Variant rules for exploration and puzzles... comments welcome!

[SteveC]

I've been working on a system to add some depth to exploration and puzzle encounters in 4E. I call it the Encounter Perception System or EPS.

The system I present borrows from old-school adventure games and has a bit of the GUMSHOE system baked in, and it's designed to create a common mechanic for handling exploration scenes. My goal was to create a new kind of encounter that can be mixed in with combat and social scenes. Tell me how well I did!

You can take a look at it here. This is a google document with very basic formatting.

The document is pretty complete and a little on the long side, but I'd appreciate any comments you might have.

 

[Quickleaf]

This rule of the EPS is one we’ve blatantly stolen from the GUMSHOE role playing system, what we call critical elements. Sometimes there’s one particular clue or piece of evidence that the group absolutely needs to findin order to advance the game. It might be a scrap of paper with a cryptic reference to the old graveyard, or a control-box that opens the locked and sealed room that the group is stuck in. With EPS, the GM sets the difficulty to find these elements to easy, so that the group automatically discovers them with their passive perception.

Correct me if I've got this wrong, but this seems to capture the essence of your "system". Why assign a number to something you know that you're going to describe? I get it, there are clues you as DM need to provide to showcase your next cool thing. Some DMs make players roll unnecessarily and withhold those critical clues, possibly to the detriment of their game. Simple enough.

 

[SteveC]

Correct me if I've got this wrong, but this seems to capture the essence of your "system". Why assign a number to something you know that you're going to describe? I get it, there are clues you as DM need to provide to showcase your next cool thing. Some DMs make players roll unnecessarily and withhold those critical clues, possibly to the detriment of their game. Simple enough.

That's a good question. The answer is that at the start of the scene, the GM will ask each player to make a single perception check and compare it to the DC for all the elements in the area. Since you can use passive perception, you'll always see the critical elements, and the roll is really to see what else you see. If there is only one thing to find in the scene, and it's critical, I'd suggest not bothering to even roll.

 

[Rampant]

Good advice, I'm not sure it counts as a variant rule though.

 

[superpriest]

Basically I like it. I do like the GUMSHOE rules. You may be using too many dice rolls, however. If the whole party gets to make Perception checks by default at the start of the scene, then any party is always going to find all easy and medium clues, and probably the hard ones, too. I like to avoid rolling for no reason. On the other hand, if you skip the rolls except in the case where the party can fail, then the PCs might know something is out there that they missed.

What I do when I call for a Perception check is to tell them something on a failure, but tell them the secret on a success. This is pretty similar to your method, but I don't use this in every investigative scene. Many times I handle it descriptively and without rolls.

As you note, the important part is that PCs must find crucial clues automatically.

 

[SteveC]

Good advice, I'm not sure it counts as a variant rule though.

That's actually a very good point. When I work with rules, my first goal is "do no harm," and the second is "don't invent something when you can use the existing rules." So the EPS is more of a way of handling the existing rules to make exploration scenes work as a type of encounter.

Hopefully that makes some sense...

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Is this for when you walk into an 'encounter area' that includes puzzles or clues?

Something I have tried when the scene fit is a method of handling searches that came somewhere.. not sure where... but my players have enjoyed it the few times it made sense to do. I have used it in exploration/search of rooms as well as at the start of a combat encounter.

Basically it boils down to a modified 'combat' round. Initiative is based on Wis, with the lowest going first. On the PC's turn, they get to ask a number of questions equal to their INT modifier. Later questions can of course build on the ones that came before it.

The GM can set the basics of the scene and then the players can hone in on anything special or of interest. In this fashion the metagaming of 'oh, the GM detailed the desk drawers, they must be important' is left out.
Also, a sandbox style method can be used to ensure that any critical clues are found where the PCs look... maybe not on the first try.

In combat I do this as a quick look from where everyone stands to put more detail into the scene and award perceptive/thoughtful characters. Out of combat the time each question takes is flexible and actions can be taken like shoving on statues or what have you.

 

[SteveC]

Is this for when you walk into an 'encounter area' that includes puzzles or clues?

That's pretty much it. To make a comparison to computer/console games, the genesis for this idea came when I was playing through Dragon Age recently and having fun with some of the puzzle or "do this to unlock that," rooms. As I was playing it I thought "why don't I do encounters like this in D&D?"

In a similar fashion, my fiance is playing Lego Harry Potter part 2, and that game has TONS of locations where you have to figure out one or more features of the scene in order to move on. Most of the time, that's been really fun.

I wanted to do a system like that for 4E, but not turn the entire thing into die rolls.

Now for your idea about turning these encounters into a more "combat like" scene: I liked this idea, and my first version of the EPS did this. My feedback from the players was "the core is fun, but the combat turn mechanics don't seem to work here." It was sort of like the initial Skill Challenge rules that had initiative and turns ... which was a sort of artificial limiting factor that was later dropped. For the right scene, doing exploration by initiative would be very cool, though!

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

The reason do do it with 'initiative', based on Wis, is to reward those players whose character have a high Wis and Int with being the ones that often find the clues.

High Wis gets to ask the follow up questions to get into more detail. Higher Int gets to ask more questions. Your typical fighter will usually start it off by asking 'anything to beat on here?'

I also allow the 'ready' and 'delay', so the Rogue might delay asking questions until the fighter learns if the chest is a mimic or not.

Basically the idea is to put the exploration into the players hands and minds while avoiding metagaming as much as possible.