D&D 5E Do you like dungeon crawls?

[LordEntrails]

Yes I like dungeon crawls. But of course I like them when I think they are good and fit my definition of good dungeon crawl.

A bunch of connected locations with random unassociated creatures that don't react to each other or what is going on in the nearby rooms is not a good dungeon crawl. When all you are doing is trying to kill things, gain XP, gold and maybe a McGuffin, then no, that is not a good dungeon crawl.

When a party is thrown into a location (dungeon or otherwise) when their is a reason, a coherent environment, and creatures that react dynamically to events around them. Then yes, that can be fun. Sure, it's not what I want to do every time I play. But I also don't want session after session of the characters being in a bunch of parties talking to NPCs and learning rumors and lore and 'stuff'.

 

[Umbran]

Orcs are designed to be pinatas for XP, but they still have needs, man.

And, I mean, they give you the otyugh right there for it, even.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Panda-s1]

I like the idea of dungeon crawls, but if the "dungeon" is just monsters and treasure I'd probably get bored quick. exploring a labyrinthine place with interesting locaitons is fun, though. some of the best D&D experiences I've had happened this one time we had to go through a mountain range via the ruins of a fallen giant city.

Since that day, in my own creations, I made a conscious effort to reduce underground/cavernous locations to a minimum. They are playable in a single evening and with only one level. I prefer using castles ruins, ancient druidic circles, lost towers, villages, cities, etc, as locations for adventures.

man some of those could qualify as a "dungeon" for me. if it's a thematic thing I think you just need to rethink how you plan cave expeditions lol

 

[Tony Vargas]

Do YOU like dungeon crawls?

Not only that, I like mapping.

 

[Charlaquin]

I love dungeon crawls. I also love urban adventures. I also love hex crawls. I especially love adventures where there are large swaths of wilderness to explore, dotted with dungeons to delve into and settlements to rest and spend our hard-won treasure in. I wouldn’t want to play any one type of adventure to the exclusion of others, which I think is why I’ve grown a bit bored with my current Tales from the Yawning Portal campaign because it’s been too much dungeon crawl without enough other kinds of adventuring to break it up.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I like dungeons as locations, but as Umbran mentioned, but I don't really dig the "because it's there" kind of approach. I like when there's a reason to brave a dungeon and when the location makes sense in some way and isn't just another funhouse dungeon where a mad wizard has put all these disparate elements together for some reason.

I also recently learned how little my group takes to the very procedural nature of classic dungeon crawling. We did Tomb of Annihilation last year.....and it was a challenge to get back in that mind set of being very specific and ordered in action declaration and the like.

 

[Arilyn]

The old fashioned dungeon crawls with sloping corridors and elaborate traps, and killing monsters to take their stuff, and listening at doors, except now a wormy creature has evolved just to "get" characters who listen at doors, and poking things with 10 foot poles....All of this turned me right off the game back in the day. I avoided RPGs, in fact, for a few years.

So no, I don't like dungeon crawls. Happy to explore an abandoned keep or small tomb. But please, no long claustrophobic crawls.

As a beginning GM, I didn't like running them at all. Much prefer a sprawling city, even if the players can go anywhere, than spend hours describing corridors, rooms and weird traps.

One exception. Eyes of the Stone Thief, for 13th Age.

 

[TwoSix]

I've only ever done one once. It was OK.

 

[Wiseblood]

I love and hate dungeon crawls. I love the idea. The execution is where it tends to fail. Even if the dungeon itself is masterfully crafted it can fail. Players can mess it up. DM’s can jam it up pretty good too.