החפירות של טליה

(if you're one of the players i GM for – go away! there are spoilers ahead!)

the following story is a summary of the events of the last few sessions i had with the TTRPG group i am the game master for. no detail was added for dramatisation – it all happened as told, demonstrating very well why i love TTRPGs so much.

the story

so i'm running a silly Skate Wizards campaign with a surprising amount of plot. the PCs are tracking down a potentially-adversarial mage, which lead them down a scary cave, in which hidden behind strong illusion magic they found a magically-blocked enterance leading... somewhere. but crucially, they've found notes of the mage revealing there are four enterances total. one that they just found, blocked. one halfway up the Very Big Mountain, also blocked. one at the top of the Very Big Mountain, potentially still open, and one within the Evil Scary Fortress, also potentially still open.

my plan was for them to go to the Evil Scary Fortress, though i wanted them to first have a few smaller adventures where they gather a few more allies (i even had specific plot devices they already encountered that were meant to make another appearance and do exactly that). so while i was telling the players how their characters would know that the Very Big Mountain will be very hard to them to climb, i also had some wise-coded character tell the PCs that the Evil Scary Fortress is dangerous and that they should take allies with them to it.

so far so good, right?

wrong.

my players decided that they will scale the Very Big Mountain instead.
being unfond of giving a hard no when not absolutely fitting and necessary, i let them climb the mountain. with some struggle they reached halfway up the mountain and found the blocked-but-still-hidden entrance mentioned before. then, having given them a few clues that they probably shouldn't climb the mountain (them needing a short rest after climbing this far, the hour getting late with the sun setting in a few hours), they decided... to climb the rest of the mountain anyway.

dangit.

well again, i'm not one to give a hard no when not absolutely necessary. so inbetween sessions i wrote a whole set of mountain exploration mechanics for this very silly system, that included rolls for exploring, rolls for progressing to the next section of mountain through the snow, and rolls for surviving the cold, as well as a map. crucially, the roles got harder the higher they got up the mountain, and the more they failed their survival roles, in a very clear death spiral, meant to do it quickly.
for those curious, here is the final map of the mountain, including all the elements they either found or created themselves with their magic:

i made it clear to the players that it is very hard, but possible, so long as they didn't just leave it to good rolls but used their creativity to their benefit.

and the players were indeed creative!

they were doing quite well! they even subverted my “the sun is setting and it's gonna make things colder and harder to see” time limit by successfully making them a safe spot to sleep and not freeze to death.
but that didn't save them from the third level with the meanest mechanics. they kept on failing their exploration rolls and being stuck in the cold in the penultimate section of the mountain, with two players getting permanent disadvantage on all future rolls on the mountain, with one of the two even losing HP to frostbites. however, in one last bout of creativity and luck, they managed to have a very successful exploration roll, one that i wanted to reward.
my plan was for the secret entrance they were searching for to be in the final section of the mountain to be explored, as it extended the challenge to the entire mountain and also fit the pacing of the session. however, with the players still being in the good kind of frustration (the “this is really hard!” frustration), i didn't want it to turn to the bad kind of frustration (the “you are really mean!” frustration).

so i spilled the beans.

i straight up told my players the secret entrance isn't supposed to be in this square. however, since they both rolled well and survived well (as well as having given convincing arguments as to why it may be here when discussing it among themselves), i decided to take it out of my hands, and make it a roll of the die. evens or odds – if they succeed, they find the secret entrance and whatever may be in it. if they fail – they know for certain that their goal is on the other side of the peak, on the last section to be explored – if they can get to it.
the players chose evens. the die chose five.

they have one last section to survive.

having exhausted pretty much all the tricks they had up their sleeve, the players were forced to roll as-is (each at disadvantage, mind you) to go around the peak, with the only benefit being that the characters tied themselves to each other with a rope, to minimise the odds of one of them going lost.
two players failed. the third, having a good bonus to this roll, bypassed the threashold by a significant amount despite the disadvantage, so i ruled that she was holding the other two from falling away. they did, however, need to roll again.
the first player who failed – fails again.
the player who succeeded before – fails too.
the second player who failed before, the one who is at the worst state of freezing – rolls a critical failure.
i then ask them to roll a save to see just how bad the situation is.
all three fail.

and so, i narrate the following:

you explored the whole mountain and survived up to its peak. you managed to explore through the snow, the haze and the wind, and you've nailed down for sure where is the second entrance, and you know you are so close. but first you need to get to it.
being knocked by the wind and slipping on snow, both you Bar-Or and you Grandma Goat, slip. it's only thanks to the strength of Tallat pulling the rope that you don't start falling all the way down. however, as you try to get up, you slip again, this time pulling Tallat with you. and flailing around and sliding down the slope, all three of you hear a worrying rumble, as the previously barely-solid snow begins to flow into an avalanche.
and that's where we end our session.

the perfect ending all the way around

i did not want the players to find the entrance at the top of the mountain. i wanted them to go through the well-prepared dungeon i made for them in the Evil Scary Fortress (which had its own unique mechanics too!).
but i also know that a good GM needs to be prepared to throw their work away when the game calls for it. and so i gave my players a small, but to me, fair chance to actually succeed and circumvent my plans.
and they almost did.
at the end of the day, i came out satisfied, having got to keep my original plans while not rejecting my players'.
my players came out satisfied, having not being limited by the GM, having known that they really did had the chance (they got as close as a successful coin-toss away), and having gotted to try out new mechanics and an amount of rolls not usual for the system.
and all of that, with an ending that was extremely dramatic.

that is why i love TTRPGs.

a description of the mechanics, if you want to steal them

note that these mechanics are designed for the Skate Wizards system, which is very simple, involves three basic rolls (Dexterity, Strength, Will) of 2d6+bonus (0-2 at the start of the game, 0-3 at the level they got to). advantage is 3d6, discard the lowest, disadvantage is 3d6, discard the highest.
the also all have a bunch of spells, some of which have clear definitions, but most have just a title and are meant to be negotiated between player and GM. those are a finite resource that the players were slowly running out of as the session was progressing. they can be used to grant advantage on a certain number of rolls, or to automatically succeed on a limited number of them, as feels appropriate to you.
obvious adjustments need to be made for other systems.

the rolls are as follows:

1. exploring the square they are currently on is a Will roll, difficulty 10 (the standard difficulty of the game) – but only one needs to succeed. a critical success automatically grants them a success in the next square they explore. on failure of everyone, the characters know that they can't rule out the presence of the secret. if the group succeeds well enough in enough spots where the secret isn't located, one may grant them advantage (temporary or permanent) on future rolls for “having mastered searching in the snow”.
2. moving to the next square is a Strength roll, difficulty 8 if they climb up in a spiral (looks like lateral movement on the map), 10 if they climb straight up. if they aren't tied to each other with a rope, each roll is individualistic and one of them may fall behind and even slip. if they are, then the failures and successes may cancel each other somewhat, such that on a single success and two failures they stay where they are, and a single failure and two successes they progress regardless. include the amount they failed/succeeded by to your favour – you may consider one barely-success and two big failures as three failures, or vice versa. a critical failure will cancel out two successes into a standstill and will force a single success into a failure, as well as tigger a save against an avalanche.
3. surviving the cold is a Strength roll (unless successfully convinced otherwise), difficulty 10. this one is always individualistic, and is made once every two actions – moving or exploring – be they successful or not. a failure gives disadvantage on the next roll by the player, whatever it may be. two failures in a row give permanent disadvantage on the next roll, removeable only by spending a significant amount of time in a non-freezing environment (such as a few hours next to a campfire). three failures in a row result in loss of 1HP (1/8 of the player's max), or 2 on a critical failure.
4. saving against an avalanche is a Dexterity roll, difficulty of 10. made whenever it feels appropriate, though usually as a result of a catastrophic failure in moving to another square. on a failure the avalanche drags all those who failed, and if they are tied to each other in a rope, potentially the others as well.

the levels are as follows:

1. lower level – moving and surviving rolled with advantage. exploring and saving rolled straight. disadvantages from failures on surviving cancel out with the advantage.
2. middle level – all rolls are made straight.
3. top level – all rolls are made with disadvantage. advantage granted any other way cancels out with the disadvantage. disadvantage from failures on surviving may then compound on top of that, forcing disadvantage regardless.

and of course, you can and should change this to fit your table, that's the name of the game!

נכתב על ידי טליה, ״הלוחמת בטרפיות״. @yuvalne@tooot.im

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0