Way Off-Topic: Question for RPGamers

[Res Ipsa]

I'm not sure you need suggestions from me. I think I need to play in one of your games. Seriously cool world building.

[Some Schmo]

I saw this thread last night and thought, I'm not going to respond to this till I've read it thoroughly. I still haven't done that, but I'll come back.

What I can say up front is that my favorite encounters are ones where there are ways to get out of fighting if possible. Whether that's through persuasion, intimidation, solving a riddle, or whatever, I love trying to think my way out of combat. I enjoy playing a warlock, and that's one of his main character traits. He's a badass, but he's also a knowledge junkie, and only likes to use his combat skills after all other options are exhausted.

[honorentheos]

I'm not sure you need suggestions from me. I think I need to play in one of your games. Seriously cool world building.

Thanks, Res, I appreciate that. I guess part of my issue stems from having been a DM most of the years I was involved in RPGs as well, so if it's been over 20 years since I've DM'd, it's been longer since I was on the other side of the table. And with this group of young players, about half of whom had only played a couple of one-shots before, I find some of the player feedback I get is nice but generic. "I likes that!" or "That one was a bit of a let down" are the majority of comments I've gotten out of them on the encounters. And ones I thought would be exciting were less so for many of them while others that I thought were generic hack-and-slash set-ups turned out to be fun for both the guy who is the power gamer and wants to stand in front of things while smashing them as well as the most experienced player who is a rouge and is always trying to upset the encounter in unexpected ways.

So any insight you have on either memorable encounters, or some twist or particular element has made for fun encounters would be much appreciated. A particular creature, maybe, or an environmental element that mixed things up, a mechanic that made it more memorable. Anything you can think of that left an impression would probably help me. Thanks!

[honorentheos]

I saw this thread last night and thought, I'm not going to respond to this till I've read it thoroughly. I still haven't done that, but I'll come back.

What I can say up front is that my favorite encounters are ones where there are ways to get out of fighting if possible. Whether that's through persuasion, intimidation, solving a riddle, or whatever, I love trying to think my way out of combat. I enjoy playing a warlock, and that's one of his main character traits. He's a badass, but he's also a knowledge junkie, and only likes to use his combat skills after all other options are exhausted.

That's a good point, Schmo. Other than using parlay to either talk someone into doing something or convincing them they are better off walking away, is there anything you think you've seen a DM do that helps set that up? You mentioned puzzles. I'm curious about that.

[Some Schmo]

I saw this thread last night and thought, I'm not going to respond to this till I've read it thoroughly. I still haven't done that, but I'll come back.

What I can say up front is that my favorite encounters are ones where there are ways to get out of fighting if possible. Whether that's through persuasion, intimidation, solving a riddle, or whatever, I love trying to think my way out of combat. I enjoy playing a warlock, and that's one of his main character traits. He's a badass, but he's also a knowledge junkie, and only likes to use his combat skills after all other options are exhausted.

That's a good point, Schmo. Other than using parlay to either talk someone into doing something or convincing them they are better off walking away, is there anything you think you've seen a DM do that helps set that up? You mentioned puzzles. I'm curious about that.

One puzzle encounter I've thought might be fun would be where the party enters a large square room in some enchanted castle (or somewhere similar) where the floor design is checkered, and each party member is captured and placed on a square in the room. They suddenly find themselves as pieces on a chess board, and the idea is for them to play their way out of a trap or bloody combat. Their movement would be determined by their starting position on the board (so if you're placed on the bishop square, you can only move diagonally, and so on).

You could make it so that if they can checkmate the enemy, they avoid a fight and go straight to treasure, or escaping the trap, depending on the outcome you want. Obviously, as DM, you wouldn't want to play the NPCs like a chess expert. It would also only really be suitable for a larger party, although you could assign ally chess pieces to party members to control, or let the whole party discuss and determine moves.

Just an idea I've kicked around.

[honorentheos]

I like it! A couple of them play chess so they'd probably be excited while also having to figure out how to work together. Good idea

[Some Schmo]

I like it! A couple of them play chess so they'd probably be excited while also having to figure out how to work together. Good idea

Thanks man. If you use it, let me know how it plays out and any adjustments you had to make.

You wouldn't even necessarily require a checkmate. Maybe the objective is just to capture a particular piece, like the queen. And you could add a wrinkle by making which piece to capture part of a riddle, or congruent with the larger story in some way (like they're on a quest to find a knight... so that's the piece to capture to advance their progress).

[Some Schmo]

I'm not sure you need suggestions from me. I think I need to play in one of your games. Seriously cool world building.

Yeah, just had time to really sit down with this. It's good stuff, honor. I bet you run a fun game.

[Some Schmo]

I feel like you could do something cool with the cultist doppelganger (is it Rakdos or Darvon?) Revealing that back to them should be it's own questline... started by the doppelganger himself.

Got me thinking...

What if, as part of the ritual the cult performed to raise the doppelganger, a tiny essence from the victim remained, and started them on a sort of quest to solve his own murder?

[honorentheos]

I feel like you could do something cool with the cultist doppelganger (is it Rakdos or Darvon?) Revealing that back to them should be it's own questline... started by the doppelganger himself.

Got me thinking...

What if, as part of the ritual the cult performed to raise the doppelganger, a tiny essence from the victim remained, and started them on a sort of quest to solve his own murder?

I really like the concept of a resurrected/regenerated enemy who loses their form having a sense of their old identity that leads them to start looking into why they have certain memories, why they died, who was responsible, etc.

I probably wouldn't do it with the doppelganger in this situation because Darvon Reynolds, who he replaced, was a satisfying kill for one of the players and she's already unhappy that he showed back up. They haven't spent time investigating why though I think the most experienced player knows something's up. He already noted that the doppelganger didn't talk. That's intentional on my part because he didn't have a chance to really assume Reynold's voice and memories like he would need to do to make a convincing duplicate. So I'm playing him as if he only shares his appearance.

I think it would damage the trust we have if I let that drag on, so I'm hoping they do a little digging to figure out what's up before they decide the DM is jerking them around too much.

But I'm thinking it works for a wizard they killed who was from the school of necromancy. I hadn't been planning on bringing him back but this idea would work if he became a Nothic. That could be interesting and I'll think about how to start that subplot this weekend. It will have to be a behind the scenes move but I have two destinations in world he'd gravitate towards.

Thanks!