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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Morrow" data-source="post: 2256280" data-attributes="member: 27012">FYI, the current part of my D&D 3.5 campaign is heavily inspired by the classic "A" series of modules.  Half of both A1 and A2 take place in above-ground buildings (a temple and a stockade).  A3 includes a substantially freeform city segment and A4 also includes a fairly freeform non-dungeon component as well as plenty of opportunity for role-playing.  Yes, the original competition versions followed a formula (discussed in the introduction to the published collection of these modules) but the expanded published form was fairly organic in several places.  In addition, there are quite a few places where the PCs are invited to talk to or deal with encounters rather than simply slay them, including some fairly substantial number of encounters in A2.  That leaves me wondering what specifics of dungeon interaction you have in mind.  Can you be more specific (or point me to where you've been more specific)?In my experience, you get proactive PCs who act independly when you (A) make them powerful enough to be reasonably confident of success and (B) give them enough information about the setting and situation to draw complicated conclusions and make leaps in logic.  A lot of GMs play with their cards very close to their vest and use limited information, confusion, and powerlessness as ways to control the PCs so they don't step out of the box and, surprise, they don't.  Empower your players by letting them find out what's going on and making them powerful enough to do something about it and, in my experience, they will.</blockquote>

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