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In my Rolemaster campaign the Void is a major part of events and travelling through it is going to become necessary to get anywhere quickly. I envision the Void in my world to be everything outside of reality and is a cross between travelling via Waygates from the Wheel of Time, godstones from Harnworld, and the rat maze from Time bandits:  So I went and built a little Abyss simulator that allows the PCs to wander through the maxe following paths and intersections: https://www.northbrilend.org/abyss/ So far the players have found two nodes but have not been able to connect them (nor, statisitcally, will they) but wandering around the Abyss will lead to various encounters and will eventually bestow a sort of wild wisdom to the players. There are plenty of other nexus gateways to be found across the world and the players will eventually become better at navigating the Void. But until then I'd like to portray the Void as a bog, spooky, chaotic place where the boogyman thrives. I'm thinking about showing this to my players and have them play with it to indicate them wandering though the Abyss but am looking for ways to spruce up the experience. Nevermind my absolutely lovely web design ability. Any ideas on how I can improve this experience? Agrikk fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Mar 3, 2023 |
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Mar 3, 2023 21:29
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 19:53 |
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Not sure what you mean by "ways to spruce up the experience"? The map thing you linked seems to draw a line on a background. Are you asking what you could put on the map to make it more interesting? Or what they might find in the maze?
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Mar 7, 2023 01:45
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Leperflesh posted:Not sure what you mean by "ways to spruce up the experience"? Sorry I wasn’t clear. I was looking for things to put in it for players to come across. Yeah the tool is mostly for me to track their progress as they fumble about within it so it doesn’t have to look pretty.
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Mar 7, 2023 03:21
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What sort of things do you envision as scary and threatening in this place? Monsters? Demons? Lovecraftian horrors? Brain breaking bad trip psychedelia?
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Mar 7, 2023 07:31
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they encounter themselves
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Mar 7, 2023 07:38
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It already has one terrifying thing: nodes you can pass through and not see a way back to whence you came. Have some creature lurking at any such point ready to make a deal... Not the same creature at each spot, but a wide variety of them. They were travelers who despaired when they looked behind themselves and knew that where they had came from had been lost, possibly forever. This could be sidequest fodder, or just a chance to point PCs at stuff you want them to see.
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Mar 7, 2023 10:30
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I think the key thing for a maze, or a connection of nodes, or whatever, is to give the players meaningful interesting choices to make rather than relying on random ones. A choice between go left and go right without any context isn't interesting, it's just "hey you're kinda lost" which may feed the atmosphere you're trying to create a little but doesn't do more than that. So make left vs. right, go through the portal or not, etc. choices meaningful and with clear benefits/drawbacks (along with perhaps unclear benefits/drawbacks) but not weighted such that one choice is clearly better than the other. Go THIS WAY and you must battle the TERRIBLE THING but you can claim a BOON OF HEALTH. Go THAT WAY and you must survive the DANGEROUS TRAP but you can claim a BOON OF WISDOM. That's a decision the party can discuss and debate, and the fact you can't go backwards reinforces the significance. Occasionally you can present them with a faustian bargain or terrible choice, but don't do this too frequently: Go THIS WAY and you will LOSE YOUR MEMORY. Go THAT WAY and you will LOSE YOUR BELONGINGS. Refuse to continue and you will LOSE YOUR LIVES. A third thing with a maze is maybe the players should either feel like they are getting more lost for a while, or feel like they are getting more found for a while, but don't do the former for too long. An occasional map or clue will help them feel less like it's just a random sequence of encounters and more like a multipart puzzle they are solving over time.
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Mar 7, 2023 18:28
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 19:53 |
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I agree with a lot of what Leperflesh said. Maybe finding signs left behind by others who have wandered the abyss and left trails would be cool, or partial maps and cryptic journals, or even the remains of some adventurers who got lost/gave up and starved to death. Finding the right balance between vast and empty enough for it to seem threatening and holding enough encounters to make it interesting for the PCs will be tricky, but could be cool if done right!
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Mar 7, 2023 19:48
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