Mystery Man
First Post
Even games with history and politics need a good dungeon every now and then.
-
NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Have we lost the dungeon?
- Thread starter Quasqueton
- Start date
ThirdWizard
First Post
The dungeon is a fairly simple construct, even if it has grown more realistic over the years (no collossal dragons in 10x10 rooms anymore). By contrast world building is much more complicated, so its going to be much more often discussed. It is also going to have more of an impact on the game because you might see a dungeon twice, maybe, but you'll interact with NPCs, temples, and kingdoms much more regularly.
Dungeon shop talk would be interseting, though.
Dungeon shop talk would be interseting, though.
Ryltar
First Post
I don't know *shrug*. For me, a dungeon is just another adventure locale, as viable as a city, a forest, plains, a castle ruin, or an elemental plane. I don't understand (and have never understood) the kind of gaming philosophy which sees dungeons as the paramount example of game design - if I need one, I'll build one, but I can go for years without one. I for one am glad that D&D has evolved from the initial concept of "You can only adventure in a dungeon".
ThirdWizard
First Post
gizmo33 said:
That's how I look at it. Whether it's a castle, a cave system, or an alternate plane, to me a "dungeon" is an area where the PCs are expected to have multiple dangerous encounters before having the option rest. I'm sure other people disagree, which might be another reason we don't see discussion on the topic as much, possibly.
Sammael
Adventurer
I am not a fan of dungeons. Good dungeons take forever to design, taking into account the logic behind the dungeon's creation and/or its current occupants, as well as their internal interactions. And then, the PCs come in, miss 99% of the cool stuff in there, kill the monsters, and take the treasure. In case of my PCs, they also get bored, because they prefer the wilderness and the city environment.
As a player, I also dislike dungeons, because they always feel contrived and fake.
As a player, I also dislike dungeons, because they always feel contrived and fake.
Henry
Autoexreginated
Let me clarify something a little bit:
This may be an artifact of the "game-speak" at the time. In my group back in the 1980's, as well, we often called someone's campaign, their "dungeon".
"In Allen's Dungeon, you start out as a Gamma World Mutant, brought through a magic portal into D&D world, but you've got a blaster rifle and up to 3 opther artifacts.
"In Tim's Dungeon, you play a shipwrecked guy with no gear, and plenty of trees around to use as clubs and whatever clothing you can make from them."
Nowadays we emphasize "the campaign", but with the dungeon oriented focus, even the world up topside was "The Dungeon" to some of us younger gamers.
This may be an artifact of the "game-speak" at the time. In my group back in the 1980's, as well, we often called someone's campaign, their "dungeon".
"In Allen's Dungeon, you start out as a Gamma World Mutant, brought through a magic portal into D&D world, but you've got a blaster rifle and up to 3 opther artifacts.
"In Tim's Dungeon, you play a shipwrecked guy with no gear, and plenty of trees around to use as clubs and whatever clothing you can make from them."
Nowadays we emphasize "the campaign", but with the dungeon oriented focus, even the world up topside was "The Dungeon" to some of us younger gamers.
dren said:
If crunch means copying the stats from the Monster Manual, or applying a template, than I say no. But a good encounter to me is much harder than fluff. There are shelves and shelves of fantasy books - all of them can't be written by geniuses. A novel by my definition is fluff.
Books of 1000 monsters are easy. A book with 1000 interesting encounters using each of the monsters is hard. Especially if the encounters are to my standard (a goblin hiding behind a tree is not an encounter). In fact, I'd like to see a requirement of anyone who writes a splat book or monster book is that you have to create an interesting encounter that uses the game element in your product. This should have been part of the OGL. (evil grin)
In recent years I have come to learn to love the dungeon -- not only does it keep players focused and interested it is just plain fun
When I first started gaming I was all about the RP and the World Building -- now I just want to have some fun. A dungeon gives me the opportunity to do this and its something everyone understands.
Its not all I do (I still ove the RP best) but it is an increasingly bigger part
When I first started gaming I was all about the RP and the World Building -- now I just want to have some fun. A dungeon gives me the opportunity to do this and its something everyone understands.
Its not all I do (I still ove the RP best) but it is an increasingly bigger part
Similar Threads
