The party is 5 level six players, and I had the idea of a Gremlin (or a Boggle, i just prefer the term Gremlin) stealing the party's magic items and running off with them. Gremlin's aren't dangerous at all, they're only CR 1/8, but they're trouble makers. I considered making it a skill challenge, but I don't think that would complex enough to intrigue the party. I considered doing a short combat where the party had to catch the gremlin, but they're so powerful that it would be super anti climactic. What are some game mechanics i could use to make catching a Gremlin fun?
I don't know game mechanics, but if you want an encounter to be both fun and challenging, try this:
- there should be a chance of failure
- it should have some memorable moments
First off, the failure. I am stealing here from a different RPG System, but basically allow both the Gremlin and the Party to gather progress points.
Let's say if the Gremlin gains 10 more progress points than the Party, he's gone and they have to go on a quest to track him down.
The gremlin makes a simple athletics check against DC 10 every 'round'. If he succeeds, he gets one progress point. For every 3 points above the DC, he gets another progress point.
After his check, it's the players turn. The same rules apply, but the checks should be more interesting. E. g. "The gremlin jumps over a small wall made of stone. As you follow him, you jump over the small wall and get immediately tangled in a bunch of fresh dyed clothes. Angry gnomes come at you and shout insults as they try to scare you away with raised broomsticks. Make a DC 15 Acrobatics Check if you try to follow the Gremlin through the dyed clothes and angered gnomes or a DC 15 Athletics Check if you try to jump on the wall and climb the gnome's house on the other side."
Now the interesting part: add obstacles for the players, like the gnomes and their dye.
A crowded city could have angry guards, busy merchants, old people, high houses and walls etc.
A forest like region could have bear traps, goblin tribes, quick sand/mud, tangling vines, a female boar and her children, wolves, thick bushes etc. The gremlin could also climb up a cliff of a high tree. Maybe a group of marauding orcs made their camp in it's way.
That way the party does not fight the weak Gremlin, but has a memorable chase though your world. Action movies can give you more ideas on fun obstacles during chase scenes. :-)
I would run a skill challenge that determines how tough the fight with the gremlin would actually be in the end. Skill challenges are a great tool for these kinds of things. Maybe the skill challenge for a chase sequence followed by combat with the Gremlin.
You could use the above link to help make the fight with the Gremlin more interesting and memorable. You could also change the Gremlin's stat block to that of something more challenging. Adding in some mooks so the players don't have a huge action economy advantage would be a good idea as well.
I'd personally go with a mix of all this. Start with a chase using the skill challenge, follow that up with a fight against the Gremlin with a better stat block and is action oriented. Have the Gremlin summon allies that are mooks at the beginning of the fight. Maybe the skill challenge determines how may the Gremlin summons. For the mooks you could easily just use a bunch of other Gremlins and give him like the title of a king among them.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
The party is 5 level six players, and I had the idea of a Gremlin (or a Boggle, i just prefer the term Gremlin) stealing the party's magic items and running off with them. Gremlin's aren't dangerous at all, they're only CR 1/8, but they're trouble makers. I considered making it a skill challenge, but I don't think that would complex enough to intrigue the party. I considered doing a short combat where the party had to catch the gremlin, but they're so powerful that it would be super anti climactic. What are some game mechanics i could use to make catching a Gremlin fun?
I don't know game mechanics, but if you want an encounter to be both fun and challenging, try this:
- there should be a chance of failure
- it should have some memorable moments
First off, the failure. I am stealing here from a different RPG System, but basically allow both the Gremlin and the Party to gather progress points.
Let's say if the Gremlin gains 10 more progress points than the Party, he's gone and they have to go on a quest to track him down.
The gremlin makes a simple athletics check against DC 10 every 'round'. If he succeeds, he gets one progress point. For every 3 points above the DC, he gets another progress point.
After his check, it's the players turn. The same rules apply, but the checks should be more interesting. E. g. "The gremlin jumps over a small wall made of stone. As you follow him, you jump over the small wall and get immediately tangled in a bunch of fresh dyed clothes. Angry gnomes come at you and shout insults as they try to scare you away with raised broomsticks. Make a DC 15 Acrobatics Check if you try to follow the Gremlin through the dyed clothes and angered gnomes or a DC 15 Athletics Check if you try to jump on the wall and climb the gnome's house on the other side."
Now the interesting part: add obstacles for the players, like the gnomes and their dye.
A crowded city could have angry guards, busy merchants, old people, high houses and walls etc.
A forest like region could have bear traps, goblin tribes, quick sand/mud, tangling vines, a female boar and her children, wolves, thick bushes etc. The gremlin could also climb up a cliff of a high tree. Maybe a group of marauding orcs made their camp in it's way.
That way the party does not fight the weak Gremlin, but has a memorable chase though your world. Action movies can give you more ideas on fun obstacles during chase scenes. :-)
I think this might help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_zl8WWaSyI&list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs8MaV7ELLCP_&index=88
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I would run a skill challenge that determines how tough the fight with the gremlin would actually be in the end. Skill challenges are a great tool for these kinds of things. Maybe the skill challenge for a chase sequence followed by combat with the Gremlin.
You could use the above link to help make the fight with the Gremlin more interesting and memorable. You could also change the Gremlin's stat block to that of something more challenging. Adding in some mooks so the players don't have a huge action economy advantage would be a good idea as well.
I'd personally go with a mix of all this. Start with a chase using the skill challenge, follow that up with a fight against the Gremlin with a better stat block and is action oriented. Have the Gremlin summon allies that are mooks at the beginning of the fight. Maybe the skill challenge determines how may the Gremlin summons. For the mooks you could easily just use a bunch of other Gremlins and give him like the title of a king among them.