Breaking up the Crawl

[weem]

@ Shaker- Do not read
====================


I had an idea of how to break up a dungeon so it wasn't simply a crawl and will be running it this weekend.

Where we left off, the group was about to go find and enter the ruins/dungeon of an ancient temple they knew nothing about.

So basically, in the next game I am going to be dropping the group into the dungeon bypassing some of the entrance rooms, etc (I will get some WTF looks I'm sure). The game would open with me reading a narration of the events that have come to pass over the last few days...

(This is not THE writeup, but rather a quick blurb to give you an idea)...

So game starts... I read...

"Day 5... Second day in the temple. One of the 2 local experts on the history of this location that you brought along died yesterday when you were attacked by (something). You find yourself tired and ready to be done with this temple but having just rested, you are startled to attention by the sound of clawing nearby"

They would then play an encounter, probably a room or three at which point they would be faced with an option of some kind... could be a split in the road with a symbol on the wall - say a sun emblem - for example.

Then, I would flash back to a time before they went in - when they were studying the temple (which in RL/game terms they have not done).

So I would then read...

"Day 1... After studying the temple for the last few hours, you have come across information regarding a sun emblem within the temple. It appears to be important, and though you feel you are on the cusp of understanding it, the information you seek is eluding you all at the moment"

Here we would play out the study of this emblem via a skill challenge, as if it happened before they went into the temple. They would either gather valuable information about this emblem that can help them in the present time, or not...

We then move back to the end of the encounter inside the temple (current time basically) with the group facing the sun emblem and having to make a decision based on the information they did or did not get when they were studying it earlier. The information (should they fail) could be nothing, or it could be wrong and potentially dangerous information, etc.

So yea...


Any comments/suggestions? Does this sound fun to you? Do you think it would be an interesting way to break up the crawl?

Thanks!

 

[Henrix]

I think it sounds very fun!
Your players might be surprised and unfamiliar with the situation, but I think that creative use of scene framing and cut scenes are excellent!

Get to the interesting parts, and tell the interesting stuff when it's relevant!

 

[weem]

Thanks for the response

Yea last week I ran a game that used cut-scenes to keep the action moving and to make sure we finished what I was hoping we could in the one run (7-8 hour game even then).

It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable 4e games we had played (after 20 sessions or so in this campaign). I'm hoping this next one can live up to the last

 

[the Jester]

Be careful not to give your players the impression that you're taking over the decision-making for them; with that caveat, this sounds like a fine technique.