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  1. - Top - End - #91
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    BardGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Whenever a player enters a room, a baseball-sized eye opens from the stonework on the wall, looks at them, and closes, vanishing entirely. As they progress, the eye opens on closer walls, but eventually they stop seeing it...until they look around and find it watching over their shoulder. Every single time they turn around. Every perception roll they make, the eye on the wall is looking at them until they notice it, whereupon it closes and melds back into the stonework.

  2. - Top - End - #92
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    DigoDragon's Avatar

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by JAL_1138 View Post
    Whenever a player enters a room, a baseball-sized eye opens from the stonework on the wall, looks at them, and closes, vanishing entirely. As they progress, the eye opens on closer walls, but eventually they stop seeing it...until they look around and find it watching over their shoulder. Every single time they turn around. Every perception roll they make, the eye on the wall is looking at them until they notice it, whereupon it closes and melds back into the stonework.
    I actually did something like this once, with an old castle.

    Made the players so paranoid that they kept stabbing them whenever they had the chance. success permanently prevented the eye from coming back in that particular room. Later they found out the eyes were mostly harmless-- magical sensors that would unlock doors when they saw 'visitors' come to the place. I say mostly because there were certain rooms you can view what the eyes are seeing, but the owners of the castle were long dead so only the occasional smart bugbear that knew of the rooms used it.

    But really the PCs made their presence known with the damage they were causing so... :3
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  3. - Top - End - #93
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    The more I think about it, the more I realize that (with my players, at least), anything makes them paranoid if it appears over and over again.
    I once had them go into some ruins, which were made by a very aesthetically-minded civilization. As such, most of it was meticulously smoothed. Smooth floors, smooth walls, a smooth pedestal... my players began getting visibly concerned whenever I described something as smooth in the ruin, and then when something wasn't smooth, they almost had a mental breakdown

    I'm quite convinced if I ever describe anything else as smooth, they'll become convinced it's all a conspiracy that's somehow linked to the ruins...
    Last edited by Strigon; 2015-06-09 at 10:02 AM.
    That's all I can think of, at any rate.

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  4. - Top - End - #94
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    BardGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    "You don't see any traps..."

  5. - Top - End - #95
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Reminds me...

    Quote Originally Posted by Darths and Droids
    This response can be cultivated. Never say, "There are no traps in the room," when you can say, "You don't detect any traps." Don't say, "There are no orcs around." Say, "There are no orcs visible within the range of the feeble flickering of your torches." And especially don't say, "It's perfectly safe to rest and regain your strength in the realm of the friendly elves. They tend to your wounds and give you delicious nuts and berries, and sweet honeyed wine to drink." Say instead, "The elves appear to be friendly, offering what they claim are healing balms and lotions. You sniff the golden liquid in a proffered cup, and think you can recognise a faint odour of almonds..."
    Last edited by goto124; 2015-06-09 at 10:42 AM.

  6. - Top - End - #96
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by JAL_1138 View Post
    "You don't see any traps..."
    Quote Originally Posted by goto124 View Post
    Yes. The right words can cultivate a lot of delicious sweet paranoia.
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  7. - Top - End - #97
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    WolfInSheepsClothing

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    A cookbook which rewrites itself to suit the tastes of the person holding it. Every recipe is very ostentatious, rich, and, dare I say it, gluttonous?

    Later the party is hosted for dinner by a large gentleman who seems to know precisely what their favorite foods are.

  8. - Top - End - #98
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    BardGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by DigoDragon View Post
    I actually did something like this once, with an old castle.

    Made the players so paranoid that they kept stabbing them whenever they had the chance. success permanently prevented the eye from coming back in that particular room. Later they found out the eyes were mostly harmless-- magical sensors that would unlock doors when they saw 'visitors' come to the place. I say mostly because there were certain rooms you can view what the eyes are seeing, but the owners of the castle were long dead so only the occasional smart bugbear that knew of the rooms used it.

    But really the PCs made their presence known with the damage they were causing so... :3
    Strangely enough, I also intended it to just be the ordinary Magic Eye (or whatever it's called) spell, mixed with some form of nondetection so it doesn't seem magical when checked.

  9. - Top - End - #99
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by JNAProductions View Post
    A room with doors that lock when everyone is inside. There's a button somewhere obvious in the room.

    Once the doors lock, start a five minute countdown. Hitting the button resets it.

    When the timer runs out... The doors open. :P
    Don't forget that the button also shocks whoever presses it for one point of damage.

    Quote Originally Posted by JAL_1138 View Post
    Back in 2e, I lost fewer characters in actual, literal, in-no-way-metaphorical, where-Asmodeus-lives Hell, or in Ravenloft, or in the Tomb of Horrors than I did to water-related incidents.
    Any interest in a nautical campaign?

    Quote Originally Posted by JAL_1138 View Post
    Whenever a player enters a room, a baseball-sized eye opens from the stonework on the wall, looks at them, and closes, vanishing entirely. As they progress, the eye opens on closer walls, but eventually they stop seeing it...until they look around and find it watching over their shoulder. Every single time they turn around. Every perception roll they make, the eye on the wall is looking at them until they notice it, whereupon it closes and melds back into the stonework.
    *yoink*
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cirrylius View Post
    That's how wizards beta test their new animals. If it survives Australia, it's a go. Which in hindsight explains a LOT about Australia.

  10. - Top - End - #100
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by Sith_Happens View Post
    nautical campaign
    NOPE *runs away*

  11. - Top - End - #101
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Come on, JAL; D&D is like Dwarf Fortress: Losing is Fun!
    That's all I can think of, at any rate.

    Quote Originally Posted by remetagross View Post
    All hail the mighty Strigon! One only has to ask, and one shall receive.

  12. - Top - End - #102
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    BarbarianGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    I'm not sure if paranoid is the right word, but once I had the party visit the plane of life, which I described as being a maze of vines that are slowly moving and growing in all different directions, also there were natural beasts that had flowers and mushrooms growing from their bodies in different places. the entire plane surged 1D8 positive energy every round and all the flowered beast shared a hive mind. I had given them all rings of necrotic ebergy before, and none of them would dare to remove them for their entire visit.

    They were right to be afraid though, the hive mind would have taken them if they overheated too much and failed a fortitude save.
    The first rule of gaming, before you have even chosen the game is and always should be

    HAVE FUN

    (FUN being defined as it is in dwarf fortress)

  13. - Top - End - #103
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    BardGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by Strigon View Post
    Come on, JAL; D&D is like Dwarf Fortress: Losing is Fun!
    I tell this one a lot, can't remember if I have in this thread, but back in 2e I've lost characters to such things as a housecat, a barnyard goat, a single-digit number of squirrels, and falling downstairs drunk at the inn we all met at to start the game, before we got the first quest or finished introductions.

  14. - Top - End - #104
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by JAL_1138 View Post
    I tell this one a lot, can't remember if I have in this thread, but back in 2e I've lost characters to such things as a housecat, a barnyard goat, a single-digit number of squirrels, and falling downstairs drunk at the inn we all met at to start the game, before we got the first quest or finished introductions.
    (Settles into chair, hoping to hear more)
    That's all I can think of, at any rate.

    Quote Originally Posted by remetagross View Post
    All hail the mighty Strigon! One only has to ask, and one shall receive.

  15. - Top - End - #105
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    A pair of boots behind animated drapes.
    A dumbwaiter. Or heaven forbid. A gazebo in a inner garden courtyard

  16. - Top - End - #106
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    BarbarianGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    In every room of the dungeon have a single clearly visible trap, then trap every other part of the room, and have the visible trap be malfunctioning and the only safe path through.
    The first rule of gaming, before you have even chosen the game is and always should be

    HAVE FUN

    (FUN being defined as it is in dwarf fortress)

  17. - Top - End - #107
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    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by braveheart View Post
    In every room of the dungeon have a single clearly visible trap, then trap every other part of the room, and have the visible trap be malfunctioning and the only safe path through.
    Eh. Not so much paranoia inducing as annoying.
    “Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”

  18. - Top - End - #108
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by Callak View Post
    A gazebo in a inner garden courtyard
    Several humanoid statues standing in a graveyard. Each one is only an inch thick. They almost seem to move position slightly when not looked at...

    (Did this to a party in a Shadowrun game. Turns out it was just trick of their mind for being tired and drunk. Well, the moving part. The statues were actually there).
    Last edited by DigoDragon; 2015-06-09 at 04:46 PM.
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  19. - Top - End - #109
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    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by DigoDragon View Post
    Several humanoid statues standing in a graveyard. Each one is only an inch thick. They almost seem to move position slightly when not looked at...

    (Did this to a party in a Shadowrun game. Turns out it was just trick of their mind for being tired and drunk. Well, the moving part. The statues were actually there).
    About half my party is comprised of Doctor Who fans. If I ever want to get them unreasonably scared, all I have to do is have a statue of an angel somewhere. It doesn't even have to move or anything, or be hiding its face.
    “Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”

  20. - Top - End - #110
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    I mean, any time you have a graveyard at all, it's just not a good time.

    I honestly don't think I've ever seen a graveyard anywhere - in Tabletops or video games - just for show.
    It's either haunted, the resting place of something very, very powerful, or something is attracted to the dead bodies. Sometimes all three at once.
    Seriously. If you ever need experience, just head to the nearest graveyard; there's something there just waiting for you.
    That's all I can think of, at any rate.

    Quote Originally Posted by remetagross View Post
    All hail the mighty Strigon! One only has to ask, and one shall receive.

  21. - Top - End - #111
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    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by Strigon View Post
    I mean, any time you have a graveyard at all, it's just not a good time.

    I honestly don't think I've ever seen a graveyard anywhere - in Tabletops or video games - just for show.
    It's either haunted, the resting place of something very, very powerful, or something is attracted to the dead bodies. Sometimes all three at once.
    Seriously. If you ever need experience, just head to the nearest graveyard; there's something there just waiting for you.
    The practically come with a sign that says: Dungeon Lite.
    “Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”

  22. - Top - End - #112
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by Keltest View Post
    The practically come with a sign that says: Dungeon Lite.
    Agreed. Every cemetery wants to be a dungeon when it grows up.
    That's all I can think of, at any rate.

    Quote Originally Posted by remetagross View Post
    All hail the mighty Strigon! One only has to ask, and one shall receive.

  23. - Top - End - #113
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    BardGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by Strigon View Post
    (Settles into chair, hoping to hear more)
    There's not much to the housecat story. Or any of them, really. I tried to pick it up, it clawed me for like 2 damage. I had one or two HP maximum and died.

    Nor to the goat incident. I failed an animal handling roll, I had 1d4 HP, it headbutted me and I died.

    The squirrels were a "something has turned the wildlife hostile" thing, a couple-three of them won initiative and rolled well on their to-hit, I was a wizard so they didn't have to roll spectacular to hit even with a lousy THAC0, and they do 1 damage per hit. I had 1d4 HP, didn't roll max HP, and thus died.

    Falling down the stairs? My character got extremely drunk at the inn. So drunk that a Dex check to make it up the steps was warranted. It involved a drinking contest. Anyway, it was roll-under in those days, and I nat 20'd. Fell down the steps, received 1hp of damage, which was all I had. 1d4, rolled, and no CON bonus, die at 0.

    In 2e you didn't get much of a CON bonus unless a) your class was in the warrior group and b) you rolled really high. You were capped at +2 (even getting +1 took like a 15 or something, too) if you weren't a warrior. And you rolled HP at first level. And died instantly at 0.

    Thus the average 1st-level wizard had 2 or 3 HP, AC10 (so even something with THAC0 20 hit half the time), one spell per day (there were no cantrips except the first-level spell called "cantrip," now known as Prestidigitation), and the lifespan of a mayfly in the Demiplane of Bullfrogs and Spiders.

  24. - Top - End - #114
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by Keltest View Post
    The practically come with a sign that says: Dungeon Lite.
    Haha... ^^;

    I guess I subvert that expectation. I've never thrown a cemetery that was actually the site of a haunting, dungeon, or combat with something monstrous. Usually the players just meet odd NPCs that want to give them info or make some kind of trade. One time they started a fight just outside a cemetery, does that count?
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  25. - Top - End - #115
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    BardGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Usually the cemetery has had the entrance to the dungeon in it (the catacombs where the bones eventually get taken, a crypt that got tunneled into from caverns beneath, etc.) rather than having been an encounter location in and of itself.

    EDIT: if it wasn't just a meeting site.
    Last edited by JAL_1138; 2015-06-09 at 07:27 PM.

  26. - Top - End - #116
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    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by DigoDragon View Post
    Haha... ^^;

    I guess I subvert that expectation. I've never thrown a cemetery that was actually the site of a haunting, dungeon, or combat with something monstrous. Usually the players just meet odd NPCs that want to give them info or make some kind of trade. One time they started a fight just outside a cemetery, does that count?
    I think the cemetery union is going to come after you for making them insufficiently dangerous a location.
    “Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”

  27. - Top - End - #117
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Your party hears the faint sound of a woman sobbing around the corner
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  28. - Top - End - #118
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    BardGuy

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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    A sign, in Infernal, at the entrance: "Entering the Iron Halls of Hengist (hereinafter "the Dungeon") beyond this point shall constitute acceptance of the following End-Adventurer License Agreement: [wall-o'-text in fine print]"
    Last edited by JAL_1138; 2015-06-10 at 12:26 AM.

  29. - Top - End - #119
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by Strigon View Post
    Agreed. Every cemetery wants to be a dungeon when it grows up.
    I've sometimes wondered why people in fantasy settings bury their dead, when every cemetery seems to end up crawling with the undead.

    The best I can figure is that disposing of the bodies in any other way results in even worse monsters: cremate them and they might rise as some sort of ash-wraith; throw them in the sea and they'll come back as wave-ghouls; feed them to jackals and the beasts will mutate into fleshrender murderjackals at the next full moon; etc, etc.

    So they bury them in large fields outside town and wait for them to decompose and if a troublesome necromancer comes along before then the townsfolk just say "Meh, bunch of CR 1/2 zombies" and wait for the town guards to deal with it (or to hire some level 1 adventurers to deal with it).

    And the higher-level people are buried in stone sarcophagi in big mausloeums - kinda like burying metal drums of nuclear waste in concrete bunkers.
    Last edited by hewhosaysfish; 2015-06-10 at 07:09 AM. Reason: spelling
    If a tree falls in the forest and the PCs aren't around to hear it... what do I roll to see how loud it is?

    Is 3.5 a fried-egg, chili-chutney sandwich?

  30. - Top - End - #120
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    Default Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon

    I agree wih that general point, although if I'm honest, I think they just don't cremate because they lack the resources to do it for everyone. Cremation would probably be the safest way, but very expensive, so only Lord Moneybags can have Dear Aunt Cindy sitting in an urn on the shelf.

    Back on topic, though; a child in a dungeon. Sure, they might be a helpless orphan, but there's a statistically significant chance they're really an evil spirit or a centuries-old vampire lord.


    That chance increases significantly if it's a young girl.
    Last edited by Strigon; 2015-06-10 at 07:27 AM.
    That's all I can think of, at any rate.

    Quote Originally Posted by remetagross View Post
    All hail the mighty Strigon! One only has to ask, and one shall receive.

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