New OOTS products from CafePress
New OOTS t-shirts, ornaments, mugs, bags, and more
Results 1 to 10 of 10
  1. - Top - End - #1
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    DruidGirl

    Join Date
    Apr 2018

    Default Need help to build a Time Dungeon

    Hi everyone.

    My players killed the evil bad guy a few years ago but now understand that they need it to save the world (classic). They are going to go back in time in order to stop themselves from killing him. To do so, i'll make them go through the Time Temple!

    I thought about a cool little concept.

    They will have to go through a very straight forward dungeon made of a few rooms in a straight line. The party would be split in two, with the map drawn on the mat twice but each part hidden from the other side of the table. So part 1 wouldn't see exactly where party 2 would be and vice versa. Party1 would be in the ''timezone 1'' and party2 would be in ''timezone 2''. They would have to progress through the dungeon while helping eachother going forward. For example, there is a lever that only party1 can use to open a door for party2, or the room where they stand in shaped in a way where there is a wall that collapsed between the two timezone so only party2 can pass through. The fights would probably be simultaneous so the monsters would be in both timezones at the same time, fighting both party (i'd move two pawns simultaneously) which should be very cool to see.

    Also, there would be the Time Guard (or something with a cooler name) who would be a CR 25 Marid shaped like a big shadowy badass, who would follow them and try to kill them because they are trying to break the course of time (A bit like the Dahaka in Prince of Persia). The party is level 15 with a lot of stupidly strong magic items, so even if they ''could'' technically deal the Dahaka, that would probably be very difficult so i feel he's more of a thing they should flee.

    So i was thinking you guys could help me with some cool concepts of rooms, traps, puzzle ect. I felt that there are tons of cool things that could happen with this concept so feel free to tell me what you guys think!

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Troll in the Playground
     
    OrcBarbarianGuy

    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Default Re: Need help to build a Time Dungeon

    You can do rooms reminiscent of battles they had, role play experiences, heck the first bar they all met in and the first bar fight they had, and have scenarios that seem to start like that but quickly go sideways (the tough in the bar is a demon; modrons show up during a courtly romance, etc., partly to mess with the party and partly to bring the cr up to what the current party should be facing). Have some item from each scene and memory be helpful to the other half party’s progress.
    Last edited by Particle_Man; 2019-02-20 at 02:14 PM.

    Light the lamp not the rat LIGHT THE LAMP NOT THE RAT!!!

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    DrowGuy

    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    Strapped to the DM chair.
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Need help to build a Time Dungeon

    First a bit of a warning: Playing a creature to "hunt" the party is almost inevitably inviting them to try to kill it. Instead I would use this big bad as more of a consequence mechanism for if/when they take too long on or fail a challenge. This will give a bit more of a mechanical reason for the creature and make the ominous nature of it more appealing.

    The idea of a tandem dungeon sounds like a blast, I'm stealing the idea fyi, and it should be a fun experience for the group. I would offer that, along with making call backs to earlier fights, puzzles, and challenges, you create a few scenes where they can see divergent results of their previous actions.

    They fought a group of bandits that were accused of highway robbery, killed off all the bandits and became the saviors. In this scenario the bandits were actually eliminating threats to the nearby city, and now that they're dead the city is overtaken by a nasty group of cultists or some such thing.

    I'd also introduce extra-planar creatures, especially those that could be found in Limbo. The chaotic nature of messing with the timeline could draw in the nastier creatures.
    ~I have never met a man so ignorant I could learn nothing from him~ Galileo
    My Homebrew Class: Bard College of Etymology
    Dragons in the Dining Room (D&D Twitch Stream):
    Twitch | YouTube | Facebook | @DiningRoomDrgn | @DMThac0

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    NinjaGuy

    Join Date
    Jul 2013

    Default Re: Need help to build a Time Dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by DMThac0 View Post
    First a bit of a warning: Playing a creature to "hunt" the party is almost inevitably inviting them to try to kill it. Instead I would use this big bad as more of a consequence mechanism for if/when they take too long on or fail a challenge. This will give a bit more of a mechanical reason for the creature and make the ominous nature of it more appealing.
    I have to agree. However there are other ways to make imposing doom without a big bad to fight:
    • The Langoliers - Stolen from the Stephen King Miniseries, but also a - It's not one big bad. It's a swarm of creatures that feed on time which has passed, and are gobbling up the past. Add an NPC to each group who doesn't believe it, starts to fight the Langoliers, and is immediately eaten at the speed of "Rocks Fall He Dead".
    • Crumbling to Dust - Whether it's the "Infinity War Snap" or the "Back to the Future Fade", the party will know what to do when they see the walkways and hallways behind them slowly crumble into the Void.
    Always looking for critique of my 5E homebrew!


    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarkmundur View Post
    ... does this stuff just come naturally to you? Do you even have to try anymore xD
    Quote Originally Posted by Man_Over_Game View Post
    Vogie is the sh**. I don't really have anything to contribute to the topic, just wanted to point that out.

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    DruidGirl

    Join Date
    Apr 2018

    Default Re: Need help to build a Time Dungeon

    wow those are all good ideas! I didn't think about using old encounters. We've been playing these characters for like 3 years so there is definitly stuff to do!
    Also my players are smart enough to know when they can't fight a creature so i'm not woried about that, but using it when they're losing time is a good idea.

  6. - Top - End - #6
    Barbarian in the Playground
    Join Date
    Oct 2016

    Default Re: Need help to build a Time Dungeon

    Am i reading it right that the enemies do the same thing in either time? Thatd be awesome. Seeing the enemy move and hit air in one time to be attacking someone in the other.

    It could be fun/horrible depending on players to have them being able to affect flow of time to both the benefit and detriment of themselves and the other time. Like one side gets haste while the other is slowed and cant take bonus actions. Could add a puzzle where sand is filling a room (playing on hourglasses of course) and having that room in slowmo gives the other room time to act to stop them from drowning.

    If you have one side more obviously in the future and the other in the past you could have the past side plant a seed or something like that and instantly a tree appears in the other side.

  7. - Top - End - #7
    Bugbear in the Playground
    Join Date
    Oct 2017

    Default Re: Need help to build a Time Dungeon

    Being relentlessly stalked by a Marut would be fun (though that thing is nasty!). It would give a bit of a Terminator vibe.

  8. - Top - End - #8
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    DruidGirl

    Join Date
    Apr 2018

    Default Re: Need help to build a Time Dungeon

    Okay sorry i've been super busy since i've posted this, but i've read everything and i'll reply! You guys are really helping a lot and i can't wait to play it!



    Quote Originally Posted by Particle_Man
    You can do rooms reminiscent of battles they had, role play experiences, heck the first bar they all met in and the first bar fight they had, and have scenarios that seem to start like that but quickly go sideways (the tough in the bar is a demon; modrons show up during a courtly romance, etc., partly to mess with the party and partly to bring the cr up to what the current party should be facing). Have some item from each scene and memory be helpful to the other half party’s progress.
    Quote Originally Posted by DMThac0
    I would offer that, along with making call backs to earlier fights, puzzles, and challenges, you create a few scenes where they can see divergent results of their previous actions
    Those are both good ideas. I feel like having rooms where they relive their past experience would be fun. Like that time they fought a Gorristro. Would be fun to fight it again, now they would beat his ass but that's still be fun to relive it. Also maybe if they succeed a puzzle quickly they could relive a fun moment with dead NPC. Like that time they celebrated Christmas and exchanged gifts, it's been around 4 years since and almost all the NPC are dead now, would be cool to just feel that again.
    I felt maybe the dungeon being created by a chaotic Time Lord who loves theatre could be so fun. He's just in the background narrating and wants the party to relive scenes he liked from the past. Could be cool if he wanted to see divergent result like DMThac0 said, like ''that time your friend Prim helped you and beated the dragon, let's see how you guys would've dealt it, i thought it was a bit of an Ex Machina, i don't like that!''

    Quote Originally Posted by DMThac0
    First a bit of a warning: Playing a creature to "hunt" the party is almost inevitably inviting them to try to kill it. Instead I would use this big bad as more of a consequence mechanism for if/when they take too long on or fail a challenge. This will give a bit more of a mechanical reason for the creature and make the ominous nature of it more appealing.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ganymede
    Being relentlessly stalked by a Marut would be fun (though that thing is nasty!). It would give a bit of a Terminator vibe.
    I have to disagree with DMThac0 here, my players are super cool on that and they know when they absolutly can't deal with a monster. I think Terminator is a good example, would be cool to have a big monster following them can be threatening :D


    Quote Originally Posted by Arcangel4774
    Am i reading it right that the enemies do the same thing in either time? Thatd be awesome. Seeing the enemy move and hit air in one time to be attacking someone in the other.

    It could be fun/horrible depending on players to have them being able to affect flow of time to both the benefit and detriment of themselves and the other time. Like one side gets haste while the other is slowed and cant take bonus actions. Could add a puzzle where sand is filling a room (playing on hourglasses of course) and having that room in slowmo gives the other room time to act to stop them from drowning.

    If you have one side more obviously in the future and the other in the past you could have the past side plant a seed or something like that and instantly a tree appears in the other side.
    YES EXACTLY! Isn't that cool to be accross the table and don't really know where your friends are but you see the monsters hitting the air. The slow/haste thing is so great it blows my mind i haven't thought about it! I think the tree thing would be good in reverse. Like the door i blocked by a giant magical tree, behind is a key or something. But in the past, the room is empty and muddy. Players in the Past room has to remove the tree seed from the ground in order to remove the tree on the other side.

    Ok so now that you guys helped me i'll summarize two of my ideas, see what we can improve about them.

    First idea would be that a chaotic Time Lord is hidden in a temple in the Limbo. He absolutly loves theater and since the players ask him to go back in time to save the evil bad guy, that they killed a couple years ago, he put them in previous scenes of their career and they have to relive them again but with his conditions. Sometimes he thought that time wasn't fair so he changes some variables. If he thinks it isn't going as well as he would (or too well) he might tell the Dahaka (Marut) , guardian of time, that you're messing with the timeline...
    After a few success, he might bring you back in time to save the bad guy.

    Idea two would be a temple in the Limbo (sorry, just love the idea) that i stuck between time. Uppon entry, the group would splitup (acording to how they sat across the table) and a piece of cardboard would be put between them. I'd draw the rooms twice with some variation. Group1 would be several thousand years in the past and group2 would be several thousand years in the future. In the center room would be a partially broken altar. Magical crystals would be hidden in rooms across the temple, some of them would be obtainable only in the past, others would be only in the future. Every crystals put on the altar would make them relive a scene in the past, but as the altar is a bit broken, that would change some variables. I'd make a D20 roll each time, so they could have a change to get to the Evil Bad Guy saving on the first fight...or the 20th...
    Rooms would be like one side would be flooded but not the other. A bridge would be easily accessible in the past with a level on the other side, but in the future the bridge is crumbled. There is a giant magical tree in the future so the players has to unearth the seed in the past. One room could be slowed down while the other is super speed up. Anyway, if you have other ideas of rooms that'd be great!

    Tell me guys what you think about all of this so i can stop bothering you! Game is wednesday so i still have time, let's work on that so i can steal all your ideas and look cool to my players!

  9. - Top - End - #9
    Troll in the Playground
     
    OrcBarbarianGuy

    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Default Re: Need help to build a Time Dungeon

    You could add hints from possible futures. Like a character that appears out of nowhere and takes a blow meant for a pc. The npc looks a lot like that pc and says, “I am glad I got to save you, grandfather!” before disappearing.

    Also does tech advancement happen? Does the team in the future get to find a laser pistol? Could a dragon egg in the past side become a great old wyrm on the future side?

    Light the lamp not the rat LIGHT THE LAMP NOT THE RAT!!!

  10. - Top - End - #10
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    DruidGirl

    Join Date
    Apr 2018

    Default Re: Need help to build a Time Dungeon

    Quote Originally Posted by Particle_Man View Post
    You could add hints from possible futures. Like a character that appears out of nowhere and takes a blow meant for a pc. The npc looks a lot like that pc and says, “I am glad I got to save you, grandfather!” before disappearing.

    Also does tech advancement happen? Does the team in the future get to find a laser pistol? Could a dragon egg in the past side become a great old wyrm on the future side?
    That is awesome, one of the PC's has a baby bronze dragon so that would be cool to see a possible future where they lost, and the dragon is super happy to see the group since they died a couple hundred years ago!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •