[d&d4e] Puzzles in RPGs
AzaLiN:
Good results with the warm up method. I put 3 very hard fights leading up to the puzzle section, and when they got to the puzzle they were so determined to beat it that every player participated and stayed up an extra hour that night to finish it, to 1 instead of 12 when our host planned to end things.
The puzzle itself was to uncover clues about how to get the cave witch to appear in a large, mushroom-forest area underground and grant them entry to the otherworld: they had to perform a specific dance to specific music to a lit fire; they learned the steps by reanimating dead dancers and copying them, using comprehend languages to learn the musical notes, and eating ceremonial mushrooms that gave further visual clues about the ritual they were performing. If they did parts in the wrong order it would ruin the ritual, they'd be attacked, and they could move on and the room would reset as they went deeper down the tunnel. As to incorporating story, the witch is a barrier to keep out the unworthy, and since they had to fight the witch afterwards, it will be seen that the people of that culture refer to swordplay and combat as a dance, which will have further magical effects in the future.
It wasn't an ideal puzzle, but it really cleared up whether the approach would work.
Kevin Vito:
I haven't run this in an actual group yet, but I have been brainstorming a puzzle-type encounter for 4E.
Various users on rpg.net have given input on it here:
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=474052
Callan S.:
It sounds like those hard fights drove home a certain approach to the game, AzaLiN!
Speaking of them, an old curly question is what is the established procedure if a character died, or the whole party TPK'ed during those hard encounters? I'm asking about previously established procedure, rather than what you might make up on the fly if it happened. It's a hard question - I'm just asking out of interest in terms of what you've developed on the matter. :)
AzaLiN:
I ruthlessly butchered the paladin earlier tonight. Everyone looked pleased. He was coup de graced 4 times (2 misses). Now that the party is negotiating with the orcs that killed him, they're talking in the presence of the head on a stick in the command tent. Its gold. The point is, I think that PC death is being well received so far. I've arranged a good game-world reason for the influx of new adventurers (specifically, they're being lured in the same way as the actual PC party was, by chasing pact stones and trying to get into old ruins). Um, the game-world right now is a semi-mystical place that they can't get out of without getting the help of a powerful faction, or satisfying the one who lured them there.
But for TPKs, I'm working on game-world mechanics to handle them. I think they're important for gameplay, in this case. The party has several raise dead scrolls, they've used 1 already, but those don't address TPKs. I want it to be so that they can be TPK'd up to 3x per session without slowing things down too much, and I want a game-world solution that will usually result in the PCs just getting back on their feet and back into the fight, but surely with a decent helping of 'permanent' death as well. I think I have one, but I want to think on it more before implementing it. (3x is max, there should be less, what i mean is that I want them to be only a minor hiccup in gameplay). It'll probably revolve around custom rituals, or artifacts, and a certain amount of permanent PC death will still occur. Lots of treasure to make up for paying for these rituals.
For puzzles- this one is more problem-like. They actually negotiated with the orcs, surprising me, as I mentioned above, and what the orc demanded was 20 human scalps to prove their intentions. So, to get the scalps without betraying either faction of the 4 factions they're working for, they're harvesting undead scalps right now, and theorizing about using doctored animal hides. The hard part is doing so despite being 3 levels too low for an even close to standard fight. I'm letting them powergame and double-deal, and its been good so far. The nice thing is that after they betray the orcs (for various pre-decided reasons), because there's so many of them, and the nature of the setting, he continues to be an important NPC afterwards, attacking whatever faction they side with as revenge. I'm using 'hit point stacks' to address lag in big combats (somewhere on this site http://arsludi.lamemage.com/?s=stack i couldn't find the exact link).
The next thing i want to implement is puzzle random encounters (for random encounters, I actually use the dice very little, and just harass/ambush/track them constantly outside of town, according to how the pacing seems to need). The PC location when the encounter occurs determines the location of the puzzle/setting. It should give me huge options to improvise during play.
Its 3 am here, so forgive me if this is a little scatter brained.
Chronoplasm: I love your encounter. Would you mind if I borrowed it? I especially like how the PCs can circumvent it- they'll be very pleased with themselves when they disregard the boat-ferry aspect and that's when they really beat the puzzle. So, they have 2 satisfying solutions, just make sure they realize the conditions of the puzzle include encumbrance and gnolls trying to escape, and be sure to remember that the PCs might just negotiate with the gnolls to cooperate for a few hours.
Kevin Vito:
[quote author=AzaLiN link=topic=28444.msg269689#msg269689 date=1253437665
Chronoplasm: I love your encounter. Would you mind if I borrowed it? I especially like how the PCs can circumvent it- they'll be very pleased with themselves when they disregard the boat-ferry aspect and that's when they really beat the puzzle. So, they have 2 satisfying solutions, just make sure they realize the conditions of the puzzle include encumbrance and gnolls trying to escape, and be sure to remember that the PCs might just negotiate with the gnolls to cooperate for a few hours.
[/quote]
Go ahead. I want to see what other people can do with it.
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