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Old 04-29-2015, 10:17 PM   #25
hal
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
Default Re: Building permanent magical traps with GURPS Magic

Not that the GM wants to do this, but one trap I used on my players back around 1983 or so, was this one (using The Fantasy Trip).

Player one had a favorite player character that he lost to an enemy who was trying to capture player #1's character. The NPC succeeded. So he placed player character #1 into a dungeon. Enter three more players into the campaign, plus player #1 playing his second player character. Player Character #2 had a twin brother NPC #3. Then we had player #2 with player character 4, player #3 with player character #5, and player #4 with player character #6. Got that?

Ok, so player character #2 is trying to rescue from prison, player character #1. They find what looks to be player character #1 laid out as if dead in an open stone casket/crypt with a crown and a pendant hidden under the clothing. The Crown as a Suspended Animation magic item. When player character #2 removed the crown from sleeping player character #1, player character #1 was retained by the GM instead of reverting to the control of player #1. I informed the group that player character #1 being played as an NPC was attacking them. The player yelled at me "Hal! I wouldn't do that!". I merely told the player "He was captured by his enemy, and who knows what was done to him before the suspended animation crown was placed on his head - deal with the situation." What happened next was a true comedy that even after all these years, I still chuckle over. The erstwhile Player Character #1 was beginning to beat up badly, player character #4. So the player running #4 started to hit back on player character #1 in self defense. Player #1, running player character #2 - started howling in anguish that his favorite player character #1 was about to be killed by a party member, so he JUMPED on player character #4's back in an effort to keep player #2 from killing his favorite player character! Player #2 took his walking cane and slammed it against the table yelling at the top of his lungs <Name redacted>! You CRETINOUS MORON!". So here I had the players fighting amongst themselves while they battled a Troll who had an Illusion Disguise on it to look like player character #1. They danced throughout that battle trying to render the troll unconscious, only to have the damage regenerate over and over and over. The Troll didn't have any weapons, and wasn't REALLY able to do MUCH harm to the armored player characters - and when they discovered that I had hit them with a Troll with Illusion Disguise on it, oh mannnnn - the looks on their faces!

30 years later, those faces are still a treasure to me. :)
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