Smaller or bigger dungeons?

[ThirdWizard]

I like dungeons completable in one run. If you can't, then its too big for my taste.

 

[RFisher]

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

Doing some searching, I believe that this five-room dungeon article may be by the same author as the bit in Dungeon.

I'll stick with enjoying more of my sessions, k'thanx, rather than clicking (or in this case rolling) Diablo-style through a host of mooks in the hopes of one day encountering something worth fighting, talking to or running from.

It seems more like you have a problem with a style of play than with an environment itself. & it seems mostly like a style of play that most people wouldn't enjoy. I've played in plenty of dungeons that didn't exhibit the problems you cite.

 

[Schmoe]

When I DM, I prefer somewhat smaller dungeons. Not tiny, 3 room affairs, but something that won't suck up 4 sessions of play to complete. I like to keep the story moving from location to location and to explore new ideas.

Curiously, as a player, I find myself drawn to large, extensive dungeon crawls. I would love to explore the depths of Moria, for example, even if it took a year or more. Stairs that wind mysteriously into the bowels of the earth are *cool*. Someone at the FLGS is trying to start up an Undermountain campaign, and I'm very tempted.

 

[raltgaither]

I've played in plenty of dungeons that didn't exhibit the problems you cite.

Oh, no you haven't, Mister. Dungeons are orc and pie, got it?

Orc. And pie.

;-)

 

[tzor]

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

I think size doesn't matter, but you've indirectly hit my point in your statement. Having a unified theme is key. You can have a small dungeon that is boring and a large dungeon that is boring. You can have a large dungeon with a driving theme and a small dungeon with a driving theme. You can even have a small dungeon within a large dungeon (in other words only a small portion of th larger dungeon is significantly detailed and the rest is faked on a as needed basis).

In first edition there was an "explore every room" mentality but those were the days when you almost had to have at least a few secret doors to secret rooms with secret treasure because that was the cool feature that elves had so they had to shine some of the time. So instead of relying on luck you measured once and twice and explored the walls near the places of the map that weren't filled in. (Because they obviously had to be where the secret rooms were.)

 

[Raven Crowking]

In earlier editions, part of the coolness of big dungeons was knowing that there were other PCs in other parties exploring the same area. In my own Dungeon of Thale (2nd Ed) I had several groups exploring the area, and they would often find signs or each other's exploration, as well as hidden caches of equipment and goods left behind by others.

These were parties made up of friends, several of whom were in more than one party. As a result, they could compare and (to some degree) compete with each other.

In that sort of setting, walking somewhere that you knew the other groups hadn't found, being among the first to discover the hidden elevator to the second level, and solving questions that had long been unanswered were very, very rewarding.

When one group lost their fighter to ghouls, and another group later encountered that fighter as a ghoul in the same pack, it was a cool moment.

You just don't get that sort of reward with a smaller playing field.

 

[Doug McCrae]

You might be on to something with the theme thing. There's a very good GM in our group whose 'big' dungeons (about a dozen encounters each) have been quite weak imo. His smaller single encounters or linked adventures, such as recovering three different monsters that escaped from a zoo, have been much more successful. I think maybe the problem with his dungeons is that they lacked theme, they were just a bunch of weird monsters brought together by an evil overlord or manufactured by an eldritch machine.

Maybe if it had been mostly plant monsters or cold monsters or something it would've better. Or drow caves with a few drow encounters, some drow slaves, a drider, some spiders, etc. Or a dungeon in four sections with elemental beings in each part. Nah, that's been done.

 

[howandwhy99]

Lots and lots of small dungeons.

Only a few really BIG dungeons. The big dungeons are my favorites.

But I couldn't abide a dungeonworld or dungeon-only campaign.

 

[diaglo]

But I couldn't abide a dungeonworld or dungeon-only campaign.

:doh:

diaglo "howandwhy99's referee" Ooi

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Big.

The bigger the better.

Alas, I am a minority.