Puzzles: Moral Quandary Test

Today I'd like to share a fun role playing activity that is really fun to work into a campaign after the players have had some time to get to know each others' characters. This is basically a team-building activity that challenges the their observational skills as how well they have established their PC's characterization. It's comprised of a series of ethical dilemmas in which the answers are not always so cut and dry.

I often frame this challenge in conjunction with a magical device or item that is attuned to the morality of the player characters. In a campaign I ran in the Planescape setting, this was used as a means to calibrate a planar transit device, allowing the players to navigate between the various heavens and hells of the netherworld based on their moral understanding of one another.

So here's how it works. Read the question for the group. Have each player record their character's answer to question. This is the important part. They should answer the question as their character would, not like they would answer it themselves.

After going through all the questions and letting the players secretly record their actions, read the first question again. Point out the first player character and ask all the other PCs to guess what their answer to the question was. Then let that player reveal their answer. If more than half of the group guess correctly, then count one success. If not, then it is a failure. Don't let the players feel too bad about a failure, because it just provides an opportunity for dramatic revelations. The party members might not know as much about each other as they thought!

Continue this process for the rest of the questions. Keep in mind that I have included more questions than are necessary for you to do this activity, so you don't have to use them all. It can take a real long time to get through even a couple of questions with a decent sized game group. If the players score more successes than failures overall, they have won the challenge! If they fail, then some interesting and dramatic complication should befall them.

You see a fight between a policeman and a bystander

DO NOTHING

TAKE UP FOR THE BYSTANDER

HELP OUT THE COP

THREATEN BOTH

Each of these people from your community are threatened. You can only save one, the rest will be lost. What do you do?

A GREAT LEADER

YOURSELF

A RANDOM CHILD

YOUR MOTHER

While looking through a scroll in the library, you find a hidden treasure map. What do you do?

TAKE THE TREASURE

TURN IT IN TO THE LIBRARY SO THEY CAN USE THE FUNDS FOR THE COMMUNITY

FIND THE LAST ONE TO READ THE SCROLL AND RETURN THEIR LOST MAP

KILL EVERYONE ELSE WHO COULD HAVE READ THE SCROLL

You are in deep cover and asked to kill a man. What do you do?

REFUSE TO KILL, SACRIFICE YOURSELF TO HELP THE MAN ESCAPE

KILL THE MAN AND CONTINUE THE MISSION

TRY YOUR BEST TO RUN AWAY

The Barony has found some illegal contraband belonging to your son. Your spouse steps forward to take the fall and serve time for it. What do you do?
CLAIM IT IS YOURS

ADMIT IT IS YOUR SON’S

LET `YOUR SPOUSE MAKE THE CHOICE

RUN AWAY FROM THE LAW AND ATTEMPT TO START A NEW LIFE

There is a storm coming. What do you do?

LEAVE WITH YOUR FAMILY

SEND FAMILY AWAY, HELP THE COMMUNITY PREPARE
TRY TO CONVINCE YOUR FAMILY TO STAY AND HELP

You are in a ticking time bomb scenario. The bomber is a fanatic and would only confess if you resort to tortuous methods. What do you do?

DO IT

KEEP GRASPING FOR OTHER OPTIONS
KILL THEM IF THE BOMB GOES OFF

Physical Challenges!

Tabletop RPG is not known for being a very physical activity. Most of the action takes place in the mind's eye, and the most exertion that occurs is the process of moving miniatures or rolling dice. Overall, it's a pastime that encourages the player to sit down and relax. But a bit of exercise never hurts, and it is possible to work this kind of activity into your campaign if you want.

Occasional physical challenges are a good idea for a number of  reasons. First, they are a pleasant surprise and change of pace from the usual tabletop gameplay. Participating in them also gets the blood flowing again, helping your players to wake up and become more alert. They can also be just plain fun, and create unique experiences that will engage your players in a more direct way than simple dice rolling and narration.

Ideas for physical challenges can most often be found in books and resources for party or parlor games. If you can come up with a way to integrate one of these activities into your campaign, it can become a very memorable session for your gaming group. Just remember to keep them very simple and straightforward.

There are some precautions to be taken as well. Make sure you have taken proper safety precautions before you initiate a physically involved event. Also ensure you have the space to safely move as much as would be required. Watch out for furniture, corners, sharp edges, anything that might get knocked over if this is an activity that requires a lot of movement. Check that your players are fully informed of any rules and restrictions. It's a good idea to clearly prohibit physical contact with other players, climbing over the table, and that sort of thing. You don't want things getting too rambunctious.

Here are a few of the scenarios I have concocted that involved physical activity on the part of the player. In each one, the physical challenge just represents the action occurring in the game world, like an alternative game mechanic to dice rolling.

• I challenged my group with an ice sorceress by throwing rolled-up blue party streamers towards the players. The streamers would unfurl and land harmlessly near players, and they were  challenged to catch as many as possible to win the challenge.
• I have another scenario planned involving a performance in a grand ballroom. In order to perform elegantly in the courtly dance, the players must keep a balloon bouncing over their heads by bopping it back and forth between themselves until the music comes to a stop.
• My players played a carnival "crane game" in a magical theme park by picking up and moving playing dice with a set of chopsticks.
• I had a player learn how to fly a space ship by presenting red, yellow, and blue colored cards in specific pattern in order to perform certain maneuvers.
• You might also put your more dexterous player to the test by having them complete a marble maze game (pictured below) or putting together a puzzle. 

Physical activity can present another layer to the game if deployed properly. Always make sure your group is going to be receptive to the idea before you implement it. Be aware of any special needs or limitations of the players in your group. Some groups might not be as open to the idea of scenarios being resolved by their own dexterity and strength rather than their character's statistics. It's not the best idea for every group, but for those who would embrace the experience, it will surely be a different kind of adventure.

What kind of party games and activities have you worked into your own campaign? Are there any in particular that would work well at the game table? Sound off in the comments, or post to DMpathy Twitter or Facebook.

Happy ventures!

Mysteries in Your Campaign

Checking out the crime scene (Sherlock, BBC)

Audiences love a good whodunnit. When it comes to your campaign, the occasional mystery can be mentally stimulating and a great opportunity for a uniquely structured game session. But managing the complexities of such a challenge and giving the players a fair chance to souse out the truth can be difficult. With this in mind, here are my top tips for running a successful caper in your own campaign!

Develop a timeline of events before you do anything else.

Throughout the game, your players will follow up on many leads in their search for the truth. Not all of these leads will bring them to the solution. In fact it is a well-known DM's adage that your players will latch onto the most inconsequential of things within a setting and believe them to be important. This means that it is best to have a big picture of everything that is going on behind the scenes so you can more clearly present the players with the sequence of events and provide them with many leads to follow. Plan out ahead of time which leads are false so that you can clearly direct the players to the correct one.

The start of this step is simple. First write down each important character that is involved in the mystery. Then decide where they were and what they were doing when the main event of your mystery occurred. Decide whether their alibi is true or false, and what part they took in the events that unfolded.

Finally, give them each a motivation of some sort. This is basically the 'probable cause' that will make them a suspect.  

It might be easiest to write this down as a table of some sort. Line up their name, alibi, and description of their role and motive. I first saw this explained in an article from Dragon Magazine by Wizards of the Coast (Issue #426), and this technique has helped me in putting together my own intrigues.

Include more clues than you think you need.

This is a specific subsection of the larger rule that it's better to over-prepare than under-prepare. This especially applies to mysteries where it is easy for players and DMs to become confused or run short on ideas. Additionally, if you plan on having the players roll to notice certain clues, make sure that they aren't excessively difficult. Remember to include clues that can't be missed with a failed dice roll. You don't want a series of bad rolls to ruin any chance of solving the puzzle.

Now you should put together a list of clues and things for your players to investigate.

Be sure to have a wide variety of clues. Keep in mind what the player characters are good at, and what skills they will be putting to use during the investigation. Talking to witnesses and suspects, gathering evidence from the scene of a crime, or conducting forensic research are all possible moves that clever players might make. With these possibilites in mind, put together a bunch of clues and remember that each of them should produce some kind of useful conclusion. You probably won't need all of them, so be sure to have multiple clues that might lead to the same or similar conclusions. Include clues that rule out possible suspects, or guide the players to a location where they might find even more clues.

Rounding up the usual suspects. (Shadowrun)

Keep the clues obvious and clear.

You're going to want to avoid any ambiguity if you want your players to have the best possible chance of solving the mystery. After all, the goal of a mystery based encounter is to give the party a fun and stimulating challenge, not to stop them in their tracks or leave them stumped and defeated. As I stated previously in this entry: 

When it comes to planting clues, the simpler and more numerous the better. This isn't to say that your audience is ignorant, but once the group is around the table shouting out ideas and following their own trains of thought, you will find it will take much longer than if you had presented the same puzzle to a single player. Also, mysteries are hard to design in such a way that the solution is clear yet challenging for the players. 

Avoid subtle, circumstantial evidence. Don't be afraid to make the clues obvious. Clarity is important to keep things on track. If you're worried about a mystery being too easy, you can have NPCs require a more substantial amount of evidence to convict a culprit, or some other in-universe explanation for why the players shouldn't go straight towards accusing their suspect. If all else fails, warn players that they are missing key information if they are about to jump to a conclusion too early.

Improvise clues through actions the players take.

Finally, be flexible and patient with your players. If they choose to investigate through an avenue you had not considered, try to adapt to their choices. You might even consider adding additional clues you had not originally planned for. Don't be close-minded enough to only allow one way to approach a problem. Consider the basic facts you have already established about the mystery, and how they could be discovered through whatever methods your players are most interested in. 

Work your existing clues in by means you might not have considered at first. For instance, instead of detecting a particular scent of perfume at the scene of the crime, perhaps your players will glean this information through interrogation of a witness. Be fair, be reasonable, and be accommodating to the play style of your group.

If all else fails, don't fret. Start into the action!

If your players are still stumped and getting frustrated, don't panic. Whether it is due to excessive difficulty or lack of experience, it needn't get to the point that the players are having a bad time. Shift the focus away from the combat. If necessary, resolve the caper with a big action piece. You can present a consequence for failure to solve the mystery, but don't make the party feel bad about it. Like any plans gone awry, they can be reworked to the overall benefit of the campaign. As always, keeping everybody entertained is the core of your game.

Happy ventures!

'Escape The Room' Puzzles!

Point and click adventure games are among the most old-school genres of computer and video games, offering challenging brain-teasers that test the players' problem solving skills. They are also one of the easiest formats of electronic gaming to convert to the tabletop. Puzzles that involve the use of special items and interacting with the environment are good for players who want more variety in their games. The ideal manner of delivery in a tabletop RPG is presenting the challenge in a closed system, where the items needed to solve the puzzle are all placed in the same area that they need to be used in. The puzzle then boils down to searching areas of the room for the proper tools, using the tools to collect any items that were previously inaccessible, and then using the right items to acquire the key or whatever other objective you are after. Because this all takes place in one room for practical purposes (Force your party to traipse around and search the entire map every time they encounter a puzzle and you will have a riot on your hands) the goal of the puzzle is most often a key or means of egress. These are escape the room puzzles, popularized by flash games and live challenge courses!

When outlining these puzzles, it is easiest to reverse engineer the process. Start with the end goal and work backwards from the last step. The key is inside the chandelier, how will they get to it? Maybe there is a chair they can stand on, but it is bolted to the floor. How will they unfasten it? And so on, until you have a series of about seven steps that will make for an interesting challenge.

When introducing these puzzles, allow for some flexibility and adaptation in potential solutions. Eevery step of the puzzle should be solvable with the proper item in the room, but if the player can logically substitute something from their inventory, it just makes sense to allow it. That's why this kind of puzzle works best in scenarios that do not allow players access to a lot of special utility gear or high level magic. Flying, opening locks, exploding doorways, and the like can provide easy shortcuts to circumvent a carefully crafted puzzle like this, so always be aware of your party's capabilities.

Strong visual cues are mandatory, so remember to have a drawing of the room ready to give players something to mentally grab onto, and to help keep things clear and organized. There will be a lot of details to keep track of, and a giving the players a floorplan handout will speed things along and prevent confusion. Colorful and detailed images are not required, but a nice looking illustration will certainly be more interesting to your players if you can pull it off. Either drawn by hand or put together from clip-art, you will need this layout ready before your game begins.

As an example, here are two escape the room puzzles that I used in different campaigns over the years. The third is a bit rougher and untested, for a Star Wars game in Edge of the Empire that never got far enough to implement.

They are each adaptable for a variety of settings, but sometimes feature unique elements that are endemic to certain types of setting. The first was used in a Spelljammer adventure and plays off the idea of a zero gravity room where every wall can also be a floor. The second can be used in any low-magic fantasy adventure where the players can't bypass its obstacles with spells. The third is the previously mentioned Star Wars scenario. Enjoy!

ZERO GRAVITY ESCAPE

PUZZLE SETUP: The players have been tossed into a space-age cell and divested of their supplies. The room is an empty cube with no gravity.

PUZZLE ELEMENTS

• A single dirty coin
• An air conditioning vent
• A row of sharply made beds
• A liquid-filled crystal globe with holes for inserting hands
• A zero-G toilet
• An exit door with large keyhole lock
• A small hatch above the door (FEEDING COMPARTMENT)
• Bookshelf of magazines
• Poster of actress Razel Velge

SOLUTION:

1. Use COIN to unscrew bolts on AC VENT
2. You don’t have enough leverage to pull loose the HEATING/COOLING RODS
3. Tie together and use BLANKETS to pull loose the RODS
4. Open FEEDING COMPARTMENT, take LIQUID NUTRIENTS
5. Pour LIQUID NUTRIENTS (or WATER from the GLOBE) into lock
6. Freeze the LIQUID NUTRIENTS (or WATER) with COOLING ROD
7. ESCAPE!

BONUS:

Search BOOKSHELF for HOLLOW BOOK. Collect BONUS ITEM

Get SPOON from serving plate

Pry loose brick from behind POSTER

Collect BONUS ITEM

THE KEY TO THE MANOR

This Manor stands overlooking the bay. Guards patrol the overlook, and the back section is walled off except for a garden ringed by an iron barred fence. A pair of servants attend to the stables adjoining the manor itself. They are nicely dressed but sweaty and caked in dirt.

PUZZLE SETUP: 

Players overhear a servant discussing a key dropped into the storm drain near the gardens. The key is attached to a wine cork.

PUZZLE ELEMENTS:
A FOUNTAIN that is currently not working. 
A TOOL SHED containing a HAMMER, WRENCH, A SCYTHE, and a LADDER.
A STORM DRAIN, which is too dark and deep to see into and too small to reach into.
A STATUE of a boy holding a FISHING ROD.
A LOCKED DOOR, framed by a system of RAIN GUTTERS that directs rainwater into the lush garden.
The FOUNTAIN PUMP which is hidden by a clump of THICK BUSHES. SOLUTION:
1. OPEN THE TOOL SHED, collect the TOOLS

2. CLIMB LADDER and USE WRENCH to loosen RAIN GUTTERS

3. COMBINE RAIN GUTTERS with FOUNTAIN and STORM DRAIN

4. TRIM THICK BUSHES to find the FOUNTAIN PUMP

5. USE FOUNTAIN PUMP to flood the STORM DRAIN, bringing the KEY to the top

6. Use statue's FISHING POLE to grab the key

7. USE KEY on LOCKED DOOR

RAIDING IMPERIAL MEDICAL SUPPLIES

PUZZLE SET-UP
The heroes need to steal some useful and/or dangerous medical supplies from the tyrannical Empire. On their way in to the medical center, they find out that  a rogue patient actually tried to break into the medical storage unit before, but he was stopped before he could steal anything. He may have left behind clues to getting into the safe.

PUZZLE ELEMENTS
A ONE WAY FLEXIGLASS WINDOW that looks into a room with a  BACTERIAL CONTAINER

COMPUTER CONSOLE (needs power cells)

STORAGE CONTAINER (needs an access code)

TABLES AND CHAIRS

PATIENT BEDS*

*PATIENT INFO ON EACH BED: Marvo Durge Borotavi syndrome 60cc Coagulin Durwig Tell Triflexia 100cc Elisinandrox Raxis Steng ** Seumadic Fever 50cc Metacycline

** This bed has the POWER CELLS lying on it.
SOLUTION: 1. Get the POWER CELLS from the BED labelled RAXIS STENG

2. Use POWER CELLS on COMPUTER CONSOLE

3. COMPUTER CONSOLE will ask for PATIENT NAME, AFFLICTION, and PRESCRIPTION

4. Use the PATIENT INFO from RAXIS STENG'S BED on the computer.

5. The computer plays the recording of Raxis Steng pointing to the panel in the bottom of the SIDE TABLE. There is a LASER CUTTER tool and a note: "TO FIND THE CODE FOR THE SAFE, YOU WILL NEED AN INVENTION THAT LETS YOU SEE THROUGH WALLS" 6. The answer to this riddle is a window. Use the LASER CUTTER to remove the FLEXIGLASS WINDOW.

7. The code to the STORAGE CONTAINER is on the back of the one-way FLEXIGLASS. It can only be seen once you cut the window off.

8. Use the CODE to open the STORAGE CONTAINER BONUS: 

Use LASER CUTTER to open BACTERIAL CONTAINER and collect BACTERIAL VIALS