I'm running the Dungeon of the Mad Mage. One level is a classic, old-school, dwarven made dungeon. It's a on old temple to Dumathion. I'm reading along and we have this encounter in room 1, another encounter in room 4, the pals of room 4, in 5, 6, and 7 etc. etc.
What really bugs me is that sound would echo for a very long way in a carved stone dungeon level. With any sort of sword on shield combat, everything on the level would know theres a fight going on and either head that way or run away. So after the first fight, it's either empty level or dog pile on the PC's.
SO we have a reality vs' fantasy problem. To ignore what we know would happen in real life, or observe the physical laws of sound and let the blood fall where it may.
I'm running the Dungeon of the Mad Mage. One level is a classic, old-school, dwarven made dungeon. It's a on old temple to Dumathion. I'm reading along and we have this encounter in room 1, another encounter in room 4, the pals of room 4, in 5, 6, and 7 etc. etc.
What really bugs me is that sound would echo for a very long way in a carved stone dungeon level. With any sort of sword on shield combat, everything on the level would know theres a fight going on and either head that way or run away. So after the first fight, it's either empty level or dog pile on the NPC's.
SO we have a reality vs' fantasy problem. To ignore what we know would happen in real life, or observe the physical laws of sound and let the blood fall where it may.
Thoughts?
Put pressure on the characters using this. Don’t empty the whole level, just give the PCs a couple rounds of combat before telling them the sounds echoes have brought others into the fray. Give it a one-room distance where the echoes can be heard.
So the PCs either have to sneak in and surprise them, finish combat early, talk their way past, or find a way to muffle the sounds every step of the way.
I find when I challenge my PCs in unique ways that the variety of strategy and spell choices change drastically.
I agree with the original premise that sound would be a big factor in dungeoneering. I agree that in the instance you describe, unless there were magical steps taken, your fight would alert the adjacent rooms and they either flee or dog-pile you. For this reason, I like the other advice. Question the PCs. How do you plan to deal with the sound echoing down the hallways. The first encounter in room 1 should be enough to describe the problem.
So how to deal with it... Magical silence? Decoying the "monsters" to chase after you? Slit their throats? There are lots of ideas here. And could this be turned against the monsters? Lure the other monsters out and then fireball the whole room? But a lot of this requires the PCs to carefully recon the area or else they are in for a big surprise!
As DM, I would just make sure they understand the echo effect you are using as a mechanic so they don't call BS later.
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I'm running the Dungeon of the Mad Mage. One level is a classic, old-school, dwarven made dungeon. It's a on old temple to Dumathion. I'm reading along and we have this encounter in room 1, another encounter in room 4, the pals of room 4, in 5, 6, and 7 etc. etc.
What really bugs me is that sound would echo for a very long way in a carved stone dungeon level. With any sort of sword on shield combat, everything on the level would know theres a fight going on and either head that way or run away. So after the first fight, it's either empty level or dog pile on the PC's.
SO we have a reality vs' fantasy problem. To ignore what we know would happen in real life, or observe the physical laws of sound and let the blood fall where it may.
Thoughts?
Put pressure on the characters using this. Don’t empty the whole level, just give the PCs a couple rounds of combat before telling them the sounds echoes have brought others into the fray. Give it a one-room distance where the echoes can be heard.
So the PCs either have to sneak in and surprise them, finish combat early, talk their way past, or find a way to muffle the sounds every step of the way.
I find when I challenge my PCs in unique ways that the variety of strategy and spell choices change drastically.
I agree with the original premise that sound would be a big factor in dungeoneering. I agree that in the instance you describe, unless there were magical steps taken, your fight would alert the adjacent rooms and they either flee or dog-pile you. For this reason, I like the other advice. Question the PCs. How do you plan to deal with the sound echoing down the hallways. The first encounter in room 1 should be enough to describe the problem.
So how to deal with it... Magical silence? Decoying the "monsters" to chase after you? Slit their throats? There are lots of ideas here. And could this be turned against the monsters? Lure the other monsters out and then fireball the whole room? But a lot of this requires the PCs to carefully recon the area or else they are in for a big surprise!
As DM, I would just make sure they understand the echo effect you are using as a mechanic so they don't call BS later.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt