By [ad_1]
In Dying Light 2, traveling at night can be a dangerous affair. Here’s how Dungeon Masters can use that idea to enhance a D&D campaign.
Dying Light 2‘s nighttime scenario is a tense affair fraught with terror and peril that could adapt well to a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The gamer leaves the relative safety of a settlement or safe house to brave the sprawling rooftop jungles of the New Dark Age. The zombies are more active, smarter and larger in number, and it’s up to the player to understand the risks and navigate their way past these hordes, all the while mitigating potential casualties.
Resourceful Dungeon Masters may see an opportunity in this nighttime mechanic as a way to increase player tension and change how they interact with a campaign setting. It’s ideal for a gritty campaign where players are forced to mitigate and reduce risk as opposed to avoiding it outright. Thanks to the modular and simplistic nature of Fifth Edition, it’s possible to bring the terror of Dying Light 2‘s nighttime mechanic into the world of Dungeons & Dragons.
Build a D&D Environment That Fits
Dying Light 2‘s game world is populated by elevated terrain and claustrophobic dead ends at street level. The world feels dense and multi-layered. For a nighttime scenario to work in Dungeons & Dragons, a campaign setting needs to mimic that. Players will need to feel the tension during a chase whether up high or down low. The setting should be filled with high-rise buildings that can spell a character’s end at a mere slip or fall, and narrow, winding streets where one wrong turn can leave the party cornered with a horde of monsters at their back. It’s the DM’s job to design the world in a way that encourages fast thinking, high-risk play that makes heavy use of the player’s Athletics and Acrobatics skills to make it through unharmed.
A great tip for designing a packed game world that feels cramped and claustrophobic is to localize the story to a single, small area of the map, preferably a city. Forget the idea of building out the game world with new islands, continents and people, and instead flesh out an intricate web of locations, politics and lore that players can uncover as they delve through the city’s maze of twisting spires, high-rise buildings and fetid sewer systems.
How to Run a Chase Sequence Like Dying Light 2
The most dangerous part about venturing out at night in Dying Light 2 is stumbling upon a horde of zombies too large to fight and having no choice but to flee. Running a chase sequence in D&D is a simple enough task, but it does require a slight shifting of the game rules to keep up with pace and tension. First of all, get rid of the Movement action. During a chase, assume the entire party is running away and conduct the encounter at the pace of the fastest party member. Throw Initiative out the window, and let players call out what they want to do as needed during the sequence.
When players encounter an obstacle, have them make a check to overcome it. For example, on their turn, a player may move their full 40ft movement speed across a set of flat-topped shacks. Have the player make an Athletics or Acrobatics check to hop between each platform and a Perception check to notice and avoid any weak planks. If they fail any of these checks, the chase still continues, but they fall through one of the roofs and take some damage. This way, the flow of the chase isn’t interrupted by the typical rules of combat, further increasing the pressure of the encounter.
Make Enemies Stronger AND Smarter
In Dying Light 2, zombies are tougher and more intelligent at night. The same should go for nighttime monsters in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Think outside of the box, and instead of hit points, damage and skills, focus on how monsters act at night when compared to the day. Maybe during the daytime, these monsters are slower and have more of a group mentality. They’re still dangerous if you get trapped near a horde, but they have no sense of individual thought or purpose. But at night, these monsters become individuals and coordinate with each other to lead the party into traps or dead ends as they wait for the right moment to strike. Their use of cunning and tactics alone will be a huge difficulty increase for the party when compared to during the day.
D&D Enemies Still Need Weaknesses
The zombies in Dying Light 2 have a weakness to UV light that the player can exploit to stall their advance. When implementing the nighttime mechanic into Dungeons & Dragons, monsters should have a similar weakness that allows the party to mitigate risk. A mechanic like this is essential because it allows the players to feel like they have at least some level of defense against these highly dangerous monsters, which encourages the party to try venturing out into the night, as opposed to hiding behind the confines of a safe haven until daytime.
The weakness in question doesn’t necessarily have to be something as high-tech as a UV light. It could be a magical crystal that wards off corrupting magic, a mirror that blinds evil creatures that stare into it, or even the classic holy symbol or silver-tipped arrow that stops, staggers or outright kills them. The weakness is entirely up to the Dungeon Master’s discretion and how much of an advantage they want their players to have against the monsters that prowl the streets at night.
About The Author
[ad_2]
