Things for a GM to Say When...

Compiled by Kelly Neal. (Download PDF below)

Taken from ragingswan.com

PC makes a Perception Check and finds nothing:

1 You see nothing out of the ordinary, and hear nothing but the laboured breathing of your

companions and the creak of their equipment.

2 A slight breeze plays across your face, but you can’t make out where it comes from.

3 Some of the nearby shadows seem slightly deeper than they should be.

4 For just a moment, you thought you heard a faint whispered conversation, but it is gone now.

5 As you search the area, a shiver runs down your spine. Is someone watching you?

6 You suddenly feel warm, as if you had exerted yourself for sometime. Perhaps it’s just the stress of

the adventure?

7 Dust—illuminated by the light—swirls and shimmers in the air creating intricate patterns that form

and reform.

8 A faint odour—perhaps sweat or damp—hangs in the air, but you cannot identify its source.

9 Your heart pounds loudly in your chest and the roar of blood fills your ears. However, in the area

you detect nothing seemingly of interest.

10 You detect nothing of interest, but something just feels “wrong.” Perhaps its paranoia or perhaps

its your sixth sense warning of a lurking danger…

PC looks for a Trap and finds nothing:

You don’t find anything out of the ordinary, but…

1 The floor doesn’t seem completely flat. Several parts are slightly higher than the surrounding areas.

2 Dust on the floor is thicker in some places than others.

3 A gentle breeze caresses your face. You can’t determine its source.

4 The mortar in the walls is old and crumbling. In some places, it has completely disintegrated leaving gaps between the bricks.

5 The floor at one point seems to be slightly concave and the stones look slightly damp.

6 Your (torch, lantern or other) light casts strange shadows on the walls as if they are not as flat as they first appeared.

7 The area seems slightly colder than you’d expect.

8 The area seems slightly warmer than you’d expect.

9 There is a faint, acrid smell in the air.

10 You are pretty certain you heard the faint grinding or groaning of stone on stone.

11 The air is perfectly still—it’s as if the dungeon itself is holding its breath…waiting for you to

make a mistake.

12 The area seems safe, but for a moment you thought you heard a faint clicking sound.

13 The ceiling looks a little odd. Perhaps it’s not built properly, but you swear its sloping down toward one side of the room.

14 There’s a fair amount of stone dust and small pieces of stone lying against one wall.

15 The faint smell of smoke hangs in the air.

16 Several sections of the walls have soot stains reminiscent of that left by torches set in sconces. However, there are no sconces present anywhere in the room.

17 Scratches on the floor show something large and heavy was dragged through here. However, the scratches stop roughly halfway across the area.

18 In three spots, water drips from the ceiling onto the floor. None of the resultant puddles seem very large suggesting the water is draining away somehow.

19 Faint growths of mould on the (floor, wall or ceiling) hint at an organised pattern of sorts unlikely to occur in nature. (The pattern could be suggestive of a hidden portal, trapdoor, pit or sigil of arcane of divine nature).

20 The proportions of the whole chamber just look wrong. Some pieces of architecture—protrusions

and niches—seem to serve no purpose whatsoever and the ceiling seems suspiciously low.