A: when it’s a map.
Image by Peter H from Pixabay

I was watching a movie that’s an old favorite, National Treasure (now available with its sequel as a blue-ray double-feature at Amazon, click on the link – limited copies available), prompted by a combination of availability and renewed speculation concerning a third movie in the series.

It’s not as though the first two were flops, after all – the first grossed $347 million world-wide off a $100 million budget, and the sequel brought in $457 million. Rumors persist that a sequel was actually filmed, at least in part, and offer up various stories ranging from plausible to wildly improbable for the failure of part 3 to manifest. Do a google search for “National Treasure 3” and you’ll discover a wealth of articles and blog posts and websites and youTube videos exploring the subject.

The truth of the matter seems to be that a script was almost in filmable form, but big-ticket acquisitions like the Marvel and Star Wars franchises, plus the ever-growing Pixar catalog, plus their own success stories like the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise, have all combined to do a super-sopper on available oxygen for projects like National Treasure 3 – and that the changing demographic appeal of the star, Nicholas Cage, makes such a project more of a risk than it might initially seem. That’s the word according to Jon Tuteltaub, the director of the fist two movies, at least according to collider.com in the article “Here’s Why ‘National Treasure 3’ Hasn’t Happened Yet“, in one of those many articles that I alluded to in the preceding paragraph.

So, anyway, I was watching the sequence in which the pipe turns out to be the first clue in the trail leading (ultimately) to the treasure, and Cage’s character describes it as a “map”. That touched off a vivid recollection of the map that features in the second and third Pirates Of The Caribbean movies… and that got me to thinking of the many different formats that a map might take. When the title of the possible article came to me, it’s instant appeal made this article a dead certainty.

Too often, in fantasy games, players are presented with a “treasure map” that looks just like a traditional map – with an “X” marking the spot. There are a handful of variations, but that’s it. There’s no real excuse for this lack of creativity. So, here are twenty strange and fantastic forms a map might take…

1. Traditional Slices

This map was made by someone fascinated by puzzles. It looks like a traditional paper map, but to read it correctly, you need to cut it up along the right lines, put the resulting strips in the right order, and then slide them along the cuts to get everything to line up.

2. Multiple False Trails

This map also looks like a traditional map, but it shows multiple routes to the goal, whatever it might be. The problem is that all of these (bar one, if you’re feeling generous) lead to traps and hostile forces. (If you aren’t feeling so generous, you need to employ a combination of the false clues to follow the “true path” – which is easy, if you were the one who made the map, and so understand it. For example, clue #1 on path #1 might be a distinctively forked tree. Clue #1 on path #2 might be a mountain of a particular shape. Clue #1 on path #3 might be a famous statue. So, if you head for the statue, there might come a moment en route when you reach a point where the mountains in the distance are framed by the branches of a cactus that perfectly matches the shape of the forked tree. If you walk in that direction, there will come a moment when the shape of the mountains will exactly match the depiction on path #2. In effect, you are homogenizing all three paths to discern a fourth – and if you go just a few feet off-course, you’ll miss the vital next clue.

3. Sculpture on a door

You have a door, big, heavy and sturdy, with steel panels and steel bands holding them in place. And, on one side of it is a relief sculpture of a remote area as it was long ago when the door was forged. And if you examine this “map” (which is really inconvenient to take with you anywhere) very closely, you might find notations of various sites of interest to the maker here and there.

4. A narrative

Why put down in images what you can put into fanciful language? This permits the full armory of language to be unleashed on concealing the important information. What’s more, since the person preparing this guideline is obviously intent on hiding the true path from anyone who shouldn’t have possession of it, he, she, or it can even manufacture “more obvious” solutions to the various clues and emplace them at the appropriate points on the path – misdirection, leading to traps. If he’s feeling especially nasty, it might even lead the unwary to a fake dungeon full of traps and hostiles – but very little reward. Party after party may have braved it in hopes of finding the Lost Treasure, which “must” be hidden there somewhere…

5. Woven into a tapestry

This is an old favorite. A tapestry with a number of seemingly narrative images depicting the life of the person creating the “map”, but each image contains a landmark or clue that gives a direction. Tying these images together are threads that don’t belong in a normal tapestry, running at an angle to the grain of the weave and died a dark color. These combine with a scale hidden at each landmark or in the images to denote a travel time along the indicated line to the next landmark.

6. Magically inserted beneath a masterwork

This requires the GM to have established a couple of famous artists – the equivalent of namedropping Rembrandt or Picasso, people whose names are even recognizable to the majority of laymen. So, when someone shows up at a tavern with one, that they claim had a map inserted into the under-paints magically, the players are faced with the dilemma of destroying a priceless artwork to recover the map underneath – if it truly exists at all. Who would take the chance? This is the sort of puzzle that nags at some players until they solve it. How do you get the map out from underneath the paint without destroying the painting?

7. The fabulous greenhouse

The names (in various languages) and properties of the plants growing in a fabulous greenhouse form the clues that lead to the hidden wealth of the greenhouse owner.

8. The Alchemist’s formula

Once there was an incredibly famous alchemist, who purportedly solved the problem of turning base metal (iron) into gold. The problem with his solution is that it took decades if not centuries to complete this transformation. The alchemist was tortured to death for his secret, but the formula that he gave up on his deathbed didn’t work, even though truth droughts had been forcibly administered beforehand. Ever since, spurious “formulas” supposedly containing the true process of this alchemist have been sold to the gullible. So, when someone joins the PCs in a tavern and seeks to hire them to find the hidden and long-lost laboratory of the alchemist, they are likely to be interested. Their potential patron has deduced that the alchemist’s formula, given on his death-bed, was truthful, after a fashion – it was actually disguised directions to that laboratory, where the formula could be found. A formula that has now had ample time to turn lots of iron objects into soft, yellow gold…

Problem #1: obtaining a true copy of the deathbed formula

Problem #2: figuring out how to translate it into the clues

Problem #3: following those clues through terrain and territory that is now a lot more dangerous

Problem #4: an alchemist’s laboratory that’s stood abandoned for centuries – who knows what might lurk inside?

The GM will need answers to these questions before the players ask them, of course. Here are some suggestions: eliminate every step in the formula that refers to a Base. this breaks the “formula” into a number of smaller processes, each of which yields a commonly-known substance. That substance’s common name is the clue. So the first clue might be “Ice”, the second might be “Sulfur”, the third might be “Ash”, and so on. Once you have these translated clues, it should be a simple matter for the GM to work up a series of puzzles revolving around the theme of the clue.

9. Pi In Error

A scroll contains a series of riddles, surmounted by some geometry (think ancient Greek, or do an image search for “geometry greek calculation pi” to find an image like this one) showing how to derive the value of pi. The riddles appear to have been written over the top of an existing page of work that wasn’t bleached out properly. The tenth line of the riddles states (in appropriate flowery language) that this is the path to a treasure – the GM should provide some appropriate backstory to explain why it’s been hidden). This scroll was sent as “payment” of the debt, whatever it was, but no-one’s been able to penetrate the mystery.

Extremely close examination of the scroll by a character who knows math will reveal an error in the calculation of pi. Prior to this point, the GM should be careful to refer to it only by it’s name or as “3.14 etc”. The value shown is 3.14592768 – which is the sequence that the riddles have to be solved in, in order to follow the trail to the treasure.

10. A grain of rice

Take a map of a small region, wrap it around a roughly spherical shape, then carve a grain of rice to match…

11. Bonus: The physical polympsat

This is another alchemy-themed puzzle. Physically so large as to be quite immobile, it consists of a model of a maze, with each corner and intersection marked with a landmark or clue. The problem is that simply solving the maze, and noting the clues that you have to pass over in doing so, gets you nowhere.

• Although the wooden channels all look the same, the woods have undergone different alchemic preparations. Some are slightly sticky or tacky, such that a dusting of any sort of powder will reveal a line of connected clues running right through physical walls and barriers (the “earth” clue).
• Pouring water down a waterfall sculpted in the center of the puzzle (one of the more noticeable “clues”) results in water running down some parts of the puzzle and not others, connecting more clues both before and after the waterfall. Significantly, either the first or the last of these (depending on which way you count them) is the last clue of the “earth” line.
• Similarly, filling some small barrels labeled “XXXX” with a flammable spirit results in a stream of leaking alcohol running past a candle that’s almost burned down to a nub, setting it alight IF the candle has been lit. This connects another three or four clues (the “fire” line).
• If you solve these clues and follow the trail, you will eventually find your way to a full-sized version of the maze – one full of traps and monsters. Only by following the solution that can be determined by memorizing the original “miniature” version (the “air path”) can you get through relatively safely to the hidden entrance to the treasure cache.

12. Bonus: The Window Of Truth

In the middle of the room, the PCs find a poorly-made glass window in a freestanding frame. Why it’s there, they have no idea. It seems out of place. If someone attempts to destroy it (out of general pugnaciousness or frustration) they will find that the strange display is protected by walls of force. (PCs might get the idea that it’s a puzzle designed to do nothing more than pin them down long enough for wandering monsters or patrols to discover them).

In reality, the glass is exquisitely made; it looks crude because it blends several different types of glass into the one pane. These react differently to different lighting conditions – firelight, moonlight, daylight, the light of burning brandy (very blueish), and so on. Each reveals one page of clues / directions to the treasure. They still have to be read in the right order.

This idea was inspired by the Hobbit – not the movies, the original book.

Metagaming The Map

As this small selection shows, exotic maps can be both fascinating and dangerous. None of them should be solvable with a simple die roll – you have to ask the right questions. If you do so, a die roll might be required to get the answer.

You are challenging the players, not just their characters. That means that culturally-inappropriate riddles are perfectly fine, an abstracted representation of the riddle actually posed to the NPCs.

What’s more, that means that you should pitch the difficulty levels at an appropriate standard for the players, not the PCs.

Metagaming The Map II

The nature of the map should function as a preview to what to expect at journey’s end. That’s because it’s a window into the mind of the person responsible for its creation (note that I didn’t say “the maker” – many would have employed skilled artisans to craft their maps, artisans who could then have “accidents” if they posed a security risk. If the person to whom the goodies belonged didn’t have the necessary skills, of course.

That means integrating the legend of the “creator” of a map into the campaign backstory, making sure that it’s nicely consistent with the profile that can be derived from the map they caused to be created, and making sure that the nature of the challenges and rewards at the end of the quest are also appropriate to the expressed personality.

I remember once being told about another GM’s dungeon and map. It was written in a form of invisible ink that could be made visible at human body temperatures, but would fade quickly in the open air, and would burn energetically if heated very far beyond this point – something the PCs discovered when they incinerated one corner of the document. The party rogue took no chances, keeping the folded map inside his jacket and top-shirt at all times except for the brief moments when it was being examined. The dungeon to which it led was brimming with death-traps, like 10′ pits that filled with acid when someone fell into them, or a Medusa in a hall of Mirrors. Throughout the exploration of the dungeon, the rogue’s CON kept dropping, a point here, a point there. I forget which race the rogue was, but the dungeon had been constructed by a mortal enemy of that race, and it was to this animosity, expressed in some sort of evil magic over the whole place, that the party attributed the rogue’s steady decline. Eventually, they were forced to retreat and rest up; the next day, the Rogue died of accumulated CON loss. Only after he was safely buried and the rest of the party departed did the GM tell him that the body-heat activated map had been coated in slow-acting contact poison; it was one last death-trap. At the next game session, it was all the player of the former rogue could do to stay expressionless when the paladin announced that he was hiding the map under his armor and silken shirt…

These little touches serve as multipliers to both the credibility and memorability of your creations. They foster the impression that your campaign is part of you, and vice-versa – that it is truly yours, unique to you. The cumulative originality displayed accumulates until it becomes impossible to conceive of that campaign not being run by you. It becomes a signature, a standard against which all others will be judged.

Which means that these dozen ideas are just starting points; integrating them into your campaign is up to you, because you won’t do it in exactly the way I would.

With this post, I am starting to focus on shorter items to ensure that I can squeeze them into the holiday period. At least that’s the plan – you’ve no doubt heard me say similar things before…