Do you use dungeons?

[Li Shenron]

I agree, if a "dungeon" is any enclosed space underground, being it natural or artificial, small or large, simple or complicated, we use them very often. But not nonsensical mazes with one monster/trap each room, built by evil wizard as the only entrance to his lair

 

[Zappo]

I completely agree with Li Shenron (which is becoming a bit of a habit). I use plenty of enclosed-spaces-where-fights-sometimes-happen, but "dungeons" as in "dungeon crawl" as in "100 rooms with a monster each" are very rare. I like my backstories to make sense, and the reasons for a dungeon to exist are very few.

We only spend about 35% of the time in dungeons. The rest is spent in forests or cities.

"Only"?

 

[philreed]

For me, dungeons are an excellent way to focus the players' attention on the task at hand. It's really only in a dungeon environment that the group will work closely together -- on the surface world, especially in a city, everyone has their own agenda.

But urban adventures are also a lot of fun. I just like the occasional dungeon when it's time to roll a lot of dice and spill a lot of blood.

 

[JediSoth]

My current campaign IS a dungeon: The World's Largest Dungeon. But, I didn't just spring it on my players, they requested I buy and run it (unfortunately, when I requested financial aid for it, they just sat and blankly stared). But I bought it anyway and have found it to be a worthwhile purchase.

Previously, if there was a dungeon for my PCs to go through, it would be small enough that they could explore the entire thing in one session. Though, I did use part of the Tomb of Abysthor in my meta plot, and they spent several sessions exploring the catacombs and caverns under that.

JediSoth

 

[shilsen]

After my first year of DMing, I gave up using dungeons, simply because they bore me as DM and player. Since I give my players a lot of freedom in deciding what direction the game goes, they might end up in a dungeon once in a while, but that happens very rarely. In my previous campaign I ran the PCs through from 1st to 10th lvl, and between 4th and 10th they never entered a dungeon. My new Eberron campaign has run only 3 sessions thus far, but no dungeons on the horizon yet.

 

[Henry]

We don't use dungeons often because of the setup: It requires (or at least is preferable) that every single player be present for every single game, and that is not as tenable to our group, when occasionally a player may have commitments that keep him from playing every weekend, yet the majority of the group is still ready.

We are in the middle of a fairly involved one now (basement levels of an abandoned Goblin wizards' school) about six levels deep (the levels are only 70 x 70, so not that big) and it's STILL taken us a session per level thus far. They are nearing the end now, and they are definitely enjoying the "old-school crawl" as a change of pace, but after that we'll probably be ready for a little more open-ended playing - and in a city or other civilized area, at least you can have players that sit it out for a session or two.

 

[francisca]

About 1/3 of my adventures are dungeons, of which I include sewers, wizard towers, ruins, cave, as well as the classic maze inhabited by chunks of XP who wait in stasis until the party enters

 

[Psion]

I have come to the conclusion that I hate dungeons, at least big ones. After DMing DnD for some time I had an oportunity to play. The DM stuck us in this huge dungeon and after the third session I was considering having my character commit suicide. After thinking I got wondering if I have done this to my group. I know that every DM has a bad night/adventure but I think that from now on I'll use small dungeons in my games. either that Or I'll use something like the streamlined inflitration rules in the fixer/pointman book for spycraft

I use lots of site-locations, but try to keep them fairly short. Occasionally, I'll run a big meaty dungeon, but generally, I don't like spending a month worth of sessions in the same dungeon.

 

[Thanee]

Hmm... no, can't say we use dungeons a lot.

We played a campaign in the Underdark (A Night Below) a while ago and now with the current group we are playing CotSQ, but I would not consider the Underdark a dungeon, altho it's similar ina way.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

While I don't mind dungeons in theory, in practice I am too lazy to draw them...