Just Figured Out How to Make Sure the Party imc Explores Every Room in the Dungeon

[maggot]

Heh. Early in one campaign we were exploring a set of sea caves, looking for pirates. Seeing the maze of caverns and tunnels, I jokingly said we should go 'left left left left right'. Which, having no better idea, we did. We end up in the main chamber of the Big Bad Guy, long before we should have faced him. I was never consulted on directions again.

Off topic, but in a sci-fi game at a convention once, I had everyone change frequencies on their communicators to channel 8256, something I just made that up. Later, in the second round, with another DM, we find an important clue in hotel room #8256. I'm still freaked out about that.

 

[MaxKaladin]

Yeah, I've never heard of this left hand stuff before. I've only ever heard of the Right Hand Rule. I avoided 90% of a DMs big maze that way once by following the right turns to the place we needed to be.

 

[Amaroq]

On the flip-side, answering 'how can you make sure the party always explores a good percentage of your dungeon?'...

On one of my earliest home-made dungeons, I had a party wander through my maze with uncanny quickness - nothing like the paladin's, above, but uncanny. They missed my favorite parts of the dungeon, got what they were looking for, and got out easily.

I asked a more experienced DM what he'd've done, and he answered "That could never have happened in my dungeons. I always make sure to bar the way to the 'final encounter' with locks to which the keys are found elsewhere in the dungeon."

Not that I do that in every dungeon - it would get old - but it certainly works for 'making sure they get the grand tour' if you decide a lower-level party needs it.

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Also, no need to resort to 'sloped floors' to give a 3-D architecture to your dungeon. Put the "ring" on a single level, and place a stair-down-passage-stair-up 'exit' from it in the center of that level. The 'always-left' and 'always-right' parties wander around the ring, and back to the starting point, but miss the stair until they vary from their pattern.

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Wandering through an empty dungeon would be hilarious - if and only if it were April 1st. (I'm so tempted to ask... 'Are you sure you didn't miss a square?')

I got great amusement out of a DM who had us enter a dungeon within a few hours of another party entering the same dungeon. The player's looks of confusion as we went.. 'Wait a minute... how come everything's... dead?' and gradually tumbled on to what must be happening when the ranger realized that the bodies were warm really must've made his day.

I particularly enjoyed the sequence, "We open the door." "You see two ogres - live ones - seated at a large table in the middle of the room." "I tell the others, 'Nope, they didn't go this way,' and close the door."

(It didn't work. But it was worth a try!)

 

[Clueless]

I suppose I may be in one of the few groups with the rule: "Right door. Left door... Wall? Wall. *kaboom!*"
We tend to make our own when we can - element of surprise and all.

 

[FireLance]

How's this for an idea to make the PCs step on every 5-foot square in the dungeon:

Every square lights up in one particular color when someone steps on it. By careful mapping and taking note of the colors, the PCs can discover the password to a secret treasure room. Alternatively they need to discover how many red, green or blue squares there are in the dungeon.

You are advised to bring plenty of graph paper, colored pens and a group with tons of patience.

 

[Agback]

That's eerily familiar! The party in my campaign does exactly the same thing. Their slogan is "Left is the Way of Heroes!"

We call it 'the left hand rule', which I think was a name bestowed by the professor who taught one of us Graph Theory.

Something of my own approach is conveyed by this statement from one of my GMs: "When I say there is a brick wall, I wish to convey the impression of an obstacle. You just see a stack of bricks."

When you have been trained both as an engineer and as an economist, everything is a resource.

Regards,


Agback

 

[schnee]

A player I know had an uncanny knack for digging right to the BBEG's lair. His philosophy was to find hallways. Always took the hallway, bypassing rooms the whole way through if necessary. In a room with three other doors and three hallways? Take the one with the longest hallway.

Almost got us killed once when we faced the BBEG undead necromancer without the 'sunray' and other undead-killing items sprinkled throughout the rest of the dungeon.

 

[Kormydigar]

For some reason, the party in my campaign always turns left. They even have a slogan for it- "Left to live!"

Interestingly, this seems to be a longterm player choice rather than a choice that this group of characters has made. Multiple groups have used this same 'exploration philosophy'... the only commonality is the players.

What this means is, I can design a dungeon and put the stuff they're after all the way to the right and they'll explore the rest first!

I haven't actually tested this theory- I much prefer to have my dungeons designed for internal logic- but it really seems true. Though there are exceptions, I'd say close to 90% of the time, given the choice, the group will go left first.

Anyone else have a group with similar quirks that makes it easy to 'direct' them?

Oh yes. The group I have been gaming with for about 16 years now has some silly preferences , myself included when I'm not GMing.

1) Left is west and west is best
2) Double doors before any single door
3) Downstairs before anything ( including Western double doors!!!)

I have no idea why this is the case. I have a dim recollection of number 1 being inspired by the example of play in basic D&D ( you know the one:" Black Dougal gasps 'poison!' and falls to the floor. He looks dead") There is some substance behind number 3 in most modules- the deeper you go the better the stuff!

 

[ph0rk]

To those that offer rings and sloped hallways as a way to "defeat" a right or left-hand rule: That is more or less expected.

Any group that follows such a rule to the point that they continue to wander through similar hallways isn't all that bright; most with a reasonable amount of intelligence will quickly identify the problem (ring or slope or other) bypass it, and then continue. Rings are hard to miss, and unless the party is walking down a 300 foot corrifor, a 10' elevation is going to be pretty noticable too (if you don't believe me, walk a quarter mile up a gentle slope and tell me your calves don't tell you all about it).

The truly devious DM wouldn't waste time with rings or slopes, they'd simply allow corridors to pass through each other, either via illusion or some clever dimension warping.

Do that 5 or 6 times in the same dungeon and you'll get some confused players, though even that isn't anything a good piece of charcoal can't fix. (So include some wall-washing kobolds, too!)

An occasional trap that silently moves walls would help, too.

 

[Mystic_23]

My group follows the "always left" philosophy. We also tend to make sure to completely map an entire level before we move to another one. Oh, and we keep a password in case there's dopplegangers about.

Just a few quirks we maintain.