Life has been stressful lately for my gaming group and I wanted to help relieve some tension, so to help me think I started watching movies. So I'm watching Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and an idea hit me this would be an insane dungeon crawl. Musical locks, Hallways that go no where but open up to secret rooms. Chocolate Waterfalls and river that hide an Otyugh , creepy tunnel, Slave Gnomes that sing songs, Poison candy. If anyone could could help me plan something this crazy and possibly life threatening it's my fellow DM's so what else can I add into this mad house ?
What level of adventurers do you want it to be for? Will give us an idea of what creatures might be appropriate.
But I would say at least an area with some sticky sugary mess on the ground making it difficult to move in certain areas, Maybe Chocolate quicksand to vary things up. I am picturing a hag as well somewhere maybe with a Hansel and Gretel type scenario? As to the Oompa Loompas, I would say either A. Stick with your gnomes idea, B. Use Goblins as these cheerful guys (think Bard's Tale Goblins embedded video below), or C. A mixture of a number of smaller races, Halfing, Gnome, Goblin, Kobold all sufficiently charmed or downtrodden enough that they don't try to escape anymore.
Other ideas to play with are areas that look like they supply drinks of some sort and it is quite caustic. Mimics, be that guy and make everything in an area try and eat the party. They have to be furnaces for the ovens somewhere so you could have a section with fire elementals, Salamander, and an Efreet who is REALLY unhappy about being bound to this place (perhaps for eternity). A few areas should have extremely chaotic effects, gravity not working normally shifting what direction is up as you go down a hall or a room where it inverts sending you hurtling towards the ceiling. Take that room and have all the tables and such glued down so the room appears normal until you throw something into it and it goes up instead of falling down.
Do you want to take them on a boat ride? Could have some aquatic enemies attacking them on the boat ride. There’s no earthly way of knowing Which direction they are going! There’s no knowing where they’re rowing, Or which way the river’s flowing! Not a speck of light is showing, So the danger must be growing, For the rowers keep on rowing, And they’re certainly not showing Any signs that they are slowing…
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Lead in, maybe they receive a mysterious letter (ooo ahhh) that announces they are the lucky winners, right about that same time the letter could teleport them, explode, or grow teeth and try for a few fingers (Evil Howler of sorts) to let them know things won't always be as they seem.
Break down each of the scenes in the Willy wonka movies and try and think of ways to twist the scenarios about. Instead of a goose laying golden eggs, it is a basilisk or a cockatrice. Get shrunken down to proceed like Alice in Wonderland only to get attacked by what appears to be a Monstrous Lion (also known as a cat) and have a mini Honey I Shrunk the kids side adventure in there. Even the sorting squirrels in the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory could be fun to have some sort of trigger that causes the squirrels to become irate and swarm all over the party.
There are some 'madhouse' type dungeons that have been made before I just don't know any of the specific names if you were looking for additional ideas.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Not sure if you had any plans yet for who is running the whole show, but maybe a coven of Hags has been using this place to lure souls into this place. Those that die here go to feed their powers. Maybe a Night Hag leads the triad, when the party takes their first long rest in this place a few of them have to deal with the Hag intruding upon their dreams and potentially ruining their sleep entirely making them gain no benefit of the rest and losing max HP.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Oh that's good.. I basically shared an idea as it popped into my head. I'm going to work on the set up and first level today. I'll keep you posted when I get it down.
You would have to work it a little from older editions, but I would totally use Redcaps or Brownies. Redcaps they have re made as a monster to fight but not the brownies.
They are in between a gnome and a fairy in size, brown ish, and they are set up almost like the elves and the cobbler.
You would have to work it a little from older editions, but I would totally use Redcaps or Brownies. Redcaps they have re made as a monster to fight but not the brownies.
They are in between a gnome and a fairy in size, brown ish, and they are set up almost like the elves and the cobbler.
Not a bad idea, I was trying to think of fey creatures that might work well (that aren't pixies and sprites).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
A courier will find the party and basically recite the lyrics to "Pure imagination. Wisdom save or be teleported to an island where the coven of hags live, on the island in a huge castle made of candy. once they get close the doors open for them allowing them to enter in the first floor.
You have to go forward to go back / chocolate room
This room is filled with a mix of helpful and very very painful plants. Some of the candy, fruits, cakes, and mushrooms are helpful and will give them a temporary stat bonus. others will poison, cause fear, if they roll very poorly one of the goodies causes a minor Hallucination of the tunnel.
The chocolate waterfall and river has a small bridge leading to the other side where they see what appears to be their wildest dream but the under the water hides an Otyugh
floor two egg room and fizzy drink room.
Reverse gravity spell room filled with Mimics. and Basilisk eggs. Think of a hello kitty version of the Alien's Queen lair .
Floor 3 and beyond Things start looking less magical and more horrifying and they have to fight all the hags and their minions.
I just got a crazy idea to, some of those candies and stuff you could make them, like the treats from Alice in Wonderland, grow big or grow small. They could have the Enlarge/Shriek spell on them.
I just got a crazy idea to, some of those candies and stuff you could make them, like the treats from Alice in Wonderland, grow big or grow small. They could have the Enlarge/Shriek spell on them.
Mystery potion table anyone? a large variety of potions are arrayed before you, some are poisonous, some have a variety of magical effects. But only one of them will allow you to pass though the next door/area. Maybe they look like a variety of soft drinks and beers?
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I just got a crazy idea to, some of those candies and stuff you could make them, like the treats from Alice in Wonderland, grow big or grow small. They could have the Enlarge/Shriek spell on them.
Mystery potion table anyone? a large variety of potions are arrayed before you, some are poisonous, some have a variety of magical effects. But only one of them will allow you to pass though the next door/area. Maybe they look like a variety of soft drinks and beers?
I Love it ! that's going in the next room to complete the fizzy lifting drink scene
Yeah, reverse gravity potion, levitate. I think there is a table in DMG about mixing potions together so maybe have a chance for that to activate for characters who drink multiple concoctions?
If you were willing to spend real money you could go buy a bunch of different drinks at the market and add a little bit of reality to the situation. with a variety of appropriate drinks for the players.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
You have to make them fight ducks and squirrels too. G
Giant ducks and an army of squirrels. You could probably combine these two since it’s your own game.
You could also make a trick room like a stage change by them finding a piece of candy that grows into like a candy stalk (beanstalk) up to the Wonka or giants that are past victims of the factory that ate the enlargement candy or drank and maybe mixed them with ones that made them loose their minds.
And a side boss would be cool, the horror movie guy, the Candy man. The one with the hook hand. (Imagine that and the first song from Willy Wonka and the chacolate factory in it. Spacifically “the candy man can because he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good” demented though.)
Another one could be the muffin man, not exactly candy, but I’m sure you could twist it a little to make him fit. Then you could use like gingerbread men to as little guys to fight besides umpalumpas.
Let me know if you need some other ideas Estoy. I’ll try and whip some more up. Hero had some good ideas so I think we can make your dungeon awesome.
Oo maybe a bin of various candies with some compulsion to suggest players eat them. Maybe pick different effects for different flavors in this grab bag of candy. Polymorph effects changing them into various forms, if they eat multiple it might change them into some interesting or useful creature, like eating some licorice turns them into a a panther, and green apple turns them into a snake or something similar (perhaps with a couple turn delay on the transformation) and if combined they eat both and become a displacer beast for a short time. If they eat a whole handful maybe just turn into an ooze or some abomination.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Another thought, have you ever seen the grim adventures where billy turns into chacolate and slowly eats himself. What if in the chacolate river or any where this chacolate could be. If some one falls in or touches it they are slowly turned to chacolate and find themselves either biting at themselves or attacking the nearest creature to eat them. Heck why not both. This could be like a curse, only Wonka blood ends it.
So the players finally finished this massive 5 floor dungeon. They by passed the mimics by simply having one the pc who went in the room Used Fey Step to get back out the door lock it and move on. they did this with the egg room also by passing that. Finally getting to the bottom with a room full of 12 Hags. they killed 11 of them with the final one trying to distract them while casting a area effect spell only to be caught by the two mages and blasted to death, Victory came with the mages at about 80 % health and the two other pc's near death So after all they they finished and I asked how they liked it, they expressed how only a truly deranged person can come up with that as a dungeon. So Thanks everyone for the help I think at some point I will do this again .
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
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Life has been stressful lately for my gaming group and I wanted to help relieve some tension, so to help me think I started watching movies. So I'm watching Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and an idea hit me this would be an insane dungeon crawl. Musical locks, Hallways that go no where but open up to secret rooms. Chocolate Waterfalls and river that hide an Otyugh , creepy tunnel, Slave Gnomes that sing songs, Poison candy. If anyone could could help me plan something this crazy and possibly life threatening it's my fellow DM's so what else can I add into this mad house ?
What level of adventurers do you want it to be for? Will give us an idea of what creatures might be appropriate.
But I would say at least an area with some sticky sugary mess on the ground making it difficult to move in certain areas, Maybe Chocolate quicksand to vary things up. I am picturing a hag as well somewhere maybe with a Hansel and Gretel type scenario? As to the Oompa Loompas, I would say either A. Stick with your gnomes idea, B. Use Goblins as these cheerful guys (think Bard's Tale Goblins embedded video below), or C. A mixture of a number of smaller races, Halfing, Gnome, Goblin, Kobold all sufficiently charmed or downtrodden enough that they don't try to escape anymore.
Other ideas to play with are areas that look like they supply drinks of some sort and it is quite caustic. Mimics, be that guy and make everything in an area try and eat the party. They have to be furnaces for the ovens somewhere so you could have a section with fire elementals, Salamander, and an Efreet who is REALLY unhappy about being bound to this place (perhaps for eternity). A few areas should have extremely chaotic effects, gravity not working normally shifting what direction is up as you go down a hall or a room where it inverts sending you hurtling towards the ceiling. Take that room and have all the tables and such glued down so the room appears normal until you throw something into it and it goes up instead of falling down.
Do you want to take them on a boat ride? Could have some aquatic enemies attacking them on the boat ride.
There’s no earthly way of knowing
Which direction they are going!
There’s no knowing where they’re rowing,
Or which way the river’s flowing!
Not a speck of light is showing,
So the danger must be growing,
For the rowers keep on rowing,
And they’re certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing…
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Lead in, maybe they receive a mysterious letter (ooo ahhh) that announces they are the lucky winners, right about that same time the letter could teleport them, explode, or grow teeth and try for a few fingers (Evil Howler of sorts) to let them know things won't always be as they seem.
Break down each of the scenes in the Willy wonka movies and try and think of ways to twist the scenarios about. Instead of a goose laying golden eggs, it is a basilisk or a cockatrice. Get shrunken down to proceed like Alice in Wonderland only to get attacked by what appears to be a Monstrous Lion (also known as a cat) and have a mini Honey I Shrunk the kids side adventure in there. Even the sorting squirrels in the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory could be fun to have some sort of trigger that causes the squirrels to become irate and swarm all over the party.
There are some 'madhouse' type dungeons that have been made before I just don't know any of the specific names if you were looking for additional ideas.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I had to think about the levels right now they are 7th so I might set it at that then the final floor at 8th
Not sure if you had any plans yet for who is running the whole show, but maybe a coven of Hags has been using this place to lure souls into this place. Those that die here go to feed their powers. Maybe a Night Hag leads the triad, when the party takes their first long rest in this place a few of them have to deal with the Hag intruding upon their dreams and potentially ruining their sleep entirely making them gain no benefit of the rest and losing max HP.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Oh that's good.. I basically shared an idea as it popped into my head. I'm going to work on the set up and first level today. I'll keep you posted when I get it down.
You would have to work it a little from older editions, but I would totally use Redcaps or Brownies. Redcaps they have re made as a monster to fight but not the brownies.
They are in between a gnome and a fairy in size, brown ish, and they are set up almost like the elves and the cobbler.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
ok here's what I got
A courier will find the party and basically recite the lyrics to "Pure imagination. Wisdom save or be teleported to an island where the coven of hags live, on the island in a huge castle made of candy. once they get close the doors open for them allowing them to enter in the first floor.
You have to go forward to go back / chocolate room
This room is filled with a mix of helpful and very very painful plants. Some of the candy, fruits, cakes, and mushrooms are helpful and will give them a temporary stat bonus. others will poison, cause fear, if they roll very poorly one of the goodies causes a minor Hallucination of the tunnel.
The chocolate waterfall and river has a small bridge leading to the other side where they see what appears to be their wildest dream but the under the water hides an Otyugh
floor two egg room and fizzy drink room.
Reverse gravity spell room filled with Mimics. and Basilisk eggs. Think of a hello kitty version of the Alien's Queen lair .
Floor 3 and beyond Things start looking less magical and more horrifying and they have to fight all the hags and their minions.
I just got a crazy idea to, some of those candies and stuff you could make them, like the treats from Alice in Wonderland, grow big or grow small. They could have the Enlarge/Shriek spell on them.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
yes, haha
Yeah, reverse gravity potion, levitate. I think there is a table in DMG about mixing potions together so maybe have a chance for that to activate for characters who drink multiple concoctions?
If you were willing to spend real money you could go buy a bunch of different drinks at the market and add a little bit of reality to the situation. with a variety of appropriate drinks for the players.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
You have to make them fight ducks and squirrels too. G
Giant ducks and an army of squirrels. You could probably combine these two since it’s your own game.
You could also make a trick room like a stage change by them finding a piece of candy that grows into like a candy stalk (beanstalk) up to the Wonka or giants that are past victims of the factory that ate the enlargement candy or drank and maybe mixed them with ones that made them loose their minds.
And a side boss would be cool, the horror movie guy, the Candy man. The one with the hook hand. (Imagine that and the first song from Willy Wonka and the chacolate factory in it. Spacifically “the candy man can because he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good” demented though.)
Another one could be the muffin man, not exactly candy, but I’m sure you could twist it a little to make him fit. Then you could use like gingerbread men to as little guys to fight besides umpalumpas.
Let me know if you need some other ideas Estoy. I’ll try and whip some more up. Hero had some good ideas so I think we can make your dungeon awesome.
Oo maybe a bin of various candies with some compulsion to suggest players eat them. Maybe pick different effects for different flavors in this grab bag of candy. Polymorph effects changing them into various forms, if they eat multiple it might change them into some interesting or useful creature, like eating some licorice turns them into a a panther, and green apple turns them into a snake or something similar (perhaps with a couple turn delay on the transformation) and if combined they eat both and become a displacer beast for a short time. If they eat a whole handful maybe just turn into an ooze or some abomination.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Another thought, have you ever seen the grim adventures where billy turns into chacolate and slowly eats himself. What if in the chacolate river or any where this chacolate could be. If some one falls in or touches it they are slowly turned to chacolate and find themselves either biting at themselves or attacking the nearest creature to eat them. Heck why not both. This could be like a curse, only Wonka blood ends it.
So the players finally finished this massive 5 floor dungeon. They by passed the mimics by simply having one the pc who went in the room Used Fey Step to get back out the door lock it and move on. they did this with the egg room also by passing that. Finally getting to the bottom with a room full of 12 Hags. they killed 11 of them with the final one trying to distract them while casting a area effect spell only to be caught by the two mages and blasted to death, Victory came with the mages at about 80 % health and the two other pc's near death So after all they they finished and I asked how they liked it, they expressed how only a truly deranged person can come up with that as a dungeon. So Thanks everyone for the help I think at some point I will do this again .
Where all a little mad here...
Glad to add my insanity to the pool.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."