Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 NobleNewb Aug 21, 2015 4:59:19	Greetings fellow middle earthiens   So i have decided to make my own homebrew campaign. This campaign is not going to be some massive story with lots of charater development and all that jazz, but simply something close to a dungeon crawler game. The idea came to me from watching the movie Maze Runner, where a bunch of kids have to navigate this maze that moves and changes all the time while fighting off these weird creatures. I want my party (who are all relatively new players) to start off with nothing, and as they navigate this ever changing maze that is controlled by The Architect they find new gear and of course level up. What i would like help with is in the maze there will be rooms that tests the players different skills and their ability to work as a team, and i would like some ideas for these rooms. For Example one of the rooms will have a button on the ceiling and they must work together to reach it as the room fills with acidic slime and Oozes come out of ports in the walls.   Sorry for the long text, so in conclusion i need ideas for skill testing situations inside of rooms.   Thanks in advance, Cameron.
#2 TenkayCrit Aug 21, 2015 5:16:57	Something I recently did in my campaign that worked really: there's a room with a mural all around depicting a massive battle between 2 (or more even) armies. In the center of the room on a pedestal is a Gem of Brightness. If they shine the Gem around the room they notice that the leaders of the armies are outlined in gold light. If the touch it (inspection) they feel the desire to be closer to the leader. If they put their body against the wall in the same pose as the leaders they feel a gentle magic pour through them. If they do this with each leader at the same time it reveals a hidden treasure/way out. What makes this a bit more interesting is if you have the leaders be different races to match your party and they have to have similar blood as the leader they press against. Ex: the battle depicted is between 3 armies: elves, orcs, and humans. A half elf rogue could press against the elf or human leader, the half orc barbarian against the orc leader, and the human fighter against the human leader. This is a fairly simple puzzle that requires a team to achieve a goal other than kill everything and take their stuff haha.
#3 NobleNewb Aug 21, 2015 5:33:41	Nice! really like that one i think i could work with that. Thanks a lot!
#4 Imaculata Aug 21, 2015 11:03:52	I always have trouble with mazes. Often mazes in D&D end up as an endless complex of pointless corridors. What is cool about mazes in real life, is not always as cool in a tabletop game. So I came with an alternate solution to handling mazes.   I basically divide the maze up into abstract sections, represented by face-down tiles. The players don't navigate the tunnels inside the maze, they just navigate from tile to tile, and I then narrate how they make their way through a long series of winding tunnels. So I skip all the endless left turn, right turn, left turn nonsense, and skip to the point of interest in that section of the maze. When the players reach a new section, I turn over the tile, and reveal what they encounter in the maze. This way I maintain the concept of exploration, but I do away with all the pointless tunnels in between the challenges.
#5 Ralif_Redhammer Aug 21, 2015 11:35:57	The various Grimtooth’s Traps books have some nasty traps and tricks that could be useful. Also, the Dungeon Alphabet is an amazing resource for old-school dungeon weirdness.   As far as skill tests in a dungeon, I like to make sure to challenge a variety of skills, so that each character gets to shine – so that one room might have scything blades that the swift rogue would be good at. Another might have a series of arcane runes – only some of which are trapped, but which ones? That’s where the wizard gets to shine.   A great way to encourage teamwork is to put problems that cannot be solved with a skill check, but with player smarts and problem-solving skills. Heck, sometimes I put things in that I don’t have any idea how they can solve, to see what they come up with.
#6 grendel111111 Aug 22, 2015 11:18:42	The one page dungeons have some great material. I ran one called The halls of the mad mage. Have some great ideas for strange maze effects. (endless waterfall, Escher effects, Mobius strip rooms.) Here is the loaction of the free PDF: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/80569/The-One-Page-Dungeon-Codex-2009-Deluxe Page 44 is the mad mages hall. but the others are great too.
#7 DM_Craig Aug 22, 2015 11:28:20	I would add other creatures in the maze who have also been placed there by the Architect, not as enemies, but as other trapped beings. It adds the uneasiness of creating temporary alliances and having to work together with, oh let's say a group of goblins or kobolds. See how the players handle that sort of thing.
#8 Elfcrusher Aug 26, 2015 18:39:52	So....a pencil and paper version of Gauntlet?  "Warrior needs food...badly."   Just kidding.  Sound fun, especially for new players.  Especially if at high level they figure out the secrets of the maze and can escape it to fight the architect.