Post by slurpy on May 1, 2013 22:26:56 GMT -5
I was thinking about The Legend of Zelda today, more specifically the Lost Woods. I'm thinking about having a dungeon that, at one point, has like seven identical rooms in a row, accoutrements and all. Not actually being any kind of magical puzzle or trap, but just having them laid out in exactly the same way, several in a row, so that the PCs think they're walking into the same room they just walked out of.
To handle metagaming (since the players can see the whole of the dungeon they've gone through so far), maybe physically make three of the rooms, and when they go to walk into the fourth, pick up the first one and place it down. If they walk into the fifth, put the second one there, etc. If they start to go backwards, put them back at the beginning. If they actually walk through to the seventh or eighth or whatever room you decide, they made it through the perfectly normal but seemingly-magical puzzle, or if they walk all the way back, they are back in the last non-puzzly room.
I am just kind of amused by the idea of a wizard or whoever using perfectly mundane architecture to make something seem magical and tricksy.
If you are feeling particularly malicious, you could put a one-directional teleporter at the entrance to each room, teleporting them back to the beginning room, so if they leave the fourth room they walk into the first room, just like the Lost Woods. That's really starting to play mind games, but I'm not sure how to explain it via game mechanics (a teleporter that functions from the left, but not the right isn't something commonly encountered). Maybe just make the entrances and exits magical portals to begin with. So the wizard going into his lair has to walk through seven rooms and seven portals to get there, but leaving only has to cross one and gets teleported back to the beginning. Invaders get to the third or fourth or fifth room and give up, thinking that just mundanely walking through is getting them nowhere, even though it actually is.
What would allow the PCs to make progress is if they start leaving breadcrumb trails or writing numbers on the floors or something - they'd realize it's NOT the same room they keep walking into.
To handle metagaming (since the players can see the whole of the dungeon they've gone through so far), maybe physically make three of the rooms, and when they go to walk into the fourth, pick up the first one and place it down. If they walk into the fifth, put the second one there, etc. If they start to go backwards, put them back at the beginning. If they actually walk through to the seventh or eighth or whatever room you decide, they made it through the perfectly normal but seemingly-magical puzzle, or if they walk all the way back, they are back in the last non-puzzly room.
I am just kind of amused by the idea of a wizard or whoever using perfectly mundane architecture to make something seem magical and tricksy.
If you are feeling particularly malicious, you could put a one-directional teleporter at the entrance to each room, teleporting them back to the beginning room, so if they leave the fourth room they walk into the first room, just like the Lost Woods. That's really starting to play mind games, but I'm not sure how to explain it via game mechanics (a teleporter that functions from the left, but not the right isn't something commonly encountered). Maybe just make the entrances and exits magical portals to begin with. So the wizard going into his lair has to walk through seven rooms and seven portals to get there, but leaving only has to cross one and gets teleported back to the beginning. Invaders get to the third or fourth or fifth room and give up, thinking that just mundanely walking through is getting them nowhere, even though it actually is.
What would allow the PCs to make progress is if they start leaving breadcrumb trails or writing numbers on the floors or something - they'd realize it's NOT the same room they keep walking into.