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Post by tgamemaster1975 on Jul 8, 2007 17:33:21 GMT -6
I posted this at DF nearly a year ago:
"I saw this topic elsewhere and liked it so I am posting it here. For the purposes of this topic, tombs, lairs, caves etc are not dungeons unless they are at least 2 levels or they exceed 20 rooms. However, if you primarily use tombs, lairs, caves etc that are only one level and less than 21 rooms, please feel free to answer all these questions, and identify the context.
1.When you design your own dungeons, how many levels do they typically have? 2. How many rooms per level do they typically have? 3. How do you decide what monsters occupy the dungeon? 4. Do you hand draw them or do you use some other method? 5. Do you lay them out so that each level of dungeon has a difficulty for a particular PC level and a particular # of PCs in the party or do you use some other method of design? 6. Do you determine how many encounters there are to each level randomly or according to some scheme? 7. How do you determine the type and amount of treasure per level? 8. How much use do you make of secret doors, hidden doors, traps, stairways, pits, etc.? 9. Where do your dungeons rate on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being a MontyHaul giveaway and a 10 being Arduin Bloody Arduin deadly? ( a note of clarification. A "1" rating Monty Haul giveaway, I consider to be minimal risk and huge rewards. The "10" rating Arduin Bloody Arduin, I consider to be an extreme risk of a TPK with appropriate rewards if they survive.) 10.A. Do you try to make your dungeon make sense with an ecology? OR 10.B. Do you design it at random and say it is only for fun and have at it? OR 10.C. Do you have some major baddie in control of the dungeon and all of the monsters are under the major baddies control? OR 10.D. Do you have something else as the rational behind your dungeons?"
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Post by tgamemaster1975 on Jul 8, 2007 17:39:18 GMT -6
Here is what I do:
1.When you design your own dungeons, how many levels do they typically have? My dungeons usually start with 6 levels at the beginning of campaign use and grow from there. My oldest dungeon has grown to something over 35 levels and there is no bottom in sight. Although they have only explored about 20 levels of it with very brief excursions into a few of the lowest levels.
2. How many rooms per level do they typically have? They have from 60 to 100 rooms in the beginning.My oldest dungeon has about 250+ rooms per level, since new areas of a level are sometimes discovered.
3. How do you decide what monsters occupy the dungeon? I first look at what monsters are used in that campaign world, and I decide on what type of dungeon it is going to be. I have my own table of monsters that I think are dungeon material for each campaign world and I choose from that table. I also create monsters unique to that particular dungeon. (see also other questions below)
4. Do you hand draw them or do you use some other method? I hand draw mine using a straight edge and other drawing tools. I also use my own private code for my maps.
5. Do you lay them out so that each level of dungeon has a difficulty for a particular PC level and a particular # of PCs in the party or do you use some other method of design? I lay the first 4 levels out based on a party of at least 10 and an average PC level equal to the level of the dungeon. Even so it is always to their advantage to choose wisely when to fight, when to run and when to sneak around something. From the 5th level of the dungeon on down, it is to the PCs advantage to have brought with them a supporting cast to aid them in their endeavors and to bring their average PC level to greater than the level of the dungeon. Strategy and tactics have greater importance the deeper you go. Clerics and paladins are very valuable in my campaign, especially in dungeons.
6. Do you determine how many encounters there are to each level randomly or according to some scheme? I use a little of both, leaning more one way or another depending on the dungeon.
7. How do you determine the type and amount of treasure per level? I base it on the type of dungeon and on the amount risk the players are going to encounter.
8. How much use do you make of secret doors, hidden doors, traps, stairways, pits, etc.? I use a lot of these types of things and the players know it. My players always proceed with caution.
9. Where do your dungeons rate on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being a MontyHaul giveaway and a 10 being Arduin Bloody Arduin deadly? I would rate my dungeons at an 8-9 in difficulty. In my campaigns the more difficult the challenge the greater the reward and easier the challenge the lessor the reward. My players practice the capture and interrogate method versus just kill them all, whenever possible.
10.A. Do you try to make your dungeon make sense with an ecology? OR 10.B. Do you design it at random and say it is only for fun and have at it? OR 10.C. Do you have some major baddie in control of the dungeon and all of the monsters are under the major baddies control? OR 10.D. Do you have something else as the rational behind your dungeons? I don't get much into dungeon ecology at all, I use a combination of "its for fun and have at it" and I generally either have someone in control of the dungeon and there is a defensive plan in place or it has been abandoned for a long time and their aren't many living things in it. Sometimes I have a dungeon that does not have anyone specific in control of it, but there are many opening to the surface and many different factions of creatures using it.
EDIT: Minor format correction by Fin.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2007 21:20:45 GMT -6
1.When you design your own dungeons, how many levels do they typically have? I usually rough out two levels and go from there.
2. How many rooms per level do they typically have? My dungeons have 20-30 rooms/level.
3. How do you decide what monsters occupy the dungeon? I just use the random encounter tables and throw out anything that I don't like or I think doesn't fit.
4. Do you hand draw them or do you use some other method? I do a very rough and dirty freehand and let it go at that.
5. Do you lay them out so that each level of dungeon has a difficulty for a particular PC level and a particular # of PCs in the party or do you use some other method of design? Each level is tougher than the one before, but I don't try to do too much tayloring.
6. Do you determine how many encounters there are to each level randomly or according to some scheme? I do it purely by random determination.
7. How do you determine the type and amount of treasure per level? I just roll it out from the tables in the books.
8. How much use do you make of secret doors, hidden doors, traps, stairways, pits, etc.? I make some use of these things mainly secret and hidden doors.
9. Where do your dungeons rate on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being a MontyHaul giveaway and a 10 being Arduin Bloody Arduin deadly? My dungeons are probably a 4 or 5.
10.A. Do you try to make your dungeon make sense with an ecology? OR 10.B. Do you design it at random and say it is only for fun and have at it? OR 10.C. Do you have some major baddie in control of the dungeon and all of the monsters are under the major baddies control? OR 10.D. Do you have something else as the rational behind your dungeons? 10.b is my method. I just don't worry about it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2007 5:27:47 GMT -6
So far we have only played and haven't designed a dungeon yet. But we are looking forward to doing our first one when we have more experience.
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monk
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 237
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Post by monk on Dec 5, 2010 16:18:21 GMT -6
Arise, Zombie Thread!
1.When you design your own dungeons, how many levels do they typically have? About 2-3 more than the PCs have explored. Meaning, I start with a few levels, then let the party explore them. As they're exploring, they usually give me good ideas when they're wondering out loud about mysterious stuff. I use that to create deeper levels.
2. How many rooms per level do they typically have? On average, it looks like about 25-40.
3. How do you decide what monsters occupy the dungeon? At the beginning of design I make up some random tables that consist of only the type of things I want in the dungeon. Then roll randomly on those. I like to add a fair amount of unique monster a la Random Esoteric Creature book. It's awesome.
4. Do you hand draw them or do you use some other method? Hand drawn. My first few kinda sucked, but they're getting better.
5. Do you lay them out so that each level of dungeon has a difficulty for a particular PC level and a particular # of PCs in the party or do you use some other method of design? The difficulty of a level vaguely corresponds to the average party level (i.e. 3rd level is challenging to 3rd level characters), but there are definitely easier and harder spots.
6. Do you determine how many encounters there are to each level randomly or according to some scheme? Total Rando.
7. How do you determine the type and amount of treasure per level? Also almost totally random. Sometimes I place particular magic items or cool things, then let the random fill in the rest.
8. How much use do you make of secret doors, hidden doors, traps, stairways, pits, etc.? Moderate amount of traps, probably few secret doors (3-4 per level?).
9. Where do your dungeons rate on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being a MontyHaul giveaway and a 10 being Arduin Bloody Arduin deadly? ( a note of clarification. A "1" rating Monty Haul giveaway, I consider to be minimal risk and huge rewards. The "10" rating Arduin Bloody Arduin, I consider to be an extreme risk of a TPK with appropriate rewards if they survive.) The dungeons have been getting more dangerous and more rewarding, I've noticed. Probably a 5 right now. It's kind of an unconscious reaction, I think, to the fact that no one's died lately. When the dungeons are easy, however, the PCs aren"t getting much treasure either.
10.A. Do you try to make your dungeon make sense with an ecology? OR 10.B. Do you design it at random and say it is only for fun and have at it? OR 10.C. Do you have some major baddie in control of the dungeon and all of the monsters are under the major baddies control? OR 10.D. Do you have something else as the rational behind your dungeons?" There is a pretty flimsy ecology. This is the Mythic Underworld we're talking about, not Yogi the Bear's cave. The PCs might find a pool of slime from which monsters emerge from time to time. I don't know if that's "ecology" per se, but just a really flimsy excuse for random bad guys. I assume, and hint to the players all the time, that the underworld has magical energy radiating up from the center of the earth, and the leftovers of a thousand sorcerous summonings, alchemical disasters, rifts in time and reality, etc. going on in it. That's not a recipe for normal/rational.
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jjarvis
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 278
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Post by jjarvis on Dec 7, 2010 13:19:06 GMT -6
1.When you design your own dungeons, how many levels do they typically have? -Usually 3 or more, I've done some with over 30 levels
2. How many rooms per level do they typically have? -40 to 100
3. How do you decide what monsters occupy the dungeon? -i go with a concept and random rolls
4. Do you hand draw them or do you use some other method? -draw by hand,random generators, use geomorphs and computer drawing.
5. Do you lay them out so that each level of dungeon has a difficulty for a particular PC level and a particular # of PCs in the party or do you use some other method of design? - typically dungeons get tougher the deeper one goes. I seldom tie them tightly to any expectations.
6. Do you determine how many encounters there are to each level randomly or according to some scheme? - semi random.
7. How do you determine the type and amount of treasure per level? -by monster type and the concept of the dungeon
8. How much use do you make of secret doors, hidden doors, traps, stairways, pits, etc.? -as needed. too many secret doors is a pain but there shoudl be plenty of features to break things up and keep PCs on their toes.
9. Where do your dungeons rate on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being a MontyHaul giveaway and a 10 being Arduin Bloody Arduin deadly?
-I'd say a 6.5
10.A. Do you try to make your dungeon make sense with an ecology? OR 10.B. Do you design it at random and say it is only for fun and have at it? - only parts of them have any attention to ecology as a whole...nah.
10.C. Do you have some major baddie in control of the dungeon and all of the monsters are under the major baddies control? -sometimes if it fits the concept for the dungeon
10.D. Do you have something else as the rational behind your dungeons? -sometimes a dungeon is an interdimensional rift, monster-tropolis, mad wizards complex, fogotten ruins it really varies a lot.
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