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<blockquote data-quote="Ourph" data-source="post: 2950435" data-attributes="member: 20239">I think Melan's post makes a lot more sense if you inser the caveat &quot;Non-linear dungeon design is better for site-based adventures&quot;.If your intent is to tell a story then you don't want or need the players to make a lot of choices.&nbsp; They follow the pre-arranged steps you've set out for them and you keep their interest by providing interesting encounters and a satisfying story element.That particular style of gaming is somewhat antithetical to many &quot;old schoolers&quot; perception of the game as being a game.&nbsp; I'm fairly certain that's why it didn't occur to Melan to include the caveat in his original post.For site-based adventures, where the only story is the PC's exploration and confrontation of the adventuring milieu, meaningful player choice is necessary to keep things from getting boring (and provides rewards to players as they progress through the area by making the information they are gathering about the layout of the dungeon relevant to success/failure) and a non-linear dungeon with many points of access to important encounter areas is an excellent way to showcase and facilitate meaningful player choice.&nbsp; Interesting encounters are, as always, important as well - but for those of you who claim that is the only important aspect I suggest you may be missing out on a significant way to add to the enjoyment of the adventuring environment if you focus only on the details of individual encounters and ignore the importance of dungeon layout.:edit: If it's not obvious from the above, just wanted to add a wholehearted &quot;Excellent analysis&quot; to my comments.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ourph, post: 2950435, member: 20239"] I think Melan's post makes a lot more sense if you inser the caveat "Non-linear dungeon design is better for [u]site-based adventures[/u]". If your intent is to tell a story then you don't want or need the players to make a lot of choices. They follow the pre-arranged steps you've set out for them and you keep their interest by providing interesting encounters and a satisfying story element. That particular style of gaming is somewhat antithetical to many "old schoolers" perception of the game as being a game. I'm fairly certain that's why it didn't occur to Melan to include the caveat in his original post. For site-based adventures, where the only story is the PC's exploration and confrontation of the adventuring milieu, meaningful player choice is necessary to keep things from getting boring (and provides rewards to players as they progress through the area by making the information they are gathering about the layout of the dungeon relevant to success/failure) and a non-linear dungeon with many points of access to important encounter areas is an excellent way to showcase and facilitate meaningful player choice. Interesting encounters are, as always, important as well - but for those of you who claim that is the only important aspect I suggest you may be missing out on a significant way to add to the enjoyment of the adventuring environment if you focus only on the details of individual encounters and ignore the importance of dungeon layout. :edit: If it's not obvious from the above, just wanted to add a wholehearted "Excellent analysis" to my comments. [/QUOTE]

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