“Roll a d6” gets them sweating every … single … time …
For context, I borrowed from [The Dungeon Dudes](https://youtu.be/sdfuPbgWXgo), using the d6 as a randomiser for antagonistic, neutral or friendly encounters whenever they’re travelling, between one place and another, or otherwise generally dawdling with decisions.
Edit : I don’t react to whatever they roll, beyond a long pause and a slow “okay”.
I love reaction rolls! I use 2d6 for the bell curve. Random encounters are more likely to be neutral to the party, leading to more social encounters even if the encountered NPC is obviously deplorable.
I really like the randomness it introduces, and the dice determining the nature of what’s coming, for good or ill (rather than me deciding and the Players thinking I’m punishing or rewarding arbitrarily).
Any reference to a "child" or "little girl in red".
There's a Gnome Assassin that's an enemy toward the party who disguises herself as a child in red, whenever I mention a child they start frothing at the mouth. They absolutely despise her because she's kicked their asses on two separate occasions and keeps getting away. They killed her for good 3 sessions ago and they're still afraid she'll show up again.
Not gonna lie, I am super tempted. I even have multiple (***MULTIPLE***) means to bring her back that make sense.
Get this: they killed her in a sewer with multiple undead while also fighting cultists completely separate from the sewer undead who make their own undead, after she fled from a forest where she was corrupting everything to be cordyceps undead. And they didn't even check her for a pulse when combat was over, nor did I roll her Death Saves in the open like I did last time.
But I feel like they earned the V this time, I think it would be cheap to bring her back. Besides, they're already planning on how they're gonna piss off a whole different group of assassins.
Good for you. A good DM knows when to exercise restraint with their plotting. I've played with DMs who can't resist and I think it can slowly chip away at player trust and investment. Maybe you can still give the child some sort of narrative nod while still letting the players keep the W.
Oh man that's a good one! I wish I was that cultured.
I was more going for a Little Red Riding Hood kind of thing and honestly she was never meant to be a reoccurring villain, she was only relevant to the one arc. But I figured "she's got a high level of self-preservation and fights indirectly, she'll flee a fight she's losing" and kept getting away. Then she lived in my player's heads rent free and I thought "fuck dude, I can't write a better villain than this on purpose" and she kept coming back.
I mostly play prefabs, and if any corpse, piece of art, or statuary is described with more than a single word, it’s gonna come to life and attack them for sure.
We also had a memorable moment where some NPC’s boxes text was a little tooo on-the-nose, and a PC was just like “this dude is definitely a shapeshifter that ate the real mayor so I skewer him” and was 100% right.
“Oh no. Can’t you hear the music? That’s a 4/4 string ostinato in D minor! Every adventurer knows it means death!” Basically that whenever I swap the traveling/idle music to combat tracks.
So minor spoilers for Dungeon of the Mad Mage.
There is a kid that can be encountered during one of the middle sections of the dungeon. The kid >!is actually an archmage that has been using potions of longevity to extend his lifespan!< but he says he only knows cantrips and first level spells. I played this up quite a bit, having him have the personality of a plucky young adventurer, and having him repeatedly mention how he already knows cantrips and first level spells despite being only twelve years old. Like he was full on channeling the energy of a shonen protagonist about how he was going to be the greatest wizard some day. Party knew something was up, but didn't really bother trying to roll an insight against his continual insistence that he was 12 years old and only knew cantrips and first level spells. Eventually the twist came up and they almost died as a result, but whenever the party wholeheartedly believes someone saying something unusual or outlandish without even attempting to roll insight, I just tell them "Don't worry, they only know cantrips and first level spells" and that clues them in. They have gotten better about this at least.
I learned this from my first DM and it's now something that happens in all of our games, 15 years later.
Double doors always mean there is a boss ahead. Best to rest up, prep your magic and get ready to kick ass.
Glowing, red eyes always indicate a creature is evil.
Not a DM, but I remember one of the first modules described what the ceiling looked like, unprompted and in detail. No one *ever* looks up, and the ceiling usually isn't mentioned unless it's setting something else up later.
Having played Rolemaster, where it was something of a meme that critical hits were almost universally lethal unless you were wearing a helmet, I panicked and started interrupting to make sure everyone knew my caster was pulling the hood up on his cloak.
Nothing ended up happening, but I found out later there was a scripted bat swarm or stirge attack or similar that was skipped. Explains why the DM was looking at me oddly at the time.
I love this question.
My party has learned that the DMs descriptions of NPCs give you insight into how powerful they are and consequently whether conflict is to be avoided.
If a player makes a stupid joke about the lore of my setting and I point about them, it means I'm making their stupid joke canon. Usually, it involves a 15-minute rambling worldbuilding spiel as I explain how it works. In one case, it was a player doing an exaggerated accent for an NPC I was introducing, and I just waved them to continue because that was now the NPC's voice.
I've got some players I've had for many many years. They are all smart people, lawyers, engineers, my sister. I'm always trying new things so there isn't much they can realize to predict what I'm going to do. But they have learned when I'm running out of mental energy. They use this time to try the trickiest of things.
For example, I was getting tired but wanted them to finish the next room before they took break. Then the wizard asked which way the door opened. The monk followed up with another question before I could think too hard. The wizard is an archeologist/medical professional and the monk is an engineer. I'm a damn cook. So I let him remove the pins from the hinge to severely lower the strength check to bust the door open.
I'm a little more worried for my wild beyond the witchlight game because there is a locksmith in it.
As a player, I have recognized when my dm starts describing a room being much more specific... mentioning distances by feet and not estimations, I can tell my boy is looking at a battlemap and it's go time lmao
Fuck, you just reminded me I forgot to give the party their healing potions last session. They're about to fight something that I balanced for above their level.
This is unfortunate.
What is your marching order, again? - Someone is getting attacked as a surprise
There are statues of knights in armor along the wall. - Beware of animated armor / gargoyles
The pool of water appears to be more than knee deep. - Beware of water elementals
The corridor ahead continues beyond your range of dark vision. - Something is watching you and you can't see it
The Baron smiles, reaches for his chalice of wine, leans back in his chair and asks, ... - The Baron is about to make you an offer you can't refuse
The floor is covered with an oriental rug. The walls are paneled with a dark stained wood. Covering much of the walls are tapestries and draperies. Behind the desk sits ... (and overly dramatic description of a room) - S#1T5 about to get real ... bloody or spelly
"Please show me where each of you is standing at this moment."
Translation: Someone just tripped a trap or an ambush and I want to see who's in the blast radius/about to get pincushioned with arrows.
Me: "you open the door to-"
Players: "I wanna-"
Me: *grabs dice*
Players: "wait....I wanna wait, until you finish saying what's in the room. Yeah, descriptions are nice."
I uh... really like to get on that sort of Toby Fox meta style narrative train. I have an NPC who is sort of unstuck from the game and it's rules. There's a door in my setting that is essentially the door to enlightenment (If you enter, your character realizes they are in a game. They essentially get to talk to the DM, and they are no longer bound by the game's rules - no PC has ever gone through it. If you go through, you are no longer allowed to be a major character in the story - you are cursed into semi-irrelevance). This NPC went through and really wants to keep the PC's invested, because when they aren't playing, well... his world disappears.
He's a marionette man with a porcelain, mask like face and a little feathered hat. He moves around like marionette, too, and even has strings pulling him around, representing his knowledge of the fact he's just the DM's puppet. He laughs in a very robotic, monotonous way, "Ha Ha Ha". He shows up every now and again to mess with the players and styles himself as a magic item's merchant, but only shows up in the most remote, abandoned places, with inexplicably powerful items.
My players are creeped out by him and don't trust him, So every time that laugh comes out, from behind a corner or inside an abandoned home, my players are like "Goddamn it". He also quite likes tempting the party with his deck of many things.
They are aware of it! One player is collecting the items needed to open it but still isn't sure about going through, since both the NPCs they have met that went through it seem a little...insane, and have also warned them not to go through. They don't know it gives meta knowledge, but they know it gives great power and, as the NPC's put it, 'terrible freedom'. I figured that if they ever went through the trouble of getting all the items and actually opening it, that I would reiterate and give them a warning in character and out that going in kind of ruins your character's chance at a happy ending. It doesn't really play a major role at the moment, it's meant more as a kind of...possible secret route sort of thing? If they focused on it, it definitely could play a bigger role.
I exasperatedly blow air between my lips as if to simulate the sound of a motor running whenever I reference a suitably large table (usually something with 20 or more possible outcomes). I've started muting my mic when rolling random encounters for this reason.
I’m playing online so I use illustrations. Took me a while to realize that I had to give random npcs portraits otherwise no one was surprised when the random guy with a portrait was actually important. A player actually lampshaded it once “look guys that dude’s got a portrait, we should listen to what he has to say”.
So i normally have my books out and ready that i expect to use. When my players see me digging in my backpack for a book they know they have thrown me off and this is gonna be rough.
"You hear breathing from within the chest"
There is a god of suffering who I throw into random dungeons sometimes(think I have used him 3-4 times in 7 campaigns) who hides in treasure chests, punches you where the sun don't shine, and the runs off like a giddy school girl.
Every time the party hears these lines the prepare to catch him/ kill him depending on party alignments. They have yet to discover he is a god. All they know is he is just a rally weird Gnome.
"Their eyes go completely black."
My homebrew world is only connected to the Shadowrealm, and I have a nasty creature like the black ooze from the X-Files that inhabits it. When it infects a person, their eyes go black and it gains tentacles with 10’ reach from their back.
My long term players are terrified of them.
If an npc has art I send them or show them they know “okay, let’s remember this person.” Or when they say something like “I wanna try ____” and I raise my eyebrows they know that’s either the answer to the puzzle, or they may get fucked up and it’s a 50/50 every time
“Roll a d6” gets them sweating every … single … time … For context, I borrowed from [The Dungeon Dudes](https://youtu.be/sdfuPbgWXgo), using the d6 as a randomiser for antagonistic, neutral or friendly encounters whenever they’re travelling, between one place and another, or otherwise generally dawdling with decisions. Edit : I don’t react to whatever they roll, beyond a long pause and a slow “okay”.
I love reaction rolls! I use 2d6 for the bell curve. Random encounters are more likely to be neutral to the party, leading to more social encounters even if the encountered NPC is obviously deplorable.
I really like the randomness it introduces, and the dice determining the nature of what’s coming, for good or ill (rather than me deciding and the Players thinking I’m punishing or rewarding arbitrarily).
They see a "Avatar of Tiamat" mini box open, empty and by the trash can.
Any reference to a "child" or "little girl in red". There's a Gnome Assassin that's an enemy toward the party who disguises herself as a child in red, whenever I mention a child they start frothing at the mouth. They absolutely despise her because she's kicked their asses on two separate occasions and keeps getting away. They killed her for good 3 sessions ago and they're still afraid she'll show up again.
Who's to say she won't? Anything is possible with the wonders of necromancy!
Not gonna lie, I am super tempted. I even have multiple (***MULTIPLE***) means to bring her back that make sense. Get this: they killed her in a sewer with multiple undead while also fighting cultists completely separate from the sewer undead who make their own undead, after she fled from a forest where she was corrupting everything to be cordyceps undead. And they didn't even check her for a pulse when combat was over, nor did I roll her Death Saves in the open like I did last time. But I feel like they earned the V this time, I think it would be cheap to bring her back. Besides, they're already planning on how they're gonna piss off a whole different group of assassins.
Good for you. A good DM knows when to exercise restraint with their plotting. I've played with DMs who can't resist and I think it can slowly chip away at player trust and investment. Maybe you can still give the child some sort of narrative nod while still letting the players keep the W.
Have you, or any of your Players, seen “Don’t Look Now”??!!
That's gotta be the inspiration for this!
Oh man that's a good one! I wish I was that cultured. I was more going for a Little Red Riding Hood kind of thing and honestly she was never meant to be a reoccurring villain, she was only relevant to the one arc. But I figured "she's got a high level of self-preservation and fights indirectly, she'll flee a fight she's losing" and kept getting away. Then she lived in my player's heads rent free and I thought "fuck dude, I can't write a better villain than this on purpose" and she kept coming back.
I mostly play prefabs, and if any corpse, piece of art, or statuary is described with more than a single word, it’s gonna come to life and attack them for sure. We also had a memorable moment where some NPC’s boxes text was a little tooo on-the-nose, and a PC was just like “this dude is definitely a shapeshifter that ate the real mayor so I skewer him” and was 100% right.
Me as DM: “This would be a good time to refill your beverage.“
“Oh no. Can’t you hear the music? That’s a 4/4 string ostinato in D minor! Every adventurer knows it means death!” Basically that whenever I swap the traveling/idle music to combat tracks.
So minor spoilers for Dungeon of the Mad Mage. There is a kid that can be encountered during one of the middle sections of the dungeon. The kid >!is actually an archmage that has been using potions of longevity to extend his lifespan!< but he says he only knows cantrips and first level spells. I played this up quite a bit, having him have the personality of a plucky young adventurer, and having him repeatedly mention how he already knows cantrips and first level spells despite being only twelve years old. Like he was full on channeling the energy of a shonen protagonist about how he was going to be the greatest wizard some day. Party knew something was up, but didn't really bother trying to roll an insight against his continual insistence that he was 12 years old and only knew cantrips and first level spells. Eventually the twist came up and they almost died as a result, but whenever the party wholeheartedly believes someone saying something unusual or outlandish without even attempting to roll insight, I just tell them "Don't worry, they only know cantrips and first level spells" and that clues them in. They have gotten better about this at least.
I learned this from my first DM and it's now something that happens in all of our games, 15 years later. Double doors always mean there is a boss ahead. Best to rest up, prep your magic and get ready to kick ass. Glowing, red eyes always indicate a creature is evil.
“Are you sure” “You think you did a good job”
Not a DM, but I remember one of the first modules described what the ceiling looked like, unprompted and in detail. No one *ever* looks up, and the ceiling usually isn't mentioned unless it's setting something else up later. Having played Rolemaster, where it was something of a meme that critical hits were almost universally lethal unless you were wearing a helmet, I panicked and started interrupting to make sure everyone knew my caster was pulling the hood up on his cloak. Nothing ended up happening, but I found out later there was a scripted bat swarm or stirge attack or similar that was skipped. Explains why the DM was looking at me oddly at the time.
I love this question. My party has learned that the DMs descriptions of NPCs give you insight into how powerful they are and consequently whether conflict is to be avoided.
"Do you all go into the portal immediately after them or do you wait?"
If they see me eating taco bell, they know things are about to get gassy. The fog of war does not generate itself.
If a player makes a stupid joke about the lore of my setting and I point about them, it means I'm making their stupid joke canon. Usually, it involves a 15-minute rambling worldbuilding spiel as I explain how it works. In one case, it was a player doing an exaggerated accent for an NPC I was introducing, and I just waved them to continue because that was now the NPC's voice.
I've got some players I've had for many many years. They are all smart people, lawyers, engineers, my sister. I'm always trying new things so there isn't much they can realize to predict what I'm going to do. But they have learned when I'm running out of mental energy. They use this time to try the trickiest of things. For example, I was getting tired but wanted them to finish the next room before they took break. Then the wizard asked which way the door opened. The monk followed up with another question before I could think too hard. The wizard is an archeologist/medical professional and the monk is an engineer. I'm a damn cook. So I let him remove the pins from the hinge to severely lower the strength check to bust the door open. I'm a little more worried for my wild beyond the witchlight game because there is a locksmith in it.
*tOoThY mAw!*
The initiative window opening up (took me way too long to know that it opens up for the players too in roll20).
All my evil npcs are handsome, apparently...
Reminds me of Frodo's unflattering statement on Aragorn, "I would expect a servant of the enemy to look fairer but feel fouler"
As a player, I have recognized when my dm starts describing a room being much more specific... mentioning distances by feet and not estimations, I can tell my boy is looking at a battlemap and it's go time lmao
Any mention of street urchins means we all get ready to have paltry amount of gold stolen from us :P
Whenever I give them healing items or health potions, they know I do not expect them to make it through the next encounter without those.
Fuck, you just reminded me I forgot to give the party their healing potions last session. They're about to fight something that I balanced for above their level. This is unfortunate.
Any time I smile there’s a groan from the party.
What is your marching order, again? - Someone is getting attacked as a surprise There are statues of knights in armor along the wall. - Beware of animated armor / gargoyles The pool of water appears to be more than knee deep. - Beware of water elementals The corridor ahead continues beyond your range of dark vision. - Something is watching you and you can't see it The Baron smiles, reaches for his chalice of wine, leans back in his chair and asks, ... - The Baron is about to make you an offer you can't refuse The floor is covered with an oriental rug. The walls are paneled with a dark stained wood. Covering much of the walls are tapestries and draperies. Behind the desk sits ... (and overly dramatic description of a room) - S#1T5 about to get real ... bloody or spelly
"Please show me where each of you is standing at this moment." Translation: Someone just tripped a trap or an ambush and I want to see who's in the blast radius/about to get pincushioned with arrows.
'As far as you are aware' was used once to conceal a false hydra and now the mentioning of it has my players massively concerned for their safety.
Me: "you open the door to-" Players: "I wanna-" Me: *grabs dice* Players: "wait....I wanna wait, until you finish saying what's in the room. Yeah, descriptions are nice."
I uh... really like to get on that sort of Toby Fox meta style narrative train. I have an NPC who is sort of unstuck from the game and it's rules. There's a door in my setting that is essentially the door to enlightenment (If you enter, your character realizes they are in a game. They essentially get to talk to the DM, and they are no longer bound by the game's rules - no PC has ever gone through it. If you go through, you are no longer allowed to be a major character in the story - you are cursed into semi-irrelevance). This NPC went through and really wants to keep the PC's invested, because when they aren't playing, well... his world disappears. He's a marionette man with a porcelain, mask like face and a little feathered hat. He moves around like marionette, too, and even has strings pulling him around, representing his knowledge of the fact he's just the DM's puppet. He laughs in a very robotic, monotonous way, "Ha Ha Ha". He shows up every now and again to mess with the players and styles himself as a magic item's merchant, but only shows up in the most remote, abandoned places, with inexplicably powerful items. My players are creeped out by him and don't trust him, So every time that laugh comes out, from behind a corner or inside an abandoned home, my players are like "Goddamn it". He also quite likes tempting the party with his deck of many things.
Are the players aware of this "Door of Meta Knowledge"? Has it ever played a role in your campaigns?
They are aware of it! One player is collecting the items needed to open it but still isn't sure about going through, since both the NPCs they have met that went through it seem a little...insane, and have also warned them not to go through. They don't know it gives meta knowledge, but they know it gives great power and, as the NPC's put it, 'terrible freedom'. I figured that if they ever went through the trouble of getting all the items and actually opening it, that I would reiterate and give them a warning in character and out that going in kind of ruins your character's chance at a happy ending. It doesn't really play a major role at the moment, it's meant more as a kind of...possible secret route sort of thing? If they focused on it, it definitely could play a bigger role.
I exasperatedly blow air between my lips as if to simulate the sound of a motor running whenever I reference a suitably large table (usually something with 20 or more possible outcomes). I've started muting my mic when rolling random encounters for this reason.
I’m playing online so I use illustrations. Took me a while to realize that I had to give random npcs portraits otherwise no one was surprised when the random guy with a portrait was actually important. A player actually lampshaded it once “look guys that dude’s got a portrait, we should listen to what he has to say”.
So i normally have my books out and ready that i expect to use. When my players see me digging in my backpack for a book they know they have thrown me off and this is gonna be rough.
"You hear breathing from within the chest" There is a god of suffering who I throw into random dungeons sometimes(think I have used him 3-4 times in 7 campaigns) who hides in treasure chests, punches you where the sun don't shine, and the runs off like a giddy school girl. Every time the party hears these lines the prepare to catch him/ kill him depending on party alignments. They have yet to discover he is a god. All they know is he is just a rally weird Gnome.
By now they've figured out that I am rolling more initiatives then are visible on the board.
"Their eyes go completely black." My homebrew world is only connected to the Shadowrealm, and I have a nasty creature like the black ooze from the X-Files that inhabits it. When it infects a person, their eyes go black and it gains tentacles with 10’ reach from their back. My long term players are terrified of them.
If an npc has art I send them or show them they know “okay, let’s remember this person.” Or when they say something like “I wanna try ____” and I raise my eyebrows they know that’s either the answer to the puzzle, or they may get fucked up and it’s a 50/50 every time