I have a rough time thinking of why there are monsters in my dungeon, and why they coexsist? I want a dungeon where one second the players fight off a group of goblins, then as they move onto the next room a minotaur appears. I want to know how I can write dungeons to have vairous monsters inside, without the monsters wiping each other out, and is there a limit to how many monsters you can put in a dungeon?
You want complete design flexibility and complete verisimilitude?
Apart from some highly complex and artificial backstory scenarios ( Party is trapped in an interdimensional labyrinth, where fissures and tears can let in anything at any time ) , I don't think that's very likely.
Also - I can't see that kind of scenario being viable from a Player perspective. What you're describing is a scenario where Players can't possibly predict, or plan for, what is around the corner. I'd hate that as a Player.
For the game part of a Role Playing Game, Players need to be able to make reasonable choices in the game. Which means that they need to know how the world works, and they need to try and gather information to figure out the scenario they're in, so they can make moves which - hopefully - lead to the results they want.
When the world works randomly, they can't plan anything meaningful. At that point you might as well just put them in a sandpit arena and roll on a random encounter table for them.
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With enough creative thinking you can get away with combining any monsters together, as long as you don't go too wacky too often, or combine too many at once. Be it an ongoing turf war, one being the other's slave/pet/prisoner, the two of them joining forces, or any number of other things.
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"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
I think it'll be a bit of struggle to have "random" monsters in each room without that being the theme of the dungeon.
One idea could be that on the way to fight the top boss they enter his estate via his monster stables. This is where he houses all the different monsters he plans to unleash on the locals. And if you wanted to give them a heads up what is coming next as vedexent mentions you could literally have each room signposted "the goblin house" or have the last monster say "at least I can die knowing that smelly minotaur next door will kill you" as their dieing words.
Obviously this doesn't really work in a "serious" campaign as it is a bit ridiculous but if that is the style you want to play it could still be fun...
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All posts come with the caveat that I don't know what I'm talking about.
Don’t populate a “dungeon.” Create an “ecosystem” and populate that... in your dungeon.
+1 to this.
Plus, don't create a dungeon, create a place with a history.
Any dungeon which isn't just a cave complex, started out at least partially as a constructed place.
What was this place built for? When? By whom?
What happened to it? Why was it destroyed or abandoned?
What has happened to it between that time, and now? What creatures moved in? When? How did they interact with the creatures who were already there? What were the conflicts?
What was the resulting situation? What are the (semi)stable relationships between the various denizens.
Even with a cave complex, you can do the last two points, if you pick an arbitrary point back in the cave's history, and work forward from there.
If you can tell yourself a little story of the origin and history of your Dungeon, the layout, rooms, and creatures become much easier to arrange.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
maybe instead of a minotaur, the goblins could have a death dog, [ monster manual, at the back ]and the goblins in the other room let it loose when they saw the party.
The simplest way to do a multi-monster type dungeon is this:
The standard races are racist
The monsters are NOT
You and your players live in a mostly single species city
The monsters live in racial harmony. They see nothing wrong with having goblins live next to kobolds and minotaurs and invite each other over for game night. They ask each other to borrow a cup of elf blood, etc. etc.
Of course, this means the players are basically the bad guys. ;D
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I have a rough time thinking of why there are monsters in my dungeon, and why they coexsist? I want a dungeon where one second the players fight off a group of goblins, then as they move onto the next room a minotaur appears. I want to know how I can write dungeons to have vairous monsters inside, without the monsters wiping each other out, and is there a limit to how many monsters you can put in a dungeon?
You want complete design flexibility and complete verisimilitude?
Apart from some highly complex and artificial backstory scenarios ( Party is trapped in an interdimensional labyrinth, where fissures and tears can let in anything at any time ) , I don't think that's very likely.
Also - I can't see that kind of scenario being viable from a Player perspective. What you're describing is a scenario where Players can't possibly predict, or plan for, what is around the corner. I'd hate that as a Player.
For the game part of a Role Playing Game, Players need to be able to make reasonable choices in the game. Which means that they need to know how the world works, and they need to try and gather information to figure out the scenario they're in, so they can make moves which - hopefully - lead to the results they want.
When the world works randomly, they can't plan anything meaningful. At that point you might as well just put them in a sandpit arena and roll on a random encounter table for them.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Don’t populate a “dungeon.” Create an “ecosystem” and populate that... in your dungeon.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
With enough creative thinking you can get away with combining any monsters together, as long as you don't go too wacky too often, or combine too many at once. Be it an ongoing turf war, one being the other's slave/pet/prisoner, the two of them joining forces, or any number of other things.
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
I think it'll be a bit of struggle to have "random" monsters in each room without that being the theme of the dungeon.
One idea could be that on the way to fight the top boss they enter his estate via his monster stables. This is where he houses all the different monsters he plans to unleash on the locals. And if you wanted to give them a heads up what is coming next as vedexent mentions you could literally have each room signposted "the goblin house" or have the last monster say "at least I can die knowing that smelly minotaur next door will kill you" as their dieing words.
Obviously this doesn't really work in a "serious" campaign as it is a bit ridiculous but if that is the style you want to play it could still be fun...
All posts come with the caveat that I don't know what I'm talking about.
+1 to this.
Plus, don't create a dungeon, create a place with a history.
Any dungeon which isn't just a cave complex, started out at least partially as a constructed place.
Even with a cave complex, you can do the last two points, if you pick an arbitrary point back in the cave's history, and work forward from there.
If you can tell yourself a little story of the origin and history of your Dungeon, the layout, rooms, and creatures become much easier to arrange.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
maybe instead of a minotaur, the goblins could have a death dog, [ monster manual, at the back ]and the goblins in the other room let it loose when they saw the party.
The simplest way to do a multi-monster type dungeon is this:
Of course, this means the players are basically the bad guys. ;D