“The players all are told to create mid level druids with animal companions. After creating their characters have all of the druids be kidnapped and the players must rescue them as their animal companions.”
Dimension Deficit Disorder: The victim’s body is subject to random spatial distortions, causing them to become compressed along one or more dimensional axes. These effects extend to any items worn or carried by the victim. After completing each long rest, roll 1d10 to determine which dimension(s) are affected:
1-3 Height
4-6 Width
7-9 Depth
10 Roll twice and combine, ignoring further results of 10
The indicated dimensions are reduced by 50%. The victim may squeeze without penalty when confronted with restricted spaces of the appropriate type (e.g., a low ceiling for height, a narrow passage for width, etc.) and gains advantage on Dexterity saves to avoid or reduce damage from the appropriate direction. However, the victim is prone to misjudge the position of their limbs, and suffers disadvantage on all Strength (Athletics) and Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks.
Each time the victim suffers damage, re-roll for the affected dimension(s). The victim may attempt a Constitution save versus DC 15 to avoid changing dimensions when suffering damage.
Executive Disjunction: The victim’s actions experience a
decoupling of cause and effect. Whenever the victim takes an action that
requires a d20 roll, and the modified roll is exactly equal to the
target number, a random magical effect occurs instead, just as though
the victim had provoked a wild surge while casting a spell on the
action’s target. This completely replaces the action’s ordinary effects;
no consequences of failure are incurred, and any resources that would
ordinarily be used up in the attempt (e.g., spell slots, equipment,
etc.) are not consumed. Reactions and rolls that don’t require an action
– for example, a saving throw against a trap or spell – are unaffected.
Irritable Owl Syndrome: Any owls the victim encounters are poorly disposed to them and wish to do them harm. This curse does not conjure owls where none exist, so its effects can largely be managed by avoiding travel at night. Owlbears count as owls for this purpose, as may other owl-like monsters at the GM’s discretion. Owls with an Intelligence score of at least 6 may attempt a DC 13 Wisdom save maintain their composure in the vicitm’s presence.
Pyrocephaly: An imbalance of humours causes fire to accumulate within the victim’s skull, resulting in chronic headache, short-temperedness, trickles of smoke issuing from the ears, and disadvantage on all Wisdom rolls. Should the victim be reduced to zero hit points before receiving treatment, their head immediately explodes, killing them and inflicting 1d6 points of fire damage per level of the victim to everything in a 20-foot radius; a successful Dexterity save versus DC 11 reduces this damage by half.
Hemogoblinopathy: Whenever the victim bleeds for any reason, the blood that leaves the body will begin to animate and pool into one spot, taking the form of a tiny goblinoid creature (the exact size depending on the amount of blood lost, with total exsanguination possibly leading to a full-sized goblinoid). The creature is inherently hostile to the victim and will attempt to inflict more bleeding on them. Each individual cut will produce a separate goblinoid figure. Though potentially very dangerous if left unchecked, the blood will stop animating after being hit with a single attack.
Now, some DMs/GMs already have systems set up to put their players/PCs in any given atmosphere at a moment’s notice: a choice in background music, a key phrase, what have you.
However, more sadistic DMs/GMs could use these key phrases or songs….. but not tell the players what it signals. Drive up the anxiety and paranoia by playing boss battle music when a boss is nearby, but not necessarily if that boss instigates a battle or makes themselves known. You can tell the party “You feel like you’re missing something” if their perception is high enough, but that could be either a hint that there’s a special item in the room, or a hint that this place will not be there/will be in disrepair when they return (thus, they might truly be missing something… or someone.)
I got the idea from playing Terraria with a map/character who just began Hardmode. I hadn’t brought in any of the new crafting materials yet, aside from just having the new Hallow biome spawn, and the literal first night after starting Hardmode I see the flavor text in the corner appear:
“This is going to be a terrible night…”
… Which, for those who don’t play Terraria, is the text that pops up shortly before the game spawns the Twins…. one of the bosses of Hardmode…. which I wasn’t ready for in the slightest.
And so there I stood, fearing the worst, and I waited…
And waited…
And waited. The Twinsnever showed up. I waited till the in-world morning and restarted the game, thinking the game glitched out for a second and needed a reset. But let me tell you all: those few minutes of sitting there, expecting two gigantic, mechanical eyeballs to fly in and devastate me and my villagers were some of the most anxiety-causing minutes I’ve ever lived.
… And then, I thought to myself, “… Imagine what hell this would be like in a tabletop game.”
So I finished running The Eleventh Hour for a party of kids today and they did really awesome for first time players. We got to the scene where one of the kids made a grab for the chalice and because none of them had backstories as fleshed out as the McElroys I decided to only tempt her and I made the chalice a little bit more confrontational.
Anyway we reached the climax of this scene of the two arguing and I had the chalice say something to her along the lines of “We could be partners, you and I. We could fix so many wrongs in the world. Don’t you have any regrets? Anything you want to change?”
And this kid looks me dead in the eye and says “I want to be the last pair of hands that ever holds you.”
(or sorcerer, or wizard, but bard is the archetypal Annoyance)
that will make me shriek with rage if you pull it on me while I’m DMing (for the same reason that one of my friends is not allowed to play a bard in any of my games), but here I am inviting you to inflict it on anyone else:
1. learn Animate Objects when you reach ninth level. read the whole thing real good.
2. buy ten steak knives, which are Tiny objects
3. take the War Caster feat to keep your Concentration up as much as possible
4. blenderize your foes as a bonus action on every turn, because that’s 10 attacks at +8 to hit and d4+4 damage. t e n o f t h e m
5. figure out how to placate your partymates and your DM now that your turns always take forever and you’re outputting that much damage. no I’m not helping you figure out how to do that part
Some of the new items from my fave D&D NPC’s refurbished Slightly-Cursed Items Shop, in which she sells my players items ranging from effectively useless to legitimately deadly – but always entertaining. Feel free to use these tragedies!
UH SCUSE an first of these things sound EXTREMLY ROOD
Plot Designing 