Sin Dungeon Ideas


Advice


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I am putting together a dungeon based on the classic seven deadly sins (wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony) - the idea being that the party will face seven scenarios, the "safe" outcome to each being contingent on their not behaving in accord with the sin in question. (And if they do, then bad things happen.)

The challenges will not be expressly signposted as such - this isn't an initiation rite, but rather a layered protection around a powerful artifact. It is totally possible that a particularly unthinking party will simply blunder through, triggering each of the bad things in turn, without ever figuring out what is going on.

For the challenge of wrath, the party will be presented with a couple of irritating (but non-threatening) NPCs. Obviously, deciding to attack said NPCs is the "fail" state, while simply passing them by is the "success" state.

For the challenge of greed, there will be a traditional "don't touch the treasure" situation.

For the challenge of sloth, the party will have to perform tedious manual labor. Attempts to entirely bypass said labor will likely trigger the fail state, but if they can figure out how to do it more efficiently or do it with magic, they might well get away with that.

What sort of challenges do you think I should use for pride, envy, lust, and gluttony? I would prefer ideas that are driven by player choice, rather than by requiring party members to make saves, etc. (Eg. If something bad happens, it should be because a party member chose to act foolishly, not because they failed a save.)

FWIW - Though this does not need to restrict anything, the dungeon was (per the setting lore) put together by an epic-level bard.

The Exchange

For Lust, have a room filled with scantily-clad (or not clad at all) members of both gender trying to get them into bed.

For gluttony simply present a feast in an interesting way. Have the feast have servers who look to be starving but say nothing. The pass state for this would to be to ignore the food while the servers starve.


You should look at book four of the RotRL's adventure path. It has a lot of material that should help you with this.

Sovereign Court

Like Abraham mentioned so many ideas with the runelords, you should check them out. They even have magical schools dedicated to them, sinspawns monsters and also demons/devils represent particular sins, stuffs to keep in mind.


Quote:
The pass state for this would to be to ignore the food while the servers starve.

Or offering the servers food and not eating any / eating very little? You'd think offering the starving servants the food or asking "Why aren't YOU eating?" would be a good first step at least.

For Envy...

Envy 1: why not have them meet another adventurer who is just BETTER than they are? He's come to the dungeon for the same reason as them, except HE'S passed all his challenges without any of the pitfalls. He's a famous figure; successful knowledge checks reveal that "Hey, wait, yeah - this guy IS famous. I've heard of him!" And he's come here to steal the thunder.

The party will think he's a DM NPC at first, perhaps...

The pass condition is to NOT descend into trying to compare to him or trying to steal his stuff or stop him from proceeding through the dungeon. If the party goes on by (yeah, ignoring him being another option here), then they'll notice him shimmering and fading - it was an illusion.

Perhaps the famous individual is the bard himself?

Envy 2: Another idea: why not offer them the usual quick-and-easy path to power? They find an artifact of considerable power, one that will surely give them great power, one that belonged to a famous hero in the past... But there's a catch: taking it requires the sacrifice of a close friend.

The bad thing that happens? They kill a friend or party member for no reason.

Pride: They get to the end of the dungeon. The treasure they want is in clear view. An illusionary image of the dungeon's builder appears.

"I'm sorry. I know you all came here for <name of McGuffin or the treasure they're seeking>. I know this must be important to you.

"However, you cannot take this <artifact/treasure>. This <artifact/treasure> is meant for those who can pass these tests without succumbing to their evils. All the previous tests were measures on your souls, and your souls have been found wanting.

"Please, leave this place. Do not come back. This artifact awaits one who is worthy, and that title belongs to none of you."

Poorly written, but something to that effect is what you want: a shot at their pride. The party hears this, the illusion vanishes, and the artifact remains plainly in sight.

If the party reaches for it, bad things happen. If they do as requested, however... leaving the room leads them into ANOTHER room, where the illusion appears again and tells them "You have passed the test." The artifact is available to them.

Or you could just do the Indiana Jones thing from the Last Crusade and have a whole bunch of gaudy artifacts of different appearances but only one of them is the real artifact.


The Narnia book Voyage of the Dawn Treader had some good ideas

1) A scene occurs where a character (Eustace) leaves the group and stumbles into a dragon's treasure horde. He begins to fill his pockets with treasure and falls asleep. When he wakes, he's turned into a dragon and can't leave the room.

2) Deathwater Island - an island with a pool that turns anything that touches it into gold. In the bottom is a gleaming golden statue (actually a person who fell in). Anything dipped in turns to gold and then is pulled down to the bottom. Maybe have the gold also be enchanted to reduce the strength of anyone touching it?


Envy -

In a room off the path they must take. A super tough monster that is guarding a item or 3 that's on your parties wish list.

Party now must decide if they want to face a very serious risk of dead (or nasty curses) or bypass the room.

Mummy Rot Curse or Level Drains are all nasty. Specially if you give the creature using them the advance templates.

- If the items would unbalance your game, have them be only of limited use or a high powered illusion. Just be sure to include some type of treasure so the event won't be too painful if the party successfully beats the encounter.
Remember, this is a encounter the party is supposed to bypass as it's not needed to be face to complete the adventure.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

The challenge with sin-themed dungeons/locations/challenges is that they are often simply about not doing something, where you're often better off just not engaging most things at all. Such things are usually very obvious and rarely truly tempting to players.

One option for a little bit more nuance would be to involve more than one sin in a challenge. (The sin trials need not be separate, for most situations involving sin involve more than one sin.) Let's take greed and sloth, for example. NPC with legitimate, fairly obvious need might offer the party some extravagant reward for performing task A that is generally needed to be done. The reward is tempting to the party, but it is well beyond what the NPC would be giving without dire consequences.

Now, the players may take the path with the obvious sin (greed) and do the task for the reward. However, a less obvious sin would be to offhandedly dismiss the NPC as a glabrezu or some other trickster in disguise and move on ahead without a second thought (this would be sloth- going to an automatic default assumption of trickery/deception when it is simply a case of desperation). A better solution would be to investigate the task and then complete it as needed without taking the obviously out of order reward. And an even better solution might be refusing the extravagant prize but having the humility to graciously accept a lesser or token reward from the NPC that the NPC could reasonably give without hardship (and thus giving the NPC the opportunity to keep the dignity of giving back.)

Some more open-ended options could exist as well. For example, they could arbitrate a dispute and declare not only to what degree each party is in the right but also why. Then you can look at their moral decision making beyond simple yes/no actions or answers. There need not be a single right answer to a question like this, but the answer probably should have thoughtfulness, justice, and kindness behind it. Sometimes even an honest and humble "we don't know; we can answer that question" will suffice- if they've shown they've weighed the options and decide that deferring to a higher authority on the matter is the best for everyone involved.


RotRL:

One of the nice things for RotRL book 4 is that there were also bonuses for acting according to your sin. Instead of being a constant series of tests the dungeon just tracked how you acted throughout it -- if your virtue/vice matched the section you were in you gained a thematic bonus. I think there were penalties for your opposition too.

All in all it did a nice take on the entire sin/virtue magic theme


Thank you for the input so far everyone - very helpful!

For lust, I'm currently leaning towards a "deceptive beauty" angle - possibly a siren sort of thing... choice of two corridors, one filled with apparent danger, but with the sound of lovely music... one apparently safe, but with discordant, off-putting sounds... the "trick" is that the corridors are actually exactly as they appear... if you fall for the "beauty" despite the other information available to you, you walk right into a hallway of traps...

Sovereign Court

Well Lust the usual suspect:
-The succubus, she will most likely look like an innocent maiden and leading them into a trap or even the succubus could look like a loved one. Incubus are also a possibility but they are little more brute than the succubus.

-Hags, well mostly Green Hag are also good for Lust theme, as they enjoy seducing people and tormenting them.

-For something totally out there, An Animate dream looking like a Siren, singing. Animate dreams have many interesting abilities but not sure how high level your players are, as Animate dream are fairly decent enemies for a mid level party.


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For gluttony, what if you framed the challenge by way of potions?


You COULD reverse the tests and see if the heroes would act in accordance with the seven virtues instead. So you'd get chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility instead.


Sissyl wrote:
You COULD reverse the tests and see if the heroes would act in accordance with the seven virtues instead. So you'd get chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility instead.

Interesting thought.... hm.... any thoughts on how PCs might interestingly demonstrate chastity and temperance? Those strike me as the least obvious of the seven...


I will definitely check out the rise of the runelords stuff, but this is in an unconnected setting, so I don't want to go too far down the path of dealing with rune magic, etc.


Ansibelle wrote:
I will definitely check out the rise of the runelords stuff, but this is in an unconnected setting, so I don't want to go too far down the path of dealing with rune magic, etc.

Granted -- the key to it is

Spoiler:

My understanding is in the fifth book you go through an arcane college demiplane where your sins and virtues have a definite effect on you. It also talks about how to 'tally it up' to get your 'sin score' for your players.

So even if you don't like/use the setting those specific mechanics might be of interest to you.

There might be more information down in the forum specifically for that adventure path that could help you decide if it's something you want to use or not.


I would second the idea for combining multiple sins into the same challenge. For Pride you could have a merchant type character hawking wares and claiming to have the greatest treasures of the area ready for sale. He could even claim to have the next upgraded weapon or magic item compared to the PCs such as a +3 Axe for the Barbarian who has a +2 Axe. The merchant could even be selling the items at an oddly low price, nothing too crazy but just a tad low or maybe just within the PCs budget. Then, as the Barbarian tests out the Axe he feels as if the weapon is really a lower quality than the one he is using.

Pride Fail = Claiming the merchant is a liar selling crap.

Greed Fail = Taking advantage of the low price without asking too many questions.

Shadow Lodge

The way I was taught (by nuns), Lust isn't just about desire, but about treating another person as an object that exists for your pleasure rather than as a human being. I would suggest putting a person* in the dungeon who is in some difficulty and who the party can rescue. This person is eager to please his or her rescuers and very attractive so the party may suspect a seduction trap. Indeed, this is the most obvious way to fail the test. However the secondary test is whether the party allows the rescuee to perform uncomfortable or risky tasks on their behalf.

Can be combined with pride if the tasks the rescuee is offering to do are ones the PCs really can't perform on their own, but not ones for which rescuee is particularly well suited. So if the party tackles things head-on they are guilty of pride and if they send in their patsy they're guilty of (symbolic) lust. Success should depend on lateral thinking or an appeal for help from someone who actually is in a position to do so.

Might even overlap with wrath if the party suspects the rescuee is a succubus and attacks her. (Succubus "prisoners" are, I hear, a bit of a genre classic.)

*Likely a construct, simulacrum, or disguised outsider.

Matt2VK wrote:

Envy -

In a room off the path they must take. A super tough monster that is guarding a item or 3 that's on your parties wish list.

Party now must decide if they want to face a very serious risk of dead (or nasty curses) or bypass the room.

That sounds more like greed to me. Envy is distinct from greed mainly in that it is directed at something that another person has - particularly if you'd rather that no one had the desired thing than to allow the other to have it. Monsters are not really "people" enough to trigger the same kind of envy you can have for a peer like, say, a fellow adventuring party member.

Any way you could give one party member something really cool, and then provide a seemingly unrelated opportunity for another party member to gain something similarly cool at the first party member's expense? Tread carefully here because you don't want to screw with the party dynamic too much.


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For Envy then I suggest a magic item that is in a very difficult trap that if you fail to disarm will destroy the artifact.

For the double down make it something that if multiple people work together on they could do it rather easier, but it will result in a lesser very for each of them instead of the one big version.

An example is a Fountain that if one person drinks from he gets a +X (whatever you are comfortable with) inherent bonus to Con, but if multiple people drink from it they get a +1 inherent bonus to COn. However the trap they have to get past first will drop a big rock into the fountain and destroy it. The trap is one of weight distribution on multiple tiles at the tame time. Thus multiple people can cover all the tiles at once easier rather than one person trying to do so. Make it a one way passage that loops back around so if you are going to try you have to try now.


Wikipedia has a pretty thorough page about the seven virtues. Chastity is the idea of beneficial purity of body and mind. For example, it is what lets you shake off someone berating you unfairly.

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