Preparation, preparation, preparation
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My DM would burst out laughing at those questions and respond with:
YOU’RE the adventurers, aren’t ya? So:
- explore and find out
- explore and find out
- explore and find out
Generally yes, the DM doesn’t need to answer all things (heoght be revealing some secrets after all, where you can ambush, poison food, whatever). BUT he better is prepared after the questions
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Map doesn’t make any sense. There is no structure or organization beyond “make a huge block of confusing, pointless rooms”.
Maps are a part of telling a story. The story this DM is telling consists entirely of incoherent yelling and swearing.
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Over half of that map looks absolutely miserable to do combat in, for both the GM and the players.
I once had an encounter happen inside a 3x3 grid room as a GM. It was awful. There was no room for anybody to be creative in. It was just a boring slogfest for over an hour
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I’d watch a video of someone with architectural experience analyzing these old dungeons and ranting about how impossible to construct and functionally useless they are for anything other than dungeon delving.
IIRC this dungeon was created specifically for dungeon delving, and the mad mage who created it is, as the name implies, batshit crazy, so this one makes sense.
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Plot twist: It’s just a printout of the DM’s last Dwarf Fortress save.
Below level 23 is where the FUN starts.I know a guy who did this. Use the entire worldgen for the overland map, locations, and factions then would handcraft some dungeons in fortress mode. Sounded like a lot of work but worth it.
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I know a guy who did this. Use the entire worldgen for the overland map, locations, and factions then would handcraft some dungeons in fortress mode. Sounded like a lot of work but worth it.
How many years does it take to play through a map?
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How many years does it take to play through a map?
Look up how many years it’ll take for iron stars to form and multiply that by six.
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Map doesn’t make any sense. There is no structure or organization beyond “make a huge block of confusing, pointless rooms”.
Maps are a part of telling a story. The story this DM is telling consists entirely of incoherent yelling and swearing.
That Mad Mage just isn’t making sense!
It’s like a purposeful troll on a group with a persistent completionist mentality.
When (if) they catch on the DM can help expedite their routing.
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Map doesn’t make any sense. There is no structure or organization beyond “make a huge block of confusing, pointless rooms”.
Maps are a part of telling a story. The story this DM is telling consists entirely of incoherent yelling and swearing.
It tells a story of a “Mad Mage” very well
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Is this the Godherja under mountain map?
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Map doesn’t make any sense. There is no structure or organization beyond “make a huge block of confusing, pointless rooms”.
Maps are a part of telling a story. The story this DM is telling consists entirely of incoherent yelling and swearing.
The “Mad Mage”, Halaster Blackcloak, is a specific character from the Forgotten Realms setting. “Undermountain” is a special place that he has surprising control over as it has been slowly created by him over the century/centuries, and its layout both isn’t permanent and isn’t there to serve any given group of people. Monsters and sentients sometimes move in, at their own risk.
The map as shown is meant to represent its existence at whatever point in time the adventuring party happens to arrive at. And Halaster keeps a remote eye on anyone of interest who turns up. GMs are encouraged to modify the presented material in whatever way suits their interests.
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In a lot of modern guides on dungeon design, they stress thinking this stuff out. Yeah you should definitely have some idea why the inhabitants are here and not elsewhere, where their supplies come from, and how they interact with whatever else calls this place home.
They should have a place to sleep, eat, maybe recreation even. While the PCs poke around, the dungeon denizens shouldn’t just be waiting around in preset rooms, fully ready to fight like MMO mobs. They could be on patrol, raiding their neighbors, sleeping, arguing, partying, whatever.
There’s even fun things you can do with this like inter-faction conflicts between floors or other regions. Do the Orcs fear the dragon at the bottom of the dungeon?
Do the bandits have an uneasy non-aggression pact with a lich? Or are they constantly embattled with seemingly limitless undead because they’re struggling for a legendary artifact?
Somebody’s gotta reset all those traps, too.
Players should definitely feel like trespassers in a living place. Few people enjoy that ancient style of dungeon delving anymore, where you slay a band of kobolds, answer a sphinx’s riddle, then bust in on a vampire who’s as confused about why they’re there as you are!
Where are the toilets?
Maybe the hallway but the local gelatinous cube roombas it up. (Eeeeeww) … Or a room has holes dug dropping into an underground river. Or just a really deep pit, or a convenient portal to the Abyss LOL.
You can have fun with this stuff.
I really like this approach. I’d say few dungeons are really places of inner conflict though, since that usually either resolves itself quickly by one side winning or fleeing, because few people like to have a potential rival as a direct neighbor. But of course, there are exceptions and even dungeons belonging to a single faction should feel like the monsters are actually alive.
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Over half of that map looks absolutely miserable to do combat in, for both the GM and the players.
I once had an encounter happen inside a 3x3 grid room as a GM. It was awful. There was no room for anybody to be creative in. It was just a boring slogfest for over an hour
How did it come to that?
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How did it come to that?
Abomination Vaults, floor 3.
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Abomination Vaults, floor 3.
I’m afraid I never played the module. What’s down there?
