David Howery
Hero
I was never fond of them inside the dungeon itself, but kept them for wilderness treks....A bigger issue for me is random encounters. This is about the only thing I'm willing to fudge.
I was never fond of them inside the dungeon itself, but kept them for wilderness treks....A bigger issue for me is random encounters. This is about the only thing I'm willing to fudge.
The last 'sandbox' I ran, I drew a map of the area, set up the important stuff I cared about, then pre-determined that about two-thirds of the hexes would have interesting stuff, with each hex being about 2 hours of travel.I was never fond of them inside the dungeon itself, but kept them for wilderness treks....
I tended to use bigger scales back in my DM days, more like 10 miles/hex. I used a mix of random encounters appropriate for the terrain/climate and placed encounters as well. Back in 1E days, it was a lot easier to draw up random encounter tables... there weren't so many monsters. When 2E really got going, the monster lists started rapidly growing...The last 'sandbox' I ran, I drew a map of the area, set up the important stuff I cared about, then pre-determined that about two-thirds of the hexes would have interesting stuff, with each hex being about 2 hours of travel.
PCs can cautiously move 20 10’ squares (200’) in 10 minutes .
Round up to the nearest 10 minutes. PCs moving cautiously
spot signs of all traps. The fun part isn’t noticing the trap, it’s how
to disarm it. No skills. Use common sense and inventory items.
throwing lots of traps at the party sounds like fun at first, but in practice, I always found it made them crawl through the dungeon super slow, checking everything (and I mean everything) for traps. Thus, I kept traps pretty minimal, often using a few in the finale of an adventure....
Yes. I'm abandoning the way 5e handles traps. I'm putting them in as obstacles or hazards that are pretty easy to detect. Then with no skill rolls to disarm - you gotta figure out how to get past it. And the damage/dangerous effect is upped substantially as well. But again, I'm designing an OSR dungeon.If they rush, then they stumbles onto traps the hard way. It changed how I design traps - as he said, the fun isn't about rolling a dice, it's about being clever (of course, a skilled thief can still use their skill to do it). I was very dissatisfied with the model for traps in 5e (passive perception, either you make it or your don't), but this is more fun.
Yeah. There aren't "empty" rooms in what I'm writing. They will give clues about other rooms, history, reinforce theme, etc. The group will expend resources searching and possibly trigger wandering monsters. So no room is entirely without risk/reward.A room should never be empty, in my book. If there's nothing there, it's just running down the clock. The PCs are going to waste time making sure that there's nothing there. A room can lack monsters and treasure, but there should always be something to it, even if it's just a description to drive home the theme of the dungeon. Even if it's just a boot a goblin lost, a smear of ash on the wall, or a broken commemorative stein, it should say something about the locale.
For me, I want the dungeon to make some kind of sense. Who's living there, what are they doing, how do they interact. There shouldn't be traps on frequently used pathways. Dungeon ecology.
As far as trap, I read some excellent advice on the topic by Coins and Scrolls (aka Skerples). From his latest version of the GLOG:
If they rush, then they stumbles onto traps the hard way. It changed how I design traps - as he said, the fun isn't about rolling a dice, it's about being clever (of course, a skilled thief can still use their skill to do it). I was very dissatisfied with the model for traps in 5e (passive perception, either you make it or your don't), but this is more fun.
Sounds crowded. One thing about dungeons: healing isn't readily available. You can't safely walk back to the nearest chirurgeon, and if you try to heal in place, the locals try to eat you. I wouldn't put Combat over 25%.. . . Exploration meaning flavor (including empty rooms), and Social (neutral or non-combatant creatures). Social encounters are going to be rare in dungeons overall.
For a lair, I'd go with 50% Combat, 40% Exploration (Tricks/Traps 30%, Flavor 10%), and 10% Social. An ancient ruin with deep secrets would be more like 50% Exploration (Flavor 35%, 15% Tricks/Traps), 30% Combat, and 20% Social. An area with multiple tribes/creatures living in a close area (such as the Cave of Chaos) would have 40% Combat, 30% Exploration (Tricks/Trap 20%, Flavor 10%), and 30% Social.
That happened to me. I think there's a forum feature that lets you highlight a portion of a post, and when you quote it, only that portion shows up. . . but there's also the old feature that automatically pulls quotes out of quotes.Hmm...the section you quoted doesn't show in my quote of your post, but I like this--a lot.
Also, if I do this, random encounters become more important. There should be some risk of moving slowly. Maybe more likely to have random encounter but also more likely to avoid it because you are moving slowly and more likely to hear an approaching monster and hide or otherwise avoid it.
In everything delicious- 60% fat is what companies use to make cookies and chips taste so good."What's the breakdown you think is best between carbohydrates, fats, protein, and water in a well-cooked meal?"