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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 5134039" data-attributes="member: 467">"Railroady": The only way for a dungeon to be railroady is if it is linear. Of course a dungeon is a contained adventure site, but just because it is limited doesn't mean it has to be linear. Passages loop around and reconnect. Secret tunnels allow PCs to bypass some dangers (and perhaps some rewards). There are multiple ways down to the next level. You can come out the way you came in, any time you want."Nonsensical": If, in a fantasy game where the setting was created by the folks sitting around the table, a dungeon is "nonsensical" (and this is considered a bad thing) then someone is doing it wrong. I think what you mean is "unrealistic" or "incongruent"? One of my favorite dungeons of all time (and a super linear one at that!) was a mad old hermit's shack -- one 20x20 room (this was 2e. It would have been 10x10 in 3e) -- in which the out door led to a new version of the room every time, and was in fact a sort of "stairwell" to the land of Fey (the hermit being, in reality, the god of chaos and magic, though he didn't know it at the time). A room where gravity reversed. A room (completely) full of water. A room with funhouse mirrors that forced a charicaturization (in appearance and stats) of the PCs. A room where everyone's mind moved one body to the left. A room with a leprechaun and a Deck of Many Things.  It was the most nonsensical things ever, and it was a blast."Gamey": Whether any given adventure -- site based dungeon or event based political intrigue -- is "gamey" or not depends on the players, the GM, the rules set and how they engage that rules set. Games with detailed social mechanics can turn a fun bit of roleplay with the barmaid into a "gamey" experience and dungeon exploration with the battlemat tossed out the window can be very "narrative". I tend, myself, to aim for simulation, but none is better than another and they all mix to one degree or another.</blockquote>

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