[MENTION=50895]gamerprinter[/MENTION] - at first glance that's a pretty-looking map but on second look the dungeon it's depicting is very linear. The only loop is provided by area 3, giving a bypass to the trap at area 2; unless I'm misreading and the gatehouse (area 4) is a second entrance to the dungeon. Either way, areas 5 and onward are a straight line other than one two-room dead-end offshoot (areas 10-11).
This is great if the design intent is to funnel the PCs through the encounters in a mostly-predictable order - tournament dungeons are almost always designed this way for just this reason - but for non-tournament use linear layouts like this aren't often much fun to play through as ultimately the only meaningful choice is to press on or turn back. That said, there's limits to how intricate you can make a 13-area dungeon.
I often have strict linear dungeons because that’s what makes sense. I don’t design a dungeon to be interesting as a place for gamers to explore. It exists for a reason.
For example, most tombs are a simple linear design ( and often use maps of actual tombs). Sometimes there are a couple of choices, but for the most part they are just simple tombs.
That’s not to say you can’t Jaquay it. But in that case it’s usually because of natural causes (erosion, weather, earthquakes, etc) or creatures such as burrowing monsters, or prior expeditions that have altered the dungeon.
One of the advantages of this approach is I can do what I always do and design it for an appropriate level. That might be a much higher level that the PCs, but either the dangers have been lessened or defeated, or original dangers are intact and the evidence of other original dangers alerts them to when they are getting in over their head. Usually they are smart enough to take the hint...
If there is a dungeon holding great treasure, I expect that to hold up to setting integrity. Why hasn’t this great treasure been plundered in 3000 years? It’s usually because it is unknown, or so dangerous that even the highest level adventurers that have tried, failed.
To me, interesting dungeon design is more about its lore. The placement in the setting, or the importance to the PC or NPC. What makes it interesting is the circumstance. Sometimes that circumstance is long expanses if nothing.
For example, I’ve seen several maps made for Moria. In most cases, especially those mass for RPGs, it amounts to maybe a hundred rooms. Similar abandoned dwarves cities are around the same size.
I love the ICE MERP version because it’s miles upon miles of passages. Regions where thousands of dwarves once lived. Many levels, where most of the dungeon is left for the DM to fill out (including placement of rooms, homes, etc.) with examples given. In dungeons like this, along with places like catacombs, the players have literally spent months. They aren’t trying to “clear” them or explore every room, of course. They have s purpose, and they move on. But it gives a scale that is much more expansive, and basically forces them to not treat it like a video game and try to kill every monster and get every last bit of treasure.
The point is, a dungeon is linear when it makes sense to be linear. It becomes largely irrelevant the more the dungeon is interesting because of its existence, it’s purpose, and integration into the campaign, whether that tie is through setting or plot. It’s interesting because the players/characters find it interesting. It tells its own story, in addition to being part of this story.
A recent tomb in my campaign used a map from one of the tombs in the Valley of Kings and was entirely linear. The opening was found in the back of a displaced beast lair, long since covered by a rockslide and vegetation. The tomb had clearly been plundered, and now lay in an advanced state of decay due to water and rot. A stream ran down the passage where several traps that had already been triggered or defeated could’ve found, and a few that still worked, but the poison was no longer lethal, and mechanics were degraded or locked by rust. Small creatures used the old tomb as their lair.
They found the remains of many that had tried, and failed, before one group succeeded in breaching the tomb. An slightly open (but hard to reach) formerly concealed door told them that the tomb that was found was a false one. This one revealed the history of more that had failed, their remains cursed to rise in defense. This part of the tomb was subjected primarily to dry rot. It too was plundered, but some treasures remained.
The tomb was also a false tomb, though, and the crumbling walls revealed a chamber that the treasure seekers had not found. They approached it with much more caution, only to find that it, and the treasure room, had been plundered from below. Drow, using dwarven slaves, had tunneled in to steal its riches, and had slain the mummy. They had not taken all of the treasure yet, and those tunnels led to others, and other tombs.
The treasures and information they found among the (un)dead adventurers provided lore, history and hooks. What they are learning about the interred did too. Some useable treasures were found, and of course they are deciding what to do about the drow.
All of this was a linear dungeon until they got to the drow tunnels. Yet it has led, through potential story hooks (to as yet unwritten stories) to more than a half-dozen additional directions that are being actively pursued by several adventuring groups now. And only one death (and three combats...well, really two since one was twice since the undead guardians rise at dawn each day).
