Dreadful Deeds: Wintery Doom Edition
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Dreadful Deeds: Wintery Doom Edition

I may have fallen behind in keeping up with the twitterverse lately, but I’m back in action now – Damn the Holidays and their incessant need for tending to! Be sure to browse this weeks devilish tips for use at striking back against your smart assed players Father Winter while gaming this weekend! Also, if you happen to be in the market for some old school inspiration for your D&D game head over to myrpgame and check out my review of “The Dungeon Alphabet” by Goodman Games.

I probably won’t manage to sneak in another blog post until the new year, but there’s still a possibility of an evil Santa Claws or some candy cane zombies so stay tuned. However in the event procrastination/obligations do take hold, have yourselves a happy holiday and a safe new year!

DM’s – Your PCs are in a snowy and frozen area, whats the worst condition / monster / hazard you can throw their way?

@BlindGeekUK – I used dire winter wolf iceclaws, nasty beasts, and I had a terrain effect that would have dealt

@soklemon – I like the Remhoraz, or an avalanche. Ice Trolls can be fun also.

@Trollitc – A hugely fat human, who can fly, is dressed in red and white, with a sinister laugh who knows the party’s alignment and names.

@infocynic – A horde of evil snow elves/gnomes led by a large troll in a red suit. He commands them (minor) all to throw ice balls.

@deadorcs – A Remorahz that flings out 2d4 minion ice-yetis every other round until slain.

@Level30Yinzer – last time was frost zombies and outracing an avalanche

@lotsofsnow – Some sort of frozen ghouls that burst from the ice and attempt to drag bloodied PCs beneath.

@Gencon4James – Water elementals. Nothing is more dangerous in the cold than being wet, plus they can basically manipulate the terrain.

@DireFlail – Tarrasque. 3 hours post-breakup with his girlfriend. 2 hours post-buying a swimming pool full of Wild Turkey.

@Neldar – save or die to exposure

@VelvetSouljah – I’d do something like an “ice golem” type thing where snow drifts around PCs swirl to life and assemble into a creature.

@TheWanderer14 – Crevasse

@ve4grm – Lava, lots of lava!

@danielbalard – mine have fought giant snow worgs/kreashar and a fire breathing white dragon

@Naloomi – Remorraz – use their heat & tunneling to separate party members.

Dreadful Deeds: Kaizo Traps in D&D Part 1
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Dreadful Deeds: Kaizo Traps in D&D Part 1

In my continued efforts to provide you with only the finest fodder for utterly crushing your players, I bring you another guest post from one of the best trap aficionados in the D&D community –  Sersa V.

In case you haven’t heard of him he runs a blog that specializes in hardcore encounters for 4e, put best in his own words: “D&D hardcore – exceedingly lethal dungeon challenges for the D&D 4th Edition game” also known as ‘4thcore’. The sheer amount of content and the quality within is a rarity, so if you haven’t checked his out yet I highly suggest you do so.

The trap outlined below is not for the faint of heart and is definitely a good way to start (or end) an encounter with a bang. It may even force some of those more passive players to think twice before hanging around inside dungeon foyers like a bump on a log while their fellow party members advance boldly. Not that there’s anything wrong with hanging back but it’ll definitely keep em’ on their toes after encountering one of these. I’ll definitely be using it when kicking off my new campaign tonight.

In the coming weeks I should be outlining my campaigns progress via Obsidian Portal. I’ll also be doing a follow up post or two here to let you know how my newfound anti “care bear” DM’ing style is going. Will I be able to fight my hand holding tendencies and maybe actually kill someone this time around should the situation arise? Will I stop fudging so many die rolls? I certainly hope so.

Without further adieu, the trap:

Dreadful Deeds: The DMS Trap
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Dreadful Deeds: The DMS Trap

Today I bring to you the first of a few guest posts as I prepare to kick off my D5C initiative on twitter, it is written by the very talented (and devious) @Macrogeek so do yourself a favor and start following him on twitter if you’re not already doing so. The DMS trap is a wonderful play on a classic trap that could be found in any dungeon, a bit of a one-two punch but the twist is you’re PC’s minds will end up suffering some quite unique effects.

The role playing possibilities and hilarity that may ensue from the DMS trap are priceless so read on, and prepare to give me your best shot when I call out for D5C tweets starting next week. Also check back later today for another new Pixels & Polyhedrals baddie that will really choke your players for options.

The DMS Trap

Not all RPG traps should exist to try to cause a player death or TPK. Some of the best traps are the ones that give you, the DM, a plot hook to work from in future sessions. Thus I give you a trap designed only to cause fun role playing scenarios for your players – The DMS Trap.

It goes a little something like this:

Near the end of the dungeon the party triggers a trap. It’s not important how it’s triggered, just that it goes off.

Some ideas:

  • Have the “boss” character of the dungeon wear an amulet that triggers the trap if he dies or separates himself from the amulet. (a dead-man switch, he can intentionally trigger/drop the amulet if the PC’s don’t kill him, or it can go off when they take it from him as loot)
  • The trap can be triggered when the PC’s remove a certain goal item from the dungeon. They have to remove the item to complete a quest, but doing so trips the trap. Alternatively, when they fail a check trying to open a chest, or disarm what appears to be a simpler trap, the DMS trap can be sprung.
  • The fumbling NPC. Make the trigger for the trap obvious, supply a clumsy NPC who has much poorer skills than the rest of the party…have them fail a check. Works well with rescued prisoners, the village drunk, liberated henchmen, local politicians.

DM, you’ve made the players set off your evil trap…what happens next?