I was listening to a song the other day while planning a dungeon for my campaign and I thought I would consider basing the dungeon off of the song and I wanted to hear others input.
Lyrics:
Up on the mountain I see down below It's easy to lose yourself I know Can't hear what you're shouting, I'm deaf to your show It's easy to lose your self control Everybody gets high, everybody gets low Life can be such overdose
So what I was thinking was at the beginning of the dungeon there is a big sign or something, or even before the dungeon they find a note or something, and it has the lyrics on it. they are then required to climb up a decent sized ladder. and the top maybe a puzzle or a fight, but I'll describe how they can see down into a lower room, and they can see a room that has "number of PCs" squares on the ground, and describe them to look like pressure plates of some sort. (Up on the mountain I see down below)
They then proceed into a room, maybe down a smaller ladder, or a ramp or something, and then they start to realize that the room is a maze, with encounters and traps along the way. (It's easy to lose yourself I know)
When they finally get through the maze and they reach the next room, a magic spell falls on them making them all go deaf and blind, and so they can not communicate (without meta-gaming that is) this is now the room with the pressure plates, once they all stand on all of them, the plates will start to vibrate in a pattern as if to count down from 3, 2 ,1 on 0 a small trap will activate, maybe like a wire or arrows, that hit low, unless jumped over. directly after the jumping over one, another trap will activate, shooting the arrows or wire high, requiring them to crouch underneath it. (Can't hear what you're shouting, I'm deaf to your show, It's easy to lose your self control, Everybody gets high, everybody gets low)
And I know that doesn't really do much with the lose your self control, but it does encompass the other two lines. , and I don't really have anything for life can be such overdose, and wasn't sure how much longer I really should make the hole thing.
I'm not a fan of this idea, for the same reason I'm not a fan of people sticking completely arbitrary puzzles in the middle of dungeon: Why would this place exist at all? What on earth would prompt someone - in-game-world - to build such a place?
IMHO - every place in the gaming world should have a purpose in existing, and its purpose determines how it's put together. Directly translating poetry or lyrics, line-by-line doesn't often lead to sensible constructs.
However, taking inspiration from songs, books, televisions shows, etc. is perfectly fine - use inspiration where you find it.
Every place not only has a purpose, and a design - but a story, and the story is usually of the people who built it or used it. You can then add clues as the backstory of the place ( I'm assuming it's a ruin now, but it need not be ), and the Players can - optionally - try and understand the history of what went on here. Understanding the story of the place may actually convey some benefit to the Players, by giving them clues as to where items and treasure might be, or how to bypass obstacles and traps.
You can use the song lyrics to shape your idea of the people that built and used the ( now ) dungeon.
Perhaps these lyrics represent the mental state of the ruler of a small keep in a mountainous territory, who is suffering an unhappy love affair with the daughter of the local Duke, whose territory is situated in a valley region. Use the lyrics to help shape that background story: how did it start, what happened, what went wrong - did it spark a conflict, is this why the place is now a ruin? Do the Players ever get to see these lyrics? If so, are they clues to finding area in the ruins, or bypassing security traps? What clues are there in the ruins to help the Party unfold the story? How will understanding the story help them untangle and uncover parts of the ruins?
Use the inspiration, but try not and be directly literal.
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When I see these lyrics, I don't immediately imagine a dungeon, but i think with a little creativity, you can work the lyrics into a kind of roadmap for getting through a dungeon to whatever you want to lie at the end. So think about what you would like to see at the end. In the meantime, let's break down the lines with some ideas for what you could do with them:
Up on the mountain I see down below You could go literal here and have your quest start with scaling the mountain to reach the entrance to the dungeon. Maybe the entrance or the means for accessing it cannot be seen until you look down from the top of the mountain.
It's easy to lose yourself I know Again, this lends itself to a literal interpretation. You mentioned a maze and that's a good start. Mazes are one of those things that often sound a lot cooler than they end up playing. You could do a skills challenge though, because those can be fun and give you the feeling of solving a maze without becoming tedious. I picture the party descending from the top of the mountain toward the entrance through a thick forest snowy-covered trees. You could have players describe survival checks to find their way, or stealth checks to move carefully to avoid creatures on the mountain, etc. You know how skill checks work. But in the end, you'd reach the entrance.
Can't hear what you're shouting, I'm deaf to your show So you got inside the dungeon and there are traps that have to be avoided or dealt with that can deafen you, or maybe an area under the effect of a silence spell. The show could be illusions, or something that dazzles or blinds the players. Once they make it through that...
It's easy to lose your self control You could have something that makes the characters lose self control, or they could have to deal with a berserker or some other monster who has lost its self control and now attacks the party in a rage.
Everybody gets high, everybody gets low Life can be such overdose These two lines can be handled together or separately. If you handle them together, you can have a dungeon with multiple levels with highs and lows that way. or you can have a potion/gas/mushroom/etc with some mind-altering effects that is part of a puzzle to progress to the end of the dungeon. I've always been a fan of a magical fountain deep underground that players are suspicious of, but ultimately drink from. The effects of the whatever-it-is could involve a CON save to avoid overdosing and either falling unconscious or becoming poisoned for a little bit. I'm not sure what level of quasi-drug effect is appropriate for you or your group, so I'll leave that to your capable hands.
In conclusion, I diverged from your own ideas in places, but this is just what the lyrics made me think of. Feel free to use your own ideas or mine, or take inspiration from a combination of the two. If you do decide to go this route, I'm curious to have a follow-up afterwards and find out how things went for you. Best of luck!
I have used lyrics from a song as insipriation for my adventures on many occasions. The band Manowar has some amazing songs, mostly Norse Mythology influence, and they've made some great fodder for my games. The trick is to put yourself into the concept as much as the lyrics, otherwise it usually falls short.
There is one in particular that I have tried to turn into an adventure, and I've made about 6 different iterations of it. The first one fell flat, one of the worst adventures I've ever run. The song was evocative, I had some amazing mental images from it. Translating it into a story that the players could enjoy was difficult, like I said the first try was bad. As I worked on it, and my friends were nice enough to hear me out on the different versions, I eventually got it to a point where it was a workable story. By the time I finished I had added a lot of my own stuff to what the song had. Sticking to it word for word did not work, it was dry, it was missing information that created motive, I didn't have any background information to help the players make decisions, and it left the players feeling bored. Now, I have a story for each of the characters in the story/song. I have a reason for each of those characters has a motive, means, and background. I have figured out how to get the players involved in various ways. In the end the lyrics were nothing more than a frame or foundation to start the work with.
The same should hold true for your idea: start with your gut reaction, then start asking why, how, who, where, etc. The more information you can put into the idea, even if it's simple explanations, the easier it will be for you to run that bit of the game. Make sure it's cohesive, meaning those simple explanations should make sense when it's all put together into the scenario. Plot holes and "because I'm the DM" are not good things to have in a dungeon or scenario. Give the players a reason to become invested, let them figure out morsels of information about why this place exists, and make it interactive. Finally, make sure everything makes sense, even if it is in retrospect, make sure that the players can reasonably figure out that "Trap A happened because of this action" or "This room is here because the people who made it needed it for this purpose". Having a disjointed collection of rooms and challenges is, arguably, just as frustrating as being stuck on a railroad.
Good luck with your idea, and I hope it plays out well!
Why would it exist at all? Because the storyteller wants it to.
a) the storytellers are the Players, not the DM. Most of the times I've seen the DM try and impose their artistic inspiration onto the story of the Players, it's gone horribly wrong, or at least been a lot less interesting for the Players than the DM hoped.
b) Internally consistent and plausible world logic is useful to the Players for solving the problems they have in the world around them. Basing the world on nonsensical premises doesn't do your Players any favors.
c) I think D&D has enough bad decipher bad 7th grade poetry to figure out exactly how you need to wiggle your noses at the magic talking door to get into the chamber of loot (tm). already.
d) There's a huge difference between taking inspiration from an artistic work ( a good thing in my books ) and literal nonsensical translation - which is why I gave advice ( which the OP is free to ignore ) on how to use inspiration with better in-world consistency ( see point B ).
e) If someone asked me for advice on the best way to put their head in a wood chipper, I would not then detail out advice and pointers on how to do it ( the response they are "looking for" ) - I'd tell them not to put their head in a wood chipper.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
And I gave advice on how to use inspiration - which is a cool thing to have, and I think he should run with it - in a more world consistent way. Never said the inspiration ( or the poster ) was stupid, just that I believe ( and that's just me ) there are better ways to use it in world.
And then someone came along and busted my chops for having a diverging opinion.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
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I was listening to a song the other day while planning a dungeon for my campaign and I thought I would consider basing the dungeon off of the song and I wanted to hear others input.
Lyrics:
Up on the mountain I see down below
It's easy to lose yourself I know
Can't hear what you're shouting, I'm deaf to your show
It's easy to lose your self control
Everybody gets high, everybody gets low
Life can be such overdose
So what I was thinking was at the beginning of the dungeon there is a big sign or something, or even before the dungeon they find a note or something, and it has the lyrics on it. they are then required to climb up a decent sized ladder. and the top maybe a puzzle or a fight, but I'll describe how they can see down into a lower room, and they can see a room that has "number of PCs" squares on the ground, and describe them to look like pressure plates of some sort. (Up on the mountain I see down below)
They then proceed into a room, maybe down a smaller ladder, or a ramp or something, and then they start to realize that the room is a maze, with encounters and traps along the way. (It's easy to lose yourself I know)
When they finally get through the maze and they reach the next room, a magic spell falls on them making them all go deaf and blind, and so they can not communicate (without meta-gaming that is) this is now the room with the pressure plates, once they all stand on all of them, the plates will start to vibrate in a pattern as if to count down from 3, 2 ,1 on 0 a small trap will activate, maybe like a wire or arrows, that hit low, unless jumped over. directly after the jumping over one, another trap will activate, shooting the arrows or wire high, requiring them to crouch underneath it. (Can't hear what you're shouting, I'm deaf to your show, It's easy to lose your self control, Everybody gets high, everybody gets low)
And I know that doesn't really do much with the lose your self control, but it does encompass the other two lines. , and I don't really have anything for life can be such overdose, and wasn't sure how much longer I really should make the hole thing.
I'm not a fan of this idea, for the same reason I'm not a fan of people sticking completely arbitrary puzzles in the middle of dungeon: Why would this place exist at all? What on earth would prompt someone - in-game-world - to build such a place?
IMHO - every place in the gaming world should have a purpose in existing, and its purpose determines how it's put together. Directly translating poetry or lyrics, line-by-line doesn't often lead to sensible constructs.
However, taking inspiration from songs, books, televisions shows, etc. is perfectly fine - use inspiration where you find it.
Every place not only has a purpose, and a design - but a story, and the story is usually of the people who built it or used it. You can then add clues as the backstory of the place ( I'm assuming it's a ruin now, but it need not be ), and the Players can - optionally - try and understand the history of what went on here. Understanding the story of the place may actually convey some benefit to the Players, by giving them clues as to where items and treasure might be, or how to bypass obstacles and traps.
You can use the song lyrics to shape your idea of the people that built and used the ( now ) dungeon.
Perhaps these lyrics represent the mental state of the ruler of a small keep in a mountainous territory, who is suffering an unhappy love affair with the daughter of the local Duke, whose territory is situated in a valley region. Use the lyrics to help shape that background story: how did it start, what happened, what went wrong - did it spark a conflict, is this why the place is now a ruin? Do the Players ever get to see these lyrics? If so, are they clues to finding area in the ruins, or bypassing security traps? What clues are there in the ruins to help the Party unfold the story? How will understanding the story help them untangle and uncover parts of the ruins?
Use the inspiration, but try not and be directly literal.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
When I see these lyrics, I don't immediately imagine a dungeon, but i think with a little creativity, you can work the lyrics into a kind of roadmap for getting through a dungeon to whatever you want to lie at the end. So think about what you would like to see at the end. In the meantime, let's break down the lines with some ideas for what you could do with them:
Up on the mountain I see down below
You could go literal here and have your quest start with scaling the mountain to reach the entrance to the dungeon. Maybe the entrance or the means for accessing it cannot be seen until you look down from the top of the mountain.
It's easy to lose yourself I know
Again, this lends itself to a literal interpretation. You mentioned a maze and that's a good start. Mazes are one of those things that often sound a lot cooler than they end up playing. You could do a skills challenge though, because those can be fun and give you the feeling of solving a maze without becoming tedious. I picture the party descending from the top of the mountain toward the entrance through a thick forest snowy-covered trees. You could have players describe survival checks to find their way, or stealth checks to move carefully to avoid creatures on the mountain, etc. You know how skill checks work. But in the end, you'd reach the entrance.
Can't hear what you're shouting, I'm deaf to your show
So you got inside the dungeon and there are traps that have to be avoided or dealt with that can deafen you, or maybe an area under the effect of a silence spell. The show could be illusions, or something that dazzles or blinds the players. Once they make it through that...
It's easy to lose your self control
You could have something that makes the characters lose self control, or they could have to deal with a berserker or some other monster who has lost its self control and now attacks the party in a rage.
Everybody gets high, everybody gets low
Life can be such overdose
These two lines can be handled together or separately. If you handle them together, you can have a dungeon with multiple levels with highs and lows that way. or you can have a potion/gas/mushroom/etc with some mind-altering effects that is part of a puzzle to progress to the end of the dungeon. I've always been a fan of a magical fountain deep underground that players are suspicious of, but ultimately drink from. The effects of the whatever-it-is could involve a CON save to avoid overdosing and either falling unconscious or becoming poisoned for a little bit. I'm not sure what level of quasi-drug effect is appropriate for you or your group, so I'll leave that to your capable hands.
In conclusion, I diverged from your own ideas in places, but this is just what the lyrics made me think of. Feel free to use your own ideas or mine, or take inspiration from a combination of the two. If you do decide to go this route, I'm curious to have a follow-up afterwards and find out how things went for you. Best of luck!
"Not all those who wander are lost"
I have used lyrics from a song as insipriation for my adventures on many occasions. The band Manowar has some amazing songs, mostly Norse Mythology influence, and they've made some great fodder for my games. The trick is to put yourself into the concept as much as the lyrics, otherwise it usually falls short.
There is one in particular that I have tried to turn into an adventure, and I've made about 6 different iterations of it. The first one fell flat, one of the worst adventures I've ever run. The song was evocative, I had some amazing mental images from it. Translating it into a story that the players could enjoy was difficult, like I said the first try was bad. As I worked on it, and my friends were nice enough to hear me out on the different versions, I eventually got it to a point where it was a workable story. By the time I finished I had added a lot of my own stuff to what the song had. Sticking to it word for word did not work, it was dry, it was missing information that created motive, I didn't have any background information to help the players make decisions, and it left the players feeling bored. Now, I have a story for each of the characters in the story/song. I have a reason for each of those characters has a motive, means, and background. I have figured out how to get the players involved in various ways. In the end the lyrics were nothing more than a frame or foundation to start the work with.
The same should hold true for your idea: start with your gut reaction, then start asking why, how, who, where, etc. The more information you can put into the idea, even if it's simple explanations, the easier it will be for you to run that bit of the game. Make sure it's cohesive, meaning those simple explanations should make sense when it's all put together into the scenario. Plot holes and "because I'm the DM" are not good things to have in a dungeon or scenario. Give the players a reason to become invested, let them figure out morsels of information about why this place exists, and make it interactive. Finally, make sure everything makes sense, even if it is in retrospect, make sure that the players can reasonably figure out that "Trap A happened because of this action" or "This room is here because the people who made it needed it for this purpose". Having a disjointed collection of rooms and challenges is, arguably, just as frustrating as being stuck on a railroad.
Good luck with your idea, and I hope it plays out well!
a) the storytellers are the Players, not the DM. Most of the times I've seen the DM try and impose their artistic inspiration onto the story of the Players, it's gone horribly wrong, or at least been a lot less interesting for the Players than the DM hoped.
b) Internally consistent and plausible world logic is useful to the Players for solving the problems they have in the world around them. Basing the world on nonsensical premises doesn't do your Players any favors.
c) I think D&D has enough bad decipher bad 7th grade poetry to figure out exactly how you need to wiggle your noses at the magic talking door to get into the chamber of loot (tm). already.
d) There's a huge difference between taking inspiration from an artistic work ( a good thing in my books ) and literal nonsensical translation - which is why I gave advice ( which the OP is free to ignore ) on how to use inspiration with better in-world consistency ( see point B ).
e) If someone asked me for advice on the best way to put their head in a wood chipper, I would not then detail out advice and pointers on how to do it ( the response they are "looking for" ) - I'd tell them not to put their head in a wood chipper.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
And I gave advice on how to use inspiration - which is a cool thing to have, and I think he should run with it - in a more world consistent way. Never said the inspiration ( or the poster ) was stupid, just that I believe ( and that's just me ) there are better ways to use it in world.
And then someone came along and busted my chops for having a diverging opinion.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.