request for tests *EC's PLZ AVOID*

[armouredbear]

so several years in to designing and running a multi-year world-hopping, but still classic d&d-style (mediaeval fantasy) campaign with some CoC and a pinch of Rifts thrown in for flavor, i find myself out of ideas. i have three PCs (one monk, one druid/fighter/cleric, and one exalted paladin) who have to acquire an important artifact from a guardian who requires them to "pass these three tests" to get the object. however, they have two other interested parties who also want the object - one nazi from the forgotten realms, and one smartly dressed (and apparently totally sane) cultist.

so, here's my quandry: i can't think of anything to do for tests, and i can't figure out how to deal with the competition of the NPCs :smallredface:. they can't be morally-based tests (how could a paladin and a nazi have a shot at passing the same test?), but i suppose pretty much anything else is fair game.

thanks in advance for the ideas!

[DracoDei]

Off the top of my head:
A.)
"Road Rally": must touch specific points in 100 landmarks, scattered at least across the world, and perhaps across the planes, in a specific order. Many of these should be in hostile areas (The Abyss, a specific ship-wreck 1 mile beneath the surface of the ocean (no I did NOT just repeat myself :smallsmile: ) etc). Groups must remain within 2 miles of eachother at all times, but only one member need actually 'score' each check-point. Either race against a set clock, or just make it so they can't go on to the next trial until they beat this one.

B.)
Bring 10,000 humanoids to a desolate location and keep them alive there for 1 month within a radius of 5 miles or less. Diplomacy or force are equally allowable ways of gathering and containing the humanoids. For "easy" version make it like the Saharra desert... for hard version... the Elemental Plane of Fire...

[Icewalker]

Wow, interesting ideas there Draco. Hard and large-scale stuff. I really like the first one, sounds like a good test for something like this. The second one requires a lot of creation of your own systems for what all these people take to live and such. Bit complex for just a challenge.

I don't have any ideas off the top of my head.

[armouredbear]

draco,

i love both ideas, but they're more like adventures unto themselves - but maybe i can do something with that, too!

i guess what i'm looking for is more small scale stuff. i was thinking of the old "challenge of champions" type stuff from dungeon (or was it dragon?) - "an adventure for pcs of any level" because they were all pretty much mental puzzles and required the pcs to give up all their magic items at the door. however, that won't work because i'm playing the two evil parties, and i would already know the answer to the puzzles.

i think that the first of your ideas might have given me an idea, though - maybe i'll just make the next part of the adventure the test, since it involved them having to do a certain thing before something bad happened...and that bad thing certainly could involve the bad guys more directly...

however, further ideas are certainly welcome!

[Quietus]

Take an old cliche, and make it fresh again - just don't tell your party. One test of strength, one test of skill, one test of wits.


Skill : I like Draco's idea, you implied you did as well, and it ties nicely into something else I had in mind. Score!

Wits : instead of making each checkpoint from "The Rally" be something that you need to touch and move on, make it something you need to collect. Focus on making it difficult to reach the items, so that "The Rally" still covers skill, but each item is a clue to the next checkpoint.

Strength : What else? BOSS FIGHT! Fight the guardian! The last item picked up from "The Rally", if properly decoded/figured out, gives them a hint that takes the Guardian from "You can't hurt me 'cause I said so" to "You're so gonna get your ***es handed to you if you don't roll well".

::Edit:: The key to making this not be so incredibly cliche is not letting your players know that you're running off the "Skill, Wits, Strength" template. Never use those words, most people will never realize it until they've seen enough to go "Okay, that was cool."

::Edit2:: Just noticed that I misread something of yours - the rally doesn't HAVE to be quests, per se. Sure, you could put a bunch of monsters between them on the surface and at the dungeon a mile underwater... or you can assume the kraken's eaten today and focus more on the fact that water pressure sucks. Have them use the resources available to them to get there, and don't worry so much about killing them with monsters on the way.. make it more a series of skill checks. Mmm... get the rogue into that room filled with things that want to kill him, that requires Tumble/Balance/Climb/Jump checks to get through, could make for good times.

[Daracaex]

I like Quietus's idea. Go with the classics. If you want to put a little twist on it, why don't you have one or both of the opposing parties catch up to the party as they're fighting the guardian? Or have the party walk in on the battle with the guardian being fought already? This would make it interesting because there are three opposing groups all fighting at the same time. Just make sure the two NPC groups fight each other too so as to not be too hard on the party.

[DracoDei]

Wits+Rally: Make some of the checkpoints perfectly easy to get to, but described in a riddle or code.

BTW, one part about the Rally is that some of the checkpoints should be easy to get to normally anyway... the thing is it is a race... point 45 might be a small town only 100 miles from point 44 with a well patrolled road between them... so are you going to Greater Teleport? Risk a Teleport (especially since you only have a description to go on?)? Overland Flight? Hire a coach and catch some sleep on the way? Here is where spells like Mount, Far Strider, Phantom Steed can come into their own.

[qube]

for a wits/combat test
(for those who follow Bleach: based on ichigo's bankai-'tutorial')

a open field (bigger then 100 ft on 100 ft. ) with 100 swords (thats at least big square of 10x10 swords (if each sword is 10 ft of the next, thats 100 ft on 100 ft)

each sword looks diffrent (shortsword / longsword / bastardsword / greatsword / falchion / kukri / scrimitar / two-bladed sword ) (iron / cold iron / adamantium / silver ) (forging style: slim / large handle / gothic / not curved but hooked / oriental / ...) (diffrent magic: +X / flaming / frost / wounding / ... )

in the room there is one enemy. only one weapon can hurt the enemy, and that's one of the swords. (perhaps a shadow variant of the PC)

objective:
- find the correct sword before the enemy kills the PC
- kill the enemy




on second though: the right sword is the artifact (though a simple detect magic shoudln't reveal that) and the enemy they must defeat is the guardian

(if the artifact isn't a weapon, it can be masked as a weapon by the guardian)


additional notes:
- (i'm guessing the paladin wields a sword): let them loose al swords before combat.
- some swords look like they are important. example: if the gaurdian also wields a sword, one of the swords looks exaclty like that of the wielder; one also does, oposite colors, ...; some looks like the sword of the God of War; one looks exaclty like that of the paladin)
- about these swords: each sword has a lesson: the sword like the paladin means ("with you old powers you are weak"; the sword opposite of that wich the guardian wields "it doesn't take the opposite of the enemy to defeat him"; the sword that looks like that of the guardian "you can only use the same power as the ememy to defeat him, if you are stronger then him" , ...)

[Demented]

Probably not completely a twist, but the Nazi and Cultist may have different ideas on how each test should be completed... Ideas that the party may want or need to stop, especially if they believe that doing so may actually interfere with the results.

These days, it'd actually be a twist if you needed to somehow save/protect/free the Guardian...

[Xuincherguixe]

Since there's some CoC in there, how about a maze with non euclidean geometry.

Wait, next to impossible to model that. Nevermind. Winding spirally corridors of which normal spacial rules do not apply. Take the 'teleporter approach' for the easy way.

One of the items could be at the bottom of a mountain. That regenerates. I'll leave you to figure out the way to get at it.

If you're feeling Norse, perhaps one of the tests requires someone to give up an eye or a hand.

Perhaps one of the tests can only be solved by cheating. That'd throw people for a loop :P

[Triaxx]

There's always the Zelda block puzzle route. But change it up, so the two parties are competing to complete the puzzle. This way they can interfere with one another. Structure it like combat, so that one side moves, then the other can.

[jindra34]

You could also add rules on not killing your opponents...