Quicksand?!

[TristramEvans]

How would you handle quicksand in a game? Not necessarily "real" quicksand, but Hollywood Quicksand, a trap where the more you move the harder it is to escape?

 

[PolarBlues]

I don't know how to handle natural hazards. Whether its cinematic quicksand in the Wild West or radioactive rain in Gamma World, I have no clue how to make it into interesting gameable content other than as background colour. I may make a mess out of explaining this, possibly because I don't fully understand the problem myself.

Here's the thing. In a movie, if named character gets caught in quicksand, unless its horror or the villain in the final ten minutes, you know he will get saved. It's made exciting by the acting, the way it's shot and the music, but in the end it's basically empty content. In most instances you cut the whole sequence out of the film and the story would make just as much sense.

Games aren't movies. Empty content, content made to seem exciting through description doesn't do anything for me. On the other hand, I am not prepared to have characters die just because they failed a succession of Wilderness and "grab the rope" rolls.

Dying in combat is different. There is usually a good reason to enter combat, and bigger purpose of agenda the character is prepared to put everything on the line for. Ideally wining a fight should be more than just surviving, it should actively forward the parties's goals. If a character dies in combat the survivors may have new motivations for revenge. And of course, during combat itself characters have a lot of agency, the outcome is rarely just bad luck.

But getting killed by quicksand just seems dumb. It has no goals, there is nothing heroic about it and nothing to get revenge upon for the rest.

So I guess to make quicksand useful I would need either
(1) A different kind of consequence than just death
(2) A mechanical framework that makes beating quicksand tactically interesting

I am sure it can be done and people do it all the time. It's just never clicked for me.

 

[Simlasa]

But getting killed by quicksand just seems dumb. It has no goals, there is nothing heroic about it and nothing to get revenge upon for the rest.

I'm fine with dumb deaths in games...
To me it's like being attacked/eaten by some slime/mold/pudding type creature... but immobile, so more like a trap. A natural trap like falling into a hole or causing an avalanche and being buried. Fatal unless someone else is around to save you or you have some piece of equipment to get yourself out (rope and grappling hook?).
Maybe some sort of 'nerves' roll to remain calm and wait out a rescue?
I'd try to think of some clue that it's a possible hazard... maybe just a local coot who says, "Watch out for the quicksand!" Avoid it by using a pole to poke the ground at sandy spots as you move around.

 

[Jacob Rodgers]

Well, of course, quicksand in the real world doesn't work the way it does in the movies. It's much more about not panicking and wearing yourself out (in 5e terms, levels of exhaustion is the right mechanic and that has death at the end, so there's an immediate character consequence there).

But even for cinematic quicksand, one of the greatest threats is lack of action. In other words, while you're messing about with the quicksand, someone is trying to do something that you could help with. (For example, it could have easily been restructured that Westley went into the quicksand and Buttercup now has to try to rescue him and fight off the R.O.U.S. at the same time. Did I mention that their only weapon is Westley's sword, now buried in the quicksand?)

 

[opaopajr]

Simple, everything is about meaningful choices: prepared optimization choices, during contextual choices, and desperation ad hoc choices. Note as time and assets get more scarce the meaningful choices get more anxious.

Best plan prevention, better plan cure, good plan kludge, any plan "hail mary" prayer.

Go back and slot quicksand back into the above.

Quicksand: preventable? curable? kludge-able? prayer-able?

Preventable: Quicksand is a hazard that can be known beforehand, observed by training, and anticipated by active perception.
Curable: Quicksand can be survived by having friends, supplies, and strategic movement through hazarous terrain.
Kludge-able: Quicksand is not always around pane-glass slick impossible terrain devoid of any ad-hoc options... as GM describe the environs.
Prayer-able: Quicksand has an element of luck/destiny/fate where you can fall upon the solution of staying still & trying to float to the edge, or intervention from a passerby hearing your distress.

There are a lot of ways to solve the above at each step. And here's the great part as GM, you are not responsible for your players' PCs to take any of the above proffered (even a miracle can be rejected). It is their "exciting, death-defying choice" as they best understand it through the eyes of their characters.

Provide hints beforehand and asset options and let players choose their own difficulty and style of meaningful choices. As a GM it is less work than you think. Slot in the hazard, put in some OBVIOUS assets (rumors, guides/knowledgeable, supplies, allies, etc.), and let the players at the buffet of consequences. That's it!

Some want to prepare less and flail more, relying on wits & fortune. These have their meaningful choices "just in time" tactical and run greater risk of disaster, but can jump right into Adventure! ASAP. Others want to plan more and have unfair fights to negate such challenges, but their expense is "you can't have everything, everywhere, all the time, as needed." So their meaningful choices are front-loaded and torture their strategic preparedness.

Once you do your prep and inform your players that you are doing your best to supply knowables and solutions available AT THEIR INTEREST, and the consequences will be played as fair neutrality as possible, then the rest is their way of exploring fun for their PCs.

 

[Tommy Brownell]

I don't know how to handle natural hazards. Whether its cinematic quicksand in the Wild West or radioactive rain in Gamma World, I have no clue how to make it into interesting gameable content other than as background colour. I may make a mess out of explaining this, possibly because I don't fully understand the problem myself.

Here's the thing. In a movie, if named character gets caught in quicksand, unless its horror or the villain in the final ten minutes, you know he will get saved. It's made exciting by the acting, the way it's shot and the music, but in the end it's basically empty content. In most instances you cut the whole sequence out of the film and the story would make just as much sense.

Games aren't movies. Empty content, content made to seem exciting through description doesn't do anything for me. On the other hand, I am not prepared to have characters die just because they failed a succession of Wilderness and "grab the rope" rolls.

Dying in combat is different. There is usually a good reason to enter combat, and bigger purpose of agenda the character is prepared to put everything on the line for. Ideally wining a fight should be more than just surviving, it should actively forward the parties's goals. If a character dies in combat the survivors may have new motivations for revenge. And of course, during combat itself characters have a lot of agency, the outcome is rarely just bad luck.

But getting killed by quicksand just seems dumb. It has no goals, there is nothing heroic about it and nothing to get revenge upon for the rest.

So I guess to make quicksand useful I would need either
(1) A different kind of consequence than just death
(2) A mechanical framework that makes beating quicksand tactically interesting

I am sure it can be done and people do it all the time. It's just never clicked for me.

Man, if I cut the empty content out of my games, my sessions would only be 20 minutes long. Stop harshing my buzz.