Looking for D&D "mini games"

[trikkydik]

I've decided that my PC's are going to have to operate the "super cannon" I've given them to defeat the tarrasque that's gong to destroy their city.
They will have to defend the cannon from enemies (in one scene)
and operate the cannon every 1d4/1d6 rounds (in another scene.)
i need some mini games i can throw at them, to simulate a Pass/Fail experience.
So far all I've got is: They have one second to show 1 or two fingers. match=pass, mismatch=fail.
I'm hoping i can roll a d4 or a d6 to select a random of 4 or 6 minigames.
Also if anyone has experience using mini games within D&D, how did you present the rules to them?
(because too much explanation might devalue the mini games function. and make them less spontaneous.)
(KEEP IN MIND MY CAMPAIGN ONLY HAS 2 PC's.) i know we're hurting for players.
any help on this is greatly appreciated, thank you.

[Trekkin]

The best advice I can give is not to insert minigames into D&D; every time I've seen them used, they've broken immersion and raised questions of why player skill rather than character skill was determining character success.

If you want a 50% failure rate, just roll a d6 and the thing works on a 4-6.

Now, if you want some kind of puzzle they have to think through to succeed, that's an entirely different kettle of fish.

[trikkydik]

The best advice I can give is not to insert minigames into D&D; every time I've seen them used, they've broken immersion and raised questions of why player skill rather than character skill was determining character success.

If you want a 50% failure rate, just roll a d6 and the thing works on a 4-6.

Now, if you want some kind of puzzle they have to think through to succeed, that's an entirely different kettle of fish.

you replied to my post saying "Don't use mini games"

You offered no alternative besides "rolling a D4"
Please refrain from offering me advice.

That being said.

Is there anyone out there who knows of some simple, easy mini games that a DM can use at his/her disposal?

(If you don't have any positive comments to contribute to my cause, please don't even bother.)

[DavidSh]

Are you looking for games of skill, or games of chance?

[Knaight]

It's probably worth thinking of these in terms of subsystems more than minigames, with combat being a great example. It's a deviation from the standard in a few ways, with a lot of special rules, that you go into in certain situations. It's a heavy system, but the core concept of a special system for a special thing is solid, and you could easily operate within the 1 page range or so, less if you wanted to. Printing off sheets for the minigames and handing them out when they come up could work just fine.

[trikkydik]

Are you looking for games of skill, or games of chance?

Honestly, i'm not picky lol. i feel quantity is best here, that way i can choose what fits into my scenario.


Here is the exact scene that will be presented to my PC's during our next session:

A city is heavily under siege, the PC's need to protect NPC's who will use telekinesis to lift a gigantic "super weapon" to its mounting position atop a high tower.

Once the weapon is successfully mounted, The tarrasque will have breached the city walls, and will be destroying just about everything in its path.

The PC's will have to run 2 simultaneous scenes.

1.) Combat, in which they will be fighting a series of monsters, while protecting NPC's inside the "Super Weapon's" Control room.

2.) The control room, The PC's will have to operate the control room as if they were the NPC's

combat will switch to the control room every 1d4 turns of combat (the 1d4 turns represents the "super weapon's" cooldown time.

Control room success counts as a successful attack by the super weapon, many dice rolls will be used to determine where the tarrasque gets hit.

If they land a critical hit on the tarrasque it will go to sleep for 1d6 minutes.

If they land a regular hit on the tarrasque it will most likely spend a round regenerating it's damaged area.

i need some tools to help me run the "control room"

because i refuse to kill a tarrasque by simple luck of the roll.



I'm thinking maybe they have to operate switches synchronously.

So i need a mini game that can help me simulate their "timing"


Again, the only thing i'm asking for here is ideas to help me.

I'm not picky, i wont say "that's a bad idea."

I do not desire anyone telling me to scrap this idea, because its happening one way or another. The Tarrasque WILL either die or trample the city and move on.

[ramakidin]

How much luck do you want to involve?

For a lot of luck: Each PC gets a d8 to simulate which fraction of a second they pull their switch at. As long as the PCs remain within say 2 fractions, its a success. If the PCs get within 1 fraction of each other, Critical success.
For example, they roll [4, 1, 2, 2]. All of those numbers are within 2 fractions, so they would succeed.
A [5, 1, 2, 2] would have been a failure because 5 is 3 fractions away from 2.
A [1, 5, 3, 6] would succeed.

But you might not want to involve that much luck. (A fate reroll to each PC might be in order)

As for other good mini-game type situations, I am a little clueless. Good Luck

[Knaight]

I wouldn't go with a chance minigame here - I'd be inclined to go with a system of two rolls, where both players are rolling for different parts of the super weapon, and both need to succeed. Then I'd add some sort of mechanism by which they could get bonuses to these rolls (or even transfer successes from one to the other).

[HatMadder]

Get a bunch of string, cut it up, tie pieces together, make sure to include loose ends but eventually end up with a complete loop of string.
Then take the loop, twist it around, knot it (loosely), and ball it up, then get them to try and untangle it.
Set up a couple so you can reuse the challenge if you want.
Can simulate the untangling of wires or something along those lines.

I'll stick with string (yarn in this one) themed stuff.
Get different colored strands of yarn and make sure they're different lengths.
Then twist/loop them together, making sure to double up on some and not others. Once it looks sufficiently mixed up, get players to pick a color, trying to guess which one is longest. Unravel to reveal.
If they're right, success. If not, failure.

Depending on how into it your players are willing to get, give them one chance to put out a candle without blowing on it.
Very easy way to do it would be to wet fingers and grab the wick (not painful, no need to worry about that). If they don't think of that then it's a bit harder.
Easy to see if they succeed.

Came across this game through other people (bonus, works great with only 2 people): Each person thinks of a word, then on the count of 3 they both say it out loud. Then, they try to think of a word that's the meet between the two (i.e. "Car" and "Wind" = "Airplane"). On the count of 3, they again say what they think the meet between the two words is. Normally this would continue until a meet is found or the two people give up. To speed it up you could limit them to 3 tries.
They win if they both say the same word.

Hope this helps.

[Calen]

If the NPC's (or you could even use the PC's) skills are different enough you can make a quick skill challenge by putting their skills on business cards. Repeat skills multiple times until you have 20ish cards. You can include skills that they are not trained in to make it harder. Whenever you need a challenge lay down columns of cards with a few cards per column. You could roll a dice or other random method to decide which pattern. Adjust number of columns to go faster or slower. (More columns will also increase difficulty)

[] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] []
[] [] []


[] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] []
[]

And so on.

Each of those cards has a skill a player chooses a skill on column 1 and rolls a check using their (or the NPC's skill) use an average DC. On a failure increase the DC of the final column by 1 step (+5 or so). Pass or fail another player picks a skill from column 2 and rolls a check for that. A player can roll twice in a row but they take a -5 penalty to their roll.

If you are quick on your feet you can tie this in to the story. Or the players can come up with a reason that the skill they choose helps.

The superweapon fires but a alignment crystal cracks.
Athletics to get a new crystal out of storage.
Arcana to attempt a repair on the crystal.
P1 chooses Arcana and succeeds.

You mend the crystal but the alignment is off.
Sleight of Hand to recalibrate the whirly gizmos.
Endurance to forcefully realign the matrices.
Arcana to reshape the crystal.
Debate over whether to take the -5 because P1 is good with Arcana.
P2 Chooses Endurance and fails.

The crystal is locked in place.
Acrobatics to get to the sighting mechanism and move it.
Religion to spray and pray!
P1 Chooses Religion and succeeds.

Success for challenge.

Hope this helps.

[goto124]

give them one chance to put out a candle without blowing on it.

Be careful not to set your GMing notes or the character sheets on fire...