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Help me Design a Tree-Spirit Hazard
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<blockquote data-quote="!DWolf" data-source="post: 8240301" data-attributes="member: 7026314"><p>If you can, definitely do a dry run to see if your numbers are good and the flow works. </p><p></p><p>That being said - it looks pretty decent and run-able. Though I have a few notes:</p><p></p><p>It’s not clear from the writeup if PCs can take actions on their turn in stage 2+ of the affliction? I am assuming no - they get their actions in the narrative dreamscape instead (since they are dreaming).</p><p></p><p>Mechanics wise the major problem I see is that dealing damage with skill checks is a little — odd. It looks workable but you might change it to a straight disarm with multiple success required to nonviolently put the tree spirit back to rest - you could also work in skills like diplomacy, performance, society (elven tree rituals), and deception (no tasty brains here) into this strategy. This gives your players a solution that doesn’t harm the elves’ tree. I also wouldn’t require all the PCs to be free before they could attack or disarm the tree. This creates interesting choices on each PCs round: do I try to free other PCs, attack the tree (potentially angering the elves), or attempt to disarm the hazard? And one of the hallmarks of a good death trap is, IMHO, that it creates situations with no obvious right answer.</p><p></p><p>Without having run it, I am also worried about the trees action economy. If three PCs are grabbed and two free and on the first turn they free two more and the tree only grabs one... then the hazard will quickly degenerate into one character frees the person who got grabbed while the others wail on it. </p><p></p><p>Fun/player wise: In the second part I would want choices in the narrative scene to determine what I rolled (with the Will save a fallback option) with more interesting/clever options having lower DCs. This would let me use my creativity and have more control and choices in the encounter. If using successes to disarm like I talked about above, it might also be a good idea to have a critical success count as a successful disarm check. This would allow success in a situation that everyone was grabbed. It would also allow a more aggressive action economy for the physical tree.</p><p></p><p>Finally, I will once again recommend a dry run. I have found, designing and running many deathtraps, that flaws you never even considered will quickly reveal themselves if you actually try to play through it at least once. And, this is probably just me but, I can determine roughly how much fun the encounter will be by how much fun I had running through it in the test run.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="!DWolf, post: 8240301, member: 7026314"] If you can, definitely do a dry run to see if your numbers are good and the flow works. That being said - it looks pretty decent and run-able. Though I have a few notes: It’s not clear from the writeup if PCs can take actions on their turn in stage 2+ of the affliction? I am assuming no - they get their actions in the narrative dreamscape instead (since they are dreaming). Mechanics wise the major problem I see is that dealing damage with skill checks is a little — odd. It looks workable but you might change it to a straight disarm with multiple success required to nonviolently put the tree spirit back to rest - you could also work in skills like diplomacy, performance, society (elven tree rituals), and deception (no tasty brains here) into this strategy. This gives your players a solution that doesn’t harm the elves’ tree. I also wouldn’t require all the PCs to be free before they could attack or disarm the tree. This creates interesting choices on each PCs round: do I try to free other PCs, attack the tree (potentially angering the elves), or attempt to disarm the hazard? And one of the hallmarks of a good death trap is, IMHO, that it creates situations with no obvious right answer. Without having run it, I am also worried about the trees action economy. If three PCs are grabbed and two free and on the first turn they free two more and the tree only grabs one... then the hazard will quickly degenerate into one character frees the person who got grabbed while the others wail on it. Fun/player wise: In the second part I would want choices in the narrative scene to determine what I rolled (with the Will save a fallback option) with more interesting/clever options having lower DCs. This would let me use my creativity and have more control and choices in the encounter. If using successes to disarm like I talked about above, it might also be a good idea to have a critical success count as a successful disarm check. This would allow success in a situation that everyone was grabbed. It would also allow a more aggressive action economy for the physical tree. Finally, I will once again recommend a dry run. I have found, designing and running many deathtraps, that flaws you never even considered will quickly reveal themselves if you actually try to play through it at least once. And, this is probably just me but, I can determine roughly how much fun the encounter will be by how much fun I had running through it in the test run. [/QUOTE]
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