What Makes A Good Dungeon, and a Good Dungeon Campaign/Adventure?

[ourchair]

It's frequently mentioned about at all my gaming tables that "dungeons are boring."

For a myriad number of reasons, I disagree. Dungeons are an opportunity to present history and flavor in ways that political adventures and wilderness campaigns can't, and provide a series of meaningful choices that cities and forests don't.

Still I'll ask you guys:

What makes a great dungeon?

And furthermore, what makes a great adventure or campaign within a dungeon?

 

[fuzzlewump]

Meaningful choices for the players that have impact and reaction within the game world is good advice no matter the game.

The only dungeon I've run recently had one very important aspect: NPC's you can talk to. It was a mansion full of undead and ghosts, some willing to rebel against their master, others willing to eat your brains. They talked to the captain of the 'guard' a walking and talking suit of armor, a ghostly man eating dinner in the dining hall while the peasants (minions) danced... at least, until you commit a serious faux pas. The "good" knightly order coming in to clear the place, taking the previous masters place and trying to kill the adventurers. Dungeon crawling needs some amount of personality, my way to insert that is with dialogue.

Other than that, I imagine a larger than one-session dungeon would need clear 'wings' to it, with some being inaccessible either with a soft barrier (ex. higher level monsters) or hard barrier (ex. locked door). This is to achieve a sense of expectation and to attach a good mental image and theme to the player's imagination. Something easy to imagine and apply a 'theme' to the encounters, like 'The Caves,' 'The Jungle,' 'The Temple,' 'The Frost Cavern,' 'Industrial Foundry' and the like. As opposed to describing the entire dungeon as "caves" you could put a bit of personality as well as easy navigation like that, especially if certain creatures gravitate to a particular area.

 

[ExploderWizard]

A great dungeon is one that appeals to, and entertains it's intended audience.

Different groups will have a wide variety of opinions regarding what is fun or boring about a particular dungeon.

That being said there are ways to make dungeon adventures an interesting and integral part of a campaign. A few points to keep in mind when designing a dungeon:

1) Why?
A dungeon was constructed by someone at some time for a purpose. A great deal of work is involved in such contruction and serving as an apartment complex for a random jumble of critters is not a very compelling reason for such an undertaking. The dungeon could have been built as a crypt or tomb, a prison, a secret meeting complex, etc. Whatever the purpose, the design and basic layout of the dungeon should should in some way reflect this purpose.

2) Who?
Someone or some group had to plan and build the place. Who are these individuals and what motivated them to construct the dungeon?

3) When?
How old is the dungeon? Is it still being used for it's original purpose or has it been hundreds of years, the creators long forgotten and the dungeon now being used by others? If the dungeon is really old have there been any caretakers that might have altered or expanded it in the intervening years into something barely connected to the original design?

Once you have a good idea about the answers to these questions then provide a means for your players to discover the information. A dungeon that is well connected by lore to the game world will become more interesting a place to players than just some underground complex filled with danger and treasure.

 

[Zaran]

I think a good dungeon should escalate gradually in challenge. If every fight turns into an epic slugfest it tends to drag. I also think that dungeons should be relatively small. 4e encounters are long and a gaming group is lucky to do 4 in one session.

 

[ourchair]

Great observations, all.

Anybody have any personal favorite dungeon encounters/adventures/campaigns?

 

[MortalPlague]

A dungeon has to have meaningful choices at a very visceral level. For instance, if someone comes to a junction where they have a choice of corridors. Instead of "the corridor splits, heading left and right", you can have "the corridor forks. To the left, the faint smell of rot drifts up the stairwell. A slight breeze stirs the air from the right." Thus the characters have a reason to go one way or the other.

Details like this also make it easy to establish a flavor for the dungeon. Even a run of the mill underground tomb can have some little things that hint at the tomb's owner. The tomb of a paladin will be very different from the tomb of a tyrant king, and will be decorated differently as well.

 

[Reynard]

First let's establish what you mean by "dungeon". Not too long ago we had a nice little thread about dungeons here and we kind of shook it down to "lair" dungeons - a dragon's cavern, a ruined keep overrun by orcs, a lich's catacomb - versus "mega" dungeons - ruins of castle greyhawk, frex- with a side of "subterranean wilderness" - the underdark. Each type requires a different philosophy of design, because each serves a different purpose on play.

 

[Verdande]

I think a good dungeon should escalate gradually in challenge. If every fight turns into an epic slugfest it tends to drag. I also think that dungeons should be relatively small. 4e encounters are long and a gaming group is lucky to do 4 in one session.

I think that this is a silly assumption. I don't run 4th edition, and if a got a dungeon that was a mere 4 encounters long, it'd be over in maybe half an hour under Labyrinth Lord rules.

Give me a branching, expansive, atmospheric megadungeon over a 4-room cramped hole any day.

 

[Reynard]

I think that this is a silly assumption. I don't run 4th edition, and if a got a dungeon that was a mere 4 encounters long, it'd be over in maybe half an hour under Labyrinth Lord rules.

Give me a branching, expansive, atmospheric megadungeon over a 4-room cramped hole any day.

I don't much care for 4E either but you could make an reasonably entertaining and somewhat extensive lair type dungeon from 4 rooms in 4E. It's just that those 4 rooms would be separated by portions of a complex skill challenge representing the exploration aspect. Again, not my preference but certainly doable.

 

[DragonLancer]

For me dungeons don't want to be huge sprawling things. That is when they get dull and boring. Keep them small-medium and without pointless twisty corridors and rooms. They need a theme rather than just a random collection of rooms, treasures and monsters.