Things to Talk To in the Dungeon

[Quickleaf]

And over there we have the labyrinth guards. One always lies, one always tells the truth, and one stabs people who ask tricky questions.

xkcd: Labyrinth Puzzle FTW!

 

[the Jester]

How 'bout the ol' "talking stone face carved in the wall"?

 

[pemerton]

I think players get nervious when talking to NPCs in a dungeon as they fear "saying the wrong thing" will "mess up" whatever is going on.

In my experience, if you want the players to do interesting things in negotiation, you have to be prepared to follow their lead, rather than expect them to conform to your expectations.

 

[Mark CMG]

I always love using a sentient door (as posted above) or door knocker with new players. It tends to be a theme from fantasy that they can latch onto without feeling too threatened, even when a door is surly.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Don't forget about the classic sphinx guarded passageway, "Answer my riddle and pass, fail to answer my riddle, and become my next meal."

If you want to throw a twist on the encounter, you can have the sphinx's hunger pre-sated, so that it doesn't feel much like riddling, or have its guarded treasure already taken by some previous riddlers. Maybe the sphinx is just looking for some conversation to allay its boredom.

 

[ExploderWizard]

A lynx.

 

[was]

constructs, ghosts, talking skulls or animals..

 

[TanithT]

Don't forget about the classic sphinx guarded passageway, "Answer my riddle and pass, fail to answer my riddle, and become my next meal."

Good players: Will roleplay and talk to the sphinx.

Bad players: "Yeah, we know, the answer to your riddle is "man", now give us our XP already." *bored expressions*

Munchkin players: *completely ignores anything the creature says* "Hey cool, a sphynx. It's only got 8d10+8 hit points and gives good XP and loot. You tank in front and the rogue can sneak up from behind while I cast debuffs. We can take it."

 

[SkredlitheOgre]

It seems to me that if they're newbies, then they won't necessarily have that 'that seems TOO normal! Let's kill it!' vibe going on. I ran a session where nobody was making a map of the dungeon, so they got lot (due to bad rolls). They came around a corner and found a hobgoblin sweeping the floor. They were going to attack when someone said, 'Hey, we're lost. Let's see if he knows the way out.' He did and they got out without fighting that particular guy.

 

[MortalPlague]

There are some great suggestions in here; I've been taking notes for my upcoming game!

Speaking of that game, I've been working on a dungeon complex, and one of the things I focused on was giving them some neat things to interact with. This place used to be a palace retreat for mages, so it has a legion of completely-invisible unseen servants to keep the place clean. The servants are entirely and completely benign, and are also under orders to fetch anything someone asks for. So once the PCs figure it out, they'll be able to fetch food and drink while walking around the dungeon, as well as mundane supplies, and the like.