My group is heading towards their next "dungeon" : an ancient dam. Im having a HUGE writers block trying to design it. I have the encounters planned but the layout is just stumping me.
I want to incorporate some skill challenges like swimming through/underneath flooded rooms and tunnels. The players objective is to kick open the first of two water intake towers to power up the dam, causing certain areas to flood. Traversing the obstacles to the other end of the dam to engage the second intake tower and power up a wizards tower built adjacent.
I feel like I'm biting off more than I can chew, anybody have any resources that can help?
Well I think you are on the right path and it sounds like a great adventure form your description..... incorporating flooding rooms that make some area unable to tbe reached is a great idea and causes the players to follow certain paths to solve the puzzle.
http://www.streamnet.org/glossarydam.html
That link has some good terms which may help design/name the rooms
I would suggest a ground floor : top of dam walkway, engineering/control tower and the wizard tower (final part of mission i assume)
then i would have 3-4 sublevels .... some flooded some not and host of pump systems that must be used to open new rooms and floors ...
DDO had a bunch of underwater/dam quests in the first island ... free to play and may give you some ideas.....
http://gobbi.free.fr/scenarii/D2%20-%20Shrine%20of%20the%20Kuo-Toa.pdf
Shrine if the koa toa may be a good resource as well though it isn't in a dam per se....
Sounds like fun .....i'll make a character!!!!
So you have a hydroelectric dam? I'm just asking, because setting wise we don't normally have electricity on Golarion. And, I would need a compelling reason for anyone to understand what the water intakes do and how the damn generates electricity.
Otherwise, a dam was just used to block the flow of water. Often to make the water deeper so that rivers could support larger vessels.
Before I can rally comment to much, do you really intend to have such advanced technology within the game?
Normally my sort of suggestion is someone is trying to sabotage the dam. Either the PCs, or an enemy the PCs need to protect it from.
Maybe someone is daming up the river and now the farms in the basin below aren't getting sufficient water for their crops.
Maybe it's a major waterway and the PCs want to sabotage it to stop trade.
concrete dam, Iron? stone?
engineering checks to repair?
Dont forge to think about sediment builtup, spillways?
Strangely enough, if you're looking at dams that have stood the test of time, looking at modern dams can help with this. After all, most principles of dam construction are just engineering. Even the most advanced dams in the world are still based on engineering principles developed by the ancient Egyptians. Admittedly, the ancient Egyptians didn't have access to modern construction materials -- but the engineering is the same.
As far as the purpose of the dam goes, it could have been built to turn an inundated river valley into fertile farmlands. Or flood control, keeping back flood surges created by seasonal downpours. As well as providing a spillway for water-powered mills. (Why do people think dam = hydroelectric plant? We harnessed falling water for mechanical power WAY before the principles of electricity was discovered.)
Most dams are constructed hollow, so us humans can get inside it and fix leaks. In a fantasy setting, you don't have to do that so much. Using a friendly earth elemental, you might be able to repair erosion damage -- or just some stone shape spells. I leave the concept of getting underwater to survey erosion damage as an exercise for the student.
If you play World of Warcraft, there was Stonewrought Dam in Loch Modan -- which I think was crafted by the dwarves to create Alterac Valley? (Been a while since I played.) That's a great example of a medieval dam in a fantasy setting. (Of course since Blackwing destroyed it, it doesn't work for that purpose...)
Why do people think dam = hydroelectric plant? We harnessed falling water for mechanical power WAY before the principles of electricity was discovered.
Mostly because he said water intakes and "powering up" which sounded a lot like electricity to me. I guess you could have a dam with a intake to provide a flow of water to provide mechanical power, but I wouldn't have described it as "powering up". I guess that's really what threw me.
One of the RotRL adventures took place in part around a dam, you could reuse that map, or add on to it.
Clockwork creatures to be repair monsters. Since you mentioned a nearby wizards tower, let there be a flooded tunnel leading from the dam to an underwater lab then to the tower.
Great idea for an adventure. I dig.
"Digging" may be the thing. Perhaps this wizard has the location of valuable gems needed to cast high level spells, and he wants the mechanical power of moving water to power his drills.
Plot elements:
- A famous gnome engineer turns up dead. His plans for mechanical drilling apparatuses have turned up missing.
- A famous geologist has turned up missing/dead, his last reported investigation was of a deposit of raw diamond in the mountains near a certain lake.
- A well-known engineer is missing.
- A tribe of kobolds has been sort of "missing", in that they're not the nuisances they've been in recent years.
- A certain lab technician knows something he dares not tell anyone else: a certain wizard long thought dead has turned up buying expensive lab equipment (to make clones). The lab tech's wizard guild is sworn to secrecy and he fears for his life.
- Several local towns are interested in controlling the flooding in their valley, and have hired a mysterious "engineer" who promised a year ago to do something about it. He took a number of people for labor and they've all disappeared.
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You must look at Girl Genius Online.
It will show all that the dam can do.
When I think of an advenure at a dam, I think of the 1st level of Goldeneye (1997).
When I think of an advenure at a dam, I think of the 1st level of Goldeneye (1997).
Solo, rouge-only, 'Guns Everywhere' campaign incoming.
Sorry for the delay in responding, a lightning storm blew through last night and knocked out our cell and Internet last night :(
The encounters do actually consist of clockwork machines, built by an ancient order of Magi who designed them in homage to the Inevitables, as these mages also waged a terrestrial war against the Proteans and Chaos.
As for setting, while Im running Pathfinder it is set in my own homebrew world, based primarily off of the Kalamar setting from 3.x. The players are exploring an area of the map that was once uninhabitable, and discovering signs of a past civilization.
As to electricity, the Magi created a way to harness geothermal and hydroelectric power via vast deposits of quartz and tourmaline (seriously, tourmaline can convert heat into vibration, and quartz can convert vibration into electricity) to power their network of towers, helping boost spells that could cover the entire land.
I am definitely aiming for a slightly steam-punk feel with these structures, and I want them to be mysterious and a bit "out of the box". The inner workings of the dam don't have to be electric, they could be steam powered or just water pressure controlled. I guess that's part of my hang up, I don't know where to go with it?