Common Field Obstacles

Mostly taken verbatim from Lewot’s Arpeggio System, though there are some differences in wording and more specific changes to how certain obstacles work, these Field Obstacles are designed to challenge players while they're out and about exploring the RPG world.

Cliff/Platform: Pretty much the go-to field obstacle, this can be handled by a character’s Platform stat. The minimum Platform stat of 1 allows a character to climb normal stairs or perhaps pull him- or herself up onto an arm-height ledge, but that's about it; the maximum Platform stat of 9 means that, through either jumping, flying, climbing, or warping, the character can reach any higher level of elevation with no problem. Variations in the Platform stats of a group of player characters provide the most obvious fuel for field puzzles: if one or more characters can reach a higher portion of ground that one or more of the other characters cannot, then the characters who can reach must, once up higher, perform some other field task to create some kind of stairway, elevator, etc. that will allow the remaining character(s) to join him/her/them. Rooftops of buildings could also be explored for hidden items or passages using the Platform stat.

Long Fall: If a character finds themselves wanting to descend to a lower level of elevation but faced with a sharp drop-off instead of a nice, smooth pathway, then the character can choose simply to jump off the cliff. A minute difference in elevation should be ignored, but if a character jumps off a cliff (balcony, floating platform, etc.) of considerable height, then the character will take damage from the fall. The damage taken is:

Dge = X(PWgt - PPlt)

X in this case is a given level that is equal to the approximate number of “stories” the character is falling from, where a story is approximately 10 feet or thirty-two chapters.

Get it? Cause story...and story...eh-hem.

Say a character with 1 Platform weighing 4 Weight falls off a 3-story building or a “Level 3” height. Thus the damage is:

Dge = 3(4-1) = 3*3 = 9

If the character is wearing armor of some kind, an additional amount of damage can be subtracted from the total based on the armor’s defense multiplier. For example, an armor giving a x0.75 Defense boost given to the character that just fell would reduce the damage to (9 * 0.75) = 6.75 -> 7. Note that the result is always rounded off to the nearest whole number. If a character’s Platform stat is equal to or greater than their Weight, then they will not take any damage regardless of the height.

Important to note here, however, is the following exception: most characters who have a Platform stat of 9 are capable of flying, teletransporting, or rock climbing to the extreme, and thus would logically be able to do this instead of jumping off the cliff and taking damage. This principle, if perhaps unfair, holds up: only a character who has 9 Platform but is not actually able to fly, cling to walls, or teleport--such as Luigi, who is so good at jumping that his Platform is 9, but he can certainly not fly--will take damage from a fall. Typically, player characters are not able to fly or teleport (though clinging to walls might be more common), so players will usually have to worry about fall damage, while flying enemies and the like will not. Umbrella-type weapons have the unique field effect of preventing a character from taking any fall damage when equipped (the idea, obviously, being that the character uses the umbrella to slowly drift down).

Gap/Pit: A horizontal usage of the Platform stat instead of a vertical one, in this case the player wants to jump over a certain, harmful area and land on another spot at the same elevation as his or her current position. The length of the gap will have a numerical value that the character's Platform stat must meet or exceed in order for the character to be able to successfully cross the pit; again, characters who have 9 Platform stat can make their way across anything of this nature, whether they do it by jumping, flying, or teleporting. If the character typically deals with elevation changes by climbing walls, but there are no walls around the pit, then the Maestro has two options: make up an excuse to let the character cross anyway, or use this on purpose to prevent the character from crossing. (A similar height-based situation could be executed with a free-floating platform as opposed to a cliff.) The Maestro may allow players to attempt to cross the pit even if they do not have enough Platform stat, in which case the character should take some amount of damage and be flung back to his or her starting position. Damage should be determined during game planning, but a general range would be something like 1-3 physical damage from a spike pit, 1-10 Fire Element damage from lava, and perhaps total death from a bottomless pit, requiring the typical revival by another player character. Water could be used as a hazard that would deal Water Element damage, but alternately the players could be allowed to swim through it, or sink to the bottom and explore it if they have some means of breathing.

Heavy Object: It could be a rock, a car, whatever; the point is, the players want it to be in a different spot than where it begins, for one reason or another. The solution is to move the object with Strength; some objects may have a weight of more than 9, in which case it would take more than one character to push the object. It might be blocking their way, sitting right in the only entrance to a spot that has proven unreachable with their other field stats, or they might need to move it on top of a weight-sensitive panel, or through some other sci-fi-esque sensing field; on the other hand, the players might have to stack multiple objects on top of each other to form a makeshift ladder or stairway, or to barricade an entrance that enemies are trying to use.

Locked Door: There are two ways to attempt to deal with a locked door: break it down with Strength, or pick the lock with Hand-Eye. If one of the player characters has maxed out Strength or Hand-Eye, then there should be very few buildings to which the players cannot gain access; however, there may be some, and while multiple characters can charge at a door with their Strength at the same time, it is spatially impossible for multiple characters to combine their Hand-Eye stats to pick a difficult lock.

Manipulation: In only very particular instances, players may need to manipulate either an NPC or even an enemy into performing a desired field task for the players. Unless repeated exposure has trained the players to remember to attempt manipulation, it will likely be difficult for them to think of, particularly if they begin by killing the desired manipulatee in battle before attempting the field task that the now KO’d character needs to perform for them. In cases such as this, the players would be required to revive the enemy and then manipulate it (this works best if one of the player characters knows PK VimUp). Manipulation of enemies is only viable under these very specific instances, and as such a player will not be able to avoid a battle with enemies via Manipulation unless they are specifically given the option to by the Maestro.

Piggyback: A character can carry another character if the carrier's Strength is equal to or greater than the Weight of the character to be carried. This is especially useful if a strong player character can fly, because it allows him or her to carry the other players (if one by one) over things that their own Platform stats cannot overcome. Enemies normally cannot be carried because they will initiate battle mode if touched, but they are given Weight stats in case it becomes relevant.

Pickpocket: This uses Hand-Eye to do the actual work and Charisma to avoid being noticed. Ideally, a successful pickpocketing venture will incorporate a high enough Hand-Eye and Charisma respectively. Pickpocket challenges will always have a Hand-Eye level and Charisma level such that only a player with those stats will be able to successfully perform the task.

Trivia Questions: Essentially, the players run into a character who demands that they answer several trivia questions in order to earn their right to pass. This is the most entertaining way of using the Knowledge field stat. If one character has high knowledge compared to the other players, then the Maestro could feed that character the answers to the questions in another window--this works particularly well if the high-knowledge character has some sort of communication impediment, and has to then perform some intensive role playing to illustrate the answer to the other players, who can give it to the door guard directly. On the other hand, the Maestro could offer hints to each player based on his or her Knowledge stat.

Unique: Obviously, if the players chose to craft Unique field abilities for their characters, then these should be incorporated into the game's field puzzles, preferably rather often but in different ways each time. As noted in the description of the Unique field stat, think of them as the field abilities of the partners in the Paper Mario games: each ability allows Mario to reach certain spots that no other ability, whether his or another partner's, does. This should be emphasized to the players when they are coming up with their Unique abilities; the Unique abilities should not fall under the jurisdiction of one of the other field stats, or of the Unique abilities of the other players (unless this is intentionally used in a creative way). Examples: In Lewot’s Game 1, he planned to use Levity's singing ability to unlock various things--opening a magical snowglobe, convincing a toneless AI to create stairs for the party, awakening the sacred Beanstar--and Mister Dragon's breath had two inherent uses in the ability to set it on fire or the option to use it to provide breathable air to the other players.

Partial Solutions: The Clever field stat is a tricky one to use in field puzzles, because if a player decides to max out the stat, then it would stand to reason that this would warrant the Maestro simply explaining the puzzle to the character to represent the character cleverly figuring out the puzzle, which renders the puzzle rather pointless. Thus, Clever is better used to give the player hints but not full answers, or to give the player the answers to the simpler puzzles that are part of a chain of puzzles of varying difficulty. Other field occurrences that do not constitute puzzles could also be relevant, for example, thinking to look underneath a desk or a rock to find a hidden item--this is a rather easier use of Clever. Sometimes, giving the players the basic answer to a puzzle will not fully tell them how to solve it--for example, they might need to pool their Strength to move a heavy object, whereas all that the Clever stat revealed was that the object needed to be moved.

Noir: Clever can also be used for mystery-solving tasks such as making a logical connection between two events, determining that a particular key goes in a particular lock (as opposed to having known this already with Knowledge), noticing that a character seems to be lying or hiding some information, noticing part of a hidden object protruding from somewhere, or rattling off a summation.

Stats: If one of the players has a particularly high Knowledge stat, then the Maestro could choose not to reveal the effects of items or the stats of enemies to anyone but that player, necessitating that that player reveal the information to the other players him- or herself. It could also be more general knowledge about what kind of world the players find themselves in or how to use special objects other than battle items and basic field obstacles. Again, this can be made rather more interesting if the high-knowledge character is mute or the like.

Wind Tunnel: If a character is required to carry his or her own weight through something along the lines of powerful wind, this could be handled using either the Strength stat or the character's Weight, or both. The wind could have a power value that Strength must meet or exceed, or else characters whose Weight is less than the value could be the ones blown back; you could even say that only characters whose own Strength meets or exceeds their Weight are allowed through. Either way, this could create a situation like the one described in the "Cliff/Platform" suggestion where some characters are able to push through the wind tunnel and some are not, so the successful ones must create some new pathway for the others.

Pressure Switch: The most common use of the Weight stat is to feature a switch or panel on the ground that will activate when a certain Weight value is placed on it; a single character who weighs less than the necessary value will be unable to activate the switch all alone, but multiple characters can stand on the switch and pool their Weights, and heavy objects such as those that must be pushed with Strength will be given a Weight stat and can be used to trigger the switch as well.

Wrestling: Usually involving two characters pushing their full body weight against each other, either in proximity to a cliff or door, or as a stalling technique, etc. This would be one character's Strength versus the other character's. If the difference is large, one character will quickly be pushed back; if it's small, this will take longer; if the two Strengths are equal, then the two characters will remain pushing indefinitely until one gives in or some external force acts on one of them.

Intricate Object: The Hand-Eye stat would be used to build, rebuild, or carefully take apart an intricate object--perhaps the most suspenseful example would be defusing a bomb. It may be necessary to combine this with Knowledge and Clever for it to work if the object is sufficiently complicated.

Slippery Surfaces: Characters use the Platform stat to prevent themselves from slipping and falling on it. Falling does not do any damage, but characters with very low Platform stats will be unable to keep their balance enough to cross the surface; the numbers involved here might be fuzzy sometimes and exact other times. If a character is wearing a Penguin Suit, then he or she will not slip on ice at all, though the Platform stat is not itself altered, and this only works on literal ice.

Footstool Jump: Named for the technique in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, this refers to jumping off of another character's head, Mario-style. In Concerto, this can be used as a method to pool two characters' Platform stats: one character jumps up, and at the height of his or her jump, a teammate jumps onto his or her head, then immediately pushes off again, resulting in the head-jumping character reaching a total height equal to both participants' Platform stats added together. The character who wants to bounce off of his or her teammate must have at least as much Platform as the teammate in order to reach the teammate's head at the height of the jump, which means that the character with the lower Platform stat should be the bouncee, and the one with the higher stat the bouncer.

Peer Pressure: In order to manipulate a character whose Charisma stat is 9, a team of characters can pool their Charisma stats, and if the added total exceeds 9, they could be successful. Manipulation of any kind should involve actual role playing; a character with 9 Charisma may be able to say "Hey you, do this" to a character with 1 Charisma and get good results, but if a player wants to have a character with 9 Charisma, they should be required to put in some effort toward making the character's personality and dialogue actually be charismatic. In the case of multiple characters pooling their stats to manipulate a single target, this should be more difficult than one-on-one, and the team of characters should have to come up with some convincingly persuasive dialogue, perhaps even sounding like a group of gossiping cheerleaders or whatever.

Updraft: Whether naturally or artificially, a strong, continuous wind is blowing upward, presumably toward a higher surface that is too high to reach merely by jumping (so this works best if none of the player characters have 9 Platform). In this case, the Maestro could say that only characters with a Weight stat below a certain value will be able to ride the wind upward, or alternately it could only work for characters who have an umbrella-type weapon equipped. Be creative.