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View Full Version : Trap and Puzzle Designing Help



QuintonBeck
2016-01-19, 09:15 AM
So I'm stepping out of the realm of GM of Empire! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?454716-EMPIRE2!-CWBG-II-Cultural-Identity-Crisis) over in the Worldbuilding part of the forums to get some help with ideas for an upcoming D&D game.

My group is working together to establish and develop a city setting where we will all take turns at the DM wheel for one/two shots as opposed to a big overarching campaign as we've done in the past. Now, I'm looking forward to flexing my chops for writing smaller stories rather than epic save-the-world stuff and I have an idea but my predilections lie more in story than in trap or puzzle design so I need some help.

The ruleset is D&D 5E but it will likely be played relatively fast and loose. The idea is this, the PCs are contracted by those of... 'shadier repute' to investigate the disappearances of some of their top guys. They obviously can't go to the guards to look into the disappearances of thieves and thugs but it seems someone or something is definitely targeting their organization and they want to find out who, why, and take them down. Cue investigation and the players discover it's a wizard and self styled psychiatrist (will be coming up with a better title) who has been abducting these criminals and trying to reform them by trapping them in pocket dimensions stylized to replicate a simple, honest life. Needless to say the PC's receive the same treatment for being snoopy and thus likely concludes session one and opens for session two.

Now, what I don't know and need help with is what to put in the pocket dimension(s) or if they should all be lumped in one or separated. Separated makes more sense but might be less fun (and can be explained away imo that the wizard had only just created one for his next patient but had to use it on the PCs instead) however I'm not sure what to put in the dimension or what the way out should be. I'm taking some inspiration from Tranquility Lane from Fallout 3 and also the For the Man Who Has Everything Superman comic with the setting tending towards idyllic and attempting to lull the heroes into acceptance but I want there to be clues on how to escape.

Thing is, I'm not too great with puzzles and this seems like an appropriate time for a puzzle not a "ask the right people and find the right clues left behind" investigation. So, Playground, any ideas on what puzzles could exist, be apparent enough to the players, and be solvable for them to escape?

Ettina
2016-01-19, 11:25 AM
I don't know if this would fit the situation, but I've been tossing around the idea of a 'paranoia dungeon' making use of the various monsters that look like harmless objects, such as mimics, ragamuffins, etc.

Mutazoia
2016-01-21, 04:49 AM
I don't know if this would fit the situation, but I've been tossing around the idea of a 'paranoia dungeon' making use of the various monsters that look like harmless objects, such as mimics, ragamuffins, etc.

Or a maze where all the walls are enchanted with the old "Glassee" spell that makes them completely transparent.

Or the floor of a hallway that is made of perfect, seamless obsidian that leads into a room with a seamless black obsidian floor...that is actually perfectly still black water. The bottom is 50' down and made of "lodestone" (or natural magnets for those of you who don't know), sucking any metallic armor wearing character straight to the bottom.

Or Dimension Door spells placed inside actual doorways, that transport the unsuspecting party, unnoticed, to a completely different point of the dungeon, just to play hell with their mapping efforts. (The doors only work one way, naturally.)

Or a standard 10' wide pit trap that has another concealed 10' wide pit trap on the far side of it, just waiting for some one to jump over the first one.

Or a standard 10' wide pit trap with an invisible wall of force protruding 5' down from the 10' high ceiling right in the middle. Anyone jumping the pit hits the wall and falls in anyway.

Or a room with the floor 6" below that of the hall outside. The entire floor of the room is a giant "ball pit" filled with marbles and a nest of very hungry, carnivorous insects.

Or a hall trap that sprays fresh blood on the party. The next room is filled with 1D10 starving dire wolves.

Or a version of the two door schtick from "Labyrinth". "one door always lies, the other always tells the truth." Except that the door that says that is the door that lies....actually both doors lie and both doors dump the party into the bog of eternal stench (or other nastiness).

Or entering a room where all the doors close and magically lock once inside. In the center is a clear, unbreakable box containing an ornate key, and a hand crank on the side. When turned the handle starts playing "Pop goes the weasle." When the song ends, the entire contents of the room (sans box) are catapulted into the air, through the illusionary ceiling onto the actual spiked covered one. After taking damage from the spikes, they fall back to the floor, suffering fallig damage. Then all the doors open.

Or a dead end hallway with a carved gargoyle head at the end. The head has it's mouth open where the party can see a hole with a lever in the back. The player brave enough to stick his hand in finds a clamp slamming down on his arm, pinning him in place...just before the floor of the entire hallway (except the 2' or so where the trapped player is standing) drops away into a rushing underground river. After the party is dropped in, the floor pops back up, the "safety harness" clamp is released and the secret door behind the gargoyle head opens, allowing the now alone party member to continue down the hallway.

I can keep going until the character limit runs out... :smallamused:

Apricot
2016-01-21, 07:59 AM
The right kind of puzzle is, of course, whichever your players like most and which all the players can get involved in. Do they like word games? Put in some riddles. Do they like logic? Look up math puzzles and reskin them for the setting. Do they enjoy searching/scavenging? Have a secret passcode with the parts of it scattered through the area. Even better, mix various kinds of puzzles into solving the "big one." This is an advantage of the passcode style, because you get to just require they solve a variety of puzzles to get the final one completed. That way, everyone can be involved, and everyone can feel like their own cleverness contributed to the group's success. Just one warning: if the puzzle has only one solution, make absolutely sure with no ambiguity that they have all the pieces of the puzzle spelled out for them. There's nothing more infuriating, from the puzzle-solver's standpoint, than to fail because the rules of the game were unclear. This means that it's totally okay to add detail after the fact either IC or OOC if you hear the players getting seriously off-track. Just apologize for being unclear, and everything will be fine.

Now, an issue with your current system is that it doesn't make the most sense for your players to be able to get out. Their prison was designed by someone who wants them in, and so them getting out is going to have to be an oversight or a necessary flaw. I would recommend that the exit be a combination of the two: say, the wizard simply isn't powerful enough to make several perfect, separated pocket dimensions, and that they're instead connected at certain locations (physical or no) that he just doesn't know about. Furthermore, that point of connection is a weakness of the system as a whole, so if it's found the players can break out. This lends itself to a very strong potential model: the wizard separates out the players each into their own somewhat-suitable dimension, and then they have to figure out how to escape. The players, then, will have to figure out how to leave on their own. For example, one might imagine a bloodthirsty warrior to end up in a dimension with an endless supply of enemies to fight: the solution is to stop fighting and try to let them kill him, which they can't - they weren't ever intended to. A weakness here is that you both have to telegraph this somehow and that you have to run solo stories for each player, which can get exhausting. An alternative is that the players on a whole figure out how to move between the dimensions and have to find out, through accidental traces left by the wizard, what his secret passcode for exiting the place is. Sorry that this doesn't go more into specifics, but I hope something here is inspirational.

DataNinja
2016-01-24, 03:11 AM
-snip-

If you enjoy those, I believe you may also enjoy this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?419451-The-most-paranoia-inducing-dungeona). :smallbiggrin: