DMs, have you ever had NPCs trick or scam your players? Would you? If so, how did it go? (piefed.blahaj.zone)

submitted 4 months ago by queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone to c/dnd@lemmy.world

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I am planning a set piece that involves some NPCs deceiving my players. The short version is that my players will meet some simple farmers trying to bring their crops to market, only to find that they're actually smugglers in a Hatfields and McCoy's type feud, which the party then gets messily swept up into. I generally don't trick my players; I don't think there's anything wrong with it but I imagine some tables would take to it more than others. Do you trick your players? Are there some tricks you find acceptable and others that are unacceptable? For me, I have no qualm getting my players swept up into the seedy underworld of drug or artifacts smuggling, but I don't think I would run a plotline on human trafficking. That I think would be difficult in an unpleasant way for everyone involved.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] jarvis@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Oh hell yeah! NPCs trick my players all the time. Commanders, strangers, witnesses, priests, anybody might have an ulterior motive or secret agenda.

Best advice I have is just trust. Player characters don't need to trust every non-player character but the human players at the table absolutely have to know they can trust you the human GM.

When my NPCs pull some shady stuff, like the reveal last session that leader of the crusade has been plotting to betray the PC crusaders for the entire campaign, that reveal always comes with a huge smile from me. "Yeah y'all, this dude is terrible! But now your characters are on to him and I can't wait to see how they take him down!"

I'm not pulling one over on my players, I'm inviting them to a party I've been planning for ages and now we all get to find out what happens next.

this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026

41 points (97.7% liked)

Dungeons and Dragons

13722 readers

2 users here now

A community for discussion of all things Dungeons and Dragons! This is the catch all community for anything relating to Dungeons and Dragons, though we encourage you to see out our Networked Communities listed below!

/c/DnD Network Communities

Other DnD and related Communities to follow*

DnD/RPG Podcasts

*Please Follow the rules of these individual communities, not all of them are strictly DnD related, but may be of interest to DnD Fans

Rules (Subject to Change)

Be a Decent Human Being
Credit OC content (self or otherwise)
Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article

Format: [Source Name] Article Title

Posts must have something to do with Dungeons and Dragons
No Piracy, this includes links to torrent sites, hosted content, streaming content, etc. Please see this post for details
Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.
No NSFW content
Abide by the rules of lemmy.world

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world

owenfromcanada@lemmy.world