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Let's post some ways of tricking players into fucking themselves.

1) I like giving one or two player characters special movement powers, like flight, because it encourages them to split up.

2) Give the party enough wealth that their reckless spending draws attention.

Call out the wandering monsters because they befriend a goblin.

3) Inconvenient Treasure. 10,000 copper pieces they have to wagon out of the mountains; Valuable evil items that can't be sold on the open market; honey from giant bees that they have to get through the werebear-infested forest.

I find the relationship of trust between players and GM is very important. So while it can be a great cinematic fun to screw with a character, as the sole window into the game world the GM has a responsibility not to mislead the players. But this is one area I do like Fate style Compels can really work.

I was running Icons yesterday. At one point I compelled one character's "Bonkers!" Aspect not to notice he was being followed back to the party's secret base. Later that session I Compelled another, super-genius character's "Patient" Aspect (I don't recall the exact how he'd phrased his Aspect) so that on entering what was clearly an ambush situation he'd let the thing play out.
With those two bits in place I was able to get the NPCs to mount a rather ruthless attack on the player characters.

This worked out well and I got a really dramatic sequence of events of this but the point to note are (a) I got the player's willing consent before screwing them over with the full understanding that they could have turned down these Compels and (b)  the dymanic of it makes it clear that the intention is of deceiving the character rather than the player.

I'm sure this approach is way too sanitaised and bland for some here but that's what works for me.

QuoteLet's post some ways of tricking players into fucking themselves.

Why would I want to do this?

Quote from: B.T.;492307Why would I want to do this?

Because fuck those guys, I guess.

Give them a extremely desirable & powerful cursed item that has a 1-85% chance of devouring their soul every time it's used - and let them know it.

They'll use it anyway.

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;492339Give them a extremely desirable & powerful cursed item that has a 1-85% chance of devouring their soul every time it's used - and let them know it.

They'll use it anyway.

I might hesitate the first or second time, but after it eats my soul... woo hoo!

(I'm using it first on the guys who chickened out!)

-E.

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;492339Give them a extremely desirable & powerful cursed item that has a 1-85% chance of devouring their soul every time it's used - and let them know it.

They'll use it anyway.

In my house game, I wrote up a number of anime style powers where they are harmed to use the power. I found that anytime a fight got hard, they would use it. Cinematic powers like that work best if they characters can tell when they need to use it.

To make it a proper fuck, they should only fight things they could take anyway while they have it, and see if they use it anyway.

Deck.  Of.  Many.  Things.

"What's the worst that could hap-"

Quote from: thedungeondelver;492363Deck.  Of.  Many.  Things.

"What's the worst that could hap-"

Whenever someone utters the phrase, "What's the worst that could happen?" they are automatically fucked.

This article comes to mind: How James Wallis Ruined My Character's Life (http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue8/jameswallisruined1.html)

Be sure to read the response: Yes I Sank Your Barge (http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue8/jameswallisreplies1.html)

Quote from: Blackhand;492313Because fuck those guys, I guess.

It's to teach them a lesson!

#) NPC companions who are total screw ups... or sometimes evil. They'll want the follower, but the follower isn't worth a damn; actually makes things a lot worse for them.

For some reason only one PC in my games has ever come out and told their lackwit to go away.

Poop, that's awesome.

Quote from: Cranewings;492270Let's post some ways of tricking players into fucking themselves.

So that's what it's all about as a DM, huh? Fucking over the players. Or at least tricking them into fucking themselves. Neat. After the whole "bear-trap on the head" thing I thought you were a shitty DM. Now I KNOW you are a shitty DM.

Quote from: IMLegend;492530So that's what it's all about as a DM, huh? Fucking over the players. Or at least tricking them into fucking themselves. Neat. After the whole "bear-trap on the head" thing I thought you were a shitty DM. Now I KNOW you are a shitty DM.

Why do you bother to have "Yeah, I'm a prick," below your picture and then post something like that. It is saying it twice.

I'm sort of the victim of this one in the heroes game I'm playing in, as I'm the one guy that can control geological forces. My character is a geologist trying to learn about his powers, and his position as one lets him explain away his abilities as things that were natural and he came to study. Nevertheless, S.H.I.E.L.D. is onto him.

Fingerprint Power: Give the player character a power or weapon that no one else has and leaves a mark on the environment so that if the power is used, a sleuth will always be able to point the finger at him.

_____________________________________________

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;492372Whenever someone utters the phrase, "What's the worst that could happen?" they are automatically fucked.

For the Deck of Many Things, I've always been sad I never got to use them. When I first started gaming, the PC group I was in were three years along and had a deck which they had already pulled about 20 cards out of a LONG time ago. They believed they got off pretty scot free besides one person who was killed or something, and thought pulling any more cards was a suckers bet. Ever sense then, it seems like every group knows about them and the whole things was played out. Never seen it really happen.

_____________________________________________

Every Man is a Captain

This one plays on player pride. Lets say the party has a spaceship or sailing ship that is too good. It was fun for a while and served its purpose, but you want to separate the party from it. Just blowing it up or having it stolen is too ham handed  but you want to neutralize it, just give the party another ship.

Someone in the group will want to captain the second, worse, vessel so long as it is at least average in capability. This does you the favor of splitting the party between two ships AND if the first ship was really fast or cloaked, the party can still be tracked just by following the second ship!

Quote from: Cranewings;492545Why do you bother to have "Yeah, I'm a prick," below your picture and then post something like that. It is saying it twice.

Then I'll continue my redundancy (yes, that is the word you are looking for: redundant) and say again that you suck as a DM if your whole goal is just to fuck-over your players.

Challanging your players is one thing, but constantly trying to fuck them over is just being a prick. As I've stated, that is something I'm well versed in. You seem to be as well, based on what I've read.

Quote from: IMLegend;492568Then I'll continue my redundancy (yes, that is the word you are looking for: redundant) and say again that you suck as a DM if your whole goal is just to fuck-over your players.

Challanging your players is one thing, but constantly trying to fuck them over is just being a prick. As I've stated, that is something I'm well versed in. You seem to be as well, based on what I've read.

If I posted a thread that said, "lets all name the color of the shirt they have on" would you assume my house and car are the same color?

Trying to get players to fuck themselves over is a part of the fun. If the game isn't difficult than there isn't anything to think about. You should hear the laughter of players that figure it out and succeed. I don't go for the walk through game.

Quote from: Cranewings;492571If I posted a thread that said, "lets all name the color of the shirt they have on" would you assume my house and car are the same color?

Trying to get players to fuck themselves over is a part of the fun. If the game isn't difficult than there isn't anything to think about. You should hear the laughter of players that figure it out and succeed. I don't go for the walk through game.

I guess I can update your status from "Prick DM" to "Illiterate prick DM" since you obviously didn't read what I said starting with the word "challanging". I'm not advocating a cake-walk for fuck's sake.

And I'm not basing my opinion on just this thread. This was the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak. I'm basing this additionally on one of your other threads, specifically the "My player is stupid because he fell for one of my traps" (because the dancing naked goblin/cranial bear trap/save or die trap was such utter genius on your part :rolleyes:) thread, as well as several of your other posts over time.

Quote from: IMLegend;492582I guess I can update your status from "Prick DM" to "Illiterate prick DM" since you obviously didn't read what I said starting with the word "challanging". I'm not advocating a cake-walk for fuck's sake.

And I'm not basing my opinion on just this thread. This was the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak. I'm basing this additionally on one of your other threads, specifically the "My player is stupid because he fell for one of my traps" (because the dancing naked goblin/cranial bear trap/save or die trap was such utter genius on your part :rolleyes:) thread, as well as several of your other posts over time.

Sure thing bro (:

I love how hostile you are.

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;492399This article comes to mind: How James Wallis Ruined My Character's Life (http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue8/jameswallisruined1.html)

Be sure to read the response: Yes I Sank Your Barge (http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue8/jameswallisreplies1.html)

Absolutely hysterical. ROFL!

Thanks for sharing.

Quote from: IMLegend;492530So that's what it's all about as a DM, huh? Fucking over the players. Or at least tricking them into fucking themselves. Neat. After the whole "bear-trap on the head" thing I thought you were a shitty DM. Now I KNOW you are a shitty DM.

Oh, geeze. Lighten up. This whole thread is for humor purposes.

Quote from: Cranewings;492571If I posted a thread that said, "lets all name the color of the shirt they have on" would you assume my house and car are the same color?

LOL.

My goodness, there are a lot of really angry people on this forum, aren't there? Nothing new on online forums, but most of the others here are very sensible and I find myself repeatedly surprised when some new scoundrel comes leaping out to do battle.

It's certainly not boring around here, though. :D

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;492596LOL.

My goodness, there are a lot of really angry people on this forum, aren't there? Nothing new on online forums, but most of the others here are very sensible and I find myself repeatedly surprised when some new scoundrel comes leaping out to do battle.

It's certainly not boring around here, though. :D

Yeah there are. And its getting worse sense all these people refuse to play Pathfinder or 4e and have nothing to do anymore (;

I don't notice a lot of the negativity though. My ignore list is just getting longer.

Quote from: B.T.;492307Why would I want to do this?

Because any player worth their salt will try and trick the GM to fuck himself. :)

Quote from: Cranewings;492591Sure thing bro (:

I love how hostile you are.

Why thanks sis! -smooches-

Wait, no, not the ignore button...nooooooooooo......

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;492593Oh, geeze. Lighten up. This whole thread is for humor purposes.

Does it count if I was laughing at Crany the whole time?

On topic:

Here's a irritating trap:

Put a permanent teleport at the end of a long single-person wide L-shaped hallway that is filled with continual darkness.  The continuation of the hallway after the teleport is an illusion. When the player in front steps into that square they are teleported back to near the beginning. If they are not careful, the party could end up walking around in circles for quite some time before they figure it out.

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;492641On topic:

Here's a irritating trap:

Put a permanent teleport at the end of a long single-person wide L-shaped hallway that is filled with continual darkness.  The continuation of the hallway after the teleport is an illusion. When the player in front steps into that square they are teleported back to near the beginning. If they are not careful, the party could end up walking around in circles for quite some time before they figure it out.

That's not a bad trap. It is especially good for a wizard that thinks people who get so far into his dungeon are too powerful, so he uses it to buy time.

Another simple trap that *always* messes with people is this one:

In a dungeon, have there be 2' of water in a hallway. Then put a 10'-deep pit somewhere in front of them. So all of a sudden, whoever is in front suddenly completely disappears into the water with a startled shout. Hope they're not wearing plate-mail or chainmail... And if you really want to stick it to them, have the person's shout alert wandering monsters (or guards) who then come a them from the other end so that they're backed up against the pit.

This very thing happened to us in the module, White Plume Mountain.

Quote from: B.T.;492307Why would I want to do this?

Challenge and hardship create drama and interest.

And it's more fun, IME, when the players realize that they dug their own hole. If you put them in a hard place, they'll often just blame the GM for their hardship. If they put themselves in a hard place, they engage with the situation.

I think this sort of fits the topic;

I had a 'wise man on top of the mountain' thing that I mentioned in passing and one of the PCs became obsessed with asking him about this prophecy that they had seen on the walls of some temple that looked like them.

Anyway, I hinted that they had other things more important to do, and the other players didn't want to go; but they decided to appease him and go. So I made it a long trek (2 in-game days). A full gaming session to get to the top of the mountain and when they got to the top they found him... dead in his cabin.

Quote from: donteatpoop;492699A full gaming session to get to the top of the mountain and when they got to the top they found him... dead in his cabin.

LOL!! That wasn't very nice! :D

Any traps involving shapechangers always fucks up my players. In any genre.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David R;492709Any traps involving shapechangers always fucks up my players. In any genre.

Regards,
David R

I occasionally try to get players to play there own shapeshifter. If they are good rpers, I totally let them in on it. Othertimes I say, "if you have your character do this, you get x experience.

Quote from: Cranewings;492714I occasionally try to get players to play there own shapeshifter. If they are good rpers, I totally let them in on it. Othertimes I say, "if you have your character do this, you get x experience.

I'm going to do something similar in my Icons game pretty soon. I'm going to have an alternate version of one of the PCs show up from another dimension and start fucking things up. The current run of Fantastic Four has an awesome take on this as the FF go up against The Council of Reeds- a collective of asshole alternate Reed Richards who are more interested in what they perceive to be the greater good than the fate of any one Earth.
Best Marvel comic in like forever, imo.

Quote from: Aos;492718I'm going to do something similar in my Icons game pretty soon. I'm going to have an alternate version of one of the PCs show up from another dimension and start fucking things up. The current run of Fantastic Four has an awesome take on this as the FF go up against The Council of Reeds- a collective of asshole alternate Reed Richards who are more interested in what they perceive to be the greater good than the fate of any one Earth.
Best Marvel comic in like forever, imo.

That's awesome.

Fucking Reed... That guy is a super power.

The nastiest shifter I had was in a nightbane game. He was a doppleganger warlord of a DMPC who had the evil twin artifact sword of the magic sword the group had, and the most powerful spellbook of illusions in the world.

He wanted to get the good sword away from the group. I took one of the players aside and said, "you think with a little work you could unlock another spell in the sword." so he comes back in, rps for a bit, and the sword bearer hands it over to him. It was then that I laughed, declared that he changes into Donavan, and teleports away. Then his real character returned home. Pretty funny.

They did eventually chop that mother fuckers head off.

Quote from: Cranewings;492714I occasionally try to get players to play there own shapeshifter. If they are good rpers, I totally let them in on it. Othertimes I say, "if you have your character do this, you get x experience.

IME leave the PCs out of it. Proper use of NPCs allies or "friendlies" does the job superbly. And if it works it will ratchet up the paranoia level - in a good way. If it works.

Regards,
David R

QuoteLet's post some ways of tricking players into fucking themselves.

Nah, I do not do that stuff.  Dm's who suck resort to this crap...

Quote from: Cranewings;4922701) I like giving one or two player characters special movement powers, like flight, because it encourages them to split up.

Yep, that's been how it has continued to work in our Earthdawn games, though the PC's flight capability is built into the rules, so no claims the GM is 'trapping' us.
I don't see it as 'tricking players into fucking themselves'... it's more like giving a ball of yarn to a kitten to see the cute things it will do.
One of my Saturday players can shapeshift into a giant armored hulk and back twice a day (maybe more if factors line up)... he loves it, but keeps losing track and ends up getting stuck inside caves... or outside of inns.

Quote from: Ancientgamer1970;492743Nah, I do not do that stuff.  Dm's who suck resort to this crap...

Hell yeah we do! And the players love it (or we wouldn't do it).

Here's what I came up with. It might work, given my knowledge of the scummy nature of my players.

Give the players Love potions - perhaps as a reward for a quest, perhaps as the treasure of a siren, or a harpy - make it so the players absolutely know what they are - no trickery whatsoever. Let them know that they are very specific - they cause the drinker to fall into the most intense lust/love imaginable with the next person of the same race, that they speak with.

Then, the next time the party is in their local tavern, have a group of hot-looking female adventurers come in - lay it on thick. These women, one for each of the men, are just smoking hot - battered from a tough adventure, and obviously drunk.

Give the party the opportunity to slip the potions into their drinks - it should be easy, the girls are roaring drunk.

If the players take the bait, they have the night of their lives - a wild, rampant session of unbridled lust. No regrets, no remorse.

The next morning, make it clear that the women will be under the spell in the morning, but by that evening, it's going to wear off, and they're likely to be pissed.

The players will probably leave the area - head out on an adventure. If they don't, the ladies wake up, spend the morning sexing, and then, when the potion wears off, they scream and run away - refusing to interact with the players at all.

And then nothing happens.

---

Until some time later in the campaign, in which you placed a time-trap. Eventually, if they fall into it, they get teleported back into the past. They'll probably head for home base, if they even notice that they're actually in the past. When they head into the inn, the local practical joker hits them with an inebriation spell, coupled with an illusion that makes them appear to be attractive women to anyone not affected by the spell.

---

And that's how I might be able to get my players to fuck themselves.

Holy Shit.

I need my brain scrubbed of that post.

It's a wonderful cautionary tale, though. And really, when you think of it, what better way to express it than in D&D. If you rohypnol (or something like it) women, you end up fucking yourselves.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: Simlasa;492744I don't see it as 'tricking players into fucking themselves'... it's more like giving a ball of yarn to a kitten to see the cute things it will do.

That's how I see it, too.

The book, Grimtooth's Traps has some absurdly impossible traps in it that none but the most sadistic GM would employ. However, I believe the spirit of the book was to encourage GM's to hand interesting puzzles to their players; I also think the book was meant more for humor purposes, rather than actual applied gaming.

Same thing with this thread. We're not trying to deliberately screw-over our players; we're coming up with funny ideas, some of which might have acutual possible application in a game.

Incidentally, a GM of mine once employed a trap from Grimtooth's without really understanding the implications of the trap and it killed the whole party:

We came out into a rectangular stone room, 10x10x20' in size. Facing us was a set of large metal door, unlocked. Behind them we could hear orks talking. So we got ready to fight and we threw open the doors. Instantly, everybody who was within 10' of the doors got blasted with a Flamestrike and the doors slammed shut. So we all got back 15' and pulled the door open with a metal pole that we rigged. But this time, a giant stone block weighing 10 tons fell out of the ceiling and landed on us. Everybody took over 100hp dammage and we were all 3rd level so we all had shitty hp and died.

It's funny to think about it, but when it happened, we were all really pissed off that because it struck us as really unfair. BTW, our thief had successfully not detected any traps.

That being said, we under stand that some seem to think this is underhanded, let me assure everyone that we understand that nobody wants to find their characters in a situation like the one I described.

Basically, we're just brain-storming in this thread.

More Gold than They Can Carry

Fill a treasure room with enough treasure to encumber at least half the party. When they leave, they get attacked by a monster strong enough to kill them all. The monster is faster than an encumbered character but slower than an unencumbered one. Make sure you do the math ahead of time and account for short legs and armor.

If they stand and fight, they die. The only way to live is to drop some of the treasure.

Bonus points if you can separate them from their gear ahead of time so they have nothing to drop but gold.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;492363Deck.  Of.  Many.  Things.

"What's the worst that could hap-"

Absolutely. The deck shouldn't be considered as a magic item/reward.

It's a trap.

Quote from: Kaldric;492756Here's what I came up with. It might work, given my knowledge of the scummy nature of my players.

Give the players Love potions - perhaps as a reward for a quest, perhaps as the treasure of a siren, or a harpy - make it so the players absolutely know what they are - no trickery whatsoever. Let them know that they are very specific - they cause the drinker to fall into the most intense lust/love imaginable with the next person of the same race, that they speak with.

Then, the next time the party is in their local tavern, have a group of hot-looking female adventurers come in - lay it on thick. These women, one for each of the men, are just smoking hot - battered from a tough adventure, and obviously drunk.

Give the party the opportunity to slip the potions into their drinks - it should be easy, the girls are roaring drunk.

If the players take the bait, they have the night of their lives - a wild, rampant session of unbridled lust. No regrets, no remorse.

The next morning, make it clear that the women will be under the spell in the morning, but by that evening, it's going to wear off, and they're likely to be pissed.

The players will probably leave the area - head out on an adventure. If they don't, the ladies wake up, spend the morning sexing, and then, when the potion wears off, they scream and run away - refusing to interact with the players at all.

And then nothing happens.

---

Until some time later in the campaign, in which you placed a time-trap. Eventually, if they fall into it, they get teleported back into the past. They'll probably head for home base, if they even notice that they're actually in the past. When they head into the inn, the local practical joker hits them with an inebriation spell, coupled with an illusion that makes them appear to be attractive women to anyone not affected by the spell.

---

And that's how I might be able to get my players to fuck themselves.

That is fucking genius. Awesome.

Quote from: Kaldric;492756Here's what I came up with. It might work, given my knowledge of the scummy nature of my players.

---

And that's how I might be able to get my players to fuck themselves.

Did you just read Heinlein's "All You Zombies" or something?

Regardless, this is pretty awesome.

I find I can trap players effectively with pizza.

Oh, wait, you meant characters...anyway, yes, as I said before, DOMT.

One of the things I like to use are Cursed Items; always fun.

Palladium has one called the Curse of Rags - basically, as long as the PC has the cursed item, whatever they are wearing begins to deteriorate, losing 10% of it's value per day until it is useless. This includes metal armor, helmets, and shields.

One of the cursed items I came up with is a magical medallion. It has one normal magical function (eg. waterwalking, invisibility, etc) and when the PC gets it, they will think this is it's actual function.

However, it is actually the Medallion of Near Misses. Whenever the PC walks under something, a brick or rock will fall just missing them. In a city setting, a flowerpot will fall out of window and almost hit them. In a forrest, a random arrow will fly out of nowhere nearly hitting them, or an dead tree will almost fall on them. Etc. etc. The PC will go crazy trying to figure out who is trying to attack them.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;492984I find I can trap players effectively with pizza.

Oh, wait, you meant characters...anyway, yes, as I said before, DOMT.

No, I meant players. I like trying to trick players into making bad decisions for their characters. When I trap a character, I have the player roll a die to try and avoid it. When I trap a player, there is no die roll. They have to think of a correct solution or fail. The player is thinking. When the character is thinking, you roll a die.

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;493005One of the things I like to use are Cursed Items; always fun.

Palladium has one called the Curse of Rags - basically, as long as the PC has the cursed item, whatever they are wearing begins to deteriorate, losing 10% of it's value per day until it is useless. This includes metal armor, helmets, and shields.

One of the cursed items I came up with is a magical medallion. It has one normal magical function (eg. waterwalking, invisibility, etc) and when the PC gets it, they will think this is it's actual function.

However, it is actually the Medallion of Near Misses. Whenever the PC walks under something, a brick or rock will fall just missing them. In a city setting, a flowerpot will fall out of window and almost hit them. In a forrest, a random arrow will fly out of nowhere nearly hitting them, or an dead tree will almost fall on them. Etc. etc. The PC will go crazy trying to figure out who is trying to attack them.

Do you think the "Head of Vecna" is funny or stupid?

Quote from: Cranewings;493009Do you think the "Head of Vecna" is funny or stupid?

Hmm...Well, it would be difficult for the PC to cut off their own head to replace it with Vecna's, but I suspose it could be done somehow. Sounds funny to me.

We had a NPC called "Vecna, Jr" who had the Hand and Eye of Vecna.

Quote from: Blazing Donkey;493012Hmm...Well, it would be difficult for the PC to cut off their own head to replace it with Vecna's, but I suspose it could be done somehow. Sounds funny to me.

We had a NPC called "Vecna, Jr" who had the Hand and Eye of Vecna.

The way the KODT story goes, as I remember it, two groups of players are going against one another via a GM. One group spreads rumors of a magic item called the head of vecna. The other party killed something like 3 members trying to figure out how to attach it. Comedy gold.

Quote from: VectorSigma;492965Did you just read Heinlein's "All You Zombies" or something?

Regardless, this is pretty awesome.

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.

T.S. Eliot

That's the way with writers; they'll steal anything, file off the serial numbers, and claim it for their own.

R. Heinlein

Yes, the general idea of time-travel and banging older/younger selves came from "All You Zombies", I'm sure. Been many years since I read through Heinlein, but he makes an impression, and that's probably the best time-travel story I've ever read.

Not sure if you'd consider this a trap or not, but there was about a 3' wide crack between sections of a dungeon, about 20' long, that the players had to squeeze through single file. About half way into the crack they found out the rest of it was occupied by a squished up gelatanous cube. Fun times.

Actually had several traps published in a d20 book when the craze first hit. Did a lot of insanely complicated ones, but my favorite was "One Last Coin" - simply a gold coin, placed at the bottom of a small pile of coins as part of a treasure, that was actually the stopper on the top of a bottle embedded in the floor - holding a pissed off Effrit. Let the player's greed be their own undoing.

Quote from: Werekoala;493071Actually had several traps published in a d20 book when the craze first hit. Did a lot of insanely complicated ones, but my favorite was "One Last Coin" - simply a gold coin, placed at the bottom of a small pile of coins as part of a treasure, that was actually the stopper on the top of a bottle embedded in the floor - holding a pissed off Effrit. Let the player's greed be their own undoing.

I like that one alot and will incorporate it in the future.

In similar vein to that, an old solo adventure for Tunnels and Trolls, Deathtrap Equalizer, has the character transported into a treasure room filled with gold. On one wall (if they search) is an inscription "49 is safe".
Pick up 50 gold pieces and a giant gets summoned to smash them.

Another T&T idea I used in a 3.0 D&D game was the "pool of greatness" from the Naked Doom solo - offers magical enhancement to a stat, with a risk of death. I ran as: roll of d6 to determine which stat is affected, get a +4 inherent bonus to that, then make a DC 15 Fort save or die. Its killed a few PCs in its time.
EDIT: Oh similarly to this, we've had players who couldn't resist drinking from (pools of) Book of Vile Darkness's Warp Touch in the hope of getting uber mutations. Also often ends badly.

Quote from: Werekoala;493071Actually had several traps published in a d20 book when the craze first hit. Did a lot of insanely complicated ones, but my favorite was "One Last Coin" - simply a gold coin, placed at the bottom of a small pile of coins as part of a treasure, that was actually the stopper on the top of a bottle embedded in the floor - holding a pissed off Effrit. Let the player's greed be their own undoing.

I read that book and I used that trap. Thanks!

Quote from: Justin Alexander;493249I read that book and I used that trap. Thanks!

Ah, cool - how'd it work?