Guide Dang It/Tabletop Games

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Guide Dang It in Tabletop Games include:

  • There is a rather baroque puzzle built into a scenario in the tabletop RPG Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game) Sourcebook Secrets of Japan. Basically, the PCs need to find a secret door in a maze. The only real hint of the door's location the player characters can get requires them to 1) be able to understand Japanese writing (not a big obstacle, seeing as how at least one of the PCs or NPCs within the party are expected to Japanese), 2) pick up one of the cultists' prayer books earlier (not as big a snag, it is loot after all), 3) explore enough of the maze to map out its layout without hitting any traps or monsters (thankfully, there's only one or two of each in the entire maze) and 4) compare the map and the first letter of each line in the prayer book for some random reason, thus learning the right directions for getting to the secret door from the entrance. Mercifully, despite the game's reputation, the scenario outline nevertheless offers alternate ways for the PCs to find the secret door, such as pure luck, the guidance of NPCs or successful Idea and Spot Hidden rolls.
  • Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition actually has this in an adventure. Normally, Hags are creatures that PCs should immediately kill, however in this particular adventure the Hag is the only one who can inform the PCs of where to find their goal. The problems with this, DnD 4E tends to breed trigger-happy gamers, the hag goes down with any attack against her, and the adventure immediately ends when she dies. The DM is specifically forbidden from letting the PCs try searching for the goal themselves.
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