Tuesday, September 4, 2018
I just thought of something that might be worthwhile to try out. It can be used anytime but I think especially for solo play through a module. What if we rolled iniative for the room. For example if the room can act out it’s traps and monsters before the PCs can act. Just a thought that came to mind. It almost gives the dynamic of being surprised.
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Hello!
ReplyDeletePutting this together, it kind of reminds me of the PEFs used in THW titles. PEFs are Possible Enemy Forces that move on the table/in the dungeon when it is their turn based on initiative rolls. When they come into Line Of Sight, they are resolved, turning into a group of NPCs/monsters, a trap, an uneasy feeling (which makes it more probable to meet NPCs/monsters in the future) or simply nothing but a case of nerves. This offers both the opportunity for monsters and traps to act first as well as an element of surprise (a PEF may be something or nothing and you never know what it will be beforehand).
Yours,
Deathworks
Deathworks DW That sounds like it might have been borrowed from Space Hulk's blips. IMO a moving blip turning out to "be" a stationary trap doesn't make much sense though.
ReplyDeleteGrey Knight
ReplyDeleteHello!
Well, it does have a similar effect, although Space Hulk doesn't have empty blips. However, at least in the fantasy games, the PEFs just reflect a sense of something being off, not a detailed, concrete radar screen. It is the characters guessing hearing or imagining things because of the stress they are experiencing.
The triggering of a trap can be linked to the characters having the impression that someone may be coming round the corner, looking there and getting ready to strike and in the meantime not noticing that odd plate in the floor they are stepping on. So, the trap hasn't really moved, but the attention of the characters has and because of their expectations, they may have stepped on a place they had not stepped on before..
Personally, I really like the PEFs because of the potential of them being nothing, so a standard encounter with 3 PEFs could actually be something between 0 and 3 NPC/monster groups (although most encounters outside of dungeon crawling have a rule that the final PEF will be contact if there had been none before). There is really a big element of surprise as I can't even guess at how many people there are actually out there until I really meet them.
Yours,
Deathworks