I've been listening to Not Another D&D Podcast a lot lately (and love it). One thing DM Brian Murphy does well is mix up encounters with what I would call "Indiana Jones" or "Tomb Raider" type dungeon encounters. They're not fights, exactly, but are more like high-intensity puzzles or gauntlets that the PCs need to work through, at risk of death, with their own mechanics. It's like, when the environment / context is working against the PCs and they need to escape. An example (if you listen to NADDPod) is the valley before they get to the Earth Elemental Temple, or the run down the mountain in the Feywild, or the Gluttony level of Hell.
First, what are these called? They're not traps exactly. My googling has not been illuminating.
Second, can anybody recommend some good examples or templates? I want to include more of these in my campaigns, but am finding that I lack an imagination for it.
Edit: Here's how I run them and an example (for reference).
Rules:
Characters can only use abilities they are proficient in.
Any ability can only be used once per challenge (not once per character) (ie the rogue and ranger can't both use stealth on their turn).
I have the players roll initiative and we proceed in order so everyone participates.
Set a number of "successes" to win, and a number of "failures" to lose. I normally tell the party how many successes I am looking for, but don't necessarily tell them the number of failures, since that gives me a chance to inject more narrative instead if I want.
An example, while exploring a passage leading into a mountain, the party, low on resources, finds a large colony of kobolds in warrens. The kobolds hear them and begin to charge after the party, so the party tries to escape:
Roll initiative
Player 1: I want to see if we can backtrack quickly, I'll roll a survival check. Resolve that roll.
Player 2: We don't want to lead them right to us, I want to hide some of our tracks I'd like to make a stealth check.
Player 3: Wait, weren't the upper levels where wizard once lived? I wonder if there are some wards or traps there we could use. Can I make an arcana check to see if there are some usable wards? [ok, that may be a high dc check ]
Player 4: I think we're close to escaping, I'd like to make a perception check to see if one of these passageways may be a shorter route to outside, I'll smell the air, or look for light.
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Xanathar's has a section on complex traps you may find interesting. Large, complex traps that span large rooms or hallways, with effects that happen on set initiative counts. They have multiple stages of disarming or bypassing, increasing effects over time, etc.
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I've been listening to Not Another D&D Podcast a lot lately (and love it). One thing DM Brian Murphy does well is mix up encounters with what I would call "Indiana Jones" or "Tomb Raider" type dungeon encounters. They're not fights, exactly, but are more like high-intensity puzzles or gauntlets that the PCs need to work through, at risk of death, with their own mechanics. It's like, when the environment / context is working against the PCs and they need to escape. An example (if you listen to NADDPod) is the valley before they get to the Earth Elemental Temple, or the run down the mountain in the Feywild, or the Gluttony level of Hell.
First, what are these called? They're not traps exactly. My googling has not been illuminating.
Second, can anybody recommend some good examples or templates? I want to include more of these in my campaigns, but am finding that I lack an imagination for it.
I call them puzzles.
I think the phrase you are looking for is from 4e and is called "Skill Challenges".
Here's Matt Coville's explanation and an example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvOeqDpkBm8
Edit: Here's how I run them and an example (for reference).
Rules:
An example, while exploring a passage leading into a mountain, the party, low on resources, finds a large colony of kobolds in warrens. The kobolds hear them and begin to charge after the party, so the party tries to escape:
etc.
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Xanathar's has a section on complex traps you may find interesting. Large, complex traps that span large rooms or hallways, with effects that happen on set initiative counts. They have multiple stages of disarming or bypassing, increasing effects over time, etc.