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Akisa
2009-11-05, 04:49 PM
So what sort of things you or your dm likes to do to mess with the player's head.

Introduce a kobold BBEG name pun-pun!

Introduce the girdle of Femininity/Masculinity

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-11-05, 04:55 PM
Mine recently hit us with a guy who can snipe from over a mile away.

"Induce murderous rage" counts as messing with our heads, right?

Yukitsu
2009-11-05, 04:57 PM
"You see 4 Baalors."
"Huh."
"They summon 4 more Baalors."
"..."
"..."
"I think I can take them."
"Yeah, I think we can take them."
"What's the exp for that for level 17s?"

t_catt11
2009-11-05, 05:00 PM
Be subtle. Keep the players waiting for the other shoe to drop. Make sure that they are always looking over their shoulders for the bad things that they KNOW will happen at some point.

Here are a couple of examples from my webcomic: here (http://www.rdinn.com/comic.php?comicid=12) and here (http://www.rdinn.com/comic.php?comicid=29).

Fluffles
2009-11-05, 05:05 PM
Riddles. Players seem to never be able to figure out the simplest of riddles. It's fun to watch their brains explode :smallbiggrin:

Katana_Geldar
2009-11-05, 06:27 PM
Give the impression that something bad is near, show them evidence (like bodies and blood) but they never see it. And make them jump at shadows, like stray cats and tumbleweed.

valadil
2009-11-05, 06:33 PM
In the first game I ran I convinced all the PCs that the ranger's imaginary friend was another PC. Took them the whole campaign to realize he wasn't. I got sick of typing up this story (it comes up a lot), so here's a link to it: http://gm.sagotsky.com/?p=75

Rixx
2009-11-05, 06:42 PM
(Randomly) "Spot checks, everyone."

*everyone rolls*
"22."
"27."
"Um.. 3."
"14."

"All right! none of you see anything out of the ordinary."

"But.. but I got a 27!"

"You see more clearly than anyone that there's nothing to worry about."

*everyone gets nervous.*

(The point being there really is nothing to worry about.)

Katana_Geldar
2009-11-05, 07:10 PM
DM: What did you roll?
Player: 17
DM: Interesting...*scribble scribble*

Gamerlord
2009-11-05, 07:26 PM
Say "Uh-oh" right after rolling some dice, you won't believe the panic this causes.

chiasaur11
2009-11-05, 07:30 PM
Find out what the players have been reading. The longer ago, the better. Find what things gave them nightmares when they were five and they've never quite gotten over.

Then, innocently hint at something of that nature. Nothing solid, but enough to play on their paranoias. Slowly build...

to nothing. And then repeat.

And, no matter what your players do, act like it's all in the plan.

Thorcrest
2009-11-05, 07:30 PM
Make them go through Dungeons with narrow hallways, then have small side passages where suddenly oh no! the party is surrounded, or watch them aimlessly go down dark narrow hallways, I also like making it sound like they should go one way rather than the other, both ways usually lead to the same type of thing though.

Put your players in a maze without telling them and watch their heads explode when they keep coming to "identical" rooms :smallbiggrin:

Thatguyoverther
2009-11-05, 07:35 PM
Gm: Everybody make a will save.

Player 1: 22!
Player 2: 27!
Player 3: 8?!

GM: Player 3 why don't you come with me, we'll talk in the other room. Bring your character sheet.

alchemyprime
2009-11-05, 07:37 PM
My favorite? I describe slightly off smells. I use the poisons with descriptions, and edible ones sometimes smell funny.

It gets to the point were they go "Wait... a slight... fruity scent on my beer? Oh geez, if its apple I can make the Fort save, if it's pineapple I'm screwed and my strength plummets, and if its blueberry my Int can hit 0! What kinda fruit is it?"

"Kind of a pineappleyblueberryish scent.:

"YOU SUMABITCH! Hm... dwarf, you drink the mead!"

The dwarf makes 1 save for alcohol.

"What?! You said it had Golden Death and Blue Bile in it!"

"No, I said it smelt like fruit. Like someone put juice in your mead."

Next time he drank it, I did put Golden Death in it. Sucker.

gman
2009-11-05, 07:38 PM
Watch them like a hawk: you have to figure out what they'll be willing to buy into. I gave a player vague forshadowing dreams once, and she seized on the idea that they were predictions of the future. So I gently made them come true, and gave her new visions based on that. Since she liked the idea, and had it proved right a few times, it made her absolutely convinced that the demon-thing she hallucinated later on was real, but somehow invisible to the party. Between us, she and I got all of the other players going pretty well.

Brendan
2009-11-05, 07:41 PM
when rolling hit die for a monster, quietly murmuring "let see, plus 27, oh, no. 29. uh... oh! plus constitution, so that comes out... to... 146. Okay. Now spell slots... Sorry guys, this will take a long time.
Oy... too many fifth level spell choices."
said at fourth level.

Radiun
2009-11-05, 07:45 PM
A room with a pool of serene water at it's center.
The only thing off about it is it seems to go down further than it should.
Watch as they set up contingency upon contingency upon rope with 10 foot poles

Katana_Geldar
2009-11-05, 07:45 PM
Gm: Everybody make a will save.

Player 1: 22!
Player 2: 27!
Player 3: 8?!

GM: Player 3 why don't you come with me, we'll talk in the other room. Bring your character sheet.

This has happened to me, and boy it was fun!

Crafty Cultist
2009-11-05, 07:53 PM
Homebrew monsters can work wonders. if they know what they're facing they know how hard a fight will be and if they should run. if they've never seen one before it becomes a much less pridictable opponent

Barbarian MD
2009-11-05, 07:58 PM
This has happened to me, and boy it was fun!

What happened? I'm not following what's going on in this story.

Dr Bwaa
2009-11-05, 08:05 PM
Riddles. Players seem to never be able to figure out the simplest of riddles. It's fun to watch their brains explode :smallbiggrin:

+1

So True. Though as a player, ridiculous as they can be, I do love riddles/puzzles.

MickJay
2009-11-05, 08:08 PM
Roll a die/some dice in secret, without telling anyone what you're rolling for (could be for nothing, could be to determine, e.g., the next room's dominant colour), that's the most classic one. My personal favourite, however, is passing notes to one player, with messages like "read this very slowly, nod, then hand this note back to me, without saying a word to other players about what you've read". And, of course, playing with expectations - make a dungeon or lair conform to whatever stereotype you can think of, then make the last bit of it be completely different. Say, a huge, hot cave with signs of volcanic activity, kobolds, charred (and stripped of their equipment) remains of some adventurers - and in the end, hit the party with a lich sorcerer who's recently taken over the lair from the red dragon that used to live there...

Roderick_BR
2009-11-05, 08:20 PM
Faceless BBeG. The PCs knows he is out there somewhere, they keep fighting his minions and generals, are ambushed all the time the more annoying they are to the BBeG's plans, and hear tales on how powerful and scary this guy is.

But they never find him.

My players were foaming once because of it. Sadly, that adventure never ended.

SSGoW
2009-11-05, 10:05 PM
I would love to use more riddles but sadly someone in the group bashes something (i usualyl use physical parts to the riddles) and something bad coughhorriblecough happens and i get blamed as if there was no way around it -_-;;;

One great way to mess with them is if they see something to describ it in a vauge way ... such as one time my players were pretty far from a roundish grey thing laying in a clearing ... i told them it looks kinda like a rock then made the dimensions with my hands... one character said that he runs oer and stabs it.... so i laughed and said "you have yolk on your weapon, you just destroyed an egg"

he was pissed and said i said it was a rock... when i actually said it looked like a rock (he didnt examine it just ran up and swung >.<)

brother dragon who was busy fighting off another dragon came back to pick up the egg to find out it had been killed (he had to drop the egg to fight decently)

streakster
2009-11-05, 10:13 PM
[]Give random, vague clues. Then, when they come up with an awesome explanation, announce that that was the right answer all along.

"'The imprisoned rise when the tide turns thrice?' That necromancer will attack during the third battle tomorrow! Hurry, let's go!"

[]Give frequent, detailed updates on something entirely irrelevant.

"The moon is nearly full, by the way."

[]At a random point, suddenly ask for detailed clarification. Then do nothing.

"I go over to the statue -

"Wait! You go near it, or you touch it?

"Um, near it?"

"Oh, ok. Carry on."

[]When the party moves through a hallway, produce a grid. Demand that they show exactly where their character steps. For bonus points, mark some areas of the floor, and include numbers or runes on the walls that might be clues.

"Okay, so the third statue is holding a blue orb, and this floor tile is blue. Is that good, or bad?"

[]Have a stereotypical BBEG show up - riding an undead dragon, clothed in black leather, surrounded by flying, burning skulls - then have him ignore the party. Completely. He's just on a grocery run.

[]Litter one dungeon with invisible, adamantine locked boxes affixed to the floor. They're all empty.

[]Thunder crashes whenever the players do a certain thing - use arcane magic, kill someone, say the word 'chicken', whatever.

Saintjebus
2009-11-05, 10:48 PM
I once had a ranger track the party's own footprints. The party(an elven ranger, a dwarf fighter, and a human rogue) exited a stone floored underground passageway into an underground lake with a sandy beach leading up to the water's edge.

Ranger: I look for footprints to track.
Me(DM): Roll it.
Ranger: 10
Me: You see three sets of footprints- one is really heave and deep, one is lighter, maybe an elf, and one other one is more medium. They go right up to the water's edge.
Ranger:? They disappear into the water?
Me:(trying not to laugh) Yep.

The ranger ran around for about ten minutes trying to track himself and the rest of the party. Myself and the other two party members just sat and watched him.

Gralamin
2009-11-05, 11:17 PM
I once had a ranger track the party's own footprints. The party(an elven ranger, a dwarf fighter, and a human rogue) exited a stone floored underground passageway into an underground lake with a sandy beach leading up to the water's edge.

Ranger: I look for footprints to track.
Me(DM): Roll it.
Ranger: 10
Me: You see three sets of footprints- one is really heave and deep, one is lighter, maybe an elf, and one other one is more medium. They go right up to the water's edge.
Ranger:? They disappear into the water?
Me:(trying not to laugh) Yep.

The ranger ran around for about ten minutes trying to track himself and the rest of the party. Myself and the other two party members just sat and watched him.

I'd call that poor DMing, if I haven't played under a DM who'd likely do that to us. You quickly become used to just making sure you ask enough questions. (Like, a party should recognize their own footprints, a Jedi trying to sense other force users probably shouldn't count their allies in the count of force users, stuff like that)

Saintheart
2009-11-05, 11:18 PM
Ask the PCs "Are you sure?" at inappropriate moments.

Such as when they're buying scrolls.
Or food.
Or about to go to sleep.

MCerberus
2009-11-05, 11:35 PM
Pavlov condition them. In this case their "reward" will be horrible unspeakable terrors when you roll your d10s together (or a d100, which are hilarious). Eventually they will curl into a fetal position when you make a % roll. Now mix in harmless joke encounters with evil laughter.

I have used this method to make my players afraid of a bowl of candy they found on a pedestal. After spending about 5 minutes freaking out they left the bowl of useful magical buffs behind.

Xzeno
2009-11-05, 11:36 PM
Recently, I've been having a mind flayer wizard appear and walk away like Gman in Half-Life. They're starting to ignore the villains, trying to figure out this guy's angle. If this keeps up, I might add him to the plot.

BRC
2009-11-05, 11:37 PM
In the first game I ran I convinced all the PCs that the ranger's imaginary friend was another PC. Took them the whole campaign to realize he wasn't. I got sick of typing up this story (it comes up a lot), so here's a link to it: http://gm.sagotsky.com/?p=75
You. Are. My. Hero!

Silverraptor
2009-11-05, 11:48 PM
Recently in a campaign, the DM did this.

So officially my character hadn't met the other PC's character. So the other guy's character was walking along the roof, following my character. This is what transpired.

DM: Roll a listen check.

Me:*Rolls* "15"

DM: Ok, you hear the sound of foot steps on the roof.

Other guy: He couldn't have heard me! I rolled a move silently of 19!

DM: I didn't say he heard you.

Other guy: :eek:

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-11-05, 11:54 PM
My favorite strategy to freak the players out:

Me: The creature looks hungry, and is leaning forward as if it wants to rush you. X, Y, and Z, what're your ACs?
X: 18.
Y: Mine's a--
Me: Oh, and what are your current hit points?
X: 74.
Y: 57.
Z: 83.
Me: Really? X, only 74?
Z: ...yes?
Me: Ah. Um, aheh-heh-heh, well...I, uh...carry on.
X, Y, and Z: :smalleek:
X: I withdraw.
Y and Z: Same here.

I had a level 18 party running from an MM-standard ogre for a few in-game hours with that one. :smallbiggrin:


[][]Have a stereotypical BBEG show up - riding an undead dragon, clothed in black leather, surrounded by flying, burning skulls - then have him ignore the party. Completely. He's just on a grocery run.

I did almost exactly this in my current campaign. Lieutenant Darius is a freakishly powerful yet very oblivious four-armed, graft-focused, formerly-human necromancer (able to cast 5th level spells in a low-magic world) whose research base the party was attacking to stop him from creating new kinds of undead to win the war for the Evil EmpireTM. The PCs were discovered and so they collapsed the entrance to stop the soldiers inside from assaulting them, and a two-week siege ensued.

Around Day 11, the party was just lounging around when Darius poofed into existence above the entrance, walked a short distance away, carved a circle of runes into the snow, stepped into it, and poofed away again. The PCs and their allies were freaking out, hiding behind anything they could, and generally panicking. As soon as they calmed down a bit, Darius reappeared dragging a scorched hydra corpse, brought it nearer the entrance, and poofed back down again. The siege continued as normal, and they were completely confused, but after that whenever they even heard Darius's name they flinched a bit.

Leon
2009-11-06, 12:04 AM
Put a rotten wooden box in the middle of a otherwise bare room.

It freaked my players out, they had no rogue to check for traps and eventually they paladin mustered up the courage to deal with it since he had the best saves.

Silverraptor
2009-11-06, 12:22 AM
I remembered reading about one such event.

This high level party finds this magical spring in a creepy dungeon. Cautiously, one of the party drank from it.

He felt better and started getting a small trickle of steady Temporary hit points. In light of this, the rest of the party started sucking down the spring, each drink adding ontop of the effects of previous drinks. Then one of the party members had the temporary hit points double their current and blew up. The rest of the party quickly tried attacking each other to try and save themsleves. It didn't work. They all blew up in the end.

Temotei
2009-11-06, 12:58 AM
You people are so harsh! I love it! :smallbiggrin: I messed with my players by setting a bunch of traps up in one dungeon, then in the next, they all had yet to be set again. The "boss" in the back was away from home. He came back to find the adventurers looting his room. I find that my party is very...action-oriented. The guy even started to talk to them. Rogue + surprise round...yep. Rolled maximum on all damage. But after he died a horrible death, the rogue acting very arrogant, just walked out of the room after looting the corpse. Unfortunately, the boss set up every trap again on his way in. Hehehe...poison.

JeenLeen
2009-11-06, 09:44 AM
From reading Looking for Group, the name 'Richard' has become an insane joke to mean an insanely powerful insane person who will kill us on a whim. Our last game had a Richard who insisted on trailing for the party for a while.

In our current game, the DM has at least once considered naming an important friendly NPC Richard just to see if one of us would attack him on sight.

Also, we're playing a game in the modern world (Mage: The Ascension) and just did a raid on a Technocratic van. Things are going poorly as we have realised all the evidence we left and all the same things said or seen in front of various NPCs. One character has already lost his current identity and will have to go underground, and in the next game I'm probably going to see if my guy winds up with a new face.
(We learned you do not attack the Technocracy. Or, if you do, make sure you clean up after yourselves.)
The DM had a lot of fun as we reported to our Chantry master the success, and the master proceeded to tell us how horribly we screwed up our lives and that MiBs would probably be after us within two days.

Necron
2009-11-06, 10:02 AM
Hrmmm... I always loved giving the party a cursed intelligent item that slowly drives the possessor insane.

Another great way to mess with their heads thing I did with an oWOD VtM game was have one player experience a torpor-induced dream. The dream (which she wasn't aware was a dream at the time) was staged as a regular session with all the other player characters "in" on it. The dreaming character in question had no clue the session wasn't "real" until the very end.

It ended up being great fun, and getting the other players in on "messing" with her was just fantastic.

bosssmiley
2009-11-06, 10:10 AM
Giant Monster Arms (http://americanbarbarica.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-post.html) :smallbiggrin:

t_catt11
2009-11-06, 10:14 AM
You are my people. I think that I love all of you.

Zaydos
2009-11-06, 10:33 AM
I found just having a tree full of perfectly ordinary crows works. It freaked out the party for 10 minutes, before they finally continued into the haunted forest. At which point the sorcerer started feeling "something" beneath his skin. There was nothing there, but he felt something crawling so he cast magic missile on his own throat.

Also a pile of gold. 2 people refused to go near it. 1 person and the NPC started shoveling. While the 4th person watched to see if something would happen. Would have been fun just at that, but the gold actually was cursed and started the people who picked it up mutating into draconic creatures. The PC dropped it, the NPC ended up a skeletal dragon (he was a skeleton to begin with). It was an ad hoc 1 shot with 4e and nobody was really familiar with the rules (strangely I knew the most despite having played 4e less than half the party).

Also random rolls and checks always work wonders.

drengnikrafe
2009-11-06, 10:35 AM
I know there are probably plenty of legitimate answers. Instead, I'll give this.

Have them build super-munchkins. Then, after hours of perfecting rules, have them play a Role-Playing campaign.

Alternatively, illusions. Lots of illusions.

BRC
2009-11-06, 10:37 AM
An Idea I constantly have in my head is this

The PC's run across a golden statue, perhaps in a room after killing a Monster. the idea should be "Ah! Loot!"

The Statue is heavily electrified.

Dekkah
2009-11-06, 11:15 AM
I used an other player to do it. :)

This is how a regular encounter, turned into a really cool scene and recuring villain and/or wierd ally. This is dnd 4.0.

During one of my recent game, my players (swordmage, Warden, Ranger) were attacked by a green dragon. The challenge was of their level, but they had some trouble since the Dragon was attacking from the air (only the ranger was kinda effective). So the Swordmage decided to use his grappling hook to try and catch the dragon and tie it to a tree (and force it to figth on the ground). She succeed to hook the grappling hook on the dragon and proceed to go tie it to a tree. Meanwhile, the dragon realise he is in trouble (the ranger succeded in bloodiyng it). The Dragon Decide to fly away for now to save its life. The player with the grappling hook decide to hold onto the rope.... and she goes up with the dragon, realising a bit too late (3 round later) that she is too high to let go (i was kind, i gave her many opportunity to let go) and too far from her friend to get their help even if she jump down (the dragon could just go finish her anyway). The other players were busy on the ground wiht some allies of the dragon that come into the fray at the last moment.

So she hold on and the Dragon bring the player with him. Luckyly this was at the end of a session, so i had time to think and prepare (created the dragon backstory) to use this as a fun substory.
So, the next game, I ask the swordmage to come with me (alone) to explain what will happend to her, and let the other players decide what they will do (they werent certain they should try to pursue -they are only 2 now - warden and ranger).
When the dragon land he force the swordmage to give her his equipment. Wich she comply to save her life (she's quite the survivor). Since the dragon knows her allies is a potential Threat, he prefer to try protect it's life using the swordmage instead of just killing it outright. So he discuss with player, trying to négociate it (trougth roleplay). I even send one minion to invite the other players to discuss and negociate the release of the players (but they were afraid of a trap). The fun part is that i succeed in convincing the player to work for the dragon and she will try to convince her friend to help and leave the dragon alone. To make sure she is truthfull, he gave her a neckless (homebrew) to wear that will link her soul to it (only the dragon can remove it) and permit him to comunicate with her (aslo, it permit him to dominate her if she is close and try to betray him- wich she dont know at the time). She accept it willingly. So i release her to her friends (givng her a mission - to gather some stuff for the dragon).

So the players were about to leave to get some reinforcement when she comes to them. The real fun followed that. She come with all of her stuff, claiming to have made an ally of the dragon (wich is kinda true), with a neckless she cant remove .... A really fun roleplay scene followed with the players having to decide/judge if they could trust her or not (took 2 hours of roleplaying to complete). If was really fun to watch (they couldnt even metagame it since they had no idea if she was saying the truth or not - they tought she was under my control). In the end, she convinced them (she is quite the survivor ;) ).

Now , i'll have to try and make this happens with the other group that play that game (i guess i'll have to snatch a player for it to work).

I the end, my drago is safe, he gained some "allies" and possibly will get the items he wants ...

Dekkah
2009-11-06, 11:37 AM
An other idea that me and one of my friend had is this :

You start a campain (they make new caracters). They are chosen by the king to send deliver a message to an other kingdom. During the trip, you have them face a dragon (a kind that is neutral) too strong for them (have him play with them, but let them keep the illusion they had some chance), but in the end they loose.
You can feint this was a mistake, that you over estimate the players streght. Ask the players to reroll new characters.
They get invited by the king to bring amessage to a kingdom (again). The king tell them that there is a Dragon near the mountain that attack people who passe there. They should be ok tough if they go around it since he sent a decoy to distract the Dragon.....

A good follow up would be that the message is a declaration of war, and the other king decide to capture the players... then procced in hanging them.

At that point you return to the place where they lost to the dragon, they wake up (as their first characters) and are in the camp (prisoner) of a rebellion agaisnt the first king. the Dragon is the leader of it and when he checked the letter they were carring (an insult letter directed to the Dragon) he understood they were decoys...
From there you can spin it between both groups, and make a messed up game :).

Jergmo
2009-11-06, 12:09 PM
I once terrified the heck out of a level 12 paladin/pikeman with a single CR 6 Bonedrinker. He was the leader of an expedition into enemy territory by means of the mountains, and discovered an old watchtower on a cliff from a previous war. It was fairly decrepit, but they were lost and needed a better view. So he walks up to the door, which is jammed shut, and once he tries to ram the door open with his shoulder, he begins hearing sickening wet slapping sounds on the floor inside. He was seriously completely paranoid because he kept hearing these slapping and scratching noises and nothing else happened when he knocked on the door, so he finally just bashed the door open with all his might and it let out a screech and leapt on him.

(The slapping noises were caused by the Bonedrinker's tentacles flailing against the floor while it was crouched down)

Zeta Kai
2009-11-06, 12:17 PM
I sent my 2nd-level PCs to talk to the great Orlith, a 10th level Wizard. He said that he would help them on their quest to defeat the Fallen One, but asked that they retrieve the Spear of Saints from an ancient tomb. Orlith sent his apprentice, a 1st level adept named Hiraon, with them as a guide.

The PCs followed Hiraon, but he was mousy, & skittish, & cowardly, & largely useless in battle, so they regarded him with contempt. Within a few sessions, he brought them to the tomb, & gave them good advice, but fled in terror soon after. The PCs were glad to be rid of him, & soldiered on into the depths of the tomb. After a couple more sessions, they finally made it past all of the traps, riddles, monsters, dead ends, & general spookiness to the burial chamber of the tomb, where the Spear of Saints lay in the hands of the long-dead king.

The PCs were terrified that the king would rise up as a lich or mummy or some other undead (there were legends that this ancient king would rise again to lead his people once more, King Arthur style). The party's paladin tentatively took the spear from his crumbling fingers...

...only to hear clapping from behind them. They turned to see Hiraon. Only Hiraon had dropped his illusions, & revealed himself for what he really was. He was the Fallen One, & had been waiting for Orlith to get the spear himself. He jumped at the chance to lead some low-level would-be heroes through all the dangers & get the spear for him, for only those pure of heart could unseal the tomb & take the spear from the king's hand.

Now, the Fallen One demanded the Spear of Saints be handed over, in exchange for the PCs' lives (maybe). He was big, bad, evil, a guy, & had brought a dozen mid-to-high-level minions with him to seal the deal. The PCs were trapped in the bottom of an underground tomb, with a hopeless battle between them & the only exit.

And my players' heads were thoroughly messed with. :smallamused:

Sleepingbear
2009-11-06, 01:25 PM
Let's see. Two things I've done that really stick out in my mind as messing with my players heads. Both from the same campaign.

Early in the game, two of the PC's are riding together. They've done a couple of minor things of note and are being observed by a wizard for future machinations. The wizard has a sense of humor so he sends his Raven out to talk to them.

It appears suddenly in a tree branch before them (dispelling invisibility). It says, "One of you will be King, the other a betrayer." Then it flies off and turns invisible once more.

The players are still arguing over which of them will fill which role in that 'prophesy'.

Later in the same campaign, the players have just (barely) defeated an Ogre Barbarian that had been terrorizing the region with it's band of Orcs. The players were debating what to do with the body. Some wanted to bury it. Some wanted to do less pleasant things.

I already had other plans.

So I describe this Ogre mage riding a Wyern above them that begins to descend in slow, lazy circles. They're healed up but entirely out of spells per day, charges, potions and so forth. That and they just barely beat the Ogre at their feet.

The Ogre mage lands and asks if she may collect the body of her son. She also asks if he died well.

The players trip over themselves to assure her that he did, indeed, die well.

So she gathers up the body of her son and flies off.

As we're wrapping up the session, one of the players turns to me with a smile, "That was an awesome way to introduce the big bad!"

I give him a blank look. "Big bad?"

"Yeah" he says, starting to look a little nervous. "The Ogre Mage. She's the big bad, right?"

I continue to give him a blank look. "Big Bad? No. She's not even middle management."

Whenever I feel sad, I remember the looks on their faces and smile.

Ormagoden
2009-11-06, 02:18 PM
What an awesome thread!

Here is one I used a couple dozen sessions ago.
The group that I DM for is rather small consisting of a paladin, a wizard, and a ranger. This allowed me to add in some NPC party members for them to hang with. While fighting a particularly nasty black guard one of the NPCs, a satyr, got dropped to negative 9 in the surprise round. To make a long story short, the players failed to heal him in the first round thinking their friend had lots of time. Combat ensued and the enemy fled the scene. The party gave chase but the blackguard was much faster. He flew out of the dungeon and high into the sky. The as the party closed in he made a B line straight down and vanished in a puff of smoke.

The party stared in horror realizing he went straight down into the room where their satyr friend died. The bust a u-turn and return to the portal chamber where the satyr died...blood trails lead to the inactive portal and vanish. No sign of the big bad black guard...

I think almost every session they lament on his fate. (He was much loved.) They are all convinced he is coming back as an undead at some point.

I also like to very rarely throw movie references in.


An idea I never quite put to the test yet was replicating the "dungeon" from Indiana Jones and the last crusade. Except changing it a bit so that when the players arrive to the "leap of faith" part, if they jump, they die because there is no camouflaged bridge. HEH!

Have an undead enemy have potions on them that are marked "healing", of course undead heal with potions of inflict.

A REALLY old and funny thing I remember once was an episode of the GI.Joe.
cartoon. A phone rings and on the other end you hear "I'm the viper. I'm coming in 6 days." (maybe you could use sending in dnd)

The next day the guy calls again...its a count down to something bad and the players know it! So every day you build up tension, people in town are scared, the king puts out a bounty. Every day the guy just calls and confirms the day he is going to arrive.

When D day finally comes a little man with a bucket and a squeege shows up.
"I'm the viper, I come to vipe ze vindows."

That could be fun!

sadi
2009-11-06, 02:52 PM
Have a game where you don't intentionally screw with them at all. If you've been doing nothing but screw with them, they'll be paranoid at everything that happens waiting for it.

FMArthur
2009-11-06, 03:47 PM
This is not my own, (http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9569/storywe.jpg) but it is probably the most insane and successful example of messing with players' heads I have ever heard about. Absolute madness.

Jergmo
2009-11-06, 04:16 PM
When D day finally comes a little man with a bucket and a squeege shows up.
"I'm the viper, I come to vipe ze vindows."

That could be fun!

Heh, I remember that. A joke book from Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark, right? :smallbiggrin:

GallóglachMaxim
2009-11-06, 07:43 PM
[]Give random, vague clues. Then, when they come up with an awesome explanation, announce that that was the right answer all along.

"'The imprisoned rise when the tide turns thrice?' That necromancer will attack during the third battle tomorrow! Hurry, let's go!"

[]Give frequent, detailed updates on something entirely irrelevant.

"The moon is nearly full, by the way."

I love using both of these. The first campaign I DMed got most of its plot from the assumptions that the players made as we went along, either they were right, or they were completely wrong.

My most recent PC mindscrew: get them very drunk in an unfamiliar environment (so far, their idea), then start creeping them out. I had a vampire organised crime boss (at the start of the encounter, he was neither of those things) slip a Wis reducing poison into their drinks, then interrogate the ones who couldn't stop themselves talking about what they were looking for. The two drunk ones were going on and on, giving away valuable information, and I kept slipping the other two little details to make them nervous. The thing they didn't notice was that as the bad guy got more and more interested in what they were saying, his vocabulary improved, because he was forgetting to keep up his simple facade.

chiasaur11
2009-11-06, 07:48 PM
Heh, I remember that. A joke book from Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark, right? :smallbiggrin:

Joke from a lot of places, including an entire episode of GI Joe.

Coidzor
2009-11-06, 07:53 PM
Well, apparently one guy who I've known's former DM liked to have his players take awhile to design their first character so they could brutally torture, rape, and kill said character in game before making them write up their real character in 5 minutes.

That probably qualifies as messing with the players' heads.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-11-06, 07:54 PM
I love using both of these. The first campaign I DMed got most of its plot from the assumptions that the players made as we went along, either they were right, or they were completely wrong.

My most recent PC mindscrew: get them very drunk in an unfamiliar environment (so far, their idea), then start creeping them out. I had a vampire organised crime boss (at the start of the encounter, he was neither of those things) slip a Wis reducing poison into their drinks, then interrogate the ones who couldn't stop themselves talking about what they were looking for. The two drunk ones were going on and on, giving away valuable information, and I kept slipping the other two little details to make them nervous. The thing they didn't notice was that as the bad guy got more and more interested in what they were saying, his vocabulary improved, because he was forgetting to keep up his simple facade.Wouldn't work in my group. People talking became enough of a problem that we have an in-character agreement not to reveal information without the group's permission(also has rules on setting things on fire, splitting up, and similar issues). Combine that with the fact that at least 2 characters wouldn't get poisoned, and we'd shut up.

Wereling
2009-11-06, 08:10 PM
Heh, I remember that. A joke book from Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark, right? :smallbiggrin:

I remember it as an episode of GI Joe...

gdiddy
2009-11-06, 08:57 PM
This is not my own, (http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9569/storywe.jpg) but it is probably the most insane and successful example of messing with players' heads I have ever heard about. Absolute madness.

This. Wins.

Starbuck_II
2009-11-06, 09:15 PM
I once terrified the heck out of a level 12 paladin/pikeman with a single CR 6 Bonedrinker. He was the leader of an expedition into enemy territory by means of the mountains, and discovered an old watchtower on a cliff from a previous war. It was fairly decrepit, but they were lost and needed a better view. So he walks up to the door, which is jammed shut, and once he tries to ram the door open with his shoulder, he begins hearing sickening wet slapping sounds on the floor inside. He was seriously completely paranoid because he kept hearing these slapping and scratching noises and nothing else happened when he knocked on the door, so he finally just bashed the door open with all his might and it let out a screech and leapt on him.



His first mistake was using shoulder to bash door. In real life you use your hips.

Volkov
2009-11-06, 09:37 PM
Tell them they are fighting the level 40 necromancer Demi-God version of vecna when they are only at level 20.

boomwolf
2009-11-06, 09:48 PM
My mess-ups:

Impossible monsters (skeleton werewolf anyone?)

Random dice rolls. of multiple types of dice

Flipping a sand clock from time to time, most of the time its nothing, sometimes is something.

Passing notes to players, some are "empty", as in-contains nonsense or random non-game related stuff. (had one session with over 100 "empty" notes and 0 ones with relevant stuff.)

Using a BBEG who uses luck rerolls as his main strategy, vs players who never read "Complete Scoundrel.", and whenever they complain I am cheating you say "you get to see the book his abilities are from after you beat him"

Having TWO sets of "twin party" meet you at the same time. and both are not opposite alignment.

Dungeon layout that defies the laws of physics. (turns map makers nuts. but hard to follow it yourself.) the key is to make several rooms overlap in space.

Generally defy the laws of physics from time to time. (I had a room where all walls are walkable, ceiling too. a room with no gravity, creatures with different time flow from the players, floating stones, creatures who treated the ceiling as floor and visa verca, etc etc...)

Leon
2009-11-07, 05:47 AM
Animated Statues.

Use them once and every time you you describe statues after that you'll have PCs trying to do some redecoration.

taltamir
2009-11-07, 06:37 AM
Mine recently hit us with a guy who can snipe from over a mile away.

"Induce murderous rage" counts as messing with our heads, right?

And hit for a lot of damage :)
I want to hunt it down and bathe in its blood.

Quirinus_Obsidian
2009-11-07, 12:37 PM
I build a minion specifically to completely screw with the party's heads. True, he could wipe the floor with all of them in a matter of 60 seconds, but he's not gonna.

Favorite Powers:
Cloud Mind, Mass (use to hide from every sense possible, even true seeing)

Telekinetic Maneuver (grapple the mages)

Death Urge (may use on the party beatstick)

Quickened Synchronicity (more than one standard action a round? yes please)

Missive, Mass + Tongues, Psionic (speak in some archaic language: "I wear the cheese, it does not wear me".)

Casual Loop (drive you around the bend, drive you around the bend...)

Dominate, Psionic ("go sit in the corner").

He has a host of other powers for offense and defense, but these can really be used to massively screw with the players. The best part of it... they are SO gullible. :smalltongue:

TheCountAlucard
2009-11-07, 02:30 PM
My latest D&D session messed with the players' heads...

The PCs have been allied with the capital city's mage's guild for some time now. The Academy is quite staunchly anti-necromancy. Some time back, however, the party discovered an island inhabited by the undead, and heard rumors of a necromantic school on the island. Now, though, the Academy and a neighboring Pelor-worshipping theocracy believe that the headmaster of the necromancy school has raised an army to attack the theocracy. Naturally, it's in the Academy's best interests to send along some aid, which includes the PCs.

When they get there, the theocracy's warrior-priests are loading up on the anti-undead measures, such as catapults that launch 5-foot-diameter glass orbs filled with holy water, and preparing anti-undead spells and buffs. The city the party is helping to defend is quite outnumbered - it's estimated that there are three zombies for every villager, not counting the more elite undead, like the shadows, ghouls, wraiths, mohrgs, and vampires. Speaking of vampires, why is there a cloud of darkness to the north?

The scouts, however, haven't answered back for a bit yet, so the PCs offer to take a look for themselves. When they get out there, they hear marching. Zombies, of course, don't march so much as shamble. They get a good enough look at the enemy army to realize that they've been decieved with an illusion. The opposing army is composed entirely of goblinoids and their ilk, as well as a number of black dragons and half-dragons.

It was quite a surprise for them, naturally.

industrious
2009-11-07, 02:36 PM
During my PbP game:

While searching, Simon quickly finds a cave hidden under a formidable array of overgrown plants. The mouth to the cave is wide, and there should be more than enough room for everybody...but the cave is blocked approximately two feet in, by a metal plate half-rusted and twisted with age. There is a closed door, made from what appears to be beaten-down shields fused together haphazardly; you can distinguish some obscure crests on some of them. There are letters scratched onto the door, on the oldest and most twisted portion, but you cannot read the writing; it is too faint to understand at a passing glance. The rain continues to pour, and thunder booms across the mountains. Not so far away, you hear the howl of a wolf pack on the hunt.

Simon

Luckily, you are able to understand the letters. In crudely scratched runes, they read A-C-E-R-E-R-A-K.


Only one person had ranks in Knowledge. After a lot of moaning in the OoC thread, one of them finally opened the door.


The door swings open on rusted, squeaky hinges. As you enter the cave, you notice something. Strange markings along the walls, hieroglyphs and patterns...that come to an abrupt end about 15 feet in. Apparently, there was a cave-in sometime ago, and whatever lies beyond is buried under tons of fallen rock.

There is something strange about this place. And then it hits you-memories of nighttime stories of a tomb of horrors. Tales of traps and deadly snares that killed even the mightiest heroes. Stories of an insane demilich whose power was ever so close to victory. And then along came another band of heroes more resourceful and cunning than the lich, and who slew the undead before his plans came to fruition. Whatever this cave was, whatever had happened here, now there is nothing. Only memories.

Moofaa
2009-11-07, 10:11 PM
In a recent homebrew Zombiepocalypse setting I've made it difficult to tell between regular bodies and zombies playing dead. This would result into lots of double-tapping corpses but I also keep track of ammo, which is scarce. Paranoid, the player has a tendency to be super cautious when I describe any scene involving bodies.

A player recently got bitten. After the fight he asked what happens...I told him that will have to wait for next session. (bwwhahahahaa)

chiasaur11
2009-11-07, 10:50 PM
In a recent homebrew Zombiepocalypse setting I've made it difficult to tell between regular bodies and zombies playing dead. This would result into lots of double-tapping corpses but I also keep track of ammo, which is scarce. Paranoid, the player has a tendency to be super cautious when I describe any scene involving bodies.

A player recently got bitten. After the fight he asked what happens...I told him that will have to wait for next session. (bwwhahahahaa)

You're low on ammo?

That's why you keep a melee weapon. Free doubletap. And if a guy's bit you drop him. Basic survival rules.

Moofaa
2009-11-07, 11:01 PM
lol, last session they aquired a tire iron, garden tool, and baseball bat for just that reason.

They also have a chainsaw but havent tried using it yet.

Silverraptor
2009-11-08, 01:10 AM
During my PbP game:

While searching, Simon quickly finds a cave hidden under a formidable array of overgrown plants. The mouth to the cave is wide, and there should be more than enough room for everybody...but the cave is blocked approximately two feet in, by a metal plate half-rusted and twisted with age. There is a closed door, made from what appears to be beaten-down shields fused together haphazardly; you can distinguish some obscure crests on some of them. There are letters scratched onto the door, on the oldest and most twisted portion, but you cannot read the writing; it is too faint to understand at a passing glance. The rain continues to pour, and thunder booms across the mountains. Not so far away, you hear the howl of a wolf pack on the hunt.

Simon

Luckily, you are able to understand the letters. In crudely scratched runes, they read A-C-E-R-E-R-A-K.


Only one person had ranks in Knowledge. After a lot of moaning in the OoC thread, one of them finally opened the door.


The door swings open on rusted, squeaky hinges. As you enter the cave, you notice something. Strange markings along the walls, hieroglyphs and patterns...that come to an abrupt end about 15 feet in. Apparently, there was a cave-in sometime ago, and whatever lies beyond is buried under tons of fallen rock.

There is something strange about this place. And then it hits you-memories of nighttime stories of a tomb of horrors. Tales of traps and deadly snares that killed even the mightiest heroes. Stories of an insane demilich whose power was ever so close to victory. And then along came another band of heroes more resourceful and cunning than the lich, and who slew the undead before his plans came to fruition. Whatever this cave was, whatever had happened here, now there is nothing. Only memories.


I don't get it.

Mystic Muse
2009-11-08, 03:06 AM
I don't get it.

I'm guessing He was bringing up the tomb of horrors but he's not actually bringing it into his game.

Dust
2009-11-08, 02:41 PM
You're low on ammo?

That's why you keep a melee weapon. Free doubletap. And if a guy's bit you drop him. Basic survival rules.

One word. Gunchucks.
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/11/sb-dangeresque-3.jpg

Random832
2009-11-08, 03:03 PM
You're low on ammo?

That's why you keep a melee weapon. Free doubletap. And if a guy's bit you drop him. Basic survival rules.

Not if they haven't learned that infection is transmitted to living victims through biting. If they don't need to worry until he dies, then it would be a waste.

npc revolution
2009-11-08, 04:23 PM
wow, I was just thinking about pulling a "you can't get ye flask" on my players, but you guys have made me wonder what else is possible

onthetown
2009-11-08, 07:34 PM
Red herrings... aka misleading clues... My DM is notorious for it during certain campaigns. If you're describing or listing something, throw in an extra detail and make it sound important. It's just something mundane...

In a game where I was the DM and my usual DM was the player, I finally managed to get him back for years of torment. In an oriental setting, there was a puzzle where he had to make a platform raise up to his height. He had three tiles with runes in front of him that stood for Heaven, Earth, and Hell. He naturally assumed that he had to press them in a certain order according to common belief or mythology.

He didn't. Each tile had a rotation of raising and lowering the platform in a pattern. They just happened to stand for Heaven, Earth, and Hell.

Also, Mimics. I'm at the point where I Lightning Bolt a treasure chest from twenty paces away, just to make sure :smalleek:

Ormagoden
2009-11-09, 02:31 PM
Heh, I remember that. A joke book from Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark, right? :smallbiggrin:


I remember it as an episode of GI Joe...


Joke from a lot of places, including an entire episode of GI Joe.

So you guys don't actually read posts huh? :smalltongue:


A REALLY old and funny thing I remember once was an episode of the GI.Joe.
cartoon. A phone rings and on the other end you hear "I'm the viper. I'm coming in 6 days." (maybe you could use sending in dnd)

Thelas
2009-11-10, 11:46 AM
I'm planning on starting a Ravenloft campaign, and one thing I might do is whenever the PCs pass through the mists, I take everyone's CS.
Then I erase one item that the mists snatched up. Not necessarily their best item (like their +1 sword, for example, if they have one), but something that'll make them worry (eg their silvered dagger.)
I plan to put the items somewhere nearby, but somewhat hard to find.

So, I call on all the master mess-with-players'-heads people:
a) what other items do you think will make them worry without completely screwing them when they lose them
b) what else do you think I can do to scare the players a bit? anything you think is specifically useful for ravenloft?

PCs will be level 5, if that helps.

Tiki Snakes
2009-11-10, 12:22 PM
I'm planning on starting a Ravenloft campaign, and one thing I might do is whenever the PCs pass through the mists, I take everyone's CS.
Then I erase one item that the mists snatched up. Not necessarily their best item (like their +1 sword, for example, if they have one), but something that'll make them worry (eg their silvered dagger.)
I plan to put the items somewhere nearby, but somewhat hard to find.

So, I call on all the master mess-with-players'-heads people:
a) what other items do you think will make them worry without completely screwing them when they lose them
b) what else do you think I can do to scare the players a bit? anything you think is specifically useful for ravenloft?

PCs will be level 5, if that helps.

Bed rolls, tent pegs, the socks they were wearing.

You could also have other, random things find their way into their equipment as well. A severed finger, a great big ball of spider-eggs that's going to hatch any second (Harmless, but creepy), Someone elses sock, a partially eaten rat, a load of garlick, or two adorable fieldmice living in a hollowed out and desicated and preserved Monkey Head.

(I actually had a fey entity leave that last thing in a players bag as a 'reward' of sorts. The thing radiated magic very strongly, but didn't apparently do anything. In actuality, the monkey skull served as both a home and a portal to a demi-plane full of stuff for the mice to eat and play with when awake. I never explained this, I just enjoyed their worried and confused expressions at trying to figure out an aparently innert item of artifact level power. ^_^)

Ormagoden
2009-11-10, 01:15 PM
Saying "and then the dragon rages." is also a viable tactic for scrambled brains.

Thelas
2009-11-10, 02:20 PM
Saying "and then the dragon rages." is also a viable tactic for scrambled brains.

... /me is confused.

Do you mean
- Actually saying that against a dragon who took barbarian levels?
- Saying that while they're fighting a dragon
- Saying that just when they're in the dungeon
- Saying that randomly when they're doing something that has nothing to do with fighting or dragons?
- Saying that once they finally think they dropped the dragon they're fighting?
- Something else?
- Making this post to confuse us GitP-forumers?

Shademan
2009-11-10, 03:42 PM
Animated Statues.

Use them once and every time you you describe statues after that you'll have PCs trying to do some redecoration.

you tell me about it! My bard totally seduced two female golem-statues in the gladiator-labyrynth of a evil emperor.
and by "seduced" I mean that he tried to embrace them while naked (long story, dont ask) and they crushed his ...
Spirit.

t_catt11
2009-11-10, 03:46 PM
Animated Statues.

Use them once and every time you you describe statues after that you'll have PCs trying to do some redecoration.

ROFL!! I love using this one.

Denkal
2009-11-26, 06:47 AM
This is not my own, (http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9569/storywe.jpg) but it is probably the most insane and successful example of messing with players' heads I have ever heard about. Absolute madness.

This is the single greatest thing I have ever read.

A particularly bad thing is when you hear this:

"Let's see...twenty-three. That hit?"
"No. Wait, wrong dragon. It hits."

Brendan
2009-11-26, 01:53 PM
Inflict minor wounds allows a will save. failing it and taking one measly damage is terrifying. You wonder why on earth you had to roll a save, you get massively cautious, and you expect the worst. However, If you fail it and take the damage, you start waiting to see if there is secondary damage, you expect for your head to explode or something awful. And this is with a zero level cleric spell. They are terrified.

Thelas
2009-11-26, 02:13 PM
Inflict minor wounds allows a will save. failing it and taking one measly damage is terrifying. You wonder why on earth you had to roll a save, you get massively cautious, and you expect the worst. However, If you fail it and take the damage, you start waiting to see if there is secondary damage, you expect for your head to explode or something awful. And this is with a zero level cleric spell. They are terrified.

What's the CR on a trap of inflict minor?
My guess: 1/4, but induces worry equal to about the APL in CR.

This is stolen, thank you.
Also, ever seen this spell?
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/resistance.htm
Make a trap of it.
That way, if they fail their save...
They wonder "wait, why did the DM ask for a save and not say anything other than, okay you fail, remind me next time you have to make a save."

Mad Wizard
2009-11-26, 03:35 PM
A particularly bad thing is when you hear this:

"Let's see...twenty-three. That hit?"
"Yes. Wait, wrong dragon. It misses."

Fixed that for ya :smallbiggrin:

Heliomance
2009-11-26, 04:28 PM
Couple of pranks our DM pulled on us:

Low level, walking through the forest. "Okay, everyone roll spot checks. Who got above 20?"

A couple of hands go up.

"Okay, in a nearby tree, you notice some squirrels dancing on a branch."

Naturally, we got very paranoid about this - why are squirrels dancing? Clearly, they're up to something. We were just about to massacre the squirrels, when:

"Everyone else notices the T-Rex charging towards you."

The other needs a little explanation. The way he does random encounters is first he rolls to see if there is an encounter, then he rolls to see how plot-relevant th encounter is, then how benign or dangerous it is. Naturally, this sometimes results in getting a completely irrelevant encounter that is neither friendly or remotely a threat. The first time he rolled this, he described a bear who looked at us, decided we looked too tough to tangle with, and went on his way. We go on with the game, and a couple of sessions later he rolls the same thing. As we're passing through the same forest, he describes a bear again - on being asked if it's the same one he replies yes. This happens a few times, and the bear begins to develop a little. He gains a very characteristic growl, and whenever the DM rolls an irrelevant encounter and we're in the right forest, he'll just do the growl and it'll be the bear again.

This becomes something of a running gag, and we joke about the bear following us, leave some meat for it, and generally have fun. Then we go off to war, and travel hundreds of miles south. The DM rolls for random encounters.

"Grr?"

littlebottom
2009-11-26, 08:15 PM
personally, "sing for your supper" a WFRP adventure

basically, its about a butcher whos daughter has gone missing, you get loads of red herrings and plenty of intriuge, but there is one moment, where your characters have to break into a shed at the back of a butchery at night, and when you look around the blood soaked shed, you find a locket of the daughter whos gone missing... and in a dark corner you see a severed leg!......... implying that the daughter has been made into sausages, but you can find out that the leg is actually a wooden leg that the butcher left in there by mistake and it got covered in blood from all the meat, its just funny seeing the PCs get the total wrong end of the stick

Denkal
2009-11-27, 02:02 AM
Fixed that for ya :smallbiggrin:

Not twenty minutes later, we fought a gold dragon with paladin class levels and the Saint template. THAT was the "wrong dragon" he was looking at.

Roderick_BR
2009-11-27, 08:12 AM
Find out what the players have been reading. The longer ago, the better. Find what things gave them nightmares when they were five and they've never quite gotten over.

Then, innocently hint at something of that nature. Nothing solid, but enough to play on their paranoias. Slowly build...

to nothing. And then repeat.

And, no matter what your players do, act like it's all in the plan.
Just be careful to not mess with something that makes someone *reall* unconfortable, like phobias. It's not worth losing a friend because of a game.
People that read horror/suspense stories, though, deserve to be messed up with. They'll probably enjoy it too.

Gecks
2009-11-27, 08:37 AM
The closest I ever came to really messing with a player's mind-

-was in a Gurps Wild West/steampunk/high magic homebrew campaign, where the PCs were being periodically accosted by a (obnoxiously) hero worshipping general store owner who also published a single-page rag of a local paper. As a running gag, every Saturday he would give them a copy of the paper “hot off the presses” (which I would type up and physically hand to them), which was always atrocious, with spelling errors, long, rambling articles on local minutiae, and overblown, silly accounts of their latest exploits, especially ones they were trying to keep quiet.

Well, they were starting to get to the heart of the mysteries surrounding the town they were in, and the story was starting to heat up, when one Saturday morning, the storeowner catches up with them in the center of town and goes to hand them the weekly paper. He frowns, says “hey, this isn’t what I wrote”, and hands them a sheet with a single, large headline to the most competent gunfighter in the group:

“Would-be Hero Shot in the Back while Reading Newspaper Headline”

It was the only time I ever got a player to reflexively duck and look over his shoulder. :smallbiggrin:

And yes, I did give his character a split second to jump out of the way before the barrage of bullets started... :smallwink:

Archonic Energy
2009-11-27, 09:22 AM
the PCs enter a room there are 2 exits along the wall is the message
"One door leads to riches the other to doom, One of the guards will always tell the truth and the other will always lie. Choose Wisely."
there are 2 skeletons in the room... :smallamused:

Dire Moose
2009-11-28, 03:30 PM
One time I had my party enter the following scene:

Me: You are standing on a platform over a pool of water. At the other end of the hall, about 100 feet away, is another platform with a door.

Cleric: Great. We're not gonna have to swim across it, are we?

Fighter (who has been hauling a big log through the dungeon and using it to set off traps): How about we throw the log in the water to see if something attacks it?

*throws log in pool*

Me: You see the log sizzle and dissolve into mush. Turns out this is actually a pool of hydrochloric acid.

I was particularly amused two sessions later when, after describing the floor of a dungeon corridor as being waterlogged for atmosphere, the scout cautiously stuck the end of his sunrod into the water just to make sure it was safe.

SartheKobold
2009-11-28, 08:26 PM
In a solo game with a player's paladin, I would casually drop hints at the homebrew Blackguard replacement I'd written up, and how powerful it could be if you did such and such. Then I had set him on tracking down a recently fallen paladin that had been branded a heretic for failing to execute another heretic.

A few sessions later, and the 'heretics' has gained two levels of Sorcerer to add to their now useless levels of Cleric and Paladin. The PC busts into the abandoned chapel the heretics had camped out in, and the ex-paladin stands up and casts mage armor...

PC determines this is evil, demonic, blackguard-y magic and sentences them to execution. The ex-paladin asks for mercy, even for a second, but the PC deems it trickery. Wipes the floor with both of them, and as he's looting the site, comes across a book and a journal, describing how the Cleric was branded as a heretic because she found the book detailing the truth behind the Paladin's church. Looking at the dead NPCs, and the book, he assumes he's fallen and that I was suggesting Blackguard for him. I don't object, and the next encounter, he runs it with just melee attacks. As he arrives back at the Order HQ, they ask if he found the book. Having fallen, he decides it's fine to lie about it, so he says no and intends to bring the whole organization down. The Heresy Examiner comes to question him, and after having it outed that he found and read the book, he's asked to come see the leader...

He refuses, disables the examiner and takes off on his own to try and get the secret out, eventually ruining the Order's reputation and unbalancing the power base... Then, as he's nearing the buried tomb of the church leader, he's attacked with the special attack of the Blackguard class as the ex-paladin from the ruins tears into him with evil cleric support...

Even better, during the fight he forgot about his 'falling' and smites evil. A few rounds later... "Aw crap, that worked!?"

Truth behind the Spoiler...
The Order really had it's roots in a devil posing as a messiah, but years after the devil's contract expired and she was sent back, the Order has carried on, doing honest good deeds as all of the lower-downs had no idea that she was scheming... And since all of the Order's Paladins recieved their power through what was essentially the placebo effect, it was only the paladin's sense of justice that determined if he'd fallen or not...

tl;dr - Set up, reversal, reverse the reversal...