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RPG Evolution: Every Threat, Everywhere, All At Once
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9069558" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>I've rarely in my 40 years played at much above 10th level of ability but the reasons why you want to make life complicated for a PC don't start and end with making a challenge. Traps in and of themselves are rarely interesting and are usually just points of delay or obstacles that engage a single PC. It's almost always better to engage the whole party in a cooperative challenge and if you can make a trap an ongoing source of complication then that almost always better than it just deducting some hit points.</p><p></p><p>So some rules:</p><p></p><p>a) Traps that do ongoing damage are better than traps that do big bursts of damage. For example, a burning oil trap that does 1d8 damage for 4 rounds is more interesting than a fire trap that does 4d8 damage. The goal isn't to do damage necessarily, but to get players involved in creating solutions.</p><p>b) If a trap does some big burst of damage, telegraphing the damage to give the party time to try to think of a solution is better than surprising the party. A bomb that goes off for 6d8 damage next round is more interesting than a bomb that explodes for 6d8 damage. </p><p>c) Traps that physically isolate a PC or render a PC perpetually threatened are better than traps that don't. The primary interest of pit traps is the forced movement, not the falling damage. The primary interest of a bear trap is that the PC can't move, not the slashing damage. When you combine traps like that with other predicaments - like that bomb that is going to go off in a little bit or ongoing damage from the burning oil - then you've created something interesting.</p><p>d) Traps are better when there is some other monster present that exploit the predicament. Monsters are great sources of ongoing damage and disruption of plans. They can intelligently react to what the players are doing or be bombs that will go off in their own right (an approaching ooze for example)</p><p>e) Traps are almost always better when some aspect of the trap inflicts an ongoing condition. A burning oil trap that also makes everything super slippery is better than one that does damage. This is also because the greasy effects may endure even if the flame is extinguished. Likewise being greasy may be that bomb that is about to go off: "Oh, no, we are about to be set on fire."</p><p>f) All situations are more complicated when there are innocents present that the PC's would prefer (or strongly prefer) not be harmed. If PC's themselves are such high level that they are hard to threaten, forcing them to protect individuals that struggle to protect themselves can provide interest. Maybe "the Justice League" can't be threatened by this situation and it's really a test of whether they can heroically save others. </p><p>g) While reinforcements allow players to defeat enemies in detail, they do complicate the situation for spellcasters, extend combats, and create newly evolving tactical challenges. There is a long history in D&D of deliberately nerfing the challenge to the party to allow them to defeat large forces in detail by spreading out the challenge, while still giving the players lots of "wow factor". Also keep in mind that traps with alarms make for good "bombs that are about to go off" in that the party now knows it has limited to extricate themselves from the current problem before it gets worse.</p><p></p><p>Some caution:</p><p></p><p>Big cinematic scenes like you see in movies are hard to create without judicious use of DM force. That's because IRL, when given a choice, players will always prefer simple direct solutions that increase the chances of success over the sort of elaborate scenarios with compounding difficulties that you typically see in movies. Players will typically find ways to evade your plans for complicated chase scenes occurring at the last minute with a timer going off by finding solutions that don't wait to the last minute and involve less risky choices. On the other hand, players are also notorious for taking things that should be simple and making them complicated. So my advice would be to just let things happen rather than spending a lot of time fantasizing about how you are going to recreate the scene from some movie, only for the players to scheme around the scene or have some resource that trivializes one or more of the obstacles you planned for. For every dramatic scene that they evade, they are likely to overly complicate something that should be easy. Players get in over their heads all the time.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 9069558, member: 4937"] I've rarely in my 40 years played at much above 10th level of ability but the reasons why you want to make life complicated for a PC don't start and end with making a challenge. Traps in and of themselves are rarely interesting and are usually just points of delay or obstacles that engage a single PC. It's almost always better to engage the whole party in a cooperative challenge and if you can make a trap an ongoing source of complication then that almost always better than it just deducting some hit points. So some rules: a) Traps that do ongoing damage are better than traps that do big bursts of damage. For example, a burning oil trap that does 1d8 damage for 4 rounds is more interesting than a fire trap that does 4d8 damage. The goal isn't to do damage necessarily, but to get players involved in creating solutions. b) If a trap does some big burst of damage, telegraphing the damage to give the party time to try to think of a solution is better than surprising the party. A bomb that goes off for 6d8 damage next round is more interesting than a bomb that explodes for 6d8 damage. c) Traps that physically isolate a PC or render a PC perpetually threatened are better than traps that don't. The primary interest of pit traps is the forced movement, not the falling damage. The primary interest of a bear trap is that the PC can't move, not the slashing damage. When you combine traps like that with other predicaments - like that bomb that is going to go off in a little bit or ongoing damage from the burning oil - then you've created something interesting. d) Traps are better when there is some other monster present that exploit the predicament. Monsters are great sources of ongoing damage and disruption of plans. They can intelligently react to what the players are doing or be bombs that will go off in their own right (an approaching ooze for example) e) Traps are almost always better when some aspect of the trap inflicts an ongoing condition. A burning oil trap that also makes everything super slippery is better than one that does damage. This is also because the greasy effects may endure even if the flame is extinguished. Likewise being greasy may be that bomb that is about to go off: "Oh, no, we are about to be set on fire." f) All situations are more complicated when there are innocents present that the PC's would prefer (or strongly prefer) not be harmed. If PC's themselves are such high level that they are hard to threaten, forcing them to protect individuals that struggle to protect themselves can provide interest. Maybe "the Justice League" can't be threatened by this situation and it's really a test of whether they can heroically save others. g) While reinforcements allow players to defeat enemies in detail, they do complicate the situation for spellcasters, extend combats, and create newly evolving tactical challenges. There is a long history in D&D of deliberately nerfing the challenge to the party to allow them to defeat large forces in detail by spreading out the challenge, while still giving the players lots of "wow factor". Also keep in mind that traps with alarms make for good "bombs that are about to go off" in that the party now knows it has limited to extricate themselves from the current problem before it gets worse. Some caution: Big cinematic scenes like you see in movies are hard to create without judicious use of DM force. That's because IRL, when given a choice, players will always prefer simple direct solutions that increase the chances of success over the sort of elaborate scenarios with compounding difficulties that you typically see in movies. Players will typically find ways to evade your plans for complicated chase scenes occurring at the last minute with a timer going off by finding solutions that don't wait to the last minute and involve less risky choices. On the other hand, players are also notorious for taking things that should be simple and making them complicated. So my advice would be to just let things happen rather than spending a lot of time fantasizing about how you are going to recreate the scene from some movie, only for the players to scheme around the scene or have some resource that trivializes one or more of the obstacles you planned for. For every dramatic scene that they evade, they are likely to overly complicate something that should be easy. Players get in over their heads all the time. [/QUOTE]
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