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- "
I know that I want the trials to test their wonder, willpower, and determination.
Willpower and determination are pretty similar so it will be a bit tough to separate them.
Wonder -> have them sit in a room waiting for the trial to begin, there should be tons of interesting stuff in the room that they could investigate : a crooked painting with a secret behind it, a cookie jar with a secret within it, a half-burned piece of paper in the fireplace with a secret on it, a chest of drawers one of which is locked with a secret within, stuffed animal heads with small name plates on the walls, untidy curtains with something secret behind them etc... then when they are called for the trial they are asked about the details / secrets hidden in the room they were just in.
Willpower -> either in combo with Wonder where some of the secrets are valuable items (they should not steal) or private personal information (they should no divulge). Or it can be a separate trial where one of the trial judges "makes an innocent mistake" as asks them to keep it a secret or they will get fired, then have the head of the trials interrogate them about the consequences of the mistake.
Determination -> could be in combo with Wonder and be a puzzle box in the room they have to figure out how to open, or could be a separate test where they have to cross some dangerous terrain (e.g. climb a mountain, walk across hot coals etc...) while illusions of their greatest fears torment them.
What's the underlying reason for the trials? What will they get from the trials? What will motivate the characters to undertake the trials. For me the question seems a bit like saying 'I want a combat encounter, and I know I want an aberration. What should the encounter be?'
Let's look a real life 'trials' of sorts. Take a boot camp or training camp. There might be physical exercise designed to push and test the fitness levels of those being trained. Take an academic exam, the idea behind them is to test a student's ability to both retain material and to utilise it in the accepted form and structure. A student might know the Pythagorean Theorem, but if they cannot show that they know how to appropriately use it the knowledge is kinda pointless. Similarly a student being asked to reference in an essay is highlighting their ability to research and evidence their arguments.
From what you've gone with, if I want to test determination I might choose a task that is literally unwinnable. Do they keep going despite the difficulty? Do they push through? Think Sisyphus pushing that boulder up the hill. He keeps pushing because the only way he's ever allowed to stop is when the boulder comes to rest on the top of the mountain. Of course translating that to a DM/TTRPG setting the DM does need to step in at somepoint through an NPC and deliver a satisfying 'congratulations' the task wasn't the task. The real task was to see if you'd keep going despite the difficulties.
The intent matters here though I'd suggest. Get to the bottom of why the trials, and you'll likely find it easier to come up with satisfying examples.
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?"
Willpower and determination are pretty similar so it will be a bit tough to separate them.
Wonder -> have them sit in a room waiting for the trial to begin, there should be tons of interesting stuff in the room that they could investigate : a crooked painting with a secret behind it, a cookie jar with a secret within it, a half-burned piece of paper in the fireplace with a secret on it, a chest of drawers one of which is locked with a secret within, stuffed animal heads with small name plates on the walls, untidy curtains with something secret behind them etc... then when they are called for the trial they are asked about the details / secrets hidden in the room they were just in.
Willpower -> either in combo with Wonder where some of the secrets are valuable items (they should not steal) or private personal information (they should no divulge). Or it can be a separate trial where one of the trial judges "makes an innocent mistake" as asks them to keep it a secret or they will get fired, then have the head of the trials interrogate them about the consequences of the mistake.
Determination -> could be in combo with Wonder and be a puzzle box in the room they have to figure out how to open, or could be a separate test where they have to cross some dangerous terrain (e.g. climb a mountain, walk across hot coals etc...) while illusions of their greatest fears torment them.
What's the underlying reason for the trials? What will they get from the trials? What will motivate the characters to undertake the trials. For me the question seems a bit like saying 'I want a combat encounter, and I know I want an aberration. What should the encounter be?'
Let's look a real life 'trials' of sorts. Take a boot camp or training camp. There might be physical exercise designed to push and test the fitness levels of those being trained. Take an academic exam, the idea behind them is to test a student's ability to both retain material and to utilise it in the accepted form and structure. A student might know the Pythagorean Theorem, but if they cannot show that they know how to appropriately use it the knowledge is kinda pointless. Similarly a student being asked to reference in an essay is highlighting their ability to research and evidence their arguments.
From what you've gone with, if I want to test determination I might choose a task that is literally unwinnable. Do they keep going despite the difficulty? Do they push through? Think Sisyphus pushing that boulder up the hill. He keeps pushing because the only way he's ever allowed to stop is when the boulder comes to rest on the top of the mountain. Of course translating that to a DM/TTRPG setting the DM does need to step in at somepoint through an NPC and deliver a satisfying 'congratulations' the task wasn't the task. The real task was to see if you'd keep going despite the difficulties.
The intent matters here though I'd suggest. Get to the bottom of why the trials, and you'll likely find it easier to come up with satisfying examples.
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