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Denkal
2010-03-03, 06:49 AM
I recently had the idea to make a dungeon crawl that leads across three different planes: The Dungeon itself (Which exists on the Material Plane), and work the Ethereal Plane and the Shadow Plane into the dungeon. For example, have places that randomly overlap with a "gray area" that the players can use if they don't have interplanar travel.

Some ideas I've thought of are walls and doors that only exist on one plane (So they'd have to use the ethereal plane to bypass some material walls and such), as well as traps that phase party members into different planes, but still have them visible and audible to the party. (i.e. in the party, 2 players remain on the Material Plane, 2 players are in the Ethereal Plane, and 2 players are in the Shadow Plane. They can still see and hear eachother, but it adds a dimensional element to encounters, especially if I throw monsters at them from separate planes.

Now that I put this all in text, it seems a bit overcomplicated and difficult to pull off, and seems almost like a rejected Zelda dungeon. But if I could pull it off, I definitely see this dungeon being memorable.

Altair_the_Vexed
2010-03-03, 07:33 AM
This sounds cool - plenty of ghosts and ethereal beasties!

Depending on the level your PCs are, you may need to help them out with crossing between planes.

Having the dungeon exist differently in each plane, but with common areas and rooms is a good call - some real-world haunting theories / commentries have suggested that the strange floating behaviour / wall-walking of ghosts is due to the new features of a building not being there when the ghostly person died.
You could use this idea / theme to map out the ethereal version of the dungeon as the pre-ruined building, then have the adventurers encounter the ruined version and explore it.

Denkal
2010-03-03, 08:11 AM
I liked the idea, and I especially like the idea of the Ethereal version reflecting the past of the structure, maybe even house some spirits that can help the PCs.

But my main concern is how difficult this would be to pull off. I intend to develop this idea along the campaign, since I have mostly newer players, and I'll need to get them used to thinking in terms of D&D logic, as opposed to Video Game logic. (We loot the wolves. What? No gold? What the hell?)

So, this is an idea I have plenty of time to work on. I just want to keep it from becoming too complicated.

Mulletmanalive
2010-03-03, 08:33 AM
I used a similar idea once. I drew a map using three colours of lines allowing me to simply track where they were in the dungeon and so on.

A second time, i worked everything out using three different maps and marking which to switch to when they went through certain doors in certain directions. Binding them together with paperclips allowed me to flip between them. It was helped by the fact that i'm not a battle-map guy.

The first time, it was a tomb and a puzzle, the second time, i was doing HoH and using Silent Hill as an inspiration.

If you want a more indepth guide, feel free to PM.

Kol Korran
2010-03-03, 11:17 AM
i think the idea is a solid one, and an interesting one. it might provide a unique game experience to the player. a few things that might make the assumption managable:
- there shouldn't be too many rules for the two other planes, just a few simple ones that give them the "right feel". jot 3-5 differences, and stick with them.
- i suggest you make a three layered map, each layer is on transperent material, and draw each dungeon in a different color, as suggested above. mark/ shade places where the planes interact or one can move between planes. don't make this the entire dungeon, just some hot spots.
- the dungeon itself shouldn't be that complicated, except for a few special encounter areas. the difficulty to navigate it should increase gradually, not at a sudden creep.
- if you like, i'd suggest you give areas degrees of "plane presence", making their effect more or less felt. i suggest you designate areas of the dungeon more ethereal, and others more shadowy. a very few places will have both effects strong, most places will have them as weak- mediocre.
- i suggest two kinds of opponents: one is a competing party, that tries to achieve or prevent whatever your party is trying to achieve. they get into the dungeon from another place, but can be interacted with at different points. alternetavely you could have several such groups in the dungeon, stuck at different places. the second kind of enemy is a native to the place, that knows it's tricks. ghosts could work, though i suggest a far more common creature/s that just know how to use everything here. (phantom kobolds) they needen't be that strong, just harassing and annoying. a few might be powerfull/ deadly.
- how do the players learn the rules of this place? a few options- some knowledge rolls, though that is the cheap way. some trial and error. also- they could get information from the other parties captured here, or by capturing one of the residents. orrr... you could give them a cryptic book with hints and clues as to how to navigate various places, perhaps from the only one who entered and came out alive?
- all the above is nice, but the key to making this work is preparing well in advance. think it through, plan through it, and prepare to throw some of your plans away when the PCs do something unexpected. if you're prepared, than everything should run smoothly...

Good luck! :smallwink:
Kol.