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What do you want in a published adventure? / Adventure design best practices?
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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7173232" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>I was looking at some dungeons recently, and it brought up the question of cellars, kitchens, storage rooms, toilets, and other rooms that tend to have a bland same-ness across dungeons.</p><p></p><p>One of my favorite cartographers Herwin Wielink did a map called <strong><a href="http://fantasy-maps.com/wp-content/gallery/dungeon-maps/fantasy_map_by_djekspek_caves_of_uthiam.jpg" target="_blank">The Caves of Uthiam</a></strong> which is beautiful and evocative as a piece of art. It also has areas like "kitchen", "sleep quarters", and "storage" which feel distinctly banal compared to more fantastic areas like "Hall of the Builders" or "Crowncave."</p><p></p><p>Another example. I'm converting an old Dungeon #63 adventure called <em>Blood and Fire</em>; in that adventure there's a fairly interesting dungeon called The Ivory Tower surrounded by a moat of flames... with an area called "the old cellars" (which holds a roper instead of the tried-and-true otyugh! gasp!) and a nondescript "kitchen" with some slaves.</p><p></p><p>I'm curious what you think about such areas.</p><p></p><p>Should they be given brief description and just left as bland elements in otherwise fantastic dungeons? Because their contribution to the dungeon's verisimilitude overshadows any blandness?</p><p></p><p>Should they be cut out of most dungeons because they don't add anything interesting? "Seen one, seen them all"? I notice a lot of the <strong><a href="https://www.dungeoncontest.com/" target="_blank">One Page Dungeon</a></strong> contest entries cut these sorts of bland/repeated areas out.</p><p></p><p>Should they be reimagined to make them more fantastical, even if that might mean going a little over the top?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 7173232, member: 20323"] I was looking at some dungeons recently, and it brought up the question of cellars, kitchens, storage rooms, toilets, and other rooms that tend to have a bland same-ness across dungeons. One of my favorite cartographers Herwin Wielink did a map called [b][url=http://fantasy-maps.com/wp-content/gallery/dungeon-maps/fantasy_map_by_djekspek_caves_of_uthiam.jpg]The Caves of Uthiam[/url][/b] which is beautiful and evocative as a piece of art. It also has areas like "kitchen", "sleep quarters", and "storage" which feel distinctly banal compared to more fantastic areas like "Hall of the Builders" or "Crowncave." Another example. I'm converting an old Dungeon #63 adventure called [I]Blood and Fire[/I]; in that adventure there's a fairly interesting dungeon called The Ivory Tower surrounded by a moat of flames... with an area called "the old cellars" (which holds a roper instead of the tried-and-true otyugh! gasp!) and a nondescript "kitchen" with some slaves. I'm curious what you think about such areas. Should they be given brief description and just left as bland elements in otherwise fantastic dungeons? Because their contribution to the dungeon's verisimilitude overshadows any blandness? Should they be cut out of most dungeons because they don't add anything interesting? "Seen one, seen them all"? I notice a lot of the [b][url=https://www.dungeoncontest.com/]One Page Dungeon[/url][/b] contest entries cut these sorts of bland/repeated areas out. Should they be reimagined to make them more fantastical, even if that might mean going a little over the top? [/QUOTE]
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