TSR Having multiple dungeons available to the players

[Zaukrie]

Which sounds great until, having told you one week they'll go to Dungeon B next session, they think it over during the week and decide to go to Dungeon C instead once that next session starts.

Seen this before, has I.

They know I put a ton of effort into prep and respect me enough not to change

 

[DarkCrisis]

So Im thinking of just having it set on the "wild frontier". The King looking to expand etc.

I may use the Keep from Keep on the Borderlands and have the Caves of Chaos as an option. Toss in Stonehell and Barrowmaze and Castle of the Mad Archmage at later points. Learning of different dungeons via patrons at the Tavern or via a talkative guard whatever.

Like, have a small dungeon they can "do" like Caves of Chaos (then maybe Silver Princess, and then etc etc maybe the whole B series) and then 2-3 Deep Dive options they can explore as they wish.

 

[overgeeked]

So Im thinking of just having it set on the "wild frontier". The King looking to expand etc.

I may use the Keep from Keep on the Borderlands and have the Caves of Chaos as an option. Toss in Stonehell and Barrowmaze and Castle of the Mad Archmage at later points. Learning of different dungeons via patrons at the Tavern or via a talkative guard whatever.

Like, have a small dungeon they can "do" like Caves of Chaos (then maybe Silver Princess, and then etc etc maybe the whole B series) and then 2-3 Deep Dive options they can explore as they wish.

There’s a sewers under the Keep dungeon someone made and blogged about. I’ve also seen people drop In Search of the Unknown (B1) into the other mystery cave. And The Village of Hommlet (T1) at the crossroads just south of the Keep.

You can really do a lot with that module. Beef up the factions and play with that. The hermit, the bandits, and the lizardmen are almost always forgotten and glossed over.

 

[bloodtide]

I don't understand how any of this is a problem? It reflects how people are in real life, doing random things.

It is true people are like this real life often. But if you don't get the problem with players being wrong about things?

 

[Simon Miles]

What is the goal of offering the choice? Is it just variety, or is there a in-play reason there are X dungeons that need to be explored? On that note: are the dungeons there to be explored, or cleared?

Good point. In my experience players quite like the choice at first - liking the non-railroading sensation. They then panic as they have no idea what order to do the adventures in!

 

[DarkCrisis]

So far they will have 3 options at the start. Stonehell for a true dungeon delve. Then the Caves of Chaos nearby. And if they don't want to stray over wilderness they can dive into the Sewers and Caves under the Keep.

 

[Caveman]

I've more or less done this in my campaign but found that players focus on one thing and forget the old thing. They are also generally happy to follow clues toward places so you want to be careful of overloading too many options that seem really similar.

 

[Distracted DM]

This is how I ran my West Marches game: lots of adventure locations, to be explored at players' leisure. They were living places ofc, so things would change unless they were cleared and secured. It was quite popular, ran for years til COVID.

 

[cbaratz]

The only down side that I see with this approach is that it could be more work on the DM to prepare enough to run several options in a session. Could lead to wasted prep time depending on how fleshed out these dungeons are. If you are randomly generating or good on the fly then I think it's great to allow player freedom.

 

[overgeeked]

The only down side that I see with this approach is that it could be more work on the DM to prepare enough to run several options in a session. Could lead to wasted prep time depending on how fleshed out these dungeons are. If you are randomly generating or good on the fly then I think it's great to allow player freedom.

Maybe, but not really. If you’re running this style you’ll quickly find ways to expand or contract content as needed. Like the players want to go to a dungeon you didn’t prep. Okay. Now we have an RP session where the players are gearing up for the long trek to the site and dealing with a few random encounters along the way. Just enough to put actually entering the dungeon to the last moment of this session (ending on a cliffhanger) or you arrive at the site and see the actual dungeon in the distance, then end. Now you have however long to prep the actual dungeon.

Having index cards with the site, the entrance, and some interesting things around the entrance are incredibly handy. Do that little bit of prep for a handful of dungeons and you’ll never be caught off guard or waste prep.