walls of the house managed to balance perfectly atop the ogre miniature.

The players were sitting there...

"You see an ogre carrying... a giant..."
Players:"?"
"Biscuit!" as I place the wall on the miniature.
Player: "I was going to guess biscuit, just for a joke!"

T'was a good session.

Radar
2009-03-08, 03:18 PM
Once we were stoped on the road by a fragile-looking goblin with a sign, that said: We are very sorry, but the dragon is ill and can't be here personally. Please leave half of your valuables. Thank you.

Obviously we ignored the goblin, but when we were leaving, we heard him saying something like: boy, are they in trouble now.

Unfortunatly we couldn't finish that campaign.

edit: the same DM has once used the table of random encounters and rolled a whale on the middle of the desert. I wasn't there, but i heard he menaged to come up with a reasonable explanation for this. That must habe been hilarious. :smallbiggrin:

GnomishSubmarine
2009-03-09, 05:03 AM
One of my favorite joke encounters that I used frequently was a talking skeleton, whom would be present in ancient ruins immersed in a pool of blood.

It started out simple enough the first time. A skeleton was made as a character foil for a cleric of pelor, and being a servant of Vecna, I thought it would fit to make a great boss encounter for a low level party.

Unfortunately it wasn't received as such.

The party took it as an NPC to talk too as they assumed the creature to be too powerful to combat because of how big it spoke and imposing it looked. It introduced itself as "Forgotten", and when prompted to tell the party anything about itself, it proceeded to say that knowledge had be "Forgotten!". This was accompanied by wild hand gestures and flailing.

He claimed to be Vecna's quarter master, and offered them power in return for taking a contract of service. Even the cleric of Pelor abhorred this, but the artificer in the party took the magical contract and activated it without fulfilling the blood oath using it on everyone.

Eventually after some dialogue it requested a pint of blood from arcane casters. It would provide services or a Cr (level) of treasure per pint of arcane blood from the casters the party killed. The sorcerer in the party was scared to death of him at first, but managed to drag other sorcerers and arcane casters back to the skeleton in return for items.

After a while Forgotten eventually started scrying on the party, as they had been loaded up with treasure from his stores. He used their influence and their greed to fuel his plans of trying to establish connection with the hand and eye of his God.

At the end of the campaign the party returned one final time and destroyed him, even though it was at the cost of the power they had gained through the artificer's actions. They also managed to claim the hand and eye, but didn't destroy them after finding them hidden in the temple of first light, and first judgment. (Pelor and St.Cuthburt respectively)

He was also the longest running 'encounter' I have ever hosted in a game. What was meant to be a low level challenge turned into a running gag/villain since the PCs were so interested in it. I had not expected this to happen, and simply went along with their actions.

Harperfan7
2009-03-09, 11:20 AM
The players are walking through a forest one morning after a thunderstorm the night before, when they encounter a dwarf in full plate with traveling gear and what not, just standing in the middle of the road, blackened, and still smoking. Free treasure!

Spiritualwolf
2009-03-09, 04:52 PM
Lets see. One of the joke encounters was Gem gollums. Serious business but when you have a rouge in the party it's ammusing. We had our rouge dive into the gem gollem and now has a phobia of gems. This leads to my wizard polymorphine into a pile of gems as a party joke.

Secondly on a random table our gm managed to make our random encounter be... A bee. One of the players for ammusment value attacked it fumbled his weapon and had it snap. so he killed it with his dagger. Unfortunatly or GM likes luck a bit too much and when the bee died a Queen Dire Bee came and attacked only the player who killed the wasp. We sat around watching and letting him be killed slowly. Eventually the wasp flew off with the fighter on 5 hitpoints.

Falling Out
2009-03-10, 10:13 AM
To pull on the PC who uses Blink tactics/cheese

Every once in awhile have them roll an extra To Hit if there attacks are lost (20%) to the Ethereal Plane and pass them a note to declare that it hit something on that other plane. Then have a Ghost Tarrasque or some massive scary ethereal beasty constantly float after the PC for the rest of the adventure. Never let it materialize to the Prime Plane (either too dumb or does not have the ability) so every time the PC blinks to ethereal he sees massive jaws trying to swallow them all (fiat that they always miss as the PC manages to blink back). Do all this by notes.

If anyone else casts See Invisibility or Blinks - assume the beast is always around a corner, behind a wall so that the others never have line of sight. It's like the Polkaroo.

Who_Da_Halfling
2009-03-10, 10:46 AM
I had my party fight a room of animated furniture, punctuated by Gingerbread Men.

Amusingly, the leader of the Gingerbread Men was a low-level Cleric so he could cast Purify Food and Water on himself and his buddies. B/c of the CR diffference (I used Rich's Gingerbread Man template, so 3 CR 2 and 1 CR like 5 or 6 fighting a 6-person party of 9 or 10th Level), the Gingerbread Men were flying around trying to body slam people and missing. Of course, when they hit they dealt 1d2-3 damage anyway. Except for the leader, who was wielding a Sewing Needle as a Diminutive Rapier, so he dealt 1d2-2 damage. He had Hold Person but a low DC, and even if they'd failed, the Gingers couldn't even coup de gras them b/c of the negative damage.

Obviously, this encounter wasn't really meant to kill them or even challenge them. Since I'd nearly killed half of them the previous session, I felt like throwing them a joke. There were a lot of attempts to Dispel Magic and cure the "servants" of the Beauty-and-the-Beast curse that turned them into furniture and Gingerbread Men. Unfortunately....they were just animated furniture and constructs.

-JM

Lycan 01
2009-03-10, 10:50 AM
Some of these are great... Here are a few I've thrown at my players:


Star Wars SAGA:
-A 12 year old girl holding a stuffed Jawa doll hiding from the "bad guys" (PCs, who were space pirates...) under a bed. They barged in, saw her, and proceeded to argue about what to do with her. Finally, one of the hot heads shot her, just so he could take the doll. When he yanked it from her dead hands, a thermal detonator rolled out from under it. Apparently, she was the daughter of the captain of the ship they'd boarded, and he'd given it to her for protection.

It took a total of 8 Destiny Points from both players to undo the last few seconds in order to avoid a TPK and occassional guilt. The little girl is now one of the player's adopted daughter.


-The ship was also carrying spice, contraband food... and Hutt porn. Yes, there was over a ton of holodisks with naughty Hutt videos on them, as well as other erotic material tied to the Hutts. The poor players nearly gagged when they realized what one of them was holding...



Call of Cthulhu:
-During one campaign, a random hobo kept showing up. His name was "Rackam Willie" in a nod to a popular youtube video a friend showed me. Well, long story short, an attempt to steal Willie's vodka led to the crazy hobo lighting himself on fire and running around screaming "RACKAM RACKAM RACKAM RACKAM!!!" while flailing his arms insanely before he finally died of immolation.

-A 001 on a Spot Hidden roll during that same campaign in a New York subway maintanence closet led to one player finding the remains of Jimmy Hoffa.

-One player hallucinated about a battle with a talking moose. That was a fun scenario...

-I threw Nyarlathotep at them, claiming that he came to visit them because they'd screwed up his last few plans, and apparently they'd begun to annoy him somewhat. His introduction involved one PC getting his face backhanded off. ... Hey, it was funny to me. :smallamused: The whole thing was a dream though, but it did serve to teach them about what they'd been doing wrong. And plus, it was funny to them in retrospect... even though they were cussing me out when it happened. :smalleek:

daa18
2009-03-11, 06:45 PM
I haven't used this yet but my most recent idea is Hypnotoad and the awakened mosquito wizard, which will be found in death valley (ya the name sucks) home of giant man-eating hedgehogs.

chiasaur11
2009-03-11, 07:57 PM
Well, one of my campaigns is a refuge in audacity sort of deal. While crossing an ocean of blood on a tendon-bridge, they proceeded to harpoon a white blood cell and ride it. Let me emphasis that point: THEY HARPOONED AND RODE A WHITE BLOOD CELL!

PLATELET! PLAATTTTEEELLLLEEEEETTTTT!

MustacheFart
2009-03-11, 08:53 PM
This isn't really a joke encounter but in one game I played in we looted a ring. The ring then stated too us, "Whoever puts me on I will give 3 wishes" or something to that regard. I fell hook, line, and sinker and gave up all loot share of the loot in order to get that ring. The ring ended up being a plain old normal ring that simply repeats that message. LOL One guy was a buddy of the DM and was in on joke (obviously i didn't know). He was also the one who persuaded/forced me to give up my share of the loot for it. Oh well, I got my revenge on DM (see below) and I'm working on other guy lol.

As for a Joke encounter I have had a couple in my second campaign(still running) as a DM (My first real campaign, as the first one died out fast).

For their very first quest at level 1 I had them approached by a man named Shamus. He was a fisherman with 2 peg arms and 2 peg legs. I had him hire them to get back his trophy fish, Daggermouth. When they finally found Daggermouth, he ended up being a wee little Parana in a fish bowl guarded by an Ogre who stole him.

When they returned Daggermouth, Shamus pulled him out by the tail, shook him, and a chest fell out of him. He then opened up the chest to reveal his +3 weapon and boots of teleportation and various other magic goodies. I paid them each 800g to retrieve something containing over 20k gold worth in items.

For my second, joke encounter...basically...I had the party looking for some missing mercs the king had dispatched to investigate a recent uprising of Orcs (Orcs that were long thought extinct by general public).

On their way to the area the mercs were supposed to be heading, they came across a farm. On this farm was nothing but chickens and a lone man dressed in a chicken suit.

They tried getting information from him but that was proofing pointless. They decided not to pummel him as one guy (same buddy referred to above, damn metagamers) was suspicious. I had the chicken guy tell them that if they found him legendary Golden Chicken Feed he would tell them what he knows and then he pointed them in the direction of a town in which they could start their pursuit of Golden Chicken Feed.

They got to the town after quite a while and after talking to people, came to find out that there is no such thing as Golden Chicken Feed...that such an item was merely the crazy banter of Ol' Chicken George. The party then came up with the idea to buy some regular chicken feed and paint it gold lol.

While they were doing that, one player (the dm in above game and in my current game) decided he would go back on his own to see if he could DEAL with the Chicken man.

Anyway, it ended up in a battle between the player, a level 2-3 Summoner Spellcaster vs. a level 6 Warlock Chicken-bomber. Chicken Infested + Tomb Tainted Soul + *something* Retribution(undead go boom) + Dead Walk(warlock) = Dead player character LOL!

I was going to let him get away but when he was at like 150-200 he yelled back taunting Ol' Chicken George, laughing at him. Chicken George took the invocation to make his eldritch blast shoot super far lol.

To sum all this up, it ended up with the party returning to the farm with the Golden Chicken Feed and a new party member to find Chicken George doing the Chicken Dance with his new found dead Halfling puppet/dance partner.

My first player kill ever as a DM was through a Joke encounter...a chicken man no less.

Ovaltine Patrol
2009-03-11, 09:14 PM
I once attacked my PCs with a wizard who hid in an illusion of a cloud, casting lightning bolt down on them.

On another occasion, a gnome's "House of the Future," went horribly wrong: the animated furniture attacked everyone, the water elemental bound to the plumbing harassed them, invisible servants brought refreshing glasses of acid on trays, etc.

Three words: Food based constructs.