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Message: <blockquote data-quote="grodog" data-source="post: 5876392" data-attributes="member: 1613">Stopping to check for traps generally means that the party has halted completely, unless they're simply tapping with a 10' pole a few feet ahead of where they're walking.  And if tapping's all they're doing to check for traps, any other traps will basically be found the old-fashioned way:  by setting them off <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    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  Tapping is also easy enough to work around, since most pits were only triggered 2 in 6 or 3 in 6 by walking on them (so they may open under the second or third ranks of PCs, even after tapping)---and may have minimum weights before they'll trigger too (letting lighter halflings or gnomes cross over, then opening under the dwarves or humans).  And tapping probably isn't terribly quite either... <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" />Checking for other traps takes time, and can be done only by thieves or dwarves (or a cleric with Find Traps, or a magic wand of secret doors and trap detection, a magic sword that detects traps, etc.), and generally it takes a full round to check a door for traps and a full round to check a 10x10 area for secret doors (DMG p. 97), so I've usually allowed 1 round to check a 10x10 area for traps too.  In a large room, that can take awhile....Matt's follow-up on the Primer appears in Knockspell #4 and it's worth buying (and you'll find other good articles in the issue too).  That said, this is where the DM and players have to adapt to a more "campaign dungeon" approach to dungeon exploration vs. the traditional "module sized" dungeon approach.  That is, that a true mega-dungeon is never meant to be beaten*---there will always be more levels, more monsters, and more traps, tricks, enigmas, wandering monsters, hidden sub-levels, encounters, and set-piece "special" encounters than the PCs (and perhaps the players) can ever successfully "finish."  Therefore the players (and their PCs) need to define their own goals and victory conditions as they explore, on an expedition-to-expedition basis.  And, ideally, each expedition will provide more potential areas to explore, threats to remove, enigmas to puzzle over and solve, etc.; this eventually becomes a self-fulfilling cycle, to some degree, if the PCs are successful.  * Whereas a module-sized "lair" dungeon can be fully-explored and beaten, with some patience, since most TSR dungeon modules were just two levels deep---even larger dungeons like G3 and WG5 were 3 levels, and B4 was several (but they were all relatively small).  This is also where the DM needs to help make the players realize that <a href="http://knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6841" target="_blank">the dungeon itself</a> <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/274142-return-dungeon.html" target="_blank">is as much the enemy</a> as its inhabitants.  The monster and trap threats are quite real, but getting cut off by moving walls or portcullises, being teleported or dropped via a chute to an unknown level and needing to find your way back to familiar ground (this is where mapping really becomes critical), running out of light sources/air/food/water/etc.  These are very real threats, and when you're exploring, they become strong factors that help to drive why encumbrance rules were created, why light sources matter, why faster movement rates are important, etc.  These factors all necessitate players to make choices:  about how much loot they can haul out (which in turn is balanced by how good their ACs are), and when they are getting close to topping off on loot, that's a good signal to start heading back to the surface---who wants to leave any loot behind, after all?  And being able to "mark" and secure areas for future exploration is quite useful too:  if your party detects some significant treasure--and danger--beyond a particular secret door, but is low on resources and doesn't want to risk a potentially deadly battle, then they can wizard lock the door and hope that it'll still be untouched when they return (or use similar means to try to insure that their "claim" isn't jumped).  And to be able to even make that determination requires PCs to memorize augury or divination, as well as other utility spells like detect magic, find traps, gust of wind (very useful for blowing poison gas away, or bringing some breathable air into a lower-than-floor area that's saturated with heavier-than-air gasses).  And of course those take the place of hold persons, silences, neutralize poisons, lightning bolts, magic missiles, etc.   Choices and balancing, choices and balancing, choices and balancing.... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />FYI, there are a number of good threads on ENWorld tagged with "<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/tags/mega-dungeon.html" target="_blank">mega-dungeon</a>" that may also potentially interest folks who like this one.</blockquote>

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