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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5640084" data-attributes="member: 22424">Two things:1) In a published adventure, space is necessarily at a premium. The last thing I (as a customer) want is to see the map or, worse, the text cluttered up with empty rooms - if it doesn't add value to the adventure, it should be cut.However...2) I do think published adventures have lost something over the years. An adventure should not just be "a string of encounters". Adventures should have meaningful choices, and that includes having multiple paths through - even if that necessarily means skipping some encounters.I like empty rooms, used sparingly. Also, very few rooms should be truly empty - there should be some dungeon dressing or something to give the room character. I also don't believe there should be a lot of empty rooms - in many cases I'd have to ask why the neighbouring monsters haven't expanded their territory.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.I haven't spent a lot of time on the player side of the screen, so I can't comment on whether that would change my opinion. I can certainly foresee becoming rather bored if I encountered too many empty rooms in succession.Well, 3e had the "take 20" rule. If a party insisted on lingering for endless searches, I (as DM) would invoke that rule, and thus let them know they'd done a thorough search.Older editions made heavier use of wandering monsters, which generally didn't carry treasure and were worth little XP (relative to the risk they posed, or the XP from treasure).</blockquote>

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