I love D&D but not so much Dungeons, anyone else?

[Vanifae]

I love playing D&D and I love the newest incarnation 4E, I have just never enjoyed running dungeon crawls all that much. I usually find them too tedious or boring I like to get to the action the dramatic stuff. Like in the film the Fellowship of the Ring when they go into the Mines of Moria, the proto-dungeon as it were. There isn’t too much focus on clearing each room and turning at the t-sections or cross sections. It focuses on major moments the dramatic scenes and the fight scenes.

Even in older forms of D&D I tended to abstract the dungeon usually, or have simple maps when I run the dungeons. Maybe I am just not all that good at running dungeons I can admit that. I don’t mind playing in dungeons, though I like to get to the fun stuff as quickly as I am able. Anyone else feel this way, I mean I know that D&D can be run without dungeons I am just wondering how prevalent this notion is or if I am jut the weird guy in the bunch.

With 4th Edition I find I could probably abstract many tedious dungeon crawls with a protracted skill challenge punctuated with exciting scenes of combat o drama. Anyone else try this, and as an addendum any advice to make dungeon crawling more fun to DM? For those that enjoy it what do you do that maybe I can do different? I tend to try to make it an interesting place but I find the pacing is what throws me off and the tedium of opening doors, checking for traps, describing hallways and all that is not exciting. I mean I find the idea of mega dungeons just off-putting but maybe they can be exciting?

 

[The Shaman]

The only time I consider playing D&D is for a dungeon crawl, preferably in a megadungeon - the game holds no appeal for me otherwise.

So, no.

 

[Hand of Evil]

New had a issue with dungeons myself, always saw the as a flow chart. I think it all comes down to what your players want and how you present them to the players.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I agree with you, there's a lot that's boring about the traditional D&D dungeon. Mapping, pole prodding, wandering monsters, meaningless fights. Your suggested method of handling most of the complex with a few skill checks is very interesting and extremely radical (at least in the D&D sphere). Like there's this huge, multi-level, monster-infested, treasure-filled, secret door producing, crappy-poetry-puzzle conveying mega-dungeon. And then practically the whole thing is determined with one die roll. Straight to the BBEG at the bottom. Frikkin' genius!

My own approach has been a little less radical. I tried fairly small dungeons and found the necessary variety of encounter, compressed into a small area, to be a bit weird and implausible. I then tried a large, mostly empty dungeon, which didn't even have a map, at first, which worked a lot better for me.

In my current game I actually do have a four level large dungeon. It even has tables for wandering monsters. We'll see how this works out. Most of the rooms are empty, in fact they are not even on the map, and won't be described in any detail, something along the line of, “You search thru dozens of ancient, crumbling tombs but discover nothing. Then... [interesting bit]“ It will however most likely be a sandbox approach – the PCs can miss interesting bits and it's okay.

My map isn't on graph paper, it just has lines for corridors and dots for most rooms. Only the really large rooms (100ft+ across) are actually drawn out. I found this saved a lot of time.

PS I also dislike dragons.

 

[Scribble]

With 4th Edition I find I could probably abstract many tedious dungeon crawls with a protracted kill challenge punctuated with exciting scenes of combat o drama.

Dude your games are HARDCORE!

 

[Holy Bovine]

Schrödinger, Chekhov, Samus | The Angry DM: D&D 4E Advice with Attitude


Think outside the box. Dungeons are not static dull environments. Or at least they shouldn't be.

 

[Henry]

I can't follow you down that road. I love me a good dungeon crawl -- I just wouldn't like them for every session. I do know that one of the mods here, [MENTION=99]Rel[/MENTION], abstracted a dungeon crawl with a skill challenge, in his "mist demon" 4E campaign, but I'd have to let him or one of his players speak to how it was done. I don't have the link in the 4E forum handy, or I would point you to it.

 

[Henry]

I can't follow you down that road. I love me a good dungeon crawl -- I just wouldn't like them for every session. I do know that one of the mods here, [MENTION=99]Rel[/MENTION], abstracted a dungeon crawl with a skill challenge, in his "mist demon" 4E campaign, but I'd have to let him or one of his players speak to how it was done. I don't have the link in the 4E forum handy, or I would point you to it.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Schrödinger, Chekhov, Samus | The Angry DM: D&D 4E Advice with Attitude


Think outside the box. Dungeons are not static dull environments. Or at least they shouldn't be.

 

[IronWolf]

Sometimes I just like a good old fashioned dungeon crawl. I have nothing against them. Now I also enjoy city adventures, wilderness adventures and the like as well, but I certainly don't steer clear if dungeon crawls.