[3.5] Need suggestions for non-monster encounters

[averagejoe]

I'm starting a new campaign pretty soon, which will start out in a maze. The maze itself is three dimensional; basically a series of cubic rooms which may have openings on any of their six faces. What I need is, for a few of the dead ends, some sort of non-monster encounter, each of which being contained in one of these cubic rooms. It can be trap, treasure, puzzle, secret, whatever, it can depend on the players coming up from the floor, down from the ceiling, but it should be somewhat more interesting than a stone cube.

The party will be level 4-ish during this maze, and, though I haven't decided on the size of the rooms, but they will be in the 10ft-30ft cube range.

Thanks for any responses!

[BlueInc]

So you're DMing Cube? That's pretty sweet.

Traps would be the obvious choice. I'm interested to find out how it goes.

[aquaticrna]

a couple rough ideas:
-quicksand style floor, first player drops in from the ceiling and starts sinking, swim checks to stay afloat while the rest of the party scrambles to get him out.
-self locking room, if a certain weight limit is exceeded the room seals shut with a puzzle to get out, if you want to make it harder/scarier could add some sort of substance that fills in the room slowly.
-an illusion trap, party gets suddenly surrounded by something scary, actually totally harmless
-depending on how brutal you want it to be could add a ring of teleportation to the floor of one (one directional of course) now you're lost! could make it worse by having the destination rotate between 3 different places so the party is both lost and split up!
-illusionary arch way, party tries to proceed runs face first into a wall! good for a couple laughs
-pit trap that drops you down a couple floors
-the classic slowly closing spike walls trap
-could drive the party a little nuts with a room of antipathy so they think they're not supposed to go there and thus really want to, could combine this with another trap to really trick them
-rotating room, once again could serve to split the party and/or trap someone(s)
-fire trap, 'nuff said
-deep slumber trap their hit die make it unlikely the whole party would get affected but would keep them on their toes
-a desiccating room, i believe that there is something like it in tomb of horrors paired with a fountain of delicious looking acid.

that's all i've got for now, perhaps more later, hope some of those are useful

[averagejoe]

So you're DMing Cube? That's pretty sweet.

This is a reference I don't get.

Yeah, traps are obvious, but I don't really want to stick in some triggered darts and call it a day. Though some quick-reset pit traps could be fun for certain segments of the maze. Sure, falling is 1d6 damage, but splitting the party is priceless. :smallamused:

[JonestheSpy]

Here's a fun one for cubes: subjective gravity. Gravity pulls toward any one of the six sides of a particular room, and changes from room to room. Moreover, the gravity can change, either at random interval, or by a device - pulling a lever, lifting a gem from a dais, etc.

[averagejoe]

-illusionary arch way, party tries to proceed runs face first into a wall! good for a couple laughs

Maybe have an illusory passage, then have a major image "run" down it. Bugs Bunny eat your heart out.

These are fine suggestions, but I don't want just lethal/inconvenient things. I'd like at least a couple rooms that, at worst, do nothing, but hold potential rewards for skillful/clever players. The party's going to be a little light on the loot going in, so I do need to be able to seed some amount of stuff. (It's kind of a high magic campaign in a mostly low-magic world. Or, rather, PC's from a low magic world find their way elsewhere.) Heck, even a couple things that are just pointlessly weird could be fun. Thinking again, "Encounters," may have been a bad word, because of its connotations.


Here's a fun one for cubes: subjective gravity. Gravity pulls toward any one of the six sides of a particular room, and changes from room to room. Moreover, the gravity can change, either at random interval, or by a device - pulling a lever, lifting a gem from a dais, etc.

Hmmm, I do love subjective gravity. I like the idea of a trigger. Maybe with gems or something, and then have gravity potentially go in different directions for different PC's, depending on who has the right gems.

[aquaticrna]

quick question to try to help guide my ideas, what is the point of this maze? was this used by people ever? is it to protect something? is it just there because screw you it's cool?

[averagejoe]

quick question to try to help guide my ideas, what is the point of this maze? was this used by people ever? is it to protect something? is it just there because screw you it's cool?

It was not used by people in memory, myth, or historical record, though I'm open to the idea that people may have used it once. However, it was not built to be livable, and habitation was not its intended purpose. The basic idea is it was built by a god, the motives of whom will play a role in the campaign as it progresses. The basic idea is that this god likes being loved, respected, and generally depended on, but also likes to be in control. The idea is that every so often he lures people into this maze (which eventually leads to other realms that are under his more direct control) and starts out by giving them rewards, praise for overcoming pitfalls, possibly even direct help, and then as things progress he starts to withhold aid that the characters might have begun to take for granted, or enforce fairly arbitrary rules, seem to favor one over others, essentially in an effort to cultivate a relationship with his new-found followers in which they're dependent on him. This time around it probably won't go to plan, PC's being notoriously hard-headed and independent minded, but that should be interesting too, since this god is a creepy little snot with deep insecurities.

[aquaticrna]

ooohhhhh i like it... i can definitely work with that!
so here goes, trying to include treasure, chances for divine intervention (sorta) and potentially manipulative/biased going's on

-room where there are x number of tasks that must be sustained for the cool treasure to be accessed, where x = party number -1, on top of that each task should only be doable by one of the party members so one specific person gets the treasure, but the treasure is cursed so that whoever gets it cannot get rid of it, thus insuring only that person can benefit.
-room with an idol of this god holding out a bowl of gems/trinkets/whatevers that when picked up grant the party members some fun bonus ie +1 sacred bonus to attack or saves or +1 to a spell save dc x times per day. Then later these items can be turned to loadstones or some other frustrating thing for "displeasing the god"
-a room with a pool of lava or some other uncrossable thing separating the party from a pile of gold/treasure, party can't get across, deity makes a bridge.
-a room with a guillotine and a mural describing great rewards for sacrificing your comrades to the god, hopefully won't get used, but could be a nice little temptation, especially if one character is put in a unique position to sacrifice one or more of his friends.
-a gold mural containing a number of gems with pictures revealing that these gems can be thrown and shattered as single use attack spells, like chain lightning or some acid spell or something like that. Could include a trap that when the gems are removed a lesser version of what that gem will do is sprung on the remover, perhaps one character is mysteriously immune?
-a treasure chest that will only open when the characters pledge fealty to the god, when each person does it in turn the chest opens revealing a special item just for them.
-a room with a list of simple rules, and a reward for agreeing to these rules, if the rules are broken the reward turns into a punishment, could couple that with the idol idea above.
-if the characters end up divided in their devotion, could have a place where the loyal and obedient characters are allowed to advance while the disloyal characters are trapped behind a wall of force or something, maybe with something dangerous slowly approaching to kill/crush them
-a room that splits the party into each performing a separate challenge, with the difficulty of the challenge proportional to how much favor they've curried from the god.


that's all i've got for now... i'll keep it on the back of my mind, hopefully these are useful!

[Thurbane]

This is a reference I don't get.
Cube (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123755/)

Cube 2: Hypercube (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285492/)

...the first one was a great little film. :smallsmile:

[averagejoe]

-a room with a guillotine and a mural describing great rewards for sacrificing your comrades to the god, hopefully won't get used, but could be a nice little temptation, especially if one character is put in a unique position to sacrifice one or more of his friends.

:smallamused:

Sudden keyboard troubles, so typing is annoying, but thanks. May elaborate more once the thing is fixed.


Cube (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123755/)

Cube 2: Hypercube (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285492/)

...the first one was a great little film. :smallsmile:

Kafkaesque, hmmm? My EXTREMELY THOROUGH literature background tells me that this means it involves people turning into cockroaches.

[smashbro]

One item I have in my campaign now was going to be a book of useless facts, but my players thought it would come in handy (that crocodiles can't stick out their tongues, and that the butterfly used to be called a flutterby). Decided to turn it into a Checkov's book, and use that in later adventures. point is, you should have a room with this sort of book, or some hint in an otherwise empty room, and then let the players remember it and get a reward later.

also, have you ever read enders game? for the battle games, 5 people had to touch a corner of the gate, and one person goes through. use that, and then give some info only to the person who went through.

you could throw some weather hazards in some rooms. desert/cold.

i like the guillotine room, and other rooms that compromise the party's loyalty.



if you want good things, like i said I like the Checkov's book idea. Also, you could have a room with random items, and let the players each take one. Don't tell them what each is, but let them figure it out on their own. For example, one of my players has a Chair of Comfortableness, which gives bonuses to diplomacy/bluff checks as long as the person they are talking to is sitting in it. I forget what else I used, but one thing my players didn't pick was a pink Ball of Roundness/Bouncyness, which you can throw at an enemy to do 1 damage, and then make as many reflex saves as you can to keep hitting the ball back at the enemy for more damage (the more bounces the higher the DC)


I'll try to think of more