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Bigkrieg
Sub-Lieutenant
Joined: 20 Jun 2011
Posts: 69
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 Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 4:45 pm Post subject: Ideas for sw dungeon crawl |
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Hey guys,
I am planning a dungeon crawl type adventure for my party. They are going to be exploring some ancient ruins when they discover a tunnel leading into the ground. They then discover the underground ruins are being used as a secret CIS base.
I am wanting to challenge my characters a bit by making them use a wide variety of skills. My players have always been too combat and force ability heavy. They never increase or focus on knowledge skills, tech or mechanical skills or the like. I am thinking of stuff along the lines as security doors requiring a security roll to open. Or weapon lockers requiring security or computer programming roles to open. I am also interested in some "traps" to aggravate my players. Since 3 of my characters are force sensitive, having some sith artifacts or relics might be good too. Oh, and none of my Jedi have light sabers either. At the end of the "dungeon" they will encounter a Sith apprentice and possibly some upgraded battle droids. I want them to figure out how to beat him without using a light saber.
Anyway, I hope this gives everyone a somewhat good picture of where I am going. Any suggests would greatly be appreciated. . |
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jmanski
Arbiter-General (Moderator)
Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 2065
Location: Kansas
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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Been playing Skyrim a lot lately- here's some trap ideas:
1) Pressure plate on the floor (Moderate Perception or Search to detect), when triggered, darts shoot out of the walls (low damage, high chance to hit)
2) Hanging bones and ornaments that awaken/alert guards if the PC's rattle them
3) One PC must walk across a plank (balance checks) to release a draw-bridge for the others
4) Pressure plate shoots jets of fire (works best if in a narrow tunnel, fire shoots behind lead PC, and ground has flammable oil on it....  )
5) Puzzle to open door (line up animal pictures in correct order to open, the correct order was in the last room, and that door closed so use the PC's memory)
Kinda what you were looking for?
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14215
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:01 pm Post subject: |
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Others..
Under mech, i could see beast handling to tame some critters in an off the path area, that may have been placed as guards
Know. Some areas with scholar or culture knowledge to pass a test to open doors.
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S-Foil
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Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Posts: 70
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:38 pm Post subject: |
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For starters think about the scale of the place. Have deep chasms and precarious catwalks and things like that. Think the droid factory on Geonosis or the reactor room beneath the Palace of Naboo. Just traversing the catwalks and running/dodging on service tunnels could be really difficult. It would also make them exposed, some battle droids could easily spot them walking on a catwalk and the characters wouldn't have much in the way of cover. The map could still look dungeon crawly since the catwalks are narrow and go particular places but instead of tight walls you have vast spaces to block movement.
For dungeon crawl style traps I think you're on the right track. Path blocking barriers like doors and security grids that need Technical and Knowledge skills to disable are always nice. What I like to do when coming up with something like that is figure out a couple of ways around it and which skills might be useful. A character might be able to open a blast door by using a Mechanical skill roll to disable the hydraulics or something of that sort even if there's a security panel right next to it.
Don't forget security cameras and sensors. While they don't physically block the characters' path they can direct or hinder them. You can have the characters repeatedly ambushed until they figure out that the security cameras have been giving away their position and they need to find a way around them or disable them to keep from getting attacked every few minutes.
On the Force side of things you can have the place sit on top of an ancient Sith stronghold. The CIS might have unknowingly built their base in the ruins. Since they're ruins they might look abandoned and there might have been a lot of excavated space underneath in which to build their own base/factory. Some crypts and store rooms might store Sith artifacts and that's what attracted the Sith apprentice to the place. Have a Dark Side spirit or two inhabit the place and give the force sensitive characters a hard time. This might give the option to the players to play the Dark Side spirits off the Sith apprentice. |
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Rerun941
Commander
Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 459
Location: San Antonio, TX
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:56 pm Post subject: |
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Be careful with the blast doors... if you have a Force user with a lightsaber, that player WILL attempt to cut through the door.
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MacRauri
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Joined: 26 Nov 2011
Posts: 47
Location: Twin Cities MN
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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I love the idea of a swd6 dungeon crawl.
To branch off some earlier ideas you could flood one of the rooms forcing the PCs to make swimming checks while trying to disable the flooding device. If this fails they get swept away into the caverns and have to make survival checks until they make it back out. Perhaps one of them gets poisoned while down below too. If they take a long time making it out they could be forced to make stamina checks to load them up with a level or two of fatigue before emerging to fight some sentry droids.
For another room there could be an old butler droid malfunctioning and worrying about his master's meal. Either they reprogram the droid (ancient technology) or they could try to follow the requests of what meal the lord likes with a culinary arts roll. Maybe one of the force ghosts is the lord complaining about how no meals these days are prepared quite right and forces the group to make various cultures and scholar checks to see if they are worthy of dining with him. |
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Bigkrieg
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Joined: 20 Jun 2011
Posts: 69
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| Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Well my players get lazy and only concentrate on their combat skills. I am wanting to do a dungeon crawl because it will give them a chance to use a variety of skills to survive. Its also part of a greater push on my part to start incorporating a variety of skills. Further more, our adventures lately are too open. I let the players have too much freedom and nothing ever gets done. I want to have an adventure that is more structured. Plus a dungeon crawl just sounds like fun! |
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 2:17 am Post subject: |
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I love that swimming one... Or a related one.. have a pit trap drop them into an incinerator like room, where survival and stamina are the skills needed, along with climbing/jumping to get out.. before getting cooked!
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ZzaphodD
Rear Admiral
Joined: 28 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 3:56 am Post subject: |
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| Bigkrieg wrote: | | Well my players get lazy and only concentrate on their combat skills. I am wanting to do a dungeon crawl because it will give them a chance to use a variety of skills to survive. Its also part of a greater push on my part to start incorporating a variety of skills. Further more, our adventures lately are too open. I let the players have too much freedom and nothing ever gets done. I want to have an adventure that is more structured. Plus a dungeon crawl just sounds like fun! |
Open adventures need a sense of urgency. Establish a timeline and have the player stumble across something nasty progressing in the background. I will have the players stumble across a Otherspace/Tyranid infiltration. This will the backdrop, forcing the players to try to handle both this plot and the 'usual' scenarios (missions from the rebels). If the player dont do anything about it they will suddenly find a new temple (religion/sect as cover) established on one of the places they frequently visit. As in Otherspace a high ranking Imperial will be 'possessed' by the aliens, keeping the Empire from doing anything about it.
IMO Dungeon crawls are usually a bit limited. Fighty skills together with some climbing/jumping and perhaps solving a puzzle or sumting. Often a bit railroading:ish if you ask me.. Sure, I have had several bases (both 'abandoned and in full use) for the players to take on, but never as a way of keeping play diversified as it usually doesnt end up that way.
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Fallon Kell
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Joined: 07 Mar 2011
Posts: 1846
Location: Tacoma, WA
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| Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 6:14 am Post subject: |
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| ZzaphodD wrote: |
IMO Dungeon crawls are usually a bit limited. Fighty skills together with some climbing/jumping and perhaps solving a puzzle or sumting. Often a bit railroading:ish if you ask me.. Sure, I have had several bases (both 'abandoned and in full use) for the players to take on, but never as a way of keeping play diversified as it usually doesnt end up that way. |
I agree. A dungeon crawl could be fun, but I think it's the wrong tool to use to encourage players to develop well-rounded skills. The closest thing I can think of to something matching your goals would be The Game Chambers of Questal, but if you really want players to widen their skill base, use their greed.
First give some hints about how they can benefit from certain skills, like overhearing a story about someone who found a working light turbolaser hidden in a junkyard.
Then do a mini adventure.
Drop hints about an arms dealer having to abandon his ship and cargo. If they want to find it, they have to make some difficult streetwise and investigation rolls. They'll need astrogation to get there. Once they get aboard, they'll need technical and security rolls to get at the weapons. They'll probably want to keep any large or special ones, but if they have large numbers of other ones, they'll probably want to sell them. If they're unusual weapons, they'll need to make value rolls, and then bargaining rolls to sell 'em at the highest prices possible. They'll probably need to make streetwise rolls again to find a fence who won't tell the arms dealer whose weapons they "stole". If they can't find the ship, can't get at the best gear aboard it, don't sell them for full price, or get found out by the arms dealer, make sure they find out how nice things could have been.
That's how I motivate my players to round out their skills. After they do so, I toss some appropriate skill checks into future adventures to reinforce.
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MacRauri
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Joined: 26 Nov 2011
Posts: 47
Location: Twin Cities MN
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| Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:05 am Post subject: |
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| ZzaphodD wrote: |
IMO Dungeon crawls are usually a bit limited. Fighty skills together with some climbing/jumping and perhaps solving a puzzle or sumting. Often a bit railroading:ish if you ask me.. Sure, I have had several bases (both 'abandoned and in full use) for the players to take on, but never as a way of keeping play diversified as it usually doesnt end up that way. |
The more I got to thinking about it the harder I found it to come up with knowledge based rolls that feel appropriate for a dungeon crawl. I think I would run a crawl as a change of pace if it felt like the players hadn't bashed enough droid (or whatever) heads for awhile, but since your group has specialized in combat you might want a different approach.
Fell had a nice arc involving stolen weapons and the various checks they would need to make. To add on top of that I always like putting in an alien curmudgeon who will only respect the players if they can make appropriate language and culture rolls (a droid doing it for them will be viewed as an affront). With lots of NPCs to interact with (a-hem get stuff from) they'll also tend to raise persuasion and con. My players do tend to enjoy lying through their teeth.
you can also always use the haunted room of darkside tentacles to encourage them to raise willpower. |
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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Know rolls i feel would be good for dungeon crawls..
Alien Species - to know what aliens you might be dealing with...
Animal Training - as mentioned above, this could be a good way to get by those lone animals who could have been set as guardians.. or are just stuck in the area.
Cultures - they come to a wall where knowing the cultures history allows them to complete a not so well known saying the culture has.. this opens the wall to allow them to continue on.
Intimidation - self explanatory.
Languages - Maybe a puzzle is wrote in a strange language, and needs to be deciphered first.
Profession - stone masonry, or the like could be used to tell weak spots in a defensive wall..
Scholar - linked to languages/cultures.
Survival - self explanitory
Value - they encounter items that might be worth something.
Willpower - resisting the sith artifacts hanging around..
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ZzaphodD
Rear Admiral
Joined: 28 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 3:46 pm Post subject: |
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The 'Space Hulk' idea is a really good setup for Dungeon Crawling in a SW environment. The game is focused on combat between Terminators vs Tyranid/Genestealers, but the idea can be modified for normal SW characters having a more interesting mission than killing everything in sight. Also, if you use Genestealers the characters will probably not last long...
If the characters dont have this armour and this weaponry, dont use Tyranids.. 
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:26 am Post subject: |
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Tyrinids.. an alien wanna be!
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vanir
Jedi
Joined: 11 May 2011
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| Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 1:04 pm Post subject: |
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| other way around according to my WH40K enthusiast friends, copyright on the rp is before aliens was written they say, never looked it up myself. |
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