Problem Solving Scenarios

[Style]

So I was reading the opening scenario in Red Nails the other day, and was thinking what a great dilemma to challenge players, and get them to think beyond "I swing my sword" to get out of a situation.

A quick summary of the situation:

* You have an enemy that is heavily armored on over 95% of his body, making your weapons useless in these areas.
* You have a tireless enemy you can't outrun, that never sleeps. It also has the scent ability and can easily track you.
* You have a steep crag the enemy can not climb, offering you sanctuary. However, you don't have food and water.
* You don't have reach weapons or ranged weapons. You do have swords.
* You have access to long, slender branches, not strong enough to be used as a spear, vines, and apples of Derketa.

You all remember how Conan got out of that one. Pretty neat challenge.

I love providing a wide range of challenges to my players, including puzzles. I've got some nice books for dungeon traps, things like the Riddle Rooms books, the Grimtooth series, and so on. The problem I find with these elaborate traps and riddles is explaining why they were built in the first place. Why in the world would anyone go through the trouble just to kill you? If you want to trap a room, and you have it fill up with water, why would you place a tablet there with a riddle on it that gives you the key to get out of the room? Just let them drown. Anyone who should be in the place, just tell them how to bypass the trap. No need to lay the answer out there for tomb robbers to figure out.

So when I see scenarios like at the begging of red nails, I get happy. These actually make sense. And if you're running an episodic style game with High Living and the like, it's pretty easy to set something up like this at the beginning of a session, b/c you, the GM, decide where the PCs are and what resources they have available.

Having said all of that, what problem solving scenarios like this have you seen in games, literature, movies, etc, that would be good to steal for my game? I would love to hear what you've got!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Clovenhoof]

Good thread idea! I've been wondering the same thing about "puzzles" like those riddle traps. One of my colleagues even suggested, if he were to build a dungeon with a trap room, he'd have the correct solution _activate_ the trap, to make sure you weed out any _smart_ intruders first.

Alright, let's see about plausible problem solving scenarios...

#2: There is a gorge. You need to cross it.

Of course that's not gonna do much good in a D&D game beyond Level 4 (the Fly spell becomes available at level 5), but in Conan, this is a legitimate challenge.

Depending on the assets and surroundings, the characters could try for example to cut some trees and build a makeshift bridge. (If you ever were in the army or even with the boy scouts you may know what I'm talking about)

#3: you are locked in a prison cell. Get out.

Very plausible scenario for a Conan game. You could do all the typical movie clichés, like opening the shackle lock with a dry bone, loosening the mortar of the window bars, or tricking the guard.

 

[raymond_turney]

Hi,

A couple of ideas might be to have a voice activated door, using something familiar like Open, so say I, but the door listens to the voice and unless it is a ventriloquist imitating the speech pattern of an authorized user, the door remains shut.

Another, in a dungeon setting, is to have what looks like a secret door, with this "This is a bogus secret door" scrawled in blood on it. If you try to pen it by any normal means, it does not open. If you kick it in, it opens.

If you want to read more from me, please look into Fire and Sword, at the following URL:

http://basicroleplaying.com/forum/downloads.php?do=cat&id=12

It is a different rules system, using D20 but with some new ideas, so it may have something you can adapt {I think the economics and politics rules most likely to be adaptable, but the system of medical conditions may also be useful}. There is also a Designer's Commentary, Short Version to give to players so they can quickly learn the rules, etc. All are available as free downloads under an open source license.

Good luck with your Conan game.

Ray,

 

[Ethan the Red]

My next session I hope to explore the perils of underwater combat!

Using "sea lotus" which causes suffocation on land, but provides the ability to breathe under water for an hour the characters must escape a craggy prison island swarming with Deep Ones (as in- Shadow Over Innsmouth by Lovecraft). There are no boats, as the Deep Ones swim naturally. Furthermore their weapons are on the mainland a mile away! They may find some exotic weapons but it will be minimal (tridents, nets, a few cutlasses etc.)

Should be good fighting Deep One's underwater where they are in their element! Also, its a nice change of pace, and I don't know if I've ever run an underwater combat....

 

[Paladin]

If you want to trap a room, and you have it fill up with water, why would you place a tablet there with a riddle on it that gives you the key to get out of the room? Just let them drown. Anyone who should be in the place, just tell them how to bypass the trap. No need to lay the answer out there for tomb robbers to figure out.

Realistically you wouldn't. They are provided in games to avoid anti-instant death situations for PCs. It's a way to give them a subtle "hint" in the right direction, but still force them to solve the puzzle. A better solution to still give them hints is to offer them in the form of obscure scrawled maps or notes from previous adventurers or in other sources before going in the room. i.e. find a dead rotten corpse on it's way out of the tomb/area that has the map/journal about his party going in but not making it out.

 

[decker423]

We're just talking puzzles/traps here. What about an adventure where when the end was near (or thought to be "concluded") some new information or a radical change in the situation presents itself and requires the PCs to alter their plans or find a new way to win/survive/complete the quest?

This is the old genre stuff where your "friend" was going to back stab you all along or the "enemy" you've been fighting all along actually turns out to be on the "right" side and you've been unknowlingly aiding the "real" bad guy?

Also, just throw in some complications to an otherwise normal, mundane event. Crossing a bridge in the winter, roll reflex or you slip off and plunge into the icy waters (remember, armor, weapons and encumberance tends to sink). You are in combat in a forest and somehow some plants/trees catch on fire and then you're fighting in a forest fire (or a savannah fire on the plains, that's scarier!). Getting lost in a blizzard. Having an unchangeable timeline (you must reach here or do this by a certain time or it's all for naught!).

My 2 cents.