My group always complains about how "I make everything go wrong" or "How i can be annoying". I am going to make them run this, thank you. On a side note, they are new so that may be why; moreover, my wife is in the group so that may be why she perceives everything as an attack on her. Still cant wait to see her seething in rage with this one.
*trades it asap DM later in campaign: the final boss eats your character. His insides are far to resilient to get out, you are invincible though so no damage, you are just stuck there. BTW that farting chest would have instakilled this guy.
@@-kenik9629 But what if my character is already a fat goblin with a flatulence fetish? Or, indeed, what if I'm a fat goblin with a flatulence fetish IRL?
Runesmith: "If walk into the corner of a turn, instead of down the hallway, you enter a portal to the nine hells" Players: "A WAY OUT, FINALLY WE'RE FREE!"
you are teleported to the only safe place in the nine hells. a cage. if you can beat the other cage mates in a game of poker you will be teleported back to the minion.
OK, so I tried running this dungeon, my players took the butt in the chest, and when they faced the chain devil, the wizard used an "ass switcheroo" spell and somehow hit a critical success. They now proudly brandish the devil's butt before every important encounter.
-Hey... Wanna try the worst dungeon ever? -Why would I do that? -There's a pressure plate that plays All Stars and Dad Jokes -I thought you said the *WORST*
And note, of course, that this dungeon doesn't go anywhere. It's just a bunch of rooms with a bit of loot in them. No special treasure to work towards, no boss monster to hunt down. No resolution. It's perfect.
@@demi-femme4821 Only "resistant"? That _is_ BS. If something claims to be of "True Invincibility" I expect, at the least, for the body part covered by said object to be _completely invulnerable_ to (again, at least one type of if not all) damage.
It makes you invincible to the thruth, or specifically to attacks by anyone who hasn't done anything decieving throughout their lifetimes, on the bodypart you wear it on specifically.
All jokes aside, even tho you went out of your way to make a terrible dungeon, your knowledge on dungeoncraft and have design really stands out. "You gotta know the rules to break em" and this video says you clearly know the rules
@@anthonyp3452 have the ennemy necromancer cast cloudkill on the party while they are busy dealing with skeletton in melee. Skelettons are immune to poison.
@@anthonyp3452 when they explore a dark place, tell them they see shadows in the dark. Be intentionally confusing in the fact you meant shadows as in the monsters, not tricks of light
Needs random, unexplained damage with no way to defend. "You take 23 points of psychic damage." No clear cause, no saving throw, no enemies nearby, just random unexplained damage. My DM is literally pulling that on us right now.
@@GuardianTactician Imprisonment? you mean aye sir? here's a choice for it: "Hedged Prison. The spell transports the target into a tiny demiplane that is warded against teleportation and planar travel. The demiplane can be a labyrinth, a cage, a tower, or any similar confined structure or area of your choice. The special component for this version of the spell is a miniature representation of the prison made from jade."
@@Eric_The_Cleric It's like a black hole I suppose, once you pass the event horizon space time is distorted in such a way that all possible directions only lead further in.
5:50 "Attuning to any of them turns you physicly into a monkey ..." Me: "Hell yeah!" "... but you retain your stats." Me: "Even better!" "Also it does 2d8 necrotic damage" Me: "I may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make for greatness"
I DM'd a one shot that I was literally making up off the top of my head (our regular DM cancelled 30 minutes after we were supposed to start). At one point, I gave the players two paths to go down: one a spooky, overgrown, night-somehow, foggy forest of dead trees, and the other was a beautiful, well-lit, well-maintained garden. They chose the spooky forest and had an encounter. After the game, I told them that if they had chosen the garden path, nothing bad would've happened. They were so pissed off at that. Of course, next time I ran a game for them and gave them the same option, they almost chose the garden path but then psyched themselves into thinking I had reversed the bluff. I hadn't. I even showed them my typed notes afterwards, so they'd know there was a safe path. Although, the next time, I did switch where the encounter was and they went for the "safe" path and nearly rioted. Anyway, being a dick DM sometimes is hilarious,
I have a lot of respect for a DM who allows the "Obvious safer route" to actually be the "Obvious safer route". It means I can use my brain rather than try to psychologically defeat the DM.
The best/worst dad joke I ever experienced in a dungeon was when the DM told us there was a bear trap in the floor. All of us in the party assumed the normal trap for bears with the metal jaws and avoided it. Later the DM told us that we heard something that sounded like a bear being killed behind us. Turns out it was a trap that released an actual, live bear. The trap was triggered by a minotaur that was following us though the maze-like dungeon (because that hasn't been done before).
I remember sitting down with my good friend and DM after we made it about an hour into the tomb of horrors. I lost my favorite character that I had since level 1. This was the second full party wipe in two weeks. I remember giving him the rest of my blank character sheets as I was leaving. The next few weekends I was out shooting BB guns and playing phantasy II at a friends house on the commodore 64. My mom and his mom were friends and I got dropped of at his house the next Friday while they went out drinking. He showed me his new comic books and we played Atari. He asked if I wanted to roll up a character and I declined. Finally he seemed frustrated and said, "Why dont you wanna play DnD anymore?" I asked if he enjoyed the last few games, and he said he absolutley loved them. I explained it was because he got a great payoff... he designed a super deadly dungeon to kill of players and it worked. I lost two well thought out, perfectly role played characters that I had put over 2 years of effort into. I just dont have any interest in putting all that effort into making a character that is going to die no matter how carefully I play or regardless of making the best choices. Id rather just play atari. That summer I was over for the weekend and he asked me and two friends to please play one game of DnD. He already had premade characters, we just had to pick the names, races and descriptions. We were hired by the local authorities to return the remains of some fallen adventures. Lo and behold we had to search for clues and talk to the townsfolk and the one surviving NPC hireling to find the remains of our own dead characters. I was so pissed, he used to do shit like this all the time like he wanted to rub it in our faces. But instead the bodied were taken to a temple and returned to life. He bought the module, expedition to the barrier peaks and wanted to DM it so bad he was willing to change his ways. After that all the games were nothing but fun. Problems we could solve, or escape from. The risk was always worth the reward. This god awful dungeon reminded me of all the things I hated about murder hobo DnD from the 80s.
-> Setup Beholder as villain of campaign arc. -> Make like 5 of these dungeons. Only one of them has the actual beholder in it. The one the Beholder is in is obviously the biggest, most cancerous tumor of a dungeon of the 5. -> Drop hints as to where Beholder's lair may be. These hints, of course, will lead the players to believe the Beholder is any of the 4 dungeons he is NOT in, unless one of the PCs has like a god tier big brain moment -> When they finally get to the Beholder after like 10 sessions of hell dungeons, have him wig the fuck out and hit them with an eye beam. -> This eye beam, of course, will instantly teleport them to the minion statue at the first dungeon they went into.
No no no. You want to make your players feel like like their actions matter, _when_ they don't. AND You want to make your players feel like their actions _don't_ matter, when they _do._
Legit just ran this dungeon today for my campaign, they actually had a blast since I set it up as being created by a wizard in a drunken stooper. Knowing it was going to be full of stupidity really set the right expectations for enjoyment of this monstrocity.
If the wizard in question is Acerak, this is great because that last drawing of him in the baggy shirt. I imagine the last fight is really easy because you have to wake him up for a hangover nap
@@sylph8005acerak had to listen to some random goddess or god or whatever go off and he had to literally pay for an entire town worth of drinks, imagine having to deliver that to one of the most terrifying beings in existence and he pays you well
Player : I open the chest. Dungeon master : You find a 1 month-free trial of SharkVPN. Use promo code “RUSTMONSTER” for 10% off if you decide to extend the subscription to 6 months.
So by my count there's at least 4 ways to escape. 1. Dig through the molded earth to freedom. 2. Get lucky and roll a 20 but have your gender switched. 3. Escaping via Hell 4. Wishing yourself out. Did i miss anything?
I like the hell option cause nothing bad happens, you don't have to dig, you don't have to change genders, and you don't even need to waste a wish! Best option.
I mean one game I played in we found a device that magically crated Capybaras. Our first instinct was to try and weaponize it. Sadly the capybara cannon was never finished and instead we gave it to some villagers so they could have some kind of meat.
@@Zeliegrim That's a lot less broken than what some players would do, like making stairs and ladders from them, selling them for a steady supply of gold etc.
question: when the players decide the smash mouth tiles are the least of three evils and jump from smash mouth to smash mouth, does it restart the song every time, cue the song one more time in play list each time or just play it over all the already running songs?
@Herald of dissonance having dm'ed from 2e to 5e, your statement is not correct. Good dms learn, or they don't have groups. Not to be harsh, but the trope of the sadistic dm on a power trip needs to die in a fire where it belongs. The game is a storytelling game, not a power trip. Good games have trust and cooperation from both sides of the screen. Good dms foster that and good players help. 1e and 2e had a "dm vs player" mentality in published materials and sanctioned play (pre adventure league convention play). It was bs then, it's bs now. I don't care that Gygax himself pushed for it in his advice on dming. I'm grateful the man converted earlier medieval wargaming rules into a ttrpgs but his dming style had severe holes, and those holes haunt the system to this day. I say let the ghosts of the past stay past. I and the fellow dms that I ran with didn't do that dm vs pc in the 80s, and we're sure as shit not starting now. There's a reason why the market share for ttrpgs blew up, and that it's overwhelmingly DnD 5e atm: 1. Simplification of rules and easing of entry. (Starter sets, cooperating with game stores and cons, sales, expansion into new channels of distribution etc) 2. Pushing for social and cooperative play styles over competitive in the rules set and the adventure writing. 3. Excellent branding awareness and a change in management that wasn't a hellhole to try to work with. 4.PR. the fact that about a dozen different (very charismatic) groups began streaming their games (looking at you McElroy's, Phoenix's sirens, Assests Inc., CR, etc) and the brand had a set of windfalls with things like stranger things and other shows. 5. Charismatic social media influencers and a company finally having management somewhat smart enough to interface with the market intelligently. I'm sorry to anyone reading this if you had a bunch of bad dms, but that's all they were...bad. relegate them to the r/rpghorrrorstories subreddit and wash your hands from them. The video is a fun mental exercise...but other than memes and chuckles that's all this is. If you all will excuse me, this modular spelljammer ship ain't going to build itself... for once I get time to actually thoroughly prepare for sessions instead of squeezing in prep time on my lunch breaks and commutes. Although I hate the reason why I have all this "free time" atm. Stay safe, take care of your math rocks, ignore shit gm's and prep.
@@Konpekikaminari Code: 11392. Title: Reverse Dungeon. For Various Levels. Authors John D. Rateliff & Bruce R. Cordell. Published 2000. Players roleplay monsters defending a dungeon against NPC adventurers. it was the first time i ever played in a evil campaign.
Here's how I used this advice: I made a Dungeon where my part met a Talking Skull named Akererac. Akererac led the Party on a quest to find a New Undead body, under the ruse of exploring a dungeon for loot. At this point my Party had just hit level 5, and stayed Level 5 until until the last 2 rooms they explored. In the 2nd to last room, they found an Arena ring, where they they fought off waves of Phase Spiders and Displacer Beasts, which was only possible with the BS OP Loot they had found in the Dungeon up to this point. After the Arena was finished and the Part was rewarded, with some other stuff, Akererac took the Body of the Illithidlich who was running the arena and ran off with half of the Parties Loot.
Should have added a “Teleport to a Tomb of Horrors dungeon” room, or door. That would make this great. Then, when you try to exit that Tomb of Horrors, you get teleported back to the minion.
It feels like the ghosts were past content adventures who made the dungeon as a joke, letting a goblin army live there for minimum wage to fuck with you.
@@lugaruclone I was genuinely hoping there would be a “And once you figure out that you have to actually go through the third path hidden in a anti-gravity magic hallway on the ceiling covered with an illusion, you get teleported to the Tomb of Horrors, except the exits send you back here.” That would be the worst possible.
Another idea: if the characters try to end it all and die, the reincarnation spell triggers, reviving them with none of their equipment as a different race and teleporting them to the minion. If they reincarnate as an elf however, they are immediately attacked by Snilloc's Snowball Swarm, because elves are the *coolest* race in D&D.
I feel like my DM would take this video as inspiration. He does all sorts of non-nonsensical things, puts in anime and pop culture references all over, and generally like to tease the encounters he has setup will likely be a TP kill. Like one session we spent 3 hours trying to get information out of a robot, yes a robot not a magical construct, that took everything literally and would twist our words around. Some parts of it reminded me of that old Animatic's skit of "Who's the band on stage." except less funny and got old after 5 minutes let alone 3 hours.
I’m Stealing the Monkey Sarcophagi. It’s strangely perfect for my game, if only becuse the Demon Lord of Primates, from Pathfinder. Is a Major Antagonist
do you also have Cath Palug also known as Primate Murder. It is the 4th of the 7 Demonic Beasts. Cath Palug describes himself as the Beast of Calamity that bears the Characteristic of "ever exceeding the strength of an opponent" -- growing unto maturation by the conflict that arises amongst Men, feeding upon their Envies and Regrets.
Let's all write solutions to these puzzles and traps! Life's Middle Finger: Just let the barbarian loose, they'll attack everything. Eventually your party will clear the mimics and they just have to choose the right door.
Concept, a puzzle box that has many different levers, buttons, and switches that endlessly click and move. How to solve it? Hit it against something and it pops open
The ghosts playing poker sparked an idea in my brain. If you hide a group of ghosts doing that in a desolate place, specifically a cult place, you can play them in a round for info on the dungeon. Have them randomly show up as a sort of “play for tips” or sometimes even “play for gold/gear” and make them recurring minor NPCs that the party finds relatively likable.
A dungeon where every door is a mimic, every hallway is FILLED with gelatinous cubes, rust monsters spawn from every chest, and the exit opens when a secret button is pressed (every stone in the whole place is pushable)
How did you channel Gary Gygax so perfectly when making this? This is essentially how I envision what the Tomb of Horrors would look like if he'd made it in present day.
Most annoying dungeon I’ve played was Mad Mage, but only bc when I played it, my DM implied that we’d be able to finish it over the summer. When it came out that the dungeon has 23 goddamned floors I was not happy, and I had to scramble to come up with a new motivation for my character. So for annoying things, mislead your party.
once made a dungeon similar to this called the rec center of doom where at one point I made all of my players 'perform' in some real out of game aspect to pass through. I only recommend doing this with good friends and not a rando group.
I dont have a slightest problem with ads from creators i like and will often click on them just to get them some buck since i cant become a patron its the least i can do for free fun
Truly a work of genius. Only one thing missing: a riddle or message at the beginning that promises escape or treasure if you can "learn the true meaning of love" or "say the name of the dungeon's architect" and the solution to this riddle is never mentioned again.
Just wading through bodies both dead and alive, the only enemy is kobold, the boss is a group of kobolds, their weapons are mini kobolds, the floor is kobold by god the air is particulate kobold
For some reason, this is the video that called to me. This is the video that I showed up immediately for. This is now who I am, and who I shall always be. Thank you for showing me my new calling.
And here we have a man's slow descent into madness after days of isolation/quarantine and no way to play dnd. Ok lets move on to our next destination on this tour
This sounds like something I would pitch to players saying, I'm thinking of a one-shot: Would you like to try the most irritating dungeon as a test of endurance? When they ask "endurance of what?" I'd simply reply with "yes".
Trent H. Dragon Tamer Had a DM put a barrel in the middle of a forest clearing with a large stone on it. When the party removed the stone a monkey jumped out and attacked. Then another. And another. Then a gorilla who stood guard over the barrel. Then another monkey... It was a dimensional door to the Plane of Apes. The longer you left it open the harder it was to get it shut again.
@@crunchydragontreats6692 hahaha! That's too good! That's gonna be how our world ends, this May, someone's gonna open the interdimensional portal to the plane of apes. I absolutely love that, man.
Trent H. Dragon Tamer LoL. It was a tricky encounter. Once the monkeys, chimps and couple of gorillas, had the clearing secured, all manner of monkeys came out. Orangutans. Spider monkeys. More chimps. More gorillas. One Silver Back. Each with their own style of combat and skill sets. Think species in place of classes, but with no magic users and no manufactured weapons or armor. Thankfully, no magic users. Just monkeys with a hierarchy and organization.
Ok, but I would love to be in the Undad room playing poker with them Also I gave your Undead Dad room a better name, because making the room itself a pun is the only logical choice
honestly that's still more merciful than me, there's technically infinite, so I would use an online RNG thing to go to the page for a random gender. "Ok, you're now Hemigender, the half of your gender you do know is *rolls* trigender, and those 3 genders of trigender you experience are *insert character needing an extra page of character sheet just to fit the dang thing.*
For extra annoyingness, in the hall of doors, make the players keep a count of every time they get sent back to the minion. Both individually, and as a team. There's no actual consequences for reaching any specific numbers - they just need to keep track.
I forgot I had my sound muted, so i guess I was just going to accept the video was beginning with you silently putting headphones in and doing a little sitting dance.
We've learnt a lot about runesmith from just the intro here. I think we already knew they were of a chaotic alignment, but now we know they're chaotic evil, and they seem to have tentacle-like appendages ("coils") - This'd mean they're not an aboleth, so my bet is on a kraken.
That you used you used the random dungeon generation tools in the back of the DMG makes me want to see a fully randomized dungeon. Not in the sense of "LOL Random". In the sense of using various tables throughout the books to determine the layout and contents of the dungeon.
That mirror room sounds like a great obstacle, if only for the opportunity to describe it. “A morass of mirrors in constant motion, shifting and shimmering in every direction, sending you tumbling and turning. It is impossible to get your bearings. Everywhere you look, you see nothing but your own form reflected an infinite number of times until slowly fading into obsurity. The most you can do is try to push forward toward the doorway which occasionally appears among the mirrors, it’s yawning darkness seeming to beckon your true self towards it’s threshold.”
This would actually be a lot fun as a one-off, "non-cannon" module, as long as as everyone was in on the joke. I'd keep playing just to see how absurd things get.
Oh yeah, I used Gimp and Google images to make the map lol.
You chose wisely.
My group always complains about how "I make everything go wrong" or "How i can be annoying". I am going to make them run this, thank you.
On a side note, they are new so that may be why; moreover, my wife is in the group so that may be why she perceives everything as an attack on her. Still cant wait to see her seething in rage with this one.
Gimp is amazing
@@Geologese
For science, you monster.
Im absolutely stealing it for my groups!!! Its hillarious!!!
How dare you.
How dare you not call the undead dads “undads.”
Because they aren't undad. In fact, they are very dad.
@@harbingerofcrazy5189 would a dire undad be the grandpa ghost or just the undad dad?
made my day XD
Undead can't have kids, so they would definitely be undads...
make a sign over the door that says "chamber of und ads" so it seems like an error but is in fact on point
The real question is: Would players be willing to trade a farting butt in a chest for the gauntlets of true invincibility?
*trades it asap
DM later in campaign: the final boss eats your character. His insides are far to resilient to get out, you are invincible though so no damage, you are just stuck there. BTW that farting chest would have instakilled this guy.
I wouldn't, just imagine the potential
He forgot to add the part where the gauntlets are cursed to turn you into a fat goblin with a flatulence fetish.
@@-kenik9629 But what if my character is already a fat goblin with a flatulence fetish? Or, indeed, what if I'm a fat goblin with a flatulence fetish IRL?
@@blarg2429 Then all you get is a five foot per-round movement penalty, and a charisma hit.
Runesmith: "If walk into the corner of a turn, instead of down the hallway, you enter a portal to the nine hells"
Players: "A WAY OUT, FINALLY WE'RE FREE!"
you are teleported to the only safe place in the nine hells. a cage. if you can beat the other cage mates in a game of poker you will be teleported back to the minion.
The Warlock drops to his knees in tears.
"Mother...I've come home at last."
@@arbiterskiss6692 Sounds like Doctor Doom.
@@dddmemaybe The cage mates make dad jokes every ten seconds on the clock
It's just a mirror of the dungeon in nine hells heat
The only thing to make this better is if death just teleports you to the minion again at full health, not even death is an escape
and one of your stats randomly gets picked to be reduced by a random amount
@@tommynson440 oh and your gear gets fucking deleted like in the tomb of horrors, even if it's essential to escaping.
Its even more annoying that this was uploaded on April 2nd and not the 1st
that is the real anoyance
Coincidence? I think not!
@@user-ft3jq5vi2l people do it to try and get people who are avoiding April fools vids to watch them
@@crestfallensunbro6001 or of they’re Australian
@Frederick Kellett well i'm australian and it ACTUALLY says, Ɛ lᴉɹd∀
OK, so I tried running this dungeon, my players took the butt in the chest, and when they faced the chain devil, the wizard used an "ass switcheroo" spell and somehow hit a critical success. They now proudly brandish the devil's butt before every important encounter.
That.
Is.
The
Best
Thing
I've
E v e r
Heard.
Wow.
Lol
Wait but... then how do you actually get out of the dungeon?
Oh... you actually do just dig from the entrance don't you?
i was thinking about half way through the video "i really hope this dungeon is useless and you just have to dig"
You just need to get a nat 20 on the wild magic dice
Getting the nat 20 would be the other way to do it for sure, if you don't mind a little genderbend.
@@justanaverageferret just go back in to gender bend back🤪
@@collinbeckham8259 if you wanna suffer that again go for it
-Hey... Wanna try the worst dungeon ever?
-Why would I do that?
-There's a pressure plate that plays All Stars and Dad Jokes
-I thought you said the *WORST*
-Yeah, ok, that makes sense.
if it has an entirety of the tom of horror in it then yes
April fools?
And note, of course, that this dungeon doesn't go anywhere. It's just a bunch of rooms with a bit of loot in them. No special treasure to work towards, no boss monster to hunt down. No resolution.
It's perfect.
Not even plot progression nor hooks
I don't know, those Gauntlets of True Invincibility sound useful...
@@DraconicDuelist It just makes you resistant to nonmagical Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage.
@@demi-femme4821 Only "resistant"? That _is_ BS. If something claims to be of "True Invincibility" I expect, at the least, for the body part covered by said object to be _completely invulnerable_ to (again, at least one type of if not all) damage.
It makes you invincible to the thruth, or specifically to attacks by anyone who hasn't done anything decieving throughout their lifetimes, on the bodypart you wear it on specifically.
All jokes aside, even tho you went out of your way to make a terrible dungeon, your knowledge on dungeoncraft and have design really stands out.
"You gotta know the rules to break em" and this video says you clearly know the rules
I was hoping I could extrapolate backwards from this what good dungeon is. However I'm mostly just confused what a dungeon even is now.
I once got into a room full of chests and a stone carved "warning : mimic" near the entrance.
The stone was the mimic
That is so evil
Mind if I use it?
@@quinnholloway5400 go ahead and have fun. Mimic are intelligent and have personallities. His was that he was a troll
Have any other brilliant ideas?
@@anthonyp3452 have the ennemy necromancer cast cloudkill on the party while they are busy dealing with skeletton in melee. Skelettons are immune to poison.
@@anthonyp3452 when they explore a dark place, tell them they see shadows in the dark. Be intentionally confusing in the fact you meant shadows as in the monsters, not tricks of light
Needs random, unexplained damage with no way to defend. "You take 23 points of psychic damage." No clear cause, no saving throw, no enemies nearby, just random unexplained damage. My DM is literally pulling that on us right now.
wow
Node dungeon. Each dungeon is a chamber in a larger, fractally nested dungeon. There is no top. There is no bottom. There is only dungeon.
But... so... how does one enter the dungeon in the first place? From some side? What????
@@Eric_The_Cleric Seems like a special destination for a banishment spell.
@@GuardianTactician Imprisonment? you mean aye sir? here's a choice for it: "Hedged Prison. The spell transports the target into a tiny demiplane that is warded against teleportation and planar travel. The demiplane can be a labyrinth, a cage, a tower, or any similar confined structure or area of your choice. The special component for this version of the spell is a miniature representation of the prison made from jade."
So... Dungeon of the Mad Mage???
@@Eric_The_Cleric It's like a black hole I suppose, once you pass the event horizon space time is distorted in such a way that all possible directions only lead further in.
5:50
"Attuning to any of them turns you physicly into a monkey ..."
Me: "Hell yeah!"
"... but you retain your stats."
Me: "Even better!"
"Also it does 2d8 necrotic damage"
Me: "I may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make for greatness"
You lose the abilty to speak
A small price to pay for monke
@@Santiago-Farrell that might count as a stat
Reject human/dwarf/elf/halfling/exotic species
Return to Monke
I can get that and Gauntlets of True Invincibility??? Sounds like the best dungeon to me!
Acererak is in that last room like: "Damn man, even I'm not this evil. Like c'mon? Minions? Things are worse than Rust monsters."
"Please help me, I've been trapped here for AGES and the minion wont shut up"
Good point, this dungeon lacks a trap that dumps you into a pit full of rust monsters and rot grubs
That's it, I'm making rust monsters that look like minions now
Rust monsters a re cute though
@@mewtopew1096 "Yeah they're cute, but MY ARMOR!"
I DM'd a one shot that I was literally making up off the top of my head (our regular DM cancelled 30 minutes after we were supposed to start). At one point, I gave the players two paths to go down: one a spooky, overgrown, night-somehow, foggy forest of dead trees, and the other was a beautiful, well-lit, well-maintained garden. They chose the spooky forest and had an encounter. After the game, I told them that if they had chosen the garden path, nothing bad would've happened. They were so pissed off at that. Of course, next time I ran a game for them and gave them the same option, they almost chose the garden path but then psyched themselves into thinking I had reversed the bluff. I hadn't. I even showed them my typed notes afterwards, so they'd know there was a safe path. Although, the next time, I did switch where the encounter was and they went for the "safe" path and nearly rioted.
Anyway, being a dick DM sometimes is hilarious,
I have a lot of respect for a DM who allows the "Obvious safer route" to actually be the "Obvious safer route". It means I can use my brain rather than try to psychologically defeat the DM.
me, new to dm’ing: *furious note taking*
@@mai-8-torch counterspell your players healing spells for maximum annoyance
The fucking double bluff, I can't 😂
The best/worst dad joke I ever experienced in a dungeon was when the DM told us there was a bear trap in the floor. All of us in the party assumed the normal trap for bears with the metal jaws and avoided it. Later the DM told us that we heard something that sounded like a bear being killed behind us. Turns out it was a trap that released an actual, live bear. The trap was triggered by a minotaur that was following us though the maze-like dungeon (because that hasn't been done before).
It wasn't a dad joke. It was indeed a bear trap, just not the trap for bears you expected but a trap that unleashed a bear.
That's called a play on words
What about a trap that is just a room full of bears.
@@HappyBeezerStudios I did that to my first party. Only the bears were ridden by bugbear paladins wielding more bears.
@@dashiellgillingham4579 They had the right to bear arms, I assume?
I remember sitting down with my good friend and DM after we made it about an hour into the tomb of horrors. I lost my favorite character that I had since level 1. This was the second full party wipe in two weeks. I remember giving him the rest of my blank character sheets as I was leaving. The next few weekends I was out shooting BB guns and playing phantasy II at a friends house on the commodore 64. My mom and his mom were friends and I got dropped of at his house the next Friday while they went out drinking. He showed me his new comic books and we played Atari. He asked if I wanted to roll up a character and I declined.
Finally he seemed frustrated and said, "Why dont you wanna play DnD anymore?" I asked if he enjoyed the last few games, and he said he absolutley loved them. I explained it was because he got a great payoff... he designed a super deadly dungeon to kill of players and it worked.
I lost two well thought out, perfectly role played characters that I had put over 2 years of effort into. I just dont have any interest in putting all that effort into making a character that is going to die no matter how carefully I play or regardless of making the best choices. Id rather just play atari.
That summer I was over for the weekend and he asked me and two friends to please play one game of DnD. He already had premade characters, we just had to pick the names, races and descriptions. We were hired by the local authorities to return the remains of some fallen adventures. Lo and behold we had to search for clues and talk to the townsfolk and the one surviving NPC hireling to find the remains of our own dead characters. I was so pissed, he used to do shit like this all the time like he wanted to rub it in our faces. But instead the bodied were taken to a temple and returned to life.
He bought the module, expedition to the barrier peaks and wanted to DM it so bad he was willing to change his ways. After that all the games were nothing but fun. Problems we could solve, or escape from. The risk was always worth the reward.
This god awful dungeon reminded me of all the things I hated about murder hobo DnD from the 80s.
Surprisingly wholesome ending
This is beautiful
This is something I can imagine a Beholder actually making
-> Setup Beholder as villain of campaign arc.
-> Make like 5 of these dungeons. Only one of them has the actual beholder in it. The one the Beholder is in is obviously the biggest, most cancerous tumor of a dungeon of the 5.
-> Drop hints as to where Beholder's lair may be. These hints, of course, will lead the players to believe the Beholder is any of the 4 dungeons he is NOT in, unless one of the PCs has like a god tier big brain moment
-> When they finally get to the Beholder after like 10 sessions of hell dungeons, have him wig the fuck out and hit them with an eye beam.
-> This eye beam, of course, will instantly teleport them to the minion statue at the first dungeon they went into.
Woah, calm down Satan!
@@Raptorman0205 Thank you.
Alright who stole the goldfish
@@DrunknBraindead
Screw you, satan wishes he had the time and creativity for that evil shit.
3:31 "We want to make the players feel like their actions matter, but they don't."
I think you just wrote Telltale's mission statement.
No no no.
You want to make your players feel like like their actions matter, _when_ they don't.
AND
You want to make your players feel like their actions _don't_ matter, when they _do._
And Bethesda
The goblins just chilling
*looks at party*
"Need something?"
"You picked the wrong place to get lost!"
Party member: *tries talking to goblin*
Goblin: "Come to the Cloud District often? Oh, who am I kidding? Of course you don't."
Challenge Level 30 “Never should’ve come here
sonicj Polygon YES!
You picked a bad time to get lost, friend.
*Wizard prepares to cast fireball*
Be careful with that fire!
Legit just ran this dungeon today for my campaign, they actually had a blast since I set it up as being created by a wizard in a drunken stooper. Knowing it was going to be full of stupidity really set the right expectations for enjoyment of this monstrocity.
If the wizard in question is Acerak, this is great because that last drawing of him in the baggy shirt. I imagine the last fight is really easy because you have to wake him up for a hangover nap
@@sylph8005acerak had to listen to some random goddess or god or whatever go off and he had to literally pay for an entire town worth of drinks, imagine having to deliver that to one of the most terrifying beings in existence and he pays you well
"If they try to split...Banana"
Ahh yes..banana, my arch nemesis
If it wasn't your nemesis, it would be called the Ba-ya-ya
No, it's your...
Banana split
It's even funnier because he says *the* Banana
Opening up a chest, just to get a Raid: Shadow Legends sponsorship. That would be bad.
we're making an annoying dungeon, not straight up evil
Player : I open the chest.
Dungeon master : You find a 1 month-free trial of SharkVPN. Use promo code “RUSTMONSTER” for 10% off if you decide to extend the subscription to 6 months.
Players joins the undead dads poker game.
*Father DM:* My time has come.
Time to play my dead man's hand
Father player: I can do this all day.
So by my count there's at least 4 ways to escape.
1. Dig through the molded earth to freedom.
2. Get lucky and roll a 20 but have your gender switched.
3. Escaping via Hell
4. Wishing yourself out.
Did i miss anything?
not in the video, but
go into the farting butt
yes. do idea 2 twice.
I like the hell option cause nothing bad happens, you don't have to dig, you don't have to change genders, and you don't even need to waste a wish! Best option.
5. The sweet release of death.
Meagan Brady That's why the gauntlets of invincibility exist.
5:20 If you aren't tapping the ground with a stick by this point, you're exactly the kind of person this dungeon was made for.
Watch your players actually take the butt with them and be able to get those gauntlets.
I mean one game I played in we found a device that magically crated Capybaras. Our first instinct was to try and weaponize it. Sadly the capybara cannon was never finished and instead we gave it to some villagers so they could have some kind of meat.
@@Zeliegrim That's a lot less broken than what some players would do, like making stairs and ladders from them, selling them for a steady supply of gold etc.
My goliath barbarian in all honesty would either 1. Dig his way our or 2. Break everything when he rages just to annoy the dm
my players would absolutely take the butt and probably fight for 20 minutes over who gets to carry it
question: when the players decide the smash mouth tiles are the least of three evils and jump from smash mouth to smash mouth, does it restart the song every time, cue the song one more time in play list each time or just play it over all the already running songs?
Asking the real questions
If you activate a second instance of Smashmouth while the first is still running, it plays the Bee Movie all the way through.
@@Loalrikowki activating it a third time will teleport the party to either the undad poker room or back to the minion
@@TimberwolfJ1 and if they activate it a 4th time for every instance of "bee" it's we are number one.
@@stm7810
And if they activate it a 5th time every "one" is the Nutshack theme.
This is just every 2nd ed published adventure I've ever been through.
Only more fair.
What about reverse dungeon?
@Herald of dissonance having dm'ed from 2e to 5e, your statement is not correct. Good dms learn, or they don't have groups.
Not to be harsh, but the trope of the sadistic dm on a power trip needs to die in a fire where it belongs.
The game is a storytelling game, not a power trip. Good games have trust and cooperation from both sides of the screen. Good dms foster that and good players help.
1e and 2e had a "dm vs player" mentality in published materials and sanctioned play (pre adventure league convention play). It was bs then, it's bs now.
I don't care that Gygax himself pushed for it in his advice on dming.
I'm grateful the man converted earlier medieval wargaming rules into a ttrpgs but his dming style had severe holes, and those holes haunt the system to this day. I say let the ghosts of the past stay past.
I and the fellow dms that I ran with didn't do that dm vs pc in the 80s, and we're sure as shit not starting now.
There's a reason why the market share for ttrpgs blew up, and that it's overwhelmingly DnD 5e atm:
1. Simplification of rules and easing of entry. (Starter sets, cooperating with game stores and cons, sales, expansion into new channels of distribution etc)
2. Pushing for social and cooperative play styles over competitive in the rules set and the adventure writing.
3. Excellent branding awareness and a change in management that wasn't a hellhole to try to work with.
4.PR. the fact that about a dozen different (very charismatic) groups began streaming their games (looking at you McElroy's, Phoenix's sirens, Assests Inc., CR, etc) and the brand had a set of windfalls with things like stranger things and other shows.
5. Charismatic social media influencers and a company finally having management somewhat smart enough to interface with the market intelligently.
I'm sorry to anyone reading this if you had a bunch of bad dms, but that's all they were...bad.
relegate them to the r/rpghorrrorstories subreddit and wash your hands from them.
The video is a fun mental exercise...but other than memes and chuckles that's all this is.
If you all will excuse me, this modular spelljammer ship ain't going to build itself... for once I get time to actually thoroughly prepare for sessions instead of squeezing in prep time on my lunch breaks and commutes.
Although I hate the reason why I have all this "free time" atm.
Stay safe, take care of your math rocks, ignore shit gm's and prep.
@@andy10121984 I feel like I shouldn't ask but... What is reverse dungeon?
@@Konpekikaminari Code: 11392. Title: Reverse Dungeon. For Various Levels. Authors John D. Rateliff & Bruce R. Cordell. Published 2000. Players roleplay monsters defending a dungeon against NPC adventurers. it was the first time i ever played in a evil campaign.
@@andy10121984 oh gods
Sounds outright nasty
I'm doing this dungeon as a Joke with my party as we speak, they have been trying to talk to the Minion for 30 minutes...
The Bard just got One Shotted by the mimic... There is no hope for this party
@@burtonbullet1504 Which mimic?
Tomb of Horrors 2: Electric Boogaloo
Ah yes, a man of culture.
Lemon Moon,
That sounds about right
GRIANNNN
Love Hermitcraft. Don't forget, you have to always say it as Tomb of Horrors 2: Electric Boogaloo.
Actually this is Tomb of Horrors 3: the Bullshit Zone.
Dm “you open the chest and there’s just a butt in it.”
Bard “...I can work with this.”
O h n o
-"What annoys you in dungeons?"
-"dragons"
Exactly, dungeons are supposed to be in dragons, not the other way around.
@@theapexsurvivor9538 Yes. That's why it's called Dungeons in Dragons, of course. I mean, how would someone even mess this up?
@@blarg2429 4head
Reminds me of a campaign someone once mentioned that took place entirely within the body of a dragon, Osmosis Jones style.
@@theapexsurvivor9538 r/cursedcomments
Actually, as someone who loves Dad jokes, the poker room seems interesting and fun. A reward in of itself.
Here's how I used this advice:
I made a Dungeon where my part met a Talking Skull named Akererac. Akererac led the Party on a quest to find a New Undead body, under the ruse of exploring a dungeon for loot. At this point my Party had just hit level 5, and stayed Level 5 until until the last 2 rooms they explored. In the 2nd to last room, they found an Arena ring, where they they fought off waves of Phase Spiders and Displacer Beasts, which was only possible with the BS OP Loot they had found in the Dungeon up to this point. After the Arena was finished and the Part was rewarded, with some other stuff, Akererac took the Body of the Illithidlich who was running the arena and ran off with half of the Parties Loot.
Should have added a “Teleport to a Tomb of Horrors dungeon” room, or door. That would make this great. Then, when you try to exit that Tomb of Horrors, you get teleported back to the minion.
0:25 ah yes, the wild Lanky Lad goes for a recreational stroll
majestic
It feels like the ghosts were past content adventures who made the dungeon as a joke, letting a goblin army live there for minimum wage to fuck with you.
This is just the official Rick & Morty dungeon Wizards of the Coast released last year but without the pickle joke.
dont remind me that they did that
Actually I realized half way it was slowly starting to turn into Tomb of Forgotten Horrors.
@@lugaruclone I was genuinely hoping there would be a “And once you figure out that you have to actually go through the third path hidden in a anti-gravity magic hallway on the ceiling covered with an illusion, you get teleported to the Tomb of Horrors, except the exits send you back here.” That would be the worst possible.
Another idea: if the characters try to end it all and die, the reincarnation spell triggers, reviving them with none of their equipment as a different race and teleporting them to the minion. If they reincarnate as an elf however, they are immediately attacked by Snilloc's Snowball Swarm, because elves are the *coolest* race in D&D.
This guy understood the assignment.
5:00 Ironically this hallway still gets beaten by a 10 ft pole
that is why you make the ceiling 4 feet tall and infest the place with termites.
@@Ghorda9 you *monster*
@@Ghorda9 then bug spray or fire, or a mix of both, or a metal pole.
@@stm7810 the corridor only goes 5 ft before hitting a right angle corner and then another one another 5ft away.
@@stm7810 there are termites through the entire dungeon. Also loads of rust monsters everywhere
"10ft wide passage that splits"
*makes 5ft wide passage*
he's already started on the annoying kek
I would love to have ghosts playing poker while making dad jokes in a dungeon 🙃
10:27 the key is to jump really far, backwards
YAHOO, YAHOO, YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Now, run this dungeon with XP to Level 3
I feel like my DM would take this video as inspiration. He does all sorts of non-nonsensical things, puts in anime and pop culture references all over, and generally like to tease the encounters he has setup will likely be a TP kill.
Like one session we spent 3 hours trying to get information out of a robot, yes a robot not a magical construct, that took everything literally and would twist our words around. Some parts of it reminded me of that old Animatic's skit of "Who's the band on stage." except less funny and got old after 5 minutes let alone 3 hours.
"It is a DM's duty to create the most annoying environments possible for their players."
David, 3:12
David isnt a book
Ah.
@@muditunderscore I like your setup
As in computer
The 3:12 turned into a timestamp that takes you to the minion
I'm dying laughing
Your comment *is* the dungeon
I’m Stealing the Monkey Sarcophagi.
It’s strangely perfect for my game, if only becuse the Demon Lord of Primates, from Pathfinder. Is a Major Antagonist
do you also have Cath Palug also known as Primate Murder.
It is the 4th of the 7 Demonic Beasts.
Cath Palug describes himself as the Beast of Calamity that bears the Characteristic of "ever exceeding the strength of an opponent" -- growing unto maturation by the conflict that arises amongst Men, feeding upon their Envies and Regrets.
Leave Fou out of this, weeb.
4:40 "It's hard to tell sir. He may have manifested some sort of butt."
Let's all write solutions to these puzzles and traps!
Life's Middle Finger: Just let the barbarian loose, they'll attack everything. Eventually your party will clear the mimics and they just have to choose the right door.
or just toss a molotov cocktail, fuck what people say, I can make them, my INT 18 wizard should know how to.
Concept, a puzzle box that has many different levers, buttons, and switches that endlessly click and move. How to solve it? Hit it against something and it pops open
Literally have inscribed with "stones are key", and have each lever be a different precious or semi-precious stone.
My Dwarf fighter with an INT of 5 would ask to try it and feel so smart.
The ghosts playing poker sparked an idea in my brain. If you hide a group of ghosts doing that in a desolate place, specifically a cult place, you can play them in a round for info on the dungeon. Have them randomly show up as a sort of “play for tips” or sometimes even “play for gold/gear” and make them recurring minor NPCs that the party finds relatively likable.
A dungeon where every door is a mimic, every hallway is FILLED with gelatinous cubes, rust monsters spawn from every chest, and the exit opens when a secret button is pressed (every stone in the whole place is pushable)
Arctic Dino for added effects you could make each of the other stones do something
Useless Dm Tips for example if you push the button next to the entrance, a tarasque gonna get out of the floor
That is just a slog. It is far more infuriating when it is unpredictable.
@@blakewerner5466 every other stone is a mimic
Or springs a trap, half the traps cast wild magic
How did you channel Gary Gygax so perfectly when making this? This is essentially how I envision what the Tomb of Horrors would look like if he'd made it in present day.
Most annoying dungeon I’ve played was Mad Mage, but only bc when I played it, my DM implied that we’d be able to finish it over the summer. When it came out that the dungeon has 23 goddamned floors I was not happy, and I had to scramble to come up with a new motivation for my character.
So for annoying things, mislead your party.
"Your family has been dead for a houndred years, Bert"
I love this
00:05 oh no he's got the earpods in he can't hear the beholder coming
once made a dungeon similar to this called the rec center of doom where at one point I made all of my players 'perform' in some real out of game aspect to pass through. I only recommend doing this with good friends and not a rando group.
Whens the module dropping and where can I purchase it?
“After 10 minutes of table delegation standing next to a minion,” fucking love it
I dont have a slightest problem with ads from creators i like and will often click on them just to get them some buck since i cant become a patron its the least i can do for free fun
Truly a work of genius. Only one thing missing: a riddle or message at the beginning that promises escape or treasure if you can "learn the true meaning of love" or "say the name of the dungeon's architect" and the solution to this riddle is never mentioned again.
I want to make a level 20 kobold dungeon. death by 1000 cuts kinda thing.
Just wading through bodies both dead and alive, the only enemy is kobold, the boss is a group of kobolds, their weapons are mini kobolds, the floor is kobold by god the air is particulate kobold
@@laundrysauce234 The dungeon ITSELF is made out of kobolds standing on top of eachother
Look up Tucker's Kobolds. His dungeon might even be online to download somewhere.
But the kobolds all have vorpal swords and are 10th lvl fighters
@@laundrysauce234
EVERYONE GET BACK TO THE SHIP! EVERYTHING'S A KOBOLD!!!!!
You even threw in the classic Gygax Genderbend. Good job.
10:20 Charges through the dungeon just to roll that 20.
Finally, all can study the effects of how the Bard caused this to occur.
Mood
same, most of the time I already make a non-binary character so seeing what gender they get at the end could be fun.
6:36 is Inaccurate.
Most of the ancient figures known as "dad" drink Bud light, Coors Light and the occasional Michelob.
You know, the tomb of horrors already exists, but go off I guess.
"... wearing my new merch!"
'Ugh, this is so annoying...'
*beat*
'Oh.'
Based icon
Wait do you mean FtMs or MtFs?
For some reason, this is the video that called to me. This is the video that I showed up immediately for. This is now who I am, and who I shall always be.
Thank you for showing me my new calling.
"The key is duct taped to his butt-cheek."
Just made my day
"On a 20 you teleport outside into dungeon as a diffrent gender"
I know a lot of people who will enjoy that stuff
I see no downsides to that roll
For PCs suffering gender dysphoria, this is literally the reason they set out to find the dungeon in the first place.
I would die for that die
My warforged is confused
Well now I know at least +5 people more
The fact you can find almost half of these traps/events in the tomb of horrors really says a lot about the tomb of horrors
And here we have a man's slow descent into madness after days of isolation/quarantine and no way to play dnd. Ok lets move on to our next destination on this tour
roll 20 + discord
Half of these are things I love. Figuring out _which_ half is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
Half the goblins are actually Rust Monsters in disguise.
the first bit with the hourglass actually seems really cool. also the illusion pits are could be cool for a tap in a tricksters base
I'm currently building my first dungeon and this video was actually one of the most helpful ones I've seen X3>
oh no... thats probably the most ominous statement ive ever read 😳
Poker night with ghosts cracking dad jokes genuinely sounds like a fantastic time
This sounds like something I would pitch to players saying, I'm thinking of a one-shot: Would you like to try the most irritating dungeon as a test of endurance?
When they ask "endurance of what?" I'd simply reply with "yes".
You say "annoying" but all the farts, butts, and dad jokes would entertain me to no end.
5:40 Random Chimp Event???
Trent H. Dragon Tamer Had a DM put a barrel in the middle of a forest clearing with a large stone on it. When the party removed the stone a monkey jumped out and attacked. Then another. And another. Then a gorilla who stood guard over the barrel. Then another monkey...
It was a dimensional door to the Plane of Apes. The longer you left it open the harder it was to get it shut again.
@@crunchydragontreats6692 hahaha! That's too good! That's gonna be how our world ends, this May, someone's gonna open the interdimensional portal to the plane of apes. I absolutely love that, man.
Trent H. Dragon Tamer LoL.
It was a tricky encounter. Once the monkeys, chimps and couple of gorillas, had the clearing secured, all manner of monkeys came out. Orangutans. Spider monkeys. More chimps. More gorillas. One Silver Back. Each with their own style of combat and skill sets. Think species in place of classes, but with no magic users and no manufactured weapons or armor. Thankfully, no magic users. Just monkeys with a hierarchy and organization.
Gygax would be proud. Good job at making a dungeon kobolds would drool about, and will feed many mimics, oozes, and ghost jokes to come.
Ok, but I would love to be in the Undad room playing poker with them
Also I gave your Undead Dad room a better name, because making the room itself a pun is the only logical choice
I like that he said different gender instead of opposite. I'm just imagining now the DM gets out a list of 100 genders they roll a d100 for.
*Rolls 100*
*PC is transformed into an Apache Attack Helicopter*
honestly that's still more merciful than me, there's technically infinite, so I would use an online RNG thing to go to the page for a random gender. "Ok, you're now Hemigender, the half of your gender you do know is *rolls* trigender, and those 3 genders of trigender you experience are *insert character needing an extra page of character sheet just to fit the dang thing.*
@@stm7810 You have experienced a composite event, Alpha.
@@brandonvelde5774 ok but that would actually be op tho.
@@brandonvelde5774 that joke was never funny
>Going out side
Oh man, I remember when we were allowed to do that for no reason.
For extra annoyingness, in the hall of doors, make the players keep a count of every time they get sent back to the minion. Both individually, and as a team. There's no actual consequences for reaching any specific numbers - they just need to keep track.
My world's on fire! How bout yours? But that's the way I like it and I'll never get bored!
*_H E Y N O W_*
YOU'RE AN ALL STAR
*G E T Y O U R G A M E O N*
G O P L A Y
H E Y N O W
I forgot I had my sound muted, so i guess I was just going to accept the video was beginning with you silently putting headphones in and doing a little sitting dance.
6:23 DID YOU MEAN TABLE OF UNDADS?
imma see myself out...
You could counteract the hall with dispel magic, so you'd need to have the ENTIRE dungeon have an anti-magic field
I'm pretty sure a ghost with dad jokes qualifies as an allip.
The most frustrating and annoying dungeon possible already exists. It's called The Tomb of Horrors.
The app you used to draw grid map looks snazzy! Could you link it so we could use it too? Thank you so much!
It's actually Gimp (like 2.6 because I'm afraid of change), the free version of Photoshop. I enjoy it just because I know how to use it well.
@@Runesmith "It's more like... SIMP"
-Dad Jokes 2020
We've learnt a lot about runesmith from just the intro here. I think we already knew they were of a chaotic alignment, but now we know they're chaotic evil, and they seem to have tentacle-like appendages ("coils") - This'd mean they're not an aboleth, so my bet is on a kraken.
That you used you used the random dungeon generation tools in the back of the DMG makes me want to see a fully randomized dungeon. Not in the sense of "LOL Random". In the sense of using various tables throughout the books to determine the layout and contents of the dungeon.
That mirror room sounds like a great obstacle, if only for the opportunity to describe it. “A morass of mirrors in constant motion, shifting and shimmering in every direction, sending you tumbling and turning. It is impossible to get your bearings. Everywhere you look, you see nothing but your own form reflected an infinite number of times until slowly fading into obsurity. The most you can do is try to push forward toward the doorway which occasionally appears among the mirrors, it’s yawning darkness seeming to beckon your true self towards it’s threshold.”
That genuinely sounded fun until the chain devil.
This would actually be a lot fun as a one-off, "non-cannon" module, as long as as everyone was in on the joke. I'd keep playing just to see how absurd things get.