Designing a steampunk style tower, and kinda struggling to make puzzles or encounters for the tower.
Origins of the tower is its a large power amplifier for a powerful magical spell.
Some ideas/puzzles/encounters I have are:
A room where it is incredibly hot, and the doors close. Due to air not escaping, the room rapidly gets hot. They take 1d6 fire dmg every 15 seconds or real time. In order to get out, they either have to use a spell to blow the heavy iron door open, or use a computer to reroute power to the door. Power values have to fall into expected ranges. Too low of power and not enough power will go to the door to open it. Too much power will overload the door and activate the surge protector. But, the computer wont turn on. An error message about “insufficient coolant, terminal inoperable”. Coolant tank is there, but too hot. Use ice spells on it to cool it to turn the terminal on.
Giant cog wheels that they have to ride, jumping to the next cog using a dex save. If they dont jump in time, they get crushed, taking large amount of bludgeoning dmg. If they fail the jump, they may fall, taking more fall dmg the longer they fall.
Steam Engine that belts out a Clockwork Soldier every round non stop until the engine is destroyed.
Other than these 3, I have no ideas whatsoever.
Any puzzles/encounters/traps for a steampunk/clockwork tower would be appreciated.
You could have an old-timey elevator (you know, the kind that have two sliding metal gate doors you have to close before it starts to move) get stuck between floors due to some magical interference or a simple mechanical issue. Party has to fix it in cramped quarters. OR perhaps the issue is the elevator won't stop. Think the trash compactor scene in A New Hope.
My steampunk setting has telephones that are basically just speaking tubes enchanted with Sending spells. You could have the party pass a wall-mounted receiver (or a magitech gramophone PA system) and have a social encounter. Bonus points if it's a person trying to mess with/interfere with the party.
I would do away with the computer. Steampunk is more about levers, gears, and crackling electrical nodes.
Try a version of the three lever puzzle - the levers start in the same position but they have to be put into another position in the correct order.
Make sure the mechanical soldiers are not too tough. If they come out every round, the party can quickly get overwhelmed.
You could add a creature that has been halfway converted Like a Mindflayer that is integrated into the tower.
I don't see a problem with the party getting overwhelmed. Overwhelmed !=Dead the Clockwork soldiers could take the party to their their "Leader" an autgnome that has been repairing them and helping to keep the tower running for centuries ...
I would expand the three lever puzzle to 5 , 7, or 9 and Giving you 120, 210, 504 permutations that you can make random tables for. Assuming only three levers control the puzzle.
At the top of the tower is creator who is immortal(Cant Die Due to old age) and utterly insane
Add Automatons that are fixing things and rather then them try to hurt the players they are trying to get them cleaned up and presentable.
A lot of tube traps that either suck a player up levels or down levels seperating the party
Hi all,
Designing a steampunk style tower, and kinda struggling to make puzzles or encounters for the tower.
Origins of the tower is its a large power amplifier for a powerful magical spell.
Some ideas/puzzles/encounters I have are:
A room where it is incredibly hot, and the doors close. Due to air not escaping, the room rapidly gets hot. They take 1d6 fire dmg every 15 seconds or real time. In order to get out, they either have to use a spell to blow the heavy iron door open, or use a computer to reroute power to the door. Power values have to fall into expected ranges. Too low of power and not enough power will go to the door to open it. Too much power will overload the door and activate the surge protector. But, the computer wont turn on. An error message about “insufficient coolant, terminal inoperable”. Coolant tank is there, but too hot. Use ice spells on it to cool it to turn the terminal on.
Giant cog wheels that they have to ride, jumping to the next cog using a dex save. If they dont jump in time, they get crushed, taking large amount of bludgeoning dmg. If they fail the jump, they may fall, taking more fall dmg the longer they fall.
Steam Engine that belts out a Clockwork Soldier every round non stop until the engine is destroyed.
Other than these 3, I have no ideas whatsoever.
Any puzzles/encounters/traps for a steampunk/clockwork tower would be appreciated.
I would do away with the computer. Steampunk is more about levers, gears, and crackling electrical nodes.
Try a version of the three lever puzzle - the levers start in the same position but they have to be put into another position in the correct order.
Make sure the mechanical soldiers are not too tough. If they come out every round, the party can quickly get overwhelmed.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
You could have an old-timey elevator (you know, the kind that have two sliding metal gate doors you have to close before it starts to move) get stuck between floors due to some magical interference or a simple mechanical issue. Party has to fix it in cramped quarters. OR perhaps the issue is the elevator won't stop. Think the trash compactor scene in A New Hope.
My steampunk setting has telephones that are basically just speaking tubes enchanted with Sending spells. You could have the party pass a wall-mounted receiver (or a magitech gramophone PA system) and have a social encounter. Bonus points if it's a person trying to mess with/interfere with the party.
Clockwork Soldiers wouldnt be higher than CR2 at most, and they will likely be close to lvl 10 at this point.
I wasnt the biggest fan of the computer puzzle, but was really struggling with stuff to put in this tower. Any way to spice up the 3 levers puzzle?
You could add a creature that has been halfway converted Like a Mindflayer that is integrated into the tower.
I don't see a problem with the party getting overwhelmed. Overwhelmed !=Dead the Clockwork soldiers could take the party to their their "Leader" an autgnome that has been repairing them and helping to keep the tower running for centuries ...
I would expand the three lever puzzle to 5 , 7, or 9 and Giving you 120, 210, 504 permutations that you can make random tables for. Assuming only three levers control the puzzle.
At the top of the tower is creator who is immortal(Cant Die Due to old age) and utterly insane
Add Automatons that are fixing things and rather then them try to hurt the players they are trying to get them cleaned up and presentable.
A lot of tube traps that either suck a player up levels or down levels seperating the party
Just published a map on DriveThruRPG The Forgotten Temple