Game Show Dungeon

[Dire Roc]

I had a rather silly idea for a dungeon with rooms/puzzles all based on on game shows, including the fabulous prizes and some twists for punishment. Lets just assume the guy who built the place was really eccentric. So to get started here are my ideas:

1) Wheel of Torture!
The party spins a wheel and tries to determine what a phrase on the wall is by guessing letters. For every correct guess they get 100 gp per letter, but if its wrong they lose whatever the wheel landed on (fingers, hands, etc.).

2) Monty Haul Problem
Three doors, one leads to the treasure room! The other two have dire, flame breathing goats from hell! After the party guesses one, a goat door will be revealed and they'll have the chance to change their choice.

3) Faction Feud!
"On this side, the Guild of Explorers, and they'll be playing against... The legions of hell!"... "now we asked 100 married commoners what they wanted for the harvest festival this fall"

4) Deal or no Deal
"Mr. Paladin, the lich is offering you a flaming holy longsword for whatever is in that chest, Deal or No Deal?"

And so on, so what other game shows might work well in the silly dungeon puzzle format?

[Waker]

If this is the kinda theme that you want for a game, you definitely need to check out XCrawl. It's a D&D campaign where the party are sponsored athletes going through a dungeon in front of millions of viewers at home. So basically America Gladiators with real threats!
http://www.goodman-games.com/xcrawl.html

[RedMage125]

If this is the kinda theme that you want for a game, you definitely need to check out XCrawl. It's a D&D campaign where the party are sponsored athletes going through a dungeon in front of millions of viewers at home. So basically America Gladiators with real threats!
http://www.goodman-games.com/xcrawl.html

If I could "Like" a post, I would.

American Gladiator meets Running Man, meets NASCAR, for all the commercial advertisement in the Crawls.

Xcrawl is great for a pick-up game. "Everybody make 5th level characters. Welcome to the Tennessee Invitational." The DM can then make up a dungeon however he wants, with no theme, rhyme or reason (Arctic monsters in one room, fire elemental ones in the next? Why not?), because the monsters were all placed there.

When done as a long-term campaign, you really get into the extra mechanics of playing the crowd's reaction, negotiating with sponsors, and dealing with your character's newfound celebrity when he/she is outside the Crawls.

There's opportunity for a bit of humor, too. Zombies provided by the Necromancer's Guild all have paper bags over their heads with yellow smiley faces painted on them. A sponsor for a big Crawl might inject themselves somehow into it ("The treasure chest contains ADIDAS Boots of Striding and Springing!", and they will actually have the logo on them). Characters get extra points with the crowd for pulling off flashy maneuvers, which means calling out the name of the attack, anime-style. A character with a private sponsor might get more for mentioning his sponsor in the name ("Here it comes! The Mountain Dew Blade Typhoon!").

The game doesn't have to be silly, but I HIGHLY recommend the setting.

Some fan did a 4e adaptation, too. It was interesting if you played 4e.

EDIT: They recently did an update to the Core Rules to make it compatible with Pathfinder! Look for Maximum Xcrawl!

[Christopher K.]

This is an interesting coincidence; my players are about to enter the Abyss and experience much the same thing. The big difference is that I put more emphasis on the hosts of the shows and their personalities:

Arveyus - Lord of Consensus: "we've consulted a legion of 100 demons, top 4 answers are on the board"

Teberrek - Lord of Inquiry: "and that noise means we've reached our devil's double"

P'anna - Lord of Ciphers: "alright, give the Wheel of Torture a final spin"

Bra'ydd - Lord of Decision "you've currently got 1000 gp. Would you like to risk it and bring trapped here for eternity for the Big Deal?"

[SethoMarkus]

No suggestions further than what others have said (and I seriously need to look into xCrawl now), but couldn't help thinking of this.


https://youtu.be/_3jc_3p0YZY

[Green Elf]

I say it works if let's say an insane man trapped you inside and tried to kill you with the games. Then maybe you kill him at the end.

[8BitNinja]

This is a good idea. A good.one to add is a trivia game. No tricks, no catch, just a trivia game. Just to give them a sense of security.

As for the deal or no deal, I say deal.

[Dire Roc]

My justification for this concept is that in my setting dungeons are tests by the gods with rewards of magic items for adventurers and heroes. In this case one of them went a little bit too far with his odd idea. I figure the loot from it would be likely to include some sort of crystal ball or other scrying device.