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<blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 219720" data-attributes="member: 413">Most &quot;dungeons&quot; should have mechanisms that prevent long searches...the most common is the fact that such complexes should be active places.&nbsp;&nbsp; For example:&nbsp; Lets say a tribe of blind kobald Src20s have a lair....wait...nix that... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Try this instead: A group of 30+ ghouls have taken up residence in the catacombs below the local grave yard(why people bury their dead in a world where they come back to kill them I'll never fathom...but I digress...) and have begun making raids on the town.&nbsp; The walking dead often ransack the abodes of their victims as if they are searching for something.&nbsp; Our heroes have been tasked with clearing out the evil creatures and discovering their source(and what they're up to).&nbsp;&nbsp; In the first room, they encounter 3 or 4 of the wicked things and after a short (and noisy) battle, the ghouls are destroyed.&nbsp;&nbsp; The room has all sorts of clues...a ramshackle alter to some dark god, maybe some hints about instructions to capture specific citizens and &quot;convert&quot; them...etc.The party will naturally want to search it.&nbsp; Let them.&nbsp; But if they take more than a minute or so, have more ghouls attack, in greater numbers.&nbsp;&nbsp; As long as the party stays in one place, the waves of undead should become greater and more organized.&nbsp; It should be very clear that to stay in one place for more than a few minutes will be certain doom.&nbsp;&nbsp; Also, you need to make your adventures seem like as time passes, the enemy will get stronger or commit more and more heinous acts.&nbsp;&nbsp; In the example above, perhaps the PCs learn that the ghouls are lead by some greater ghast creature that has plans to destroy the town and raise an undead army and only needs a couple days before his dark designs come to fruition.&nbsp; If the players spend hours and hours searching every room, they will fail in their mission and the town will be destroyed(and likely they will be killed with it).One thing I do:&nbsp; I don't give XP for battles with &quot;wandering&quot; monsters that could have been avoided by simply moving a bit quicker(unless delay was necessary and the wandering monsters were obstacles to that goal).&nbsp; Such fights make the lives tougher for the PCs without any clear reward.In otherwords, give them some real incentive to move on at a reasonable pace.&nbsp;&nbsp; Also, point out to them that if it is treasure they are seeking, they could always come back and search at their leisure once the monsters are defeated and the dungeon is cleared out...at least sometimes that is a possibility.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Uller, post: 219720, member: 413"] Most "dungeons" should have mechanisms that prevent long searches...the most common is the fact that such complexes should be active places. For example: Lets say a tribe of blind kobald Src20s have a lair....wait...nix that... :) Try this instead: A group of 30+ ghouls have taken up residence in the catacombs below the local grave yard(why people bury their dead in a world where they come back to kill them I'll never fathom...but I digress...) and have begun making raids on the town. The walking dead often ransack the abodes of their victims as if they are searching for something. Our heroes have been tasked with clearing out the evil creatures and discovering their source(and what they're up to). In the first room, they encounter 3 or 4 of the wicked things and after a short (and noisy) battle, the ghouls are destroyed. The room has all sorts of clues...a ramshackle alter to some dark god, maybe some hints about instructions to capture specific citizens and "convert" them...etc. The party will naturally want to search it. Let them. But if they take more than a minute or so, have more ghouls attack, in greater numbers. As long as the party stays in one place, the waves of undead should become greater and more organized. It should be very clear that to stay in one place for more than a few minutes will be certain doom. Also, you need to make your adventures seem like as time passes, the enemy will get stronger or commit more and more heinous acts. In the example above, perhaps the PCs learn that the ghouls are lead by some greater ghast creature that has plans to destroy the town and raise an undead army and only needs a couple days before his dark designs come to fruition. If the players spend hours and hours searching every room, they will fail in their mission and the town will be destroyed(and likely they will be killed with it). One thing I do: I don't give XP for battles with "wandering" monsters that could have been avoided by simply moving a bit quicker(unless delay was necessary and the wandering monsters were obstacles to that goal). Such fights make the lives tougher for the PCs without any clear reward. In otherwords, give them some real incentive to move on at a reasonable pace. Also, point out to them that if it is treasure they are seeking, they could always come back and search at their leisure once the monsters are defeated and the dungeon is cleared out...at least sometimes that is a possibility. [/QUOTE]

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