Tag: Game Development

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The Lost Temple: An Adventure in Collaboration

I’ve been working on the idea of a roleplaying game that can be used for leadership development for a while now. My first attempts can be found in my Play2Lead ruleset. During playtesting the rules definitely work as intended. Now all that is needed are some scenarios that focus on specific leadership lessons. There are so many themes to choose from it was difficult to work out which to use. However, the more I thought about it the more collaboration bubbled to the surface. Every successful team, business and leader thrive on collaboration. Therefore this adventure scenario focuses on exactly that.

Design Principles

For a game to work in the leadership development setting I believe it should attempt to fit within the following principles:

  • Easily identifiable. Players who don’t like or understand fantasy should be able to relate to the setting and themes of the adventure
  • Playable in a lunch break. Maximum play time of 1.5 hours, though ideally within 1 hour
  • Playable for 4-6 participants excluding the gamemaster
  • Have a clear objective
  • Start in the action immediately
  • Apply pressure throughout, forcing fast tense decision making
  • Focus heavily on the leadership lesson. In this instance “collaboration”.

Given the short playing time I have designed the scenario around the following timeline:

  • Introduction, explanation of rules and choosing of roles – 10 mins
  • Encounter 1 – straight into the action – 15 mins
  • Encounter 2 – problem solving – 15 mins
  • Encounter 3 – explosive finale – 15 mins
  • Wrap up and debrief – 10-20mins

Adventure Introduction

In the heart of the dense jungle lies the ruins of an ancient temple, rumored to hold untold riches and artifacts of great power. However, the temple is also said to be filled with traps and puzzles designed to test the wit and cooperation of those who dare to enter.

A group of treasure hunters have funded an expedition to the temple in the hope of uncovering it’s wonders to share with the world. The architects of this ancient place were cunning beyond measure, and the team will soon discover that their greatest challenge will be working together to make it out alive.

For inspiration think Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, Unchartered and Jungle Cruise.

Player Set Up with Collaboration in Mind

Using the Play2Lead ruleset all players need is an occupation. For this adventure they can choose from:

  • Archaeologist – professor of the ancient world. Equipped with a lantern. Read hieroglyphics, understand artefacts, high level of knowledge
  • Climber – working at heights professional. Equipped with a 50m rope. Climbing, ropework, high level of agility
  • Engineer – technical specialist. Equipped with a shovel and axe. Construction, demolition, high level of practical know how
  • Navigator – directional expert. Equipped with a compass. Map and compass skills, unerring sense of direction
  • Pilot – helicopter pilot. Equipped with a lantern. Piloting vehicles of all types, radio use, electronics master
  • Expedition Leader (optional) – no specialist skills. Equipped with a knife. Must facilitate the team working together

To speed things up have a character sheet for each character type ready to go.

#1 Collapsing Chamber

We begin in the treasure room of the Lost Temple. A chamber adorned with intricate carvings, hieroglyphics and ancient relics. Piles of gold and gems lie strewn along the walls. Timber shelves lie broken on the floor. On a roughly hewn plinth sits the fabled statue of the gods glinting in the torchlight. Pick a player at random. That characters hand has just closed around the ancient artefact. Suddenly, they trigger a hidden mechanism, causing the chamber to shake violently as the ceiling starts to collapse. Large stone blocks begin to fall from above, blocking the exit. Gold coins rain from the ceiling filling the chamber and restricting movement.

Challenge: The party must quickly assess the situation and find a way to escape before they’re crushed by falling debris.

Solution: A hidden lever is located up one of the walls. Reading the hieroglyphics will point out it’s location. Otherwise careful observation might allow it to be found. Pulling the lever stops the collapse and reveals a new passage to safety. Alternatively, the party could use their strength and agility to dodge falling rocks and clear a path to the exit.

Remember this is a high pressure situation. Make players take Exhaustion (Play2Lead) or other Pressure Tests if using another system to ratchet up the tension. Don’t give the players too much time to plan. If an individual is taking too much time skip them and move on. Pushing the time threat is a critical part of this encounter.

#2 River Rapids

Exiting the collapsing chamber, the group of adventurers find themselves in a vast underground river that flows through the heart of the temple. The river’s currents are swift and treacherous, and the only means of escape seems to be an old rickety raft tethered to the shore.

Challenge: Maneuvering the raft through the river’s rapids while avoiding jagged rocks and hidden dangers.

Solution: The party must work together first to make the raft river worthy. Not doing this will give it a chance to break up halfway through the encounter. Secondly, to navigate the river, using their skills to steer the raft safely. The river will fork. The navigator will be able to tell which way to go. Alternatively there is a fresher breeze coming from the right channel. Along the way, they encounter a series of jagged rocks that threaten to damage and capsize the raft.

Reward player ingenuity here. What will they use to steer the raft? How will they make it safe to use?

#3 Guardian’s Gauntlet

The river throws the group from a low waterfall into a pool below. The bright sunlight of the jungle pool meets them as they find themselves out of the temple. However, as they swim to the side something slides against the leg of one of the swimmers. They are not alone.

Within the pool lives a formidable guardian—a massive, serpentine creature with gleaming scales and razor-sharp fangs. Blocking their path, the guardian seems intent on preventing anyone from leaving the temple alive. It will attempt to encircle the character that is most alone and attempt drown it. One bite from this creature will kill a character outright. This should be played as a deadly, exciting grand finale to the adventure.

Challenge: Defeating or evading the guardian while making a desperate dash for freedom.

Solution: The party must use their wits to outmaneuver the guardian, perhaps by exploiting its weaknesses or finding a way to distract it long enough to slip past. Alternatively, they could way to incapacitate it temporarily, allowing them to make their escape without resorting to violence.

Heighten the terror by having the creature signal it’s presence. Slithering past a leg. Ripples on the water. A flick of a slimy, scaly tail. When the creature reveals itself play up the danger, the toothy maw, the crazed eyes. Make sure the payers know that their characters are in trouble.

Once again reward out of the box thinking and collaboration. How will the team distract or defeat the creature together. This is not something they can win alone.

Collaboration Debrief

Did the players escape unscathed? While the adventure is over, the experience is not. Now is the time to get your players reflecting upon their experience. Ask some or all of the following questions to draw out the discussion.

  • Where did you as a team collaborate well?
  • Did you utilize everyone’s skills?
  • How could you have integrated collaboration better?
  • Is there anything you would have done better?

Following the debrief it’s also worth asking your players for feedback. Did they enjoy the experience and was there anything that could have been done better?

Final Thoughts on an Adventure in Collaboration

This adventure aims to be a fast, exciting experience that fosters collaboration between the players. A chance to debrief afterwards gives attendees a chance to reflect on their experience and what went well and what didn’t.

I envisage this as a useful experience for a cohort of a future leaders training course. Run this experience at the beginning of the course. Then, follow up with a similar experience at the end and see how they have grown as leaders. Has their level of collaboration increased?

Alternatively it could be used as a way help a newly forming team. A chance to get to know each other in a fun experience as well as reflect on how they might work together moving forward. Other uses might be as a way to introduce new people to world of rpgs. A small commitment of time as a way to dip their toes into this exciting medium.

I hope this simple scenario opens your eyes to what can be done with a short, simple adventure. Where do you think it could be used?

A pdf of this adventure with character sheets can be found at the Play to Lead downloads page.

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Victory without Violence – Taking the Combat Out Of Dungeon & Dragons

Today’s article is a guest post by the talented Craig Robertson, focused on scenarios that might be more appropriate to the workplace.

Dungeons and Dragons has a long and bloody history, full of epic battles and crushing defeats. Since its creation in the 1970’s, billions of orcs, goblins, and kobolds have died at the hands of brave and/or foolhardy adventurers. And the carnage goes both ways. Old-school gamers such as myself fondly remember the heroic demise of beloved characters, not to mention the occasional dreaded TPK (total party kill).

This makes sense when you look at the literary and gaming inspirations from which Dave
Arneson and Gary Gygax drew when creating D&D. On the literary side, D&D grew out of the heroic mythology of the ancient Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Celts, and other cultures. In these traditions, a hero such as Hercules, King Arthur, or Beowulf faced mortal danger with sword (or club or axe) in hand. In fact, some weapons are as famous as the heroes who bore them, such as Arthur’s Excalibur or Thor’s Mjölnir. As for its gaming roots, D&D started out as an extension of a medieval wargame ruleset called Chainmail. Since then, the attack roll has been a core mechanic of most roleplaying games, and even now, most RPG rulebooks feature full chapters devoted to combat and weaponry.

Why Limit Violence in D&D?

However, in a workplace setting, there are good reasons to limit violence or even remove it
altogether from the game. First, many players (and organizations) may have moral or philosophical objections to using force to solve problems. Second, some of your players may have endured traumatic experiences that involve violence. These people may have been refugees, combat veterans, or victims of crime or abuse. Finally, the unfettered use of violence in many roleplaying games doesn’t correspond to the types of solutions available to corporate problem-solvers. In fact, unfettered violence is not even available to military personnel, who have to work within the rules of engagement. In my experience, most HR departments strongly discourage bringing flamethrowers and battleaxes to business meetings.

On the other hand, there are positive reasons to encourage nonviolent approaches to
challenges. First, peaceful solutions often work out better in the long run, enabling rivals and opponents to eventually find common ground. Secondly, those solutions are often rooted in or lead to a deeper understanding of the root causes of the problem. Finally, the use of force isn’t particularly creative in itself, and the added challenge of finding a nonviolent solution just makes the game more fun.

Baking Peaceful Solutions into your Game

The simplest solution to this dilemma is to just ban violence at the table. However, there is a
better option: Build nonviolent solutions directly into the scenario. A creative GM has several options for removing combat from a scenario, including using the physical environment as the primary adversary, making combat detrimental to mission success, and creating situations in which a peaceful solution is inherently necessary.

Dungeons and Dragons does not have to be combat focused, why not bake in some peaceful solutions.

Struggling against a hostile environment:

Shipwrecks, plane crashes, and sudden storms are staples of literature and films such as Alive or The Poseidon Adventure. Another type of hostile environment can be manmade, such as toxic spills or nuclear meltdowns. Finally, the D&D staple of dungeon traps and hazards also falls into this category. The Death Star trash compactor in Star Wars: A New Hope is a perfect example of a dungeon trap. You can try these scenarios:

  • An alpine glacier begins growing at an unnatural pace, threatening a small mountain village. The players must negotiate the shifting, treacherous ice as they travel to perform the ritual that will restore the glacier to its original state.
  • A scientific research station has begun to descend into the lower layers of a gas giant. So far, the hull is managing to maintain its integrity, but for how long?
  • The barrier between faerie and the mundane world is beginning to thin, bending the rules of reality around the players. They must struggle to maintain their sanity as the work to strengthen the barrier and return each world to its rightful place.

Violence will make things worse:

Perhaps using force may be possible, but circumstances or mission parameters make it a counterproductive choice. For instance, a patron or employer may require that the mission be completed without causing injury or damage to bystanders or the environment. In other cases, such as espionage or infiltration, the ruckus caused by a firefight or melee will lead to discovery and the failure of the mission. Some scenarios could include:

  • A benevolent ruling family has been deposed and imprisoned after a coup. The players are hired to rescue them, but since the family still loves their nation and people, they reject any effort that may hurt or kill any of their former subjects.
  • “The Company” hires the party to recover an automated mining base which has been taken over by a rogue AI. However, since the Company has invested considerable sums into the base, the players are forbidden to do anything which may cause damage to the base or its equipment.
  • During a scientific expedition, a gargantuan creature swallows the players. They have a limited time to escape the belly of the beast before being slowly and painfully digested. Unfortunately for the party, the creature is unique or endangered and killing it would be an ecological tragedy.

Violence is not a viable option:

Some problems inherently preclude a forceful solution. This includes investigations, diplomatic missions, first-contact scenarios, and any other situation that requires persuasion as a key skill set. Try the following as examples:

  • The players are selected as neutral brokers during a tense border dispute. In order to earn the trust of the rival nations, they must complete a series of challenges to prove their strength, intelligence, and character.
  • The party encounters a destructive poltergeist. Since they lack the ability to physically affect or harm the intangible haunt, they must rely on investigation and persuasion to discover what the doomed soul needs in order to move on to its final rest.
  • The players must infiltrate a crime syndicate’s secure computer system to disrupt an imminent cyberattack. Since all the action is remote, the players’ skills are front and center.

Reducing the lethality of D&D games at work can be a challenge, but it’s a good way to test
your creativity. However, increased player engagement and direct, real world problem-solving applications will make it worth the effort.

Craig Robertson is a technical writer and former Chief Game Developer for 1A Games. He has been playing and running D&D, Traveller, and other RPGs since the early 80’s. His chief export is opinions, of which he has many.

Thanks to Craig for such a thoughtful article. If any of our readers would like to submit an article feel free to reach out via the usual channels.