Ideas for messing with/playing jokes on your players?

[newbDM]

I just got an unusual idea to mess with a group of players, so I want to know what mean (yet fun spirited) things you guys have done or planned.


1. The players just got done dungeon crawling in a giant forgotten dwarven ruined stronghold very deep underground below a huge solid mountain. As they are about to leave they notice a secret compartment in a wall. It leads to a small narrow tunnel even tight for a dwarf that goes on quite a while deeper into the mountain. Eventually they see a light at the other end, and emerge into a giant chamber about 1000ft x 500ft. At the chamber's center stands an enormous solid statue of Moradin standing 400ft tall and 50ft wide made out off 100% pure adamantine. On it's head (at the very top) is embedded a giant crown forged of solid gold with countless gems fused into it.

Also, the tide waters that submerge the city for a hundred and five years are about to rise again in around two hours.

[Malacode]

This isn't quite what you mean, I guess, but...
In my next campaign, the BBEG is a Necromancer/Transmuter. They come across him in the first dungeon they enter, and probably will all end up grappled by his multilimbed flesh golem minions. This the opening line in his monologue:
How do you do, I
See you've met, my
Faithfull... Handyman

Rocky Horror FTW

[Another_Poet]

Get a stack of ery large books, like a set of encyclopedias, and leave them strewn about your gaming table.

When the players show up, one of them will probably start to clear off the table so they can set up their stuff. At this point tell them, "Actually could you leave those there? I need to use them as mini's for some of the monsters tonight."

hehehehehehe

[valadil]

I pass notes with out of game instructions for players to mess with each other. My favorite is "look at $powergamer until he notices you, then look back and me and nod." $powergamer has since tried to ban note passing at the table.

[Telonius]

I just got an unusual idea to mess with a group of players, so I want to know what mean (yet fun spirited) things you guys have done or planned.


1. The players just got done dungeon crawling in a giant forgotten dwarven ruined stronghold very deep underground below a huge solid mountain. As they are about to leave they notice a secret compartment in a wall. It leads to a small narrow tunnel even tight for a dwarf that goes on quite a while deeper into the mountain. Eventually they see a light at the other end, and emerge into a giant chamber about 1000ft x 500ft. At the chamber's center stands an enormous solid statue of Moradin standing 400ft tall and 50ft wide made out off 100% pure adamantine. On it's head (at the very top) is embedded a giant crown forged of solid gold with countless gems fused into it.

Also, the tide waters that submerge the city for a hundred and five years are about to rise again in around two hours.

Two days later, they return with adamantine saws and several helms of underwater action ...

[Shpadoinkle]

I ran a BESM game for my sister and her fiancee this summer. In one session they were investigating a large old house that was supposedly haunted, and came accross a fireplace. There was nothing in it, but they checked it out anyway, and off the top of my head I told them "Okay, a fat man in a red suit..."

[evisiron]

Hehe, a dungeon, with 4 pieces of ancient arcane pieces of equipment (Gloves, boots, goggles, belt) in themed areas guarded by numerous monsters and traps. It is never questioned why this dungeon is here (it was found by accident)

Of course, the essence of an evil Titan was trapped in these pieces and guarded/trapped to ensure that no-one would bring the pieces together an release this evil once again upon the world.

One loot fueled dungeon crawl later and the party released this evil upon the world.

It worked well since it provided motivation to track this guy down and defeat him (their fault and he stole their loot!).

[esorscher]

I got this from dndadventure.com

Put a 10 x 10 trap door in the dungeon, with a pull handle and rope attached to it, the rope attached to a nail in the floor away from the trap door. Let the PC's pull on the handle for a while, then have the trap door drop in, revealing a big monster.

The master of the dungeon keeps the monster there, places a bunch of meat on the trap door, then pulls the rope to make the handle rattle. The monster activates a button, which drops the trap door and meat, and then the master pulls it closed using the rope and handle.

When the PCs rattle the handle trying to pull the trap door open, the monster thinks there is food. When there is no food, only PCs, he gets angry and attacks them.

It doesn't detect as a trap, since it isn't.

I heard this on the forums the other day. The party fights a shapeshifter, and when the shapeshifter is down to low health, it runs into the other room, shifts into a helpless, bound young girl. When the party comes in, she begs and pleads, saying she's a captive of the shapeshifter.

The party does what they do with NPCs--treats her wounds, maybe, frees her, has her tag along. Then, when they're sleeping, the shapeshifter kills them.

[mikej]

Not soo much a joke but a lesson to my players that suspect easy mindless battles.

I made my players face off against balefull polymorphed ( great wyrm red dragon ) Vorpal Bunny, legends say it could cut the greatest warriors head off in one bite. Note this wasn't a real threat just a normal bunny, any gather information check could tell that this was just a legend.

My players had a real annoying habit of freaking out if the monsters ambushed them, always arguing that they should have noticed it which was a load of crap since they like the buff heavy before a fight. Soo they reached the bunny in the desert, surprised that the little creature didn't open its small mouth to release a river of fire. soo they all spent like 10 rounds buffing each other suspecting a hard fight. Now eventually the Cleric took the initiative to attack it first...the bunny dead in one shot. The moment was priceless and I still remembere there faces.

[chiasaur11]

I got this from dndadventure.com

Put a 10 x 10 trap door in the dungeon, with a pull handle and rope attached to it, the rope attached to a nail in the floor away from the trap door. Let the PC's pull on the handle for a while, then have the trap door drop in, revealing a big monster.

The master of the dungeon keeps the monster there, places a bunch of meat on the trap door, then pulls the rope to make the handle rattle. The monster activates a button, which drops the trap door and meat, and then the master pulls it closed using the rope and handle.

When the PCs rattle the handle trying to pull the trap door open, the monster thinks there is food. When there is no food, only PCs, he gets angry and attacks them.

It doesn't detect as a trap, since it isn't.

I heard this on the forums the other day. The party fights a shapeshifter, and when the shapeshifter is down to low health, it runs into the other room, shifts into a helpless, bound young girl. When the party comes in, she begs and pleads, saying she's a captive of the shapeshifter.

The party does what they do with NPCs--treats her wounds, maybe, frees her, has her tag along. Then, when they're sleeping, the shapeshifter kills them.

Maybe magic wouldn't detect the trap, but I see no reason a rogue's general trapfinding knowhow wouldn't smell something rotten in the land of Denmark. I mean, if it covers everything from magic circles to hidden pits, a trapdoor should be a gimmee.

And if you think the standard PC behavior towards NPCs is anything other than "Kill, then loot"...

Well, you don't know PCs.

[esorscher]

Maybe magic wouldn't detect the trap, but I see no reason a rogue's general trapfinding knowhow wouldn't smell something rotten in the land of Denmark. I mean, if it covers everything from magic circles to hidden pits, a trapdoor should be a gimmee.

And if you think the standard PC behavior towards NPCs is anything other than "Kill, then loot"...

Well, you don't know PCs.

Except that it isn't a trap. All the rogue would figure out is that its a trap door, since "trapfinding" isn't applicable to non-traps. I mean, you could make the argument, but I'm the DM. :D

As for the PC-NPC dynamic, I find it most useful to have all the NPCs have rich fathers.

[OverdrivePrime]

Way back in the day I was running an AD&D 2nd edition campaign on my first sandbox world. I had put some hints around that there was a tremendous battle a thousand years ago where this death knight and his undead army had rampaged across the country side until they were finally imprisioned in an obsidian tomb.

In this region there was a huge plateau that everyone avoided because it was rumored to be where the undead army was imprisoned. It was terribly dusty, windy as heck, and generally barren and forbidding up on the plateau.

The characters, being adventurers, wanted to find out more and so soon enough they were in the town nearest to the forbidden plateau. In the inn, there was a bard singing a song about it, and they stayed to listen. I had typed out the lyrics to the song Plateau, originally by the Meat Puppets, later covered excellently by Nirvana. With the song playing in the background, the players noticed that I had changed some of the words - "Talk Show Hosts" was now "Undead Hosts" and I changed some of the locations to match those in my game.

Tending toward more of a kick-in the door style of play, this group soon found itself scaling the hellishly difficult to climb sides of the plateau. Once up there they found an extremely dusty and flat area with a powerful wind and a necromantic chill in the air. There was also a bucket with a mop sticking out of it and a small book.

The party's rogue, being a clown, picks up the mop and starts scrubbing the ground of the plateau. He is suddenly grinning like a fool (failing his save vs. rods) and continues to mop the ground. His companions kindly begin mocking him, but get a little nervous when the notice that as he's mopping, he's revealing a really smooth block of obsidian. Well, he's mopping away, and cannot for the life of him stop mopping or wipe the grin off of his face.

In the mean time, the party wizard walks over and picks up the book. He discovers that it contains the instructions on how to summon a Phoenix, and happily begins transcribing that to his spellbook. Just as he finishes (he had a magic pen which cut the time of scribing spells down to 10%), the sun comes out from behind the clouds and glints off of the obsidian on the plateau. Suddenly, all of the PCs find themselves with mops in hand and huge grins on their faces (a series of spectacularly failed saves vs rods). In the back of their heads, they hear a verse of the song, "When you've finished with the mop then you can stop / And look at what you've done /
The plateau's clean, no dirt to be seen /And the work it was fun".

So, their characters slaved away for the rest of the day, mopping the entire plateau free of dust and grime. Once done, they were standing atop a glittering sheet of pure obsidian.

Finally released from the controlling spell, and rubbing jaw muscles sore from grinning all day, they broke out rations and water atop the plateau. As they were finishing their meal, the moon rose and it's light seemed to be absorbed by the obsidian. There was a shudder and a surge of magic and finally a mind-shattering wail of anguish - and then thousands and thousands of undead soldiers began to rise up from the obsidian. Directly in front of the characters rose the leader of the undead host - a death knight mounted atop a large dracolich.

Sadly, the characters didn't heed the words of the song. They attempted to fight for several punishing rounds. The rogue and two of the warriors were near death when the bard finally realized the significance of the book. "The book!" she shouted to the wizard, "Summon the phoenix!"

The wizard, with a sky-high intelligence, stopped calling down spell after useless high-level spell against the undead and instead broke out the book and began rapidly reading.

With the characters on the ropes, a DM-special phoenix finally appeared and the book burned up with a puff. With a wrathful scream, the phoenix expanded to envelop the undead host and then immolated - taking the whole army with it and leaving behind a golden egg.


It was a well-remembered night, but to this day (14 years later) my friends still hate the idea of mopping anything.

[dbmeboy]

And if you think the standard PC behavior towards NPCs is anything other than "Kill, then loot"...

Well, you don't know PCs.

Actually, believe it or not my players tried to negotiate with a couple of Dragonborn guards the other day. It didn't quite work out, and then they regretted sending the (1st level) party wizard to negotiate because he had the best diplomacy.

[Yakk]

Except that it isn't a trap. All the rogue would figure out is that its a trap door, since "trapfinding" isn't applicable to non-traps. I mean, you could make the argument, but I'm the DM. :D

No, they are the players. A DM is someone that players play with, and let them run the world.

May you have the players you deserve.

[Lappy9000]

Create a villain that is a Changling Druid. Possibly a Doppleganger Druid.

Hilarity shall ensue as the players fear every Humanoid/Animal/Elemental/Magical Animal as it may be the disguise of their nemesis. For maximum paranoia, make said evildoer a complete and total badass who is always a step ahead of the party.

[esorscher]

No, they are the players. A DM is someone that players play with, and let them run the world.

May you have the players you deserve.

I'm not going to argue with you, I'm invoking the standard of "If it's meant to happen, the DM will make it happen." And in the case in point, the party was meant to fight the monster in the pit, otherwise it wouldn't have been a CR appropriate adventure.

[Ent]

Actually, believe it or not my players tried to negotiate with a couple of Dragonborn guards the other day. It didn't quite work out, and then they regretted sending the (1st level) party wizard to negotiate because he had the best diplomacy.

No one should ever try diplomacy... alone.

I had a witch abducting children from a town, hiding in a spooky house (off in the woods, of course) full of strange, jet-black goblins. The PCs arrive, bust in the door, and search (read slaughter goblins) up and down till they eventually find the witch in the basement, in the middle of a ritual. She's surrounded by mean, grinning goblins and the players get close just in time to witness a small child being dropped into a cauldron and clawing out with oily, black skin, pointed features and a hungry looking smile.

The reaction was priceless, especially thanks to the one player who decided to mutilate some of the goblins earlier.

[t_catt11]

No one should ever try diplomacy... alone.

I had a witch abducting children from a town, hiding in a spooky house (off in the woods, of course) full of strange, jet-black goblins. The PCs arrive, bust in the door, and search (read slaughter goblins) up and down till they eventually find the witch in the basement, in the middle of a ritual. She's surrounded by mean, grinning goblins and the players get close just in time to witness a small child being dropped into a cauldron and clawing out with oily, black skin, pointed features and a hungry looking smile.

The reaction was priceless, especially thanks to the one player who decided to mutilate some of the goblins earlier.

Oh, Ent... that is PRICELESS! Can I please please PLEASE rip you off and use this encounter?

[Ent]

Oh, Ent... that is PRICELESS! Can I please please PLEASE rip you off and use this encounter?

You have my express and written consent.

She was feeding the children tons of sweets to sustain them until their turn in the ritual, if that helps.

[t_catt11]

You have my express and written consent.

She was feeding the children tons of sweets to sustain them until their turn in the ritual, if that helps.

That is just TOO awesome. The old "witch kidnapping children" spiel, but twisted horribly... makes me want to start a new PBP game and beg for a paladin in the party, just to cause said paladin nightmares.

[Tacoma]

"You enter the house. There are some goblins standing around in the next room lounging around. They don't seem to notice you yet."

Slaughter ensues.

Witch mentions later how useful Silent Image can be in disguising the children ...

[Kesnit]

That is just TOO awesome. The old "witch kidnapping children" spiel, but twisted horribly... makes me want to start a new PBP game and beg for a paladin in the party, just to cause said paladin nightmares.

*Making note of the screen name and another note never to play a Paladin.*

[Yukitsu]

My favourite, and the reason I'm banned from taking illusions, invisible spell and DMing:

Take a focused illusionist NPC with the shadow and insidious casting feats, and invisible spell metamagic. Take shadowcrafter, and the feat to get your shadow conjurations up to 100% real. Next, shadow conjure invisible, non-real walls that people can bump into. Then do visible shadow conjured walls. Mix these up with real invisible walls, fake visible walls, and fake invisible walls cast from a wand. All around the PCs house, as a massive, box like 3D maze around his house. If you have the resources, build under the house as well. Especially fun if the PC is a diviner and you dimension locked the place.

On a note of effects, see invisible requires a caster level to work on anything, and will reveal all of the invisible illusory walls. True sight fails on a failed caster level check, and fails to see anything but the invisible real walls, but doesn't prevent you from bumping into the invisible non real walls that you can no longer see, and also causes you to bump into the visible shadow walls, which true sight prevents you from seeing.

[Prometheus]

When the players entered a marketplace island town, I had them harassed by various people selling things. Someone sold the monk "energy balm" and all it does is make your skin tingle a little. Someone sold the fighter and the druid "the island's best fish, the best fish of your life" which they later discovered to be acquired via the black-market harvesting of mermaids for their meat on the part of the neighboring ogres.

There is a down known for being strict and puritanical, especially when it comes to spreading "spurious rumors". Well of course the PCs make a V-line straight for the spurious rumors and use it as a launching point for a quest. Turns out that they really are just spurious rumors, and the town has this policy for a reason.

[Kris Strife]

That is just TOO awesome. The old "witch kidnapping children" spiel, but twisted horribly... makes me want to start a new PBP game and beg for a paladin in the party, just to cause said paladin nightmares.

*makes note of the screen name and another to never play with*

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem messing with PCs. I've had mine get arrested, get caught looting a castle the good guys were using for storage, etc. However, there is a line between funny and ***hat.

[Ent]

*makes note of the screen name and another to never play with*

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem messing with PCs. I've had mine get arrested, get caught looting a castle the good guys were using for storage, etc. However, there is a line between funny and ***hat.

One man's scary is another man's "***hat"?

Do your players actually get scared when you throw them in the ol' town holding cell for the tenth time?

[Kris Strife]

One man's scary is another man's "***hat"?

Do your players actually get scared when you throw them in the ol' town holding cell for the tenth time?

Scary? Setting up an entire plotline just to make the paladin fall/nearly fall is scary?

[MammonAzrael]

I had an old DM that loved this one.

Your players head to a dungeon, and the first door is locked tightly, with some simple riddle or trick to open it. Throughout the dungeon they'll come across several more large, imposing doors, that are notably different and grander from most doors in the place. All of them are trapped/locked and require a simple puzzle to be solved.

Then they come to another room with one of these doors on the other end up some stairs. In the floor are six stone pillars, about three feet tall. Three are depressed about a foot into the ground, three aren't. Lining the wall are six sarcophagi, standing on end. The clear intent to to depress all six pillars to unlock the door and continue on.

When the fist pillar is depressed, the way they came from is slammed closed (by a door, slab of stone, whatever), and one of the depressed pillars rises up. And then a (CR appropriate) undead spawns from the sarcophagi for each pillar that isn't depressed. The pillars go up and down like a game of Lights Out. Each time a pillar is depressed or raised more undead spawn. If the players get all the pillars depressed or raised, the way behind them is unlocked and they can retreat.

The trick? The large imposing doors were never locked in the first place. If they had just tried to open the door before messing the the pillars...

(Alternatively, depending on your players, you can start the door locked, and then have it unlock as soon as the first pillar is depressed/raised.)

[Tacoma]

Early in my D&D playing days I played a Halfling Thief who had a lot of points in Find/Remove Traps and Open Locks.

And I would constantly forget to check the door to see if it was locked after checking for traps. I kept locking doors that were unlocked. DM couldn't stop giggling. I had this mental block for like three sessions.

And then I got knocked out and they put me in a bag of holding for safe-keeping thinking I was dead. Which killed me when I ran out of air. FUN TAIMS!

[newbDM]

Two days later, they return with adamantine saws and several helms of underwater action ...

I run very low-magic.