In my campaign, I am planning on running many mini-dungeons. For background, click on this. In my campaign, shrines around islands will act as mini-dungeons with loot and a piece of the puzzle for the temple in the end. I have come up with ideas on how to structure these dungeons and the loot, but I can't figure out how hard each should be. These will be level 7 characters, and I want to make something not too difficult and time-consuming because I plan on getting 1-2 done each session. Any suggestions for quicker monsters, traps, or whatever would be helpful. Thanks!
For me, the part of this that I can imagine lagging is travel between them. You probably don't want to slow it down with encounters, so it will be a dull part of the adventure, in my mind. I would build something in like a portal/tunnel to make travel between the shrines both safe and interesting. You could make some sort of a puzzles as well to direct the portal to a different shrine. But that could speed things up without sacrificing content.
As far as monsters go, the more creatures with a combat round, the longer the combat takes. So either have fewer monsters with a higher CR, or run them in groups on the initiative order.
Are these shrines tied together in any way thematically?
Based on the linked thread, these shrines were built by an ancient, mysterious race. What was this race like?
How many mini-dungeons are you planning on in total?
What level do you expect the PCs to reach by the time the campaign ends?
How well do you know your players and their pacing? How quickly do they tend to deal with certain encounter types (combat, puzzles, traps, social encounters, etc.)?
Are these shrines tied together in any way thematically?
Based on the linked thread, these shrines were built by an ancient, mysterious race. What was this race like?
How many mini-dungeons are you planning on in total?
What level do you expect the PCs to reach by the time the campaign ends?
How well do you know your players and their pacing? How quickly do they tend to deal with certain encounter types (combat, puzzles, traps, social encounters, etc.)?
To answer your questions...
These shrines are are connected in a web of magic that keeps the islands up. They have to destroy them (complete the mini-dungeons) to advance to the next.
This race was a wandering race, who I refer to as the Dreamwalkers. They traveled through the multiverse millennia ago, back when there were very little gods and humanity had yet to arise. The Dreamwalkers were very powerful creatures and hence the name, Dreamwalkers, they wandered in an subconscious state, creating what pleased them. They willed these shrines into existence, and monsters took refuge in them from the outside world. They continued their wanderings across the cosmos, eventually heading back to the far realm in which they came.
I am guessing 6-7 mini-dungeons would work. I have a bigger one/final boss stage in the end. Each dungeon, should take about half a session.
The PCs are starting at lvl 7, and my group typically does milestone advancement, so I am gonna say lvl 10 by the time they are done with the whole thing, lvl 9 before the boss fight
My players usually take longer with puzzles, so I plan on making easier puzzles and more combat (because that runs much smoother in out group). They are not so good at social encounters, so I plan on only having them around once every session. My players aren't the fastest to get through things, so each mini-dungeon is going to have about 4-6 rooms, one with the crystal they have to destroy for each temple.
If I was worried about the party taking a long time to solve puzzles, I would put time limits on the puzzle. If they can not solve it, you force a resource draining encounter and let them stumble into the next room.
I also would have some puzzles that just require the group to talk to each other to solve it, like a riddle rather than put something in this spot or arrange things in patterns.
Finally, I would theme each mini dungeon so the players kind of fill in their own expectations of how to solve them or what to prepare for. For example, a mini dungeon filled with aquatic or amphibious based monsters, traps and puzzles.
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In my campaign, I am planning on running many mini-dungeons. For background, click on this. In my campaign, shrines around islands will act as mini-dungeons with loot and a piece of the puzzle for the temple in the end. I have come up with ideas on how to structure these dungeons and the loot, but I can't figure out how hard each should be. These will be level 7 characters, and I want to make something not too difficult and time-consuming because I plan on getting 1-2 done each session. Any suggestions for quicker monsters, traps, or whatever would be helpful. Thanks!
it's been a long time...
For me, the part of this that I can imagine lagging is travel between them. You probably don't want to slow it down with encounters, so it will be a dull part of the adventure, in my mind. I would build something in like a portal/tunnel to make travel between the shrines both safe and interesting. You could make some sort of a puzzles as well to direct the portal to a different shrine. But that could speed things up without sacrificing content.
As far as monsters go, the more creatures with a combat round, the longer the combat takes. So either have fewer monsters with a higher CR, or run them in groups on the initiative order.
A couple questions.
To answer your questions...
it's been a long time...
If I was worried about the party taking a long time to solve puzzles, I would put time limits on the puzzle. If they can not solve it, you force a resource draining encounter and let them stumble into the next room.
I also would have some puzzles that just require the group to talk to each other to solve it, like a riddle rather than put something in this spot or arrange things in patterns.
Finally, I would theme each mini dungeon so the players kind of fill in their own expectations of how to solve them or what to prepare for. For example, a mini dungeon filled with aquatic or amphibious based monsters, traps and puzzles.