D&D 5E A different kind of dungeon crawl - the dungeon brawl for 5e

[Psikerlord#]

I like the dungeon brawl idea and suspect many DMs use it (or a variant of it) already. It just makes sense that if the players assault a keep or whatever fireballs blazin', they are going to draw out most or all of the bad guys in waves, or possibly all at once, depending on how organised they are. I like the encouraging the PCs to keep moving through the complex as the fighting rages on.

This kind of encounter does prevent any short rests between "encounters" though, so i think you have to be a bit careful with it. From memory parties are supposed to be able to handle 6-8 encounters a day, so 3-5 in a dungeon brawl should be good.

 

[Bupp]

I ended up using pretty much this idea when running my kids through The Keep on the Borderlands. Each of the individual caves would erupt into waves of action when contact was made. I pretty much played it by feel, but would add what came from different rooms at different times.

 

[Jimbro]

I like the dungeon brawl idea and suspect many DMs use it (or a variant of it) already. It just makes sense that if the players assault a keep or whatever fireballs blazin', they are going to draw out most or all of the bad guys in waves, or possibly all at once, depending on how organised they are. I like the encouraging the PCs to keep moving through the complex as the fighting rages on.

This kind of encounter does prevent any short rests between "encounters" though, so i think you have to be a bit careful with it. From memory parties are supposed to be able to handle 6-8 encounters a day, so 3-5 in a dungeon brawl should be good.

For sure! You gotta keep a close eye or end up with a TPK.

 

[Uller]

This kind of encounter does prevent any short rests between "encounters" though, so i think you have to be a bit careful with it. From memory parties are supposed to be able to handle 6-8 encounters a day, so 3-5 in a dungeon brawl should be good.

Yes. You have to make it clear to your players that is how you run things so they know. It doesn't take too long though for even lower level parties to get enough stealth and other tricks under their belt that they can do a fair amount of sneaking about to conduct recon and/or to sabotage the inhabitants of the dungeon.

In Cragmaw Castle, our Arcane Trickster and Monk managed to scout the perimeter of the place, found a secret way in and then used Pass without Trace to help the whole party sneak in. They found Grol and killed him before the rest of the place could react (but the use of shatter and fireball alerted the entire castle). They scouted Thundertree with a familiar (I probably let them push the limits of the range, though).

I ran a party through a converted Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. The party scouted the entire upper floor and some of the dungeon with Arcane Eye, waited for most of the giants to get drunk and sleepy and spent their first foray taking out pockets of sleeping giants.

So, to me, the possibility of a dungeon brawl (nice name by the way...) encourages the PCs to think about what they are doing.

 

[Uller]

First of all, thanks for your service.

Second of all, thanks for the real world knowledge. I love the half hang back the other half check it out idea! Makes perfect sense!

You're welcome.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I like the dungeon brawl idea and suspect many DMs use it (or a variant of it) already. It just makes sense that if the players assault a keep or whatever fireballs blazin', they are going to draw out most or all of the bad guys in waves, or possibly all at once, depending on how organised they are. I like the encouraging the PCs to keep moving through the complex as the fighting rages on.

This kind of encounter does prevent any short rests between "encounters" though, so i think you have to be a bit careful with it. From memory parties are supposed to be able to handle 6-8 encounters a day, so 3-5 in a dungeon brawl should be good.

It can also make encounters easier, though, by allowing PCs to engage on favored terrain instead of within the keep. That implies that some intelligent enemies will NOT charge out to see what the noise is; instead they will gather the whole platoon to attack the kill-box as soon as the PCs enter it. They may even send out skirmishers to bait the PCs into the kill box.

 

[Jimbro]

It can also make encounters easier, though, by allowing PCs to engage on favored terrain instead of within the keep. That implies that some intelligent enemies will NOT charge out to see what the noise is; instead they will gather the whole platoon to attack the kill-box as soon as the PCs enter it. They may even send out skirmishers to bait the PCs into the kill box.

True! Dungeon brawls are a sometimes food.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I ended up using pretty much this idea when running my kids through The Keep on the Borderlands. Each of the individual caves would erupt into waves of action when contact was made. I pretty much played it by feel, but would add what came from different rooms at different times.

I've been planning to do exactly this in my upcoming campaign. Each of caves A-F is actually only one or two "wave" encounters, rather than a sequence of four to eight tiny ones, if the PCs go in heavy. I'm glad to hear it works.