help with encounter design: tunnels leading between Big Bad areas (Frozen South spoilers, if you are one of my players)

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serendipitous
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help with encounter design: tunnels leading between Big Bad areas (Frozen South spoilers, if you are one of my players)

Post by serendipitous »

I'm cross-posting this from Reddit, in case any of y'all don't see it there.

I'm having brain freeze for the next chunk of my campaign, and would be grateful for ideas. At the moment, my level-3 PCs (7 of them) have just entered a tunnel system and are headed toward a Big Bad Goon type. I may cross-post this...

Campaign background:


This is very homebrew. And a little less gross than much DCC because I need gorgeous right now. So I'm making the nasty stuff political & moral & nothing that I have to spend a lot of time with as a judge. Corpses that have rotted into maggoty goo is fine, we've got child slavery so that's fine too, as is persons as currency; PCs with rotten parts is not a good space for me.

All "magic" is uber-tech, but the PCs are from a nomadic polar tribe & don't know that. The world itself is fallen-tech, so pretty much classic RPG technology in the mainstream world, but recently old technology has been discovered so things are changing fast.

And by design the PCs are in over their heads, to some degree. If my players keep having fun we'll take the campaign up to higher-level characters, and they will feel so much more powerful at the end.

Tunnel Context/Story:

The Goon is, according to my plans, supervising the excavation of a vast subterranean area (football-field-sized for my convenience) which is full of, ironically, enormous excavation machines from a long-lost advanced civilization. The Goon is enthused by this because he is tasked with unearthing lost tech buried throughout the region & this will make his job easier and a lot more fun. He has a handful of MCC-type security robots and a good number of local workers with him.

Also he has a supercool metallic shape-changer whose default form is of a 6-legged predator but who CAN imitate persons very well. But the Goon is annoyed with the shape-changer right now so he's keeping it leashed.

ThePCs are accompanied by a tech-wizard NPC, and their goal seems to be 2-fold:
  • 1. Kill the Big Bad Goon. They just hate this guy. Way more than I hate him. His relentless search for buried artifacts has destabilized the bedrock & caused their entire village to be destroyed (while the PCs were sneaking out for their "Frozen in Time" funnel) as well as mucked with the capital city of the yeti people, of whom my PCs are quite fond. And he brainwashed the yeti king into turning child-slaver.

    2. Stop the tremors/earthquakes that are devastating the region. They have figured out that they possess an artifact that can do this -- a "Crystallizing Sphere" that causes things to freeze up when it touches them, the PCs have it wrapped in Space-Time Fabric so that it doesn't crystallize them or their stuff).
Tunnel Adventures?

I think that the tunnel system they are in ought to be cool & interesting, but I'm having trouble getting it that way. The purpose of the tunnel system, I think, is to connect the Goon's various sites of activity. But it could also be something pre-existing, from a fallen civilization, and the Goon stumbled onto it and uses it. I myself just need it to go from the outpost where the PCs entered to the big excavation site.

Tunnel questions:
  • 1. The PCs were arrested as intruders in an outpost, and snuck into this tunnel system. Not only did they escape, they left a holy mess behind them & destroyed the outposts' power supply. So somebody will be chasing them; I have at my disposal some MCC security robots and about a dozen hoverbots of unidentified ability, plus one NPC who is secretly aiding the PCs. What might make an exciting, scary, ongoing threat of capture/attack that won't necessarily be a TPK?The tech-wizard traveling with them is more powerful than they know, but I don't want her to get all the glory.

    2. The PCs have a hastily-sketched map. This could be a source of entertainment?

    3. There could be traps in the tunnel. But, since the tunnel's ends have always been secure & the Goon's folks regularly travel here, what sort of traps would they be? And why are they there?

    4. There could be treasure in the tunnel. Ought there to be? My PCs are leveling up as they travel. Anything story- or fun- related in that?
Bonus Problem: How to Make the Final Encounter Satisfying

I'd be so grateful for ideas on making the final encounter -- the one where they kill/confront the Goon and try to freeze all his machines & maybe his tunnel system too -- satisfying & dramatic. Since I don't know quite what approach my players will take, do y'all have guidelines you can use on the fly? Sort of seat-of-the-pants metrics for Important Encounters.

Thanks in Advance! Even for reading this far!
" ... the things I am going to say are true and I am a force for truth and goodness, dammit, and I will beat anyone unconscious if they say otherwise."
-- The Angry GM
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Raven_Crowking
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Re: help with encounter design: tunnels leading between Big Bad areas (Frozen South spoilers, if you are one of my playe

Post by Raven_Crowking »

Tunnel Adventures:

Question 1:

* Tunnels are part of an old hydro-electric complex. Think Hoover Dam.
* If you own The Fence's Fortuitous Folly, you can repurpose the chase mechanics therein to model the PCs attempting to outdistance/hide from pursuers. By adding decision points where the decisions matter, having consequences for failure be clear, and having the dice/trackers in the open, you should be able to make it fun.

Question 2:

* Obviously, the map could be wrong or misleading.
* It could also lead to a few five-room "mini-dungeons" that were part of the complex. This would allow you to have out-of-the-way locations not used by the Goon (etc.).

Question 3:

* Traps are appropriate in the mini-dungeons.
* Traps can also be sensors (i.e., summoning guards) or funneling devices (i.e., direct or force the PCs in a particular direction).

Question 4:

* Treasure is appropriate in the mini-dungeons.
* Otherwise, you are looking at minor, dropped and/or forgotten treasures.

Bonus Problem:

Goes back to the old idea of an old hydro-electric complex: FLOOD IT!

Let the robots spark and short out as the PCs struggle to get out of the complex before they drown!

Let any living villains do the same!

* This gives you the opportunity to keep the end of the Goon vague. Surely nothing could have survived. Right? RIGHT?
* You could run another chase-type scenario to model the PC's attempts to escape.
* You could even have a final, post-climactic confrontation with the Goon. Either while he has the upper hand and the PC wizards have spellburned almost to the ground or (perhaps more fun) when the Goon is a wet draggled rat and the PCs still have some butt-kicking oomph left.
SoBH pbp:

Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
serendipitous
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Re: help with encounter design: tunnels leading between Big Bad areas (Frozen South spoilers, if you are one of my playe

Post by serendipitous »

@RavenCrowking: thank you so much! and for your help on the Reddit. Okay if I copy your further ideas here for other folks to see?

I'm off to employ your suggestions, and will (Lord willing & the creek don't rise) report back.

ETA: For those interested, "The Fence's Fortuitous Folly" referenced above is available as a PDF at DrivethruRPG or as physical/PDF from Goodman themselves. In a happy coincidence I picked up a copy up at my local game store last week, and am psyched at how well-prepared I turn out to be!
" ... the things I am going to say are true and I am a force for truth and goodness, dammit, and I will beat anyone unconscious if they say otherwise."
-- The Angry GM
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Raven_Crowking
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Re: help with encounter design: tunnels leading between Big Bad areas (Frozen South spoilers, if you are one of my playe

Post by Raven_Crowking »

serendipitous wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 12:33 pm @RavenCrowking: thank you so much! and for your help on the Reddit. Okay if I copy your further ideas here for other folks to see?
Go for it!

I look forward to reading about how it went!
SoBH pbp:

Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
serendipitous
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Posts: 88
Joined: Wed May 20, 2020 12:56 pm

Re: help with encounter design: tunnels leading between Big Bad areas (Frozen South spoilers, if you are one of my playe

Post by serendipitous »

Okay, here's other ideas Raven_Crowking gave me ...

Taking from Fence's Fortuitous Folly: What you want to look at is a structure that the players understand, with consequences they understand, and mini-encounters that are decision points affecting the whole of the sequence.
Goon:
(1) There is always a numbers game. If the PCs get six shots to the Goon's one, the battle will be short. Give the Goon minions (use goblins or skeletons for base stats) to keep the PCs busy. A rough idea would be 2 minions per PC level, but feel free to beef them up, or down, as fits your campaign.
(2) If the Goon has some means to transfer all damage from any attack to a living minion within 500 feet (or so), he can endure even the worst attacks. And that 75 damage spell just manages to kill a 6 hp minion. Bonus points if this is a tech device with a visible effect that can be targeted with a Mighty Deed.

Notes on running a chase:

1. If you are going to do something like a chase, you want it to be more than just rolling dice. Decision points - including when to spend Luck! - are incredibly important to make it seem like more than just a slog. If you give your players enough information to make meaningful choices, they will start to come up with plans that surprise you, and that is when play really achieves its true potential.
2. Glad I could help! Another thing you could do, if you don't want to worry about minions critting, is give them a 1d16 Action Die (no 20s!) and add +4 to their attack rolls. They hit as often, fumble more, and never crit.
" ... the things I am going to say are true and I am a force for truth and goodness, dammit, and I will beat anyone unconscious if they say otherwise."
-- The Angry GM
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