In terms of time at the table (not necessarily "share of the story"), how much of your game time is spent exploring dungeons in D&D? We'll use "dungeon" in its broadest sense, to include any closed location where the primary goal of the PCs is to explore (probably in search of something) with dangers and wonders in their way. It would include a sunken pirate ship, but not a friendly fortress, for example.
D&D General How Much Dungeon Crawling Do You Do?
It varies, sometimes we have dungeon focused sessions and sometimes it's mostly exploration and wilderness. When we do feature dungeons they tend to be somewhat short.
The exceptions being the big dungeon from Princes of the Apocalypse and the Tomb of Annihilation (though we wiped on this one pretty quick.)
The exceptions being the big dungeon from Princes of the Apocalypse and the Tomb of Annihilation (though we wiped on this one pretty quick.)
Oofta
Legend
Traditional dungeons? Almost never. The idea that you could have a mix of monsters living in relatively close proximity all living in their own personal rooms and never venturing forth doesn't make sense to me.
But does a haunted house count? Using LMOP as an example, is Cragmaw Castle a dungeon because it's semi-ruins that are being used as a base of operations? Then maybe, now and then.
I try to have internal logical consistency to my campaign and I just don't think there are that many mad mages out there who are building bizarre complexes. But if there's a reason for a relatively recent ruin to be handy and occupied by the bad guys, sure they'll use it. Over time they'll do their best to rebuild defenses in most cases though, although it may be significantly lower quality than the original builders.
Nothing against personal preferences but when I look at most dungeon maps, all I can think is "Who would dig all those hallways for no reason? How do the denizens of this location avoid all those traps and not leave an obvious path around that pit?" In my current campaign even though the base of operations is on the edge of what could be a mega-dungeon of a ruined city that has numerous tunnels and rooms carved out, I've never done a dungeon crawl per se.
To me, a dungeon is almost like an NPC in the story but locations in my campaign are more for set dressing and potentially environmental hazards. Location is a backdrop, not the focus.
But does a haunted house count? Using LMOP as an example, is Cragmaw Castle a dungeon because it's semi-ruins that are being used as a base of operations? Then maybe, now and then.
I try to have internal logical consistency to my campaign and I just don't think there are that many mad mages out there who are building bizarre complexes. But if there's a reason for a relatively recent ruin to be handy and occupied by the bad guys, sure they'll use it. Over time they'll do their best to rebuild defenses in most cases though, although it may be significantly lower quality than the original builders.
Nothing against personal preferences but when I look at most dungeon maps, all I can think is "Who would dig all those hallways for no reason? How do the denizens of this location avoid all those traps and not leave an obvious path around that pit?" In my current campaign even though the base of operations is on the edge of what could be a mega-dungeon of a ruined city that has numerous tunnels and rooms carved out, I've never done a dungeon crawl per se.
To me, a dungeon is almost like an NPC in the story but locations in my campaign are more for set dressing and potentially environmental hazards. Location is a backdrop, not the focus.
yes. The key components are a) site based, and b) exploration of hostile or at least unwelcoming territory. Of course there will be some fuzzy lines -- the airship the PCs have taken passage on probably isn't a dungeon even if some enemies or rivals are on it, but if the PCs wake up to discover the other passengers and crew have all been zombified and they have to get to the lifeboats before it crashes into a mountain or whatever, then it suddenly is a dungeon.
Oofta
Legend
Like I said, it depends on how you define "dungeon crawl". If being in a set location qualifies as a dungeon, then the local tavern and the street outside could be a dungeon.
In other words, I don't think of (as one random example from my wife's campaign) pursuing the bad guys down to the sewers made it a dungeon crawl, it was just that we were tracking the bad guys and that's where they went. Now if we had heard rumors that there were treasures in the sewers of an abandoned village and those sewers were filled with a variety of monsters, traps and hazards then it would qualify as a dungeon crawl.
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