I'm planning for the first session of a campaign for my friends, during which the party will go through some trials to judge their characters unknown to them. I know that I want the trials to test their wonder, willpower, and determination. The part I'm having issues with it deciding what the actual test would be. I'm thinking for the willpower, maybe giving them the opportunity to steal something from the noble home they will be in.
Interestingly, you could feasibly test all three with one trial.
Consider a "you're in a room" trial where there's a door to open. There's a dozen different types of truly magnificent flowers in the room, growing as though in a vivarium. The door requires a fairly long-winded puzzle to open. The flowers grant unusual magical effects if sniffed, and they will be positioned around the room such that some of them are very difficult to reach. The nature of the puzzle to open the door is not overly important, but it must not involve the flowers, at all, and should have a red herring which can feel like progress through repeat dice rolls (luck), but not achieve it, EG a set of sleight of hand checks to do the loop-on-a-wire game which eventually lead to the instructions being revealed, which could have been worked out otherwise.
If they don't investigate the magnificent flowers, then they have very little wonder. If they persist until they complete the red herring solution, even when they fail multiple times, then they are determined. If they pursue sniffing all the flowers, even when it's dangerous, they are determined. If they want to but instead focus on the door, then they have willpower.
I actually considered doing something similar with my players but in the end decided against it.
Idea for a 3-for-1: They have to continue through a long hallway filled with reanimating skeletons to grab an object being determined to get there. As they do, they are surrounded by murals that magically allure them and they must use their willpower to keep going. At the end, as they pick up this beautiful, shining object, anyone who spends a round standing still and admiring it is teleported away to the finish.
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He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
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I'm planning for the first session of a campaign for my friends, during which the party will go through some trials to judge their characters unknown to them. I know that I want the trials to test their wonder, willpower, and determination. The part I'm having issues with it deciding what the actual test would be. I'm thinking for the willpower, maybe giving them the opportunity to steal something from the noble home they will be in.
Interestingly, you could feasibly test all three with one trial.
Consider a "you're in a room" trial where there's a door to open. There's a dozen different types of truly magnificent flowers in the room, growing as though in a vivarium. The door requires a fairly long-winded puzzle to open. The flowers grant unusual magical effects if sniffed, and they will be positioned around the room such that some of them are very difficult to reach. The nature of the puzzle to open the door is not overly important, but it must not involve the flowers, at all, and should have a red herring which can feel like progress through repeat dice rolls (luck), but not achieve it, EG a set of sleight of hand checks to do the loop-on-a-wire game which eventually lead to the instructions being revealed, which could have been worked out otherwise.
If they don't investigate the magnificent flowers, then they have very little wonder. If they persist until they complete the red herring solution, even when they fail multiple times, then they are determined. If they pursue sniffing all the flowers, even when it's dangerous, they are determined. If they want to but instead focus on the door, then they have willpower.
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I actually considered doing something similar with my players but in the end decided against it.
Idea for a 3-for-1: They have to continue through a long hallway filled with reanimating skeletons to grab an object being determined to get there. As they do, they are surrounded by murals that magically allure them and they must use their willpower to keep going. At the end, as they pick up this beautiful, shining object, anyone who spends a round standing still and admiring it is teleported away to the finish.
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"