ShirAhn
2017-07-19, 02:04 AM
Hello everyone,
In my campaign I created a big sidequest that would eventually lead the party into a labyrinth of sorts. Yesterday the party finally managed to get inside and work their way through. At first I figured I would just generate a random map and actually have them run through it but it seemed like allot of work and not very fun for the players either. So I did some google and got inspired to create the mechanics listed below. Whether you want the players to find the center of a huge Maze, or maybe find their way out of one. Any DM can run any kind of Maze/Labyrinth with no more then a simple deck of playing cards and this set of fully customisable rules.
Setting up the Maze: creating the Progress Deck
First you need to determine how much time you would like the players to be stuck inside the maze. You do this by grabbing a deck of cards and remove all the cards with a Heart symbol. For the players to reach the end of the Maze they have to exhaust this Progress Deck. The Progress Deck is simply a small deck of stacked heart cards of any type. Each card adds about 30minutes (real time) to the event. So when you run 5-6 heart cards it will take the players 2,5 to 3 hours to complete (in theory they can blast through it within a minute but those chances are very slim).
Setting up the Maze: the encounter Deck
After you have set up the Progress deck its time to create the encounter Deck. You can use every other non-heart card and create some kind of type of event that happens. Usually a dungeon consists of several kind of events. Some that I use are traps, monster encounters, puzzles and roleplay events. But there are many many more that you can think of. Each type of event has to be attached to some kind of card. Check the Event cards explained part at the bottom of the post to see what I used for my events.
Running the Maze; setup
Once you have created the Progress and Encounter Deck its time to set it up. First you have one of the players shuffle the encounter deck to give them the feeling that whatever is going to happen to them is somewhat determined by chance. Then you explain that for them to continue through the dungeon they have to find the heart cards. You then take 1 heart card from the progress deck and 5 cards from the encounter deck this is your default setup. You then determine the "starter" player (I let my players rotate to get everyone involved). You then let that player role a survival check. See the table below to determine what happens.
1 Add two encounter cards (8 total)
2-5 Add one encounter card (7 total)
11-16 Remove a encounter card (5 total)
17 + remove 2 encounter cards (4 total)
20 remove 3 encounter cards (3 total)
*note, when removing cards, make sure you never remove the heart card.
Once you have your set of encounter cards and your one progress card you shuffle them really well and lay them out face down. You then let the starting player choose his/her card and you play the event of the chosen card. If the players dont draw a heart card you play the event as listed in the Event cards explained section. Once they have finished the encounter the next player chooses a card untill they find a heart card. When the players finally do find the heart card you set it aside and do a new setup. You can reuse all encounter cards that your players came across before. In my campaign I remove the puzzle cards and the highest difficulty traps/monster encounters when they come across them. I also always only add about 30% chance to find treasure and reduce this number each time they find treasure by removing the treasure cards once they find them.
You keep doing this process until the Progress deck is empty. Once they find the last heart card the players have succesfully found their way through the maze.
Running the Maze: Time
I explain to my players that the maze is huge and takes allot of time to travel through it. Every time they choose a card I make a note and add 2 hours to the time marker. Basicly every 12 cards requires a long rest or they get exhausted, they also have to eat there food and if they are unlucky they might even run out. This of course is fully optional and you can change the 2 hours to whatever you want or not use it at all.
Event cards explained
Diamond Card = Trap card; the party has stumbled upon a trap and have to dodge out of the way!!
You can use the UA (https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/0227_UATraps.pdf)to determine the damage and difficulty etc. depending on your players character lvls.
So lets say you have three different kind of traps, a moderate, dangerous, and deadly trap. And you want the dungeon to be mostly filled with dangerous traps.
You could use the following table:
2-3 = moderate trap
4-6 = dangerous trap
7 = deadly trap
The setup above gives a total of 6 trap cards. Where the diamond 2 and 3 card represents a moderate trap, the diamond 4,5 and 6 represent a dangerous trap en the diamond 7 card (you could use a Ace to show to the players that aces are bad news) is a deadly trap.
When the players draw a trap card you have to determine who is hit by the trap. I ask the players beforehand in which formation they are traversing the maze and I tell them that there is only enough room for 2 persons to walk through the halls side by side. So a group of 6 players would have two people in the front, two people in the middle, two in the back.
Then I role a D4 (can be adjusted to fit your amount of players) to determine who is hit by the traps.
On a 1, the trap hits the people in the front
On a 2, the trap hits the people in the middle
On a 3, the trap hits the people in the back
On a 4, the trap hits the entire party (flamethrower effect).
*When a party is actively searching for traps you can use investigation check to first determine if the player finds it, then give him a chance to disarm the trap using the same rules as described in the UA (I really really enjoyed this trap UA).
Club Card = Monster Encounter card; the players follow some dark halls and end up in a room filled with monsters.
When the players choose an Encounter card they are confronted with a monster (or group of monsters). Narrate some cool way the players come across them and if they are in stealth they might get a surprise round as described in the player handbook. Determining the difficulty of the encounter works the same way as with traps.
2 A easy encounter
2-4 A normal encounter
5-6 A hard encounter
7 A Deadly encounter
So when the players draw the 2 of clubs they get an easy encounter. If they draw a 2,3 or 4 of clubs they get a normal encounter etc. I use the website kobold.club (http://kobold.club) to help me create fitting encounters that I prepare before hand.
Clover Card = Lost; The players haven taken a wrong turn somewhere and end up spending hours navigating the maze and they lose their direction.
When the players draw a clover card of any type it should make it harder for them to find the heart card of this round. Grab all remaining undiscovered cards and add two encounter cards. Shuffle them and give the players the option to choose again. This reduces their chances to find the heart card.
Ace Card = Rest; The players find a good place to rest, maybe a room that has beds or a room that is save to hide in. You can allow short/long rests whatever you wish.
I usually don't let my players take long rests in hall ways or after encounters. They can try to setup camp, but if they do I role a 50/50 chance that they are attacked during their rest. However when they draw a Ace card I explain that they have find a really good place to rest. That looks very save. Letting them clearly now that this place is save.
King = Food; The players come across some old mushroom and they find food and drink.
In my maze it is possible for the players to traverse the dungeon for several days, so they might run out of food and drink. (See the Time section above) When they draw a King card I let them stock up on food and drink. The player who draws the card roles a 1d4 and the party finds that amount worth of days of food.
Queen Card = Puzzle; The players enter a room with a locked door, there are several pillars and levers scattered around the room. There must be a way to open that door!
The players come across a puzzle, you can use one of many many many dungeon puzzles on the internet or remove them entirely.
Joker Card = Treasure; the players come across a locked door. They are able to pick the lock and find a small room behind the door. Inside the room is a small treasure chest containing a magical sword.
The players find treasure, I use the loot tables listed in the Dungeon Master guide to determine what the party gets. But you can use whatever you want, or even have a monster guard it.
Afterthought
I hope you guys find this useful, I would LOVE feedback on this if you have any. Maybe you guys can share some ideas you have about other types of encounters?
In my campaign I created a big sidequest that would eventually lead the party into a labyrinth of sorts. Yesterday the party finally managed to get inside and work their way through. At first I figured I would just generate a random map and actually have them run through it but it seemed like allot of work and not very fun for the players either. So I did some google and got inspired to create the mechanics listed below. Whether you want the players to find the center of a huge Maze, or maybe find their way out of one. Any DM can run any kind of Maze/Labyrinth with no more then a simple deck of playing cards and this set of fully customisable rules.
Setting up the Maze: creating the Progress Deck
First you need to determine how much time you would like the players to be stuck inside the maze. You do this by grabbing a deck of cards and remove all the cards with a Heart symbol. For the players to reach the end of the Maze they have to exhaust this Progress Deck. The Progress Deck is simply a small deck of stacked heart cards of any type. Each card adds about 30minutes (real time) to the event. So when you run 5-6 heart cards it will take the players 2,5 to 3 hours to complete (in theory they can blast through it within a minute but those chances are very slim).
Setting up the Maze: the encounter Deck
After you have set up the Progress deck its time to create the encounter Deck. You can use every other non-heart card and create some kind of type of event that happens. Usually a dungeon consists of several kind of events. Some that I use are traps, monster encounters, puzzles and roleplay events. But there are many many more that you can think of. Each type of event has to be attached to some kind of card. Check the Event cards explained part at the bottom of the post to see what I used for my events.
Running the Maze; setup
Once you have created the Progress and Encounter Deck its time to set it up. First you have one of the players shuffle the encounter deck to give them the feeling that whatever is going to happen to them is somewhat determined by chance. Then you explain that for them to continue through the dungeon they have to find the heart cards. You then take 1 heart card from the progress deck and 5 cards from the encounter deck this is your default setup. You then determine the "starter" player (I let my players rotate to get everyone involved). You then let that player role a survival check. See the table below to determine what happens.
1 Add two encounter cards (8 total)
2-5 Add one encounter card (7 total)
11-16 Remove a encounter card (5 total)
17 + remove 2 encounter cards (4 total)
20 remove 3 encounter cards (3 total)
*note, when removing cards, make sure you never remove the heart card.
Once you have your set of encounter cards and your one progress card you shuffle them really well and lay them out face down. You then let the starting player choose his/her card and you play the event of the chosen card. If the players dont draw a heart card you play the event as listed in the Event cards explained section. Once they have finished the encounter the next player chooses a card untill they find a heart card. When the players finally do find the heart card you set it aside and do a new setup. You can reuse all encounter cards that your players came across before. In my campaign I remove the puzzle cards and the highest difficulty traps/monster encounters when they come across them. I also always only add about 30% chance to find treasure and reduce this number each time they find treasure by removing the treasure cards once they find them.
You keep doing this process until the Progress deck is empty. Once they find the last heart card the players have succesfully found their way through the maze.
Running the Maze: Time
I explain to my players that the maze is huge and takes allot of time to travel through it. Every time they choose a card I make a note and add 2 hours to the time marker. Basicly every 12 cards requires a long rest or they get exhausted, they also have to eat there food and if they are unlucky they might even run out. This of course is fully optional and you can change the 2 hours to whatever you want or not use it at all.
Event cards explained
Diamond Card = Trap card; the party has stumbled upon a trap and have to dodge out of the way!!
You can use the UA (https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/0227_UATraps.pdf)to determine the damage and difficulty etc. depending on your players character lvls.
So lets say you have three different kind of traps, a moderate, dangerous, and deadly trap. And you want the dungeon to be mostly filled with dangerous traps.
You could use the following table:
2-3 = moderate trap
4-6 = dangerous trap
7 = deadly trap
The setup above gives a total of 6 trap cards. Where the diamond 2 and 3 card represents a moderate trap, the diamond 4,5 and 6 represent a dangerous trap en the diamond 7 card (you could use a Ace to show to the players that aces are bad news) is a deadly trap.
When the players draw a trap card you have to determine who is hit by the trap. I ask the players beforehand in which formation they are traversing the maze and I tell them that there is only enough room for 2 persons to walk through the halls side by side. So a group of 6 players would have two people in the front, two people in the middle, two in the back.
Then I role a D4 (can be adjusted to fit your amount of players) to determine who is hit by the traps.
On a 1, the trap hits the people in the front
On a 2, the trap hits the people in the middle
On a 3, the trap hits the people in the back
On a 4, the trap hits the entire party (flamethrower effect).
*When a party is actively searching for traps you can use investigation check to first determine if the player finds it, then give him a chance to disarm the trap using the same rules as described in the UA (I really really enjoyed this trap UA).
Club Card = Monster Encounter card; the players follow some dark halls and end up in a room filled with monsters.
When the players choose an Encounter card they are confronted with a monster (or group of monsters). Narrate some cool way the players come across them and if they are in stealth they might get a surprise round as described in the player handbook. Determining the difficulty of the encounter works the same way as with traps.
2 A easy encounter
2-4 A normal encounter
5-6 A hard encounter
7 A Deadly encounter
So when the players draw the 2 of clubs they get an easy encounter. If they draw a 2,3 or 4 of clubs they get a normal encounter etc. I use the website kobold.club (http://kobold.club) to help me create fitting encounters that I prepare before hand.
Clover Card = Lost; The players haven taken a wrong turn somewhere and end up spending hours navigating the maze and they lose their direction.
When the players draw a clover card of any type it should make it harder for them to find the heart card of this round. Grab all remaining undiscovered cards and add two encounter cards. Shuffle them and give the players the option to choose again. This reduces their chances to find the heart card.
Ace Card = Rest; The players find a good place to rest, maybe a room that has beds or a room that is save to hide in. You can allow short/long rests whatever you wish.
I usually don't let my players take long rests in hall ways or after encounters. They can try to setup camp, but if they do I role a 50/50 chance that they are attacked during their rest. However when they draw a Ace card I explain that they have find a really good place to rest. That looks very save. Letting them clearly now that this place is save.
King = Food; The players come across some old mushroom and they find food and drink.
In my maze it is possible for the players to traverse the dungeon for several days, so they might run out of food and drink. (See the Time section above) When they draw a King card I let them stock up on food and drink. The player who draws the card roles a 1d4 and the party finds that amount worth of days of food.
Queen Card = Puzzle; The players enter a room with a locked door, there are several pillars and levers scattered around the room. There must be a way to open that door!
The players come across a puzzle, you can use one of many many many dungeon puzzles on the internet or remove them entirely.
Joker Card = Treasure; the players come across a locked door. They are able to pick the lock and find a small room behind the door. Inside the room is a small treasure chest containing a magical sword.
The players find treasure, I use the loot tables listed in the Dungeon Master guide to determine what the party gets. But you can use whatever you want, or even have a monster guard it.
Afterthought
I hope you guys find this useful, I would LOVE feedback on this if you have any. Maybe you guys can share some ideas you have about other types of encounters?