How to FREAK out your Players as a Dungeon Master
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- Random "Clickety Clackety" sounds coming from behind the Dungeon Masters DM screen, is the most terrifying thing in Dungeons and Dragons.
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"He better be, because I just snapped his neck!" Fucking. Gold.
Ikr
200 to be exact
@@unknown634VODS maybe for you, but for him it was 250
I'd say more like 789
@@milesbennett2044 well that would be a bit fucked up if you actually did do it
The Party: *is being dumb as fuck"
Dm: ominously rolls dice
I have literally done this my players were being stupid so I was like "welp time to make hell"
*Players talking over and ignoring the DM's carefully performed and written exposition*
DM: "So you have chosen death." *Rolls 7-8 dice* "Roll for initiative."
Honestly one of my favorite was a DM who would drop an object on people if they aren't paying attention. "Roll dexterity or agility, your choice." *Roll fails* "A branch suddenly falls from the tree above, landing on you. It deals 1 damage. Upon closer inspection, you notice a piece of paper attached to the branch. It reads: SHUT UP."
It got pretty fun in weird climates. Desert? "A pile of rotting meat, dropped by a vulture, hits you directly in the face."
Ocean? "A large fish jumps out of the water, smacking you in the face."
Blacksmith? "An apprentice, trying to grind a sword, accidentally catches a hammer on his belt on the grinding wheel. It flies across the room, smacking you in the face."
My favorite was the Tavern. "A bunch of water leaks between the boards of the roof, onto your head. You come to 3 realizations: 1. That's not a roof, that's the second story, 2. That's under the chamberpot room, and 3. That's definitely not water. Some of it drips into your drink, and when you look at it, the suds seem to be forming 2 words. SHUT UP."
Another one was a guy was ignoring an NPC while they were eating with him in a tavern. "Suddenly, you start choking on your food. The NPC makes you cough it up, but not before you pass out. Strangely, the Alphabet Soup you coughed up seems to be spelling SHUT UP. After ensuring you are OK, they bring you to your room to sleep it off, then resume what they were doing."
This is my first time dming this session and my friend who has never played dnd swapped in for a fill and at the very start of the campaign I told them you should visit the tavern. He ignores me (he rolled to go first) went to a forest walked 3 steps and failed a con save and fell asleep.
"how much health do you have."
Paranoia can keep you alive
was expecting him to look up without any emotion and go
_"...roll for initiative."_
Even better, tell them to roll for initiative with no visible enemies or events happening.
hearing "roll for initiative" when absolutely nothing is happening is the most fear inducing moment of any D&D game
@@edge4266 yeeees
@Kristopher Bailey totally depends on the DM, mine just says it deadpan and because we know how sadistic he is we all start freaking out a little
@Kristopher Bailey
To clarify, Kris, you roll for initiative to determine the order of turns in combat. If the DM tells you to roll for initiative, that means you're officially in combat. And if he says it when everything seems normal... That means your whole team just got jumped somehow. "Surprise!"
DM: So you put your hand on the door?
Player: Yes.
DM: Good.
Oh, that is just evil. I'm so doing it in my next session.
Player: I take it back! I remove my hand from the door!
DM: Okay, but first...
Did that already for no reason, everyone immediately started freaking out it was glorious
Its always when the DM is suspiciously specific that things can go horribly wrong.
Death House be like
Players: "we enter the house"
DM: "Ok, who was the first to enter?"
Players: *panic. *
*insert Spiderman finger pointing meme here*
Our DM makes us each specify our character entering a room and say who we're following, and it's always weird.
"okay, the key unlocks the door!"
"Great!"
*us waiting for him to tell us what it's like inside*
*him waiting for us to to tell him we go inside one at a time*
*awkward silence on both ends*
"so........ do y'all go inside or-?"
"well I assumed that's what we did when we unlocked the door"
*more awkward silence*
"... so...... I guess I'll go inside then."
This is why my character always enters second. He asks the tank to enter before him
@@baberymoose Knowing the exact order the party enters anywhere makes perfect sense, but if the DM was explicitly making you announce when each person enters somewhere EVERY time, that’s being too literal. Exceptions would be if you’re passing through doors or crossing surfaces that could potentially break after X amount of people interact with it...
DM: Okay, so explain to me how you're doing this.
PC: I walk up and grab-
DM: You touch it?
PC: Erm.. Yes?
*sound of dice hitting the table*
That one never fails
oh no
*oh no.*
*o h n o*
Our DM had a very obviously important pillar standing in the middle of a field we were passing. Our Sorcerer was very much the "touch shiny thing" type, so it was obvious what he expected.
Don't think he expected me to throw a rock at it.
DM: (out of the blue) "Roll a perception check."
Player: "Huh? Oh, okay. Uh, 14."
DM: "You don't see anything."
Player: "?!?!??????"
The heart attack spell. Utter the incantations to instantly give everyone hearing it a heart attack.
EXACTLY!! It's like was that something for lore wise or are we bout to die
@@taygrcikifeys9736 stunned until next turn or until the DM interrupts with the roll initiative bonus action
Sometimes I do it just to keep my players on their toes.
I also roll behind the screen with no prompt for two reasons: pass the time, and to determine what is happening elsewhere in the world, because the world shall move on without the players.
@@WreckinPoints11 That actually explains why my DM actually does that now that I think about it! And when they played a pc they kept rolling off screen to determine if they finally stopped being lost cuz of bad perception rolls 😂
Lines that drive my players mad:
"You can certainly try"
"If youd like to, sure"
"You don't see any traps"
"Not that you're aware of"
"Noted"
I do this as well
I raise you "Are you sure?"
A favorite of mine is just building absolute tension with long silence and massive suspense, then saying "Nope, nothing."
"Uh oh"
Me: "I do this thing"
Dm: "cool"
We're literally about to play one of our campaign sessions and the DM just started rolling loads of dice before we're starting and we're scared as he's saying stuff's gonna happen as he's rolling. Then he sent us this video and this is how terrified we're feeling right now.
Did the session go well?
@@thatname7298 Define well, lol. Luckily it's a side campaign, some of our party members didn't show up which sucked for two main reasons. 1. It was the last session of the campaign due to the dm having a busy life raising a new kid but still is a player in the other campaigns. 2. The other kobold player didn't show up so me using my kobold character that sees him as a hero didn't get to do any kobold mischief.
@@GrubSlime well, the only thing i can say is "F" so... F
Now we need a "How to freak out your DM as a player"
"What kind of armor did you say the BBEG was wearing?" - the player who spams _heat metal_
"How high is the ceiling?" Always makes my dm nervous. I think my Polymorph spell has given him ptsd.
Halfling Divination Wizard, with Lucky, Bountiful Luck, and Second Chance Feats. Can change the outcome of almost all rolls
generally speaking make them forget you have an ability, weapon, or spell and then use it in a creative manner without warning
I dunno, just roll a nat20 with a paladin?
DM: Hey, could you roll for me?
Player: Wh-what skill?
DM: just a d20, dont add anything.
Player: Why?
DM: just do it.
Player: Okey, ummmm..... 3?
DM: *starts to laugh maniacly* ..... ehm... nothing seems to catch your eye. Do you still want to talk to the king?
all Players: *start sweating*
The Bard: Of course! Move aside amateurs
im always a bigger fan of the poker face. cause that means that if you always keep that poker face everybody is always on edge
Player: i rolled a 3.
DM (me): "so as you continue to favorably speak with the king" i say, making no mention of the invisible figure that just poisoned the king's drink and preparing scenarios for whether they fight, run, or surrender when they get accused of poisoning the king.
My poker face is a smile because I find those the easiest to hold. And boy, does THAT mess my players up. Might have to add the occasional dice roll in.
Wait a sec
You wouldn’t happen to be my dm? XD
Cause ngl my dm in his homebrew campaign all the time. I’m still unsure what I was rolling for
DM: "You see a mysterious hooded figure in the dark corner of the tavern."
DM: *rolls lots of dice*
Party: *panik*
The old man wearing a robe to stay warm: *kalm* "Heh heh. Yahtzee!"
That would be hilarious XD
DM: "you see two shady men gambling"
*dice rolls*
Party: that seems perfectly normal
DM: "Their accomplices' stealth checks beat your passive perception. One of the two men shouts 'Yahtzee!' and you're surrounded. Roll initiative."
@@FlyingDominion That's genius, especially if the perception check has a mid-success where you notice the gambling, and the party just assumes that's the full success.
@@FlyingDominion hehe, that really is an idea of absolute mad genius.
@@khajiitimanus7432 The best part is that unless they check immediately, giving up precious combat actions, they'll never know if he *actually* had a Yahtzee.
This reminds me of Matt in Critical Role sometimes. "I pick up the sword." "Okay, I'm gonna need you to roll a- Nah, it's fine, nothing happens."
Does things like that all the time, I love it
It happened again recently!
"I put on the pretty tattered robe from the ancient ruins."
Matt: "Yasha...... It looks nice :D"
Had a DM do that, but for no reason. "I open the door".
DM: Roll me a con save.
Player: WHAT... uh.... 12?
DM: The door opens
Player: But what was that save for?
DM: Nothing, just keeping you on your toes.
Do you have links? I want to find it (both of the ones you said) and can’t see it anywhere
DM: *rolls a few dices, then widens eyes and looks at one of the players* Uuum... what was your max health again...?
Or what's your AC/Wisdom Save/Hit Points....
*Perfect.*
Or just ask for everyone's Passive Perception and then nod and say "okay, never mind, carry on"
I did that on a pre-campaign one shot yesterday XD
I never tell my DM my max health or AC to avoid them pulling this.
For me, since it’s virtual, my DM turns off the music to both build suspense and to focus on whatever he is working on. It fills me and the other party members with dread each time. He conditioned us, the bastard (affectionate)
thats pretty awesome. I may steal that. Suspense and Silence is a DM's best friend for building tension.
@@aaronwilliams8887 it is, it’s horrific. Sometimes it’s unintentional as the music may lag from the distance and so we all get panicky while our DM either looks at us confused or with an evil smug look
I heard a story about a game with a false hydra. The DM turned off the music/background noise whenever it ate someone.
@@Naro_Rivers that’s so evil
How do you guys add music online do you use discord with rythem bot or something?
(im starting a game soon and im looking at all musical options)
*Broke:* "Are you sure you want to do that?"
*Woke:* "You're going to do WHAT?!"
*Bespoke:* _[sits in silence with a poker face]_
**Me**: "You can surely try..."
All I usually have to do is ask "Are you sure?"
Thats my unspoken way of telling someone "You do NOT want to do that"
I like to ask my players to describe in greater detail exactly what they are trying to do. Usually then explaining it in mroe detail forces them to think about it more, and the rest of the party realizes why that may nto be a great idea. If they still feel like doing it after going over it, well there is D&D for you!
?
Croak: "No backsies!"
That one dislike is from the goblin. He's fine, although now he wears a funny collar.
And the second is the dm who's sad his players left
@@tiresias702 Apparently the goblin also had 3 girlfriends.
That's actually both normal and acceptable in the lives of things that are low on the foodchain.
Edit: Apologies @Nerobyrne I have posted comments replying to your question. But google censored them.
It’s made of stitches!
well then he duplicated him self 14 times uh oh
@@joshhudson6151 Damn cloning spell!"
I expected it to be “and you also find several gems worth - where’d everyone go?”
Same, I thought he was rolling for loot too.
+
I did this once and my whole party (Discord Dnd) was yelling to sacrifice the Maiden they rescued to the Warlock's Eldritch Entity to gain temporary immortality. I don't know what they were thinking.
@@frozenquasar1309 Temporary immortality is mostly useless. Technically, it only means you can't die of old age, but even if we extend that, if you take a mortal wound, once the immortality ends, you will still die because you're still injured.
The chaotic evil version of this is being a troll and rolling dice just to watch your players freak out.
How did you know my strats
I actually started doing this to make the players more cautious because they use to rush in and get someone killed in the first ten minutes. Kept doing it for the entertainment value. Also like rolling dice to make them think they have a chance when I have already decided what was going to happen.
This is the True Neutral version...
Pfft. I do that just to keep them wondering.
Also known as "playing the game right". :P
DM: (puts egg timer out on desk, says nothing.)
Players: This does not bode well.
I break out the egg timer only when my players are taking too long to take their turns (they tend to overthink stuff). I have a rule that if you take more than 1 minute real time to take your turn, you lose it. It really cuts down on how long it takes to resolve an encounter.
@@nispelsm i would take out the egg timer for a number of reasons. Pressure plate traps. Alarms where it would take a set time to respond. Patrols. Chase sequences, esp with the planejammer engine startup. Trying to get that teleportation circle up before...
@@Grey_Shard Oh, I hadn't thought of those situations. Those are really good ideas!
@@Grey_Shard Clever....
In the old TSR Marvel Super Heroes game I ran, we defined a turn as 6 seconds once I got to your turn as a player. Sure, you had time to think as I adjusted the battle after each complete turn, but once the turn order was determined, each player was on the hot seat, in a row, 6 seconds each. Had a plan, but the guy before you botched? Uh oh. Think fast or get flatfooted, which happens!
The side effect was that my hero players became an Avengers level well oiled machine with combos in mind.
THEN, after that, in dramatic moments, I learned to slow the action down with long exposition after rolling a big hit, telling the action in either high detail or describing the windup and hit in slow motion, within the turn or otherwise, and my players knew This Was Going To Hurt.
Later on, we developed a house rule that the player got to do the same thing on a result of 00 on the percentage dice and call THEIR shot in full glory.
Three of my players became DMs themselves later.
I played with a dm who had a massive metal d20. This thing had like a 4 inch diameter. She had a dicetray that didnt lay even and clanked against the table. Whenever she wanted us to be scared, she would roll the big die on the dice tray, resulting in a massive clank that scared the crap out of us. almost as much as the orcs that followed the roll...
I have a metal dice now I need to scare my Players so death :-)
Rogue: “I search for traps and stop in the middle of the tunnel to listen.”
DM gets excited and says, “Perfect!” and rolls dice.
The fun part about this is that he wasn't even intentionally intimidating them xD
Good job Einstein, you got the joke like everyone else
I always intended to freak them out makes it more fun
Wow. Im suprised you were able to find the joke. You've done a grand deed bringing this to the attention of the council.
Hello sir I’m here to award you the Medal of Honor, purple star, Nobel prize and a Emmy because you... FOUND THE JOKE!
Oooooooh I get it now! Thanks Ferrel I was really lost there
My favorite as a DM is having players roll skills they're not expected to.
Player: "I open the door and walk in."
DM: "Roll Handle Animal."
"I open the chest"
"Ok roll me a persuasion check with disadvantage"
@@ShugoAWay You, mr. mimic, should not eat us, instead there is another party coming by. They have the tastier adventurers
@@NerdyCatCoffeeee he decided to eat you as well because 5e doesn't have a fullness system as proven with goodberry
@@ShugoAWay but what if i got a 19 with the disadvantage?
@@NerdyCatCoffeeee the sentient chest moans and opens up to you
I accidentally do this because every now and then I’ll randomly roll a die I don’t know why I just like rolling them but it always freaks out my party
Goblin brain comes in handy sometimes
We play online these days because you know....and when I start hearing a bunch of dice rolling I'm always like is it the DM???? Please tell me????
hehe
Suddenly everyone one is dying.
Not even a cleric can fix this!
While this is funny, a cleric technically could, it would just take a few days and a lot of money.
RIP dirt poor clerics
Well hope you took an acolyte background cause shelter of the faithful. Half off on heals.
Necromancer: My time has come.
because it's dead too
As the chaotic neutral DM that I am... I approve this as the 50% of the times I roll dice is for fun and the other 50 are surprises I prepared for the party...
They once saw a giant frog... they decided to adopt it. I rolled the dice (I decided that if the number was below 10, nothing would happen and the frog would be friendly) and the next morning the mage was dead. They almost killed the two bards before realizing what was happening.
*I rolled some more dice*
The frog ended up being the main villain of the story, just by pure chance and the hatred that my party developed for its existence
I was preparing a whole ass evil queen... *but the frog was more powerful*
Do you just constantly have the TF2 Pyro's theme playing at all times?
@@frenchsoldier8485 Gold!
I read the frog as a _fog_ and I just went "that's a very bizarre decision by the party and a devious response by the DM. I like!
Then I figured out it was a _frog_ and it was still genius
Reminds me of the time me and another player wandered into the forest.
Discovered a giant stag beetle (it was like cr 2 or something) We legit died and or fainted to it enough times it had a little hat, and knew level 0 spells. We ran away, gathered the other 2 party members, and it flew away injured. Thing legit leveled off us and became a sorcerer and we fought it a 3rd time..
...
it's still out there waiting for us
@@tommyroark1368 ah yes the infamous beetlemage
Give it time and it'll cast insect plague
At our tables its:
"I would like to interact with [Object]"
DM: "...so you touch it?"
the entire party: !FEAR!
DM: "Which hand do you use?"
Had my little bro's cleric just pop a ring he found on the ground on. He's just lucky I made it into a ring of Mindblank with a crazy Priestess of his religion BEFORE I made it unremovable.
Rolling dice when nothing should be happening does work, but it has diminishing returns so I recommend only doing it when the characters are supposed to be paranoid or making sure to spring ambushes fairly frequently because then the mysterious rolls are a real threat.
I absolutely ambush the hell out of my party.
Never anything to strong, just short combats here and there that have no real meaning. Just to keep them satisfied with the amount of combat while they work their way towards the long, meaningful combats. It’s not like bandits will stop ambushing people simply because there is PLOT TO BE DONE.
I mean, I'd want my players to get used to me rolling dice constantly, so they don't think about it anymore, and then I break out the ambush when they've gotten used to it and relaxed
@@TNH91 well then the goal in your case isn't player panic but the player ignoring your dice in which case my suggestions are meaningless
Except I do hyperrealism so it’s never safe XD
Give them a small leather case large enough to hold a deck of cards then watch your more experienced players start to sweat nervously wondering if it’s a deck of illusions, or if their DM is messed enough to actually introduce the deck of many things.
Oh my gosh that's genius-
Or how about this as a plot hook.
It’s a magic deck, but it’s not the deck of illusion, or the dreaded DMT. It’s a deck of monsters each based off of tarot cards and now the players are cursed to search, defeat, and collect each card within a year or they die.
@@Nazo-kage WOAHHHH I LIKE THAT IDEA
@@Nazo-kage so, Jojo?
@@itsyaboiChubbs Jojo, Persona 3, Cardcaptor‘s.
It’s a good vehicle for an enemy force.
"I'm gonna go check out the next room"
GM: "Okay, are you opening the door?"
P:"Uhh...uhhh...uhh...check for traps!
...14?"
GM: "it looks pretty inconspicuous"
P: "*panik*"
Or you give them the special words
"Im going to check the door to see if its trapped"
"Ok roll investigation"
"14"
"**It Seems** to be a normal door"
"Seems?
"yep"
@@jonathonmulka8351 my dm would do that for every door, trapped or not, unless we got a high roll, then he’d tell us for sure
My DM does this every chance he gets, he will roll 20 dice and will say that I take 5 damage and everyone is just like WhAt!?
This is either masterful or dickish
@@bloodstoneore4630 or both
@Jessica Stein gold star friend, gold star 🤲✨
...does he explain?!? and no saving throw?? is it because you did something stupid and did it to yourself? I need more details lmao
@@2GoatsInATrenchCoat He does it just because he knows we listen to see how many dice he is rolling so we can know how much damage to expect so it is really just to throw us off.
this is like when your videogame autosaves at an open clearing.
Edit: don't mind me, just fishing for subs 👀
And when the game gives you a lot of resources to craft ammo and healing items.
@@ankylosaur4724 poison heal antidotes lol
"hold shift to sprint"
@@invisiblemilkbag well, now I'm not going to do it.
@@invisiblemilkbag And the music stops or gets quiter.
Reminds me of Fantasy High Season 2 where Brennan asked, “Are you approaching the mirror in such a way that your reflection is visible?” You could feel the tension just ahhhh
I relate to this way too hard, as a dm _and_ a player
I did this to my players sort of. See I had been foreshadowing that I wanted to use a mimic in one of my dungeons, and when the day comes they start exploring the dungeon, battling through it and searching all the rooms and solving the various puzzles. (took them 2 4 hour sessions just to get through the whole thing, even though it really wasn't that big smh) finally they come to a room with several weapon racks and shelves, and a biiiig reinforced chest in the back of the room. The minotaur fighter, thinking the chest is a mimic, attacks the chest several times with a great sword extended at arms reach. Nothing happens. After much poking and prodding the rogue finally decides to look inside. Que me rolling several dice: "You feel a warm, moist breath on the left side of your face; as you turn you see rows of jagged teeth poised to swallow you whole!" They never suspected the weapon racks could be mimics. Even though the mimic died after relatively little difficulty, the players could not help but admire how crafty I was with that mimic.
Should've had the coins inside the treasure chest be a bunch of mimics.
@@Marlem2 That would be a great idea! They'll have no idea what to trust after that...
A shiny weapon mimic or a piece of armor
@@fallenangel7364 My next idea is to have a mimic colony disguised as an abandoned camp site. Tents would be large mimics. The hint would be that the smouldering firewood would give off no heat.
@@sauronsrighthandman301 interesting
Wouldn't it be interesting if the bbeg make the mimics turn into coins and gold
And spread them in the human cities so when he sent his army to invade they would return to their true form and cause havoc and panic
DM: "and is that all you want to do?"
PLayers: "uuuh yeah"
DM: "you sure?"
Players: "yep."
DM: "aight" *rolls dice ominously*
I'm a fan of the words, "it doesn't seem" like I check for traps, 15. It doesn't seem like there are any traps here.
"As far as you can tell" is another good one
As a DM with an unintentional poker face, I feel this. T-T
My poker face is a smile. Yeah. My players sure loooove that.
Long pause when the players want to check up on a beloved NPC.
I LOVE THE YAHTZEE JOKE!!!!
What's your AC again?
Can I get everyone's passive perception?
That one kills me every time! Well now that I think about it it might be because I’m a wizard
no never ask me my ac when not in combat
You're not wearing your shield right now, right?
what's your curent HP again?
me, rolling my dice close to my microphone: heheheh
my players: *ÆEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
Ahh, this DM subscribes to the Mercer intimidation tactics i see.
Note: yes i know not only Matt does this but still.
DM: "I'm gonna need everyone to roll a fortitude save."
I love it!
This should be called "When the DM gets bored of the players haggling over items". But I loved this, this was a trip.
On one hand, I know the pain all too well, on the other hand, I'm giggling like an evil maniac
You see, this is why I have metal dice as a DM. It doesn't matter when nor why nor even if they're already prepared; the sound of my dice is the sound of doom.
Why not have stone dice? If your dice are made of stone I can use my natural ability to control the outcome.
@@rachdarastrix5251 You know, that's a good idea. Let me talk to acquisitions to set that up.
DM: Ok I just want to double check, who drank from their goblet at the feast last night?
If most of them say they did, it's poison; if they didn't, it was the buff they needed to survive.
My interpretation is that the DM expected the players to fight for a long time about the uneven distribution of gold and decided to play yahtzee in the meantime
It's also great when it happens shifted: a player is oblivious but the rest of the party/DM are waiting in dread.
I once DM'ed an online campaign where they (mostly) cleared a large cave, and the ranger with 4 remaining hp went:
"I'm going to go back real fast to see if we missed anything in that last room."
Me, DM: "By yourself? Do you tell anyone you're going?"
Ranger: "Nah, I'll be quick."
Me: "Describe what you're doing."
Ranger: "So I go into that lower cave, I turn the corner and-"
The players who are in the same room as me (ranger is not one of them) see me slowly re-pull back out the Monster Manual. Their faces dropped as I gave them an equally concerned look back. Silent panic was happening in that room.
I like to add the word "seems" to sentences
- Ranger seems to be a very kind gentleman
- Road seems very safe
- Your camp seems to be in a good spot.
This reminds me of the time our party rolled too low to perceive the goblins sitting in the woods when we snuck through on our way to a desolate barn. But so did the goblins, so we just walked past, unaware of each other's existence. Like two ships in the night.
I can feel the fear!
My favourite thing to do as a DM is just ask "What's marching order?"
One of my personal favorites is: "Who enters the room first?"
Scariest thing you can do is ask your players to make a perception check and then tell them that they don’t see anything
passive perception is for wimps
“I open the door”
*me maintaining eye contact as I silently reach down off the table and drop a bag of dice on it*
*players sweating with their eyes wide open*
I like to sometimes stare at the players silently when they make a decision. No words, just raised eyebrows and looking over my glasses like a librarian.
That’s how you give players an existential crisis.
Player: “Does a 32 hit?” *Laughs*
DM: No
Players: *Confused Screaming*
Oh gods.
What unholy stacking is going on to get that AC?
Lol my dad used to do that all the time. He called them "Anxiety rolls"
My favorite thing is asking one of my players odds or evens and then rolling a dice.
Why is this so relatable?
My personal favorite is "Can I have your passive perception? No, not everyone, just you :)"
Sir my adrenaline just spiked and I feel like I'm about to find and re-murder that adopted goblin.
How did that even happen?
Oh my all the evil things that just came to mind I pity my party for next session
"You touch it? Cool. Hey remind me, who is your god again?"
My favorite thing is to do is to ask for a perception check in an "oh no" tone. Then just be like "well... alright so what were you doing? "
Get a good chuckle everytime
I “let slip” when I first started DMing to my players that whenever I take a sip of my drink it means I’m hiding something and I’m drinking so I don’t let it slip and help them. The controlled horror on their faces when I take random sips of my drink is great. Sometimes I do it just to mess with them and make them suspicious.
All it takes is some perfectly timed silence before players start to freak out, it's so fun to watch, bless their poor hearts.
My DM once screwed with us by having our scouting party(a rogue and a ranger) do perception checks. Ranger rolled terribly so he failed naturally. Rogue rolled a total of 20+ and asked the DM what is going on.
DM: You've come to the realization that the floor in front of you is indeed made of floor.
“Ok. So you’re opening the door?”
“Uhhhh...”
Any time my DM says “are you sure you do that?” Or makes the face that says “well if you say so...” I melt because I have no idea what to do 😂
Is it possible to learn this power?
Because I can’t intimidate my party whatsoever
you need A LOOOOOOOOOOT of dice and start randomly rolling them
Not from a jedi...
@@nicholasmartin6526 👌 perfect
The best way to intimidate a group of players as a dm is to just give em a show of some high quality bbeg being a bbeg or show them in DETAIL the aftermath of an act of horror.
Roll dice for no reason
Tell them do do checks of anything but then them they fail at it no matter how high they roll
One i did with my party:
Context: they were in a forest, at night
I rolled the dice and made a wierd face
Me: without asking them anything: you hear quick footsteps coming from behind you, they are getting ever closer.
Paladin: perception check, 18
Me: you look around and see a silhouette coming from within the trees, you don't know that it is but it's running at you
rogue: I throw my axe at it, nat 20
I then went on to describe how she hit the creature in the head and killed it instantly, and then described that the creature was actually a young girl they had met before in the session, she had gotten lost in the woods, saw the blue glow (a spell the sorcerer was using as light source) and ran towards it
The rogue started crying, we had to stop the session there and comfort her
Player: "Ok, I go open the chest"
DM: **stifled laughter**
Had an experience like this when we were fighting a Colossus, we were doing tons of attacks, and I leaned over to him going: “... You aren’t writing anything down...”
Turns out it couldn’t take damage.
I love doing this, my party members all die inside when i roll something without telling them what it's for. Sometimes i roll for whether they'll have a pebble in their shoe and if it turns out that they don't, i let them try to figure out what it was on their own.
Edit: i realized that this is a thousand times funier with the knowledge that my alignment is lawful evil.
DM: "Alright its a sunny day you are all relaxing on the beach. **rolls dice**"
Players: "Can i make a perception check on behind the DM screen?"
DM: "Yes, and you fail."
Gifting players with this always gives me life:
"Make a perception check"
"18!"
"Mkay"
"...??? What was it?!"
"You don't know."
*rolls dice* "Which one of you is on guard duty?"
*during a conversation* "What's your passive perception?"
Once the DM rolled a bunch of dice, then started giggling and saying "Oh no, this is great"
I sadly dont remember the outcome, but I will forever remember the pure terror
Seriously, the DM rolling without giving a reason is a good way to make players paranoid.
There was one time where I rolled a bunch of dice behind my screen as my players were discussing their next move (they had been for a while, and hadn't reached a solution yet). One of them noticed I rolled stuff behind the screen, and very quickly pushed the rest of the group to come up with a solution. There wasn't even an encounter being set up, I was just curious what their reaction would be. It worked perfectly
Reminds me of the time someone in my dnd club had plenty of dice for us to borrow and said that if a d6 isn’t there it’s probably in a yatzi box
When I really wanna mess with them, I roll a giant metal d20, smirk at whatever it rolls to, and then say “Okaaaaay so -“
I've never played an in person game of D&D, but I will have massive anxiety if my DM starts rolling randomly xD
*The party* _looking at young hireling stood in front of them_: "Did he just betray us!?"
[the sound of dice is heard]; *Rogue* _sneak attack in the middle of a well-light room, hireling lies dead_: "I mean, I HOPE I didn't just kill him for no reason, yes"
My favorite is straight from a module that goes like this, "Roll a d20 and then start laughing."
WHY DID THAT PUNCH LINE MAKE ME LAUGH SO HARD
Player: I investigate the bed *rolls a 13*
DM: Its a bed
Everyone else: HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
"It appears to be a normal bed" everyone: Appears? What does that mean?
@@alexachipman Instant follow-up player "UH, I see him investigate the bed so I do it too! ... 16!"
DM: ... Hmm. Yep. Still a bed.
Everyone else: *eyes all beds in the room suspiciously*
My favorite was to never lose eye contact with the players when I roll the die. Don't look at it and proceed to tell them what happened. Did I mention poker face? XD
This video says it all but don't forget that when the dm smiles you know it's all over
Ask many questions about mundane activities.
Then grin to yourself when the line of questioning is done.
Me: "You successfully put an end to the villain's reign of terror and nothing but their dead corpse lay before you and your party."
Everyone but one guy: (Begins looting their corpse)
That one guy: "That fight almost killed us. For a second there I thought you were actually going to party wi-"
Me: "Hold that thought. Hey, you three on the corpse, roll a Dex Check."
Your videos are so funny, they make my day :)
"The party got stuck in a magic fog that exhausts us, packed with wolfes. Everyone has at least 2 points of exhaustion"
DM: The party decided to rest in the middle of the road, only the tiefling awaken to patrol for danger. Roll for perception.
Tiefling: 12
DM: You see nothing.
Tiefling:
Party:
DM:
DM: The party has rested-
!?!?!?
The worst is when the DM asks if they can use your dice to roll for something because they don't have enough
"Hahaa, yahtzee!" I ACTUALLY CAN'T OH MY GOSH, ABSOLUTELY G O L D E N (bless this man and his cringe for making me laugh)
I like to fidget with my dice, and I'm going to end up scaring the crap out of the party.
Dm: "Roll a perception check"
Player: "nat 20"
Dm: "you see nothing"
"I need everyone to roll a d20 - No modifiers or anything"