Empty Rooms, and what do they mean?

[Pentius]

I abhor the Truly Empty Room. A room that has a purpose in the game, whether that be holding creatures, holding flavor, setting tone, having verisimilitude, these are are not Truly Empty. If you have a decent reason for making a room empty, then we're good. It's when the room is empty because "Eh, screw it" that we have a problem.

 

[Eric Tolle]

One aspect of empty rooms I like to play up is that they often have multiple exits. This can really increase the paranoia level of the players, when they realize that there's multiple directions they can be snuck up on.

I also like to play up the atmospheric elements of rooms; maybe a break in the ceiling letting shafts of light through, partially collapsed areas of rubble, dripping water leading to a pool in the center...anything to give a sense of place.

 

[Janx]

I've seen a lot of good reasons and idea. I think this one was missed:


the room is empty, because nobody's in it right now.

Consider your house as a dungeon. Is there somebody in EVERY room all the time? Not in my house. I don't even have enough occupants to fill all the rooms (though I do have enough stuff).

people and crittters who consider the area "theirs" move around through-out the day.

It is therefore concievable, that the distribution of monsters is really saying "this is where they are, at the time the PCs encounter them", rather than drawing up a complex documentation explaining their movements and patterns.

I would assume that if you had 6 orcs and a dungeon floor with 6 rooms, each orc would claim a room as their own if they could (assuming they felt safe that this floor was 'theirs'). A PC party infiltrating a dungeon, and needing to stop for the night, would probably instead hole up in 1 room, to maximize their safety.

 

[Janx]

As for the role of empty rooms, I think there are a few. They provide a change of pace. They can give the party some respite. They can offer a sense of versimilitude. They allow the DM to provide some character for his dungeons without inflating XP or treasure budgets.

in CRPGs/FPS games, the empty spaces usually lead to players feeling safe, and relaxing, thus falling prey to a sudden attack, or to keep up tension, as they never know when the next room might be dangerous.

if every room has a monster, there's no surprise.

Granted, in a video game, my movement rate is fast enough, I can zip through empty rooms and get all that mood enhancing stuff.

In a table-top RPG, cautiously exploring empty rooms in a dungeon crawl makes the game crawl.

 

[delericho]

In a table-top RPG, cautiously exploring empty rooms in a dungeon crawl makes the game crawl.

To a certain extent, that's a stylistic issue.

What is D&D about?

If it is about "killing monsters and taking their stuff", then you're absolutely right - empty rooms should be used very rarely, and should be handled with, "we'll search, take 20 gives 27... nothing? okay, we move on." And on to the next encounter...

On the other hand, if D&D is about exploration (as well as all that other stuff), then taking the time over the empty rooms doesn't make the game crawl - it's a part of the regular game play. After all, exploration is the point!

(Of course, I exaggerate both positions for effect. And even in the latter case, I would still advocate using empty rooms sparingly, and truly empty rooms almost never, in concert with some mechanic to cut down on the drag.)

 

[wolfpunk]

Since I hate dungeon crawl adventures, because going from room to room just takes forever when everyone in the party is completely paranoid (although I should admit justifiably so). I have sent the party off to retrieve a powerful magical item from a derelict tower and then had the entire tower already cleared out of monsters and ransacked by another group of adventures.

Creates an instant real desire to go get the item and drastically reduces the number of encounters and traps I actually have to create for the adventure.

The adventure then becomes a bit of a mystery, which group of adventurers cleared out the tower, how long ago, where are they now, and where is the powerful magical item.

You can put in clues like a dead adventurer body, a unique but broken signature weapon of one of the adventurers, a signature magical aura, or even a blatant piece of grafitti.

Gives you lots of good hooks to work with.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Empty rooms can also be a tool provided to the players.

In an early campaign of mine I remember that we shoved one enemy into the empty bathroom and barricaded it inside in lieu of actually fighting it.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

In an early campaign on mine I remember that we shoved one enemy into the empty bathroom and barricaded it inside in lieu of actually fighting it.

Don't you mean "in loo of actually fighting it"?