Hello all! I'm posting to you guys about an epiphany I had while working this Saturday. I'm building a new campaign that isn't quite ready just yet. It doesn't have enough fluff involving puzzles or worldbuilding before. Then it hit me. How about we let the players play out the events that happened decades ago through simulations.
As I was thinking about what are these simulations, it wasn't just about worldbuilding anymore. Now, I can imagine these hard scenarios where the players would take control of these NPCs and find a way to win the battle under the objectives given. These conditions I could think of consist of: Defeat the opponents in two rounds of turns, escort a convoy or NPC through a battlefield and reach the designated goal, survive a certain amount of time, or navigate an obstacle course, etc etc.
In these simulations, lore-wise, are events that happened in history that has been recorded for newer heroes to learn from the heroes of old through their battles. Basically, it's in a 'what-if' scenario to play out the perspective of who they're in control of. It also wouldn't actually alter history for it is a simulation.
The NPCs the players take control of would all have their own pre-built levels, classes, sub-classes, weapons, and spells. They could have HP missing, spellslots missing, be in disadvantageous positions, an uncontrollable NPC to protect, or even have spells already in play as the simulation began.
Now I know what your thinking, in what world that anything in DnD would be played out as expected? Nat1s, succeeding saving throws, failing them, its pretty random. I did think of this, and here's a solution I thought of: if the players perform an action that the NPCs used exactly as it was written in history, the rolls will never fail. Plus, enemies will follow a certain attack pattern that was written in history, they will only change tactics if players perform actions that aren't intended to be used.
On top of that, I will be rolling for them behind the DM screen to hide what's the guaranteed choices and what's not. Also, if players use spells, actions, or strategies not intended to be the winning strategy, that's all fair game. I allow anything the players want to do. Because, even when they fail their objective given by the simulation, they can try again and again as much as they want, until they beat the simulation.
Finally when they do beat the simulation, by some magical or divine means, they are awarded with new stuff, consisting of Gold, Equipment, Magic Items, Scrolls, Feats, spells added that doesn't count as spells known, class features added such as giving Monk players one more maximum Ki, giving Warlocks an added invocation, etc., even really high grade magic items depending on the difficulty the simulation I've given them.
They could also replay the beaten simulation to fast forward and rewind to view, from their choice, the intended way of beating the battle the NPCs performed in history, listen in on certain dialogue, or even see hidden plot points that are very important to the party's plot, giving an interactive feel for the players to see and be rewarded for finding them out.
So, what do you all think? is this flippin' cool? Is it flippin' stupid? I'm still thinking about this cool idea, cuz I think I could go all the way with this. By the way, I'm wouldn't dare force players to play with these things. It's just something fun to do, even if there are important stuff to learn from them. I would compromise by showing it somewhere within the real campaign.
Post all your thoughts down below, and thanks for reading!
-Scrub
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Hello all! I'm posting to you guys about an epiphany I had while working this Saturday. I'm building a new campaign that isn't quite ready just yet. It doesn't have enough fluff involving puzzles or worldbuilding before. Then it hit me. How about we let the players play out the events that happened decades ago through simulations.
As I was thinking about what are these simulations, it wasn't just about worldbuilding anymore. Now, I can imagine these hard scenarios where the players would take control of these NPCs and find a way to win the battle under the objectives given. These conditions I could think of consist of: Defeat the opponents in two rounds of turns, escort a convoy or NPC through a battlefield and reach the designated goal, survive a certain amount of time, or navigate an obstacle course, etc etc.
In these simulations, lore-wise, are events that happened in history that has been recorded for newer heroes to learn from the heroes of old through their battles. Basically, it's in a 'what-if' scenario to play out the perspective of who they're in control of. It also wouldn't actually alter history for it is a simulation.
The NPCs the players take control of would all have their own pre-built levels, classes, sub-classes, weapons, and spells. They could have HP missing, spellslots missing, be in disadvantageous positions, an uncontrollable NPC to protect, or even have spells already in play as the simulation began.
Now I know what your thinking, in what world that anything in DnD would be played out as expected? Nat1s, succeeding saving throws, failing them, its pretty random. I did think of this, and here's a solution I thought of: if the players perform an action that the NPCs used exactly as it was written in history, the rolls will never fail. Plus, enemies will follow a certain attack pattern that was written in history, they will only change tactics if players perform actions that aren't intended to be used.
On top of that, I will be rolling for them behind the DM screen to hide what's the guaranteed choices and what's not. Also, if players use spells, actions, or strategies not intended to be the winning strategy, that's all fair game. I allow anything the players want to do. Because, even when they fail their objective given by the simulation, they can try again and again as much as they want, until they beat the simulation.
Finally when they do beat the simulation, by some magical or divine means, they are awarded with new stuff, consisting of Gold, Equipment, Magic Items, Scrolls, Feats, spells added that doesn't count as spells known, class features added such as giving Monk players one more maximum Ki, giving Warlocks an added invocation, etc., even really high grade magic items depending on the difficulty the simulation I've given them.
They could also replay the beaten simulation to fast forward and rewind to view, from their choice, the intended way of beating the battle the NPCs performed in history, listen in on certain dialogue, or even see hidden plot points that are very important to the party's plot, giving an interactive feel for the players to see and be rewarded for finding them out.
So, what do you all think? is this flippin' cool? Is it flippin' stupid? I'm still thinking about this cool idea, cuz I think I could go all the way with this. By the way, I'm wouldn't dare force players to play with these things. It's just something fun to do, even if there are important stuff to learn from them. I would compromise by showing it somewhere within the real campaign.
Post all your thoughts down below, and thanks for reading!
-Scrub