DMs, What is your favorite way to troll your players?

[@sherylcascadden4988]

The illusion of a pit trap followed by an illusion of floor over the actual pit trap is a classic Grimtooth.

[@Eliza-hb1nc]

there is this youtuber called runesmith who did a video on the most annoying dungeon(which he made himself) there was this corridor that had two of these in a row. except, the second one was not an illusion. it was a standard pit trap. so it went like this 1: regular floor 2: illusion fake trap 3: hidden real trap 4: regular floor 5: regular trap 6: regular floor here's the video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJDNY2eip8Z7f8U

[@MormonSwag66]

An oldie but a goodie: "I push the door open." "It doesn't budge." *10 IRL min later, after trying all sorts of checks and rolls* "I try pulling on the door." "It swings open with ease."

[@alyssavanderklift9296]

ah, classic

[@matthewvonreighner5762]

i used this and added a pit behind the door. Right before the fighter forcefully broke in the sorcerer ask if he tried to pull the door, saving the fighter from a 30 ft drop

[@MormonSwag66]

@@matthewvonreighner5762 Savage, I love it

[@lotuswraith]

I did this once. A tavern girl turned into a vampire spawn inside the tavern and one of the PCs asked if he could push open the door and I said no. The press of bodies afterwards made it impossible to open the door and the party was convinced that the vampire girl had cast some sort of spell to magically lock the doors. It was only later that to their chagrin they were informed that the door had to be pulled open on this side and that their efforts to open it were only making things worse.

[@nicholasjackson8709]

I did this a couple times..now my players ask hiw every door opens

[@mrkeller8000]

I'm usually a DM. I have a habit of randomly rolling my dice for no reason. One of my players decided to DM a game, at one point out of habit I rolled my dice while the DM was explaining something. Oh boy, was the instinctual fear from him present even though he was the one as DM that time.

[@Serperior-Deoxys]

So here's a fun one. Two of the cults in my homebrew have songs that are sung by those twisted by them. I hide that song at a near imperceptible volume in the background music so I raise their anxiety before a big hoarde battle or major story point.

[@connormccrary1260]

That is foul

[@Serperior-Deoxys]

@@connormccrary1260 Thx. Love that you feel that way.

[@cocoXmarshmallows]

Over time, I have slowly trained my players to subconsciously associate a couple select background music sound tracks with near-death situations. Now all I have to do to get them to freak out is hit the play button. 😈

[@MadSpectro7]

That's not trolling. That's just brilliant.

[@Eraktab]

I love subliminal messaging. The RP equivalent of this is very sneaky double-speak. Had an NPC who stole the players design for firearms. Told the characters to come enjoy the fireworks show and that "it'll be a blast" with a bit of emphasis. Needless to say my players get mad at me for how in front of them some things are before they are revealed. What a lovely feeling.

[@trueblade39]

My party is fearful of any mention of the word "party" as in a celebration of any kind. Once during a party they were ambushed by twenty abishai that came bursting through the windows. Ever since then, they freak out whenever an NPC says the word, diving under tables or making stealth checks the moment it is uttered. They're in a new campaign set a year after the old one, and after meeting their old characters one of the players said the word aloud in-character and the ensuing panic I had to roleplay their old characters going through was a hilarious inversion

[@HandsomeLongshanks]

I love those moments. It really let's DM's shine for their improv skills and deep understanding of these complex characters as you dart between them quickly, trying to keep their actions within character

[@blindbrad4719]

Puma check!

[@ericmclean4118]

In Shadowrun I will have a doorman outside a bar, checking weapons. Once the players get inside they notice that other patrens still have their weapons. Usuly that will prompt a question tothwbar keep about the doorman, followed by the responce of "what doorman?"

[@lotuswraith]

I troll my players by randomly rolling dice behind my screen and making faces. The one that really gets them is when I just evil grin at a roll that means nothing; the panic in their eyes is soul warming.

[@nathana9649]

Soul warming! 😂

[@DomyTheMad420]

"about the well being" "is actually a sea hag stuck in their well" *cue my mad cacling at 4am*

[@TheRealBingus]

Had my first, and so far only, DMing experience not too long ago (it was awesome by the way). I have two players and they were clearing a manor owned by a group of Artificers who had accidentally activated one of their creations, an automaton (Warforged), which immediately killed two of them, and injured two others. The players were having to search a completely silent house, room by room. They made it to the kitchen and went into the pantry. Me: “You see a bunch of dry foods, a few burlap sacks, crates, barrels, and other foodstuffs. You also see two metal boxes sitting on one side of the pantry. They are just metal cubes with a very clear door and handle.” Ranger: “What are they?” Me: “I don’t know. Maybe check them to see what they are.” Paladin: “Why? Are they trapped?” Me: “Could be. But you won’t know until you open them.” Paladin and Ranger: “We leave.” Me: “What’s wrong? Why won’t you open them?” Both: “Because we don’t know what they are and don’t want to die.” They were afraid of a mini fridge and freezer.

[@xboxoneyes7734]

Cant blame them I lost quite a few characters because i like to check stuff

[@TheRealBingus]

@@xboxoneyes7734 I do not blame them, it was quite funny

[@drakemagnus9846]

As the DM I host all of my groups sessions at my house. After a few sessions, I blew up a balloon, used a marker to put a few magical runes on it, and just hung it from the ceiling just to get a reaction out of my players. Then after each session, I would draw more runes on it, until it was completely polka-dotted with *magic*. To this day, even though I've stopped adding to it my players will walk in the door and say "hey, are there more runes on the Rune Balloon?"

[@bluesandman7566]

"Good thing I found a magic balloon" -Mama Luigi

[@lluccanela3212]

I see you like conjuration

[@sarahcarless5480]

Earlier in the game, the party's rogue got (literally) burned by a Glyph of Warding on a book. So now the party was disrupting a cult ritual and needed to get their ritual book to figure out what they'd done and how to undo it. The rogue made a big deal about how he was NOT LOOKING AT THE BOOK when he scooped it up from the altar and put it in his backpack. "I keep my eyes squeezed shut, I grab the book, I stuff it my bag -- I know we need it but I IN NO WAY look at ANYTHING on or in this book, got it?" There was nothing dangerous about the book at all, but I could not help myself. I asked, "Sooo... you touch it?"

[@DaJudge420]

I once made these earpieces of sending. Everyone wearing one earpieces gains the ability to talk to Everyone else with one (a group attunement). Well the shop owner who sold it to them uses clones to make sure there is one of his shops in every major city. Randomly throughout the day the party will hear Advertisements from the store owner. Unless they choose to pay for a monthly ad free subscription to the shop owner, which they were not aware of until they had hear many many ads. They legit fought a kraken and in the middle of the fight. "Come soon for our limited time deal !!! Buy two get one 50% off Alchemist Fire only at Don Loxi's " the shop owner is a retired Loxadon wizard .

[@Zych.Grzegorz]

I've not yet had the occasion to run this, but I have this idea: the players learn about a book called "Mr McGuffins Grand Book of Alchemy", which is apparently very valuable and highly sought after by alchemists, wizards and scientists. If they bite, they'll discover that it was stolen by an Evil Cult (tm), who plan to use it further their Nefarious Plans (tm). After crawling through some dungeons, hidden labs and ruined castles (all of which show signs of various magical mishaps) they find the book in a half-dissolved tower. The book is written in cipher and required a very hard Intelligence check to decipher. Once solved, the book will promise riches and power beyond the wildest dreams, though at a cost of long and complicated rituals and transmutations, all requiring expensive and exotic ingredients. These transmutations will always fail though. If the players roll well enough they'll notice it's going wrong and have the chance to stop, if they don't - explosions, acid, poison gas, summoned monsters, random portals, someone turns into a potted plant - go crazy. Should they go to an alchemist/wizard/etc. that person will be overjoyed and will happily to pay a significant amount of money for it. They'll also tell the players that Mr McGuffin was a tremendously talented writer and cryptographer, but an extremely lousy alchemist and the books value lies in the cipher and style, rather than actual content. Also, some people just want it for the lulz.

[@krinkrin5982]

I mean, the book is not wrong. All these rituals require expensive ingredients... which you can simply sell.

[@kaseymathew1893]

A troll I was on the receiving end of involved doors and traps. We encountered a door, and my character (a high-dex halfling ranger) examined it. No traps, so we opened it to reveal . . . Another door. And another. And another. And another. There was a total of something like 12 doors all one after the other, and none of them were trapped. Except the last 2. Those were tied to the trigger of a balista behind the final door.

[@minimishapsgames894]

In my most ominous DM voice, I describe an evil-looking ancient door, but it is not locked, or trapped, or important. Then, when they roll their checks, I simply say, "There is no magic and no traps... that you can tell at this point." This only works if the last few doors have been death sentences.

[@blazedhorizon5394]

I have a simple one that's happened purely because of one players misunderstanding. I run a very RP heavy campaign, so my players mostly stay in character as we have limited time to play each session, however they have a bad habit of breaking character and going on long out of character tangent-like jokes or statements. This isn't bad and I often let them go unless it starts to go on for too long. The first time this happened however I decided it was a good time to write down some notes on what happened so far with the party, and one of my players looked over and saw me writing before exclaiming, "everyone, he's adding more HP to the next boss we better get back on track." I'm not sure where this misunderstanding comes from, but now my way of both trolling and keeping my players moving is to just silently start writing on a piece of paper. "Adding more HP to the boss".

[@keithwiechart7744]

The Potion of Minor Healing: This potion looks like a regular potion of healing to the common eye, but only creatures that are yet to reach adulthood are healed by it. Also, The Potion of Miner Healing: The exact same potion, but it only heals when drunk by someone who currently holds a job as a miner.

[@thekoifishcoyote8762]

Garbage way for a dwarf to realize that he got fired

[@jacextreme6432]

The Potion of Grater Healing:

[@MetelhedGaming]

Had an enemy with an AC of natural 20(they had to roll a nat 20 to hit, bonuses didn’t count) but only 1 HP. He had a pair of boots that would let him jump an absurd distance so the party had to keep chasing him down. The best and really trolly part was his wand, The Chicken Stick. It didn’t do any damage, but a failed wisdom saving throw from the attack would make the target think they were a chicken. It was hilarious! 3 of the 5 party members all thought they were chickens, and watching my friends RP chicken noises was great. One lucky roll could have end that encounter fairly quickly, but that was the longest encounter that night. Lol

[@kordak197]

The How to Identify a Mimic has to be my favorite. So obvious in hindsight, but absolutely hilarious! XD

[@DragonMan5643]

I love using some of the classics. "Are you *sure* about that?" "Hey, make a Passive Perception check... *write something in notes no matter the role*" "Well, you don't *find* any traps."

[@blindbrad4719]

Try this one on for size next time, you don't find a trap on the object you're looking at…

[@graystillplayssuperfan4886]

Players: walk through a dungeon hallway DM: How many hit points do you have? Players: nervousness increases

[@trdl23]

Put one room in your dungeon that's empty. It has nothing but maybe a bit of ornamentation and a few crates or barrels containing mundane stuff like plates. Make its doors unlocked or even open already. Watch your players squirm for at least 10 minutes trying to find traps and twists that aren't there.

[@guyfawkes8873]

‘Wait a second, just gonna roll for random encounters’. Simple, but effective. My Players know that I don’t balance RANDOM encounters. They just exist.

[@shadowjaunt4821]

All I have to do is say "Ive made a new statblock" and my players act like Ive just murdered their favorite NPC

[@gavinmaretzki6675]

Muttering from behind the DM screen, "Should I add a ___ there, or would that be too much?" Never fails to get them nervous. Even better, "Yeah, I could probably put a crater in there." Context: I made a homebrew monstrosity enemy modeled after the creeper from Minecraft, called the Walking Crater. I might add the enemy to the battlefield... or I might put a literal, geographical "crater" into the terrain. I'LL NEVER TELL!

[@redstoneraptor8101]

My favorite way to troll a player is to give them a potion of polymorphing that turns them into a troll.

[@hiroshock]

I never DM a game before but if it was me I would let a party find a scroll that has a batch of names and it is in an ancient language that they don't understand. They have to find someone who can translate the text. When the text is translated one of the names starts to glow. Then the glowing stops all they would have seen is a duck in a purple tux with a purple ferdora and a black cape. They would start hearing music out of nowhere and the name Darkwing duck would be heard.

[@truffly5520]

In a random generated dungeon to a random dead end. Me: You see a plaque on the end of the hall Player: What does it say? Me: you gotta move closer to read it Player cautiously moving forward to read plaque Me describing the plaque and smaller text on the plaque Player getting veery close Player steps on pressure point to read fine print Plaque fine print: I fucking got you Another one I did I made most of the random doors in this dungeon just randomly click when you turn the knob. And when they get used to it you collapse a ceiling on them to keep them on their toes

[@Ilias2]

I came up with a monster called Existential Dread. Its speed is infinite, and its special trait, Dreadful Presence has me roll a die and visibly write something down, but that's it. That's the monster. Other than the intangibility. And 9001 health.

[@olahmundo]

I have an NPC who sells magic items at random. The players buy the box, roll a D20 and get a homebrew magic item I've made. Granted, some of these are actually good, but there are a bunch of troll options, like the ring that teleports anywhere, but without the user (they lost it after trying it out for the first time). There's a normal umbrella (medieval setting), an instrument that plays itself, among others

[@kiritotheabridgedgod4178]

So, I play a lot of Charisma Casters, if was running a bard, I'd definitely buy a shit ton of those to try and get instruments that play themselves, just so I can be an entire band in combat. For the record, the last time I played a bard, I convinced the DM to allow me to have a 9 string guitar, with a permanent adjustable thaumaturgy enchantment on it. Bardic inspiration was given through Doom OST's

[@VenneltheGreat]

Despite never having an NPC betray my party, somehow the biggest troll I can pull off is just having my NPCs all be her best and sincere. They will inevitably turn on the npc and try to attack them only to find they’ve killed another innocent (usually) person

[@HandsomeLongshanks]

The "3 treasure chests and the book-mimic" is brilliant

[@Jessie_Helms]

Strahd gave the alcoholic grave cleric, who was unable to drink/eat any perishable things, an endless decanter of vodka/whiskey, as they don’t spoil. The troll? Auto charms the drinker for Strahd and they feel compelled to share it. 3/5 of the party + 2 NPC allies are now charmed by Strahd’s magic vodka

[@coolgreenbug7551]

Are you sure that it is magic and not just normal alcohol

[@crustybomb115]

@@coolgreenbug7551 i mean... it aint poisoned... soooo....

[@koboldwizard]

that room with three chests and the mimic book is probably the funiest dnd thing ive ever heard of, got a genuine laugh out of me

[@ethanfrench9111]

I love doing “anti-traps” basically a trap that is designed in a way that if a bumbling fool was walking through it, they would be fine but a paranoid adventurer looking for traps would waste time and resources on nothing while also putting themselves in danger. I.E. A door with a lock but the lock is a false lock that doesn’t actually lock and instead shoots poison darts at people who try to pick it (the door is unlocked). Things like that. But I do remember a time where I had an ancient mage tower that at the top was a set of doors each one having ornate scripture and decorative carvings of each of the schools of magic. Each door had traps designed around that particular school the conjuration one summoned elementals and other planar entities, the abjuration door had tons of protective wards, necromancy had necrotic damage traps and undead summons, etc. The illusion one was my favorite because it was the only door without a door, no seriously. The most lavishly decorated door was just an illusion and anyone who tried to unlock, interact with, destroy, or open the door would find that the door wouldn’t open. You just had to walk through the open doorway. It didn’t get any better for them, especially since all the traps in there didn’t follow the previous trend of being themed around Illusory magic. There were fireball traps, door handles enchanted with acidic properties, the works with the final “boss” being the Illusory Dragon Spell. You know, the one that is an eighth level spell but actually upcast to ninth. All of this was a huge difficulty spike for the level seven party and there were five short rests, two long rests, and about seven times when a character dropped to zero. They almost died before they figured it out. “Because you three grouped up over there so perfectly, I think the Illusion Dragon is going to use the breath weapon that it just recharged to ruin your day.” “Wait, Illusion Dragon or Illusory Dragon?” “Illusion Dragon.” “I thought this was an Illusory Dragon, like the spell.” “It is? It seems that way, at least.” “You motherfu-. You know, it’s kind of obvious now.” On her next turn the wizard asks to walk to the chest on the Dias at the back of the room where they all know a powerful gem of illusory magic lies. (Each tower room had a gem of the corresponding school of magic at the end of it. They knew what they were here for.) and asked to open the chest. “So, let me get this straight. You want to walk by the Illusion Dragon provoking an attack of opportunity and go to the chest that seems to have some sort of colorful, swirling barrier around it and open it?” “Yep.” “You watch as your party’s Wizard calmly walks past the Dragon that pays her no mind, reaches through what is no doubt a very powerful abjuration ward, and opens the small chest. Inside is a single Diamond that shifts it’s colors slowly.” And that’s how they figured out that if they just walked through everything, they would have been fine. The gem was an artifact that required attunement but allowed a wizard (over the course of a long rest) to change their school to Illusion and when they cast an illusion spell they can expend a charge to make that effect be “real” for all intensive purposes. It had as many charges as your proficiency bonus and regained half its charges each morning. It was the technically most underpowered of the orbs but in theory the most overpowered shit I’ve ever put in a game. I’m glad they seldom used it until they entered the endgame where every enemy was busted and overpowered.

[@martiansoldier]

Statues standing guard over magic items in a dungeon. Destroy statues with spells at a distance. Pick up the magic items freely. Get attacked by the torches that were actually wisps.

[@jonathanfaulkner878]

I put a deck of many things into my campaign. I don’t like player permadeath in my campaigns, so the skull card still summons an extremely powerful agent of death, but the player (upon being reduced to zero) only falls unconscious and later wakes to eventually discover someone close to them has died. Also, the first time I pulled out that deck, they asked if I altered any of the cards. I just kept my mouth shut.

[@shockeye3863]

Another good one... "I just want you guys to know, there is absolutely no reason to panic."

[@johnstout4187]

I have absolutely no poker face. So whenever they ask “what would have happened if…” or “would ____ work…” my answer will continually be “I don’t know” until they commit to something (and never give away what could have happened on a different path). The glares and resounding chorus of “YES YOU DO!” is like music to my ears.

[@RichBensen]

Back in the AD&D 2e days, whenever my friend (the DM) would roll for random encounters and the result was one less than whatever would indicate an actual encounter in the circumstances, he would give us a non-encounter. He would tell us about some little thing we'd notice that was actually insignificant but frequently sent us into full paranoia mode. Example: "as you hike up the steep forest path, you suddenly become aware that one of the straps on your backpack has come undone".

[@nikko6041]

The book is a mimic Genius 😂😂

[@sterlinggecko3269]

every once in a while, I'll stealthily add a new token to the map, right behind a PC. they usually freak out for a few seconds when they notice.

[@CaptainKiLL83]

When I DM...my friends all become paranoid to their own detriment...for absolutely no reason..its like they suspect me of always been up to something...and 9 times outta 10 I'm not planning anything...

[@remraven6443]

I have a group in Ice Wind Dale Rime of the Frost Maiden. In this game it mentions little guys only a few inches tall called Chawingas. There fun little tricksters and even tho the book only mentioned them 3-4 times, I use them constantly as a way to mess with them.

[@cacovonluca]

Okay, the Wand of Desintegration is smart

[@sterlinggecko3269]

since adventurers are allergic to water, I use water terrain to guide them into the danger areas when they skirt around the harmless water features.

[@travispedersen5694]

My players were on a rescue mission and were sneaking into the room that the woman was bound and unconcious in, they rolled a 19 perception check before they entered but i had a rogue hiding there with a stealth of 20. As one of the players checks on the captive the other decided to try and look UNDER the door to the hallway. I said ok so you're prone for a bit then. The look of horror that crossed her face was hilarious. at that moment the rogue stabbed the other player doing their exact hp in damage and then rolled higher on initiative than the other almost knocking them out too. it was a really close scenario and they had a lot of fun with the tension it caused.

[@drinkablebean1812]

Anytime an npc has a deck of cards, I put a lot of detail into its description. They go quiet every time.

[@NotThatVinny]

DM rolling the dice without an explanation [or reason] and doodling behind the screen. When the players ask what the roll was for, the DM says: "You don't need to know." DM: So how attached are you to [NPC]. Player: She's/He's my character's love of their life. DM: Ah... * Rolls * * Stares at dice * * Doodles a flower * DM: Hm... Player: What? What was that? DM: Hm? Ah, you don't need to know. DM: Remind me where your character is from again? *** DM: * Rolls dice * Player: * Eats a sandwich * DM: * Rolls dice * Player: Did I just get poisoned?! DM: Hm? Ah, no I was just seeing if your character would gain weight from this.

[@twilightnight6283]

"You hear some rustling in the pile of bottles" "I go check them out by picking one of the bottles up." "You see the bottle grow a mouth with sharp teeth. Roll for initiative against the mimic alone."

[@twilightnight6283]

I did the same with a magic wand.

[@AgentSapphire]

I did a campaign where the players were looking to slay a thing like monster. Every time they took a long rest I would hand them a note and told the players not to show each other. Every note was identical. They were always identical. "You had a restful sleep. Nothing bad happened"

[@SolaceHuntsman]

The electrum one killed me.

[@coolgreenbug7551]

10:23 He then slowly pulls a lever which sets off a mechanism which does nothing whatsoever BUT THE NOTHING THAT IT DOES NEGATES THE EVERYTHING WE KNOW

[@SymbioteMullet]

I have a few trolls: Say "Are you going to touch it with your _bare_ hand?" Magic item: the ring of acid. When you put it on, it secretes acid on the inside of the band, and melts your finger off. It has no other properties. Another magic item: Ring of water breathing. Put it on, and you can breathe water! But you can't breathe air.

[@jonathanmarks3112]

Misread “band” as “bard” at first.

[@SymbioteMullet]

@@jonathanmarks3112 considering what bards might do with it, that's potentially completely accurate...

[@jonathanmarks3112]

@@SymbioteMullet Sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

[@SymbioteMullet]

@@jonathanmarks3112 and you are better off for that.

[@leekyb3837]

to go along with the pun story in the video, I set up a whole one shot campaign, with the Villains being named Bo and Fa. They were druids that had a nut cannon. They had a pet displacer beast named Tippa as well. I felt like i was back in middle school

[@rabidporcupine0]

Oh shit, this actually reminds me of something I did in one of the few sessions I've ever DMed. I did a dungeon where I had a big open room with a series of sliding ringshaped panels inside one another on the floor in front of a big door. Every ten or so minutes in real time, I'd have a couple of big snake monsters come out of the walls to give it a sense of urgency as they tried desperately to solve the floor puzzle to unlock the door. Naturally, the door was unlocked the whole time. The 'floor puzzle' did literally nothing except stop them from trying to open it straight away.

[@pyroervin6655]

A constant theme throughout my fantasy worlds is a song NPCs will be singing/humming that is a hint to them being worshippers of Loki god of chaos. It has the tune of the "ants go marching" but has the lyrics changed to "the wolves are marching" referencing how many wolves are involved in Ragnarok. They have yet to hear the full song they are so paranoid about it.

[@markedforstrike]

Silently making notes when they eat something or take an item. Chances of them being poisoned or cursed are extremely low, but never 0

[@mommygottaglock70]

I have two. One that's mine I have yet to test, and one from my dad. My dad's is that in one of his dungeons had a bunch of pools in it. One of these pools had a illusion of a treasure chest full of gold and the like that would disappear if you tried to touch it. The warlock spent two irl hours trying to get the chest. And unsurprisingly failed. Another pool had a simple gold piece in the middle of it. The party thought it was a trap or something, but it was just a normal gold piece in the pool. Mine is a counterpart to the Cloaker called a Blankie. The Blankie is a peaceful blanket mimic that when worn, will hug you and you have to make a con save to see if its purring and cooing calms you down. If you sleep with it, it'll give you a advantage on surprise rolls if something sneaks up on the Party while their sleeping. It's underbelly also glows in the dark. I think it be fun to trick the party with peaceful counterpart versions of DND more horrible monsters, as a fun way to keep the party on edge.

[@demogorghon]

We spend 30 minutes of real time trying to open fancy looking door in dungeon. I had pretty good lockpicking roll that was a fail. Door also withstood our 20 Str paladin with a crowbar. When we finally break in somehow it turned up to be a guest bedroom. The most valuable thing inside was ink and paper. Normal, nonmagical ink and paper

[@ZombieDireWolf]

I love trolling player by having them fight white dragons which are really albino red dragon. I also mix it up with Melanism dragons too. When it ain't that it's troll items like "ring of attunement" which adds an attunement slot, the catch is it requires attunement.

[@cillacowz2668]

I like useless magic items, like a belt of attunement, grants an attunement slot when worn, or the meme that is the used bag of holding, anything put in comes out with glitter on it.

[@byrontheusurper6505]

THE LOOT CRATE IS SUCH A COOL IDEA

[@BoredTAK5000]

My elvish city "Hoga Alvernas Reek" translates to "City of High Elves" in Swedish. No one has noticed yet.

[@Jfreek5050]

So I set up early in the story that there was a type of mimic infestation. As a result, mimics are a hazard basically everywhere you go. Cue my players flailing about like they are in Prey even if there's actually nothing unusual in the room.

[@thegoldgod42]

I had one player who kept peeking behind my DM screen so one session I just put a Carnifex model there, I spotted when he peaked and the look on his face was amazing

[@ChryssaBL]

Wand of Wet + Wand of self-Shocking is a scaled down version of a bag of holding and portable hole.

[@eddmario]

Okay, the book mimic made me choke on my teeth from how hard I laughed

[@DistendedPerinium]

An old classic... "Are you sure you want to do that?"

[@jakefromspace4659]

“The troll dungeon” which is inhabited by a sole, mad wizard knome.

[@vsriotact]

Randomly rolling dice or flipping coins, always an eyebrow raiser.

[@SUPPAcHERO]

The duellog: "do you want to open this door with your ungloved bare hand?"

[@TacticalGoldfishy]

When I have a wizard, I include discount bin of scrolls in an arcana shop. the spells are at 90-99% off, but the effects are satirical versions of their real counterparts (though the purchaser has no idea until they use it). - Bestow curse makes the target spit profanity - Catnap makes the closest nearby cat fall asleep - Vampiric touch makes you allergic to garlic for a day - Beast Bond... there is no Beast Bond scroll... - etc. 1/25 of them is the real deal (an excuse for me to roll a d100). Sometimes the wizard will learn add a handful of them before realizing they are duds. Also, not really a prank, but prank-adjacent: The campaign i'm currently running is a timeloop mystery/thriller. Session 1 has PCs has an event happen to them that gets them stuck in the loop, and every subsequent session they restart from that anchor point. Death is still real though, so if a PC dies, it's permanent and they don't respawn. When I need a new PC to join the party, I have the culprit direct them into the anchoring event. If it's a new player, I don't tell the rest of the party that the new player is joining. I also don't tell the player that they're going to get stuck in a timeloop. I just start the session with "all of you get a sharp migraine as new foreign memories start to flood in - memories of past events with [new PC], conflicting with those without". Then I sit back for 10 minutes and let them figure it out.

[@ourochroma]

“The book is the mimic” killed Me

[@denzildk]

i had recently discovered that in roll20 i can put my players on different maps, and i'm using a plugin where i can link tokens on different maps to each other so when i move one, the other moves aswell, so i set up 4 maps (one for each player and a master map for me) and put them each in one, same background, different tokens, so they all started reacting to different things and were super confused they couldn't see what the others were seeing, one of them dove into a lake after the illusion of his deceased beloved, and another ran into the dense forrest after his sister, leaving the last guy behind with no clue why his friends had abandoned him while shouting about things that clearely weren't there. Took them a good couple of minutes to ask "hey, can you put us on different maps or something?". So now i do that every so often, but with smaller things, just to mess with them a bit.

[@nes819]

Every second group of bandids in my setting uses the "Wulf" theme in their namingconvention. Thei'r not afiliated with each other, they just hide in woods with wulfs and think they are scarry.

[@NKWD2137]

my favourite: mental state (MS for short) a hidden stat that only DM (in this case - me) knows the lower it falls, the "funnier" things can happen for example: i was telling one player with low MS, that he feels like "something" watches him (for something like half an hour), in reality the only ones watching him were other PC thinking wtf is happening other stories; the team found an military IFV in forest (stalker similar RPG, and player was lucky as hell in rolls), it even had some ammo in it. when they were traveling through the forest, they were attacked by ender dragon (yes, this from minecraft), they fired all of the IFV's ammo, and after a while a dragon dissapeared, yes, it was hallucination a player detached from main team was wandering through fields, he was engaged by 100m (~330ft) tall corn, he wanted a luck roll (he was not realising that it is hallucination) and passed, an NPC runned (throught air) close to corn, grab it with gravity gun (from half-life) and fired it away, then turned and run back (still in air). player then was unable to do anything for 5 minutes, because his .exe stopped working Other great troll related to this, would be when PC would saw his teammates as mutants (i didn't used this one, mainly because since it was everyone's first RPG, the whole player's team was doing metagaming, can't blame then though, i was doing a lot of mistakes as GM back then also) But the funniest thing that i prepared (however din't used it in the end) is that a PC could been possessed for some time (ONLY when mental state dropped to 0) fun fact: if i would possesed every PC that MS dropped to 0, then i would take 5 of 8 PC, and another 2 NPC that were in player's team, giving total 7 out of 10 but besides that, random rolls for luck (if passed, they finds something valuable, if not, either trap or battle) (sorry for english, it's not my native language :) )

[@stellarischloride7522]

I once made a sword with a severed hand lying next to it in a pool of blood. A curious player picks it up to find its only property being to glue onto the hand of whoever is holding it.

[@CurrentlyScreamingForNoReason]

My players spent ten minutes figuring this out. They had to keep making perception checks, everyone but our barbarian succeeded. Here’s the thing, they had to FAIL the perception check to get through. So the rest of the party kept seeing eyes watching them and fought shadows and air as the barbarian kept making checks, even though they failed. Because of it, the barbarian succeeded and saw Eldritch horrors even though there was nothing. I have more encounters where the players have to fail a check. It’s even better when they’re proficient or even an expert in the skill, lol

[@pedroromarhernandez6554]

You see a door. No further explanation

[@christophersanders3252]

I don't know if this is trolling, but my players are aware that any puns committed over the course of the session will result in their character being visited by "THE WARRIOR FROM THE EDGE OF TIME" who will descend from the far end of spacetime to gauntlet slap them as penance. We all love puns and this is done for comedic reasons. I await the day they try to summon him on purpose in hopes he will fight by their side.

[@thedefenestrator2994]

When my players roll a nat1 on perception checks of the area, I introduce them to something they really would not have wanted to see. Like the Slurp Finch, which is a small song bird which makes loud slurping noises as it’s song. When seen up close you can see their beak if skin and lips. I have a long list of harmless, yet horrible things for them to see. Like the classic “only at Walmart,” experience

[@codenameqb]

I’ve got a good one. My players call me Doomsday because of of my Xbox gamer tag from when we met. I had a lot of issues with my players paying attention. So in the middle of the scene I started to notice that some players were starting to disappear again. So when a enemy attacked the party with a A O E attack instead of rolling I just quietly said the infamous word “DODGE”. It quickly became popular with my group. At any point the DM could say dodge and if you didn’t answer within 1-3 seconds (depending on the DM) you would become hit with a surprise attack dealing a lot of damage. The players always loved my rp’s so my lack of skill wasn’t the issue I think I just started to become a little to repetitive. It was a nice change of pace that lasted about 3 years. And of course I did change my DM style so gimmicks like that became unnecessary.

[@thomanator1000]

I like randomly rolling dice, nodding and smiling, and also asking for no reason "how do you open the door?" I make sure its trapped enough for them to always do something weird.

[@merevel436]

My players are facing a False Hydra, I think that is trolling enough. I love the looks of terror and frustration on their faces.

[@jasonrustmann7535]

The best thing to add to the "what's your marching order?" Question, is to add "okay, and you in the back. What's your passive perception again?"

[@BlackAssassin913]

My favorite way to troll my players...give them items...then have enemies attack them for said item. - an attic whisper attacked the party over a wind up frog - the bag man attacked them over a bag of devouring they picked up by accident - a massive fuck you frog attacked them over a large portion of fish I'm evil... Mind you this isn't constant it's just when the mood needs a tone change

[@curtisgagnon2871]

I have an NPC merchant who is a grifter. He sells "magical items." Hes actually a rather powerful sorcerer who uses cantrips to make the items looks magical with certain properties. I sold my players a "falling broom", rocks of detect gravity, a hat of nothing useful at all, dust of kinda disappearance, and finally, 5 potions of make a CON save. Components and objects were various types of half-orc (his dimwitted assistant) "debris" or mundane objects. Many an obscene word I was called that day.

[@waterman4008]

After having them roll a perception check "You don't *see* anything"

[@HandsomeLongshanks]

My favorites for 40k are: - "Which attack are you dodging?" - *roll a d100* "high or low?" - "you spot 9 crow-like birds staring at you." - "I'm gonna need willpower checks before you do that."

[@otakubancho6655]

I once dmd a one shot that concluded with this question,what's the difference between a hippo and a Zippo,the answer had them all groaning,one's a bit heavy,the other's a little lighter!😆😆😆

[@gaylordzapikowski9053]

Created a world where the currency was magically pressed basalt chips. Characters who entered that hell world were always from some other world (mostly from previous campaigns) and would have to get their currency exchanged upon arrival. One character entered with something like 500 platinum, they then left that world in about 1-3 days without getting to spend all of their rapidly inflating igneous currency, and found themselves with give or take 5k chips of rock worth less than the magic that currently marks them as currency. Less of a troll as it's more of an inside joke now, but when I uttered the phrase "rp-focused, downtime heavy" to describe an upcoming session, my players would start sweating. The first time I ever said that, the barbarian got kidnapped by Neogi and was brought to their torture dungeon, and the others had to mount a heist to rescue him. All of this happening during that barbarian's community service for nearly murdering a priest. Believe it or not, he wasn't raging at the time.

[@megatronjenkins2473]

Trolls you by leaving a thoughtful, discussion-providing comment.

[@postapocalypticnewsradio]

PANR has tuned in.

[@hanab1s1gn76]

I want to make a horror labyrinth style campaign some day so thank you all for these amazing ideas.

[@Zaint]

Answer perception rolls with "looks clear" or disabled device checks with "you think it's disabled" Place Healthbars on every character even friendly NPCs.

[@Attilathepun]

Random Fortitude or Willpower saves (not too constant bit every now and then when they don't expect it.) Brings up thoughts like Did something hit me earlier? Is my character getting sick? Is there a spell caster hiding somewhere?

[@FentonHardyFan]

Me and the guys I play with troll ourselves just fine, our DM doesn’t need to do anything. 😂 But he *does* sometimes ask for an unexpected saving throw in a way that makes it sound totally legitimate, only to tell us that we don’t need to do that because nothing unusual happened.

[@Naro_Rivers]

Technically, “you _believe yourself to be_ hidden” is the appropriate response to a stealth check. The character doesn’t actually know the result of the attempt, however much they might think they do. Saying, “you _are_ hidden” confirms that the check was indeed successful.

[@camronadair7384]

The mimic book one is hilarious imagine if the mimic could talk and they pick up the book to research and ask them selves "why is the book blank" then the book says "I don't know why you asking me I'm a book" (last reply part could be interchanged with what ever you think is funnier for that I just thought that line is funniest