Yora
2015-04-17, 02:19 AM
I was reading the Numenera RPG, and while it didn't really win me over, I was really quite intrigued by its focus on ancient techno-magical machines. In addition to pieces of scrap with odd properties, single use items, and permanent items, it also mentions a fourth category of Discoveries, which are usually big things that can not be carried around by a single person, have no immediate combat uses, and are often permanently integrated into buildings. Or they even are buildings.
For a game about exploring ancient ruins in search for magic, these actually sound much more interesting than having just some mostly empty basement with a couple of monsters and a few magic items. I've very rarely seen anything like this described either in campaign settings, nor in published adventures. In videogames they are quite common though, as they make fantastically looking environments. I think there's a bunch of them in almost every BioWare game. They don't have to be useful for anything and players don't have to learn how they work or what they were made for. Or perhaps they have one practical use, which only barely touches upon its original purposes.
The possibilities are endless, so let's throw some ideas around for everyone else to salvage and make into something for their own settings and campaigns. I find that this is a good read (http://theangrygm.com/the-angry-guide-to-kicka-combats-part-2-battlefields-and-battlefeels/) to get an idea for making interesting dungeon environments.
Miniature Star
This dungeon is build around a large central chamber in which a ten meter sphere of intense light hovers high above the ground. The light shines through doorways and windows into the surrounding rooms and corridors and burns everything that comes into contact with it. It is not so much heat but rather a kind of radiation, which makes the parts of the dungeon where the light does not reach only slightly warmer than expected for such a place. Touching the light is not immediately deadly, but more than very short durations automatically cause damage. If a character stays in the light long enough to perform any action, he takes damage.
It's not really a problem in the outer part of the dungeons, but in the central areas the PCs have to find ways to get around the patches blasted by the light and could even use them against enemies.
Acid Well
This dungeon has some kind of magical fountain that apparently got corrupted or damaged in some way and now produces a stinking harmful liquid. Unfortunately the dungeon is also very old and the original drains for the water no longer work correctly, which floods the lower rooms in the toxic liquid. In some rooms it's only a few centimeters deep and the players might come up with some kind of protective boots, while in others its almost up to the ceiling, so they can only be crossed by climbing support beams that keep up the roof high below the floor.
Since character death from a single failed roll is never fun, the liquid should not be too deadly and only harm characters in a way that they can get pulled out before they are dead.
For a game about exploring ancient ruins in search for magic, these actually sound much more interesting than having just some mostly empty basement with a couple of monsters and a few magic items. I've very rarely seen anything like this described either in campaign settings, nor in published adventures. In videogames they are quite common though, as they make fantastically looking environments. I think there's a bunch of them in almost every BioWare game. They don't have to be useful for anything and players don't have to learn how they work or what they were made for. Or perhaps they have one practical use, which only barely touches upon its original purposes.
The possibilities are endless, so let's throw some ideas around for everyone else to salvage and make into something for their own settings and campaigns. I find that this is a good read (http://theangrygm.com/the-angry-guide-to-kicka-combats-part-2-battlefields-and-battlefeels/) to get an idea for making interesting dungeon environments.
Miniature Star
This dungeon is build around a large central chamber in which a ten meter sphere of intense light hovers high above the ground. The light shines through doorways and windows into the surrounding rooms and corridors and burns everything that comes into contact with it. It is not so much heat but rather a kind of radiation, which makes the parts of the dungeon where the light does not reach only slightly warmer than expected for such a place. Touching the light is not immediately deadly, but more than very short durations automatically cause damage. If a character stays in the light long enough to perform any action, he takes damage.
It's not really a problem in the outer part of the dungeons, but in the central areas the PCs have to find ways to get around the patches blasted by the light and could even use them against enemies.
Acid Well
This dungeon has some kind of magical fountain that apparently got corrupted or damaged in some way and now produces a stinking harmful liquid. Unfortunately the dungeon is also very old and the original drains for the water no longer work correctly, which floods the lower rooms in the toxic liquid. In some rooms it's only a few centimeters deep and the players might come up with some kind of protective boots, while in others its almost up to the ceiling, so they can only be crossed by climbing support beams that keep up the roof high below the floor.
Since character death from a single failed roll is never fun, the liquid should not be too deadly and only harm characters in a way that they can get pulled out before they are dead.