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<blockquote data-quote="EvilDwarf" data-source="post: 5312412" data-attributes="member: 46843">I ran a multi-level dungeon back in the day that our group still reminisces about, so I take that as a sign that they enjoyed at least some elements of it.&nbsp;Since it WAS back in the day, I drew several graph paper pages of dungeon and level, so everything&nbsp; all the dungeon was mapped and filled in.&nbsp; But, looking back, now I would take the more modern flow-chart approach, and either just use lines with small sqaures for rooms, or just to know what's north of what, etc.&nbsp;I also, though, abstracted the &quot;story&quot; of the dungeon, which is a little different from abstracting the map.&nbsp;That is, I made some notes and knew what the story was supposed to be, but did not populate the rooms, sort of a Schrodinger's Cat dungeon.&nbsp; That is, there was NOTHING in any room until the PCs enterered it.&nbsp; If I wanted them to meet a major NPC, she would be there.&nbsp; If the pacing called for a puzzle, I had several I could put there.&nbsp; If the PCs needed a break, I had some &quot;store&quot; rooms for that.&nbsp; Sometimes they would find a dead adventurer with a map fragment that would lead them to another part of the dungeon, so I could put some &quot;narrative distance&quot; between encounters--for example, if they had just talked to the Dwarf King who was having problems with the resident Goblin King, I could not put those encounters in close proximity (even though there WAS no spatial proximity since everything was empty).&nbsp; So a few rooms later, they could find a map to a deeper part of the dungeon, and soon after they would &quot;find&quot; the Goblin King.&nbsp;I've since tried variations of this approach, and it's worked out.&nbsp; It gives the players a sense of open exploration/sandbox, but allows me narrative control of the dungeon.&nbsp;So, with a flow chart of a large empty dungeon and a list of encounters, you have control over narrative and pacing without worrying about the PCs missing an important clue, encounter, or feeling railroaded (even though the story railroads them, to an extent--you have to be careful that things don't appear TOO coincidental).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="EvilDwarf, post: 5312412, member: 46843"] I ran a multi-level dungeon back in the day that our group still reminisces about, so I take that as a sign that they enjoyed at least some elements of it. Since it WAS back in the day, I drew several graph paper pages of dungeon and level, so everything all the dungeon was mapped and filled in. But, looking back, now I would take the more modern flow-chart approach, and either just use lines with small sqaures for rooms, or just to know what's north of what, etc. I also, though, abstracted the "story" of the dungeon, which is a little different from abstracting the map. That is, I made some notes and knew what the story was supposed to be, but did not populate the rooms, sort of a Schrodinger's Cat dungeon. That is, there was NOTHING in any room until the PCs enterered it. If I wanted them to meet a major NPC, she would be there. If the pacing called for a puzzle, I had several I could put there. If the PCs needed a break, I had some "store" rooms for that. Sometimes they would find a dead adventurer with a map fragment that would lead them to another part of the dungeon, so I could put some "narrative distance" between encounters--for example, if they had just talked to the Dwarf King who was having problems with the resident Goblin King, I could not put those encounters in close proximity (even though there WAS no spatial proximity since everything was empty). So a few rooms later, they could find a map to a deeper part of the dungeon, and soon after they would "find" the Goblin King. I've since tried variations of this approach, and it's worked out. It gives the players a sense of open exploration/sandbox, but allows me narrative control of the dungeon. So, with a flow chart of a large empty dungeon and a list of encounters, you have control over narrative and pacing without worrying about the PCs missing an important clue, encounter, or feeling railroaded (even though the story railroads them, to an extent--you have to be careful that things don't appear TOO coincidental). [/QUOTE]

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