I run a home-brew game in a fairly 'lowish magic' urban setting, which has its main plot and theme heavily influenced (read: stolen from) the game 'Thief - The Dark Project'. I've just dropped a brand new hook for my players to go break into the mansion of an enigmatic and eccentric noble, and to steal a sword (which to anyone who has played the game should be familiar).
Up until now, the setting of our game has been fairly 'normal', but this mansion they're about to explore is going to turn that around. I really want to make the place as weird, magical, and as confusing as possible, and really give them the 'funhouse dungeon' experience. I'm a little unsure on how to design something like that without making it seem like I'm being 'unfair' or convoluted about it, and and keen to steal some ideas off the community. I'm wanting this to be a challenging dungeon for a party of level 5 characters, but I'm not interested in anything like Tomb of Horrors, where traps are unfair, or punish people for wanting to explore.
I'd really like the house itself to feel like a character with its own sentience, messing with the players as they explore. I'd also like some practical advice on how to actually present and run this content, without too much fuss.
So far the main ideas I've got are:
My players prefer to avoid unnecessary violence, so they tend not to kill guards. As that's the case, they'll first think that there is only one low level guard protecting this mansion, but as they easily get past him and start getting deeper into the house they'll discover there is a LOT of that one guard. An army of him, in fact. All of whom seem unaware that they are clones.
Certain doors of the house will lead into the rooms from other dungeons they've been in previously. Particularly the rooms they decided not to explore (it's confusing, weird, and I get to blatantly use the content I've already written that they've skipped over).
Some kind of MC Esher style room layouts, where there are guards running around on the ceiling.
Opportunities for the party to be split up, and separated from each other. Not as in a 'trap being sprung' kind of way.. more just the house itself 'having fun' kind of way.
Since it's a big mansion, you could have a gargoyle statue as almost a representation of the house's sentience. The main difficulty should be escaping the house, and from there they have to go to the front of the house and see the gargoyle statue sitting there, which then becomes a boss fight. Just an idea.
Homebrew, homebrew, homebrew. I DM homebrew. I homebrew homebrew. My homebrew brews homebrew. I brewed by home. My home brews homebrewed homebrew, homebrewing homebrew that homebrews homebrewing homebrew.
A room with a whole bunch of different kinds of potions, and the PCs have to drink the right combination of potions to get through a portal doorway to the next area. Not only would it take a lot of trial and error, random potions are a ton of fun! And then they have to endure the effects of said potions for the next hour (duration?) while they take on the dungeon! Of course, don’t give them anything too overpowered. My personal favorite is the Philter of Love; I got hit with it once and wound up married to a fox devil!
The Awaken spell could be good for a project like this, although if you use it too many times, the PCs are going to decide to just smash every inanimate object they see. Animate Objects could serve a similar purpose, with a similar drawback.
A set of rooms, each depicting a scene from your world’s history, with multiple doors. The PCs have to travel through the rooms in the same order as History, or the wax figures come to life and attack (or just act out the scene, which might be deadly in it’s own right). When they get to the final room, it comes to life, and they have to deal with whatever is there, wondering if they messed up the sequence again. Once they solve the final room, all the doors but one disappear, which leads to the next part of the dungeon. I can’t think of a good way for the PCs to get back to the start of the sequence when they mess up, though.
Edited to add: requiring the characters to dress up in historical costume before entering the history rooms could be even more fun, especially if one or more of them chose something belonging to someone whose fate turned out to be disastrous, such as a king who was beheaded, or a knight who was petrified by a Medusa!
Imagine things that would be in a real funhouse and D&D them up.
Instead of stairs going down, it is a slide. No problem getting down, more challenging getting back up, especially if something is chasing you. Imagine a hallway intersection where you have to get on the spinning disk and jump off at the correct hallway One of the hallways is the rotating barrel Hallways that move up and down randomly or, or from side to side. PCs and opponents make regular checks to keep their balance. Compressed air shooting out randomly The maze of mirrors - that might be a great place to have the guards appear, as people think they are seeing reflections. Some are, but others are a cloned guard. A fight in a ball pit Clowns. Lots of clowns. So many clowns.
Oh! I thought of something else. Thank you Marigold, for stimulating my half-asleep brain!
There is an episode of a TV show called The Librarians, where the protagonists are trapped in an extra dimensional labyrinth. The labyrinth is described thus:
”Imagine a building where every floor has a different layout. Sometimes, when you walk around, you move between floors without noticing. From your perspective, the layout looks different, but if you know what floor you’re on, it makes perfect sense.”
In the show, the characters have to find the labyrinth’s power source (an ancient ball of thread, first used by Theseus to escape the maze in Minos) in order to shut it down and get out. Something that could be easily adapted to D&D.
I highly recommend The Librarians. It’s an awesome fantasy show shot in my hometown, and it’s actually what got me interested in D&D. I’ve stolen more ideas than I can count from them!
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I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
Oh! I thought of something else. Thank you Marigold, for stimulating my half-asleep brain!
There is an episode of a TV show called The Librarians, where the protagonists are trapped in an extra dimensional labyrinth. The labyrinth is described thus:
”Imagine a building where every floor has a different layout. Sometimes, when you walk around, you move between floors without noticing. From your perspective, the layout looks different, but if you know what floor you’re on, it makes perfect sense.”
In the show, the characters have to find the labyrinth’s power source (an ancient ball of thread, first used by Theseus to escape the maze in Minos) in order to shut it down and get out. Something that could be easily adapted to D&D.
I highly recommend The Librarians. It’s an awesome fantasy show shot in my hometown, and it’s actually what got me interested in D&D. I’ve stolen more ideas than I can count from them!
Or imagine a building built as a mobius strip where you keep going down the same hallway forever...
Oh! I thought of something else. Thank you Marigold, for stimulating my half-asleep brain!
There is an episode of a TV show called The Librarians, where the protagonists are trapped in an extra dimensional labyrinth. The labyrinth is described thus:
”Imagine a building where every floor has a different layout. Sometimes, when you walk around, you move between floors without noticing. From your perspective, the layout looks different, but if you know what floor you’re on, it makes perfect sense.”
In the show, the characters have to find the labyrinth’s power source (an ancient ball of thread, first used by Theseus to escape the maze in Minos) in order to shut it down and get out. Something that could be easily adapted to D&D.
I highly recommend The Librarians. It’s an awesome fantasy show shot in my hometown, and it’s actually what got me interested in D&D. I’ve stolen more ideas than I can count from them!
I was in one where there was a portal at the end of the hall that opened to the beginning of the hall, so it looked like the hall was endless. We went through it several times before we noticed that we had been in some of the rooms already...
These are good ideas.. I'll steal a few for sure, since I still have a few rooms I'm a bit lost on.
So far I've got:
A long room empty, save for a single wooden chest opposite the door. The closer a character walks towards the chest, the smaller they shrink in size. If they end up walking right up to the chest they will be of a tiny size, unable to open it. That's where I'll have a few 'giant' (i.e. normal sized) spiders attack. The size change is not reversible when they walk back the other way, and will need a greater restoration spell to fix... or..
The train room. This room is filled with an elaborate train set, complete with tiny village and the whole works. The train will stop at the railway station, and its doors will open for a short while, before leaving and disappearing through a small hole in the wall. If a shrunk character is assisted in boarding this train, they'll be transported to another part of the house, where they can disembark as their normal size.
A ballroom. Full of brightly coloured plastic balls. And a lurking Bodak illusion jump-scare (which they ran away from in a previous part of the campaign). After their scare when they leave the room, the last character to leave will fall through the floor, and land in the tomb where they encountered it. When they open the door to that tomb, they'll be brought back into another part of the house.
Reverse gravity room. When they walk into what looks like a normal dining room (from the doorway) they'll be surprised as they immediately 'fall' 20 feet into the ceiling, where a mirror image of that room is above. Any characters who enter this room will be unable to return to the floor, having to walk about on the ceiling (until they enter the zero gravity room to reset themselves).
A very large, very empty room which only contains one thing - a perfectly identical clone of one of them. It will approach them, and smile, but show no interest in communicating with them, or leaving the space.
The chessboard. Pretty obvious really, but if they want to cross the room, they'll have to be careful about where they stand, lest they activate the wrath of a vigilant chess piece.
I've got a lot of rooms to go, and I don't think every single room should have some kind of trick about it.. I don't think it's fun when they expect something obvious, and it happens every time. I will say it's been a lot of fun.. hopefully they enjoy it too, and don't just get frustrated.
These are good ideas.. I'll steal a few for sure, since I still have a few rooms I'm a bit lost on.
So far I've got:
A long room empty, save for a single wooden chest opposite the door. The closer a character walks towards the chest, the smaller they shrink in size. If they end up walking right up to the chest they will be of a tiny size, unable to open it. That's where I'll have a few 'giant' (i.e. normal sized) spiders attack. The size change is not reversible when they walk back the other way, and will need a greater restoration spell to fix... or..
Will they shrink proportionately with every step they take? If one player goes in, will the others notice him/her shrinking as he/she goes? What are you going to do if they all go in, shrink, then can't get to or through other rooms?
The train room. This room is filled with an elaborate train set, complete with tiny village and the whole works. The train will stop at the railway station, and its doors will open for a short while, before leaving and disappearing through a small hole in the wall. If a shrunk character is assisted in boarding this train, they'll be transported to another part of the house, where they can disembark as their normal size.
if they are all shrunk, can they all get to the train and get on it?
A ballroom. Full of brightly coloured plastic balls. And a lurking Bodak illusion jump-scare (which they ran away from in a previous part of the campaign). After their scare when they leave the room, the last character to leave will fall through the floor, and land in the tomb where they encountered it. When they open the door to that tomb, they'll be brought back into another part of the house.
Will this split the party? if so, how will the other members find the one who fell?
Reverse gravity room. When they walk into what looks like a normal dining room (from the doorway) they'll be surprised as they immediately 'fall' 20 feet into the ceiling, where a mirror image of that room is above. Any characters who enter this room will be unable to return to the floor, having to walk about on the ceiling (until they enter the zero gravity room to reset themselves).
A very large, very empty room which only contains one thing - a perfectly identical clone of one of them. It will approach them, and smile, but show no interest in communicating with them, or leaving the space.
The chessboard. Pretty obvious really, but if they want to cross the room, they'll have to be careful about where they stand, lest they activate the wrath of a vigilant chess piece.
I've got a lot of rooms to go, and I don't think every single room should have some kind of trick about it.. I don't think it's fun when they expect something obvious, and it happens every time. I will say it's been a lot of fun.. hopefully they enjoy it too, and don't just get frustrated.
Honestly I'd say look at the puzzles, traps, and rooms of Tomb of Annihilation anyway. They're very easy to downplay or minimize the damage, and they're honestly awesome puzzles for the most part. I ran that dungeon for a group as a regular, non meat-grinder and they loved it.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
To answer your questions regarding the rooms I put together:
1. Yes, each step forward will incrementally shrink them down, and it will become obvious to everyone, including the person who walks in quite quickly. They'll be presented with a choice.. do they keep walking in? If so, does anyone stay outside? If they all end up shrunk, then that'll be a conscious decision they they will have made, not just a mean trick I played.. or so I'm telling myself.
2. If they are all shrunk, this will be tough. Especially if they don't find the train room first. Maybe I'll have the house 'open the door for them', luring them into the room. The house wants them to succeed.. it just wants to make them earn it first. Getting up on top of the table will be pretty standard climbing skill checks, I imagine.
3. It will absolutely split the party, yes. I intended several of the rooms to split the party in different ways (the mini train, for example). While there are going to be some very tough fights in the house, there is nothing that they won't be able to run away from, so I'm not too worried about a TPK. The room they get moved into is part of a larger labyrinth upstairs, and if they shout loud enough then they would be able to tell that they're somewhere upstairs. It'll just be a case of them finding each other again.
I'll have a proper look over the Tomb of Horrors - I admit I've not actually read it from start to finish. I tend not to like traps and trickery that involve me having to ask questions like 'where are you standing exactly?' or that make the group slow down constantly looking for traps. Especially not traps that punish my players just for trying something. My players have also responded pretty negatively to puzzles in the past too.. I've honestly given them some stuff that you'd expect kids would be able to solve off the back of a cereal box, but nope.
That was why most of the fun-house rooms I've come up with have nothing to do with being 'avoidable', and are more about subverting expectations in a more playful way. My understanding of that adventure is it's all that wrong kind of affair which I didn't want to inflict on my players, which was why I was turned off it. I'll be happy to be wrong, though!
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I run a home-brew game in a fairly 'lowish magic' urban setting, which has its main plot and theme heavily influenced (read: stolen from) the game 'Thief - The Dark Project'. I've just dropped a brand new hook for my players to go break into the mansion of an enigmatic and eccentric noble, and to steal a sword (which to anyone who has played the game should be familiar).
Up until now, the setting of our game has been fairly 'normal', but this mansion they're about to explore is going to turn that around. I really want to make the place as weird, magical, and as confusing as possible, and really give them the 'funhouse dungeon' experience. I'm a little unsure on how to design something like that without making it seem like I'm being 'unfair' or convoluted about it, and and keen to steal some ideas off the community. I'm wanting this to be a challenging dungeon for a party of level 5 characters, but I'm not interested in anything like Tomb of Horrors, where traps are unfair, or punish people for wanting to explore.
I'd really like the house itself to feel like a character with its own sentience, messing with the players as they explore. I'd also like some practical advice on how to actually present and run this content, without too much fuss.
So far the main ideas I've got are:
Since it's a big mansion, you could have a gargoyle statue as almost a representation of the house's sentience. The main difficulty should be escaping the house, and from there they have to go to the front of the house and see the gargoyle statue sitting there, which then becomes a boss fight. Just an idea.
Homebrew, homebrew, homebrew. I DM homebrew. I homebrew homebrew. My homebrew brews homebrew. I brewed by home. My home brews homebrewed homebrew, homebrewing homebrew that homebrews homebrewing homebrew.
A room with a whole bunch of different kinds of potions, and the PCs have to drink the right combination of potions to get through a portal doorway to the next area. Not only would it take a lot of trial and error, random potions are a ton of fun! And then they have to endure the effects of said potions for the next hour (duration?) while they take on the dungeon! Of course, don’t give them anything too overpowered. My personal favorite is the Philter of Love; I got hit with it once and wound up married to a fox devil!
The Awaken spell could be good for a project like this, although if you use it too many times, the PCs are going to decide to just smash every inanimate object they see. Animate Objects could serve a similar purpose, with a similar drawback.
A set of rooms, each depicting a scene from your world’s history, with multiple doors. The PCs have to travel through the rooms in the same order as History, or the wax figures come to life and attack (or just act out the scene, which might be deadly in it’s own right). When they get to the final room, it comes to life, and they have to deal with whatever is there, wondering if they messed up the sequence again. Once they solve the final room, all the doors but one disappear, which leads to the next part of the dungeon. I can’t think of a good way for the PCs to get back to the start of the sequence when they mess up, though.
Edited to add: requiring the characters to dress up in historical costume before entering the history rooms could be even more fun, especially if one or more of them chose something belonging to someone whose fate turned out to be disastrous, such as a king who was beheaded, or a knight who was petrified by a Medusa!
I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
Imagine things that would be in a real funhouse and D&D them up.
Instead of stairs going down, it is a slide. No problem getting down, more challenging getting back up, especially if something is chasing you.
Imagine a hallway intersection where you have to get on the spinning disk and jump off at the correct hallway
One of the hallways is the rotating barrel
Hallways that move up and down randomly or, or from side to side. PCs and opponents make regular checks to keep their balance.
Compressed air shooting out randomly
The maze of mirrors - that might be a great place to have the guards appear, as people think they are seeing reflections. Some are, but others are a cloned guard.
A fight in a ball pit
Clowns. Lots of clowns. So many clowns.
Oh! I thought of something else. Thank you Marigold, for stimulating my half-asleep brain!
There is an episode of a TV show called The Librarians, where the protagonists are trapped in an extra dimensional labyrinth. The labyrinth is described thus:
”Imagine a building where every floor has a different layout. Sometimes, when you walk around, you move between floors without noticing. From your perspective, the layout looks different, but if you know what floor you’re on, it makes perfect sense.”
In the show, the characters have to find the labyrinth’s power source (an ancient ball of thread, first used by Theseus to escape the maze in Minos) in order to shut it down and get out. Something that could be easily adapted to D&D.
I highly recommend The Librarians. It’s an awesome fantasy show shot in my hometown, and it’s actually what got me interested in D&D. I’ve stolen more ideas than I can count from them!
I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
Or imagine a building built as a mobius strip where you keep going down the same hallway forever...
I was in one where there was a portal at the end of the hall that opened to the beginning of the hall, so it looked like the hall was endless. We went through it several times before we noticed that we had been in some of the rooms already...
These are good ideas.. I'll steal a few for sure, since I still have a few rooms I'm a bit lost on.
So far I've got:
I've got a lot of rooms to go, and I don't think every single room should have some kind of trick about it.. I don't think it's fun when they expect something obvious, and it happens every time. I will say it's been a lot of fun.. hopefully they enjoy it too, and don't just get frustrated.
Honestly I'd say look at the puzzles, traps, and rooms of Tomb of Annihilation anyway. They're very easy to downplay or minimize the damage, and they're honestly awesome puzzles for the most part. I ran that dungeon for a group as a regular, non meat-grinder and they loved it.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
To answer your questions regarding the rooms I put together:
1. Yes, each step forward will incrementally shrink them down, and it will become obvious to everyone, including the person who walks in quite quickly. They'll be presented with a choice.. do they keep walking in? If so, does anyone stay outside? If they all end up shrunk, then that'll be a conscious decision they they will have made, not just a mean trick I played.. or so I'm telling myself.
2. If they are all shrunk, this will be tough. Especially if they don't find the train room first. Maybe I'll have the house 'open the door for them', luring them into the room. The house wants them to succeed.. it just wants to make them earn it first. Getting up on top of the table will be pretty standard climbing skill checks, I imagine.
3. It will absolutely split the party, yes. I intended several of the rooms to split the party in different ways (the mini train, for example). While there are going to be some very tough fights in the house, there is nothing that they won't be able to run away from, so I'm not too worried about a TPK. The room they get moved into is part of a larger labyrinth upstairs, and if they shout loud enough then they would be able to tell that they're somewhere upstairs. It'll just be a case of them finding each other again.
I'll have a proper look over the Tomb of Horrors - I admit I've not actually read it from start to finish. I tend not to like traps and trickery that involve me having to ask questions like 'where are you standing exactly?' or that make the group slow down constantly looking for traps. Especially not traps that punish my players just for trying something. My players have also responded pretty negatively to puzzles in the past too.. I've honestly given them some stuff that you'd expect kids would be able to solve off the back of a cereal box, but nope.
That was why most of the fun-house rooms I've come up with have nothing to do with being 'avoidable', and are more about subverting expectations in a more playful way. My understanding of that adventure is it's all that wrong kind of affair which I didn't want to inflict on my players, which was why I was turned off it. I'll be happy to be wrong, though!