Need help with Dungeon Encounters

[Baumi]

I have no problem with Adventures in Cities or in the Wilderness, but I'm lost when I want to GM a Dungeon-Adventure. So I hope someone can help me out...

The problem is that I don't know what kind of encounters I should create for them besides Traps and Monsters. Long Roleplaying Encounters seems hard to implement and I don't know what I should do to keep the players (and myself) away from becoming bored.

 

[trentonjoe]

Give the dungeon a history and each room could help explain a part of it.

HAve the dungeon be inhabited my many groups of creatures. There could be a power struggle between the groups that the PCs find themselves in the middle of.

I would reccomend reading some good published dungeons for ideas as well. Ones that come to mind are: Crucible of Freya, Tombs of Abysthor, Keep on the borderlands, the Accursed Tower, Village of Homlet and the whole GDQ series.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

Salutations,

There was a thread recently about 101 or so things to put in a dungeon. There was some good ideas in there.

Trentonjoe's first suggestion was the best- figure out why the place was built in the first place. Once you have that in mind- design it.

Was it to live in? Then design it like a living area.

Was it to memoralize some dead person? Then there would be things to honor their lives.

Was it to lure heroes in to kill/test them? Then figure out who made it and use their talents appropraitely.

For RP- since they are most likely intruding upon a dungeon for it to threaten boredom, throw in an npc. Perhaps they have to escort one to the heart of the dungeon, or they find one and they have to escort them out.

Perhaps the dungeon's inhabitant can magically scry/taunt them- that should give some interesting moments.

In the end, if your pc's are not rp'ng off each other, then dungeon crawls do threaten to get boring.

If you ever have a specific dungeon in mind you want help filling with non-trap/monster encounters, then you could post a description about in the Plots forum and get some suggestions.

Good luck
SD

 

[Drawmack]

check out AEG's dungeons. That book will teach you how to give a dungeon a history, ecology, etc, etc.

 

[Breakdaddy]

May I also suggest AEG's Toolbox? Damn this product rocks, Ive had it less than a week and come up with no less then 11 adventure ideas. Also the tables for dungeon crawls are so well organized I could poop myself (again)!

 

[jester47]

I am intereted in seeing FFGs Dungeoncraft.

Yeah, the best way to gear a dungeon to have roleplaying is to give it a history and then build off of that. Even then, just having the monsters within relate to each other will get you a long way. Easy answer, put some npcs in it and set up situations where the PCs have to help some of the inhabitants rather than defeat them.

Aaron.

 

[Baumi]

Thanks for the answers so far, but the references for the books are too late for this weekend I will surely check them out in the next weeks but I need more direct advice for this Session.

Besides I have anouther Question
Riddles are mostly one of the more interesting parts of a Dungeon, what was your most beloved one (not word riddles but action-oriented riddles)?

Many thanks in Advance!
Baumi

 

[Sagan Darkside]

Riddles are mostly one of the more interesting parts of a Dungeon, what was your most beloved one (not word riddles but action-oriented riddles)?

the players needed to get into a magically sealed crypt. A riddle carved on the door led them to a bottom of a full well- which took a long time for them to handle (they were first level).

There was a standard riddle in there - the answer was moon.

But- it did not say what to do with the answer.

So- they tried everything.. reflecting moon light on the door, drawing moons on it, and even one player suggesting dropping their pants at it.

One pc got so mad they yelled "What the hell am I supposed to do with the moon!?"

As they said the last word- the door opened.

It pays to read the classics.

SD