3 Tips for Groundhog Day Scenarios

Wizard of Adventure Buck asks:

Have you ever run or heard of someone running a Groundhog Day type game? Do you have ideas on how to do this?

We know:

  • We need specific conditions met to get out of the loop.
  • We want the party to coalesce with each iteration.
  • We want to give the party more goal information each loop.
  • We want the loop to happen at least 3 times so players get the feel of the plan. We don’t want them to solve it too quickly.
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Great question, Buck! I recently ran a Groundhog Day scenario for my Basilica campaign.

For Basilica, I used Groundhog Day as a way to convert the campaign from the Old School Essentials RPG to the WOIN RPG. I needed an in-game way to explain how reality was suddenly different because of the rules swap.

Here’s what I learned.

1. Get Clear on Trigger & Exit

As with all adventures, we want the party to bite the hook. And, as with all adventures, if we leave that up to the PCs, something will go wrong.

In this case, we want to trigger the time loop. That’s the hook or adventure beginning.

If you want to let players choose to trigger the time loop in play, prepare contingencies for when the party turns left at Albuquerque.

My approach was to impose the situation on the PCs. Sometimes the universe just does that. Like weather. In this case, the trigger fired when the PCs entered the lower level of the Moathouse. The party lost consciousness, woke up, and we were now using WOIN character sheets.

I needed a heavy hand because we were converting game systems. So my adventure design purposefully forced the time loop to start based on one basic party action: enter the dungeon.

I recommend this approach for this particular adventure type because it’s a self-contained plot, a living trap. Failing to trigger means the whole adventure is toast.

Likewise, be clear on how Groundhog Day ends. If unsure, you’ll get stuck in the loop, and the loop gets boring fast.

For Basilica, the solution was taking The Crystal Shard away from Gralkar the Shadowmancer Goblin King and exiting the dungeon.

Either make the exit obvious (pull this lever with the right key inserted), make it the result of an obvious action (leaving the dungeon), or reveal the solution during the adventure using the 3 Clue Rule.

d6 “Can’t Miss” Groundhog Day Triggers

  1. The Clock Strikes Thirteen: A town’s ancient clock tower chimes a 13th hour, triggering the loop.
  2. Blood Moon Rises: A rare celestial event causes the loop. This could offer a useful deadline for Exit, as well.
  3. Cursed Artefact: Finding and attuning with Blackrazor or the Orb of Dragonkind activates the temporal cycle.
  4. Supernatural Storm: Put the random weather table away for a bit and suck the PCs up in a twister or unsettling thick fog.
  5. Ritual Interrupted: A bit trickier to pull off, but perhaps the party’s mere presence is enough to break reality mid-ritual.
  6. Sunset: Perhaps the sky turns the colour of television tuned to a dead channel and the PCs realize something has changed…

d6 Clear Groundhog Day Exits

  1. Destroy the Anchor: A powerful object anchoring the time loop must be found and destroyed.
  2. Convince the Unbeliever: A key NPC must be persuaded to stop or start something they don’t want to.
  3. Complete the Unfinished Task: A mission or quest left incomplete by rivals or enemies must be resolved to restore time.
  4. Sacrifice: The party must willingly sacrifice something valuable to end the cycle.
  5. Harmony Restored: The PCs create peace or otherwise resolve a major conflict or feud.
  6. Leave: The party must survive or have the right key to leave an area, which breaks the Groundhog Day curse.

2. Memory as Resource

When the characters retain memory but the world doesn’t, that becomes a useful tool. In this case, memory is another word for discovery.

  1. Ask yourself what the party must learn to solve the Groundhog Day puzzle.
  2. Make a list of 3-6 discoveries that reveal the solution. Ideally, in a sequence.
  3. Prepare one discovery reveal per loop, based on the minimum number of time loops you want to play.

With this plan, you’ve now got both a solution and gameplay matrix. What information gets revealed When and How.

For Basilica, I kept the discoveries basic:

  1. Discover the goblins living in the dungeon.
  2. Discover King Gralkar and his “precious” magic gem.
  3. Discover the Cloche Room, original place of the gem.

To end the time loop, the PCs must exit the dungeon with gem in hand or put the gem back in the magical cloche.

Goblins => King => Gem => Cloche.

The goblins and King had no recollection of the PCs who encountered them in previous time loops. The party could learn the dungeon, map it out, learn to avoid other dangers, get the clues, and try various actions to escape, while the goblins reset each time, providing a nice tactical element to play.

3. Create Mini-Arcs Per Loop

I wish I’d done a better job of this. After the adventure was over I did a retrospective. And I realized I did not make each time loop iteration its own interesting story.

While the players figured out the situation and the solution fast, in just two iterations, it took a third loop playthrough to exit the puzzle. By that time, the loop was feeling repetitive. If I’d plotted a mini-arc for d6 loops, it would have levelled up my adventure design.

And that made me think the 5 Room Dungeon format makes for perfect story beats for a time loop mini-arc.

For example, I could’ve added a romance angle for King Gralkar. Perhaps the Queen isn’t happy in Loop 1. In Loop 2, the Queen tries to ally with the PCs to get revenge on the King for some issue. In Loop 3, the King has imprisoned the Queen for some crime. In Loop 4 the Queen is about to assault the King and his loyal guard in the King’s Quarters because the regent loves his dang gem more than his wife.

The Queen situation changes the texture of each loop, adding a layer of interest and engagement. Such a plot could also offer a juicy Red Herring as the party might think becoming marriage counsellors will solve the puzzle.

And the mini-arcs can be different each time without breaking the actual puzzle and exit solution.

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I hope these tips help, Buck!

Cheers,
Johnn
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