Topic: How would you resolve a research adventure/task in a library for a scholar?

[Druss_the_Legend]

I have a paladin who has been sent to a great library in a far off city to research the location for a 'secret armoury'.
Im not really wanting to run an elaborate dungeon crawl style adventure for this side quest but i do want to throw some challenges/clues/riddles at the PC. This task needs to be resolved fairly quickly... but be more involved than a few simple rolls.

How would you set up such a task/adventure?

The information could take the form of...
1. a riddle or series of riddles
2. a physical map
3. an encripted map
4. a partial map (the other half of the map is in a different library in a different city)
5. the location of a map
6. a name = an NPC who knows the location of the secret armoury
7. a key to the map
8. a book that has some pages missing and only partial information

Would they make stat checks/ manuevre rolls of hard/ex hard?
The library might hold a secret room with books and clues needing deciphering?

One idea iv had is a tattoo map that shows the location of the sceret armoury... there might be a partial image of the tatto found in a book and clues to the name of the NPC who is the 'guardian of the map'. the clues might not mention the tattoo but only the name of the NPC who is entrusted with the map. Thoughts?

[Druss_the_Legend]

I have a paladin who has been sent to a great library in a far off city to research the location for a 'secret armoury'.
Im not really wanting to run an elaborate dungeon crawl style adventure for this side quest but i do want to throw some challenges/clues/riddles at the PC. This task needs to be resolved fairly quickly... but be more involved than a few simple rolls.

How would you set up such a task/adventure?

The information could take the form of...
1. a riddle or series of riddles
2. a physical map
3. an encripted map
4. a partial map (the other half of the map is in a different library in a different city)
5. the location of a map
6. a name = an NPC who knows the location of the secret armoury
7. a key to the map
8. a book that has some pages missing and only partial information

Would they make stat checks/ manuevre rolls of hard/ex hard?
The library might hold a secret room with books and clues needing deciphering?

One idea iv had is a tattoo map that shows the location of the sceret armoury... there might be a partial image of the tatto found in a book and clues to the name of the NPC who is the 'guardian of the map'. the clues might not mention the tattoo but only the name of the NPC who is entrusted with the map. Thoughts?

Ideally I want to run a 60min solo session as a side quest for the Paladin.
I want the player character to be tested and challenged in some way. Skill checks. eg. Riddles/Puzzles.
Potential Skill checks would be for:
ATTUNEMENT
CHANNELING
CIRCLE LORE
DIRECI'ED SPELL
DIVINATION
MAGIC LANGUAGE
MAGIC RITUAL
RUNES
SYMBOL LORE

[Druss_the_Legend]

Just had an interesting idea. What if the PC stumbled upon a book that contains a spirit that acts as a guardian for the knowledge they seek. The Spirit might possess him for a short time revealing information to them and granting them ceratin abilities of sight. This might begin with the PC trying to resist at first but eventually they would become overwhelmed by the spirit then later in the campaign the spirit might return in a time of need or can return when it is called by the PC in a great time of need.

The spirit guardian essentually 'tests' the PC to see if the are righteous/worthy of the knowledge they seek (The location to the se ret armoury)

Spirit Combat (Channeling Companion)

12.4 SPIRIT COMBAT
Spirits have several fonns of combat. Not every spirit may use every type of attack. Usually, a spirit will be limited to one or two attack fonns. While spirits use similar fonns to attack, the results of those attacks will depend upon the spirit who is attacking. The attack forms are listed below, with a short description of each.

Emanation—When a spirit attacks by emanation, it creates an area equal to 10' radius per level of the spirit centered on the spirit, in which all persons and creatures must make a Channeling RR versus the level of the spirit or be overcome by the attack ofthe spirit, (e.g., if a Spirit of Hunger makes an emanation attack, all who fail the RR will be overcome by feelings of hunger).

Inundation—This attack form is limited to Elemental Spirits. An Elemental Spirit may make this type of attack at a range of up to 100' away, and it covers an area equal to a I' radius per level of the spirit. If any creature or person within that radius fails a Channeling RR versus the level of the spirit, they will be affected by the attack of the spirit. Each Elemental Spirit has its own method of inundation. An example ofthe types ofeffects generated by this attack fonn are listed below. Each element has several aspects, and the examples presented do not fonn a complete list, they only show possibilities.

eg. An Elemental Spirit ofLight could bring with it the harmony and tranquillity of oneness with the universe, an acceptance of circumstances, and the sureness of inner peace.

Possession—Some spirits will try to take over the corporeal fonn of a person. To do this they will try to possess that person's body, removing the target's mind from command. The spirit will try to enter the body ofthe target and take over. When this occurs, the target must make a Channeling RR versus the level of the spirit. Once a spirit has successfully taken over a target, he may use the body of the target for up to ten minutes per level of the spirit, at which point the effort of controlling another's fonn becomes too much.

During this time, the target of the possession may make an additional RR for every ten minutes that he is under the control of the spirit, and also if his body gets injured in any way.

While in control of the target's body, the spirit has no access to the target's knowledge or skills. The target is also aware of all actions taken by the spirit.

[Spectre771]

The idea is fantastic but you will run into an issue with Player Challenge vs. PC challenge.  The PC is on the adventure, not the player so the riddles will ultimately be answered by the player.  It's like the Lock pick or Disarm Trap skill.  I have no skills at disarming traps, but luckily my PC has 15 ranks in it and since he's the one disarming the trap and not me, it's perfect.  I don't have to explain how to disarm a trap, or the mechanics behind it.

The riddles for the Paladin are great, but you are actually challenging the player at that point, not the PC. 

The research portion is a fun hurdle.  Based on the research roll, the Paladin could find better books with more details to help.  Lower research rolls means he is drawn to books that are mediocre and he will have a lot more research and/or assumptions to get further along.  A higher roll will result in stumbling upon an obscure book with an amazing hint or clue that will help answer the above mentioned riddles you come up with.

Something I am doing now is a little similar to what you mentioned with maps and partial maps (missing pages).  I have the party going into a crypt loaded (loaded loaded) with traps and guardians.  There will be corpses of varying adventurers, of various races, in various stages of decay.  The only constant is the diary on the least decayed corpse.  It's a diary that has been looted from an earlier corpse.  Notes were added in the native language of the previous owner.  The party will see notes on the dungeon (and possibly how the corpse met its demise) as written by each of the newer looters.  They will need to know different languages, the idioms and interpretations the races use to describe situations, etc.  Hopefully the "map" through the dungeon will be parsed from the written clues in this diary as each adventurer mocks the foolishness of the previous adventure only to lament his own demise.

The same idea will work with maps.  One race may show maps drawn to one scale.  Another race uses different icons to show caves and passages. A dwarf my show the same map of a region, but from an underground perspective.  The players/PCs will have to figure out how the maps all work together, where the join, where they are overlaps, adjust for different scaling.

[netbat]

If you are not tied to the skill checks you mention you could also go with social checks as well. Maybe the librarian in charge of the restricted stacks containing the info needed is prejudiced against the paladins culture or religion and the paladin needs to convince him he is worthy/worth letting in.

[tbigness]

I like the idea of making something like an escape room puzzle where finding the clue leads to other clues or red herrings. Possible having to enter restricted areas or curry favor from others to get the needed resources and leave clues that possibly puts the Scholar on a traveling path to other places and parts. This could be knowledge from a Wise One or Old Magician, remote library or such. This can be expanded or clipped based on time or adventure goals along the way but will make a Scholar in a unique adventuring position even for local knowledge or clues.

[Jengada]

It wasn't Rolemaster, but I just played through a library adventure in my son's campaign. It was a one-session effort by my mage to gain information the party needs to figure out which of several political factions is our ally. The library was an ancient one, with sections infested by creatures (giant moths) that fed on the power of the knowledge in the books. We had to have a guide to find our material, and the guide was also in danger from the creatures. So we had to figure out how to distract the creatures and escort our guide where he said we needed to go. There was no hope of taking on all of the moths, so we had to be a bit clever.
The parts of this I think you could copy are the guide, and something within the library that serves as a threat - but can't be successfully confronted with brute force. It could be a spirit in the stacks, a magical trap like a mind-labyrinth that the guide or paladin gets stuck in, or something similar. Make it something the paladin can't just banish or slay, but has to negotiate with, entreat, or outwit.
(As chance has it, my son also plays in my campaign, and the party is about to enter the great library of my world. But they don't have any major puzzle there, just yet. It's an intro, and they may go back later for an adventure.)

[MisterK]

I would have the Library actually active and populated with people, but with restricted access to the documents the paladin is seeking. And he would need to do things to get access. Impress one librarian with his knowledge, owe someone a service to get another piece of knowledge, perform some errands, prove themselves worthy, gather some materials for copying the source documents properly.

Given that you want to do that in a very short time frame (one hour is literally nothing), I would take a leaf from video game 'chat and fedex quests' to get this one. A few conversations, a handful of skill checks (diplomacy or administration, lore skills, impress), alternate paths (such as befriending the cleaning or cooking staff to have them 'leave doors open' for the paladin to access the information they need), and a small amount of fedex errands that provide an opportunity to discover a bit more of the city and meet a few people along the way.

But nothing serious in such a tight time frame.

[if I had to do this properly, it would take at least one full session, two if the journey to the library is a long one, and more if there are significant sub-quests that involve actual delving. Somewhere between five and twenty solo-hours or so. But the other characters would have the opportunity to do something in the meantime as well, of course).

[Jengada]

I would have the Library actually active and populated with people, but with restricted access to the documents the paladin is seeking. And he would need to do things to get access. Impress one librarian with his knowledge, owe someone a service to get another piece of knowledge, perform some errands, prove themselves worthy, gather some materials for copying the source documents properly.

Access is a valuable point here. Historically, libraries were not usually publicly accessible. If you could even enter, you had to go to the front desk and consult a staff member. They would then access the materials. If you were lucky, they had a space where you could actually look at the materials yourself.
Hmm, this prompts the idea that the librarian helping the paladin might see the value in the information and require a partial share in the holdings of the secret armory, as payment. Or even secretly hire someone else to go after the armory before the paladin can get there.

[Druss_the_Legend]

excellent input here thus far. Much appreciated.
I play the research session tonight with the paladin character.
I have gone with a mixture of
1 riddles (these bypass the magical wards that are placed on the books)
2 research rolls (3 chances here, these will mostly determine the time taken and any mods to skill checks below)
3 skill checks (linguistics, read rules, locate secret opening)
4 roleplaying (gaining access to restricted areas of the library via library staff) bribery, role-playing

Success in this research task will give the PC two maps, one showing the physical location of the Secret Armoury and the other giving the detailed layout (but not contents) of one third of the armoury itself. The other two detailed maps will be made available to them through two different NPCs.

[Jengada]

excellent input here thus far. Much appreciated.
I play the research session tonight with the paladin character.
I have gone with a mixture of
1 riddles (these bypass the magical wards that are placed on the books)
2 research rolls (3 chances here, these will mostly determine the time taken and any mods to skill checks below)
3 skill checks (linguistics, read rules, locate secret opening)
4 roleplaying (gaining access to restricted areas of the library via library staff) bribery, role-playing

Success in this research task will give the PC two maps, one showing the physical location of the Secret Armoury and the other giving the detailed layout (but not contents) of one third of the armoury itself. The other two detailed maps will be made available to them through two different NPCs.

You'll definitely have to post how it goes, afterwards.

[Druss_the_Legend]

excellent input here thus far. Much appreciated.
I play the research session tonight with the paladin character.
I have gone with a mixture of
1 riddles (these bypass the magical wards that are placed on the books)
2 research rolls (3 chances here, these will mostly determine the time taken and any mods to skill checks below)
3 skill checks (linguistics, read rules, locate secret opening)
4 roleplaying (gaining access to restricted areas of the library via library staff) bribery, role-playing

Success in this research task will give the PC two maps, one showing the physical location of the Secret Armoury and the other giving the detailed layout (but not contents) of one third of the armoury itself. The other two detailed maps will be made available to them through two different NPCs.

You'll definitely have to post how it goes, afterwards.

will do.

[Druss_the_Legend]

excellent input here thus far. Much appreciated.
I play the research session tonight with the paladin character.
I have gone with a mixture of
1 riddles (these bypass the magical wards that are placed on the books)
2 research rolls (3 chances here, these will mostly determine the time taken and any mods to skill checks below)
3 skill checks (linguistics, read rules, locate secret opening)
4 roleplaying (gaining access to restricted areas of the library via library staff) bribery, role-playing

Success in this research task will give the PC two maps, one showing the physical location of the Secret Armoury and the other giving the detailed layout (but not contents) of one third of the armoury itself. The other two detailed maps will be made available to them through two different NPCs.

You'll definitely have to post how it goes, afterwards.

90 min session completed. Went Well!
a little roleplaying and some rolling and some riddles.
I had created two lists of books as follows:

COMMON Book Titles (Pick 3)
1 Rivers of Blood -20  READ RUNES
2 Lords of Darkness -10 LINGUISTICS
3 Unholy Light +20 READ RUNES
4 The Witching Hour +20 LINGUISTICS
5 Creeping Doom -30 READ RUNES
6 Guide to Blood Moon Rituals -20 LINGUISTICS
7 Gaze of Death  -10 READ RUNES
8 The Soul Eaters +20 LINGUISTICS

RARE BOOKS (Pick 1)
1 The Druagr +20 LOCATE SECRET OPENING
2 The Dark Lords +10 LOCATE SECRET OPENING
3 The Light Bringers +30 LOCATE SECRET OPENING

The list of titles was given to the PC by a librarian assistant after the player had given him an idea about the sorts of topics he was interested in researching. The PC could not simply say I am looking for a secret armoury of relics for killing vampires so he had to speak more generally about the topics whcih worked out pretty well.

The player only could see the titles and not the mod. I just used the mod to get them to make some checks.
He wanted to read all the books but i limited him to 4 total.
He actually failed one or two rolls early on but that was fine, it just meant he needed to spend more time there researching.
Once he made his checks i gave him a riddle (just used two riddles but had a 3rd if needed)
The player wasnt sure what form the information was in so the riddle answers of MAP and MIRROR
revealed he was looking for a map behind a mirror somewhere in the library.
He had to roleplay when talking to the front desk librarian and had to convince him to get access to a restricted area of the library (a private room/library)
once in the restricted area he found one map in a secret opening (skill check made) in a fountain in the room and another map inside one of the rare books.
Overall pretty successful session and im pleased how things went.
I actually didnt know myself where the maps would be hidden at the start, i just knew to make him search for cliues to find them. It worked! I thought hiding one map under a fountain (type of mirror) was pretty clever after revealing he was looking for a mirror in the riddle and I came up with it on the spot

[Jengada]

I like the list of books available and the way you put that together. Thanks for sharing, I will probably riff off of this for some adventure material coming up.

[Druss_the_Legend]

I like the list of books available and the way you put that together. Thanks for sharing, I will probably riff off of this for some adventure material coming up.

Go for it. Its what i love about this forum. Its a wealth of ideas and a great place for boucing ideas.
im not great at improv and often over plan but i feel like i got the balance for both planning/prep time and improve about right on this side quest. i actually hadnt even considered the idea of a library in my game have restricted access. it was a nice element to add in to the session and was a bit of puzzle in iteself for the player to find a way using roleplaying to get inside... the head librarioa was a mage type and had to unlock the 'restricted area' by removing wards and protection spells. that room was also well guarded by sentries. it gave the impression of a hard to get into secure area and worked well. i didnt bother with any physical maps, just used generic descritions of the library.

I feel that the key message here for GMing a session like this one is to allow the player different avenues to find the info. If they fail at one path, they have another one. It might be another riddle is needed because they couldnt solve the first one, even with clues.
Also keep the 'secret' they are looking for fluid. You actually dont need to know whete it is hidden. They player will always assume you have placed it somewhere specific when in reality you just know its hidden and it could be anyhere convenient. in my case it was hidden in a fountain. PLay around with the obvious and obscure and be ready to bail them out or make it a bit more challenig.

Something ive started to do more and more is use the Movement&Manuevre table for skill checks. I like how you can assign a difficulty column. Nomatter what they roll for their first roll, they always get a chance of success, even its its like 20% chance. Its been working for me. In the library quest, the rare book had runes that were Sheer Folly to decipher. I wanted to add in one last challenge and make it hard for them. They had some good modifiers and a lucky roll but it added to his feeling of triumph at the end. If hed failed, id have let him choose a new booka nd try again but warm him that he was running out of time which was the real factor here as he was on a short quest to help the party out and he needed to get the map before it was too late to make a difference in the wider story.

[Jengada]

Something ive started to do more and more is use the Movement&Manuevre table for skill checks. I like how you can assign a difficulty column. Nomatter what they roll for their first roll, they always get a chance of success, even its its like 20% chance. Its been working for me. In the library quest, the rare book had runes that were Sheer Folly to decipher. I wanted to add in one last challenge and make it hard for them. They had some good modifiers and a lucky roll but it added to his feeling of triumph at the end. If hed failed, id have let him choose a new booka nd try again but warm him that he was running out of time which was the real factor here as he was on a short quest to help the party out and he needed to get the map before it was too late to make a difference in the wider story.

Long ago I looked at the probabilities of actually succeeding at different difficulties of Maneuvers on the table, after the 2nd roll (assuming no partial success). I discovered that there's a big jump in the odds from Light to Medium. With no roll modifier, there's a 72% chance of success on a Light maneuver and just a 37% chance on Medium. That's the biggest jump in the table as you go from Routine (92%) to Absurd (3%). So when I have to assign a difficulty to something, that table is the first thing I check, for a quick "how likely should this be to succeed?" sense. If I were going to smooth the progression of difficulty, I would go from Light+0 to Light-15 to Medium+15 to Med.+0. Just FWIW.