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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5643489" data-attributes="member: 4937">DMs that have thought this far ahead totally impress me.  One of the things about realism in your dungeon design is that it tends to be empowering to those folks that have to assault the dungeon.  I mean sure, Ascerak's tomb needs know concessions to reality, but most dungeon complexes pobably should.Maybe its just best to repost <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/14005-dramatic-dungeoncrawling.html#post212975" target="_blank">my thoughts.</a>This is the one that has always bothered me particularly.  Quite often you read the description of the dungeon and its crammed full of treasure, and everyone in the nearby town knows it is there, and the people of the town are actually of higher level than the PCs.If the dungeon is well known, and the rumors of its treasure so easy to come by, and its inhabitants so weak in comparison to the vast wealth that they control, why hasn't someone come along in the past X centuries and claimed the treasure?  Why hasn't some other higher level adventuring group come along and cleared this place out quite easily?  This is particularly true of low level modules where some local lord and two score mercenaries would quite possibly more effectively dispatch the inhabitants than the party would.  This is even more true in settings like FR where it seems everyone is high level.And where did this treasure come from in the first place?  How was this small community so secure in its wealth, that it decided to bury millions of dollars worth of treasure to adorn its dead?  If they were Egyptian in outlook, why didn't the original tomb builders rob the tombs Egytian style?  If the community persisted for a long time, how did they sustain the economic drain if the treasure wasn't in some fashion being returned to the economy?  Why did the heirs of the dead not take their inheritance?  Why didn't the original inhabitants take the treasure with them when they moved out?  Why haven't later inhabitants found the treasure and either spent it or moved it to a more secure place?  Why is this magic sword just lying here/in a chest/stuck on the wall, when the bugbear in the next room is perfectly proficient in its use?  I take a certain satisfaction in designing a dungeon in such a way that I know most of the treasure won't make it out, because it gives me some justification for why the treasure was there in the first place.Why are dungeons almost in pristine condition before the PC's arrive, and totally wrecked afterwards.  You mean no adventurers have come along in the past 10 centuries?  If not, then why not.And so on and so forth.</blockquote>

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