A Megadungeon? For 4e? (Part 2!)

Wow, time flies. Hard to believe it has been over a year since I did this original post on megadungeons in 4e. Now that my zine 4e Forever has come out with the first level of a megadungeon "serial" adventure, I feel like I learned more about using these behemoth settings with the 4e game, so I thought I would post a part 2.


I noted how 4e combat speed can effect the pace of a megadungeon. You cannot populate every room with a 4e set-piece encounter and ever expect to finish such a thing, let alone enjoy it. But here is the dirty little secret: 4e's skill system works GREAT for exploration. Sure, you sometimes have that annoying player that rolls perception every 5 seconds, or the guy that detects magic on everything including a dead squirrel (adventure idea?), but overall its pretty no-frills and gets out of the way of the actual game. Exploration is one of the great joys of dungeons in general, and megadungeons in particular. A megadungeon gradually reveals itself. Each room is a thread of the tapestry. The story is in the exploration, how different areas of the place relate to each other, and the relationship of the creatures inhabiting the place. Even something completely "funhouse" like Tegel Manor has a sort of hidden rationale that only becomes apparent when you can finally step back from it and look at it all at once. Kind of like those 3D posters where you blur your eyes?


I am convinced that pacing is the key of running a 4e megadungeon. If you check out the first level of the pyramid in "Tales of the Lost City" from my zine, you will notice that out of 49 rooms, there are only 9 or so encounters, some of which might not even happen. I am not saying there is some pat and easy formula, but you want your design to really lean towards exploration. Having run I6 Ravenloft for 4e, Tegel Manor, and playtesting "Lost City", I really feel comfortable in saying that.


In the Temple of Elemental Evil (perhaps not a megadungeon, but a damn big one), there are a lot of good lessons regarding how different factions might work together or against one another. On the first dungeon level, you have a large group of gnolls. All of the gnolls rooms are connected, and if you encounter one group, odds are that the others will be alerted in kind of a domino effect, until all have joined the fight. 4e is GREAT at handling these kind of gradually-building encounters. 4e PCs have a lot of resources, and if you introduce creatures from nearby areas gradually during an encounter, you can really give it a "real" feel, as well as challenge your players. In "Lost City", a lot of the rooms of the pyramid are locked; the broken and open doors are towards the entrances of the pyramid, so rooms there are the most heavily populated. This is deliberate design; different creatures can hear a commotion if it happens.



I am reminded today on Gygax's birthday of what I consider the greatest set-piece encounter in the history of D&D: entering (or attempting to enter) The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. Gygax gives detailed instructions for adding reinforcements to the initial group of monsters encountered. They cover 25 ROUNDS and must include at least 100 creatures. The feel of a constantly growing combat encounter can give even jaded players a rush of adrenaline. If you are considering a 4e megadungeon, consider laying out some of the encounters in such as a way that they can 'blend'. I hesitate saying this adds 'realism', as realism isn't the point of a fantasy megadungeons; it does add a kind of logic to it though, a natural feel if you will, and the great thing about that is that it fits the 4e system like a glove.

By primarily emphasizing exploration, and by carefully considering encounter placement, you can create 4e megadungeons that work to the game system's strengths.

A Little Friday Trap Action

Hello. A very short post today just to show you a few more examples of the traps from my upcoming zine. I posted some ideas a bit ago about it. The basic idea is that traps don't scale; the same trap can threaten PCs of all levels. Instead of traps rolling to hit PCs, the PCs roll saving throws. The damage expressions stay constant regardless of tier, so you don't need 30 different pit traps. I hope you like them!




Hallucinatory Gas
“Get them off me!”, he screamed. “They are crawling all over me!”
-Detect: Perception to notice small vents in walls.
-Disable: Thievery
-Trigger: A creature enters a trapped square, triggering the gas.
-Effect: Each creature that breathes within a given area must roll a saving throw. A creature trained in
Endurance gets a +2 bonus to the roll. On a failed save, each creature is slid adjacent to their nearest ally, making an At-Will attack of the DMs choice against them as a Free Action.

Magnet Trap
The next thing I knew, I was hurtling towards the center of the room. I smashed into the
the pillar, cracking a rib.
-Detect: Typically the magnetized object will be in plain sight.
-Disable: The magnet must be destroyed by repeated blows or avoided.
-Trigger: A creature wearing metallic armor enters a space within 10 squares (50 feet) of the magnet.
-Effect: The creature must make a saving throw. A creature trained in Acrobatics gains a +2 bonus to the roll. On a failed save, the creature is pulled rapidly towards the magnet, crashing into it for 20 damage. A creature can move at half-speed away from the magnet, but must make a saving throw at the end of each of its turns or be pulled back again.

Acid Spray
My nostrils were burning..then I realized my arm was missing. I screamed...
-Detect: Nature to identify smell from a distance; Perception to notice jets.
-Disable: Thievery
-Trigger: A creature enters a trapped square, triggering the jets.
-Effect: Each creature within a given area must make a saving throw. On a failed save, a creature drops to its bloodied value and permanently loses a limb. Roll 1d4 (1-2=Arm, 3-4=Leg).

4e Forever Preview: Taking on Traps

 **PLEASE NOTE, THE FINAL TRAP RULES APPEAR IN ISSUE ONE OF 4E FOREVER, AVAILABLE NOW FOR A FREE DOWNLOAD**



My upcoming 4e Forever fanzine uses the following rules for traps. A trap has a trigger and an effect. A trap's triggered effect always behaves as an Opportunity Action unless otherwise noted. Most triggered traps do not make attack rolls; instead, a PC is usually required to make a saving throw to avoid a trap's effects. It is (hopefully) more dramatic and exciting for the player to roll to save, rather than watch the DM roll to attack.  




PCs trained in applicable Skills might be given small bonuses to their saving throws. Since 4e saving throws stay the same regardless of a PC's level, a single trap can now threaten PCs over multiple tiers of play. In addition, trap damage no longer scales. The damage simply is what it is. Traps are not assigned levels, and, as the traps typically do not attack, they no longer require constantly increasing attack bonuses that have historically lead to “trap bloat”.

For example, while a falling stone block is lethal to low-level PCs, it can still pack a wallop against high-level PCs. A falling block trap does 50 points of damage. This will flat-out crush a 1st Level character, and still dent the hell out of an Epic suit of armor. PCs that are trained in Acrobatics might get a small bonus to their save, representing an increased chance to dodge the block.

The relative damage totals for different traps are assigned based on a rough comparison of their deadliness. So while a scything blade might do less damage than a falling two-ton block, a strong poison gas might just kill you outright, regardless of your hit points or armor.

Traps are presented in simple terms, with a brief description of the trap and what it does, along with a trigger and effect. The size of a trapped area, or the number of trapped squares, is left for to the DM to decide unless otherwise noted. Specific Skill(s) that can be used to detect or disable traps are provided at the beginning of a trap's listing. The DCs to detect and/or disable traps are always the Hard DCs of a PCs level. This is the only way in which traps “scale”. In game terms, this is kind of required based on the way 4e is built, but in terms of flavor, I think it is well-supported as well. As PCs gain levels, they are in increasingly dangerous situations, facing more formidable foes. Maybe if a 25^th Level PC went back to the first little dungeon he ever cleared, the DCs would be lower; however,  the pitiful treasure would not even be worth taking. Similarly, if some 2^nd Level scrubs were unlucky enough to happen upon an Arch-Lich's tower...lets just say they would be dead before they crossed the threshold.

 

Sample Trap

Falling Block Trap

Stepping onto the floor released a massive stone block from overhead, crushing the Elf.

-Detect: Dungeoneering
-Disable: Dungeoneering or Thievery
-Trigger: A creature enters a trapped square.

-Effect: The creature must roll a saving throw. Creatures trained in Acrobatics receive a +2 bonus to the roll, representing an increased chance to dodge. On a failed save the creature takes 50 damage.


I hope you like these ideas! Many more traps will be provided in my upcoming fanzine!

Fixing Passive Perception in 4e

Passive Perception isn't a bad idea in and of itself. It has a lot going for it, actually. It is nostalgic, originating from old school versions of the game, where certain races had a chance to notice hidden doors and the like, simply by passing by them. Using passive skills also rewards players who deliberately spend resources to improve and excel at a skill. Lastly, it can, in some instances, save the DM some time, as he doesn't have to call for a check. But somewhere along the way it all went wrong. In this post, I am looking at what the problem is with Passive Perception (and other passive skills to some extent), and how to fix it.

So what is the problem in the first place? Well, to put it as simply as possible, it is hard to threaten 4e PCs with traps using it. Even casual, unoptimized groups can produce a PC whose Passive Perception is consistently above the moderate difficulty check, and often even a hard check. It is too easy. I want players to explore their environment and not have everything handed to them automatically. So here are my ideas on how to make it better:

Always use the hard DC
I want most hidden traps to be hard to detect. Note I said most. Otherwise, there's not much point in hiding them. I mean, sure I want to reward players for spending feats and such to help boost their skills, but the bottom line is some groups skills are so high they will always beat DCs; so here is what I recommend for DCs. Well-constructed traps can only be detected passively by a PC with a score better than, or equal to, the hard DC of the trap's level. Note that you will still have players that beat these DCs passively, and that's ok. If a trap is of poor quality or obvious, use the moderate DC of the trap's level. There are a few times that I would encourage the use of a lesser quality trap. Maybe for flavor reasons, or when using traps in an already difficult encounter, or to lull the players into a false sense of security regarding their skills.

Limit a PCs ability to rely on passive skills
This one has an old-school vibe. If a PC rolls an active check, use that check until they leave the area; they no longer qualify for their passive scores while in that area. So say they announce they are looking for traps and roll a 2. Do not let their score suddenly improve while they are still in the rough area. You can even call it ten minutes, or a 'turn'. Let players know this when they roll an active check to search.

Use skills other than Perception
Flavor your traps with different detection requirements. Maybe Perception doesn't work on some of them; they require Dungeoneering training. Or there might be an old holy symbol that is plainly visible to all, but it takes skill in Religion to automatically recognize it is trapped.

Reward exploration
The obvious flip-side of all of this talk of torturing PCs is to reward exploration when deserved. This is the kind of think that doesn't necessarily fit the codified rules approach of 4e, but occasionally, if you have a group of adventurers that are showing caution, playing attention to clues, and roleplaying, and they make a group check and fail, consider giving them a bonus to their check, or an automatic success. Don't do this every time, as some players might feel patronized or insulted; rely on 'feel' to tell you when this is appropriate. This is basically "taking 20" with conditions added.

Experiment with an alternate approach
If you still hate passive skills, you could just try something completely different. Another way to do it is to require a moderate or hard DC to even qualify to detect a trap. The DM then rolls a hidden roll to determine if the qualifying PC notices the trap. In other words, their Passive Perception allows them a chance to detect it, but doesn't guarantee success. This is kind of like an old school game, like an Elf determining a hidden door without trying on the DMs roll of 1 or 2 in 6. If a PCs passive score is high enough to beat the moderate DC to detect the trap, make a hidden percentage dice roll. The PC has a 75% chance to notice a trap of average construction, and a 50% chance to notice a well-constructed trap. This method adds an extra chance of failure on the back end. This method increases the threat of the trap while giving you an added old-school vibe.

In summary, I really don't want to come off too harsh. I just want to reward actual exploration and make passive trap detection more difficult. These ideas put power back into the DMs hands and make traps more dangerous than those in the typical game of 4e.

As always, I am interested in your feedback and opinions. Do you have your own method for using Passive Perception? Leave a post!