Is there a surefire way of deterring PCs from entering an area once it's been mentioned to them and aroused their...

Is there a surefire way of deterring PCs from entering an area once it's been mentioned to them and aroused their curiosity?

Tarrasque inside.

Don't mention it to begin with is thew only way, or pussy out and don't kill them all for being idiots.

Rust monsters, LOTS of rust mosters

Would a well-rumoured illness pervading the area be sufficient?

Reuse my favourite method of establishing threats. I've read it on Veeky Forums, it was originally about how to introduce a bounty hunter in Star Wars, but it's easily applicable to locations too.
>Party hears about a really tough guy living in the town - a local legend. He's somebody you don't want to mess with.
>When the party walks into a local bar, they see him.
>He's a tough guy - huge, bald, covered in tattoos. He doesn't speak much - but when he does, people do as he says.
>If the party tries to fuck with him, other customers back away - they know where this is going.
>And then, before he even manages to do all that much, the door opens.
>A man walks in, takes a look at the tough guy, pulls out a pistol and wordlessly shoots.
>After confirming the kill, he walks out.

Kill one of them as soon as they enter the zone, with a "you were warned and there's nothing you can do for now" device

>scared af of dying in the dark
>in a tight space
>and drowning
>see sign
>feel immense relief that somebody warned me
>also feel sense of loss that those 300 people might have been morons and I might be missing the rush of a lifetime
Why is my dick trying to kill me?

>a man walks in, takes a look at the tough guy, pulls out a pistol and wordlessly shoots
>after confirming the kill, he walks out
>and is immediately lassoed and lynched by an angry mob
>"WE DON'T CARE FER MURDER-HOBOS ROUND 'ERE!"

toll booth

Man, we need a DnD version of this sign to put out front of dungeons to warn adventurers away

"That place is just scenery. You can go there if you want but I'm going to need to sketch up a map so do you want to grab drinks while I do that or leave it for later?"

Knowing my players?

"Cool, we'll have a break for... ten? Ten. I KNOW there's something there."

This.

Aren't they just another way to say 'bandit camp' or 'easy/moderate XP' to players?

Not if it is a MAGIC toll booth.

Bureaucracy. Lots and lots of absurdly complicated bureaucracy.

Tell them another adventuring party is handling it

No.

Let me contest this one with a story

>party try finding resting place of my setting's first lich
>friendly nearby town elder pinpoints the location
>"I suggest you don't go there my friends. Some of the world's strongest and most valiant are dealing with the immortal threat."
>party doubles down on getting there
>IC reason is that they will steal all their glory
>OoC reason is that they want the XP

>whatThePlayersWillSee.jpg

Tell them the other adventuring parties are better than them and will likely have resolved the issue

Tell them out of game "Hey guys, don't go to that area yet because (reasons)"

This got me laughing so hard but its completely correct.

Holy shit, that's amazing

Anyone else freaked out by the signs?

Now considering an underwater cave with drowning mechanics...

Make an even more exciting place with time-limited loot.

Post of the thread

>exciting
>time-limited
Pick one and only one.

When writing your campaign, unintentionally make the entire plot hinge on the assumption that they will go there and don't have any plans ready for the possibility that they decide not to go.

Well, first you must teach your players to fear.

During session zero, mention that the odds will sometimes be too overwhelming to fight, and running away will be the best option. And during the early sessions, have them face a powerful foe they must run away from or get TPK'd by. After that, when your players recognize overwhelming danger, they will have the appropriate reaction.

Intrusive thoughts sometimes. We all get them.

Everyone who's been in a train station has had the (instantly repressed, sometimes barely acknowledged) urge to stand on the rails. Everyone who's been at the top of a cliff or skyscraper has felt the need to look over the edge, and everyone's heard the stupid little voice saying, "you could jump down, you know; you could die here if you wanted to". Everyone's thought about killing someone once, even for one tenth of a second.

This is natural. Humans are attracted by the dangerous, the unknown and the forbidden, and deep down we all have that Freudian death drive. Of course, and with some exceptions, we're all smart enough to tell our brain "what the hell, that's fucked up, are you insane, let's think about something else".

Add signs beckoning people to come in and have some locals around it who try to get them inside.

Be sure to mention their fixed smiles and glazed eyes.

(OP)
Quantum ogres. (If they do indeed enter it, swap the inside of the location with another, less deadly, location, and take the original stuff and put it somewhere else, that the players will reach once they are higher level/more prepared.)

Top kek.

Invisible walls.

Make the entrance be protected by a relative impossibility that resets the past 24 hours for all but the PCs. If they try entering again, the reset will be halved to 12 hours, then 6 and so on.

Let's see if your players are willing to get stuck in eternal relative stasis trying to enter the cave.

I'd just let them in and watch them die

...not before a lot of cautionary language and situations where escape is still an option

No. You should basically be prepared for your players to become interested in anything you describe to them.

Pull your dick out and start masturbating if they try going in.

>Hey GM, we decided to go explore Castle Murderfuck
>"Oooh... That's so nice of you..."
>...What are you touching under there?
>"Nothing! But you're going there, yes? I have some very "special" rooms for you..."
>Actually we wanted to go to the Bog of Dire Mosquitos
>"Alright, you travel through the Bog and..."

I think you're onto something.

Kill them? Or at least one of them. You don't touch a hot pot twice.

If I gave enough details on an area that their curiosity has been aroused, then I plan on them going there eventually. If I don't want them to go there yet, the best deterent, that's always worked for me, is telling them OOC, that it's still under construction, and if their characters go there, I'm going to have to improvise and likely reduce the potential quality

>bog

This thread, man.

My PCs are like fucking toddlers. They MUST know what is in EVERYTHING.

how does this deter players from going anywhere?

Why would you have areas in your game that the PCs aren't meant to enter?

Seriously. That's just pointless extra work. Don't have things in your setting that aren't relevant to the PCs. There's no reason to.

This. Every world should be a small island with only 5 towns.

More warning signs?

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Yeah, this.

Players equate a challenge or threat with an eventual reward.

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