OSR How to make dungeon crawls interesting

[overgeeked]

Near as I can tell the play loop of a dungeon crawl is:

1. Kick in the door.
2. Kill all the monsters.
3. Loot the bodies.
4. Search the room.
5. Find a new door.

There are places where this can be expanded.

Make step 1, kick in the door, interesting by including traps or puzzles that must be dealt with before the door will open.

Include things like morale and secondary goals in step 2, kill all the monsters, to keep the combat short and sweet. Also things like cinematic set-piece combats with lots of interactive terrain, moving terrain, etc can help. This is generally the bulk of the play loop so…

In step 3, loot the bodies, there's always the obvious hand out interesting rewards like treasure and magic items. My personal favorite is what Numenera calls cyphers, aka one-use magic items. Tying treasure to the game world and any story threads is always a winner. Tying treasure to the history of the world, if the players or PCs care about such things, is another good touch.

For step 4, search the room, you can add all kinds of exploration mini-games, traps, and puzzles...but the danger is turning this into pixel sniping.

You can turn step 5, find a new door, into an exploration mini-game like the previous step.

There are also overarching things you can do like add clocks, timers, and countdowns. Making the setting more interesting than endless halls and rooms, like say the mythic underworld, can also greatly help spice up dungeon crawls. This is also where the near-ubiquitous faction play comes in. Spice things up by making denizens of the dungeon fight each other.

So what else is there? What do you do to make the dungeon crawl more interesting?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What do you do to make the dungeon crawl more interesting?

Reaction rolls. Sometimes you kill the monsters with dungeon politics.

 

[SableWyvern]

The things that make a dungeoncrawl interesting tend to be the things that make D&D interesting in general. Factions, mysteries, exploration, a variety of challenges and obstacles, a sense of purpose.

I would start by discarding kick-kill-loot as the basic gameplay loop and, as @Whizbang Dustyboots mentions, lean heavily onto reaction rolls. However, for reaction rolls to really shine, you need to have an underlying understanding as to what encountered people/creature are doing there, what they want, who their friends and enemies are, etc.

 

[Scribe]

Step 1, make kicking in the door a death sentence.

Unless one is going for a pulpy action game.

 

[Deset Gled]

Near as I can tell the play loop of a dungeon crawl is:

1. Kick in the door.
2. Kill all the monsters.
3. Loot the bodies.
4. Search the room.
5. Find a new door.

I'd have to say that sounds like a really sad summary.

So what else is there? What do you do to make the dungeon crawl more interesting?

- Broadly, exploration: A good dungeon crawl is an exercise in exploring new places, new monsters, new architecture, new magic, new treasure, new art. Just all around new things. New should be fun. If it isn't, someing might be wrong with your game.

- Resource management: A delve into a dungeon is a place where players aren't in complete control of their resources. Hit points, light, food, ammunition, time. If you want to get really detailed, spell components, clothes, and even air can become precious commodities in certain circumstances. Obviously, different games and editions support this to different levels (5e is particularly soft on this front), but there's always something if you try hard enough.

- Puzzles: Sure, there are small ones that require solving a riddle to unlock a door. But how about big ones that involve the entire dungeon rearranging itself. Puzzles that require backtracking, Metroidvania style. Puzzles that require magic. Puzzles that require not using magic. Puzzles that pull in character's backstories. Puzzles of every size and shape beyond just opening a door or finding a pixel.

- Traps: A trap door every once in a while is fine. But there can be so much more. Traps that separate the party. Traps that have an effect 5 rooms from now. Traps that play with the afforementioned resource management. Traps that effect how much treasure the party gets. Traps that can be turned on enemies. Traps that make members of the party take on roles they wouldn't normally attempt. Traps are a great way to get creative.

- Mysteries: What secrets does the dungeon hold for the players to find? Hopefully a lot more than just doors and monsters. A good dungeon crawl is a celebration of the unknown.

- Active stories: A big bad. A missing child. An evil cult. A legendary treasure. Narratives can lead you to and through a dungeon, the same as they can lead you to a town, a person, or a macguffin

- Backstories: Dungeons can have their own narratives, on top of any story the party already happens to be following. What's the history of the dungeon? Why is it here? What populates it? There could be multiple layers of history from it's original creation through any number of ages, infestations, and owners. And every layer can give the players clues, expectations, or sometimes just history and mythology for the sake of enjoying history and mythology.

- DM opportunities: Has the party been getting bored or lazy about certain things? Do they think that all encounters with [insert low level monster] are easy kills, that [insert skill] isn't valuable? Do you just want to shake things up for the sake of shaking things up? A dungeon crawl is an opportunity to funnel the characters into encounter that they can't get out of by relying on their old bag of tricks.

- Testing new content: Do you have a new book, or just a new idea that you want to try out but you're worried that introducing new content into the game could break the worldbuilding or the balance? A dungeon crawl is a handy way to try out new stuff with a level of containment. If it doesn't work out, there's nothing stopping you from sealing off the dungeon and washing your hands of it.

And that's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there's lots more.

 

[SableWyvern]

I'm a big fan of plenty of empty space, especially between factions, to enable PCs and other forces to manoeuvre.

Secret paths into, out of or past particular areas also provide strategic options.

 

[Retros_x]

For me the biggest misconception is that dungeon crawls are focussing on the combat pillar of gameplay. For me exploration is the main pillar of dungeon crawl, it is about exploring a dangerous place. Killing all monsters should rarely be the goal it should either for a very old-school game get as much loot as possible or have story quest goals like "rescue XY" "stop dark ritual" etc.

So the core loop and player choices is about exploration.

1. Decide where to go (which door, hallway, direction etc. to go)
2. React to events happening (enemies, random encounters, traps) - optional step
3. Examine new space (this could be part of step 5, but it happens almost all the time as first action in new room after events are settled, so I have it as a single step)
4. React to events happening (as above)
5. Decide what to do - if for the time done with this new location the decision will be step 1 again

For me the most important part are resources, clearing the whole dungeon (and killing everything) in one go should never be a viable option, because it would render the decisions above useless. It puts player under an indirect time pressure. How long do your torches last, our rations, our hitpoints/stamina, can we push for another room or should we leave?

Puzzles for me personal are rarely a tool, they feel artificial and weird to me. They rarely make sense, why would the evil wizard secure his lair with a riddle everybody can get the solution without a key. I prefer to use difficult situations that act like a puzzle (players must use their brains and creativity) but without constraining them. One classic is obvious treasure that is hard to reach. Always fun to have something shiny of the other side of the chasm or on top of the smooth 15 feet pillar or the island of the acid lake.

 

[Distracted DM]

However, for reaction rolls to really shine, you need to have an underlying understanding as to what encountered people/creature are doing there, what they want, who their friends and enemies are, etc.

I will say that this heavily depends on the GM- some folk would rather have to come up with reasons for random encounters and reaction rolls on the fly, and build that part of the faction/dungeon story as they go.
Why is there a halfling merchant caravan in the middle of the dungeon, or why are these orcs indifferent to the party when all the others have been hostile?

 

[Tonguez]

give it a Back Story which tells us why it exist and how it got to its current state as well as setting the visual design and layout, then give it a Current Story that reflects impacts on the surrounding area and the reason why the PCs are going there in particular (story hooks). Story Nodes (clues) should also be scattered through the dungeon for PCs to learn a part of the backstory or Current Story.
From that you then get to set denizen relationships (choose monsters and make factions) and illustrate ecosystem dynamics (flow of food, resources, wealth, magic) through random encounters..

Then use Dungeon World Fronts and 5-room dungeon principles (though I prefer 7) to tell the story

 

[aco175]

I always liked having a place to rest and a place to talk or maybe get aid. I remember Keep on the Shadowfell (KotS) had an illusionary wall that his some more hallway. Our group found it and was able to take a rest. Maybe there is a secret door that leads to an old shrine or someplace where the bad guys never found.

Good and neutral people in the dungeon, or even bad guys who want other bad guys dead. The dungeon can have prisoners who know things or directions. They could aid the PCs with information or be a replacement PC or become a follower. Other adventuring parties could be friendly if they come along in the middle of a fight and help the PCs out- or the PCs come help them out. They also could be fluid in opposing the PCs in search of the McGuffin. There could also be monsters who see the PCs as someone that can kill their leader to free them or so they can become the leader. This can be some sort of talking or crude signs pointing to the leaders room. Maybe food is left out for the PCs like an offering. Something like this could be a bound demon who will barter with the PCs to become free or someone like Dobby from Harry Potter.