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<blockquote data-quote="Thunderfoot" data-source="post: 4367148" data-attributes="member: 34175">Melan - Incredible analysis!I would like to say though that non-linear maps are sometimes more of a detriment than a asset.&nbsp; Unfortunately you stated that encounters were not he focus of the essay and that they were not part of our equation, however when designing a dungeon crawl, the purpose of the encounters may well dictate a more or less linear layout.&nbsp; For instance, we have all seem the 'lair' layouts from the 70s &amp; 80s that twist and turn and bob and weave, but think for a moment if your own house did that?&nbsp; What if you had to walk 30' down a corridor to your living room and then up a secret passage to get to your attic?&nbsp; Of in the case of a combined lair think if, for no reason you had to go through a circuitous route to go to the grocery store for no other reason than poor street design or city planning?&nbsp; Sure it happens, but even in the Medieval time period city plans were based on geometric patterns, usually squares or pentagons.&nbsp; It wasn't until these Medieval cities grew through the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and the Victorian eras did they begin to become entangled messes.So, in some instances, overly complicated or even less than simple layout is a poor thing.&nbsp; You mentioned Village of Hommlet, my question for you is, if the 'Keep&quot; encounter had been a huge layout, would it have made sense?&nbsp; The answer is no, the encounter was small by design and strictly a gateway for a larger adventure, the Keep was a building and therefore laid out as such to include the basement area.&nbsp; One can agree that the resulting Temple was much more sprawling and needed the 'exploration' you described.&nbsp; And though they were not originally released together, they were always meant to be part of the same plot-line.I agree that poor design in a supposed 'free-form' dungeon is just inexcusable, but in an era where story-telling is as much a part of the game as the action, sometimes that small straight hallway is just what the doctor ordered.&nbsp; <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&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Happy gaming and keep these great thought provoking articles coming.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Thunderfoot, post: 4367148, member: 34175"] Melan - Incredible analysis! I would like to say though that non-linear maps are [I]sometimes[/I] more of a detriment than a asset. Unfortunately you stated that encounters were not he focus of the essay and that they were not part of our equation, however when designing a dungeon crawl, the purpose of the encounters may well dictate a more or less linear layout. For instance, we have all seem the 'lair' layouts from the 70s & 80s that twist and turn and bob and weave, but think for a moment if your own house did that? What if you had to walk 30' down a corridor to your living room and then up a secret passage to get to your attic? Of in the case of a combined lair think if, for no reason you had to go through a circuitous route to go to the grocery store for no other reason than poor street design or city planning? Sure it happens, but even in the Medieval time period city plans were based on geometric patterns, usually squares or pentagons. It wasn't until these Medieval cities grew through the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and the Victorian eras did they begin to become entangled messes. So, in some instances, overly complicated or even less than simple layout is a poor thing. You mentioned Village of Hommlet, my question for you is, if the 'Keep" encounter had been a huge layout, would it have made sense? The answer is no, the encounter was small by design and strictly a gateway for a larger adventure, the Keep was a building and therefore laid out as such to include the basement area. One can agree that the resulting Temple was much more sprawling and needed the 'exploration' you described. And though they were not originally released together, they were always meant to be part of the same plot-line. I agree that poor design in a supposed 'free-form' dungeon is just inexcusable, but in an era where story-telling is as much a part of the game as the action, sometimes that small straight hallway is just what the doctor ordered. :) Happy gaming and keep these great thought provoking articles coming. [/QUOTE]

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