Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Libramarian" data-source="post: 6356259" data-attributes="member: 6688858">Well dungeons suck right now because you're a newbie DM struggling with&nbsp; basic processes like mapping. My biggest piece of advice is to build your game bottom up --learn how to run a good dungeon, then add a story around it. Find out what it takes for a decontextualized dungeon to be fun, get that down to a science, and then add more. The players should feel tension not because they might fail a quest but because they might lose a character. The treasure should be thrilling not because it's a plot macguffin but because it makes their character more powerful. Don't try to cover up for boring/frustrating dungeoncrawling by making the story around it interesting. Build up the complexity of your game. Go from details to big picture.Dungeons are a hugely valuable tool for running a fun game with easy prep. Try a bit more to get them to work before deciding you hate them.Mapping:Have one (or all) players make a simple line map (not down to each 5ft&nbsp; square, just showing how rooms connect to each other so they can find&nbsp; their way around).AoE without a grid:Keep distances and position in your mind, if you start to lose track, draw a simple map. If you don't know something you can roll randomly to determine it. If you sense that the players have a different mental picture of what's going on, make the consequences clear before letting them decide something, don't &quot;gotcha&quot; them. At the same time, it's not totally your job to make sure they know what's going on, encourage them to ask more questions too. Better players ask more questions.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Libramarian, post: 6356259, member: 6688858"] Well dungeons suck right now because you're a newbie DM struggling with basic processes like mapping. My biggest piece of advice is to build your game bottom up --learn how to run a good dungeon, then add a story around it. Find out what it takes for a decontextualized dungeon to be fun, get that down to a science, and then add more. The players should feel tension not because they might fail a quest but because they might lose a character. The treasure should be thrilling not because it's a plot macguffin but because it makes their character more powerful. Don't try to cover up for boring/frustrating dungeoncrawling by making the story around it interesting. Build up the complexity of your game. Go from details to big picture. Dungeons are a hugely valuable tool for running a fun game with easy prep. Try a bit more to get them to work before deciding you hate them. Mapping: Have one (or all) players make a simple line map (not down to each 5ft square, just showing how rooms connect to each other so they can find their way around). AoE without a grid: Keep distances and position in your mind, if you start to lose track, draw a simple map. If you don't know something you can roll randomly to determine it. If you sense that the players have a different mental picture of what's going on, make the consequences clear before letting them decide something, don't "gotcha" them. At the same time, it's not totally your job to make sure they know what's going on, encourage them to ask more questions too. Better players ask more questions. [/QUOTE]

Verification