Evil RPG stuff...
Nov. 16th, 2006 02:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kengrBeing bored, and the TML being down, I figured I'd post a few Evil GM ideas.
These are sort of an odd mix of fantasy & SF stuff. The sort of thing I was tempted to use in my old D&D game. Then again, my world had had contact with a high tech civilization a few millennia back.
I'll give them in the "fantasy" mode, but only minor changes make some of them usable in a "tech" setting (say anything from the 1800s on)
Evil traps:
Giant, powerful magnets. Think of the rare earth magnets we have now. Now make one the size of a refrigerator and set it in the wall or the floor.
The PCs in iron/steel armor will get close and be trapped. And in many sorts of armor, you won't be able to get out of it. not even by cutting the straps on plate armor. Chainmail? No way. Studded or scale mail, maybe. If you've got a bronze dagger and a *lot* of time to cut the leather backing. And assuming that the pressure on the trapped person hasn't suffocated or been crushed (the side of the armor farthest from the magnet will be attracted to the magnet too, meaning that chain, studded, scale, etc will be crushing the wearer).
Also, if powerful enough (and they have to be *really* powerful to be able to trap those 18(00) strength characters) they'll deflect arrows and crossbow bolts because of the steel heads.
I recommend nicely polished floors so that the victim can't get traction to try to resist the pull. :-)
Next is a perverted version of a classic physics experiment. I'm going into a lot of detail to show how the trap gets charged and can recharge itself.
In the experiment. you have a pair of cans, and a pair of open cylinders above them. Wire connects each cylinder to the *other* can.
A pipe carries water and splits into two spouts/nozzles that are just above the cylinders. The flow is adjusted so the water drips. A continuous flow is no good here. You want steady drips, but not too fast.
At the start, there will be a slight difference in charge between one cross connected cylinder/can and the other. So as a drip builds up at a nozzle the opposite charges are attracted to the part closest to the cylinder. And since the spout is metal and connected to the other spout, when it breaks free it's got a charge opposite to the cylinder, but the *same* as the can under the cylinder. (Because the opposing charges got left behind on the pipe)
The other cylinder will have the opposite charge (if only relative to the first at the start). So every drop increase the opposing charges on the cans (and induces stronger charges on the drips.
Over time, you can build up *enormous* charge differences this way. In the lab demo, the wires connecting the cylinders to the cans are routed close to each other, and eventually a rather hefty spark jumps across the gap.
For our trap, the "cans" have a fine mesh bottom, so the water can escape but leave behind the charge on the drop. Attach them to Leyden jars or the like, make sure the wires connecting to the cylinders and other parts of the trap are *really* well separated and you can generate *enormous* charge differences. Enough for a good approximation of a lightning bolt.
You can do it faster with multiple sets of cans and cylinders, carefully connected. And all powered by driipping water. No moving parts except the water.
If necessary throw in some magic/alchemy or remnant "high tech" materials, and you have something that can generate an arc that will jump 5-10 feet and be strong enough to weld metal, fry people.
So, our intrepid hero (or sneaky thief) steps between a couple of metal plates in the walls or floor/ceiling and his body is enough to let the charge jump the gap, killing him. Or maybe the treasure is set into a wall acove.
In any case. ZAAAAAPPP!! Fried adventurer.
Given time, the trap even recharges.
Now for a truly sick one. It's *totally* unfair in a dungeon/tomb, and almost as bad as part of an "alien installation (or abandoned research facility).
And it's based on an accident that occurred in a US research facility in the 1940s or 50s.
Fissionable materials have a "critical mass". At that mass, you get a feedback loop with production of enormous numbers of neutrons. You won't get an explosion unless there are considerable forces keeping the mass confined. Or if you assemble a *super* critical mass quickly. Otherwise the energy release tends to push things apart without much more force than a small explosion.
Critical mass actually depends on not just the mass, but also the shape and the surroundings.
In the accident this trap is based on, slugs of fissionable material, carefully sized to be well below critical mass, were stored on shelves. They were spaced so they didn't cause problems.
The accident was because nobody had thought about what would happen when someone walked *between* the two rows of shelves (apparently, they'd been "loaded" from the outside side).
The human body is mostly water. Water acts as a moderator, both reflecting some neutrons (which gives them another chance to be captured in on of the surrounding slugs) and slowing all of the neutrons passing thru. The slower neutrons had a *vastly* increased chance of reacting with the slugs on the far side of the body they'd passed thru.
This meant that when the guy walked into the middle of this, his body caused an increase in the rate of fission in the slugs. Which increased the neutron flux, which increased the rate of fission again. Round and rounf in milliseconds.
There was a bright blue flash (Cerenkov radiation?) as the radiation level hit "prompt lethal".
He either ran out, or fell unconscious (I forget which). And died of radiation sickness in a day or so.
For our adventurers, either they make the same mistake (walking between accidentally or deliberately arranged sub-critical masses) or they find these blocks/bars of heavy silvery metal (obviously valuable!) and start dumping them into a container to carry them.
If they get *really* unlucky, they split the loot amongst them and just get greatly increased rad exposure (take a few days to get sick, and weeks to die). And then they stack the packs/containers at a rest stop and get the flash even worse.
In that case, the radiation will last a while, and the high neutron flux will likely render the contents of the packs and some nearby object slightly (or not so slightly, if they are undiscovered long enough) radioactive. Leading to the contents being "cursed".
Oh yeah, tip for DMs. Radiation sickness *shouldn't* be affect by "cure disease". Though that will eliminate any cancer that may be starting. That's because the effects are partly toxic effects due to free radicals created in the tissues, but mostly due to purely "mechanical" effects are the radiation smashes into molecules in the cells.
"Cure [fitb] wounds" type spells will repair the damage. And if there's no ongoing exposure, that'll be that.
If radioactive materials have been ingested, that can be treated as poison. Spells that remove poison will decontaminate a body. They'll still need to repair the damage though.
My players never ran into an radiation. But they knew my thoughts on the subject. Which led to them freaking when they encountered an area with walls glowing a faint blue (just a light spell of some sort).
One they actually *did* run into and I couldn't believe they fell for it. A room with walls and ceiling coated with a thick layer of sulfur.
Nice, bright yellow color. Looks a lot like painted plaster.
Someone actually did a "careful check" of the ceiling by holding up his torch to get a closer look. And unknowingly lit it. Sulfur burns with a clear blue flame. Hard to see in a torchlit room, much less anything brighter.
And, as I know due to an accident in my basement lab when I was a teen, you can have sulfur burning in a room for quite some time before you notice. And what you tend to notice is that your throat feels a bit raw.
I kept rolling as they searched the room. Nobody noticed until (finally, after several *turns*) some burning sulfur from the patch on the ceiling *dripped* on someone!
They'd all lost a few points from inhaling the fumes, but not much damage otherwise. If they'd done something like use flaming oil against a monster, or worse yet, thrown a fireball, things would have been *very* different.
Evil living thru chemistry:
A friend had some players find this nice silvery hunk of metal in a pool of oil. I forget whether it was just a block or something like a knife or other object.
As they found out when they took it out and examined it, it was rather special. Sodium, potassium, lithium, something like that. Serious burns on the skin, and almost exploded when they threw water on it. :-)
I and a couple other DMs had noted that the properties Tolkien gave for mithril bear an odd resemblance to those of titanium. Except that titanium is a lot more reactive even if it generally takes higher temps to get it going.
Is that armor mithril? Or is it titanium? You'll find out the first time you get hit by a fireball or lightning bolt (burning oil won't affect it, greek fire might). Or the first time a smith tries to repair it.
If it's a smith, it'll just ruin his forge. If it's in combat, you'll burn like a magnesium flare... Ouch.
Nothing the smith or the PCs are apt to have on hand will put out the fire (that includes dirt & sand).
Yet another GM had these lovely glowing crystals one species in his homebrew campaign could use as power sources for their odd abilities. Humans got ill around them.
Nice bright yellow crystals (uranium silicate or some such :-)
These are sort of an odd mix of fantasy & SF stuff. The sort of thing I was tempted to use in my old D&D game. Then again, my world had had contact with a high tech civilization a few millennia back.
I'll give them in the "fantasy" mode, but only minor changes make some of them usable in a "tech" setting (say anything from the 1800s on)
Evil traps:
Giant, powerful magnets. Think of the rare earth magnets we have now. Now make one the size of a refrigerator and set it in the wall or the floor.
The PCs in iron/steel armor will get close and be trapped. And in many sorts of armor, you won't be able to get out of it. not even by cutting the straps on plate armor. Chainmail? No way. Studded or scale mail, maybe. If you've got a bronze dagger and a *lot* of time to cut the leather backing. And assuming that the pressure on the trapped person hasn't suffocated or been crushed (the side of the armor farthest from the magnet will be attracted to the magnet too, meaning that chain, studded, scale, etc will be crushing the wearer).
Also, if powerful enough (and they have to be *really* powerful to be able to trap those 18(00) strength characters) they'll deflect arrows and crossbow bolts because of the steel heads.
I recommend nicely polished floors so that the victim can't get traction to try to resist the pull. :-)
Next is a perverted version of a classic physics experiment. I'm going into a lot of detail to show how the trap gets charged and can recharge itself.
In the experiment. you have a pair of cans, and a pair of open cylinders above them. Wire connects each cylinder to the *other* can.
A pipe carries water and splits into two spouts/nozzles that are just above the cylinders. The flow is adjusted so the water drips. A continuous flow is no good here. You want steady drips, but not too fast.
At the start, there will be a slight difference in charge between one cross connected cylinder/can and the other. So as a drip builds up at a nozzle the opposite charges are attracted to the part closest to the cylinder. And since the spout is metal and connected to the other spout, when it breaks free it's got a charge opposite to the cylinder, but the *same* as the can under the cylinder. (Because the opposing charges got left behind on the pipe)
The other cylinder will have the opposite charge (if only relative to the first at the start). So every drop increase the opposing charges on the cans (and induces stronger charges on the drips.
Over time, you can build up *enormous* charge differences this way. In the lab demo, the wires connecting the cylinders to the cans are routed close to each other, and eventually a rather hefty spark jumps across the gap.
For our trap, the "cans" have a fine mesh bottom, so the water can escape but leave behind the charge on the drop. Attach them to Leyden jars or the like, make sure the wires connecting to the cylinders and other parts of the trap are *really* well separated and you can generate *enormous* charge differences. Enough for a good approximation of a lightning bolt.
You can do it faster with multiple sets of cans and cylinders, carefully connected. And all powered by driipping water. No moving parts except the water.
If necessary throw in some magic/alchemy or remnant "high tech" materials, and you have something that can generate an arc that will jump 5-10 feet and be strong enough to weld metal, fry people.
So, our intrepid hero (or sneaky thief) steps between a couple of metal plates in the walls or floor/ceiling and his body is enough to let the charge jump the gap, killing him. Or maybe the treasure is set into a wall acove.
In any case. ZAAAAAPPP!! Fried adventurer.
Given time, the trap even recharges.
Now for a truly sick one. It's *totally* unfair in a dungeon/tomb, and almost as bad as part of an "alien installation (or abandoned research facility).
And it's based on an accident that occurred in a US research facility in the 1940s or 50s.
Fissionable materials have a "critical mass". At that mass, you get a feedback loop with production of enormous numbers of neutrons. You won't get an explosion unless there are considerable forces keeping the mass confined. Or if you assemble a *super* critical mass quickly. Otherwise the energy release tends to push things apart without much more force than a small explosion.
Critical mass actually depends on not just the mass, but also the shape and the surroundings.
In the accident this trap is based on, slugs of fissionable material, carefully sized to be well below critical mass, were stored on shelves. They were spaced so they didn't cause problems.
The accident was because nobody had thought about what would happen when someone walked *between* the two rows of shelves (apparently, they'd been "loaded" from the outside side).
The human body is mostly water. Water acts as a moderator, both reflecting some neutrons (which gives them another chance to be captured in on of the surrounding slugs) and slowing all of the neutrons passing thru. The slower neutrons had a *vastly* increased chance of reacting with the slugs on the far side of the body they'd passed thru.
This meant that when the guy walked into the middle of this, his body caused an increase in the rate of fission in the slugs. Which increased the neutron flux, which increased the rate of fission again. Round and rounf in milliseconds.
There was a bright blue flash (Cerenkov radiation?) as the radiation level hit "prompt lethal".
He either ran out, or fell unconscious (I forget which). And died of radiation sickness in a day or so.
For our adventurers, either they make the same mistake (walking between accidentally or deliberately arranged sub-critical masses) or they find these blocks/bars of heavy silvery metal (obviously valuable!) and start dumping them into a container to carry them.
If they get *really* unlucky, they split the loot amongst them and just get greatly increased rad exposure (take a few days to get sick, and weeks to die). And then they stack the packs/containers at a rest stop and get the flash even worse.
In that case, the radiation will last a while, and the high neutron flux will likely render the contents of the packs and some nearby object slightly (or not so slightly, if they are undiscovered long enough) radioactive. Leading to the contents being "cursed".
Oh yeah, tip for DMs. Radiation sickness *shouldn't* be affect by "cure disease". Though that will eliminate any cancer that may be starting. That's because the effects are partly toxic effects due to free radicals created in the tissues, but mostly due to purely "mechanical" effects are the radiation smashes into molecules in the cells.
"Cure [fitb] wounds" type spells will repair the damage. And if there's no ongoing exposure, that'll be that.
If radioactive materials have been ingested, that can be treated as poison. Spells that remove poison will decontaminate a body. They'll still need to repair the damage though.
My players never ran into an radiation. But they knew my thoughts on the subject. Which led to them freaking when they encountered an area with walls glowing a faint blue (just a light spell of some sort).
One they actually *did* run into and I couldn't believe they fell for it. A room with walls and ceiling coated with a thick layer of sulfur.
Nice, bright yellow color. Looks a lot like painted plaster.
Someone actually did a "careful check" of the ceiling by holding up his torch to get a closer look. And unknowingly lit it. Sulfur burns with a clear blue flame. Hard to see in a torchlit room, much less anything brighter.
And, as I know due to an accident in my basement lab when I was a teen, you can have sulfur burning in a room for quite some time before you notice. And what you tend to notice is that your throat feels a bit raw.
I kept rolling as they searched the room. Nobody noticed until (finally, after several *turns*) some burning sulfur from the patch on the ceiling *dripped* on someone!
They'd all lost a few points from inhaling the fumes, but not much damage otherwise. If they'd done something like use flaming oil against a monster, or worse yet, thrown a fireball, things would have been *very* different.
Evil living thru chemistry:
A friend had some players find this nice silvery hunk of metal in a pool of oil. I forget whether it was just a block or something like a knife or other object.
As they found out when they took it out and examined it, it was rather special. Sodium, potassium, lithium, something like that. Serious burns on the skin, and almost exploded when they threw water on it. :-)
I and a couple other DMs had noted that the properties Tolkien gave for mithril bear an odd resemblance to those of titanium. Except that titanium is a lot more reactive even if it generally takes higher temps to get it going.
Is that armor mithril? Or is it titanium? You'll find out the first time you get hit by a fireball or lightning bolt (burning oil won't affect it, greek fire might). Or the first time a smith tries to repair it.
If it's a smith, it'll just ruin his forge. If it's in combat, you'll burn like a magnesium flare... Ouch.
Nothing the smith or the PCs are apt to have on hand will put out the fire (that includes dirt & sand).
Yet another GM had these lovely glowing crystals one species in his homebrew campaign could use as power sources for their odd abilities. Humans got ill around them.
Nice bright yellow crystals (uranium silicate or some such :-)
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Date: 2006-11-17 02:31 am (UTC)Chrissy Michelle
Both a good Writer and Photographer.
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Date: 2006-11-17 04:04 am (UTC)