“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
From time to time being the DM can be extra special rewarding by killing players in inventive and often unstoppable ways. Here are a few ideas.
5. Secret Passage into Dungeon
It’s common in any RPG to find a secret door or passageway. Nobody says it has to end in a treasure room. Recently I had players find a secret passageway deep into a dungeon. It was actually the entrance to a famous high level assassin. It was a near TPK (Total Party Kill)
4. Black Pudding
Nothing as entertaining as a puddle in the middle of a passageway that melts flesh and metal. Save vs Dex or lose your fancy new armor!
3. Gelatinous Cube
Being a cube that is a perfect ten feet on each side, this nearly invisible dungeon inhabitant cleans the dungeon, even of wandering players.
2. Yellow Mold
The treasure room was filled with wonderful yellow gold, or was it? One touch fills the room with deadly spores that kill on a failed Save vs Con (DC20).
1. Green Slime
The most sinister of ambush predators, green slime often clings to walls and ceilings and drops down by surprise. Once in contact with flesh, it sticks and turns the flesh into green slime. It cannot be scraped off, but may be burnt off (or treated with a Cure Disease spell).
What are some of the best hazards that have terrorized your players? Post a comment below.
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I’ve used all but number 5… for extra DM dickery points, the time that a black pudding showed up in a module I was running and did them over royally, I decided that in the next room there would be barrels and a ominous black puddle. After the PCs looked at me with a sort of “you bastard — another one?!?” look and went to preemptively commit arson on everything in the room, then and only then did I say “and as the tar in the center of the room burns merrily…”
Anything that requires Save vs Death isn’t sporting, in fact it’s a bit boring. You need to allow your players the illusion that their choices matter and by being clever enough they can avoid the carefully constructed murder dungeon the DM has built.
Try this for size, the party find a door, it isn’t magical and it doesn’t appear to be trapped, however on a good listen check the party will hear the sound of flowing water behind the door. If opened the door is opened a tidal wave knocks everyone in the passage over and pushes anything unsecured 10′ a round backwards … towards the spiked pit in the last encounter. There are a dozen ways for a prepared party to survive this encounter but there is a clear risk of death.
All of the items I suggest could be negated by a paranoid enough party who smartly uses their abilities.
Better yet, incorporate green slime/yellow mold/black pudding/gelantinous cube into a nefarious trap. For example, the party finds a trap door in the ceiling. Some poor sucker has to open it, and when they do they get a face full of green slime (or pudding, mold, carnivorous jello, etc.). A sporting DM might give the PCs some warning, such as a big pile of bones underneath the trap door…or not.
-Ed
Secret notes between the player and the Master playing Paranoia… and then, follow the player’s note step by step and see his/her eyes from happines to horror }:)