In the third post of this series of Iconic Encounters in old-school style RPG adventures, we are going to examine one of those really puzzling encounters that will make the players either completely paranoid, or amazingly entertained while they mess around with it.
This encounter I like to call “WTH is this?!”, and it is also an encounter that happens between more normal and expected encounters in the adventure. It consists of something alien and weird that can be interacted with, but the players have very little information regarding its purpose. It has a few characteristics that I will list below and then explore in detail.
- It usually appears in a clear, out of the way room.
- It can be safely ignored or bypassed.
- It’s function is not clear, and sometimes not even detailed.
- It can inspire the campaign to go in different directions.
It’s the only thing here…
The encounter is normally placed in a room almost exclusively dedicated to it. There’s nothing else of significance going on besides this weird thing the players stumble upon. Additionally, these rooms are usually somewhere out of place, so the events of other encounters and rooms won’t interfere too much with what happens here.
This allows for a few things. First of all, having the room dedicated to it, letting the encounter breath. Placing it in more or less isolated areas also gives players a sense of security that will encourage them to spend some time with it. Either conjecturing what it’s all about, or how to interact with and benefit from it.
But we got stuff to do.
Like other more non-standard encounters, these can usually be bypassed or ignored by more focused and time-pressed parties. They may be intrigued by what they see, but as it poses no immediate threat, they may choose to ignore it for now, or forever. These are usually like a “bonus” encounter and do not affect the main situation happening in the adventure.
And it’s good that’s like that. First of all, it tells them that not everything in the world is there for them to deal with. It increases verisimilitude in the game, showing the players their characters are just a part of the whole. Second, it gives them options, and takes the pressure off for a while. They can ignore it or mess with it without messing up the main events of the dungeon too much.
What is it? Really?
What they encounter, however, is truly strange and quite hard to explain or understand. It’s normally not a creature but something doing the unexpected, or completely supernatural and strange, like a pool of viscous purple liquid dripping upwards against gravity, or a complex arrangement of lenses that can be shifted to reflect light (which its source is unknown) in different directions and configurations.
The main point is that they will see something unusual, not threatening, and that is already doing something weird they don’t understand. Realizing this is not an immediately threatening encounter will encourage the players to play with it. Experiment. And soon enough they will start to theorize why it is there, what its purpose is, how they can use it and so on. The thing is, the answer to these questions is normally never really specified.
A source of inspiration
And as the players discuss and experiment with their new weird toy, the Referee can sit back and drink up all the creativity and ideas they put out! If they feel they have some time, they will play with that thing for quite a while, and it’s up to the Referee to “jam” with them, riffing on their creativity and making something magical happen.
You don’t really have to have an idea of what its purpose is, and how it’s used though. That’s not the point. The point is having this communal narrative creation of an element of the game world that doesn’t necessarily have to do with the players, is not there to serve a higher purpose in any kind of predetermined plot, and can be just for fun. It reinforces the notion that this is a fantasy world, where weird and unexplainable things happen from time to time.
Well, that’s it for this one. See you next time when we discuss another one of my favorites Iconic Encounters in RPG adventures!