ry's Threats, Rewards, Assets, and Problems (TRAPs)

[Ry]

Reward: Kuen has Mojara's hand, and seeking Mojara's head was the real reason for coming to Iova's Tryst. The presence of the Master was just a lucky opportunity, which unfortunately did not pan out. Mojara cannot animate the hand until he has drank the blood of at least 60 hitpoints worth of creatures, and then only for a minute a day.

Threat: Majago has Mojara's tail, other claw, and several of Mojara's bones. With enough sacrifices Mojara will be able to animate himself and start thinking about taking others' flesh to finish the job. Just the presence of his tail would reinvigorate him enough to use all the normal powers of a rakshasa.

 

[Ry]

Problem: Hratchlip (Kuen's manticore ally) will retreat early on in the battle and return to her mate. Her mate is Paktkach, the manticore detailed earlier in this thread.

Asset: The mine Paktkach occupies leads to the entranceway of the Rakshasa tomb that Mojara is trying to lead the party to. The tomb entrance is a difficult puzzle door, but Kuen (who knows about the tomb) hasn't been able to get to it because before you get to the door you need to discover another secret door that looks like a hard rock face.

 

[Ry]

I was hoping to show a little more breadth of what kinds of things TRAPs give you. For example, if you're trying to demonstrate a culture, and you want it to be something the PCs hook into, you've got to build TRAPs around that culture. For example

Threat: Although they use nonlethal methods, especially Strengh poisons, the Kovani attack intruders into their territory on sight, assuming them to be members or slaves of the Gua Minotaur tribe to the east.

Problem: You can't speak to the elder council if you haven't completed the rites of adulthood. If you accept the challenge, you must hunt another predator in the wild, and you are given no equipment to do so.

Asset: Each member of the tribe carries a string of beads woven into their hair or clothing; this string of beads tells a great deal about them, and if you spend time with the tribe you can learn to read these to understand why some are given more respect than others.

Reward: A Kovani woman presents you with a string of beads, and smiles. You realize that the string of beads tells your story as well as the tribe knows it. That night you are taught of the secret paths that Kovani use through their territory; walking the path tells other Kovani that you are a friend.

 

[Slapzilla]

Love the flowchart. Every Threat, Asset and Reward spawns a new TRAP set. It seems to fill out the world a bit as if the PCs go in one direction, the rest of the world doesn't wait around for them. PC decisions on what to do and who to help actually have ramifications. Timing comes into play, relationships that develop are important and role playing skills from the players and Bluff, Diplomacy etc, come to the fore.
The usual balancing act of every DM becomes important as there are many things the players couldn't know. A while back at the Manticore lair, I think the PCs wouldn't know about the bats and even if they did (in my experience) it is the rare player who would think of causing the rockslides to disorient them, whether they knew about the goblins or not. Especially when hunting a Manticore is it's lair. Like the infected Druid. It's not a problem if the PCs don't know about it, therefore there is no recognizable threat, utilizable asset or known reward.
Mood is what sets the 'stock footage' sort of scenes apart. The dying man with the slashed waterskin is a great scene for setting the desperate, savage mood. A cursed dagger and a pack of ghouls on your trail are one idea for an adventure part of continuing the scene but without the mood, it falls flat. Being a few steps ahead of the players on the TRAP and having the NPCs and beasties prepped let the DM focus on the mood of the scene. Not wondering during a combat what the 'offstage' players are doing allows mood focus too. I'm going to apply this system to my plot for tomorrow's game and see how well it turns out.

 

[Ry]

Sweet! Thanks for posting that Slapzilla. If you have a breakdown of your plot, feel free to post it here if you're interested in some TRAPs or other feedback.

 

[Slapzilla]

It's funny as I have three new players, one of which has only played two sessions-last week and two weeks ago. The other two have about six sessions between them and I ran them all about a year and a half ago. As a side note, it is refreshing not to be playing with a bunch of jaded lifers as my last group was. Anyway, as they are all relatively inexperienced I created a couple of combat scenarios to teach/refresh a bit of the mechanics and in the second scenario they talked thier way around it. So, going with the flow we ended up starting to play. The scenario was a basic, stock hook. A local noble's manor was attacked by unknown assailants and in the confusion, three family members were missing. The noble is convinced that a new mercenary group to the area is involved in the kidnapping and hired the PC's to infiltrate and map thier walled camp and get some numbers on the company's strength, assets etc. Pretty lame, I know but it was intended to just be any ol' hook. They found the place and charmed the guards into not killing them on sight ("but I'm lost, sir and just need a place to sleep") and got some info about a safe place to stay the night- the clearing created by the logging that made the fort's walls. There they met one of the mercs who (me needing a combat) moved in for the kill. They took him out and got info out of one of his lackeys about how they were out searching for a possible cave entrance one of the loggers mentioned. The lackey also provided the info they needed for the noble so they decided to head back to the manor. So....

The mood is one of tension. There is a new wall being constructed at the manor and there are new guards active. The household is anxious and suspicious. Tempers flare easily.

Problem
The noble is angry at the PCs as they got no info on the missing loved ones and the info they did get was second hand at best and doesn't want to reward them.

Threat
A cool temper will be needed so the noble does not become enraged at the PCs and commit his guards to violence.

Asset
During the debriefing of the PCs the Chamberlain puts two and two together and asks the PCs to search for the cave entrance. Perhaps to use as a hide out from which to spy on the mercs and a way to try to get back in the good graces of the noble.

Reward
The cave turns out to be (of course) a dungeon that, when cleared, could be a safe spot to base from. Assuming they tell the Chamberlain and hand it over they are back in good (at least indifferent) standing with the local noble.

The branches from this are many. Certainly the PCs may not care about the good graces of the noble and just split, ignoring the Chamberlain's request.
The Threat Problem could be a big ol' fight and all the legal troubles of being outlaws. Maybe simple enmity from the noble and a tense armed escort off the property etc.
The Asset Problem could be as simple as the life and limb of clearing out a dungeon (full of mercs who have found it or the usual denizens).
The Chamberlain certainly has ulterior motives, farious or nefarious, and the Reward problem might just be keeping varmints off the property.
Except for the Chamberlain's motives, none of these things involve the missing loved ones or in any direct way, the motives of the mercs. The info reward at the end of the dungeon is the entrance hook into the overarching plot I had in mind. So far, plenty of action and role playing and my original plot is only just touched on. Already, with the TRAP system I've got a setting that is in motion with ramifications from the charaters direct actions. The entrance hook and the missing loved ones are connected directly but nobody but me knows that. I know exactly what motivates the Chamberlain and why and I know what the mercs are up to and all these thing come out later and how they do is up to the PCs.

 

[Ry]

You should definitely think about building TRAPs around that dungeon. I'd say doing 3 sets would be a good start.

For example, here's a TRAP around any dungeon entrance: There's (Threat an honest-to-goodness spiked pit trap, but (Reward the player can find the body of a dead adventurer with a little bit of gold and gear at the bottom. Also, (Asset the pit connects to a few other pits that lead up into other parts of the dungeon, but (Problem making too much noise down might attract the Carrion Crawlers that dug the tunnels in the first place.

 

[Ry]

For example, here's a TRAP around any dungeon entrance: There's (Threat an honest-to-goodness spiked pit trap, but (Reward the player can find the body of a dead adventurer with a little bit of gold and gear at the bottom. Also, (Asset the pit connects to a few other pits that lead up into other parts of the dungeon, but (Problem making too much noise down might attract the Carrion Crawlers that dug the tunnels in the first place.

Another TRAP to wrap around that:

There are nasty javelin-chucking goblins in the cave (Threat), but they're afraid of a Chuul that lives in an underground lake and occasionally comes into their caves (Asset, also possible leadin to a Threat). Thus, they've built makeshift fortifications out of the thorny vines that grow nearby and piled up rocks so that Medium-sized creatures have to crawl into some of the chambers (Problem). The goblins' javelins whistle eerily as they fly through the air, which in large numbers can panic their enemies (Wil save negates, but also possible Reward).

 

[Ry]

If you want to start cranking the sense of challenge, try adding twice as many Threats and Problems to each situation. If you end up coming up with an Asset or Reward while jamming on those, don't suppress that idea, but just keep on with the focus on Threats and Problems.

 

[Slapzilla]

It just keeps ramping up and new branches keep showing. It's a good system and as long as the mood is set, the PCs guide the branching points and the DM stays creative, it flows smoothly.