|
Hi! I've been writing a dungeon recently, and its all natural, no traps, all hazards. But I realized I've NEVER run things like this... its either above ground or a dungeon with man made traps. How, as a DM, do you run stuff like Yellow Mold, Azure Fungus, or Green Slime? Is it just there? Do they just see it? And walk around it? That doesn't seem worth the exp they'd get from it. "Oh... hey don't touch that!" Boom, 250 exp?
Anyways, I figured I'd turn this question over to you, my friend on the interwebs.
And in case it's important, they are EPL 5.
And here are SOME of the ideas I'm kicking around.
Azure Fungus
Green Slime
Yellow Mold
Well links won't work for me but ill try to give some ideas.
With the natural hazards u wanna play to there strengths but give the players a way out. have slime or mold cover a small area that has to be traveled and if ur doing multiple ways to get to one area, have said things in teh routes thatvare quickest to their destination. Example there was one module that had fungus covering the walls of a watery area and the water spread out what it did. There was many ways to get past but u had to think or pay attention when u traveled it. CaNt say more so not to spoil it.
Also another thing is, unless its so blantantly obvious don't highlight it to much in ur description to blantantly give away said hazard. Tell the party that its there but work it in to ur description of the surroundings. Dont just say u see ominous green slime on the walls, moreso like "the air around u is wet and humid. U hear the squish of ur footsteps while walking. You look around and only see moistness and green fungus growing on the walls but at the end of the hallway u see a corner." Etc etc.
|
So, if I understand correctly, you're having some sort of underground exploration type encounter, where you want actual monsters and intelligently designed traps to be completely absent?
There are two ways I would approach this.
Either you have it presented like a skill challange, where you have players roll checks (eg. climb, kn(dungeoneering),survival) and have negitive effects for failed rolls (hp dmg, negitive conditions like fatigue, stat dmg). They would successfully navigate the area after a number of successful checks.
Or, build it like any other dungeon. Put the battle map out on the table, that square will trigger a collapse. This area is filled with bad air. The entire way forward is blocked by a dangerous fungus. Maybe put in a few natural monsters that flee rather than fight to the death. "Oh no! You've startled this bat swarm and you are between it and the exit. 2d6 dmg as they claw and flap past you all. A stark silence settles back into the chamber as the bats are gone again, as quickly as they came."
The real danger of hazards as presented in the book come when they are between you and what you want. Make the party have to deal with it. Reward them for creative thinking.
I once put green slime all around a locked door that needed to be opened. In your case it could be a large boulder that needs to be moved from a tunnel entrance.
I have seen rooms filled with harmless molds of all different colors and descriptions, some of it was brown mold which required a check to identify and avoid.
I have filled beautiful glades with poison ivy full of monsters immune to its effects. It's easy to create monsters immune to poison ivy; you just take any monster from the bestiary and add "Immune poison ivy" to its description. (In reality only higher primates are sensitive to it.)
One of my favorites was infesting an giant undead toad with rot grubs.
The very first thing you need to do is set the stakes. What's the worst that this hazard can do to the PCs?
Kill them? Do HP damage? Ability damage, or some other slightly harder to heal condition?
Hazards are a lot of fun, even in a dungeon. They simply need a little care. You as the GM need to remember they're there and play them up.
Yes, the players just see it...if they're looking for it. Green slime grows on the ceiling. Are your PCs looking at the ceiling? If the ceiling is really high, can they see it even if they're trying?
Also, consider lumping 2 hazards together. Perhaps masonry has been weakened in the archway of a passage by a patch of brown mold growing in the cracks. If the party just walks through, they'll take the damage from the cold. If however they decide to DO anything about the mold, they may loosen the weak stone and cause a cave-in.
Finally, along that same line, have monsters that use these hazards as part of their predation. I like to use flying, giant vermin and hazards around floor level. Imagine a natural cavern with tons of mushrooms growing on the ground; disturbing these causes anyone low to the ground to make a fort save or pass out. A nest of fire beetles has figured out how to dislodge stones overhead to set off the spore clouds below so as to knock out large prey that they can drag back to their nest.