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1 year ago ::
Jun 11, 2012 - 8:42AM
#11
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Date Joined:
Apr 21, 2011
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I love to put puzzles in my quest, I mostly use real things.
The 7 Virtues
The 7 Sins
The 10 Plagues of Egypt
The 5 States of Grief ( I got the idea from a fellow poster! )
The Constallations
The Gemstones ( Precious and Semi-Precious )
The Ten Commandments
etc.
I really love to create dungeon and quest around those!
I'm playing:
Abin Gadon, Halfling Bard
Winston "Slurphnose", Gnome Sorcerer
Pasiphaé, Minotaur Shaman
Eglerion, Elf Ellyrian Reaver (Ranger)
DMing:
Le Trésor du Fluide (Treasure from the Fluid)
Un Royaume d'une Grande Valeur (A Kingdom of Great Value)
La Légende de Persitaa (Persitaa's Legend)
Une Série de Petites Quêtes... (A serie of short quests)
Playtesting:
Caves of Chaos
We're building the greatest adventure ever known to DnD players!
Also playing Legend of the Five Rings and Warhammer Fantasy.
Sébastien, Beloeil, Qc.
I am Neutral Good and 32 years old.
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1 year ago ::
Jun 13, 2012 - 7:33PM
#12
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Date Joined:
Mar 10, 2011
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I just started playing D&D this year. I love it. For the past 2 months Ive been DMing a game with my friends, and creating all the dungeons myself. I am however in need of ideas of things to spice up my dungeon. Traps, monsters, and treasures just arent enough, when its over and over. Any ideas? Ive made a few puzzles but i want some really out of the box things in my dungeons.
Dungeons & Dragons is, at its heart, what is portrayed on the cover of almost any D&D boxed set I've seen: an isolated and exotic area containing a hero with a pointy stick staring down a ferocious monster with an attractive reward in the background.
As long as that basic formula is there in spirit, you've got a game of D&D.
As long as it's there quite literally in the form of a Conan-alike and Gandalf-wannabe brandishing a sword and spell at a dragon standing on a pile of gold and gems in the middle of a slimy flagstone and brick 10'x10' room, you've got a fairly generic game of D&D.
But, it doesn't have to be generic: all you need to do to get something that seems pretty far out of the box while still essentially being D&D, is to see how far you can stretch the spirit of what any of those elements is...
- The isolated and exotic area doesn't have to be a slimy underground chamber, crypt, dungeon, or laboratory... expand the definition of what "dungeon" means into something really strange and outlandish instead!
- Creating a unique and interesting hero is usually your players' job, but maybe there's still something you can do to help them expand the definition of what a D&D hero is, into something unexpected and strange. A good place to start might be with your NPCs....
- Some variety in the traditional pointy stick (swords, axes, spears, daggers, staves, wands, etc. etc. etc.) seems at first glance to be well-covered by the game, but maybe there are other ways you can twist that definition to something fresh, too... exotic shapes, alien materials, off-beat abilities and special effects could be places to start!
- A bewildering variety of monsters is another place where the game has the bases well-covered, but don't let that stop you from working in your own unique spin on descriptions, behaviours, and so on... it doesn't take very much to breath new life into what it means to meet a lowly, common Goblin, Kobold, Orc, Ogre, Elf, Dwarf, Dragon, or even Human!
- And then, there are the rewards... what else can you dish out besides +1 Magical Pointy Sticks and vast heaps of Metallic Disks of Tedious Record-Keeping?
New DM Tips
Show
- Trying to solve out-of-game problems (like cheating, bad attitudes, or poor sportsmanship) with in-game solutions will almost always result in failure, and will probably make matters worse.
- Gun Safety Rule #5: Never point the gun at anything you don't intend to destroy. (Never introduce a character, PC, NPC, Villain, or fate of the world into even the possibility of a deadly combat or other dangerous situation, unless you are prepared to destroy it instantly and completely forever.)
- Know your group's character sheets, and check them over carefully. You don't want surprises, but, more importantly, they are a gold mine of ideas!
- "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." It's a problem if the players aren't having fun and it interferes with a DM's ability to run the game effectively; if it's not a problem, 'fixing' at best does little to help, and at worst causes problems that didn't exist before.
- "Hulk Smash" characters are a bad match for open-ended exploration in crowds of civilians; get them out of civilization where they can break things and kill monsters in peace.
- Success is not necessarily the same thing as killing an opponent. Failure is not necessarily the same thing as dying.
- Failure is always an option. And it's a fine option, too, as long as failure is interesting, entertaining, and fun!
"Broken or not, unbalanced or not, if something seems to be preventing the game from being enjoyable, something has to give: either that thing, or other aspects of the game, or your idea of what's enjoyable." - Centauri
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1 year ago ::
Jun 13, 2012 - 10:42PM
#13
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I know I keep pushing this RPG but I will bring it up again.
X-Crawl was designed for 3.0 and has some great traps and other ideas for monsters with personalities.
Traps are pretty much up to you.
One I loved in an old Dragon Magazine was basically mindsweeper. You stepped on the tile and you were mentally told how many exploding tiles were next to you.
Another one from that module was when they finally reached the treasure it became a treasure golem and we had to fight it. Slashing and piercing weapons did half damage. Our rogue cried though the entire encounter.
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