Isle of Dread

[Two orcs]

Boxes with something smelling/making noise/moving inside. Sometimes it's a dangerous monster best left alone or killed without opening the box, sometimes it's a potential ally, sometimes it's some magic artifact. Sometimes it's just a cache of food gone bad, maybe being feasted on by vermin.

Things that link back to earlier things. A diagram for an incomprehensible machine. The power source for an earlier machine (to turn off or on). A half finished experiment you can finish (for good or ill). A secret ladder that goes on and on to a tiny sublevel. A hunchbacked servant or automaton that is servile but possibly dangerous. Cumbersome equipment (think diving suits or firefighter suits) necessary to deal with some area but which changes how they interact with the world (narrow field of vision, slow movement, limited oxygen). On that note, a room full of gas where you need to hold your breath while exploring.

 

[Mage Hand]

Mechanism with weird levers that do things to the PCs (switch minds/abilities/etc.) Apparatus of K'walish type gizmos with quirky effects.

Pools like those in B1. Do you drink?

Machines that vend quirky, un-balanced magic that is just as wildly dangerous as it is beneficial.

Welcome back!

Hi Squeen. Thanks for that and for the welcome.
B

 

[Mage Hand]

Boxes with something smelling/making noise/moving inside. Sometimes it's a dangerous monster best left alone or killed without opening the box, sometimes it's a potential ally, sometimes it's some magic artifact. Sometimes it's just a cache of food gone bad, maybe being feasted on by vermin.

Things that link back to earlier things. A diagram for an incomprehensible machine. The power source for an earlier machine (to turn off or on). A half finished experiment you can finish (for good or ill). A secret ladder that goes on and on to a tiny sublevel. A hunchbacked servant or automaton that is servile but possibly dangerous. Cumbersome equipment (think diving suits or firefighter suits) necessary to deal with some area but which changes how they interact with the world (narrow field of vision, slow movement, limited oxygen). On that note, a room full of gas where you need to hold your breath while exploring.

thanks for this. this is what I need.
B

 

[Beoric]

I have not been on these boards for almost three years, but have played a lot of dnd. We all switched to OSE. I have run a game now since May 2021 which is the longest I ever ran. Long story short: Black Wyrm of Brandonsford, Hole in Oak, Incandescent Grottos- Fun. Forbidden Caverns of Archaia- Not Fun, (except for the Deck of Many Things).

Now, they have made it to the third level dungeon that I added to the Grottoes. They found the labs they have been seeking, and the key. I have to design the lab with secrets, treasures, gizmos, traps etc, but not really combat. Our sessions, on Zoom, are like 2-2.5 hours so combat has to have real stakes or it doesn't work. (Also they will have an encounter to get in, and probably a big combat encounter to get out of the complex.) So, my question is, what is fun when players enter a space to search for things? I'm hoping for more interactivity and more ups and downs then just searching some shelves, finding some shit, writing it on their character sheets, and moving on. It should last about an hour or 90 minutes. Opening containers, secret compartments, needle traps, moving from a bright place to a dim place or a hot place to a cold place, reaching under a bed, just writing this is helping me but this seems like the place where people think about stuff like this. So, thanks in advance.

So there are a lot of techniques for taking relatively mundane elements and set dressing and making them very interactive. A good free starting point is Courtney Campbell's Hack & Slash: Artifices & Deceptions (hackslashmaster.blogspot.com).

Or buy Courtney's complete product at Artifices, Deceptions, & Dilemmas: Campbell, Courtney, Gebei, Sandor, Shields, James: 9798717451246: Amazon.com: Books

A lot of the same material can be gleaned from the 1e DMG, Appendix H (and the folloing lists). But it is good to read Courtney's website first to get ideas about how the elements in Appendix H can be put together.