Walking down a corridor

>which finger specifically did you put insider her?

>getting a drink from a bar
>"Roll a constitution check a disadvantage for me please"

>Roll for a d20
>Roll 12
>*Snickers* "Okay then."

>"Are you sure you want to open that door?"
>DM leans back with a smug smile on his face

*subtle dice roll sounds in the background as the party discusses things among themselves*

>Right after a fight
>"X roll me a perception check"
>8
>"Ok, continue"

>I check for traps

>you dont THINK you see any traps

The correct term is reflex and fortitude saving throw respectively.

Depends on system and edition.

Did that to my players a couple nights ago
>I check for traps
>Ok looks clear
>Can I check for traps?
>Sure, looks clear
>I push those two out of the way and I'll check for traps
>Ok you do and it looks clear
>Ok........... I'll open the door
>You open the door and......... (Start describing the room)

>enter a room
>"roll for reflex and and perception please"
>roll low
>dm snickers
I am this DM

"Roll from the insanity table"
>We're playing DnD

>Party sleeping in separate rooms
>"X, roll a perception check"
>roll a 15
>you hear some light movement bot you think it's nothing

It was something

No, I don't. My character turns away and then fireman kicks the door open screaming "FUCK YOU DM"

>The door swings open with the force of a hammer drop, it collides with an older woman who was on the other side, shattering every bone in her face. As you get a closer look you realize it's the mother of the local lord, not only because you saw her in the garden while visiting his lordship, but also because you see the lord's personal guards running towards you and the party, clearly upset by these turn of events.

GOOD! My character defecates on the lady while slitting his own throat, all the while gargling through blood a curse "Fuck you steven and your smug fucking stupid face, your games are cliche and shitty and you couldn't DM your way out of a wet paper bag you dum cunt"

what happens next?

>Praying to your god
>DM tells you to roll sense motive

>party enters a room
>very heavy door closes and locks
>sudden magical darkness that nobody in the party can dispel
>"everyone roll for initiative"
>DM takes the grid away
>Rogue maxes out perception roll for sound and gets nothing back
>DM rolls when we take movement
>rounds keep going by and we're still "in combat" but nothing has attacked
>DM tells us when we bump into something
>usually a wall, furniture, or another player
>bump into something
>feels humanoid
>no other player feels the same thing

Remember kids, preparing Dispel Magic can save your life, plus there's nothing more satisfying than dispelling a jackass wizard while he's hovering 60 feet up.

I have to say I hate this meme. It's annoying to try and train players out of doing it.

by "train players out of doing it" you mean not using traps everywhere, right? The purpose being so you can surprise them with a trap, right?

I only use traps sparingly and where they would be appropriate, I'm not a fan of gotcha moments and having the players waste huge amounts of time looking for them.

You get punched in the face by a very perturbed neckbearded individual, the force of which spills cheetos all over the table, which you now must clean up.

As long as you consider that I'm always looking for traps in a dungeon or another creepy place, I'm okay with this.

Oh wait, no. You will probably make a hidden roll, say I rolled 1 and blast me with a fireball trap.

>"Ok, so exactly WHO went to look at the stone in the middle of the road?"

Kek

>not saving vs dragon breath and vs paralysis

>"Roll a dex save"
"uhh.. 7."
>"Ok I'm gonna need a few extra d6s"

>I check for traps
The correct response to this is "okay, how?"

God i cant stand that shit.

>rogue who is highly reliable for finding traps as its his job rolls a 1
>blumbering metagaming dipshit wizard decides he has to check for traps now
>rest of the party joins in
>there hasnt been a trap in my game that wasnt obvious in over 6 months.

I hate traps, they make players paranoid and bad GMs using them incorrectly always ruins it for everyone. I make sure when i use traps to put lots of descriptive details to hint at their existance and have (prolly not the best idea) on more than one occasion called out a paranoid player asking them why there would be a trap on a fucking commonly used main enterance.

I don't know why, but this had me laughing out loud : D

Traps should be obvious. The fun part is working out how to bypass them once you have spotted them, not rolling a d20 and getting told what happens or blindly stumbling into them.

>travelling through swamp
>"Alright, I need a fortitude save from each of you."
>fail
>"Walking through the swamp rots you, and you lose *rolls* 3 maximum hitpoints permanently."

Agreed, i like to make traps a challenge the whole party can enjoy. The big thing is most traps should be obvious because parts of the dungeons design have to be built around them or they are being overlayed in an existing dungeon and this have obvious tells.

As soon as you put in a "gotcha" trap is the exact moment when the rogue in your party is having all the fun exploring the dungeon while everyone else sits 50 feet back.

I only put traps in places that make sense generally dungeons. Beyond that if it is something that characters have no reason to roll for I tell them that their character won't because they trust the other character. So unless you always roll for traps regardless of what the rogue rolls than no you don't roll just because the rogue rolled a 1, when someone fails a perception or investigation check they believe they looked thoroughly.
For example
>Party has two rogues
>Both rogues always check for traps together because why not
I am fine with this
>Party rogue checks for traps
>Rogue rolls a 1
>12 wisdom barbarian suddenly decides to check for traps too
I either disregard that roll or said the barbarian didn't find anything regardless of what he rolled.

I like using one, maybe two trap types per dungeon, and giving them some kind of rule that lets the characters avoid them completely if they follow it. That way it turns into a logic game instead of "I search... I search... I search..."

>party consists of a barbarian, a cleric, a druid, and a fighter
>walking through dungeon
>come up to a door
>druid notices a magic shock trap on the door that electrifies anyone that tries to open it
>have no rogue in the party that can disarm trap
>Barbarian: ''Well one of us is going to have to take one for the team here''

What if you just try to close it, but in reverse

I vote for the Cleric's summoned monster.

Pulled something similar to test how bad the group would metagame near the beginning of the campaign

>Party comes to a dead end after following a hidden passage
>First player rolls perception
"It's just a cave wall"
>Second player rolls perception, gets a low roll
"You're positive it's just a cave wall"
>Two skill monkeys and the group dominator all roll perception
"It's still just a cave wall"
>Call me an idiot for overscaling DCs this early into the campaign
>Mfw

This, I will admit in my players defense it was to a thieves place but it was made clear there would be several people inside.

I never understood DMs just punishing people for not constantly rolling d20s while going places, I'll admit I did it once or twice when I was new.

I would have called them out for metagaming this early in the game.

I found easier ways to punish them for it.
>Random encounter
>Throw down a couple of these
>About a minute passes while everyone rolls initiative
>"Oh, those are Ettercaps, they've only got 30 HP and 15 AC, I'll get some antitoxins for their poisons. CR 3"
>Ask how he knows all this
>"Oh I just have a really great memory is all"
>Turn them into Sea Spiders, scaled down to normal size and give them a land speed to compensate
It's amazing how some people don't even try and hide it like there's nothing wrong with it.

This shit happens to me all the time because i GM

>oh its a water elemental so it can whelm or 2 slams
>oh its a zombie so it has 8 ac and undead fortitude
>etc

I keep it to myself and only on one ocassion approached a new gm (who was my friend) after the game to clear a rule up, but i hate how being a GM makes you a metagamer inadvertantly.

Just play your character. Even if you're against a bullet immune enemy, if you're playing Shooty Mcshootstuff you'd probably waste some ammo and then act appropriately. Just because you already know what will and wont work doesn't mean you can't find out while in-character to teach other players.

Yea i certainly do that, it just sucks cause a certain bit of magic is lost.

>Using monster stats straight out of the MM

Well, to be fair, why would someone construct a hidden passage that dead-ended? That's not metagaming, that's just gaming.

maybe it was left unfinished?

I'm going to be blunt - if that's an issue, you're bad at DMing. Seriously, if knowing the giant spider monster has a poison attack or that the water elemental can turn into a giant angry whirlpool means your encounter is ruined, your encounter sucked.

That's entirely possible. But there's also no reason to assume that's the case, rather than believing there's SOMETHING there and you just haven't found it yet.

The original point wasnt encounters being ruined but more so players who directly let numbers influence decision making and then call the GM a shitter for not following the RAW in the MM when they change the encounter.

If you know what a creature does down to the numbers then thats going to bleed into your character decisions. Likewise if you roll a 1 on a perception check players arent likely to take risks even tho the character has no reason to doubt their ability.

While the original point was , the second post you replied to was a GM lamenting that *other GM's* encounters have lost magic because he also knows their stats.

But in the former case then your character's decisions will still be based on what they know about the creature. E.g., "these things move fast, so don't waste your time on big hits" or "they look scary but they die fast." So you're literally just making different decisions for one round.

As for the latter - well, if there's no consequences to failing a perception check, why are you having them roll the perception check in the first place? It's just "succeed now" or "roll until you get a 20 then succeed."

Perception checks don't have to be about traps, though. They could lead to clues or other things one might find out if they aren't in a hurry.

Players that can't let a failed check go are either paranoid or too used to GMs that screw them over if they fail said checks. This is why MoF/MoS is nice.

>Is anyone resistant to poison? No? Never mind.

Just roll perception for them behind the screen

I always ask this.

It never matters.

As a DM I never run instant damage traps in my campaigns
I always have traps that lock doors behind the party, or set loose a roaming monster somewhere in the dungeon or open up a pit Infront of them that they have to work out how to cross, etc.

I've never seen this kind of fuckery in person. I'll accept that it happens but is it really that common or is this just the Veeky Forums condensation effect working its magic?

>Open the door
>BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP