How can you surprise veteran players in Dungeons and Dragons? 

My favorite one was when we looked under a bed in a dungeon. "You see dust bunnies. They Attack, roll for initiative."

I cannot stress this enough. If you are trying to make your game interesting for a veteran player and he still sits on his phone the whole time, just get rid of him and make room for someone who is actually going to interact with your world.

A friend of mine reskined wolves with all the abilities of trolls. He scared the crap out of his regular group. 🤣 Literal troll.

-Cracks open a cold one and sits down- Here we go again. • In my homebrew campaign, there are some bosses that have unique stats. (A shadow dragon that can use spellcasting, a troll whose Regeneration doesn't activate every turn for 20 HP but refills to full when knocked to 0 regardless of damage type, a 'rock golem' that uses an 'axe' which does sound based attacks and thunder damage) • In Storm King's Thunder, all melee attacks by giants have AOE effects, travel has bonding time followed by an encounter table from very difficult fights to moral challenges or rewarding events. • In Curse of Strahd, it's not even referred to as COS, but Curse of Strahdboli, making it italian themed, and making the BBEG immune to Garlic

Not a DM but as a player our DM who was pretty mediocre at horror was able to capture that old horror villain vibe. The invincible stalker, just for reference we still haven't been able to solve this issue. Yes there is homebrew for this I can kinda tell. So for about 6 levels we did just dungeon crawls and fetch quests. Until as were were traveling to the next town that we found a sword in a campfire a cute dark souls reference we thought wrong we were and still are. Our paladin took it, it was a plus 1 great sword. Nothing fancy but as he took it the DM said and I quote: as you lift the sword from the fires you can hear a faint laughter almost inaudible. So we thought nothing of it until we got to the next town we completed that quest set only when we came out of the dungeon the weather clearly had changed and made everyone roll a wisdom save for the madness we all passed except the paladin who seems to think someone is watching him. (Personal edit I think that would've happened no matter what). As we go back to the town we find everyone dead and a large shadow like figure standing over a body then covered in yellow flame disappear. We tried to figure out what happened but no one was left alive. Women children nothing. So we left to the next town as we took a long rest he said that: as you sleep your minds wrestle with itself having vague visions of the slaughter from the previous town and you wake. We get on the road. Fast forward a little he makes us roll a perception check we all fail expect our wizard who's shadow seemed to claw at his feet (no damage of course just visual). As we make our way the shadow reappears as a combat we try to fight it but nothing seems to damage it and it never attacks just sits there tanking this. Then escapes again. At this point things kept getting worse, our bag of holding was turned into a bag of devouring when our rogue tried to reach in. All our magic weapons turned into cursed weapons. We get to the next town with almost no resources left. We take a rest there and wake after the same dreams as the DM says: as you all wake you hear screams and blood curdling laughter. You get out of your beds to find the shadow man back holding the barkeep by the throat with another massacre around them. And the floor covered in fog and blood. None of us expected this to ever happen. Especially with his reputation

one of my favorate ones is making a character that has some quark or flaw that the DM is MENT to exploit for story reasons. someone sending telepathic thoughts or influencing him, an illness or curse that acts up at inopportune times, things like that. things the DM can play with and use to enhance the story or use as a plothook to stop a derailing campaign... i try to get things like that allowed, as it makes everything more fun

I’m planning a fully surprise campaign. Essentially, it will start seemingly inconspicuously, they will do normal, boring dnd missions and other various things. Then they will stumble across a strange, metal wreck that will eventually be revealed to be a crashed space ship. At that point they will be introduced to the dark matter setting, which basically shifts dnd into a space opera. The best thing? None of them have probably ever even heard of the setting, so they will be absolute fishes out of water. (I plan to essentially introduce them to any new rules, equipment, or spells if/when they become relevant or their characters themselves learn them. I couldn’t be more excited for when I pull the surprise)

The monster with reverse AC always throws them off.

My DM had our entire party get age-reversed into kids and we had to defeat The Goddess of Demons. We were supposed to get our ages fixed but instead, we decided to convince the Goddess Lilith was our "Momma." We got adopted and became terrors to society!

In my experience it has very little to do with anything the DM does. Just the follow through. Recently the group I play in had several members expecting a double cross. Nothing even hinted at, just experienced players expecting the worst. We got paid, most were shocked. DM admitted he laughed for two weeks over it. Quick note, some ogres fly. They are Ogre Magi of earlier edition.

Change systems, add and remove various rules optional or otherwise. Make custom adversaries CR be damned. Have world shattering/changing events. Have them be chased by a gigantic Gadashkoro that they have to outrun or surely die and is only weakened by good deeds. Take a page from your favorite Dragon warrior game. Just any of them. It can be as simple as giving a troll an amulet of fire resistance (immunity) that mysteriously breaks when it's defeated.

I have played way too much dead cells. I immediately recognized the background music

I have what could be described as a GM heavy group. Almost al of our players GM-ed at some point. To keep things interesting I create statblocks that are close enough so my players feel like people from this world. They know about these beings and have a rough understanding on how they work but there's alwhays something extra or diferent or just wrong. One of my favourite was a Iron Golem with four arms. I gave this guy a longsword in one hand with the exact stats of the regular golems attack but slashing. A shield that blocked one attack each round. And a twohanded lance. In adition to that a legendary action to swing the sword in an arch or charge with the lance. Both of these were savebased instead of attackrolls.

I would say do plot things that aren't expected. For example I've already so my group for the next campaign to be "The Great Hunt" a once in a thousand year contest where the gods assemble the cream of the crop (IE adventurers) and hold a contest on who is the best hunter with monsters being worth more points the more dangerous they are. What my players don't know is they're going to prey not the hunters. I'll of course pepper some hints more and more as the campaign goes on. But it's enough of a twist to mess with them. >:)

1)Have intelligent monsters act intelligently (A dragon that knows to run away and targets healers is much more dangerous 2) Actions have consequences (a murder hobo can find themselves at the other end of a Rougues or Venges Paladins blade. 3) Use the lore creatively (DnD has a lot of flavor text and lore that doesn't show up, use it) 4) Set things up through player action (as example, if players destroy a Mind Flayer colony, you can eventually have them face a Neothelid) 4) Homebrew appropriately (DnD has lots of unexplored potential, using the above example, a Neothelid could infect a Storm Giant. Or you can have your players explore the massive extradimensional organism that is a Bag of Devouring by putting in to sleep and entering it in search of some McGuffin)

Our DM went and used Darkspawn from Dragon Age as our enemies, a couple of vet players joined and were thrown off a bit by some of the things Darkspawn can do

Ahh the various Spidrats that can be found in my games xD

Honestly, just try the Undertale approach. No, not mercy and sparing, but ACT-ing. Let your players know that getting creative is encouraged and that they don't have to roll for stylish solutions. Give descriptions of enemies, and add little details to let your players know about a niche weakness or exploitable flaw. Have drunk enemies off balance and easy to knock prone. Tell the players about room set pieces, chairs and tables, windows, chandelieres(I've never had to spell that before) and their condition so they'll know if it's easy to knock loose, or if they have something to use as an improv weapon (speaking of which buff the damage of those things, breaking a chair over someone's head should hurt more.)

My favorite monster: the Tear Ass.

Great video as always Mr ripper

I had the party rescue a bear and her cubs. I'm going to have them encounter some nasty Hunters again in the woods but the mama bear will come to the rescue

The way my group did it was by nuking multiple "levels" of an enormously tall castle, based off the one from the castlevania games. We managed to destroy the water and ice levels completely, along with part of the graveyard and arena. DM had us basically double in level to account for the amount of enemies dead as a result of our actions. 😂 Then, like a week later, despite having already lost the means to recreate that incident... we nearly did anyway. Accidentally killing a couple of high level NPCs we had no chance against in a fight. We went up 2 levels again. 😅 Same campaign, we also had one PC willingly stepped into a random planar trap. He ended up in Limbo and to get out he chatted up a former god of death. He managed to piss off the guy so badly that they sent him back, but cursed to have a form of immortality wherein he'd constantly experience his deaths. Like if he drowned he'd ALWAYS be feeling that sensation of water in his lungs... he then got singed, in the blast I mentioned earlier, so badly that he had no pain receptors or organs to feel the drawback of the curse. Then he got deleted from time in a wild magic incident, so the former god of death pulled in a favor from another godlike being to make him a paradox. Then he had this whole thing of basically experiencing the reincarnate spell every time he died (for class and items as well!) with stat loss as a replacement curse... he proceeded to die 1-2 times per session through similar freak accidents to the point where the former god gave up on dealing with him and removed the curse. The DM behind the screen made it known that he's never seen a player have this many incidents back to back 😂

When it comes to subverting expectations for Red Riding Hood, I prefer the idea that Red Riding hood is a were-wolf girl. Her Grandmother? Also a were-wolf. The Lumberjack? Also a were-wolf. The boy who cried wolf? Also a werewolf, he's just the only one who realizes everyone is a werewolf, but despite never having actually done the LIE part of his story, nobody believes him... At least until one of the adventuring party arrives and shows up mauled by a werewolf the next day.

I think Roald Dahl made a story of a murdering Little red riding hood like that person described The wolf tried to get her and she “pulled two pistols out of her knickers” and made a wolf skin coat She did it for the 3 pigs, who couldn’t pay up and after some pistoling again Red had some pigskin boots

1:01 😂 they solved the "murder" and capital punishment struck again for a win! Capital Punishment 1, innocent bystander 0

Anyone listening to this for inspiration to how to surprise your players before the next session?

How i shake up the game is by shaking up mechanics abit by experimenting how to experience the format you use i had them going through a god of creativities domain in a level 20 one shot where i got to cut loose walls were labled "WALL" and the floor labled "CAVE FLOOR" tye rest being all white the players had to find the text on the map to know what was what as if they don't they could step in lava or bump into a door thinking it was a wall another thing was throwinf them into a pitch black map with a simple blue rectangle they explored the void room and all they could do was touch the blue when they did, i fired up Triva show music and asled them questions about previous one shots they had been in, havin initiative be rolled for who could answer first if they all had the answer I placed them in a first person view map of a hallway with other creatures of various sizes, and found the smaller a creature the further away they were; the bigger the closer so they had to change the size of their tokens and placement to fight them lastly I simple said "Theatre of the mind combat" to abunch of people so use to battle map combat that imagining the scene made them try new and crazier things cause they weren't confined by what was physically there Want to throw veterans for a loop? throw them in very un-DnD like scenarios

Playing with a newer audience. Especially as a player, kids will do a lot of things you have no way to expect to happen.

PANR has tuned in. Now, with new text to my comment!

I like to surprise my players with random attacks, usually after they've just defeated a mid level beast and are full of loot and low on health, and on their way to sell and restock😈

Don't tell the names of miscellanious creatures. Give creatures abilities they don't have in the Monster Manual. Mix and match abilities. Or pull from another RPG system.

Ooh 5th like

sabotaging meta gaming and mercilessly punishing multiclassing. enforcing the geneva protocols and making the party obey. ignites conflict at the table though.

Mimics. Work out moments in your campaign where a mimic would be the best surprise foe. Alternate between mimics. Do not use the same shape, size, or location. Stop adding mimics after one or two similar rooms. Make the players paranoid about similar-looking rooms or setups. Keep the mimics out of the campaign until they stop shooting/stabbing chests, doors, chimneys, toilets, wells, and whatever other structure you've mimicified. Then add them again. Even high-level parties can be caught unaware and by surprise with a well-placed surprise monster. It is not the only way to do it but I've killed veteran players using mimics through my entire DM career. And they've loved it. Or been frustratingly amused. Finding my use of mimics rather unique since I never do the same setup more than twice. The storyline, the adventures, the danger, and the drama. It is all just a long line of events leading to another perfect opportunity, for the mimic. 🥸