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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kengar" data-source="post: 583559" data-attributes="member: 3230">While I am currently trying to get away from "crawls," there's nothing wrong with them if folks are having fun.I think you may be facing the same issue on two fronts, actually. If players feel like progress is being made and not like they are stuck, then they will be less likely to get frustrated. "Stuck" <> "Trapped." The party might be trapped on the island, but aren't stuck if they are making progress -or at least feel like they are- towards their goal (escape, etc.). In the crawl situation, if there is no clue to how much further there is to go -or what the real objective is- then players might get frustrated. They're worried that if they use their last spell or Rage or whatever, and THEN meet the BBEG, they're toast. So they get frustrated because the don't have the information they want. Now, they aren't supposed to have ALL the information, but a hint or two ("The air is getting warmer as you descend the stairs.", "Really? Cool! That dragon must be close now!") might help now & again. Don't reward stupidity, though. If the party simply ignored the clues and NPCs that could have given them the information, then that's poor playing.I think your idea of potentially friendly villages is a good one. You can incorporate that concept into the dungeon too by putting a couple "safe rooms" in the complex. Nothing fancy, maybe just a storeroom with a solid door they can spike shut and hole up to rest and re-memorize spells, etc. It's fun to push the party a little, but if they are running on fumes and the end is nowhere in sight, then maybe the ECL of the adventure is a little high for them.IMHO, YMMV, blahblahblah <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    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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