Abuse My Players!

[El Pollo Guerrera]

The best books I've come across for gaming ideas are the Kenneth Hite "Surpressed Transmissions" books.

The DC superheroes set in Renaissance Italy, the true reasons behind the sinking of the Titanic, the truth behind fairies, Project Dora, mirror worlds... and how to turn them into great storylines for RPGs.

[BlaqueKatt]

as a GM I was big on curses....or rather items the players needed(and were found in the dungeons), that transferred a fitting curse to the player(item cannot be destroyed or disposed of until curse is lifted). curse could only be broken by rolling 7 or higher on a d20 10 times during battle(as in during battle player had to roll to overcome the curse to fight, if done 10x in a row, curse broken, every failure to overcome resets the counter)

Palidin-cursed blade-demonic possession
+20 to attack if demonic possession was overcome
-10 to all other members of party if not

reward: +15 to attack after curse lifted

Theif-cursed bag of holding
wracked with pain and hand tremors when attempting to disarm traps or pick locks
-10 to dexterity(also anything put in the bag will vanish until the curse is defeated)

reward: you got a bag of holding what else is necessary for reward

Knight/fighter-cursed Armour-weakness/frozen in place
-20 to strength/speed, or inability to move(GM choice or dice roll)

Reward +30 defense


Mage/healer-cursed amulet-opposite or random spellcasting, unable to target

Reward: +10 Damage for spells, 2x damage for weakness spells( fire spell will do 2x damage to creatures weak against fire, etc.)


why yes my players hated me.....a lot....

[Kazim]

One bear cub running up to a PC and starts to hug his/her leg, when the party is occupied with the scared and cute bearcub the very enraged mother bear shows up (thing berserker rage) ^^

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I do remember a magical trap from an old issue of Dragon Magazine... the players find a scroll with a single spell called "(fill-in-the-blank)'s Magical Wall of Arrows". Casting the spell causes a 10' x 10' wall of arrows to appear.

The problem is that the spell's creator never quite figured out how to get the arrows to appear pointing AWAY from him... or to appear farther away than 5 feet...

[SongsOfDragons]

Oh; the most classic trap possible (harmless variety)

40x40x40 room, big red button on the far wall. Party enters, all doors into the room close, lock, get barricaded with portcullis, and so on; room's pretty much made to defeat knock, passwall, etc. spells.

Soon as the doors close, a large timer and magic mouth starts counting down from 10. Hit the button, timer resets. Have the party go NUTS trying to find an exit, until they give up and stop resetting the timer. Once the timer hits zero, there's a pleasant 'ding' and the doors open.

Try not to get chased from the room.

Baaaaaah.

That's quite epic.

[Salted Grump]

Have a more brutal one in a similar vein; The 'Maypole of DOOM'

30Lx30Wx60H room, slate-grey stone walls (this is important) with a 40' Maypole made out of metal, with 35' metal chains attached to it. Pools of some slick substance all over the floor.

Door's pressure-plated so once there's no pressure on the outer plate, the door slams shut and locks itself; big thick steel door, too; looks nice and expensive.

Soon as the door locks, the maypole starts spinning; have the players roll dex to avoid getting creamed by a heavy metal chain as it gets up to speed, while more of that strange liquid gushes from the top of the maypole, coating the chains, the floor, and everything else within 25' radius of the pole.

Of course, once the chains are at full extension, they'll be bashing against the walls, raising sparks. The chains are Steel. The Walls are Flint. The Liquid is Oil.

[gremcint]

You want to know how to abuse players read the Dresden Files.

[Geek King]

You want to know how to abuse players read the Dresden Files.

I have.

If I really wanted to abuse my players, I'd drop them in Nightside. Or just put them between Susie Shooter (AKA Shotgun Susie; AKA Oh Christ, Its Her, Run!) and a bounty.

[dalesys]

NSFW: Questionable Content has what you DON'T need!

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I'm not sure where I got the link for this website (it might even have come from someone here), but The SCP Foundation has a lot of... strange things to build stories upon.