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<blockquote data-quote="Primal" data-source="post: 4055768" data-attributes="member: 30678">Oh, certainly. I'm not actually claiming that veteran DMs would change their writing style just because something is omitted from or not encouraged in 4E DMG. I'm really thinking about &quot;new&quot; DMs and what happens if 4E focuses on cinematic and cool action over details or internal consistency. Actually I should called them &quot;Rooms that contain no traps or monsters and seem empty at first glance&quot; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />. I agree that some elements might be pertinent to the scenario, but most of them would probably be just 'dressing' (and quite often improvised in my group).&nbsp; I don't think we spent hours after hours of mapping empty rooms. I'd say that about one room in five contained some kind of action on the lower levels. As we ascended to the upper levels (which were much smaller) the &quot;action factor&quot; increased and almost half of the chambers contained traps and/or monsters. I think it worked really well, because we could actually take a breath and heal once in a while without fearing that every battle would draw in more monsters from the next room. I think that's actually a pretty &quot;reasonable&quot; rate for action without your players becoming overly bored.I've once played an adventure which consisted of four sessions of &quot;delving&quot; into a giant-sized dungeon (two levels -- both about the same size as Undermountain's first levels). Every room had some kind of puzzle, trap or combat encounter. After two sessions we *begged* the DM to let us out of there -- it was just an endless &quot;grind&quot; and the pace of action was just too intense and after a while it got really, really boring. Eventually we got out, and in retrospect I can say that not even the magic items or XP we got was worth it -- rolling for Initiative in almost every room is not what I'm looking for in D&amp;D. If I had to pick between my 'dwarven delve' example and my DM simply noting how hours pass as the PCs journey through the rooms into the next Encounter Area containing chambers filled with challenges and explosive action (which I suspect will be the &quot;4E way&quot;), I'd go for mapping all those empty rooms. Really. You see, I think it's great that all sorts of aspects of adventuring (even boredom) come out in play. The way that 4E is increasing the &quot;fun factor&quot; (which is a subjective term anyway) in the game may work for many -- especially those groups who only occasionally have time to play or DMs who don't like pre-prep work. It just won't work for me or my group.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Primal, post: 4055768, member: 30678"] Oh, certainly. I'm not actually claiming that veteran DMs would change their writing style just because something is omitted from or not encouraged in 4E DMG. I'm really thinking about "new" DMs and what happens if 4E focuses on cinematic and cool action over details or internal consistency. Actually I should called them "Rooms that contain no traps or monsters and seem empty at first glance" ;). I agree that some elements might be pertinent to the scenario, but most of them would probably be just 'dressing' (and quite often improvised in my group). I don't think we spent hours after hours of mapping empty rooms. I'd say that about one room in five contained some kind of action on the lower levels. As we ascended to the upper levels (which were much smaller) the "action factor" increased and almost half of the chambers contained traps and/or monsters. I think it worked really well, because we could actually take a breath and heal once in a while without fearing that every battle would draw in more monsters from the next room. I think that's actually a pretty "reasonable" rate for action without your players becoming overly bored. I've once played an adventure which consisted of four sessions of "delving" into a giant-sized dungeon (two levels -- both about the same size as Undermountain's first levels). Every room had some kind of puzzle, trap or combat encounter. After two sessions we *begged* the DM to let us out of there -- it was just an endless "grind" and the pace of action was just too intense and after a while it got really, really boring. Eventually we got out, and in retrospect I can say that not even the magic items or XP we got was worth it -- rolling for Initiative in almost every room is not what I'm looking for in D&D. If I had to pick between my 'dwarven delve' example and my DM simply noting how hours pass as the PCs journey through the rooms into the next Encounter Area containing chambers filled with challenges and explosive action (which I suspect will be the "4E way"), I'd go for mapping all those empty rooms. Really. You see, I think it's great that all sorts of aspects of adventuring (even boredom) come out in play. The way that 4E is increasing the "fun factor" (which is a subjective term anyway) in the game may work for many -- especially those groups who only occasionally have time to play or DMs who don't like pre-prep work. It just won't work for me or my group. [/QUOTE]

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