GM Dirty Tricks for GURPS MAGIC

[Gef]

Originally Posted by hal

Sometimes, when a party isn't expecting that which it is fighting to be a troll - it never occurs to them to question what exactly they are looking at.

Hey Hal, a GM used a variant of this trick on me: A fighter had Illusion Disguise as himself. What was the point? Simply this: No matter how hard I hit him, he seemed to take no damage. I ran, never knowing in character that he was on his last legs.

[hal]

Originally Posted by Gef

Hey Hal, a GM used a variant of this trick on me: A fighter had Illusion Disguise as himself. What was the point? Simply this: No matter how hard I hit him, he seemed to take no damage. I ran, never knowing in character that he was on his last legs.

So, what other nasty things have the GM's out there done to the players? Inquiring minds want to know. Don't be shy, lets kick this off for any new DFRPG readers who may eventually stumble across threads worth reading for them.

Here is one trap I used in a Dungeon using GURPS MAGIC. Take an ordinary Ramp that is 30 feet long before it hits a flat "landing" point. Then you have to turn left 90 degrees and walk another 6 feet on level flat ground, turn left yet again 90 degrees, so as to continue walking down the ramp yet again. A series of ramps like these will have two things working for the defenders:

1) each time the ramp levels off, and you have to turn 90 degrees and 90 degrees again to continue walking down - the "level" area is actually at the edge of a DEEP drop.

2) it adds time to having to walk up or down the ramps

But - add in ICE SLICK as an enchantment with the limit that it only works on someone who is NOT wearing a ring with Black Onxy in it (what all defenders have to wear as part of their equipment), suddenly, you have situations where the defenders can't go up the ramps or down the ramps without sliding down the ramp. Sure, you can capture the onxy rings and use the ramps without issue, but that is when you have fun with other enchantments on the rings...

Long and short of it? Put the ice slicks where someone sliding down the slicked area goes right to an edge and over it for a long fall downwards. If you want make the ramps long, but narrow forcing people to walk in single file, or maybe two abreast. A mage who falls onto a slicked area, may have to use glue or rooted feet to save himself from sliding over the edge - or flight or other spells.

[Culture20]

"Magic" arms and armor carried by enemies which radiate magic because they're made with earth to stone (double strength). First dispel or null-mana zone and all the items permanently turn back to dirt.

Metal pillars made the same way, holding up tons of stone or earth; an evil wizard needs only to dispel them when the PCs stand in the correct spot..

[hal]

Originally Posted by Culture20

"Magic" arms and armor carried by enemies which radiate magic because they're made with earth to stone (double strength). First dispel or null-mana zone and all the items permanently turn back to dirt.

Metal pillars made the same way, holding up tons of stone or earth; an evil wizard needs only to dispel them when the PCs stand in the correct spot..

Nice one. Nasty as heck. Wonder how he outruns the collapsing ceiling?

[sir_pudding]

Etch a scroll on that load-bearing pillar and you don't even need dispel.

Prepared defenses with ice slick or grease are definitely a thing that I use.

The players were also particularly frustrated with the room that got hotter as they stayed in it, defended by orichalcum golems (although the payday from the scrap from that fight turned frowns around).

Golem in general is pretty abusable, even if you restrict it to thematically construct traits. I like golem mechanical artillery myself.

They also didn't like the room that was the site of a mass suicide and full of a couple hundred ordinarily deceased skeletons. At first they were suspicious, but because it was the entrance to the dungeon, they eventually stopped caring about it, until the opposed adventuring party's necromancer cast Mass Zombie while the PCs were in the dungeon. She instructed them to remain in place until the PCs were halfway through the room.

[robkelk]

There's this classic from Order of the Stick: "The note says 'I memorized Explosive Runes this morning'."

[Railstar]

Originally Posted by Gef

Hey Hal, a GM used a variant of this trick on me: A fighter had Illusion Disguise as himself. What was the point? Simply this: No matter how hard I hit him, he seemed to take no damage. I ran, never knowing in character that he was on his last legs.

A similar trick is to cover the armour, so the opponent doesn't know which hit location to target.

Another of my favourite tricks is Devitalise Air + Improved Zombies. Works best underground, but people become much less willing to fight the undead when they're suffocating and their torches go out.