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Post by Lady Winter Wolf on Apr 16, 2005 9:41:20 GMT -5
Post your original room designs.
Examples:
#1: Fools Gold
This room is filled with all sorts of treasure: Gold, Magic Weapons, Platinum, Wonderous Items, Magical Armor, Rings, Scrolls, all sorts of stuff. Make sure the items are an appropriate level for your party, as too powerful would make them suspicious.
This treasure is real. To keep the PC's on their toes, ask for a Will Save each time they touch something. The DC is an easy 10, so just act annoyed when they make it, or grin when they fail. If they fail their will save, the item they picked up disappears. Don't worry, there's another +2 flaming sword around here somewhere.
Allow your players to pocket all the gear they want. You may even throw in some good versions of regular gear (masterwork thieves tools, a magical tent of some form or another, everburning torches, etc).
Whatever you do, just keep muttering how much you shouldn't have given them this room, and that they are going to have to face harder encounters to make up for it.
The one caveat is once they leave this room, the treasures they picked up stay with them for one more room only. After they leave this SECOND room (hopefully one with a combat), all the loot they are carrying that came out of that room disappears, and any items they may have left behind in order to carry more stuff (regular torches for the everburning ones), are gone for good as well.
#2: The Chess Room
Simple room. The floor is in the pattern of a chess board. The PCs walk in the room to fill the spots of the back Row Pieces (Depending on how many PCs there are).
First PC to walk in the room is King, second Queen, Bishop, Knight ,Knight, and so on. Players find themselves up against an opposition of either golems or skeletons(if you rather it be easier) The fact of the matter is that it can be any nonsentient being.
Now the Dm whips out the chess set, and assigns the players to their specific pieces. The Pieces not representing the PCs on their side, can be controlled by them, via Mental command. Basically, what this comes down to is a literal game of chess between the Dm and the Players. Players are free to talk amongst themselves about the next move they will make, but obviously, only the player can move himself (the piece he represents on the actual chess board which he is playing the DM on.)
If players find themselves in a position where their piece they represent is to be taken, It represents the Golem moving in and attacking them. The Character then must fight the creature one on one. If the PC defeats the creature, his piece is allowed to stay on the board and the attacking piece can be removed. If the player's piece is taken on the attack, they will offer no defense and may be struck down with one blow. Players moving out of their turn are subjected to harsh penalties, possibly an electric shock. Those attacking out of their turn, be it ranged weapons or magic should suffer the same fate. A check mate or a stale mate win the game for the PC's All pieces drop to the floor and the PCs are free to enter the next room.
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Post by Kaber on Apr 16, 2005 11:38:37 GMT -5
You enter a 10 x 10 foot room. The room should be well lit. 3 foot tiles are laid along the walls while the floor at the center appears to be made of silver. It is in fact a pool of quicksilver. It is enchanted to allow characters to walk upon it for no more than three steps before they are dumped into the poisonous pool.
Drowning: A character can hold their breath for a number of rounds = to 2x their constitution score after that its a con check -1/r. After a failed roll treat as if at 0hp (unconcious) and -1 thereafter untill at 3 Rounds the character is dead.
Poison: Mercury. Contact DC 18. Initial Dam: 2d6 con permanant. Secondary damage: 2d12 hp. Continue taking 2d6 Con damage (save vs poison each hour) until at 0 con, character dies from murcury poisoning.
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Post by Lady Winter Wolf on Apr 20, 2005 1:29:45 GMT -5
Three Trolls In A Fountain:
This small paved cavern is almost like a courtyard. The roof is high and filled with luminous fungus that glows as brightly as the sun at dawn. The walls, to a height of about ten feet, have been squared-off and made into frescos. In the centre of the room, surrounded by normally surface living plants arranged into a small garden with a few stone benches, is a large ornate fountain with some reeds growing in it. The fountain is home to three trolls (who are breathing through the reeds) waiting to ambush people. The leader of the trolls has learned some spells and has made her fellows invisible. They attack as soon as the party is relaxed, keeping to the water if they can to avoid damage from fire and acid; the first two trolls go for hand to hand combat, while their leader attacks with three magic missile spells (cast at level 6) before joining in the attack.
The Paint Room
This room has white walls, celing, and floor. Scattered throughout the room are easels, trays of paint, and brushes. Some may notice that some of the easels have pictures of different monsters and NPCs. Once the players enter the center of the room, the various pictures come to life and attack the PC's.
Suggested monsters: Hook Horror Dire Wolf Brownie Evil Cleric Gnoll
After the players finish off each monster, they disappear in a puff of smoke, only to reappear on it's original painting. After 5 rounds, the picture re-activates. The paintings must be destroyed in order for this to end.
The only way out is for the players to paint themselves a doorway.
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Tai Shar Shaidar
Braggart
Power Corrupts. Aboulute Power Corrupts Absolutely. But it Also Rocks Absolutely, Too.
Posts: 115
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Post by Tai Shar Shaidar on Aug 3, 2007 19:41:43 GMT -5
First off I am not responsible if any DM here uses this room, I’ve used it several times and for some reason the PCs never see it coming. Please don’t think I’m evil…
Your PCs enter a large torch lit chamber the air in this chamber is cool and damp. You are standing on a moldy expanse of rock 20 feet wide and running several hundred feet to your left and right. Spread out before you is a dark lake more then 500 ft across, from what you can see the ceiling of the chamber stretches to unimaginable heights, the enormous size of the room seems impossible. Such a room could not exist within the confines of the of the abandoned castle your investigating, yet here it stands a testament to the awesome power of magic. Though the torches ring the lake at 10 foot intervals you can not see far into the lake, even when standing on the ledge and looking down. The murky water is all but impenetrable to light and the depth of the lake indeterminate. About 300 feet out in the lake a large stone pedestal raises out of the dark water, steps are cut into the pedestal winding their way to the top. At the center of this pedestal, berried almost a foot into an anvil is a sword. The sword glows almost incandescently and piled around large amount of gold coin nearly overflowing the boundaries of the pedestal.
Notes: The treasure in this room is very real; it was used as the royal treasury for the king that once lived in this castle. His royal mage came up with an ingenious way to protect the treasury from would be thieves. The room is warded against every form of magic transportation, including fly water walk, and anyone affected by or casting one of these spells knows that it didn’t work. 100 ft from the pedestal an invisible barrier, protected by a non-detection spell prevents passage with out swimming under it. This is to prevents non-magical boats and flying creatures accessing the pedestal. The only way to bypass the magic defenses is with a royal seal. All of these defenses are only meant to force the any thief to swim to the treasure. Once passing under the barrio the thief inters the real genius of this room. The water inside the barrio acts as a rod of cancellation except that it is always active. Every 5 ft square moved in the water affects all the magic items on the PC as if a Mordenkainen's Disjunction was cast on the PC by a 20th level caster. Every magic item must make a will save DC 31 or be destroyed. Items baring the royal seal are immune to this effect. Every item in the treasury has the royal seal, and is thus immune.
Edit:There is another version of this room that I thought up; I was never cruel enough to use it. The only difference is that the treasure in the center is a major illusion. So not only do the PCs get stripped of their magic gear but they get none in replacement.
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Tai Shar Shaidar
Braggart
Power Corrupts. Aboulute Power Corrupts Absolutely. But it Also Rocks Absolutely, Too.
Posts: 115
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Post by Tai Shar Shaidar on Aug 8, 2007 21:23:55 GMT -5
Here is one room that I had the misfortune to come across in one of my brother’s games. It makes my dispelling water room look like a cake walk…
The PCs enter a large room 30 ft wide and 50 ft long, you are standing on a raised platform 10 ft wide that extends to the opposite wall 50 ft away. A sturdy wood door bars the way forward and is in the center of the far wall. On either side the walkway the floor is 20 ft down and covered in foot long steel spikes. As the first party member reaches the center of the room he is illuminated in a spot light and the archway you entered through shimmers and vanishes. A light glow infuses the walls of the room and sand begins to appear in mid air and flow in to the pit. As the pit begins to fill an eerie voice fills the room, “The Test Begins” is all it says.
The room begins to quickly fill with sand, in 10 min time the room will be filled to the edge of the walkway, and in 15 min it will be above the door. Any attempt to teleport out fails, and any divination spell reveals the same clue, “The finesse of magic is not always the solution.” Anyone touching the door takes 10d6 magic damage if they are under a magic effect or wearing a magic item. Any spells cast on the door rebound on the caster. The only way to get out of the room to strip off every magic item and have all effects dispelled and deal 100 hp in damage to the door which has a hardness of 20.
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Dmitri
Land Owner
D&D Geeks of the World Unite!
Posts: 1,466
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Post by Dmitri on Nov 26, 2007 22:38:57 GMT -5
Dude - I love the chess room. Just not sure if I could use it in a game without really throwing the group in the fire - my practical USCF rating used to be over 2000, and is still probably about 1800 or so. That means against a non-tourney player or the average hobbyist, I should be winning well over 99% of my games.
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agamoto
Youth
Minister of the First Church of Cheesecake/Urak
Posts: 42
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Post by agamoto on Oct 16, 2008 16:01:31 GMT -5
One I liked was like this,
The party enters a 20' room with a door directly opposite it. There is about 6" to 1' of water on the floor. When they enter the doors lock mechanically and when they reach the center a fine white dust pours from the ceiling. The dust just happens to be pure elemental sodium.
Sodium plus water, You do the math!!!!
Another is that the party walks into a perfectly round room with a large red gem in the middle, any one who touches the gem is compelled to walk around the room until they find a corner. The solutions are to either chip the wall, thus making a corner, or my way, to realize that a circle is made up of an infinite number of corners and thus to stand anywhere along the wall!
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Steve
Braggart
THAT'S A STATISTICAL ANOMALY!
Posts: 148
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Post by Steve on May 29, 2009 21:17:44 GMT -5
Oh, hi. I just noticed this topic.
I'd like to point out, about the sodium thing: The sodium would oxidize in midair and just fizz slightly in the water. It wouldn't explode violently, as I assume it did for you. Try rubidium or some such thing.
A fun thing to do is toss an arcane spellcaster who uses only illusion and a few evocation spells. Have him toss around images of himself and powerful monsters to confuse the party while he throws fireballs and such at groups of them. It can play out a hundred different ways depending on the spells you give the caster and the way you use them. That's the fun part of illusion; its versatility is basically infinite.
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Post by grond on Jun 1, 2009 7:36:14 GMT -5
The sodium trick, since rubidium would almost never be seen in a fantasy setting (the stuff is so violent it will explode from moisture in the air if not properly stored) could be done with one large lump of sodium (large as in 10x10) coated in a sugar frosting. We'll re-design the room so that the center has a deep pit, deep enough to emerse our large block of sodium, or potassium. When the block falls into the water, the sugar will disolve somewhat uniformly, exposing the sodium and triggering the "explosion". The explosion will probably boil a substantial amount of water creating steam, a little fire damage and 0 visibility, maybe a fortitude save to avoid blindness, but not a high one. Since the chemical reaction is that the sodium replaces one of the hydrogens in the water molecule, what we are left with is NaOH, or for a more familiar name, lye. Lye is one of the more potent alkalines, and thus very corrosive to living tissue, treat as acid damage. Lye can be neutralized with a like volume of strong acid. The chess room, while very stylish and appealing, would be such a pain to game out. Another idea is a checkers board with animated pieces, the red squares are burning hot, the black squares are sleeping black puddings and the undersides of the pieces have disintigrate beams on them. The only way through is to command your pieces so that the one you are riding on doesn't get jumped, and thus disintigrated, with you on it. Once the one you're riding makes it to the otherside, you're through. Alternatively, you could stay and try to win the match, winning some theme appropriate treasure. The squares are 10x10, the pieces themselves have a 6' diameter, making skipping between pieces rather challenging.
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Dmitri
Land Owner
D&D Geeks of the World Unite!
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Post by Dmitri on Jun 1, 2009 9:33:32 GMT -5
The other thing to do is have the sodium in the water already, in an oil-filled canister. Have a pressure plate trigger the canister, insta flame for the party. Also, chess room is not too hard, especially if the DM is a good player - I could play a game and create positions that offer combos for the PCs without much grief. Other possibility is a "chess puzzle" room - the board is set up in a certain position, and the position is something like "White to play and mate in 2" or "Black to win with 1 move" (meaning that it's not mate, but a forcing move that creates a position which is a technical win). I've contemplated this for LGG5 actually, though I have not had the opportunity yet.
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Post by grond on Jun 4, 2009 13:39:22 GMT -5
There is a neat little puzzle from a computer game I had years ago. It's done with 4 bishops of each color on a 4x5 checkered board. The bishops must switch sides without ever being in a capturing position with the bishops of the opposing color. That would be a fairly easy to use, challenging chess puzzle for some dungeon somewhere. Where I always felt it got sticky was with the players actually having to fight against the opposing pieces to avoid capture or to accomplish it, that and having to play a game out to a checkmate. I can definitely see how setting more specific conditions can work out very nicely.
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Dmitri
Land Owner
D&D Geeks of the World Unite!
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Post by Dmitri on Jun 4, 2009 13:50:32 GMT -5
Yea, like I said, a good puzzle works for me. I like the idea, though I am not sure I understand the situation you are setting up with the bishops. Just can't picture it. I was thinking something along the lines of a position from a Master game, where there is a forceable, winning line - not only am I a DnD geek, but I am a chess geek as well. I have these kind of books on hand.
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Post by grond on Jun 13, 2009 11:53:21 GMT -5
The chamber of Sysiphus (spelling?) Upon entering this room, the players see a massive boulder positioned against the wall, recessed halfway into. An inscription arches across the wall above the boulder reading "Labor and Toil are the 2 keys to this door. Without these one cannot hope to pass" The boulder is relatively smooth affording no hand holds and sits in a slight recesses preventing it from being able to roll out into the room. Pushing with great strength against this boulder will cause it to roll back into the wall, revealing a tunnel, however the tunnel remains blocked by the boulder. Continued pushing reveals that the tunnel quickly slopes upward at a 45 degree angle, with somewhat poor footing. Players may team up, up to 4 per square (the tunnel is 10 ' wide) in order to push, but the weight is such that it leaves each player pushing his maximum push or drag weight, thus imposing a heavy check penalty. The players must succeed at climb checks or be be forced to a standstill. If a player fails a climb check by 5 or more he or she falls backwards, likely leaving too much weight on the other players, causing the boulder to roll backwards down the slope. PCs that are on their feet are merely pushed back, while those that have fallen must make a DC 15 reflex save or be crushed and pushed back. If enough people remain standing when the boulder rolls backward (including those who made the reflex save against the crushing) they may attempt to make their climb checks to stop the boulder from rolling. A player who fails the reflex against being crushed by rolling a natural 1 is crushed, pinned by the boulder and dragged as far as the boulder will go, taking double damage initially, and then damage for each round in which the boulder moves. If this results in taking fatal damage (current HP becomes 10 or less) the character's remains are flattened and the boulder rolls over them. They top of the tunnel opens into a room, but boulder is stopped by a shear spot 2 feet high while it is still on a slope. Therefore, the first person to stop pushing and move into the room will force the other characters to make the DC 15 reflex save or be pushed backwards. Success here indicates that the character has moved out of the way, failure means the character is continuing to try to push on the boulder and must attempt to make his climb checks and the strength check to keep pushing the boulder, or else be pushed back down the tunnel. The tunnel could be as mush as 100 feet long. Thus this room is best in an elaborate cavern dungeon, and is best used to guard a treasure of some great importance or value. The weight of the rock should be determined so that it forces the players to all work together in order to be able to move it. The base climb check is a DC 5 that must be made for every round of movement. My thoughts are that a character under these circumstances can push twice their maximum heavy load worth of this boulder without a check, or 5x the maximum heavy load on a str DC 15, but would have to recheck every round, on a failure that character is only managing twice their weight, so if the total weight managed is less than the weight of the boulder, it rolls backwards, and climb checks must be repeated to keep footing. Anytime the amount of weight managed = double the weight of the boulder, it can be moved 10ft in that round, if it reaches triple the boulder's weight the boulder may move 15 feet in a round and so on. While rolling backward (down hill) the boulder moves 5 ft if at least 3/4th of the weight is managed, it move 10 ft if at least 1/2, but not as much as 3/4th is handled, less than 1/2 and it moves 15ft, less than 1/4 it moves 20ft and if none of the weight is managed friction stops it from rolling more than 40ft per round. The reflex DC to avoid being crushed is +2 for ever 5ft faster than 5ft the boulder moves and an additional +2 for every 5ft slower the character is than the boulder, thus a gnome in fullplate would need to make a DC 23 reflex save or be crushed if the boulder rolls backward 20ft in one round. If this save is failed, the character must attempt to save again in the next round, unless the boulder has been stopped. In the event that the boulder has been rolling unopposed for 1 or more rounds, a strength DC 15 is required to merely stop it (applying 2x the character's max heavy load against the weight of the boulder) and must be succeeded by at least enough people to equal out the weight of the boulder. Failure requires a reflex save to avoid being crushed. The str DC increases by 1 for each round that boulder rolls free of opposition. The boulder cannot move faster than the slowest person pushing it without removing their effort from the total weight managed, regardless of how hard the players manage to push, they are still encumbered at a heavy load, unless the amount of weight they need to be pushing to keep the boulder rolling should come to less than their minimum heavy load value. I'm not at all sure what the crushing damage should be, but I was thinking 5d6 +5 (magical enhancement) as it is like a colossal morning star ball. Also, the initial room would need some manner of protection against spells, as would the boulder. Of course with effort the boulder could be broken, but it is a +5 weapon, and would require another +5 weapon to damage it. I think this room is around a CR 8-10 for 6-8 characters, and should not be placed anywhere that houses anyother immediate or recuring threat. I also recommend that the players be able to higher laborers or possibly (not a good idea) mercenaries to aid in moving the boulder. Spells that damage or circumvent the obstacle should not be an option, as it likely took great magic and labor to create this obstacle, its creators would have sought ways to hamper magic bypassing it.
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Dmitri
Land Owner
D&D Geeks of the World Unite!
Posts: 1,466
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Post by Dmitri on Jun 13, 2009 12:30:46 GMT -5
I don't know - I might make the boulder a little smaller and less damaging, and have a summon monster trap about half way up. Something to create an issue in the middle, forcing a few to break off and deal with the threat, while the others are made to find a way to deal with the boulder with fewer people than it was meant to have. Or a 5 ft square trap door/ illusion pit. In fact, the monster could even be illusory - it would be hysterical, IMHO.
I also propose...
The Chamber of Metagaming Frustration
I am a big fan personally of driving metagamers crazy. Some people do it concsiously. Others do it unconsciously. I mean really - how many times have we played, found a werewolf, and someone said, "Oh no, we don't have silver weapons!"? Does your character actually know this for real, in game, or do you simply know it because you have read the MM too many times, or been playing for years?
In this chamber, inserted anywhere in the gameworld, the PCs find an object that the DM describes thoroughly, like a vase or whatever. Since we all know that any object described in detail by the DM is a plot point, the players will likely investigate. When the players try to open the vase or whatever to search it, they find that it is protected by a magical effect, like a wall of force. This of course just reinforces the idea that they MUST get inside of it. Of course, what we are dealing with is a container with the wizards favorite recipe, or the ashes of the leader of wizards friend or father or... blah blah blah. You get the point.
PS - Rince, this is not aimed at you. I can see Freas wanting to get at the urns, regardless of the cost in time and labor. Though that might have been what I was doing in a general sense... or maybe I was just setting you all up for something later...
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Post by grond on Jun 13, 2009 12:42:21 GMT -5
I like that idea a lot, my idea was more along the line of causing the party to need to return to get to the next section, and forcing them to use resources beyond just the characters'. A group of unencumbered 4 hit die 13 str commoners, say 4 of them, could probably make up the difference a 4 person party would have, but they would have to find a way to determine if the hireling were up to the task, convince them to take on dangerous work, and safely transport them. Or make a pact with a group of nearby orcs, who would be far more able to help, though far less willing. I think that, along with the illusionary attacker, or a suggestion trap "walk back down to the bottom" would be make for a memorable challenge.
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