Results 121 to 150 of 339
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2015-06-10, 07:35 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2008
- Location
- Orlando, FL
- Gender
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
When I ran Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, one of the paranoia-inducing points was when the party was exploring the castle, knowing full well Count Strahd was somewhere inside. I held back on having him show up for a little while, only hinting at places he had been to recently. So the party was getting on-edge about a high-level vampire in this castle but that they seemed unable to find him... :3
Uh oh.
Did I just dig myself in deep? Trying to find a good lawyer to fight this union sounds like a grand undertaker and I'm going to get buried in red-tape, aren't I?
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2015-06-10, 07:39 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
- Gender
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2015-06-10, 07:50 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
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2015-06-10, 07:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
- Gender
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2015-06-10, 08:34 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
That's not how you play that. It's the world's smallest lute, not world's smallest viol. Here, like this: *holds thumb of left hand against first finger thereof in a circle, palm outward, fingers facing downward. Plucks with thumb, first, and ring finger of right hand at point where thumb and forefinger of left hand meet. An extremely high-pitched version of I Saw My Lady Weepe from John Dowland's The Second Booke of Songes or Ayres, of 2.4. and 5. parts: With Tableture for the Lute or Orpherian, with the Violl de Gamba can be heard faintly*
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2015-06-10, 09:36 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
- Location
- Sharangar's Revenge
- Gender
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
If you want to include a small child that actually needs to be rescued in your dungeon, give the poor thing some visible rat bites on its arms and legs, thus showing that its not immune to the denizens of the dungeon, and is not likely to be in cahoots with them (and WOW that's a long sentence! My apologies). Tangle their hair, rip the knees our of their pants, and cover their face with dirt.
So many great ideas! Now I just need to have a haunted dungeon somewhere so I can use all of them.Warhammer 40,000 Campaign Skirmish Game: Warpstrike
My Spelljammer stuff (including an orbit tracker), 2E AD&D spreadsheet, and Vault of the Drow maps are available in my Dropbox. Feel free to use or not use it as you see fit!
Thri-Kreen Ranger/Psionicist by me, based off of Rich's A Monster for Every Season
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2015-06-10, 09:45 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
The instant the last party member is through a door and nobody's looking at the door, the door is gone, leaving only a blank wall. (It's just an illusion spell, but it'll freak them out at first. Or get you accused of really bad railroading, until they find out it's an illusion. Then they'll start thinking about it and wonder who or what cast the illusion.)
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2015-06-10, 09:57 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
- Location
- Elysium
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
Gizmo Stien, Vigilante Scientist
Avatar by the Great and Powerful DigoDragon
Nuzlocke Twitter feed @Poke_Trainer_J
Watch as I suffer
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2015-06-10, 12:00 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2008
- Location
- Orlando, FL
- Gender
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
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2015-06-10, 12:41 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
Well, clearly they failed their roll to disbelieve.
Maybe Passwall or Stone Shape is somehow set to briefly trigger for creatures on one side of the wall that interact with the illusion, but won't work from the other side. So, briefly, there's a real door beneath the illusion of the door, but it doesn't last.
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2015-06-10, 12:55 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2008
- Location
- Orlando, FL
- Gender
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
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2015-06-10, 01:36 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
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2015-06-10, 01:43 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2006
- Location
- Wandering in Harrekh
- Gender
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
Paranoia-inducing elements: posted signs, written in Gnomish.
For example, anywhere in the dungeon: "This hallway is not trapped."
Next to the jail cells: "These prisoners have been condemned for being serial killers and pathological liars. One of them is innocent."
Anywhere in the dungeon: "One of these signs has Explosive Runes written on it."
Anywhere in the dungeon: "Did you know that it's hard to swim in armor?"
Next to a statue anywhere in the dungeon: "There's a very simple way to avoid a Beholder. Simply"Last edited by Telonius; 2015-06-10 at 01:45 PM.
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2015-06-10, 01:45 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2014
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
Keep giving them potions of fire resistance, and include descriptions of scorch marks in every other room.
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2015-06-10, 02:35 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
A lone adult human molar with a bit of blood and gum tissue on it lying in the middle of an otherwise spotless floor.
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2015-06-10, 02:52 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2010
- Location
- Colorado
- Gender
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
A long, broad hallway with rails and other machinery obviously designed for using heavy equipment. The walls are heavily reinforced both physically with advanced metal and magically with armoring wards. The end of the hallway has a large, extremely heavy reinforced vault door, activated only by two separate keys simultaneously, which has a sign draped on it which reads "DO NOT ENTER". The vault door is surprisingly ajar.
One custom-built monster with teleportation at the end of each attack, perfect invisibility and silence as a free action, high damage attacks, and the ability to walk through walls.
An unusually large number of spiders in this one particular room.
The floor and walls of a room covered in nothing but knee-high mushrooms of many different species.Currently RPG group playing: Endworld (D&D 5e. A Homebrewed post-apocalyptic supplement.)
My campaign settings: Azura; 10,000 CE | The Frozen Seas | Bloodstones (Paleolithic Horror) | AEGIS - The School for Superhero Children | Iaphela (5e, Elder Scrolls)
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2015-06-10, 02:54 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
The most paranoia inducing dungeon I have played was this maze. That was fine. The creepy part was vaaaah.
We were walking through minding our own buisness, and competing to get out. All of the sudden, frm a couple of rooms over, we hear vvvvvv....Aaahhh! It was some creature, which we called vaaaah. We fought a vampire that got the upper hand, until it flew away and boom. The sound repeats. Middle of second watch: heard again close by. Divinations: it is a demigod, we cannot find out anything else. This repeats and we almost die of fear.
It turned out to be some idea he had come up with on the spot.Last edited by Elandris Kajar; 2015-06-10 at 02:55 PM.
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2015-06-10, 03:25 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2008
- Location
- Orlando, FL
- Gender
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
In every space-faring adventure I've run, the fastest way I've found to induce paranoia in a party is to have them happen upon an abandoned starship in perfect working order. Bonus points when the ship logs have no entries that explain why they abandoned ship. In one adventure, the PC mechanic that went with the boarding team got so fed up with finding no reason why the crew abandoned their ship, he snapped and purposely damaged a key system just to calm himself down.
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2015-06-10, 05:02 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
- Location
- Elysium
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2015-06-10, 05:37 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2015
- Gender
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
A large circle of runes etched on the floor with one rune scuffed badly. In the centre of the runes an oversized, discarded set of manacles. The room is otherwise empty.
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2015-06-10, 06:22 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
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2015-06-10, 08:12 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2008
- Gender
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
Well, we have Shadow Evocation and Shadow Conjuration; clearly we need Shadow Transmutation for Passwall and such.
Of course for a party that can't fly or otherwise faces logistical problems crossing a vast chasm, you could instead have a Shadow Conjuration Wall of Stone act as the bridge they walked to get across the chasm.It is inevitable, of course, that persons of epicurean refinement will in the course of eternity engage in dealings with those of... unsavory character. Record well any transactions made, and repay all favors promptly.. (Thanks to Gnomish Wanderer for the Toreador avatar! )
Wanna see what all this Exalted stuff is about? Here's a primer!
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2015-06-10, 09:33 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2014
- Gender
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
Spoiler: Quotes!
Pink is Neutral Evil, because reasons.
Exalted Monk Avatar by ThePrez1776
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2015-06-10, 10:19 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
That's how I read it too. I did the same sentence-ending-suddenly thing in the adventurer's-journal entry; it's a common horror technique and almost always means that the writer died or vanished suddenly.
Bit like the old meme about a character from Freakazoid! called Candlejack who would make whoever said his name disappe
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2015-06-11, 12:33 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
- Location
- Elysium
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
Gizmo Stien, Vigilante Scientist
Avatar by the Great and Powerful DigoDragon
Nuzlocke Twitter feed @Poke_Trainer_J
Watch as I suffer
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2015-06-11, 03:16 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2015
- Gender
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2015-06-11, 03:21 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2011
- Location
- Dromund Kaas
- Gender
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2015-06-11, 04:57 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2010
- Location
- London, EU
- Gender
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
π = 4
Consider a 5' radius blast: this affects 4 squares which have a circumference of 40' — Actually it's worse than that.
Completely Dysfunctional Handbook
Warped Druid Handbook
Avatar by Caravaggio
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2015-06-11, 06:58 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2006
- Location
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon
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?
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2015-06-11, 07:17 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2014
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
- Gender
Re: The most paranoia-inducing dungeon