Help me design a cool encounter

[Pbartender]

...and maybe starting the rusted machinery requires a short 3 before 3 fails skill test with thievery to get it going. (one success in each tower)

This just caught my eye...

Again, from personal experience, this is as good as telling the players the rusted machinery can't be turned on.

Practically no player will want to use multiple actions to turn on rusted machinery in the middle of a battle when they could instead be smashing bad guys.

Instead, treat the machinery like a trap, with a simple "surprise" trigger... A control panel with buttons, knobs and levers. If any target is successfully hit with an attack while standing adjacent to the control panel (thereby bumping into random buttons and lever), or if a target is pushed, pulled or slid adjacent to the control panel (ditto), or if anyone decides to start pulling buttons and pushing levers (make them roll a skill check, but the result doesn't actually matter), then the machinery starts up.


Or, perhaps, if automatons are doing the work, the machinery is already running. Just give the different components actions on certain initiative counts.

 

[Delgar]

Thanks for all the ideas so far. I'm going to steal piratecats idea and have it straddling the river. So here's what I have so far.

Lumber Mill Terrain:

Sawdust: The lumber mill is covered with a layer of sawdust any blasts or bursts used with the fire keyword are increased by 1 square. Any melee or ranged attacks with the fire keyword deal 5 fire damage to all squares adjacent to the target.

Conveyor Belt: The conveyor belt moves in one direction and acts on initiatives 20/15/10/5 any creature or object on the conveyor belt is slid one square when the conveyor belt acts. Creatures moving with the conveyor belt move 1 extra square per square of movement. Creatures moving against the conveyor belt only move 1 square per 2 squares of movement.

Rusty Saws: Any creature or object moving into a square containg saw blades takes 2d6+3 damage. 1 square of saw blades can be disabled with a Thievery check DC 12 or by doing 20 points of damage to the blades (AC/Ref 5, For 10).

Chains: Lots of rusty iron chains dangle from the ceiling. Chains can be climbed with an DC 10 Athletics check. Chains can also be used to increase the damage of a charge by 1 or increase the push on a bull rush by square.

Chain Terrain Power: (melee, standard) +5 vs Ref, target is restrained and takes 5 ongoing damage while restrained. Escape Restraint: (standard action) Athletics/Acrobatics DC 15 or the chain can be destroyed by doing 15 points of damage to it (AC/Ref 8, For 8).

How does that look so far? What else do I need? Am I forgetting something?

Now I need to draw a map, that's the hard part.

 

[fba827]

Chains: Lots of rusty iron chains dangle from the ceiling. Chains can be climbed with an DC 10 Athletics check.

Try and have some possible reason to even climb the chains.

Maybe they are a way to potentially avoid the conveyor belt (which would make logistic sense to have them over the belt).
Or maybe there is a second floor overhang - nothing necessarily going on up there, just a place for the PCs to snipe from if they can get up there (but then also make the overhang collapse after a certain number of rounds from the weight and rotten/aged wood).

 

[Herobizkit]

The Log Driver's Waltz

Canadians should get a kick out of this, especially when you get past 0:40.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ekqsHP9Sck]YouTube - The Log Driver's Waltz[/ame]

 

[Mark1733]

Well, I did an encounter in an old lumber camp...the enemies were spriggan gnomes, one being a sniper with a poisoned crossbow. I had some of the others use their enlarge ability to start tossing barrels of oil around and then the smaller ones used their produce flame ability to add to the fiery chaos. Eventually, some enlarged spriggans engaged in melee. I think they have invisibility or something else. Oil is needed for the machinery, so having some barrels to toss makes sense. The sawdust explosivity is good. Also, how about some fight on or around the water wheel which drives some stuff? Throw in a couple other "pets" or plant creatures for of strategic significance and this lumber mill is going to be one heck of an encounter.

One last idea would be to make some 3-D props from card stock, cardboard, foamcore, or other material to aid in the visualization and spatial arrangement.

 

[Delgar]

Yes I think I'll have 3 levels. The lower level will be for all the mechanical gears etc. that make the machine work. The main level will be the cutting room floor and there will be an upper level.

Having the possibility of the upper level collapsing definately sounds interesting.

Try and have some possible reason to even climb the chains.

Maybe they are a way to potentially avoid the conveyor belt (which would make logistic sense to have them over the belt).
Or maybe there is a second floor overhang - nothing necessarily going on up there, just a place for the PCs to snipe from if they can get up there (but then also make the overhang collapse after a certain number of rounds from the weight and rotten/aged wood).

 

[Delgar]

Since you all helped I thought I'd share my lumber mill map with you, don't laugh.

 

[Delgar]

well I'm going to be running this encounter this weekend. Anyone got any more ideas for me?

 

[Chrono22]

Some twig blights could also make for an interesting addition.

 

[Badjak]

you could let your PC's ride the the spokes of the watermill up to different levels of the mill which would give them an alternative to just using stairs. They could even use it to get surprise rounds on the anything on the second or third floor.