10 Minute Dungeon Crawl

[Bucky]

(Pathfinder system, party level 9-10)
(E: Actual party level is 9, but with campaign artifacts equivalent to 2-3 mythic tiers each.)

I've been asked to run a single session for an existing gaming group. This will be my first time running 3.5 or Pathfinder, and I don't know what to prepare.

To simplify my 'universe', I'm running the entire session out of a one floor dungeon. The party will be visiting another group of adventurers who share their save-the-world goal. When they arrive, they will notice that (a) someone managed to scry-and-die the other party without setting off the entire magical security system and (b) their own arrival has triggered the rest of it, starting a 10 minute self destruct timer, and locked the front door for good measure. Their new objective becomes, solve the puzzles to turn off the self destruct OR grab what they can and get out. And the previous batch of invaders left some mindless undead minions behind.

So I'd like help with:
(A) Figuring out what needs planning and preparation
(B) Figuring out how much 'stuff' is reasonable given the time limit
(C) Specific level-appropriate undead minions

[Novawurmson]

Is it really just 10 minutes? Because that's like 1 combat if everyone intimately understands the system and their characters/and or just rolls a bunch of lucky crits.

[Bucky]

10 in-game minutes = 100 rounds. Enough time for 8 level appropriate combat encounters and walking a lap around the dungeon, if there's no rest time in the middle. I currently intend to prepare 5 'major' combat encounters, two of which are optional, and a few more speed bumps.

[Novawurmson]

Oooh, OK. I really like the time limit, interesting. As far as planning and preparation:

*If you're going to have a time limit, you need to have almost everything prepared. When you impose a big restriction like that, you don't want to have to hand-wave something that ends up screwing the party later. You want to be as professional and in control of the situation as possible.

*The highly restricted location is a good idea. It keeps all the action tight and focused and reduces your work load.

*I would recommend varying the creature types and reasons for their existence at the base. Some mindless undead minions is fine, but it'll get old, especially if a member of the party is a cleric who optimized turn undead or a ranger with favored enemy (undead). How about the invaders accidentally released some dangerous magical beasts that the other adventuring group had captured and were trying to train? How about some of the invaders tried to sneak back in to pilfer a little more or were accidentally left behind? How about the invaders turned off a temporal statis prison that was holding a dangerous criminal (or dragon!) or destroyed a binding circle that was restraining a powerful demon or devil? How about some of the security system is some kind of construct?

*As far as timing goes, most combats take five rounds or less, but you probably want to err on the side of caution and reserve more like 7 to 10 in your calculations. I would recommend 1 minute per combat, 1 minute per puzzle for 4 puzzles to make 9 minutes, leaving 1 minute of additional wiggle room.

*Make most of the puzzles extremely obvious (i.e. four unlit torches in the corners of the room, one burning censer in the middle). You're putting a lot of pressure on the players, so reward them for quick, decisive action.

*The Bestiary by CR (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/bestiary-hub/monsters-by-cr) is a good place to start looking for monsters. Avoid almost all 3rd party monsters - monsters are already notoriously unbalanced, so trying to evaluate 3rd party monsters is more work than its worth.

*I'm not sure if you understand how to build an encounter, but I'll point you to the rules (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering#TOC-Step-1-Determine-Average-Party-Level-APL-) as well as to an excellent guide (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nx-o8VAjhUwh3nnfzDQT-JA5eFLnN_BZJiBitGjBMDg/edit).

I'm assuming that the party is about 4 players. If not, the math is going to get wonkier. I'm also assuming the party is at a moderate level of optimization (i.e. the barbarian has Power Attack, the wizard has haste). If the party is at a much higher or lower level of optimization, things get wonkier. I'm also assuming that the average level of the party is 10.

So lets say for the first combat, you want to go easy on them. They're still letting the whole "self destruct" sequence thing sink in, and they wander across the mindless undead you mentioned. We're just trying to get their blood up, so we're going to go with a CR+1 encounter (CR 11).

I looked at the bestiary by CR looking for mindless undead, and I came across the giant zombie (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/zombie/zombie-giant-storm). These things can take a beating (126 HP) and deal plenty in return (4d6+22 damage), but their permanent stagger means that if the party plays safe, they can avoid too much damage in return. I take their CR and compare it to "Table: CR Equivalencies" and see that three CR 8 creatures is equal to a CR 11 encounter.

If you didn't want this encounter to have that many creatures, you could just use one CR 11 creature (like a devourer (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/devourer)), but players can often overwhelm an individual target with their action economy. If you want more, you could see that 6 CR 6 creatures is also equivalent to a CR 11 encounter, and throw 6 Berbalangs (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/berbalang) at them.

[Bucky]

The tentative major encounters are:
1) Front door. As soon as one of the leftover mindless undead detects the party, they fight. This reactivates a piece of the security system that casts a Summon Monster IV or V spell. The summoned monster(s) initially prioritize the undead, but also fight the party.

2) Reaminated Adventurers. The other party's Artificer and Fighter both reanimated afterwards, trading some class levels for undead templates. They aren't in communication with the front door group, so they get fought later. The security system again summons a monster, but this time to defend its former masters, whom it recognizes.

3) Monster in the Swimming Pool. This giant squid or something used to be the Druid's aquatic animal companion. It's been trapped in its indoor holding tank ever since the underwater exit collapsed during the attack. Fighting the MitSP is optional (only one party member needs to sneak past it for a solve-all-the-puzzles win) but lets the party loot the Druid's corpse and maybe access the underwater exit.

4) Golems. The Artificer was in the middle of crafting a pair of golems for field use when the attack happened. One is fully complete, the other was hastily animated before she carved its legs and is therefore bypassable. Following their final orders, they try to keep the party out of the Artificer's workshop.

5) Fighter's Pets. The Fighter, with help from the Druid, had been breeding and training a hive of half-dragon (something)s. If their nest is disturbed, they harass the party with flyby attacks until driven off.

And a couple of minor encounters:
a) 'Random' Encounters: The security system might be triggered to set off more Summon Monsters when the party isn't otherwise engaged. These summons are basically speed bumps.

b) Exit Ambush: If the party tries to exit by climbing up the half-dragons' exit shaft, they find that it's occupied by a couple of giant spiders. If they try to exit through the front door, they get a jump scare on the way out that they can just run away from, provided they open the front door rather than bashing through it.

c) The Toilet: The base employs a Gelatinous Cube midden. The party might end up fighting the Cube if they break into the septic tank.

When balancing these encounters, I will plan for a random member of the party to be off multitasking or lagging behind when they start.

[TheCrowing1432]

Whats to stop the wizard from teleporting?

[Nibbens]

The tentative major encounters are:
1) Front door. As soon as one of the leftover mindless undead detects the party, they fight. This reactivates a piece of the security system that casts a Summon Monster IV or V spell. The summoned monster(s) initially prioritize the undead, but also fight the party.

2) Reaminated Adventurers. The other party's Artificer and Fighter both reanimated afterwards, trading some class levels for undead templates. They aren't in communication with the front door group, so they get fought later. The security system again summons a monster, but this time to defend its former masters, whom it recognizes.

3) Monster in the Swimming Pool. This giant squid or something used to be the Druid's aquatic animal companion. It's been trapped in its indoor holding tank ever since the underwater exit collapsed during the attack. Fighting the MitSP is optional (only one party member needs to sneak past it for a solve-all-the-puzzles win) but lets the party loot the Druid's corpse and maybe access the underwater exit.

4) Golems. The Artificer was in the middle of crafting a pair of golems for field use when the attack happened. One is fully complete, the other was hastily animated before she carved its legs and is therefore bypassable. Following their final orders, they try to keep the party out of the Artificer's workshop.

5) Fighter's Pets. The Fighter, with help from the Druid, had been breeding and training a hive of half-dragon (something)s. If their nest is disturbed, they harass the party with flyby attacks until driven off.

And a couple of minor encounters:
a) 'Random' Encounters: The security system might be triggered to set off more Summon Monsters when the party isn't otherwise engaged. These summons are basically speed bumps.

b) Exit Ambush: If the party tries to exit by climbing up the half-dragons' exit shaft, they find that it's occupied by a couple of giant spiders. If they try to exit through the front door, they get a jump scare on the way out that they can just run away from, provided they open the front door rather than bashing through it.

c) The Toilet: The base employs a Gelatinous Cube midden. The party might end up fighting the Cube if they break into the septic tank.

When balancing these encounters, I will plan for a random member of the party to be off multitasking or lagging behind when they start.

Creative, yes. But perhaps relying on combat as your main "obstacles" could wear thin, especially when the PCs know they have a time limit.

I'd suggest replacing an encounter or two with a puzzle (nothing too difficult) or perhaps a few traps, or maybe even am RP encounter with a surviving member of the party wanting to go back in when the thing is about to collapse or whatever - and they have to talk him out of it.

Having random "optional" encounters in a fight where every round counts - while extremely creative and well thought out (seriously, I loved the giant squid idea) - can really play havoc with your time table.

I'd suggest dry running this a couple times and finding an "average time" for a perfect performance, and then figuring out what a failure situation would be, and base your numbers off that. Don't forget that your own lack of preparedness here can cause a TPW. So be well versed in how this dungeon operates.

[Bucky]

@TheCrowing1432:
I don't think the party will have strategic teleportation capability. If they do, I don't have a problem with them using it as an alternate exit plan.

However, a small portion of the base might be kept Dimension Locked by the security system.

@Nibbens:
The scenario I described is somewhat forgiving with the timings because it has three or four outcomes: Rocks Fall Everyone Dies, escape in panic, escape with the LOOT, disable the self-destruct. An 'escape in panic' outcome is relatively quick via multiple methods (including killing the Monster in the Pool and unblocking the underwater tunnel). So a timing mistake on my part might make disabling the self-destruct nigh-impossible, but wouldn't cause a TPK.

I didn't describe either the puzzles or the RP encounter just in case one of my players reads this.

TL;DR the party only needs to win 2-3 encounters to survive, and everything else is extra credit.

[Bucky]

I think I have a pretty good idea of what should be in the dungeon. How does one go about putting together a dungeon from its pieces?

[Selion]

Unless they'll be fighting 100 rounds without talking, 10 minutes seems to me a ridiculously small time. I would switch to 20-30 minutes. Use a chronometer, don't take in account your and your players' descriptions (often, as a player, i describe my actions in details), make clear when the time is running and when it's frozen.
This will make the party nervous when they'll talk about enigmas resolutions.
Force them to lose time in apparently useless actions; for example, a deep pool of water that may force a character to undress his armor to swim through it.
The first thing that come to my mind is a simple enigma that can be solved only splitting the party (for example two levers that must be pulled simultaneously), with two encounters for two players. So they will discuss strategically the way the party should be split.

[justiceforall]

Suggestion: an entirely illusionary encounter designed strictly to waste time until the intruders figure it out.

Very cheap way to delay people, rewards alert players.

[Novawurmson]

As far as making a dungeon, I suggest making a drawing through Google Docs like this one (https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1eEbu7qoKj-9OiabZpqRm7A-6QKKqqzcPNMC5i3WioGE/edit?usp=sharing) I'm using for a hyper combat-focused game I'm GMing. Each of the rooms in this campaign are 90' by 90' (18 squares by 18 squares), which I don't think is a bad rough room size for your rooms. You'll also need to plot out the exact size of the hallways (or lack thereof for rooms that directly border each other). I'd add a couple mostly-dead ends that just have hints at how to solve the puzzles (diaries, research notes, diagrams, maps - i.e. "The squid almost got out again. I caught the thing pulling out the stopper this time! [Druid] needs to keep a better eye on that thing, or I'll be making calamari out of it.").

[killem2]

Have you considered making this more into a board game style turn based thing?

Make it 10 minutes, but never forget that 1 rounds = 6 seconds.


You could very easily have a timer or countdown tracker that is set to 600 seconds. You asked everyone want they want to do as normal in turn, resolve all those non combat actions that require a round at once and deduct it from the total time. When it gets to combat, just deduct per round accordingly. This gives your players the 10 minute experience. It allows for the talking you may need to allow.


However if you are planning on just setting everyone down, start a REAL timer of 10 minutes, and expect to finish, no way. Even if you had a small group of 4 tight knit players, who had been playing since they were 11 and it was the same character the entire time, and they knew everything, you would not finish that much content in a real time 10 minute frame.

[SinsI]

Important: since it is a one-time adventure, don't forget to reduce the charges of the party wands to 1/5 of normal (fully charged wands = 10 charges), and increase the cost of single use items 5x.
Otherwise it is going to be much easier for them than intended.

[Bucky]

Have you considered making this more into a board game style turn based thing?

Make it 10 minutes, but never forget that 1 rounds = 6 seconds.

I'm on the fence about whether to do the entire dungeon crawl off one initiative roll, one round at a time for 100 rounds.



Important: since it is a one-time adventure, don't forget to reduce the charges of the party wands to 1/5 of normal (fully charged wands = 10 charges), and increase the cost of single use items 5x.
Otherwise it is going to be much easier for them than intended.

I'm guest-DMing for an existing party. This shouldn't be an issue.

[killem2]

I'm on the fence about whether to do the entire dungeon crawl off one initiative roll, one round at a time for 100 rounds.




I'm guest-DMing for an existing party. This shouldn't be an issue.


What I mean is, just set that round counter. Play as you always would. Separate rolls and all that. But keep track of anything that requires an action in a round, and deduct it. Eventually it's going to get down to the wire.

[Novawurmson]

With that super-high combat campaign I mentioned earlier, my rule is roll initiative at the beginning of the "floor" (beginning of the session in your case). After each "room" (combat), any player that is not satisfied with their roll can reroll with a cumulative -2 penalty (penalties halved if they have Improved Initiative), though my players knew those rules when they entered the campaign. Speeds up combat when I don't have to constantly keep asking for initiative.

[killem2]

Combat Manager i a free program to track iniatives as well, also pathfinder toolkit app can do it too.