Today I'd like to take a bit of time to discuss one of my favorite things about being a DM.
Making my players both suspicious and paranoid.
To me anyways, it makes sense for the players in just about any game to be at least a bit paranoid. Players deal with history altering events and major political personalities with some frequency. They delve into dangerous dungeons that are sure to be just lousy with traps, monsters lurking around every corner.
Death may literally be waiting for them at the inn.
"If they don't get here soon I'm going to die of b... oh. Right."
It is odd to me that my players are consistently trusting of my NPCs. The last time I was a player and not the DM my character was indeed paranoid about the motives of others, but he was an Evil Necromancer so that made sense. The DM of that game didn't have to do anything to prompt me to be wary of others. With that being said I still think that a certain amount of suspicion is warranted and should be encouraged though since the players are influencing possibly world changing events.
So what can one do to get under their skins? I have found a number of things to be effective, and several things that weren't.
Things that I found to be effective:
* Trap chains: A series of traps that have different effects depending on how much of them is bypassed. My favorite example of this is less of a series of traps and more like an augmented trap but you'll get the idea. A standard pit trap in a 10' wide corridor, 10'x10'x40', with a gelatinous cube filling the bottom and greased walls. Over the trap is an illusion of a normal floor. Over the illusion of a normal floor is an illusion of a pit trap. If they fail the first save, they see the illusion of a pit trap and think it's real. If they save against the first illusion, they see a normal floor and think there isn't a trap there. At this point unless they can magically sense illusions they generally stop attempting to disbelieve, thinking they saw through the trap. They walk on to the illusionary floor and plummet to their acidic and jiggly deaths unless the party acts fast. If you REALLY want to be nasty about this, make the walkway past the pit trap an illusion as well, that way even if they manage to see through all of the other stuff they jump the trap only to smack into the greased wall and plummet into the pit. See this trap here! After even a single trap of this complexity your players will be far more cautious of traps in the future. Don't overdo this though or your players will hate you.
* Making one of your NPC factions clearly of questionable morality and getting the party to need to interact with them. This doesn't serve to make your players paranoid in general but they will at least be more cautious in what they reveal to that faction. Add a few of these factions and no real way to tell if an NPC is a member of one of them, then you are fostering reasonable suspicion.
* Getting the PCs to work for a clearly evil entity. This is loads of fun, as the players don't have to be doing anything evil for that entity at all. The trick is to make sure that the entities alignment is unambiguous. Lawful Evil merchants or politicians are great for this.
* Diseases and Poisons: It's easy to dismiss something as easy to save against as most diseases or poisons in D&D. Keep in mind though, the saves have to be repeated with every successful hit that deals damage. It doesn't take much to lay waste to a party's resources when half the members are ill. Besides, how many of your players actually bother to check their ale for poison each time they order some at the local tavern? PCs make enemies, it's part of the game, and many of those enemies are cowards who wouldn't dare confront the PCs in person. A little cheap poison though...
* Random Dice Rolling: Every so often, eyeball a player, ask them what one of their bonuses are, then roll a die. Smile at your dice and nod approvingly regardless of the die roll. This method works extremely well and extremely quickly. The problem there is that they are becoming more paranoid about you as the DM and not always the setting that you are running. Doing this sparingly has fantastic results.
* Pull Aside a PC: Pull your PC away from the group when it is time to reveal what she saw while scouting or off doing their own thing. Really I'm of the opinion that this should be standard practice anyways to help prevent meta-gaming and it plays well with several of the other methods I listed.
* Ethereal Monsters: Don't use this on a 1st level group or it will result in a complete wipe. Used on mid level groups who can't easily access the ethereal plane and you've got yourself a winner.
* Invisible Monsters: Same as above. Invisible monsters can harass even a high level group if they do it from a range. Just imagine a giant sporting improved invisibility shooting giant sized arrows at a group from 800 feet away, well out of any spell area of effect that would reveal them. Give them gaseous form a few times per day and you have yourself a baddie that will drive your players insane while they wait for the next barrage. Animated siege weapons that can fire themselves should be able to have improved invisibility (of some sort) too, nothing like giant flaming (because why not?) ballista bolts crashing into the parties campground every night.
Things that I haven't found to be effective:
* Doppelgangers: Too cliche.
* Demonic or Undead Possession: I'm sure there is a way to make this work but I haven't mastered it.
Well, hopefully you've enjoyed my bit of fun here. If you did everything on this list in one session (or every session) your players would quit and you'd have fewer friends. Moderation is key here. Pace yourself and you can use this info for many games to come with your players none the wiser, just far more nerve wracked.
~ Skurilon
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