Post/Author/DateTime	Post
LordHawkeye 09-11-06, 08:17 AM	Always fun when you manage to totally fool your PC's. I got one ongoing right now and I can't wait to spring it on them. There's wanted posting for a notorious pirate (who is actually a CG who's been wrongfully accused). One of my player's eye was caught by the sweet reward on his head and did some detective work. Asked around about him, learned a few things but not enough to get a lead. Even tried to get the local wizard to do a scrying but he was unable to locate him. He got discouraged but decided he'll leave it for now and hope he finds a better lead later. Little does he know he has met the guy already and just doesn't realize it. ^^ The local inn/tavern employs two lovely waitresses...one of which is his man in disguise, the other being his sister helping his cover. He's been hiding right under the authorities' noses for weeks now, watching all the adventurers come in in hopes of finding someone who can help clear his name. I can't wait to see that player's reaction when he finds out the guy was right there all the time and he never noticed. He even did question the bartender but just never questioned the waitresses. :D
Flushpuppie 09-11-06, 10:17 AM	their biggest ally is actually waiting for the right time to kill them.
Feriin 09-11-06, 10:20 AM	their biggest ally is actually waiting for the right time to kill them. Shouldn't the PC's actually be expecting this?
GDarius 09-11-06, 11:25 AM	Shouldn't the PC's actually be expecting this? Yes. Yes they should.
Sinis 09-11-06, 12:52 PM	My PCs in one campaign thought they had defeated my evil villain. The snow from the simulacrum melted away revealing a taunting note by the *actual* evil villain.
MayFly 09-11-06, 01:06 PM	A room full of skeletons, one of whom is actually the lich who was one of the main villians in the game. It was funny because my players were like "Skeletons? We're 14th level and we're fighting skeletons?" And it was even funnier when, after cracking skulls left and right for a few rounds, the barbarian tried to hit the lich and it just stood there and laughed. Honestly, they should have suspected I was up to something. The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern trick. The jolly, seemingly friendly halfling begs the players to deliver an important message to the leader of a rival thieves guild. The rival thieves guild turns out to be an evil cult and message actually says "Here are the sacrifices I promised you. Consider our debt settled." Good times.
DonJuanDemarco 09-11-06, 01:22 PM	I had an entire adventure based on the fact that after PC's thought they had defeated a smalll, evil cult (the veil) in turned out that in fact it was a gigantic criminal organization and they had only defeated one small sect, but now had the entire group working against them. The catch was that they didn't HAVE to fight the small sect, but could have skipped over them entirely if they wanted.
Moniker 09-11-06, 02:06 PM	I had one of the major NPC's replaced by a doppelganger at the end of the climax of the story when they all fell under the influence of a Sleep spell. The player who's character complied with the "bait and switch" loved the idea, and ran with it for over 6 months without the players or the PC's knowing. Not one hint, not one iota that he was not who he said he was. Eventually, he let the players know what and who he was. The doppelganger had grown to become "friends" under the false guise, and saught to tell the truth of the matter. They could not accept him, and the doppelganger left the group. Many years later they recovered the corpse of their lost friend.
Hydryh 09-12-06, 01:58 AM	7) The PC (others were not in attendance) was hired by the wizard of a tiny, cursed village to find the shards of a magic gem and restore it, returning prosperity to the village. The wizard (who was well-connected and offered the PC more money than she could shake a stick at) came along for the adventure. Several challenges later, the PC returns to the village with the wizard and the completed gem. Wizard takes the gem, to set it into the altar. Then he drops his Alter Self and the elaborate web of illusions that was the village, and laughingly escapes with the gem, which is actually a homebrewed artifact. This was just to get the PC ticked at the evil wizard and encourage her to go kick his butt.
stabs 09-12-06, 02:46 AM	Hehehe. I like it Moniker. Here's mine: 8) Just one note: In this campaign, technology has a negative effect on Mages (makes them nauseated), but doesn't do anything to Psions. So the party were trying to stop an Elder Brain from being transported into the city. They had found a note written in Illithid Brail declaring the time and place: Midnight of the 14th, and he's coming in on the Rail way. Alright, so it's all set up, they pass their time until the 14th. But then they find a second note on the body of a Flayer who had attacked them, this one written in common. It said: "Oki Taka, the Elder Brain will be coming in by the shipyards at midnight of the 14th. I think we have those pesky humans tricked into thinking we are bringing it in on the train, but of course we would never risk putting our Elder near such damaging technology." AHA! So the 14th rolled around and they went down to the shipyard, now aware of the "real" plan. Midnight passed, and nothing happened. Eventually, one of the PCs asked the party Psion "Say... the train didn't make -you- feel sick did it?" Realizing the Elder Brain was also psionic (thus not affected by tech), and with the sudden revelation that Mind Flayers probably wouldn't write notes to each other in common, the party rushed towards the trainstation to find a number of bodies with their brains sucked out and a large empty tank on one of the cargo trains.
Copper_Coins 09-12-06, 06:05 AM	9) Not a BIG one, but... Our party was tracking down a group as smugglers (as you do), and after following a few leads, we found out that their boat was currently docked, so we're on a lookout for anything suspicious, and we see someone jump off a boat, dump a crate on the port, and then quickly jump back on board, as the boat is sailing away. Then we start running, we're on the other side of the port, and this boat is getting away fast, with some lucky Jump Checks (my Dwarven Fighter's modifier was about -5, damn Armour Check Penalty!) me and the Ranger jump on board, where the Ranger pulls out his bow and hit's the captain dead center in the stomach. It is then the DM starts snickering. You've probably guessed by now that we got the wrong boat, and logically, we shot the wrong captain, he was healed, and after a quick Diplomacy Check, we fled town with a new lead. Moral of the story: Make sure you'e got the right boat when you jump aboard and try to incapacitate the captain.
Ralvuimego 09-12-06, 06:24 AM	In one of my earliest campaigns, I had my party led down into the depths of a modestly long dungeon in search of a "Weapon that can level a village in a single blow." At the very end of the dungeon was a chest, and the bottom of the inside of said chest was filled with grass-covered dirt, dotted with tiny houses, each populated with very tiny people. In the top of said box, held up by chains, was a hammer whose head was roughly the same size as the area spanned by the village. Tied to the hammer was a note, in written in common. "To those with such a sense of violence that they would wish to bring destruction to a village, you must feel very frustrated, having fallen for this trick. You may feel free to annihilate these small peoples, regardless of the nothing they have done to you."
big_bluto 09-12-06, 07:21 AM	11) In one campaign I had managed to get the PC's to do the following: a) Work for the bad guys without realising it at all (not a clue) b) Become convinced that the pregnant queen was a 'ho' (she wasn't) c) Become convinced that the doppelganger of the pregnant queen that killed the king was actually the pregnant queen and not the doppelganger at all, and that they had captured the actual doppelganger (they hadn't) d) That the King was evil and everyone in the city loved him because they were stupid (he wasn't evil) e) That the Duke that they worked for should be the king because he was good and kindly and run an orphanage (in which he used the kids for slave labour, and he was definitely evil) f) That killing a guy dressed in black, hiding in the shadows of an alley, with blood on his dagger, standing over a dead body was a really bad thing to do, as he was just an innocent shopkeeper locking up for the night (he was an assassin) The looks on their faces when they finally puzzled it all out was priceless! :D
Kainsin 09-12-06, 10:29 AM	12. In one campaign I had a half-devil that was sealed away on an inhabited island-continent (slightly smaller than Australia). He wasn't doing anything bad at the time...just living in his castle. When the PCs arrived he asked them to collect 4 gems from around the continent (that were sealing him there, but they didn't know that) and he would grant them each a Limited Wish. Well, they got the gems but when they did half of the group (4 out of 8) didn't want to give him the gems since he was evil. The 4 that did knocked the other 4 out and returned the gems, only to find that during the night the half-devil disappeared along with his castle. 13. In the same campaign, the evil group (as I was calling those 4 now) tried to frame the good group (the other 4) with murdering many people in a village by using Alter Self and what-not. When the good group came to that village the 2 characters that were impersonated were held captive and sentanced to death. They were rescued by the other 2 going to a nearby Elven village and requesting someone with status that they knew there to get them out to be executed in Elven lands (since the two framed characters were Elves). The Elf that rescued them knew that they hadn't done it, and cast a permenant Polymorph Other on them (or some spell, it's been a few years) to make them look like different people. The good group then tricked the evil group (in real life too) thinking that those two characters had actually died. 14. In that same campaign when the 8 players needed to actually get together to do something, the good group thought of a clever plan to get the evil group to trust them. They had cleared out a small dungeon previously and went out to capture some monsters and placed them in the dungeon along with traps. They also simulated a BBEG using some Illusions and fought it with the evil group. They had also placed treasure around the place and gave it all to the evil group on the condition that they would work with them on their next mission. 15. Different campaign a few years later with most of the same people...they were asked by an evil Necromancer to get an artifact from a dungeon that he knew the location to. They knew that he was evil and even rolled for Sense Motive (to which they got, "He seems untrustworthy."). They went to get the artifact and planned to bring it back to the Mage's Guild in their city rather than give it to them. When they got through the dungeon, fighting some demons along the way, they came across a door with a pedestal in front of it. The pedestal had a hand print on it, so the party Sorc hastily placed his hand on it. The door openned only to reveal that it was a portal to the Abyss. The pedestal would only open the door if a good-aligned creature placed their hand on it and the Necromancer had found a way to control the demons on the layer that the portal led. 16. In the same campaign as the previous, one of the players had been transported to the Positive Engery Plane by an evil clone of the party's Cleric. Having a few ranks in Knowledge(The Planes) himself he was able to figure out where he was and what would happen to him if he stayed there too long. Using a Bag of Holding for a short air supply and hitting himself with his great sword to keep from exploding, he eventually found a pocket of lesser-positive energy with breathable air so he wouldn't die. Eventually he was rescued by a native of the plane. However, in the meantime of the other players went off to find a devil that the group had had dealings with and asked him to rescue the other character. The devil didn't really have the desire to do it but told the player he would if he did something first. The devil brought the player to a pub in another city and told the player to kill 10 people there (there were 13). The player debated on it for a while but eventually killed all 13. By the time he got back home the other player was back. He knew out of character what had happened, but in character he kept the event to himself, thinking that he rescued him. I think the players I had just have a hard time beliving that people will lie to them. >.>
Sulaco 09-12-06, 11:15 AM	Yes. Yes they should. Indeed it pretty much is a given. "Tusted Ally Turns On Heroes" comes right after "Innocent Maiden They Rescued Turns Out To Be Succubus" and right before "Apparently Frail Old Man Is Not What He Seems" on the D&D Plot Twist Cliché-o-meter.
Draco Strang 09-12-06, 11:22 AM	I had a "beggar" approach my PC's who was in reality a high-level rogue with awesome Bluff and Sleight of Hand modifiers. He gave them a sob story about being a former merchant who had fallen on hard times, having lost his business, home, family, etc. He then produced a fancy signet ring worth a ton of money (it was), and offered to sell it to the PC's for a few thousand gold, a fraction of the real cost. When they agreed, I put his Sleight of Hand up against their Spot modifiers, they failed, and the rogue swapped in a cheap copy for the real ring. When the PC's strolled into a shop to sell it, they of course found out it was worthless, they'd wasted a ton of money, and a quest had begun! Ah.....nothing like mixing player greed with the ole' bait-and-switch.
gameld 09-13-06, 02:34 AM	why do players insist on trusting those they know to be untrustworthy? situation: d20 star wars. bbeg sends them a message that amounts to "let's finish this, meet me at this abandoned temple at this time and we'll duke it out." they go to the temple, go inside, bypass entry rooms filled with traps, get into deeper rooms where a cult of dark-force users lives, nearly die more than once fighting, retrieve an anctient jedi artifact, and the building shakes. the ceiling is crumbling. they run for the doors, nearly dying some more, to find that the bbeg had started bombing the building with them inside with his ship. :rolleyes: