D&D General Do You Use "Dungeons" In Your Game

[Remathilis]

Thoughts on the "I don't really run dungeons in my D&D/fantasy RPGs anymore...". I think folks mean, first and foremost, they dont run megadungeons. Secondly, they likely don't run dungeon crawlers either, where the campaign takes them from one dungeon to the next. Then, its likely that the game loop and challenges are not centered on resource accounting and overcoming challenges like darkness, mapping, safe resting, etc... They dont play old school style anymore is the bottom line.

I think that might be a fair assessment. I rarely run large multi-level dungeons. Ever so often for throwback nostalgia. But most of the "dungeons" I do run are small, usually clearable in a session, and built for clear purpose.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

I once made my own map of the Ultima IV (or V?) world using colored pencils and multiple sheets of graph paper.

 

[Lanefan]

What I want to know @Reynard is what "on rare occasions," "sometimes," "regularly," and "most of the time" mean. If I run 10 campaigns from level 1 to 20 and 9 of those campaigns have 1 dungeon in it, is that rarely, because there's only one dungeon encountered from levels 1 to 20, or is it most of the time since 9 of the 10 campaigns have dungeons? I can't tell from the poll and OP whether the frequency is within each campaign or campaigns in general.

Seems obvious to me - embedded within any campaign there's going to be a (perhaps long) series of discrete adventures*, some of which will be dungeons, some not, and some in the fuzzy in-between area. That's what's being asked about here, the way I read it.

So, if you're only seeing one dungeon in each full campaign that'd say 'rare' to me, as it means all the other adventures in each of those campaigns are not dungeons.

* - in a typical hardcover AP book, for example, each chapter usually seems to represent one of these embedded adventures. Princes of the Apocalypse has 15 such discrete-adventure chapters, of which at least half are dungeons by anyone's definition.

 

[Lanefan]

Mapping is something we did maybe couple of times as kids and never again. Players redrawing the GM's map is a colossal waste of time and effort.

If the players aren't mapping, the characters aren't mapping.

And unless the place is easy to navigate, no map means you risk getting lost, with whatever consequences that may entail.

Edit to add: if the players are getting persnickety about mapping details that means the characters are also, which means they're burning up extra time - again with whatever consequences that may entail.

The other thing that'll happen if they don't map is they will have zero chance of notiing missing areas or gaps in the map that might indicate a secret door or other oddity.

 

[payn]

If the players aren't mapping, the characters aren't mapping.

And unless the place is easy to navigate, no map means you risk getting lost, with whatever consequences that may entail.

Thankfully, these days, none.

 

[Lanefan]

Thankfully, these days, none.

See edit to post you quoted, we cross-posted.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

If the players aren't mapping, the characters aren't mapping.

And unless the place is easy to navigate, no map means you risk getting lost, with whatever consequences that may entail.

The characters might map, or just have better sense of space they're actually in than the players that are just sitting at the table, and that can be represented by the GM showing the players the areas of the map their characters have seen.

Besides, I don't have dungeons so large that it feasible to get lost in them, or if I do, they're dealt in more abstract manner and no one has full map in the first place.

 

[payn]

See edit to post you quoted, we cross-posted.

No change, skill play is left in the past for me.

 

[Lanefan]

The characters might map, or just have better sense of space they're actually in than the players that are just sitting at the table, and that can be represented by the GM showing the players the areas of the map their characters have seen.

No way in hell am I showing them the DM-side map as, even though they think they've explored it, about 98% of the time there will still be info on there that the PCs/players don't yet know - hidden areas, notes on opponents, traps missed by sheer luck, and so on.

Besides, I don't have dungeons so large that it feasible to get lost in them, or if I do, they're dealt in more abstract manner and no one has full map in the first place.

Most of my dungeon-style adventures are (by today's standards) somewhere between moderate-size and huge. Dark Tower* is on the larger end, and good luck navigating that place without a map...or even with a map, sometimes! And that's what I'm shooting for a lot of the time - situations where the complexity of the layout is itself a part of the challenge they have to overcome both in-character and out.

* - Jacquays' best ever, IMO; if you haven't see the original, check it out - highly recommended!

 

[Crimson Longinus]

No way in hell am I showing them the DM-side map as, even though they think they've explored it, about 98% of the time there will still be info on there that the PCs/players don't yet know - hidden areas, notes on opponents, traps missed by sheer luck, and so on.

I don't put that info on the map. Or if could not remember it, I'd print a separate player version without it. And then I just cover with a paper the areas they have not explored. Though what I usually do these days, is that the initial map is just in my head, and just draw it on the battlemap as needed. And of course if one plays online, digital maps have all sort of options for fog of war and otherwise hiding stuff.

Most of my dungeon-style adventures are (by today's standards) somewhere between moderate-size and huge. Dark Tower* is on the larger end, and good luck navigating that place without a map...or even with a map, sometimes! And that's what I'm shooting for a lot of the time - situations where the complexity of the layout is itself a part of the challenge they have to overcome both in-character and out.

* - Jacquays' best ever, IMO; if you haven't see the original, check it out - highly recommended!

That sounds utterly miserable to me. Such tedious micromanaging just is not fun for me.