Help designing Team Building rpg session for work?

[fireinthedust]

So I've convinced my office that D&D is a legitimate team building exercise, so pending a level of approval I'll be running a game for my co-workers. I'm also planning on re-using this for my adult siblings over the holidays, helping the family to play together to stay together. I'm a counsellor in real life, so I don't mind discussions and working through issues (that's no problem).

I need team-building conundrums to add to my module.

First-level characters, standard party. We'll be using 4e for the simplicity, but I can convert ideas.

KEY VALUES: Trust, Sharing work, sharing information, taking a hit for the team, doing your part, etc. I dunno, I'm making this up as I go along, but as long as they have to work together rather than one outshine the others, that's good, right?

SCENARIO: The Mad King has a dungeon beneath the haunted graveyard. He went mad when he put on a cursed crown, gathered his loyal legions and went into a specially constructed underground palace/read: dungeon. The graveyard outside is filled with zombies. The dungeon is filled with tougher skeletons and his skeleton-mages... and undecided traps and other things. I've got the graveyard figured out, but I need some ideas:

1) GETTING IN: Some kind of trap/puzzle to enter the dungeon from the Ruins. Somehow I'd like it to need several players thinking through a problem, as well as using skills. Maybe Str to push a rock out of the way, the Rogue picks the locks, the others help...

2) Weird Gygaxian dungeon conundrums: I don't know why but I can't think these up, let alone ones that emphasize team-building. Like Indiana Jones-style puzzle-traps.

3) Power Synergy: while I'm building characters, what's good for them to have?

4) Shared info: Each player will have blurbs of setting info their PC would know. I want to make a problem that has a composite of five different knowledge tidbits, so they can... guess a riddle? Decide a course of action?

I could use suggestions of all kinds. I've got until Christmas. I can do the creative (and I will rework all ideas to fit) but could use shout-outs and brainstorming to help me kick this off. Sound okay?

 

[fireinthedust]

Anecdotes about what worked in the past, what helps build party unity for you, would be very helpful for me!

 

[Nytmare]

Anecdotes about what worked in the past, what helps build party unity for you, would be very helpful for me!

For me, what has always best built party unity, was for my players to decide who they were, as a group, before a single character was made. I'm not sure if that would work at all for you, seeing as how everyone is so new; but the danger I've always run into when starting off fresh, is that each person strives to show how they're an individual and separate from the group, instead of a team player.

Maybe have each character write up link the character specifically to two of the other characters, so that they're not grasping at straws when it comes to interacting with each other. The fighter and paladin are cousins, and they practically grew up as brother and sister. The rogue recently saved the paladin's life, earning new found respect and admiration in the paladin's eyes. A few years back, the wizard noticed a spark of talent in the rogue and has been quietly teaching him the art of ritual magic...

You could also maybe try to pattern the group dynamic off of a TV show or set of characters that everyone is already familiar with: Scooby Doo, the Avengers, Star Trek.

Also, regarding puzzles and riddles, be very careful that things have more than just one solution. You run the risk of having the entire thing fall apart if the players aren't able to figure out, or brute force their way through the problem.

Maybe you could start us off with your personal philosophies regarding team building, and we can use that as a framework and build backwards off of them.

EDIT - Also, where the heck did my post count go? Did we lose a bunch of threads in that last big update?

 

[fireinthedust]

Group: I'm going to give them something solid to work with the first time, just to start them off (no paralysis)

I like them making up how they know each other, though. Taht's a great idea.

Team building: working together to solve problems. We're going to have one hour sessions at work, so one problem per session.

I want something where each of them has a role to play. Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, Rogue or Ranger, plus backups (barbarian?) Combat is easy, but what builds to use for each class that optimize doing things that set up other characters? Like, do damage plus shift ally? Or take a hit for an ally?

 

[Rune]

First of all, 4e should do some of the team-building work for you, at least as far as combats go. As for puzzles, I would focus on those that seem to reward individuals but actually can only be solved through collaboration.

For instance, a magic item can be clearly seen in an inaccessable room through a mirror. Should be a simple matter for a teleporter to go get it, right?

But once teleported in, if the mirror shatters and the teleporter no longer has line of sight out of the room, someone has to go rescue him/her. Could be especially fun if something dangerous--like an attack--happens at the same time.