7 Ways to SURPRISE Your D&D Party...

[@ggiuliacosta]

THE FLAMEHEAD IS MOVING, THAT'S SO COOL!

[@TheFantasyForge]

Haha yeah! I was pretty stoked too

[@Chogborts]

I ran a one-shot once where all of the players, for different supposed reasons, wanted to meet with the king and petition him for something. Unbeknownst to each other though, I gave them all the secret goal of killing the king and taking his crown for themselves. They co-operated together really well, fighting through the king's guards and the plague-ridden commonfolk to get to him, and once they had him alone they ripped each other to shreds. It ended with a lone knight in service to the king slaying the last remaining party member, and promptly being executed for his crimes.

[@TheFantasyForge]

OMG that's amazing haha. Love that idea so much

[@kimmuke8342]

"Daddy party" in the subtitles going crazy ahah

[@TheFantasyForge]

LMAO I almost don't want to change it

[@Delmworks]

1:57 spot on. We had an under dark campaign, and a thrust for a lot of the story from about the end of the 1st act was reviving the NPC drow we befriended

[@TheFantasyForge]

Lol yeah I've been on the DM side of watching players try to stop a death, and been a player all but begging the DM haha

[@SSoulDiamond]

NO NOT THE DISPLACER KITTEN FOOD. TIME TO SHARE SO MY FRIENDS CAN ALSO HELP. NOT MY PARTY THOUGH AS I TAKE WAY TOO MUCH INSPIRATION FROM YOU IN MY OWN GAMES

[@TheFantasyForge]

appreciate you 😎

[@silvereaglestudios]

I had a brilliant (but difficult to pull off idea) to surprise your party. Or should I say parties? Host multiple (I would do three at most if the party is a traditional five-person party) different DND campaigns with different players set in different locations through the same world. What one does will affect the world and thus the other party. Eventually after some build up the parties would have to meet at the same location. Next session instead of hosting an individual party, have all the parties meet at the same table. They'll be confused why suddenly more players are at the same table, until as you go on they realize that they were all in the same adventure the whole time. The plot twist would make the world feel more alive and show great planning on the DM's part. Granted it would be exceptionally difficult to pull this off properly.

[@benrichardson5662]

4:57 They have a third arm! *Looks down* "Huh? How'd I never notice that?"

[@thevoodooman1609]

I absolutely love your videos and your channel! I'm a first time DM working on my own custom campaign, and all of your videos have been RIDICULOUSLY helpful in designing my world! Thanks for all of the awesome work and content you put out:) We appreciate it loads

[@TheFantasyForge]

aw I appreciate that, made my morning :D

[@jjhill001]

My players rested in a little clearing full of flowers in a swamp. Well those flowers turned out to be able to shrink them. They then had an adventure as ant sized party and I found some little ant figures on amazon like 3 bucks for 30 of them. They had to choose sides in a war between two ant colonies. The queen of the one they chose ended up being the Warlocks patron in disguise who was able to make them normal size again.

[@TheFantasyForge]

Lol OMG this sounds AMAZING. I'd be so excited if that was me as a player

[@jjhill001]

@@TheFantasyForge I hope they had fun. Its my first time DMing and it was my first big set piece of the campaign. I added little flavor to emphasize the size change like they failed an agility save to walk across an overhanging stick and one of them fell the equivalent of like 100ft at lvl 2. But like in real life where you can drop a bug and it just scurries off, they took no damage and could all jump off for some fun little featherfall effect much earlier than they'd normally see it. Edit: them thinking they just killed their character on a DC10 skill check was also a pretty funny "prank" to play.

[@jma3974]

My favorite surprise, though there were a number of learning lessons, was to assign 4 of my 5 players NPCs from the 5th PC's background story. Ran them through a small adventure that explored more of that PC's hometown and circumstances they were raised in.

[@TheFantasyForge]

Oooh that sounds super interesting. Can you explain a little more? You mean there were multiple NPC's from the backstory of ONE player?

[@jma3974]

@@TheFantasyForge The campaign started with all the players from this lonesome little valley village who took off on big adventure. Over time we had player and player character changes. Through the overall adventure I would provide little narratives to the players expanding their background stories. There was a cast of NPCs in this village already and the stories allowed me to better integrate them into the background. In this specific case, the adventure was around one particular character's back story, but included another player whose character was also from that time/location, and a third player got to revisit a younger version of a character he had moved away from. I had two other NPCs for my other players to take on. This was fairly unique, so in future "flashbacks", it will be the main PC and a series of NPCs for the other players. It's a way of making a line or two in the backstory into something more fleshed out, and I can drop some world lore based on their unique past experiences.

[@theredhand1786]

Another banger vid, I’ve used a couple of these and they’ve worked really well for my party as far as I can tell.

[@TheFantasyForge]

thanks for the love!

[@runo2606]

#7 worked extremely well for the group I DM for! One of the encounters my players say they enjoyed the most involved an undying assassin. They were essentially cursed to return to life any time they were killed (after several in-game days), and my players had to figure out a way to trap them, undo the curse on the spot and destroy them for good. In the meanwhile, they had to survive about four more "Resident Evil Nemesis"-style encounters where this assassin popping up at the worst time at a higher level than before; always with better gear, different tactics and deadly new powers or combat mechanics to deal with Awesome list, and thanks to your disclaimer I actually remembered to subscribe this time so the displacer kittens won't go hungry!

[@blakesorrell2487]

Currently running a campaign with the internal betrayal and it’s been super fun to plan it out with the player

[@TheFantasyForge]

I did that once too, it really is great lol

[@Kurraku]

One of my main NPCs was possessed by a demon while the party was away, due to the NPC finding an artifact while they were searching for a different artifact. This gave the players a hint at the BBEG, encountering a weaker version of them as an aspect, but also gave the players a choice: they either kill the NPC or figure out a way to un-possess them. It gives an interesting moral dilemma and allows them to think creatively to figure out ways to save the NPC.

[@TheFantasyForge]

Ooo I like that. Making them think twice about their decisions. More realistic. Love it

[@Kurraku]

@@TheFantasyForge Thank you! I'm enjoying the content. Keep up the good work!

[@Crits-Crafts]

I've just realised that I wasn't subscribed. I'm sorry Tobias... I'm subscribed now

[@TheFantasyForge]

Appreciate the love haha 😸

[@Crits-Crafts]

@@TheFantasyForge to be honest I thought I was subscribed before. Love your content

[@TheFantasyForge]

@@Crits-Crafts Lol all good, the power of suggestion haha. Appreciate the love

[@MoioTube]

I love the fact that i subscribed just before the disclaimer. You're great bro, keep it up ❤

[@TheFantasyForge]

LOL thanks for the love and thanks for the sub :) Happy to have you

[@jacobmesser8284]

He caught me in that first part. I just subscribed lol

[@TheFantasyForge]

LOL it was a joke but I appreciate you subscribing

[@darius_cummins-thorne1997]

If you enjoy this channel and appreciate all the work that clearly goes into it make sure to leave a like and a comment. It'll help get these videos infront of more people.

[@TheFantasyForge]

appreciate you 😎

[@tylerobiwanbusler]

I appreciate all the tips!

[@TheFantasyForge]

Thanks for leaving some love!

[@2ripped]

How to suprise the party: 1st thing: Alliances and betrayals, double agent NPC, NPC changing the behaviour and goals 2nd thing: Betrayal from within, chaos, player character wants to betray them 3rd thing: Kill of the NPC players love. obviously for narrative and plot reasons, not just to destroy your players emotionally. Extra points if PCs choices lead to the NPCs death 4th thing: Create a dynamic encounter environment. Think about all the dimensions. X and Y and Z of the map 5th thing: Send them to a new plane of existence. Even create a new plane. Don't do this too much, one or twice is enough 6th thing: Reveal a player character's secret. Use NPCs to reveal something that PCs don't know about each other 7th thing: Create a recurring enemy. Immortal for some reason. Feeling of being watched

[@swahnberg77]

Wow thank you!👍💪

[@TheFantasyForge]

thank YOU

[@duttdits]

My players absolutely love when i spring a surprise combat encounter that involves everyone, but one or more player is separated from the group. In a Starfinder game, I had alien monsters hiding in the walls of their ship attack when they were in 3 different locations in their ship. One player was by himself versus 2 enemies, and he seemed to find it the most thrilling.

[@TheFantasyForge]

When I'm a player, that's the BEST. I love moments of the "ohshitohshitohshit" but I'm also okay with my characters dying so that's just me haha

[@duttdits]

@@TheFantasyForge same when I'm a player. I actually enjoy character death if it's appropriately epic, silly, or poetic. It's part of the fun to me.

[@TheFantasyForge]

@@duttdits Same! I told my current DM in our last game "don't hold back on me!" haha

[@YoungFox78]

Good stuff, my favorite is the betrayal.

[@soulkeaper46]

3:34? I don't know how this cat thing works bit i love the videos.

[@TheFantasyForge]

LOL just gotta leave the time stamp with where you saw Tobias, sometimes he's hard to find

[@soulkeaper46]

@@TheFantasyForge gotcha I mostly just listen while I work, but I did hear a cat sound hahaha.

[@TheFantasyForge]

@@soulkeaper46 LOL close enough!

[@maeday3876]

I DM’ed a game online for 3 people, all of us in different countries. One time the party picked up some Illusory Scripted letters, so I sent one of the players the actual handwritten letters with lemon juice to unveil the “true messages” Sadly instead of revealing the message over a candle, this player accidentally set the letter on fire… good thing I had a digital copy of them

[@TheFantasyForge]

LMAO that's amazing on your part and just...classic players haha. Good that you had the double. But man, that's some next level DMing. Kudos to you.

[@jaceg810]

So here is my biggest difficulty as a DM, how do I make a recurring villain without disappointing the party and while keeping the villain alive. Once I set up some kind of hunter/aspect of endurance monster, part of some dark trinity, to grow in power alongside the party, however I got the feedback that, as it got away twice now, and it seemed to be furthering its goals despite their efforts of trying to fight to the death, with it running from time to time, that it was no fun. Then you have the other party, that got a dragon foreshadowed, tried locking themselves into a room with it, it nearly escaped while half the party was down, before they really killed its established favorite kobold, so it killed half the party before they managed to put it down. Alternatively I could make it some kind of regenerating goop/phylactery and say "ye, it just does not die, thats it" however that requires a very specific kind of villain. I am currently setting up a necromancer type "brother" of a cult that has multiple aspects working towards "the work", and so far he just stuck some undead, cast a single concentration spell, then booked it though the thick mists while the party was busy, said necromancer lives to fight another day.

[@ugxsan]

Always fun to throw a wrench at your party. Especially if it’s a literal wrench. But nevertheless, definitely gonna try and use some of these tips in my next campaign. Also gonna go looking for that world weaver’s workbook. Sounds like a fun creative exercise at worst and a kickstart to the flooded world I dreamt up a while back.

[@TheFantasyForge]

Flooded world? Tell me more 👀

[@ugxsan]

@@TheFantasyForge Well, to peel back the curtain, it wasn’t flooded til just now. XD But really, I had an idea for a seafaring exploration heavy campaign and wanted a watery world to place it in. One day I saw a map I thought was entirely too cool for what it was being used for and decided to hijack it, swap out the recognizable parts, and make a campaign world from it. Thus far I have that it’s a self-contained plane of existence that was formed by disasters emanating from each of the very tangible and entirely-too-near elemental planes. I’m thinking the world is as it is because the most recent disaster was one of water. These disasters take place thousands of years apart, so there’s plenty of time for civilizations to form. But lots of opportunities for ruins and mysteries in the depths from eras long past.

[@ugxsan]

@@TheFantasyForge To be clear, by “what it was being used for” and “recognizable parts” I mean a flat earth map and the planet earth at the center. :B

[@TheFantasyForge]

@@ugxsan Lol that sounds awesome to me. Sounds like a great time

[@BanditTweet]

Tim the skeleton gives you a flower. 💀 👕🥀 👖

[@TheFantasyForge]

Tim...if I could blush...

[@sigmawarlord9055]

also @The Fantasy Forge can we get a "what next" or "how to do an epilogue" video? struggling with that myself, as the players have not defeated the evil, but the story is winding down and we are about to go on hiatus for real life stuff. ~Echoknight Forge

[@TheFantasyForge]

Hey! I recognize your name 🤗 can do! I'll bump that up the list for you

[@MrMrbatman52]

Wow way to tug on the heartstrings to get me to sub. Jeez.

[@TheFantasyForge]

Tobias thanks you haha

[@TakaD20]

Thanks for telling me off first thing, despite the fact that I subbed months ago I guess.

[@TheFantasyForge]

You're on the nice list

[@TakaD20]

@@TheFantasyForge No, seriously. I know subs, clicks and comments (that's why I write most of the times... not because I think my comments are that great) are the lifeblood of a channel. But I'd prefere a more subtle approach to that matter, instead of a scolding.

[@TheFantasyForge]

@@TakaD20 I totally appreciate that, but that was a joke not a scolding (hence the kitten food joke) and if that offends you unfortunately you just won't like my channel or my style. I am sarcastic and all over the place and having fun with the channel persona 😁 I really do appreciate the sub, but I also know not everyone is always going to like my humor or style of narration and that's okay! Definitely didn't mean to make you feel like you were being scolded! Especially since you were one of the 20% of people that WERE subbed. I would say I'll do it differently in the future, but honestly I'll probably just do more of that because it's just how I want to run the channel

[@TakaD20]

@@TheFantasyForge Maybe I'm just grumpy because I'm coming down with a cold. And trust me, I like your channel and style because I watch every video; not something I do on every subscription. What channel persona? You mean... that's not really you in the videos and you're not a flamehead?! ;) And I very, very much appreciate the time you invest in my rants.

[@TheFantasyForge]

@@TakaD20 LMAO that made my day. I hope you're not super sick. Summer colds are the worst D: Like I said I SUPER appreciate you. More than you know

[@an_impatientGM]

A COMMENT TO APPEASE THE ALGORITHM.

[@TheFantasyForge]

PRAISE THE ALGORITHM

[@an_impatientGM]

@@TheFantasyForge *secretly plots to overthrow the algorithm*

[@TheFantasyForge]

@@an_impatientGM 😏

[@kabosustan2484]

Osnt the whole point of a reoccuring antagonist that they arent a supprise?

[@TheFantasyForge]

I think it's more of the surprise of them showing up. Not that they don't expect the antagonist to show up, more of a "oh great" moment.

[@user-hd8vo8ih5u]

I made my friends subscribe Cause Well y not

[@TheFantasyForge]

LOL "one of us. one of us. one of us"

[@dEsTrOiEr2011]

I'm sorry.

[@TheFantasyForge]

Tobias needs scritches 😸

[@Pebls]

👍🧌🧏🏿‍♂️🧏🏿‍♂️🧏🏿‍♂️🧏🏿‍♂️

[@vhagars_saggy_tits1465]

My firend is currently running a campaign where in The campaign one of our players betrayed the party. The context to boil it down was the player had recently lost a character they liked and wanted to play a more morally grey character, we met him in the ride back to the capital city and got to know him and found out he was going to a ball that we were also going to the same ball, basically ti cut things short this ball was the intro to the BBG and the wider plot as a whole but the players new character wasn't very active in the fight against the it ( BBG is entity that was summoned by a group of minions) he was doing something but he wasn't actively helping us attack the bad guy. We also saw that he unintentionally helped the BBG's minions by giving them a device they needed to resurrect the BBG. we were forced to retreat and the party ended up getting separated in the city i was stuck with him and after seeing me alone and vulnerable he stabbed me in the back. My character was revived but this was one of if not the defining moment that solidified the party it was honestly such a fun thing to go through. I remember my friends being mad at the player for a time but I'm glad he did because it bound us as a party and allowed him to experiment and be a much more versatile player as a result (the party lacked heavy duty Spellcasters outside of one cleric). It also gave us a personal reason to fight the bad guys and get revenge. Probably the most fun I've had as a dnd players to date.