u/Heres-How038

What an absolutely stellar show. A beautiful intimate space and my first time hearing Happy Just to See You play (I’ve had the song punchline on repeat all week). It doesn’t matter how many times I see Rick play, I’m always shocked at how good he sounds in person. The sound was tuned in perfectly for the space and the crowd was great. It felt like being in an opium den for sober people. Everyone was just locked in and quietly singing along and head banging or swaying a bit. The new songs were amazing and I’m really excited to hear them again. Some older songs that I haven’t heard live were such a joy and full of so much energy even though he’s probably played them a million times. Shout out to Tiger Den Goods for hosting the show. I’ll definitely be back to buy some of their wares. And I had a great meal at Lovejoy around the corner too. Check those places out if you’re ever in the area.

Background: I’m DMing my longtime group in a homebrew setting that is Fallout, meets Gangs of New York, meets the Abhorssen series.

Similar to Fallout there are several vaults (dungeons) they have to go into to advance the main plot. And similar to the franchise I’ve tried to come up with some different themes or encounters for each vault. The one they’ve entered now has a theme of only allowing the string to enter. Essentially weeding out the population so the physically fit working class will survive and help repopulate after.

The Room: The party enters a square room with two red lines painted across the floor about 60ft. apart. The center of the room has a pillar made of 5ft. By 5ft. Cubes that extends to the ceiling. There are two exit doors, one on the west side and one of the north side. The door they enter through slams shut behind them and cannot be opened.

The setup: We play on discord. So first I confirmed that everyone had headphones on and dropped an mp4 file in the chat with the instructions not to click it until I counted down. I describe that painted on the floor is a mantra “Only the strong will inherit Land’s End”. I tell them to click the link and a 20second recording of the instructions from the “Fitnessgram Pacer Test” plays.
I each person reacted in a unique way. Some laughed, some screamed with rage after being triggered from long buried gym class trauma. It was priceless. Like successfully Rick rolling someone for the first time.

The puzzle: Each round the group has to make it to the opposite red line or be shocked by the floor. If they stop to interact with something then they have to sprint to catch up in time for the beep. To do this they must make an athletics or acrobatics check with a DC that increases every round. If they try to do multiple interactions on a turn then the DC goes up for that specific turn. They’re essentially gambling. After the second round the column in the middle of the room springs into action and at the start of each round it takes on a new shape. So basically rearrange a number of 5x5ft cubes in whatever shape. I made a 10ft wall that covered part of the room so they had the added challenge of getting over it to reach the opposite red line. To exit the players find 5 levers on each door with numbers on them 1-5. If they pull levers down with matching numbers at the same time then the levers stay pulled down. Anything else results in the levers popping back up. To open the doors all five levers need to be in the down position. After all five are pulled in the down position they have one round to make it out before the doors close and all levers pop back up.

The solve: My group interacted with the room and used some good team work. When someone would fail a check to sprint someone else would use an ability to save them. A telekinetic push or someone used a wildshape to pull an ally across with a giant frog tongue. Anytime they expended a resource I made the checks much easier because the point here is to wear them down before getting into the boss fight at the end of the dungeon. They ended up using ropes to pull all five levers on both doors at once. The faster PCs gambled actions to set things up and the slower PCs acted as insurance by buffing with abilities and readying actions to save others if they failed. One player kept messing with the column in the first two rounds and it felt fair to adjudicate this as the blocks that make up the column spilling apart and needing to use a round toe reconstitute instead of making a shape that would inhibit them.

Do you guys notice a big shift in traffic depending on the day of the week?

For me it’s-

Monday: pretty chill. Definitely less volume and people are safe.
Tuesday: high volume. Everyone is driving like they’re late.
Wednesday: Mad Max Road Warrior
Thursday: Similar to Tuesday
Friday: Ghost Town