Just Figured Out How to Make Sure the Party imc Explores Every Room in the Dungeon

[the Jester]

For some reason, the party in my campaign always turns left. They even have a slogan for it- "Left to live!"

Interestingly, this seems to be a longterm player choice rather than a choice that this group of characters has made. Multiple groups have used this same 'exploration philosophy'... the only commonality is the players.

What this means is, I can design a dungeon and put the stuff they're after all the way to the right and they'll explore the rest first!

I haven't actually tested this theory- I much prefer to have my dungeons designed for internal logic- but it really seems true. Though there are exceptions, I'd say close to 90% of the time, given the choice, the group will go left first.

Anyone else have a group with similar quirks that makes it easy to 'direct' them?

 

[boxstop7]

Yep, my group has a really great quirk. If I put a door in front of them, they barge through it without fail. It's amazing. Uncanny, really. Even if the rogue checks for traps or listens for voices, they'll just go screaming through the door, guns a-blazin'. Especially if they hear voices on the other side. There's really nothing quite like my "full frontal assault" gang!

 

[Richards]

My first D&D gaming experience was in a dungeon my cousin Tom made up. We started out in the middle of the dungeon with no memories of how we got there, and the whole point was trying to find our way out. Unfortunately, the dungeon complex we were in had a bunch (8 or more) of teleport rooms scattered throughout: 10' by 10' rooms with a door on each wall, and when you exited the room through a doorway you were randomly teleported to another identical 10' by 10' room with a door on each wall. (Fortunately, the whole group went to the same identical room each time, so although we didn't realize we had teleported, at least we were still all together as a group.) It sure made mapping confusing! In fact, that's what finally led us (and by "us," I mean my cousin Harry, who had been gaming with Tom for years; the rest of us were all newbies in our first adventure and really didn't have a clue) to figure out the teleport room gimmick, by noticing several corridors in our increasingly geometrically-impossible map were identical.

In any case, from that point on, in any of Tom's dungeons, all he had to do was put a 10' by 10' room with a door on each wall in our way, and we'd immediately turn around and find another way to go. None of us wanted to take the chance it might be another of those @#$%&*! teleport rooms!

Johnathan

 

[tauton_ikhnos]

Our group keeps careful map, aim for center; or, if dungeon is factionalized, look for centers of power, aim for those. If dungeon is set up to require backtracking to move to center (not unreasonable for a defensible position), forces us to cover more ground.

Unless one of us is playing wall-sundering monster

 

[tarchon]

My old group was right-turning - one time when we were playing beginning low level characters, my PC asked a retired adventurer which way he went, and he repeated our old slogan "You never go wrong with right."
Strangely, one time one guy in the group who'd never DMed before set up a lich's lair that had a dungeon full of evil traps on the left and the lich's throne room on the right, so naturally we just walked right into the throne room and butchered the poor old lich at our full strength. We didn't let him forget about that for years.

 

[demiurge1138]

My group's strategy for dungeon crawling was two-fold.
1) Never let an obstacle stop you.
My party loved making things difficult. They once tried to break through the wall of an obsidian citadel in order to avoid climbing the stairs to get the second floor. They also scaled a 100ft wall, just to see what was on the other side (the answer was cloakers).
2) Don't open big doors.
My party was terrified of the big, iron-portcullis. Any large gates invariably draws a slight nervous cringe. Sometimes, they don't even open them (well, there's a wasted hour or two of prep).

Demiurge out.

 

[WayneLigon]

For some reason, the party in my campaign always turns left. They even have a slogan for it- "Left to live!"

Heh. Early in one campaign we were exploring a set of sea caves, looking for pirates. Seeing the maze of caverns and tunnels, I jokingly said we should go 'left left left left right'. Which, having no better idea, we did. We end up in the main chamber of the Big Bad Guy, long before we should have faced him. I was never consulted on directions again.

 

[Morrus]

For some reason, the party in my campaign always turns left. They even have a slogan for it- "Left to live!"

That's eerily familiar! The party in my campaign does exactly the same thing. Their slogan is "Left is the Way of Heroes!"

 

[Stahn Li]

always turning left is not stupid

Its simply part of a solution to every possible maze, If you always turn left (or right) you will get to the end of any maze. It is a exaustive strategy. The partys decision is nothing more than a strict execution of logic.

 

[FireLance]

always turning left is not stupid

Its simply part of a solution to every possible maze, If you always turn left (or right) you will get to the end of any maze. It is a exaustive strategy. The partys decision is nothing more than a strict execution of logic.

I believe this only works in a 2-D maze. In a 3-D maze, it is possible to have a series of sloping passages so that turning left all the time leads you back to the start.