Smaller or bigger dungeons?

[MerricB]

When you're playing or running D&D, do you prefer smaller or bigger dungeons?

I've noticed amongst my players a preference to have smaller, themed dungeons rather than the one big megadungeon of original D&D.

What are your preferences?

Cheers!

 

[Mouseferatu]

I don't do crawls much all, but on the rare occasions when I do, I much prefer smaller, themed dungeons to endless winding corridors.

 

[vongarr]

I'd love to do a sprawling, mega dungeon where each layer gets tougher and tougher...

But they just don't make any damn sense usually. So every time I try to design one, it ends up being a small one.

 

[Lanefan]

As a player, I prefer a mix...some small, some big. That way, we're never sure what we're getting into.

As a DM, my adventures also vary...some are designed as small, others long and involved. Of course, this never survives first contact with the players, who can make an epic out of a 10-room explore and who can also make a dine-and-dash out of the biggest adventure I can write.

Lanefan

 

[frankthedm]

Bigger the better. Not crammed with rooms "bigger", but passages that go on so long that overland travel distances come up "bigger". The stairs that go to the next level are not a 10-30 foot decent, they wind endlessly down into the bowels of the world to forgotten places.

 

[shilsen]

I don't do crawls much all, but on the rare occasions when I do, I much prefer smaller, themed dungeons to endless winding corridors.

Man, I should just carry a flag which says, "I'm with the undead mouse!"

*goes off to paint one*

 

[Stalker0]

I like small dungeons, and as levels get higher I like them even smaller. With the mobility of high levels there's often little need to create a megaplex, the party will skip ahead to the big bad whenever possible.

 

[Wik]

I love the "five-room dungeon" that was described in Dungeon a few years back.

 

[frankthedm]

Huge dungeons mean CoDzilla can't stride room to room with buffs always a going.

 

[blargney the second]

I like the range of 5 to 10 encounters per dungeon as a starting point. Bigger or smaller as the adventure deems necessary.