Designing a Working Gear Dungeon!

[A_Gray_Phantom]

I'm planning on sending my players' characters to Mechanus, and I wanted to design a mechanical dungeon that rotates on giant gears. I've always wanted to make a dungeon with large rotating rooms, and this seemed like the best opportunity given the thematic setting.

I'm going to use sturdy card stock sheets, and print the hex patterns on them. Then I'll cut around the hexes to form gear shapes. I'm not going to make it too complex: just some rooms that are in the shape of gears that rotate. I figured there could be some locked doors, and one room can control the rotation of all the other rooms. Getting one of the characters to the exit will allow them to flip a switch, unlocking all the doors, and letting the rest of the team through.

I'll post updates of my design as I go along. Should be interesting. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to get the gears to turn.

Has anyone ever played in a dungeon like this? How well did it work? Any other thoughts? Questions?

3-10-2020

So I've finished making the dungeon! Here are the progress pics:

https://imgur.com/a/3gUTrBt

I'm afraid I can't figure out how to just show the pictures, sorry.

I used this soft, but firm, foam for the gears, and a harder stock for the paper on which the hex grid is printed. I bought some lazy susans, and taped the foam gears onto the tops of them.

When the outer gears rotate clockwise, the middle gear rotates counter clockwise, and vice versa... sorta. The turntables are too wide, and the gears too small, so I have to turn the wheels carefully to make sure they all turn at once. Had I access to smaller turntables, or had room on the table for larger gears, then that wouldn't be an issue.

All in all, I am quite proud of this simple design. I'll be playtesting it with my mother-in-law soon.

[Gallowglass]

This is a fantastic idea!

Each chamber can have multiple doors on certain spokes. As the gears turn, only occasionally will the door in spoke Y of gear 1 line up with the spoke Z of gear 2 or the spoke W of gear 3. So they are stuck in the gear room until one of the doors line up. They also have to stand ready in order to leap through the door in the one round that the door is lined up, leaving the possibility that they get seperated if some make the leap and others don't.

So you should have traps or encounters in the gears that they have to "survive" while waiting for a door to open up. So every round you click the gears around one notch while they are doing whatever they are doing.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Sounds cool!

You might not even need to lock doors, if you make sure that passages only line up when the wheels are turned just right. Perhaps you can copy the gear mechanism of a watch, and use certain positions of the hands as clues?

[Gallowglass]

Here's a resource I found for how to draw gears on graph paper

http://www.mstworkbooks.co.za/technology/gr8/gr8-technology-13.html

Might be helpful to you.

Also, if you are programming inclined, here's a C resource for making gear drawing through code. I'm sure it would be portable to Python without too much work

http://csharphelper.com/blog/2016/10/draw-gears-in-c/

and, while I've not tried it, it looks like Inkscape has a built in "draw gears tool

https://www.wikihow.com/Draw-Gears-in-Inkscape


and here's an online page that lets you build gear templates on graphpaper as well


https://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html

[A_Gray_Phantom]

This is a fantastic idea!

Each chamber can have multiple doors on certain spokes. As the gears turn, only occasionally will the door in spoke Y of gear 1 line up with the spoke Z of gear 2 or the spoke W of gear 3. So they are stuck in the gear room until one of the doors line up. They also have to stand ready in order to leap through the door in the one round that the door is lined up, leaving the possibility that they get seperated if some make the leap and others don't.

So you should have traps or encounters in the gears that they have to "survive" while waiting for a door to open up. So every round you click the gears around one notch while they are doing whatever they are doing.

Yup! That's what I was thinking too :D I'll probably have some rooms guarded by Formian soldiers,


Sounds cool!

You might not even need to lock doors, if you make sure that passages only line up when the wheels are turned just right. Perhaps you can copy the gear mechanism of a watch, and use certain positions of the hands as clues?

Since I'm gonna need the players to see the map, I'm going to state that each room or spoke or whatever has a map of the whole dungeon available. This makes eliminates the concern for metagaming the layout of the dungeon, since everyone would know what it looks like in-character.




My biggest concern overall is getting the thing gears to rotate the way they should at all. I'm thinking what I'm gonna need to do is to have the players help me rotate the individual gears, but I'm gonna need to figure out how to playtest the darn thing in advance.

[A_Gray_Phantom]

Here's a resource I found for how to draw gears on graph paper

http://www.mstworkbooks.co.za/technology/gr8/gr8-technology-13.html

Might be helpful to you.

Also, if you are programming inclined, here's a C resource for making gear drawing through code. I'm sure it would be portable to Python without too much work

http://csharphelper.com/blog/2016/10/draw-gears-in-c/

and, while I've not tried it, it looks like Inkscape has a built in "draw gears tool

https://www.wikihow.com/Draw-Gears-in-Inkscape


and here's an online page that lets you build gear templates on graphpaper as well


https://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html

Thanks for the resources! I'll probably end up using the hex grid instead of the normal grid, though.

And I'm not at all familiar with programming, so this'll all be done by hand.

[Gallowglass]

My biggest concern overall is getting the thing gears to rotate the way they should at all. I'm thinking what I'm gonna need to do is to have the players help me rotate the individual gears, but I'm gonna need to figure out how to playtest the darn thing in advance.

Obviously haven't tested it. If you print the gears out on normal paper and paste it on some solid stock or foam sheets, then cut to match the pasted on gears, you should end up with workable gears. You can then arrange them in starting position, make sure you have the correct center point for each and pin them to a backer board with cylindrical pins. If they are all fitted tight, you should be able to turn one and ahve it rotate all of the gears. But, yeah, you'll have to test it. I would think rigid foam would work best, because it would give you enough surface area where the tines interact, but be light enough to not require a lot of force to move the assembly.

As far as not revealing what's what, you could print a blacked out version of each gear, then cut them out of paper and lay them on top of the unexplored gears. Then the players will know how many gears their are, but not any features you have in the gears. Granted this would make it hard on you to know when the door's line up. Not sure how to work that unless you use a math program in excel to know on what rounds doors on gears line up.

[Buufreak]

My biggest question about all of this: how many dimensions are you thinking in? Anytime I hear anything involving mechanus and dungeons/puzzles, my mind goes to that movie Cube.

[A_Gray_Phantom]

Obviously haven't tested it. If you print the gears out on normal paper and paste it on some solid stock or foam sheets, then cut to match the pasted on gears, you should end up with workable gears. You can then arrange them in starting position, make sure you have the correct center point for each and pin them to a backer board with cylindrical pins. If they are all fitted tight, you should be able to turn one and ahve it rotate all of the gears. But, yeah, you'll have to test it. I would think rigid foam would work best, because it would give you enough surface area where the tines interact, but be light enough to not require a lot of force to move the assembly.

As far as not revealing what's what, you could print a blacked out version of each gear, then cut them out of paper and lay them on top of the unexplored gears. Then the players will know how many gears their are, but not any features you have in the gears. Granted this would make it hard on you to know when the door's line up. Not sure how to work that unless you use a math program in excel to know on what rounds doors on gears line up.

Ooh! Foam! I could use styrofoam or something! Ooh boy, this is starting to get more complicated, but still manageable.

As for blacking out some of the gears, that's not a bad plan. Knowing when they line up will be simple: each gear is going to be divided by either halves or quarters. The main gear that has the controls that rotates the other gears will likely be the first gear they enter, and can only be rotated 90 degrees clockwise, or counter-clockwise.

Again, this is going to be complicated enough without needing to give full freedom of rotation, so limiting where the rotations land will make things much easier on me.

[A_Gray_Phantom]

My biggest question about all of this: how many dimensions are you thinking in? Anytime I hear anything involving mechanus and dungeons/puzzles, my mind goes to that movie Cube.

Dude, I LOVE that movie! I'm only going to work on the x/y axis. Added a "z" axis would be way too much work. Just a single floor, and probably 6 (but no more than 7) gears.

Do you believe in God?

[Buufreak]

Dude, I LOVE that movie! I'm only going to work on the x/y axis. Added a "z" axis would be way too much work. Just a single floor, and probably 6 (but no more than 7) gears.

Do you believe in God?

Cool friggen deal none the less.

yo maybe

[A_Gray_Phantom]

So I started to draw out the gears on my hex map, and noticed the first hurdle: the "gears" won't fit together as originally planned. Since they're hexagonal in shape, they won't fit together perfectly if they're all the same shape.

The other issue is that if I make them different shapes to fit together, then they might lock together and not turn.

So maybe it's better the teeth don't fit together perfectly so that it'll turn.

I can't attach pictures to a forum post, can I? I'd probably need to link to an Imgur, right?

[Jack_Simth]

The trick is to print gears on hex or graph paper, then cut the shapes and only allow folks into mostly complete spaces.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I could use styrofoam or something!

While I love the idea of physically rotating gear rooms, I'd double check with your players to make sure that none of them have the same 'finger nails on a chalkboard' reaction to styrofoam that I do (I have no idea how common that reaction is; it's probably super rare, so this post is probably redundant, but what the heck).

[Tvtyrant]

While I love the idea of physically rotating gear rooms, I'd double check with your players to make sure that none of them have the same 'finger nails on a chalkboard' reaction to styrofoam that I do (I have no idea how common that reaction is; it's probably super rare, so this post is probably redundant, but what the heck).

To looking at it, the smell, touching it? What about it causes the effect?

[Thurbane]

While I love the idea of physically rotating gear rooms, I'd double check with your players to make sure that none of them have the same 'finger nails on a chalkboard' reaction to styrofoam that I do (I have no idea how common that reaction is; it's probably super rare, so this post is probably redundant, but what the heck).

Definitely not just you. I'm 100% the same. With my wife, it's the sound of metal scraping on metal.

For me, the feel of styrofoam, or the sound of it squeaking, sets me teeth on edge.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/when-youd-rather-touch-a-tarantula-than-a-110051505.html

[PoeticallyPsyco]

To looking at it, the smell, touching it? What about it causes the effect?

Some sounds it makes (usually styrofoam on styrofoam rubbing); I'm usually fine touching it, but I'm pretty reluctant to do so because one wrong move could produce a horrible sound or vibration... just eck. Hate the stuff.

[Buufreak]

While I love the idea of physically rotating gear rooms, I'd double check with your players to make sure that none of them have the same 'finger nails on a chalkboard' reaction to styrofoam that I do (I have no idea how common that reaction is; it's probably super rare, so this post is probably redundant, but what the heck).


Definitely not just you. I'm 100% the same. With my wife, it's the sound of metal scraping on metal.

For me, the feel of styrofoam, or the sound of it squeaking, sets me teeth on edge.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/when-youd-rather-touch-a-tarantula-than-a-110051505.html

That, and the sound of marker on cardboard. That one in particular has been my last nerve many times.

[Malroth]

I'm fine with chalkboard and styrofoam sounds but Courdoroy ..... :eek:

[Rawrawrawr]

That sounds like an awesome idea for a dungeon - I'd recommend a few things:

1. Add a series of steps to force the party to backtrack through the dungeon - that way you do get more mileage out of fewer rooms (which makes it easier on you to design :P ), and forces the PC's to interact with the main mechanic of dungeon a few times beyond "get the right rotation to get to the end". Keep it simple and spatial, so it plays well with the main mechanic and doesn't add too much complexity - something like the classic Legend of Zelda "align a beam of light with mirrors" puzzle.

2. Add a mechanic that makes navigating the dungeon a slight hassle but not tedious - even a low chance of weak random encounters would do. That way the party has to be a little more strategic about how they go through the dungeon, instead of just trial and error, and it keeps the party from mostly clearing the dungeon early on and then just going "We rotate the gears, go to this room, rotate the gears again, go to that room, etc." But it shouldn't happen often or be difficult, because that makes navigation (the main mechanic of this dungeon) unfun.

3. Add a thing that lets them rotate the gears from anywhere in the dungeon towards the end, once they've backtracked a bunch of times, to keep things fresh/make it feel like they've made progress.

And good luck! :)

[unseenmage]

Look at some Legend of Zelda dungeons too for inspiration. The more recent installations in the series have some pretty dynamic dungeons.

[Buufreak]

I'll make a third in a row Zelda mention. Skyward sword has a sub dungeon that the entire mechanic is from specific locations, you can change the order of the rooms. The way it worked is you needed to reach three specific locations, and that sometimes meant reordering, travelling, then reordering again.

Given, the rooms were more cuboidal, but I think the idea can stick for this too.

[Tvtyrant]

Some sounds it makes (usually styrofoam on styrofoam rubbing); I'm usually fine touching it, but I'm pretty reluctant to do so because one wrong move could produce a horrible sound or vibration... just eck. Hate the stuff.

I get that one. I can't stand slurping noises and nail clippers, to the point where I have to leave the room. Soup and peaches are abominations!

[TheCount]

You could also sync the traps/hazards in it with the movement of the dungeon, like, this passage is open one round, closed the other, the bridge between platfors is up on one and down (or turning, on its longest dimension) on the next 3.

Is it dangerous? definitelly.
Is it unexpected? it a Gear dungeon, its a wonder there are solid platforms not just gears and gears that mow down everything.

though thats a lot of extra work, but on the upside? its would give a plausible reason to the opponents coming at the party, after all, its mechanus, home of order and precision in everything, and even the most massive of machines need maintenance.

honestly, you could use most hazards and traps with a little reflavoring too, a faulty pipe here ejecting steam that cooks your flesh off your bones, overheated floor above an engine, poisonous molds, because **** you machines.... the possibilities are endless!

[Malphegor]

For a rotating gear dungeon, maybe they need to disengage one ‘room’ of the gears via some kind of
clutch mechanism to then line up the gears in some way?

[A_Gray_Phantom]

3-10-2020

So I've finished making the dungeon! Here are the progress pics:

https://imgur.com/a/3gUTrBt

I'm afraid I can't figure out how to just show the pictures, sorry.

I used this soft, but firm, foam for the gears, and a harder stock for the paper on which the hex grid is printed. I bought some lazy susans, and taped the foam gears onto the tops of them.

When the outer gears rotate clockwise, the middle gear rotates counter clockwise, and vice versa... sorta. The turntables are too wide, and the gears too small, so I have to turn the wheels carefully to make sure they all turn at once. Had I access to smaller turntables, or had room on the table for larger gears, then that wouldn't be an issue.

All in all, I am quite proud of this simple design. I'll be playtesting it with my mother-in-law soon.

If someone can tell me how to properly show the pics directly, please let me know.