Traumatize my players

[Novir Vetru]

I want to traumatize the players in my campaign. We are only in the first couple sessions of the campaign, and i have no idea how to go about it, but I want to traumatize my players and possibly scare them as much as possible. There are 5, and 3 of them are veteran players, but the other 2 have only been in a handful of campaigns.

[Kane0]

Ways to kill off PCs

1: HP Damage
2: Max HP reduction (great for poisons/diseases/curses whittling you down over time)
3: Exhaustion levels (6 stage death spiral)
4: Target Death Saves directly (three strikes and you're out!)
5: Attribute reduction (straight up from previous editions)
6: Prof bonus reduction (Emulates previous' edition energy drain nicely, also a handy death spiral)
7: Save or Bad Stuff (Save or Suck, Save or Lose, Save or Die)
8: Overhealing (explode when THP exceeds your max HP)
9: Reducing XP
10: Aging (in both directions)
11: Sap spell slots
12: Damage vulnerability (as in giving it to you temporarily)
13: Drowning/Choking

Also some interesting defenses and counters
1: Adaptive armor (become resistant or immune to last damage type(s) that harmed you)
2: Spell Absorbtion (successful save against spell grants THP or bonus damage)
3: Spell Reflection (missed spell attacks get redirected at creature of choice)
4: Spell Stealing (can benefit from buffs cast by enemies within certain range)
5: Damage Reduction (reduce all damage taken by X)
6: Damage Reversal (damage heals it, healing damages it)
7: Retributive damage (ala Armor of Agathys/Hellish Rebuke)
8: Reaction defenses (reaction AC boost, invisibility, teleport swap with ally, etc)
9: Immunity to specific abilities (smites, sneak attacks, AoEs, etc)
10: Doesn't stay dead (reanimates/reincarnates after X time)

Excellent Traps
- Teleport to underwater location
- Pit trap with pressure plate on bottom. When plate is pressed tube above the pit releases an ooze or spray of alchemists fire
- Chest or other container with explosive runes written on the inside
- uphill corridor, first person in line gets polymorphed into a boulder
- statue summons monster first round, then buffs/heals it in subsequent rounds
- dart trap that goes from the back of the hallway, hitting rearmost party members first
- chains hanging from ceiling. One unlocks door, all the others pull open trapdoors that release oozes/alchemist fire/posion gas
- chest has obvious wire that releases poison gas. Inside is fake loot sitting on a pressure plate, lifting it triggers a burst of alchemist fire and also the poison gas (which is flammable)
- illusions hiding traps
- uphill corridor with lit brazier at bottom, door at the top spills barrels of oil
- Gas Spores growing in unused room. Opening the door hits one
- Pit trap on tilting floor, tilting it too far hits pressure plates on ceiling which causes roof to drop. Safest place to be is in the pit
- obvious illusionary wall hides a mirror of life trapping. PCs must go through one at a time and the first to go through sees mirror and gets swapped with whatever is inside it
- Three levers: one marked heat fireballs room, one marked disposal summons 1d3 rust monsters and 1d3 otyughs, one marked continue that casts darkness and illusions nasty sounds
- room with two statues and some guards. Two statues are gargoyles
- infinite pit trap (regular pit with darkness and silence)

[Unoriginal]

I want to traumatize the players in my campaign. We are only in the first couple sessions of the campaign, and i have no idea how to go about it, but I want to traumatize my players and possibly scare them as much as possible. There are 5, and 3 of them are veteran players, but the other 2 have only been in a handful of campaigns.

What do you want to achieve by 'traumatizing your players'?

Because there are many ways to do it but most will cause people to quit playing with you.

[MrStabby]

I want to traumatize the players in my campaign. We are only in the first couple sessions of the campaign, and i have no idea how to go about it, but I want to traumatize my players and possibly scare them as much as possible. There are 5, and 3 of them are veteran players, but the other 2 have only been in a handful of campaigns.

Are you looking to traumatize the players, or their characters?

[Glorthindel]

Disclaimer - I ran a lot of Ravenloft, this stuff isn't for your average game, but comes with the territory there.

I found the most effective methods of pulling this off is to attack the characters very core identity, and above all, make them do the damage to themselves. This only works with truly invested players/characters, but you have to identify the characters very core identity - his/her values, desires, goals, who or what they would lay their lives down to defend, then lure them into breaking those ideals, or driving away or destroying the very thing they thought they would die to defend, all the while making sure they know they are doing it, and are doing it of their own free will.

It's virtually impossible to do this in the short term, you need to play the long game. Firstly you need to help build up and reinforce the characters core values. Even for veteran players, these things can get written down and forgotten, just words on (often the back of) the character sheet - you have to keep the characters values front and centre in the players mind, so that breaking them is all the more gut-wrenching. Then you have to build up the "break" event. Ideally, this will be designed to cause conflict between two of the characters core values, such that whatever they decide to do, the answer is "wrong" from some perspective. Sadly, I can't really advise without knowing the target characters values, as to work, the attack has got to be custom-built for that specific character and player.

I will finish with an example of one of the easier ones I pulled off. A character had both a intense hatred of Lycanthropes (specifically werewolves), but was on a personal redemption arc, and put desire to repent for past actions, and inspire such desire for redemption in others, as their main goal. The party, chasing a criminal from a previous adventure, found their target murdered on the road, and they discovered by a child they thought infected with lycanthropy (in truth, he was a "true" werewolf who had been adopted by normal humans). The child was struggling with the emergence of his own nature, while the parents (mourning their own previously deceased child, who they had replaced with the adoptee) were convinced their love would overcome the childs bestial nature. The character was torn - his own hatred of lycanthropes had him convinced the child was and would only be evil, and a threat to his "parents", but if he couldn't believe in the possibility of the childs redemption, his own goals would be hollow. So far, the childs only "victim" had been a villain himself (though it was ambiguous if the child knew that before he attacked him), so perhaps there was still a chance to prevent the child becoming the monster they feared. In the end, he let the child live, but it haunted him, because in his heart, he suspected he had made the wrong call, and let his hope for redemption over-rule what he knew to be the truth of the situation. And to this day (years later) I still refuse to tell him whether he made the right choice (and I had decided what the future for this family would be before the encounter to keep the decision "pure")

[f5anor]

What do you want to achieve by 'traumatizing your players'?

Because there are many ways to do it but most will cause people to quit playing with you.

I fully agree with this clarification, I also want to add that overpowering the players by pure railroading, or enemies that bend/break the rules will also not give you any benefits, and will likely damage the atmosphere and possibly even the relationship to the players.

Having said that, I think that coming up with strong and intelligent tactics, that may even be implemented by far inferior forces (e.g. see the infamous Tucker's Kobolds (https://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/TuckersKobolds.pdf)) can be very intimidating while being appreciated by the players as a fair and reasonable approach by the DM.

[Pildion]

What do you want to achieve by 'traumatizing your players'?

Because there are many ways to do it but most will cause people to quit playing with you.

I gota go with Unoriginal here, this sounds an awful lot like DM vs PCs to me. That's never healthy game play, you might want to think this one over a bit more. If your just looking to make things more challenging because you have veteran players that's one thing, but your saying you want to traumatize them...

[KorvinStarmast]

Having said that, I think that coming up with strong and intelligent tactics, that may even be implemented by far inferior forces (e.g. see the infamous Tucker's Kobolds (https://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/TuckersKobolds.pdf)) can be very intimidating while being appreciated by the players as a fair and reasonable approach by the DM. Beat me to it.
What do you want to achieve by 'traumatizing your players'? That's a good question.
For our dear OP: you are looking to evoke a strong emotional response, it appears. Tell us more about this. The previous answer about "the long game" (Glorthindel) includes something very important to weave into your overarching campaign themes: you need to get all of your players invested in the game world and the people and events therein. You need to develop NPCs that the people playing care about, and situations that the people playing care about.
Are you looking to traumatize the players, or their characters? Also a good question.

If your group likes to get invested, great. If your group is a beer and pretzels group (like the group I play with on Wednesdays) it may not be possible to pull this off.

I keep trying to do this in the Saltmarsh campaign - nurture player investment in the world - I am running every other Monday, but honestly between the infrequency of play, the over the web nature of the game, and how rarely everyone can show up, I am finding that investment is sparse at best. It's a combination of players drifting in and out and the dynamics of the group itself. All of them are reasonably experienced players.

[Kurt Kurageous]

CoS is as close as you are going to get in D&D so far.

Have you considered another game? Kobolds Ate My Baby is a much lighter hearted thing. I've never played any tentacled horrorizer, but that seems more what you are doing.

[Burley]

If you're looking to, like, genuinely psychically damage the humans at your table, you're gonna have some trouble. Unless you create visual aids (show them disturbing images), you're really only able to "traumatize" to the extent of their own imaginations. Players who have a low-threshold for trauma will just not imagine the things you're saying, and players with a high-threshold will probably be fine with whatever they end up imagining.

If I were a player and you were trying to cause actual trauma, I'd never come back to your table and I'd reconsider our friendship.

But, if you're just looking to create a tense experience at the table where the players and their characters are experiencing the stress of the game:
Hunt them
limit their access to rest and resources
split the party (maybe introduce imposters while they're split)
Find the gaps in team cohesion and wedge at it
Use magic and tactics the way a player would (Mold Earth, Stone Shape, Wall of Stone are all thematic enough for a single bad guy to use, and they can be use to bisect a party, block support or ranged characters, flee, etc).
Betray them
Inflict them with slow-acting poison and limit the amount of antidote they find


Stress at the table can be fun, but Trauma is something that people struggle with. You don't know what's in people's minds or what they've lived through. It's irresponsible to tread heavily on an unknown path.

I've seen people die and, occasionally, I'm reminded of those experiences through the course of a normal game. With years of therapy and mental health skill-building, I've learned to address and set aside troubling thoughts. But, I've been in games where the DM describes a particularly graphic scene and anxiety pushes me into needing a break. The DM was just setting the scene, not trying to bring up troubling thoughts. But, we can't control the way our brains access memories and sometimes I'm surprised at what may trigger my stress response. I don't need a DM to metaphorically walk on egg shells. I do need a DM to understand that every human has their own unique experience and to respect the sense of safety that a gaming table is meant to provide.

[KorvinStarmast]

If I were a player and you were trying to cause actual trauma, I'd never come back to your table and I'd reconsider our friendship. I think a lot of people would react similarly.
I will disagree with one of your suggestions.

split the party (maybe introduce imposters while they're split) That doubles (or worse) the amount of DM effort required to keep play moving.


Stress at the table can be fun, but Trauma is something that people struggle with. You don't know what's in people's minds or what they've lived through. It's irresponsible to tread heavily on an unknown path. Good advice.
I've seen people die and, occasionally, I'm reminded of those experiences through the course of a normal game. With years of therapy and mental health skill-building, I've learned to address and set aside troubling thoughts. But, I've been in games where the DM describes a particularly graphic scene and anxiety pushes me into needing a break. The DM was just setting the scene, not trying to bring up troubling thoughts. But, we can't control the way our brains access memories and sometimes I'm surprised at what may trigger my stress response. I don't need a DM to metaphorically walk on egg shells. I do need a DM to understand that every human has their own unique experience and to respect the sense of safety that a gaming table is meant to provide. + 100! :smallsmile:

[da newt]

"I want to traumatize my players and possibly scare them as much as possible." - This is not a healthy goal, this is a bad thing. Perhaps take a look at what it is you would like to accomplish (and why) and reconsider. Ask yourself, is this something that a friend ought to be doing to friends; will they enjoy it and benefit from it?

But perhaps your intentions are good, and we've misinterpreted your goal ... What is it exactly that you are going for? What sort of a game did you and your players agree to during your session Zero? Did they request a terror based theme?

[Unoriginal]

I think it's important to not mix up traumatizing and memorable, too.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Based on my experience, I suggest lots and lots of really bad (good?) puns. KorvinStarmast can attest. Oh, and bizarre monsters. The jelly-faces were my favorite so far. A jelly-fish, except made out of a human head, with the skull transparent and the face downward among tentacles.

[KorvinStarmast]

Based on my experience, I suggest lots and lots of really bad (good?) puns. KorvinStarmast can attest. Verily, the groans can be heard across the multiverse


Oh, and bizarre monsters. The jelly-faces were my favorite so far. A jelly-fish, except made out of a human head, with the skull transparent and the face downward among tentacles. It was actually the bad poetry that did the most psychic damage to the players.

[Cygnia]

Willingly evil children -- no possession, no "just misunderstood", no abusive backgrounds.

[Demonslayer666]

You can't, unless they play along. It's a game and they know it's a game.

Immerse them in the setting. Use descriptions instead of monster names (don't say you see a ghoul, only describe it). Play spooky background music. Turn the lights low, and/or use mood lighting.

Have them invest in their characters so they don't want to lose them.

[Imbalance]

I want to traumatize the players in my campaign. We are only in the first couple sessions of the campaign, and i have no idea how to go about it, but I want to traumatize my players and possibly scare them as much as possible. There are 5, and 3 of them are veteran players, but the other 2 have only been in a handful of campaigns.

Without context, there really isn't anything to specifically suggest that remains within the confines of the law, good taste, and, most importantly, forum rules.

[TMac9000]

I want to traumatize the players in my campaign. We are only in the first couple sessions of the campaign, and i have no idea how to go about it, but I want to traumatize my players and possibly scare them as much as possible. There are 5, and 3 of them are veteran players, but the other 2 have only been in a handful of campaigns.

Two words: Chippendale Ogres.

[jaappleton]

<Blue Text>
Get the dogs?
Or the bees?
Or the dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you?
</Blue Text>

The key to creeping people out is description. Be vague but simultaneously detailed. Don't say what anything is, just describe it. Act it out, put on that creepy voice.

The more you invest into it, the better reaction you're going to get.

And don't let up. Don't just describe it once in passing. Keep going, reinforce it.

However: Make sure anything you do is cool with your table. 'Traumatize' is a vague term and there's a lot of things which can make people feel uncomfortable or even unsafe. Tabletop is for everyone, so don't do anything to drive them away.

[BerzerkerUnit]

I want to traumatize the players in my campaign. We are only in the first couple sessions of the campaign, and i have no idea how to go about it, but I want to traumatize my players and possibly scare them as much as possible. There are 5, and 3 of them are veteran players, but the other 2 have only been in a handful of campaigns.

Do you know your players well?

If yes, then you shouldn’t want to do this. If not, then You shouldn’t want to do this.

There’s not going to be a jump scare at the table, that leaves existential dread and that requires a systematic or sudden deconstruction of their understanding of reality. That kind of thing is psychologically injurious and if you want to do that, you’re better off seeing a therapist.

Here’s an actual example from my history, [brackets indicate horror potential and I’ll discuss the problems and why I abandoned the plot later].
I was running a supers game. One PC had a wife he’d failed to save when his powers manifested and a brother whom he could trust.

I had laid the foundation for a story about the PCs becoming the first publicly facing super team but their backers were investigating them and some NPC potentials for psyche problems. They were testing powers, training etc.

One NPC had alluded to the idea she could “make other people see things.”

[I had this idea where I could use the fact I was DM to create a layer of fiction on our fiction to push this player toward action in game.] We start and play a session normally when someone would tell the PC with the dead wife they had managed to [recover the data from her phone and offer to let him look through it] for family photos or whatever.

While looking through the phone they would [find evidence of an affair their wife had been having with their brother].

The PC on question had some technopath powers that could be used to murder someone in an untraceable fashion as well as conclusively prove whether the messages were legit. Which they all would be.

It would culminate in a decision by the player on how they would proceed. [Betrayed by the two people they trusted most], would they avoid conflict, seek it, or take vengeance. If they confronted their brother the [brother was going to lie, deny, then spin and ultimately attack creating a technical opportunity for justifiable homicide.]

No matter what happened the plot would end with it being revealed it “was all a dream” induced by an NPC as a stress test. Would the PC, seemingly the most mentally stable and balanced, fly off the handle and abuse their power.

All of this is like Manchester Black pretending to kill Lois Lane.

As we get ready for the session, I realize it all hinges on me abusing the trust my players had placed in me to lead them in a fun collaborative activity.

In the modern era, going through a significant other’s phone would be a deep invasion of privacy. Just putting that on the table could create drama for some players.

Having NPCs created by a player weapon used to try and mentally unbalance them is taking advantage of the collaborative nature of storytelling we should aspire to.

Introducing the kind of deeply personal and adult plots I was planning on wasn’t very thoughtful and displayed a lack of respect for my player’s boundaries. I don’t know if maybe the PCs dead wife was a reflection of someone in the Player’s real life and introducing such a betrayal might be akin to letting a Player Know the PC had been assaulted while their character slept. Did we define concepts we’re comfortable with? No, and ignorance of their personal history would not be an excuse.

Having a character intended to be seen as a regular resource make their debut in a dream sequence that establishes them as a gaslighting rat bastard would not be good storytelling and again, a betrayal of the trust the players had placed in me.

So two days before we were supposed to play I let my players know I was putting the game on indefinite hiatus. It doesn’t matter if that would have made a good soap opera, actors get to read the script before they stand in Front of the camera. Players don’t.

There’s a line between spoiling story and defining boundaries. Get close, but never cross.

[Sigreid]

My players were disturbed when they entered a wear wolf den and found a curtain made from the skins of murdered children. Skinned in such a way that you could see their faces.

[Dienekes]

Guys it seems pretty obvious OP is using some hyperbole to get the point across.

Anyway, I’ve been told I’ve given my players nightmares before, so here’s what I’ve done.

Take something normal, natural, even beautiful and pervert it into something horrible. The two times I’ve gotten the biggest responses in my games have been when I made them absolutely paranoid and put them in a situation where most the friendly NPCs were possibly corrupted by a sentient curse. They had no idea what it knew, who it had taken over. So the home base that they had since they were level 2 was no longer safe. And they ended up having to kill a few of their most beloved allies.

And the second was when I revealed what a certain cult of an evil goddess that was the mother of beasts/monsters. I had them taking pregnant women and making them give birth to essential the natural-magical world. So they entered into the cult chambers to see someone forced into giving birth, with grass that grew from the ground and small insects and animals clawing out of her, and several of the more animalistic monsters. They then had to figure out a way to keep her alive and stop the magic birthing. It was messy.

Mind you, I would not do that kind of body horror unless I knew the players very well. I would suggest informing your players about the kind of game you’re running before pulling something like that.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A pit trap with a Gelatinous Cube at the bottom. Anyone who falls into the pit also falls into the cube and gets engulfed. The walls of the pit are slick from it reaching a pseudopod around in search of food, so it's difficult to climb out. Works best when combined with another encounter.

[False God]

You're too early in.

Slow build it.

The horror is not in the jump scare or the shock value. You can scare people, as in make them scream and jump and wet their pants with a sudden OOGA-BOOGA! but it's a shallow scare, and people will adjust to it over time. Jump scares also have little overall integration into the game, one minute they're there and scary, the next minute they're not.

Shock value is easy, dead babies, skinned babies, blood and guts, but again it's a fairly cheap sort of horror. It's gross, but to some people it will be no more gross than a spill on the floor.

The horror is in the realization, not of you telling your players BOO! Or "there are so many dead babies!" But in their own realization that all is not right. That the truths they've come to know and recognize and accept aren't what they thought they were. I realize this is kinda vague but horror, real horror is kinda vague. Indescribably detailed, and yet difficult to recognize. We all know horror when we see it, not gore, not jump scares, not toilet humor, but real horror. Something whose description requires words that don't exist. Something that defies describability and the horror comes from the realization that you can't really describe it. Mad scribblings on the wall desperately trying to depict something you can't cause your mouth to make the sound of. Assorted gibberings of words that shouldn't go together but somehow evoke a feeling, a concept in the minds of others even as they shouldn't mean anything at all.

And this takes time. It's not something you can drop on your players in a few minutes. You need to build it in. Build it up. If you do it right, you don't have to drop the hammer on the players. They'll drop it on themselves.

[Grull]

I once traumatized my characters accidentally. In my campaign, skeletons can't talk and thus can't cast spells with verbal components. So, the BBEG of the campaign created a skeleton with working lungs, tongue, lips, and vocal cords, thus giving them the power of speech. I covered the head and chest in armor to make it more of a reveal and it was only after I described it that I realized the image of a skeleton with organic parts could be gross or disturbing to others. So basically my advice is: make it something gross or disturbing.

[Maan]

I think this article here (https://theangrygm.com/running-your-most-horrible-dd-adventure-ever/) pretty much sums it up everything about running horror sessions in RPGs. And in D&D specifically.

[Magicspook]

First of all, I hope you want to traumatise the characters, not the players?

What worked for me was to work up the frustration. I had been draining them of resources for several sessions (grotty realism) with encounter after encounter as they traveled through a war-torn land. Then in the night, a skirmish broke out between two warring factions as the players were hiding in their tiny hut. They waited too long to act, and thus a conflict was unavoidable. They did a half-assed attempt to warn one party, which resulted in a one-sided slaughter. I described the way that the losers were massacered right in front of their hidden shelter. They vowed to take more decisive action in the future.

Then they arrived in a conquered city, and they were tasked by the conquering general to get the remaining civilians out. What they didn't know is that the general did not have complete control of his army, and the refugees were blocked by a group of enemy soldiers. Angrily, the players blamed the general. In the end, they managed to get some people out, but fewer than they would've been able to if they had more resources, and they had to rely on help from the general, who is now MAD at them for creating division in his army.

The characters are now rather severely traumatised by this whole experience, and what's more, they are SUPER invested in the political situation. In the coming arc of the story, they have chosen a side and will see the invaders driven from the land. I love it.

[Lacco]

Guys it seems pretty obvious OP is using some hyperbole to get the point across.

Anyway, I’ve been told I’ve given my players nightmares before, so here’s what I’ve done.

Same here.

My favourite item: nightmares and portent dreams. Mix the two, add dread.

The rules I follow are simple:
1. There are no good choices in the nightmare. Anything you do makes the situation worse.
2. Don't inform anyone that it is a dream. There is no "that night, you dream of..." - only if you are going for rug pull*.
3. Start with the strange. No explanation. Proceed with the dreadful. Don't finish.
4. Use the same sentence in the dreams several times, to ingrain the feeling. When you get it right at the peak of dread, you can then program the brain to respond with the dread when it comes in the "real" world.
5. Work the same images and sentences into the real world.
6. Don't be afraid to skip scenes, don't worry about geometry or locations. Go heavy on the metaphor. The door you open leads somewhere else. The dark man with six fingers you meet is not the man you really meet. But he'll use the same greeting.

Basically, you give them a trailer.

* - "That night you dream of vast, infinite landscapes and a hunt. You are the one hunted, but you are also doing the hunting. You see yourself ahead, trying to evade. You feel the need to escape, while you try to catch yourself. You wake up, in the middle of the camp..." - and proceed with the real nightmare (the "wake up" is just a trick - you woke up into the nightmare).

[Sigreid]

You're too early in.

Slow build it.

The horror is not in the jump scare or the shock value. You can scare people, as in make them scream and jump and wet their pants with a sudden OOGA-BOOGA! but it's a shallow scare, and people will adjust to it over time. Jump scares also have little overall integration into the game, one minute they're there and scary, the next minute they're not.

Shock value is easy, dead babies, skinned babies, blood and guts, but again it's a fairly cheap sort of horror. It's gross, but to some people it will be no more gross than a spill on the floor.

The horror is in the realization, not of you telling your players BOO! Or "there are so many dead babies!" But in their own realization that all is not right. That the truths they've come to know and recognize and accept aren't what they thought they were. I realize this is kinda vague but horror, real horror is kinda vague. Indescribably detailed, and yet difficult to recognize. We all know horror when we see it, not gore, not jump scares, not toilet humor, but real horror. Something whose description requires words that don't exist. Something that defies describability and the horror comes from the realization that you can't really describe it. Mad scribblings on the wall desperately trying to depict something you can't cause your mouth to make the sound of. Assorted gibberings of words that shouldn't go together but somehow evoke a feeling, a concept in the minds of others even as they shouldn't mean anything at all.

And this takes time. It's not something you can drop on your players in a few minutes. You need to build it in. Build it up. If you do it right, you don't have to drop the hammer on the players. They'll drop it on themselves.

Yes and no. The real value of things like the kiddie curtain is two fold. 1. It hit the parents in the group a lot harder than the non-parents. 2. It sends a signal that nothing is off the table. The line has been removed and sets them wondering how far into the abyss it's going to go.

[Joe the Rat]

Willingly evil children -- no possession, no "just misunderstood", no abusive backgrounds.

Two words: Chippendale Ogres.
Both are effective, but set very different tones in the game. The one that fits least with The Road So Far will work best.


You're too early in.

Slow build it.Incredibly important. I like to drop bombs on my players. I enjoyed the one where I revealed that the party Cleric has actually been dead for a few months, and has been walking around as a sort of magically disguised unknowing revenant. It definitely hit with an "Oh wow." Recently, in the same game, it came to light that not only are the Four MacGuffins necessary to save an entire people, but in concert they can be used to open a hole in the sky to other dimensions. And the people they were trying to save (including a former player, RIP), are actually the githyanki, and their sleeping queen is Vlaakith. Sometimes all it takes is a "are we the baddies?" moment.

My all-time favorite, though, was my character (a kobold), through a little slight of hand and the fact that nobody else at the table spoke kobold managed to have the party fighter take his place in an honor duel, and become the king of the local tribe. That floored the rest of the players.
Now, this was something we had worked out ahead of time between the DM, myself, and the fighter. He wanted to change characters, and this presented a way to get him out of the way. Which is an important lesson - if you are going to **** over a character to impact the other players, discuss it with that character's player first. These things work a lot better if you have someone in on the twist.