>be me>dming dnd 5e for 4 of my players>The players while exploring a crypt find a metal chest that's rather light almost like its empty although it emanates magic>its a throwaway trap, if they open the chest magical energy bursts from it and all gold + objects made from it within 10 ft of the chest get turned into copper>its in a place where the players would have at most 100 gold coins and maybe a golden chalice>they instead take it with them to prank one of the players>they put it on their ship>2 sessions later they forgot all about it>they get stop searched by a military patrol checking for contraband>the patrol's commander opens the chest>in the middle of the player's ship storage area>all of their gold gets turned into copper by a throwaway trap>the only thing in the chest is a rope that's the perfect length to hang yourself>all of the money they were planning to pay their debt with lost nearly all of its value>they were halfway there with the money and half of the time they got to pay it off has already passed>they are cursed to die if they don't pay back on timePaying off the debt was supposed to be a start to their sandbox campaign and now they are kinda fucked if they don't get money quickany of you got similar stories?
That's not a throw-away trap. That's a substantial and powerful use of magic, and a thoroughly bizarre use of that magic, to the point of using it as a trap in a crypt is completely mind-boggling because the only possible outcome is that whoever was subject to such a trap would proceed to completely defile the crypt. It's why most traps try to kill intruders, rather than prank them.
>>97180867Excellent use of trap, anon. Keep it up!
>>97180915it's a mythic underworld man it doesn't have to make normal sense.
>>97180867>>97180915It actually works if it wasn't left by the person who built the crypt, but an enterprising son of a bitch who keeps the OTHER chest in a room full of copper. Every so often, he checks on it and retrieves his new gold, replacing it with the copper needed to balance the equation for the next time some moron opens it.
>>97181308Things that make sense>Things that don't make sense.
>>97181375Whimsyless. I'll sacrifice a gummy worm for you.
Wouldn't material conversion spells basically destroy a material based system?
>>97181308The solution shouldn't make sense either then. You should allow your players to become rich equally retardedly
>>97180915the chest was a fuck you from the rival of the person that was entombed sent as a "gift", the person died before the "gift" was delivered so it was thrown into his tomb before it was sealed, this was the entire story connected with it, yeah i didnt think about the broader consequences when making it.
>>97180867>they instead take it with them to prank one of the playersOh? Did they figure out how it worked, but took it anyway because "it can't hurt us now that we know how it works," or was the prank because they thought it was empty? Either way, that's pretty fucking funny, and a great opportunity for the DM to throw some desperate get-rich-quick scheme or suicide mission at them.>any of you got similar stories?Stories of my players massively fucking themselves over? Yes, though they require a bit more setup to explain. Let me dig up my Star Wars notes...
>>97180867Clearly, the next phase of the campaign is suing the commander for destruction of property. He opened a magic box that ruined their shit, he should be expected to reimburse them. Or if that fails, they should just spend the rest of their short lives fucking that guy over for indirectly killing them.Or more productively, they could take their big pile of copper, short copper, then dump it on the market. Probably won't recover all the money, but could do better than whatever the market rate for copper is.
>>97180867>>97183437>Star Wars game. PCs are all Imperial agents of one kind or another, rescued from dead-end postings to be a deniable operations team>Next assignment is to escort a VIP on a secret mission to Nar Shaddaa (crime city planet), to get a Hutt crime lord's assistance>Upon arrival, they learn the Hutt won't see them unless they catch its attention or do it a favor>The party splits up to explore different options. The smarter player (and PCs) focused on subtle approaches; this is supposed to be a covert operation>Meanwhile, the impatient shoretroopers decide to just sneak into a gang warehouse and plant remote-detonated bombs>They were at least wise enough to rent a nondescript getaway vehicle, and disguise their distinctive armor under layers of cloth and other camouflage>They have half the warehouse wired to blow before they discover a bunch of kids that are (probably) being trafficked by the gang>Team goes loud, hustles the kids outside, trades fire with the gang. Once they detonate the bombs, the fireball lights up a whole city block>Gang is disoriented, calling in reinforcements. The kids follow their "rescuers," one of whom had removed his helmet to convince them he was friendly>Except the getaway vehicle only seats 5. There are dozens of kids. Oops. So the sergeant hands some cash to the eldest, says "good luck," and leaves>They returned to the team's hideout and reported on their "success." At this point, the other players EXPLODED, their OoC anger now fully in-character >Why didn't they just slip away when they found the kids, or call for backup, or arrange a bigger transport?!>Now they've left dozens of witnesses, who heard their voices, saw at least two troopers' faces, where the gang can easily recapture and interrogate them!>The whole team had to go BACK, properly rescue all the kids, while fighting the entire gang, and incidentally killed half the gang's leadership>So much for "covert." But the Hutt was amused
>>97183354Easy material conversion spells would but let's not go there
>>97180867>A national agent does a thing>They don't approach his superior for reimbursement
>>97180867>I made a trap my players didn't activate so I had to activate it myself to show my player's how funny I am at their expense.This is some weird behavior.
>>97183681I'd argue the gm didn't open the chest; the gravity of the plot did.
>>97183681Their fault for not springing it on the guy they intended to prank faster
>>97183439>Clearly, the next phase of the campaign is suing the commander for destruction of propertyHe can always argue they were lugging around a WMD that was intended for the king's treasure chambers
OP, did you get lost on your way to plebbit?
>>97183397This, but he won't listen.Faggots like this think arbitrary decisions are le heckin' funny when they do it, but they'll piss themselves if you act the same way. Their only goal is to be a sniveling, mean-spirited little shit, and they'll pretend to believe whatever justifies their retarded behavior in the moment only to forget their justifications when it comes time to apply it to any other scenario that doesn't directly benefit them.
>>97189370He could argue that, if he immediately reported the incident to his bosses and arrested the party. If he doesn't, then he's either proved a liar in court, or by his own word is in silent compliance with an attack on the king's coffers.
>>97180867Anons are talking shit about your trap lacking in-context verisimilitude but to me, unless there is an explanation, it's the following context that makes little sense:>>they get stop searched by a military patrol checking for contraband>>the patrol's commander opens the chest>>in the middle of the player's ship storage area>>all of their gold gets turned into copper by a throwaway trapThe context is that they're transporting a lot of gold, did they have any license or patronage from a powerful authority figure? They were sailing under some mercantile group/power's banner or on their own? If the case it's the latter then the military patrol would have them arrested for piracy and the gold seized or at best coerced into paying a substantial amount of such gold as bribe for passing the checkpoint. Assuming that the ship was sponsored the inspection had to happen anyways under the ship captain supervision and the cargo legitimate/declared owners (the pc) in which case they would have likely anticipated the moment the inspector was going to open the chest, unless you purposely didn't remind the pc, even by hints, about the nature of the chest to gotcha them (in which case you're a questionable gm). Assuming they did why they didn't try to stop the disaster from happening? All they had to shout "it's trapped!", explain the nature of the curse placed upon the chest and suggest to more it somewhere else for the inspection to avoid loss.
>>97189775i reminded the players 3 times that the chest was trapped, one of them didnt say anything, another person said my character forgot so im not going to do anything, and the third player just kept repeating "don't open it" at the commander without explaining
>>97183439Presumably he had their permission (coerced or not) to search their storage area. Unless they specifically told him not to open that chest (which they definitely didn't) then he is not in the wrong here.
>>97180867How would the players know what the trap did if they didn't open it?
>>97180867The inclusion of the rope is genuinely funny.
>>97183535Proof that even in galaxies far, far away, there are tasty, tasty crayons.
>>97190032These anons >>97189540>>97183681are right about you.
>>97190032So in other words, you were going to have the commander open it no matter what, and you sandbagged them.I mean... Did you ask for a persuasion check to see if the commander cared?>"You rolled a 23, so the commander hear's the firm desperation in your voice, gets nervous, and listens to what you're saying more closely."Done. Easy.I wouldn't even say that's good GMing, that's just common sense.
>>97190347As was written here >>97190032 at least one of OP's players rather explicitly said "Don't open it".
>>97190347they didn't have any contraband on their ship so they agreed to have it searched>>97189719after the chest incident one of the players cast charm person on the commander and told him to go on his way>>97183592>>97183439they do want to sue him there's a problem though they aint got no time for a lengthy lawsuit and now they also aint got the money for it>>97191119the player did roll a persuasion check they got a 2 + 5
