Reasons for going into the dungeon?

[Fenes]

In my current City of Brass game, I'm offering my players the option of investigating the cult of Orcus in the Underbasin. Should they take the bait, I'll reuse some dungeon levels from Rappan Athuk for the temple and some of the passages leading into the Plane of Fire. The mission will be: "Figure out what happened to the former Sultan. Orcus being the god of death and undeath, maybe his priests know something." The priests won't tell and be evil, and maybe the party will start fighting them, looking for the corpse of the old Sultan, or searching for clues, or looking for the lich that is running it all, who knows. It'll be fun.

In my current City of Brass game, the players are looking for a stolen relic, which is either in the Sultan's Palace or the Pyramid of Set. But they are straying far and wide.

And I do think it's funny we have two D&D campaigns in the same city, both in game and RL

 

[Gilladian]

My PCs have done a few small dungeons lately. the last three were motivated as follows:

1) to kill the hags and find a silver harp to break a curse
2) to rescue the missing wizard and kill the evil demoness who kidnapped him
3) to track down a thief and then to loot all the treasure

In their next adventure, if they take the bait, they'll be going through a long-gone wizard's tower trying to find a way to stop his monster creations from attacking a valley settled by wood-giants.

I almost never have dungeons of more than 10-12 rooms. The wizard's tower will be, but I figure they'll spend only a smidgin of time on the "living" areas and go right for the lab level and the cellars, where the real action is known to be.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Because it's there.

 

[Tonguez]

The Erudite Order of the High Church is a teaching order dedicated to gathering knowledge, amongst its members is Br. Jonas who organises an annual exploration of an archeological site (ie ruins) and this year he is leading an expedition to a newly uncovered ruin ....

The Council of Inquisitors of the High Church also send parties into dungeons but their purpose is to recover holy (and unholy) artifacts and return them to the Church vaults. as Inquisitors they are also intent on destroying evil and heresy should it be exposed...

I also like 'natural dungeons' such as a canyon which the PCs have to traverse in order to get to their destination, of course the canyon is full of all kinds of nasty suprises...

 

[CruelSummerLord]

"Some of my Newly Discovered Dungeons of the Flanaess articles at Canonfire"

Link?

http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=347

http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=350

http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=735

I suppose also that what I'm getting at is trying to find a way to integrate the dungeon crawl into the plot. Just what is it in there that the PCs need so badly? How does it affect the greater ongoing plot?

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Just what is it in there that the PCs need so badly? How does it affect the greater ongoing plot?

In short: the mcguffin. It sounds pat, I know. But the reason to play DnD (and all the other games) is to have some fun. The dungeon crawl is one of those things that people enjoy doing. Mostly I don't use them but every now and then a mindless hack'n'slash is great fun. ANd to get people into the dungeon you need a mcguffin. If that's one that the players can really get behind (whatever it may be) then all the better. If it's one the players come up with themselves that's best!!

And as several folks have pointed out there's a variety of ways to emmulate a dungeon crawl that are more realistic than an enormous serious of perfect 10'x10' corridors filled with wandering monsters. I nearly typed "wondering monsters." Perhaps they are wondering why they're in an enormous dungeon. But I digress. Aw heck, another brief digression: In some cases perhaps they are wondering why they happen to be perfectly 10'x10' themselves? Which begs the question: Do oozes dream of gelatinous sheep?

I think the dungeon may have been chosen originally (and there are people who can correct me if I'm wrong) for several reasons: the ease of constraining the players in a situation that has been prepared. (that old chestnut of the DM has put a lot of work into the game and quite naturally s/he wants the players to follow through on it.) Possibly for the mythic feel of "entering the labyrinth." The whole Joseph Campbell thing.

If you're asking for specific examples I've used, mmmm. let's see if I can remember a few.

The castellan of the keep offers a reward for any information about the nearby caves that are infested with humanoids.

The PCs have unintentionally freed a powerful efreet and must find the means to combat it within the lost tomb of the wizard who had imprisoned it in the first place.

The DM says: I've just bought this crazy module called Tomb of Horrors, it'll be a hoot. PS: anyone says this to you, save yourself the effort. It's a hoot all right, just not for the players.

If you want ones I've come up with:

a prospector has gone missing. They were last seen in this area. (this one was suppsoed to work on PC guilt too on account of the prospector being in the pay of a PC. Alas that character retired between me drawing up the dungeon and the dungeon getting played.)

OK I admit it: the last few paragraphs Ivem just been writing to get my own thoughts out there.

 

[krissbeth]

GP, lootz and lutez.

Honestly, I do make sure that my characters have in-game reasons to adventure and delve. Even if the reason doesn't make it into any gaming session, I often will write it in narrative. Otherwise, I'd just feel like I have a lost, aimless character and that's no fun.

Having something personal to a character in the hook usually does the trick.

 

[pogre]

Most of my dungeons are fortresses or lairs for evil types harassing the countryside. I also run the occasional get the McGuffin.

 

[Xandercrisp]

well if you're looking for reasons to go through a dungeon....
1. PC's want treasure and xp, dungeon has treasure and monsters.
2. PC's want a specific treasure, dungeon has specific treasure.
3. PC's are already in Dungeon bottom, must find exit.
4. PC's just want the quickest way from A to B. That's through the dungeon
5. PC's are chasing someone, who just ran into dungeon.
6. PC's have powerful artifact, that attracts BAD THINGS to it. It can't be destroyed without BAD THINGS happening. The only place it can be safely sealed up is where it was taken from... so go put it back in the dungeon and reset the traps while you're at it.
7. PC's want someone else to go into the dungeon, and they'll only go if the PC's go.
8. PC's own a dungeon. They might want to do an inventory.

 

[GammaPaladin]

Honestly, the only time I can think of that I'd draw up what I'd consider to be a traditional "dungeon crawl", would be a Mines of Moria type scenario... The PC's need to get somewhere, and there's this ancient, haunted ruin between them and their destination...

But I'd always give them the option to go around (In the knowledge that it will take longer in game time), if only because my personal reaction is often to groan when someone mentions the word dungeon. I guess I'm just not into that hack and slash style anymore. But my players were kind of the same way, so, like I said, I'd give options.

To me, the evil guy's fortress is a different matter... It's not really a dungeon, because I'll generally do a complex, in depth design as a real fortress, with barracks, living quarters for the families of the BBEG's soldiers, and so on and so forth.

This ends up being significantly less labyrinthine than a traditional dungeon-crawl, because a logically laid out structure generally... Isn't a maze.

Also, there are typically less traps...