(New-ish GM) Need Help Designing My First Dungeon...
Aug 21, 2018 20:53:29 GMT
joatmoniac likes this
Post by NeonScorpion on Aug 21, 2018 20:53:29 GMT
Hello everyone! I would like to start by saying that I am a relatively new GM, I have a dozen or more sessions under my belt spanning the last year, I know most of the rules to keep my games structured and grounded without it ruining the fun. I do prefer story over rules and allowing some things to slide sometimes, but for our group its about having fun together, not about playing Pathfinder, if that makes sense. Suprisingly even after this many sessions we are finally getting to our first, real, honest to god dungeon. They have had encounters and plenty of story, but a real dungeon never really came up until now. Our group is new to role playing games, I decided to GM so we could start playing because it peaked our interest for game nights. Here is a very quick background of the group and my universe so that there is context for providing useful help. (because I decided to fully homebrew a universe and rules for my first campaign like a maniac)
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I apologize for the amount of text and info to come, but if you actually take the time to read it through and help me out you're a Boss. And you appreciate the challenge and honor of making your own campaign, and the chance to share your knowledge and experience to help other players grow. Thanks!
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We play Pathfinder, but I have modified some of the rules to mix it with Starfinder. The rule-set shouldn't matter, I need help with concepts and encounters, the numbers and exact rules shouldn't entirely effect that.
I have 4 players, two adults and two children, ages 13 and 9. They are remarkably good at keeping up and are very good role-players.
Our group is made up of all level 3 characters, an Orc Skald, a Strix Vivisectionist Alchemist, a Half-Elf Gunslinger (13 year old), and a Kitsune Fighter (9 year old).
My universe is set Sci-Fi, its cyberpunk with hints of post apocalyptic. Think Bladerunner, Kung Fury, and Mad Max. The world is highly advanced but uses the 80's vision of future technology. There are visor goggles, cybernetic limbs, and robotic raptors that shoot laser beams from their eyes. Its a very fun setting that brings a lot of character and allows some adult themes without taking itself too seriously. it is a PG-13 Game, I tone it down and try to keep it light, but don't stray away from important topics like racism, and evil and good being different based on perspective, things that are important lessons to be sneaked in there while they fight sand pirates while riding laser raptors.
In my world the Elven Empire was the first to rise to technological prowess, discovering magic, creating immortality within their species, and finding faster than light space travel, they quickly dominated their nearby galaxies. Each pathfinder race is actually its own alien species with a homeworld and culture, almost all of which were subjugated by the elven empire. a huge war broke out and resistance was waged against the elves and it nearly crumbled the empire. A new faction of elves arose and became hyper militaristic, nearly crushing all rebellion by extinguishing a star as a demonstration, destroying a solar system which held the Lizardfolk Homeworld. Now the war is in a stale mate. The players were born and raised on a desert moon called Chernabog, it was the main front line during the war some 80 years prior. its been desolated by nuclear bomb level War-Magic and now its quarantined. A civilization of exiles, scavengers, and remaining soldiers abandoned by their people have sprung up. They try to survive in the desert landscape that is covered in the rusting remains of thousands of mountain sized starships that they turn into homes and scavenge in for resources to survive.
The players find themselves in a small trading outpost that connects trading routes throughout the Wastelands. It has been struck by my strange plague that is a form of Magical Radiation poisoning caused by the fallout of such devastating war magic, called "Enchantment". It causes horrible death by magical overload, and it spreads like a virus. Soon they found out that the massive starship that is half buried in the sand below the outpost seems to be somehow returning to life. power is coming on and they think its causing this random outbreak of the plague. This is the first real Dungeon they will face, they must explore its depths and find its secrets to stop whatever is killing the people of the outpost.
The Dungeon So Far: The ship itself is an old research vessel that created biological weapons by warping life with magic and technology, creating horrible monstrosities and chemical warfare. The power is occasionally flickering to life. Soon they accidentally awaken an onboard A.I. that was a sort of helper A.I. that acted as a guide and assistant to the scientists aboard. programmed to only help it agrees to help them find out whats wrong. Soon they discover another A.I., called a War-Mind, which was used during the great war and awoke and became rampant. still locked in its thinking from the war it is trying to regain control of the ship and continue the battle. Players must work with the helpful A.I. to get deeper into the ships levels and stop the Rampant A.I. before it finishing routing power to an arcane reactor core that is misaligned, it doesn't know its misaligned and this will cause a massive nuclear like explosion wiping out half the moon. This misalignment is also causing massive amounts of magic to leak from the reactor when it tries to power on, causing the plague above.
The ship is massive, but I have condensed it into 5 accessible Floors and hallways (the rest of the ship is inaccessible due to damage or lack of power), each with different challenges. The ship is an old elven ship filled with leaking magical energy, scientific experiments kept alive by long forgotten technology, and secrets. As the players explore they will find 6 Recordings from the Head of Research and Development aboard the ship, explaining and documenting the final months before the ship crashed, and a secret experiment she felt she had to stop (by crashing the ship.)
(I have actually voice acted and mixed each audio log with full sound effects and even playing multiple characters talking to each other so they can actually listen to them as well, because dedication is awesome!)
Here is the levels of the ship I have so far, but I need some help with designing or tips on finishing the last few.
Floor #1: IMAGE of FLOOR LAYOUT
A standard floor with mostly open rooms that have become infested by various beasts who now call it home, some of which are Rust Monsters because the planet is covered in mountains of metal in the form of starships, rust monsters are going to be everywhere. Its the starter floor so they can explore and encounter various animal life and learn a bit of the history of the ship through a few Audio Logs. They must sneak into a surveillance room through a rust monster tunnel in the wall and restore power to that floor to gain access to open large blast doors that seal them off from traveling deeper into the ship. this awakens the dormant helpful A.I. who introduces herself and from then on agrees to help them. She can help by routing power from rooms she has control over to other rooms to open doors or power up terminals and computers.
Floor #2: IMAGE of FLOOR LAYOUT
The second floor has no power. The players have to return power to the floor so they can access a mainframe hub and terminal to find out more about whats happening on the ship. To restore power the players will find an Assembly Cube (From Starfinder), its trapped and was a creation by the ancient elven scientists. An Assembly cube is like a gelatinous cube but it only eats metal and mechanical objects and technology, after eating it it will recombine the atoms of the meal to create a selected object of equal mass. Players can access a nearby panel that allows them to program the Cube as to what it will create, along with various objects there is a selection for High-Grade Power Cores. What they must do is search the floor for highly technological objects, such as robots or machines, to feed the cube to end up creating 3 of these batteries to restore power. Each thing they must feed the cube is a different challenge, one is a large droid that will awaken and they must defeat it and haul its body to the cube, another is a prototype Walker power suit they must find Void Dust in a nearby lab to lower a Force field around to then get in and walk to the cube. the last is a powerful construction machine that is on the other side of a separated room, they have to use the cube and random scrap to create a tool to get it. Once they create the three power cores they insert them into a docking area and that restores power so that they can enter the mainframe. There they meet the rampant A.I. who taunts them and attacks them with defense droids and turrets. The Rampant A.I. has two personalities now, the tactical war-mind half, and a crazy jester like one that wants to play with them before killing the players. Players than go deeper into the ship
Floor #3:
Here is where I'm struggling. My idea is that they must slide down this corridor that is broken and at a sloped angle, as they go down the Jester A.I. opens vents and pathways to split the group into two groups of two. they each end up in rooms separate from each other. What I want is for the Jester to Play with them.
--My thoughts are either a set of parallel rooms where the groups each answer trivia about the world or other things, but each time they fail the OTHER team gets hurt by a shock or something. answer enough and you move on to the next room until you reach the end.
--Or my preferred idea to work off of. its two very large rooms separated by thick bullet proof glass so they can see each other. each room is a testing area for new weapons and devices so its filled with traps and deadly things, all of which are deactivated. Each team is asked questions and at the end of all the trivia they each have to fight an encounter, but your encounter is harder with more environmental traps or enemies depending on how well the OTHER team answered.
I need help because I feel this is thematically very interesting and causes lots of tension. But I know they are only level 3, and its going to be hard to balance a survivable encounter for each group. I also need help deciding on cool things to add to each room as hazards for each wrong answer. I just don't want it so difficult that if they answer every single one wrong that its now completely impossible to win for the other team. Its supposed to be a sort of whimsical terrifying encounter, where the Jester A.I. has turned their suffering into a game show and they have to play along. I have ideas about how to allow it to get really bad without just straight up killing them off. the truth is I really try to avoid killing them. they each nearly die at least twice every encounter, so its tense, but I stray away from death because its more about the story for them. I thought about making a fail-safe on my end that if it just gets too unbeatable or I realize I messed up and there is no way to make it out without a TPK, that the tactical A.I. half regains control and shuts it all down because hes more honorable, or that the friendly A.I. manages to hack and shut it down just in time. But I know that can feel kinda cheap for the players so I'm worried about doing that. Just keep in mind on top of this they still have two more floors to get through, including a mini-boss encounter, and the last boss which is the rampant A.I. who takes physical form in old technology, so even if they make it out with 1 HP each, its going to be impossible for them to go on, and with the looming threat of nuclear meltdown it means its pretty time sensitive so they cant just turn back, rest, and come back later.
I really like the idea and I even thought about the ability to allow the groups to take on the penalty of another group, so its up to them if they want to make their challenge more difficult for the sake of their friends having an easier time. The thing is I'm also having a very difficult time even coming up with Trivia or questions. The Jester A.I. is old and only knows about a world 80 years ago, his questions would be based on the war and the conflict between the elven empire and the other races, and his "correct" answers would probably be biased to make the elves look better, like "Why did the Great War Begin?" players might answer "The other races were oppressed by the elves and rose up to fight for their cultures and beliefs" which would be true, but he would probably go "Wrong, The races did not value the gifts of technology and magic bestowed upon them by the elves, the elven empire only helped the other races and they rose up in an act of ungratefulness and selfishness..." or something like that, but if I do that the players will feel cheated, like there is NO right answer and they shouldn't even play along. So now I'm second guessing even making it Trivia, but I don't know what else to do? maybe random mini-game like challenges to test their respective skills and knowledge? like our skald techno-genius has to hack a computer in less than a minute, or the gunslinger has to shoot 3 out of 5 quickly moving drone targets, etc.? any ideas would be amazing!
Here is the rest of my floor Ideas just to tie it all together...
Floor #4: "The Maze" an area of ship that is a sort of maze of hallways and rooms and their is a very large and deadly biological experiment still alive that hunts them down, think like a Minotaur in a maze. It ends with them sneaking out and getting trapped in a large training area room for troops with the creature. the Jester Comes on and starts up his mini game routine again. They have to fight the creature and every round a screen flickers to life and a literal "Wheel of Agony" spins, it has various environmental factors that can be activated to either help or hurt the players, such as anti gravity, change the terrain, generate confusing holograms, environmental hazards in random areas, a damaging electric shock to the creature, a healing pod is activated for a time, etc. Once they defeat the monster in the crazy arena they go finally to the main reactor core to face the rampant A.I.
Floor #5: "The rampant A.I." the players enter a very large dome like room with a gigantic reactor core in the center that's trying to power on. Large devices called Aetherflux Capacitors line every surface of the domed ceiling, one of which the players actually found above ground when they first came to the outpost to investigate. There are large rings with colored crystals, when the core tries to power on it reflects light but its misaligned so it cant. The Rampant A.I. takes over machines and wires and robot bodies to pull itself into a massive robotic form made of wires and scrap parts, it stands in the center of this circular room with the core above it, its large and slow and will attack the players by slamming onto the circular walkway that goes around the room. Imagine like a videogame boss. The players have to dodge its attacks, kill the robots its taking control of and shedding, and also go to a console nearby to put commands to realign the crystals properly so that they will refract the energy into the boss itself (the helpful A.I. tells them that would work so they have a plan if they get desperate) I wrote a color code to simplify the puzzle, and it describes how to align the crystals properly. once they are aligned and the power tries to come back on it reflects all of it towards the heart of the A.I. and it fries it into oblivion.
I like the concept of this last boss type battle, but I'm worried about how it will function in practice, if it will be fun. Any information or tips about how to change but still utilize these ideas would be much appreciated. I really want a memorable fun first dungeon for my players.
I apologize for the amount of text and info to come, but if you actually take the time to read it through and help me out you're a Boss. And you appreciate the challenge and honor of making your own campaign, and the chance to share your knowledge and experience to help other players grow. Thanks!
We play Pathfinder, but I have modified some of the rules to mix it with Starfinder. The rule-set shouldn't matter, I need help with concepts and encounters, the numbers and exact rules shouldn't entirely effect that.
I have 4 players, two adults and two children, ages 13 and 9. They are remarkably good at keeping up and are very good role-players.
Our group is made up of all level 3 characters, an Orc Skald, a Strix Vivisectionist Alchemist, a Half-Elf Gunslinger (13 year old), and a Kitsune Fighter (9 year old).
My universe is set Sci-Fi, its cyberpunk with hints of post apocalyptic. Think Bladerunner, Kung Fury, and Mad Max. The world is highly advanced but uses the 80's vision of future technology. There are visor goggles, cybernetic limbs, and robotic raptors that shoot laser beams from their eyes. Its a very fun setting that brings a lot of character and allows some adult themes without taking itself too seriously. it is a PG-13 Game, I tone it down and try to keep it light, but don't stray away from important topics like racism, and evil and good being different based on perspective, things that are important lessons to be sneaked in there while they fight sand pirates while riding laser raptors.
In my world the Elven Empire was the first to rise to technological prowess, discovering magic, creating immortality within their species, and finding faster than light space travel, they quickly dominated their nearby galaxies. Each pathfinder race is actually its own alien species with a homeworld and culture, almost all of which were subjugated by the elven empire. a huge war broke out and resistance was waged against the elves and it nearly crumbled the empire. A new faction of elves arose and became hyper militaristic, nearly crushing all rebellion by extinguishing a star as a demonstration, destroying a solar system which held the Lizardfolk Homeworld. Now the war is in a stale mate. The players were born and raised on a desert moon called Chernabog, it was the main front line during the war some 80 years prior. its been desolated by nuclear bomb level War-Magic and now its quarantined. A civilization of exiles, scavengers, and remaining soldiers abandoned by their people have sprung up. They try to survive in the desert landscape that is covered in the rusting remains of thousands of mountain sized starships that they turn into homes and scavenge in for resources to survive.
The players find themselves in a small trading outpost that connects trading routes throughout the Wastelands. It has been struck by my strange plague that is a form of Magical Radiation poisoning caused by the fallout of such devastating war magic, called "Enchantment". It causes horrible death by magical overload, and it spreads like a virus. Soon they found out that the massive starship that is half buried in the sand below the outpost seems to be somehow returning to life. power is coming on and they think its causing this random outbreak of the plague. This is the first real Dungeon they will face, they must explore its depths and find its secrets to stop whatever is killing the people of the outpost.
The Dungeon So Far: The ship itself is an old research vessel that created biological weapons by warping life with magic and technology, creating horrible monstrosities and chemical warfare. The power is occasionally flickering to life. Soon they accidentally awaken an onboard A.I. that was a sort of helper A.I. that acted as a guide and assistant to the scientists aboard. programmed to only help it agrees to help them find out whats wrong. Soon they discover another A.I., called a War-Mind, which was used during the great war and awoke and became rampant. still locked in its thinking from the war it is trying to regain control of the ship and continue the battle. Players must work with the helpful A.I. to get deeper into the ships levels and stop the Rampant A.I. before it finishing routing power to an arcane reactor core that is misaligned, it doesn't know its misaligned and this will cause a massive nuclear like explosion wiping out half the moon. This misalignment is also causing massive amounts of magic to leak from the reactor when it tries to power on, causing the plague above.
The ship is massive, but I have condensed it into 5 accessible Floors and hallways (the rest of the ship is inaccessible due to damage or lack of power), each with different challenges. The ship is an old elven ship filled with leaking magical energy, scientific experiments kept alive by long forgotten technology, and secrets. As the players explore they will find 6 Recordings from the Head of Research and Development aboard the ship, explaining and documenting the final months before the ship crashed, and a secret experiment she felt she had to stop (by crashing the ship.)
(I have actually voice acted and mixed each audio log with full sound effects and even playing multiple characters talking to each other so they can actually listen to them as well, because dedication is awesome!)
Here is the levels of the ship I have so far, but I need some help with designing or tips on finishing the last few.
Floor #1: IMAGE of FLOOR LAYOUT
A standard floor with mostly open rooms that have become infested by various beasts who now call it home, some of which are Rust Monsters because the planet is covered in mountains of metal in the form of starships, rust monsters are going to be everywhere. Its the starter floor so they can explore and encounter various animal life and learn a bit of the history of the ship through a few Audio Logs. They must sneak into a surveillance room through a rust monster tunnel in the wall and restore power to that floor to gain access to open large blast doors that seal them off from traveling deeper into the ship. this awakens the dormant helpful A.I. who introduces herself and from then on agrees to help them. She can help by routing power from rooms she has control over to other rooms to open doors or power up terminals and computers.
Floor #2: IMAGE of FLOOR LAYOUT
The second floor has no power. The players have to return power to the floor so they can access a mainframe hub and terminal to find out more about whats happening on the ship. To restore power the players will find an Assembly Cube (From Starfinder), its trapped and was a creation by the ancient elven scientists. An Assembly cube is like a gelatinous cube but it only eats metal and mechanical objects and technology, after eating it it will recombine the atoms of the meal to create a selected object of equal mass. Players can access a nearby panel that allows them to program the Cube as to what it will create, along with various objects there is a selection for High-Grade Power Cores. What they must do is search the floor for highly technological objects, such as robots or machines, to feed the cube to end up creating 3 of these batteries to restore power. Each thing they must feed the cube is a different challenge, one is a large droid that will awaken and they must defeat it and haul its body to the cube, another is a prototype Walker power suit they must find Void Dust in a nearby lab to lower a Force field around to then get in and walk to the cube. the last is a powerful construction machine that is on the other side of a separated room, they have to use the cube and random scrap to create a tool to get it. Once they create the three power cores they insert them into a docking area and that restores power so that they can enter the mainframe. There they meet the rampant A.I. who taunts them and attacks them with defense droids and turrets. The Rampant A.I. has two personalities now, the tactical war-mind half, and a crazy jester like one that wants to play with them before killing the players. Players than go deeper into the ship
Floor #3:
Here is where I'm struggling. My idea is that they must slide down this corridor that is broken and at a sloped angle, as they go down the Jester A.I. opens vents and pathways to split the group into two groups of two. they each end up in rooms separate from each other. What I want is for the Jester to Play with them.
--My thoughts are either a set of parallel rooms where the groups each answer trivia about the world or other things, but each time they fail the OTHER team gets hurt by a shock or something. answer enough and you move on to the next room until you reach the end.
--Or my preferred idea to work off of. its two very large rooms separated by thick bullet proof glass so they can see each other. each room is a testing area for new weapons and devices so its filled with traps and deadly things, all of which are deactivated. Each team is asked questions and at the end of all the trivia they each have to fight an encounter, but your encounter is harder with more environmental traps or enemies depending on how well the OTHER team answered.
I need help because I feel this is thematically very interesting and causes lots of tension. But I know they are only level 3, and its going to be hard to balance a survivable encounter for each group. I also need help deciding on cool things to add to each room as hazards for each wrong answer. I just don't want it so difficult that if they answer every single one wrong that its now completely impossible to win for the other team. Its supposed to be a sort of whimsical terrifying encounter, where the Jester A.I. has turned their suffering into a game show and they have to play along. I have ideas about how to allow it to get really bad without just straight up killing them off. the truth is I really try to avoid killing them. they each nearly die at least twice every encounter, so its tense, but I stray away from death because its more about the story for them. I thought about making a fail-safe on my end that if it just gets too unbeatable or I realize I messed up and there is no way to make it out without a TPK, that the tactical A.I. half regains control and shuts it all down because hes more honorable, or that the friendly A.I. manages to hack and shut it down just in time. But I know that can feel kinda cheap for the players so I'm worried about doing that. Just keep in mind on top of this they still have two more floors to get through, including a mini-boss encounter, and the last boss which is the rampant A.I. who takes physical form in old technology, so even if they make it out with 1 HP each, its going to be impossible for them to go on, and with the looming threat of nuclear meltdown it means its pretty time sensitive so they cant just turn back, rest, and come back later.
I really like the idea and I even thought about the ability to allow the groups to take on the penalty of another group, so its up to them if they want to make their challenge more difficult for the sake of their friends having an easier time. The thing is I'm also having a very difficult time even coming up with Trivia or questions. The Jester A.I. is old and only knows about a world 80 years ago, his questions would be based on the war and the conflict between the elven empire and the other races, and his "correct" answers would probably be biased to make the elves look better, like "Why did the Great War Begin?" players might answer "The other races were oppressed by the elves and rose up to fight for their cultures and beliefs" which would be true, but he would probably go "Wrong, The races did not value the gifts of technology and magic bestowed upon them by the elves, the elven empire only helped the other races and they rose up in an act of ungratefulness and selfishness..." or something like that, but if I do that the players will feel cheated, like there is NO right answer and they shouldn't even play along. So now I'm second guessing even making it Trivia, but I don't know what else to do? maybe random mini-game like challenges to test their respective skills and knowledge? like our skald techno-genius has to hack a computer in less than a minute, or the gunslinger has to shoot 3 out of 5 quickly moving drone targets, etc.? any ideas would be amazing!
Here is the rest of my floor Ideas just to tie it all together...
Floor #4: "The Maze" an area of ship that is a sort of maze of hallways and rooms and their is a very large and deadly biological experiment still alive that hunts them down, think like a Minotaur in a maze. It ends with them sneaking out and getting trapped in a large training area room for troops with the creature. the Jester Comes on and starts up his mini game routine again. They have to fight the creature and every round a screen flickers to life and a literal "Wheel of Agony" spins, it has various environmental factors that can be activated to either help or hurt the players, such as anti gravity, change the terrain, generate confusing holograms, environmental hazards in random areas, a damaging electric shock to the creature, a healing pod is activated for a time, etc. Once they defeat the monster in the crazy arena they go finally to the main reactor core to face the rampant A.I.
Floor #5: "The rampant A.I." the players enter a very large dome like room with a gigantic reactor core in the center that's trying to power on. Large devices called Aetherflux Capacitors line every surface of the domed ceiling, one of which the players actually found above ground when they first came to the outpost to investigate. There are large rings with colored crystals, when the core tries to power on it reflects light but its misaligned so it cant. The Rampant A.I. takes over machines and wires and robot bodies to pull itself into a massive robotic form made of wires and scrap parts, it stands in the center of this circular room with the core above it, its large and slow and will attack the players by slamming onto the circular walkway that goes around the room. Imagine like a videogame boss. The players have to dodge its attacks, kill the robots its taking control of and shedding, and also go to a console nearby to put commands to realign the crystals properly so that they will refract the energy into the boss itself (the helpful A.I. tells them that would work so they have a plan if they get desperate) I wrote a color code to simplify the puzzle, and it describes how to align the crystals properly. once they are aligned and the power tries to come back on it reflects all of it towards the heart of the A.I. and it fries it into oblivion.
I like the concept of this last boss type battle, but I'm worried about how it will function in practice, if it will be fun. Any information or tips about how to change but still utilize these ideas would be much appreciated. I really want a memorable fun first dungeon for my players.