Who wants to be a D&D millionaire?

[LordHenry]

Hey guys, I'd be in dire need of some assisstance. I'm currently designing an encounter-heavy dungeon somewhat modeled after the Watcher's Keep from Badur's Gate 2, with multiple dungeon levels, increasing in difficulty as they delve deeper into it.

However, riddles and puzzles also are an elementary part of it, as not only their braveness but also their minds are to be tested. As one of these non-combat encounter I would like to run a short millionaire sequence like the british tv show. The basic idea is that, unlike most other encounters I have designed yet, this one is mostly harmless and non-lethal. Of the maximum of 15 questions they can answer, the further they come, the better their reward will be (I'm up to suggestiosn for rewards as well).

Now I turn to you, asking for good questions for my (lvl 10ish - not that their level should matter much) players. The biggest issue for me seems to agree on what kind of questions I actually want to ask, as ingame questions might be easy to answer for their characters, but not for the player, calling for a knowledge check, which never is really fun. On the other hand, asking modern questions kind of breaks the immersion. Some compromise would be a mixture of both, like asking what spell can make an otherwise immune Stone Golem slowed. My players do not know much ingame d&d lore, they are rather experienced d&d players though, so would know about quite some monsters etc. Still, a knwoledge (Arcana) check poses a problem here as well.

Bonus question: Creative dnd-themed "jokers" (called lifelines in the show, not sure how they called in other countries, as I'm not a native speaker)?

[LordHenry]

No1 has an idea? *shamefully bump*

[Gildedragon]

Use logic puzzles

use knowledge checks for hints regarding the information of the puzzle (ghosts can't go through walls of force...) (do them nested, DC 10 gets 1 hint, DC 15 the DC 10 stuff + 1 more helpful hint, DC 20 DC 15's stuff + 1 even more helpful... and so on)

allow for intelligence checks for hints regarding the logic of the puzzle

[Harlot]

hmm ..
No knowledge checks, since the characters skillpoints will vary a lot,

Are they to be together as a team or as individuals?
I like your idea, but the questions should be something any adventurer should be able to answer. Questions about magic would be out of the barbarians league etc.

The only common ground really is the adventure they're already in (or former adventures if th party is old/tight) So maybe consider asking them riddles about NPC's they've met or places they've been. (Not what you're going for, I know.)

I think it will be really hard to pull off if you follow the quiz show template.
Rather go Harry Potter and have a chain of different puzzles/tests each made for the individual character type/class. So the wizard could do a knowledge check and the rogue could dismantle a trap and the monk could ... do some thing monk-y.

I think the whole quiz show idea would only work with a party of all casters of sorts...

[Vhaidara]

As far as lifelines, maybe have something like the wizard's master (Speak with Dead is a thing).

Ask the Audience could be really funny. I could really see this being run by a bunch of Aberrations. So you've got a mind flayer as the host, and then you have a row of beholders, a row of fish tanks with aboleths, a bunch of driders, and other aberrations scattered around. Oh, and make sure that when they get their treasure there are mimics.

A third lifeline could be electing for a trial by combat in place of a question. The later the question, the harder the fight. I would say questions 1-5 = CR Level-2, 6-10 = CR Level-1, 11-15 = CR Level. Bearing in mind that they don't get to rest between these.

[LordHenry]

I would expect them to be together and to try to solve these questions together. I really like the lifeline "trial by combat" that one's a must for sure. It does not have to be a quiz, questions like logic puzzles would be fine as well. Maybe even a mixture of both is possible. I'd try to avoid questions for certain individuals, and also want to challenge my players, not the characters knowledge skill. The classic hint system for a knowledge check will work though.

Great ideas, I like it! :)

[Vhaidara]

Actually, idea. Reduce the CRs of the Combat lifeline by 1. If you get the question wrong, you can still progress, but you must fight a battle 1 CR higher than the corresponding Combat lifeline. So you can guess and hope you get it right, or play it safe and take a slightly easier fight.

Also, I forgot to mention on Ask the Audience: The Audience starts Unfriendly. Using the gladiator combat rules from Complete Warrior, the players can improve that attitude during Combat lifelines, and this improves the accuracy of the Ask the Audience lifeline/

[Gildedragon]

Something else could be reflavoring a couple of standard problems as D&D rules questions...

something like if a lighning rail leaves (town a) heading towards (town b) at (speed x) at (time 1), and a adventuring party leaves (town c) towards (town b) at (time 2) after the celebrations for having killed a vampire fire giant, which of the two will reach (town b) first?

Answer: the party, a vampire fire giant is CR 12, at which point the party has access to teleport.


Also:
The poison game.
Opposed bluff, spot, sense motive, perform (logic speech), and intelligence checks to try and get the non-poisoned glass.
The assistant might be poison immune...

[Vhaidara]

I see one of my GMs posting in a thread like this, I start getting scared.

[Gildedragon]

I see one of my GMs posting in a thread like this, I start getting scared.

I am suggesting a poison-switcharoo
and I am suggesting the switcharoo be rigged
and I am running an intrigue game

[Vhaidara]

Yes, it is rigged. In our favor. The King of Metal is immune to poison.

[LordHenry]

Wow, the gladiator crowd mechanics are great, that makes the "ask the audience" lifeline very unique and interesting! A see a troll, a beholder and a mindflayer before me, cheering. ;)

[Trasilor]

Hey guys, I'd be in dire need of some assisstance. I'm currently designing an encounter-heavy dungeon somewhat modeled after the Watcher's Keep from Badur's Gate 2, with multiple dungeon levels, increasing in difficulty as they delve deeper into it.

However, riddles and puzzles also are an elementary part of it, as not only their braveness but also their minds are to be tested. As one of these non-combat encounter I would like to run a short millionaire sequence like the british tv show. The basic idea is that, unlike most other encounters I have designed yet, this one is mostly harmless and non-lethal. Of the maximum of 15 questions they can answer, the further they come, the better their reward will be (I'm up to suggestiosn for rewards as well).

Now I turn to you, asking for good questions for my (lvl 10ish - not that their level should matter much) players. The biggest issue for me seems to agree on what kind of questions I actually want to ask, as ingame questions might be easy to answer for their characters, but not for the player, calling for a knowledge check, which never is really fun. On the other hand, asking modern questions kind of breaks the immersion. Some compromise would be a mixture of both, like asking what spell can make an otherwise immune Stone Golem slowed. My players do not know much ingame d&d lore, they are rather experienced d&d players though, so would know about quite some monsters etc. Still, a knwoledge (Arcana) check poses a problem here as well.

Bonus question: Creative dnd-themed "jokers" (called lifelines in the show, not sure how they called in other countries, as I'm not a native speaker)?

The "millionaire" game can end with the first question though. If the players get it wrong - game ends.

While I applaud thinking outside the box, remember Players are not their characters. Hence why we allow knowledge checks on creatures to know something about them. The player may not recall that Creature X is immune to fire, but the character might know this information.

Furthermore, an extremely intelligent character might find logic puzzles quite simple, yet the player may find them very difficult. Thus relying upon an intelligence check to figure out the puzzle.

When designing puzzles in most video game, the puzzle is very simple - that is because if you cannot figure out the puzzle, the game cannot be played. The only exception to this are the extremely difficult optional puzzles.

Finally, this style of "game show" doesn't really lend itself to creative thinking. The players/characters either know the answer or they don't. Unlike puzzle rooms which allow players to come up with multiple solutions (including ones you might not have thought of) thus being able to reward them for creative thinking.

Essentially, you may find yourself either:
a) Rolling a bunch of knowledge/Int checks b/c character knowledge > player knowledge
b) Creating a bunch of simple logic puzzles that don't really challenge the player, or are so difficult that they need to make Int Checks (see a)
c) They fail the first question - no real losses (they still progress) and you wasted time creating more and more challenging questions only to never be used.
d) Players think this is a trap and attack everything anyway...

Consider doing more of the mental challenges presented in the show Survivor - these were team challenges that required creative thinking...

tl:dr - don't make a game show, instead use puzzle rooms that utilize characters secondary/tertiary abilities.

[Segev]

I would use in-game knowledge tests, but have the dungeon prior filled with clues and leads. Do have a set DC for various knowledges to "just know" the answer, including the Bard's bardic knowledge. The roll represents the PC knowing the answer and being able to do the "blurt it out and say 'final answer' right away" thing.

The real game starts when the PCs can't "just know" it based on their die roll. They don't auto-fail when they don't know the answer off the top of their heads; instead, they now actually have a puzzle to solve. Data to sift through from earlier in the dungeon.

I would recommend having a few lower-DC "useful snippets" people might know as pointers for each thing. So if they fail the "I just know the answer" roll, they get a reminder or hint or the like, perhaps several, which help them reason out an answer or which might point their mind's eye back along memory lane to something that happened earlier in the dungeon.

Now the players get a sense of how awesome their characters are when they "just know" things, but have an honest-to-goodness game to play when they fail the roll. Rather than having it be a boring pass/fail thing.

For the really high-end questions, you could have people offer knowledge skills on which to roll. Some of them may be the WRONG skill to roll, but you won't tell them that. If they succeed on the WRONG skill, they're "certain" it's an answer you gave them. Their experience and knowledge in that field blinded them into thinking they knew something they didn't. Ideally, you'll have 2+ PCs rolling on different skills at this point, so they'll know they disagree and have to figure out WHY. Again, there's gameplay here if there are clues and ways to figure out who's right.

And there's always the "combat" lifeline to hedge them at this stage if they haven't used it.

[LordHenry]

Consider doing more of the mental challenges presented in the show Survivor - these were team challenges that required creative thinking...



I have never heard of the show? What kind of challenge were there presented?