Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 8248220" data-attributes="member: 22779">When it comes to addressing the three pillars in a dungeon setting, many DM's seem to think that the three pillars will sort of take care of themselves.  And, they wind up with dungeons that are 90% combat.  Take exploration.  Ok, fine, you send the rogue forward to scout and "unfog" the map.  But, that's not exploration, or rather, it's extremely basic exploration.  The players have no real choices here.  Faced with a T junction, they can go left or right, but, since they lack any information, either choice is equally valid.GIVE INFORMATION TO THE PLAYERS.  It's something that many modules lack.  Have prisoners provide two truths and a lie about where things are.  Drop maps.  If the players know that the Macguffin they are looking for is in the north east, near the underground stream, then they have things to look out for and a direction to head.Same goes for interaction.  Far too many DM's make the NPC's 100% hostile and 100% uncooperative.  I remember a recent adventure where we captured a drow.  We let the drow go, after a bit of interrogation, with the message for her fellows that we were not interested in them, had no real beef with them and please, just stay out of our way and everything will be fine.  The DM then had the Drow immediately attack us on sight, and we wound up having to grind our way through multiple, frankly pointless encounters.  All the while, my character is saying, "We don't want to fight you, just let us through, and we'll be on our way."  To me, this was a perfect opportunity for interaction missed.  ((Honestly, looking back on it, I realize I was out of step with at least half the group who was just there to throw dice and kill stuff, talky bits be damned.))It's not difficult to balance the three pillars in a dungeon, but, the DM has to be willing to engage with the PC's in ways other than combat.</blockquote>

Verification