Just as it says on the tin. I haven't been running the game for very long, but I personally haven't run a dungeon with more than ten rooms. I've never met anyone running a 0th edition, 12 level Mythic Underworld style mega dungeon, and I've certainly never encountered one myself. I'd love to see what the typical dungeon size being used by the community is, and what you all are using the dungeons for.
So... What is the typical size of a dungeon in the games you run? Why do you prefer it over the others? What role do dungeons serve in your campaign setting?
I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts! (But I don't have access to like, Detect Thoughts or anything, so you'll have to settle for leaving a comment.)
I've never met anyone running a 0th edition, 12 level Mythic Underworld style mega dungeon
alright but this sounds sick. I'm going there, who'se coming with me?
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I base the size of my dungeons around the encounters I plan for them.
Each encounter needs enough "space" to be unique, rather than a zone of chaos where all the other encounters can see/hear what's happening and rush in. That, plus the theme spaces (a church needs an altar, a Dragon's Lair needs traps, etc.) and a rational limit based on how many sessions I'd like it to take, drives me.
I'm a mega-dungeon DM, so mine go at least a dozen floors deep, each level about 50-75 rooms.
I take it one level at a time, so I always will have that "next level" ready for the party if they want to go down there. If not, I will make some minor modifications and move it to be floor 1 of the next dungeon they encounter.
It depends on the purpose and style of an adventure.
For example if I'm running a hack 'n' slash style adventure, then we're looking at large spawling dungeons that are crammed with traps, puzzles, and enemies.
If I'm running a great adevnture, then the location has to serve a particular purpose, so the dungeon would have as many rooms as are needed to serve the purpose. An example here is my recent 'Limbo' dungeon. The adventurers were trapped in a portion of Limbo and had to gain three keys to open a door where they could challenge a fiend in order to escape. This served two purposes - firstly to release the spirit of a fallen comrade and to travel to a different area of the world in a reduced amount of time. As it was limbo there were three puzzle rooms, a room where the adventurers would respawn if they were killed, a room in which they could meet a denizen of Limbo to get clues or info on the location in which they found themselves, and a load of looping corridors filled with deadly traps.
In a previous episode of the adventure there was a dunegon that was a former mine. It contained three main chambers - a store/planning room, a resting room, and a main excavation where the resources were currently being mined. Beyond that was a cavern in which was found a settlement of non-hostile goblins. Their canyon was four main chambers, with each representing an area of habitation for the goblins. Finally, one last chamber in which lived a creature that was abducting the goblins. The point here was to show that not all goblins are the enemy, and to depict a quasi-believable location.
Now, I have also been working to design an old school dungeon run in which there will be five levels of absolute nightmares (1 per tier). This dungeon won't let up and to be frank will be a meat grinder of an adventure. That means 20-30 rooms per level for a total of 150 rooms total.
As I said at the top - it depends on the style of the adventure, and the purpose that you are having your adventurers explore the dungeon.
I'm a mega-dungeon DM, so mine go at least a dozen floors deep, each level about 50-75 rooms.
I take it one level at a time, so I always will have that "next level" ready for the party if they want to go down there. If not, I will make some minor modifications and move it to be floor 1 of the next dungeon they encounter.
That's quite a dungeon! I'll admit, I'm surprised to see the mega-dungeon pull ahead, but I love to see that the playstyles are so varied. Do the majority of your adventures take place in the dungeon, with players coming back up for air in between crawls? Do you seed hooks or reasons for exploring the dungeon, or is the playstyle closer to: "the dungeon exists, so we will delve it."?
I base the size of my dungeons around the encounters I plan for them.
Each encounter needs enough "space" to be unique, rather than a zone of chaos where all the other encounters can see/hear what's happening and rush in. That, plus the theme spaces (a church needs an altar, a Dragon's Lair needs traps, etc.) and a rational limit based on how many sessions I'd like it to take, drives me.
It depends on the purpose and style of an adventure.
For example if I'm running a hack 'n' slash style adventure, then we're looking at large spawling dungeons that are crammed with traps, puzzles, and enemies.
If I'm running a great adevnture, then the location has to serve a particular purpose, so the dungeon would have as many rooms as are needed to serve the purpose.
This is what I do, and it's the style I've encountered most. The campaigns are usually overland focused, closer to hex craws than dungeon crawls. The dungeons are there as part of the current adventure's narrative, or as points of interest during exploration.
I had several tomb entrances lead to the same underground crypt in a desert environment (think that went 22 rooms on 2 levels).
I had a floating continent that had 5 floors, the first few floors had a couple of rooms in non-labyrinth setup (meaning evenly spaced, not mazes, just puzzles).
I've had a few cave systems with 1-8 'rooms' if you want to call them that.
I had a beacon that was magical in a sense that it housed 'instances' of itself inside, where there were 40 rooms, but only 10 were accessible to the party on the way up in a single go. it then connected at the top to specific higher level lackeys and the two major bosses of the tower. There were a few floors with several rooms, and it was 13-14 floors tall.
i had a labyrinth that was constructed underground by dwarves who did not exist in my campaign on the plane that the party existed (i am a homebrew against stereotypes DM, so a lot of things are flipped around a bit rather than making all dwarves blacksmiths and all elves rangers/druids). It went 3 floors and a boss floor and was closer to 60 rooms deep (some with clues, some with traps, some with items, some with encounters). I'm usually only looking at 10-15 total encounters, with roaming units and stationary units alike, some of which can be avoided based on the party's motives.
The campaign is built entirely point-to-point, so i have overworld maps with a list of various regions (Mountains/arid/forest/desert/towns/castles/dungeons) and i piece it together as the party moves or gets information so as to allow myself not to get too caught with material i don't have). Dungeons are similar to the user you just responded to. Style of adventure and style of quest have a lot to do with it
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Just as it says on the tin. I haven't been running the game for very long, but I personally haven't run a dungeon with more than ten rooms. I've never met anyone running a 0th edition, 12 level Mythic Underworld style mega dungeon, and I've certainly never encountered one myself. I'd love to see what the typical dungeon size being used by the community is, and what you all are using the dungeons for.
So... What is the typical size of a dungeon in the games you run? Why do you prefer it over the others? What role do dungeons serve in your campaign setting?
I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts! (But I don't have access to like, Detect Thoughts or anything, so you'll have to settle for leaving a comment.)
If you're putting a dungeon inside the dragon where's the entrance going to be? Are we using Scanlan's Legend of Vox Machina entrance?
I've always thought a Dungeon in a Dragon would benefit from an Osmosis Jones treatment. Now there's a mega dungeon I could get behind.
Wait- I mean- not that way. Damn you Scanlan.
alright but this sounds sick. I'm going there, who'se coming with me?
Pronouns: Any/All
About Me: Godless monster in human form bent on extending their natural life to unnatural extremes /general of the goose horde /Moderator of Vinstreb School for the Gifted /holder of the evil storyteller badge of no honor /king of madness /The FBI/ The Archmage of I CAST...!
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Fun Fact: i gain more power the more you post on my forum threads. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
I base the size of my dungeons around the encounters I plan for them.
Each encounter needs enough "space" to be unique, rather than a zone of chaos where all the other encounters can see/hear what's happening and rush in. That, plus the theme spaces (a church needs an altar, a Dragon's Lair needs traps, etc.) and a rational limit based on how many sessions I'd like it to take, drives me.
I'm a mega-dungeon DM, so mine go at least a dozen floors deep, each level about 50-75 rooms.
I take it one level at a time, so I always will have that "next level" ready for the party if they want to go down there. If not, I will make some minor modifications and move it to be floor 1 of the next dungeon they encounter.
4-7 levels. usually a few months of playtime
It depends on the purpose and style of an adventure.
For example if I'm running a hack 'n' slash style adventure, then we're looking at large spawling dungeons that are crammed with traps, puzzles, and enemies.
If I'm running a great adevnture, then the location has to serve a particular purpose, so the dungeon would have as many rooms as are needed to serve the purpose. An example here is my recent 'Limbo' dungeon. The adventurers were trapped in a portion of Limbo and had to gain three keys to open a door where they could challenge a fiend in order to escape. This served two purposes - firstly to release the spirit of a fallen comrade and to travel to a different area of the world in a reduced amount of time. As it was limbo there were three puzzle rooms, a room where the adventurers would respawn if they were killed, a room in which they could meet a denizen of Limbo to get clues or info on the location in which they found themselves, and a load of looping corridors filled with deadly traps.
In a previous episode of the adventure there was a dunegon that was a former mine. It contained three main chambers - a store/planning room, a resting room, and a main excavation where the resources were currently being mined. Beyond that was a cavern in which was found a settlement of non-hostile goblins. Their canyon was four main chambers, with each representing an area of habitation for the goblins. Finally, one last chamber in which lived a creature that was abducting the goblins. The point here was to show that not all goblins are the enemy, and to depict a quasi-believable location.
Now, I have also been working to design an old school dungeon run in which there will be five levels of absolute nightmares (1 per tier). This dungeon won't let up and to be frank will be a meat grinder of an adventure. That means 20-30 rooms per level for a total of 150 rooms total.
As I said at the top - it depends on the style of the adventure, and the purpose that you are having your adventurers explore the dungeon.
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That's quite a dungeon! I'll admit, I'm surprised to see the mega-dungeon pull ahead, but I love to see that the playstyles are so varied. Do the majority of your adventures take place in the dungeon, with players coming back up for air in between crawls? Do you seed hooks or reasons for exploring the dungeon, or is the playstyle closer to: "the dungeon exists, so we will delve it."?
This is what I do, and it's the style I've encountered most. The campaigns are usually overland focused, closer to hex craws than dungeon crawls. The dungeons are there as part of the current adventure's narrative, or as points of interest during exploration.
I've been all over the place.
I had several tomb entrances lead to the same underground crypt in a desert environment (think that went 22 rooms on 2 levels).
I had a floating continent that had 5 floors, the first few floors had a couple of rooms in non-labyrinth setup (meaning evenly spaced, not mazes, just puzzles).
I've had a few cave systems with 1-8 'rooms' if you want to call them that.
I had a beacon that was magical in a sense that it housed 'instances' of itself inside, where there were 40 rooms, but only 10 were accessible to the party on the way up in a single go. it then connected at the top to specific higher level lackeys and the two major bosses of the tower. There were a few floors with several rooms, and it was 13-14 floors tall.
i had a labyrinth that was constructed underground by dwarves who did not exist in my campaign on the plane that the party existed (i am a homebrew against stereotypes DM, so a lot of things are flipped around a bit rather than making all dwarves blacksmiths and all elves rangers/druids). It went 3 floors and a boss floor and was closer to 60 rooms deep (some with clues, some with traps, some with items, some with encounters). I'm usually only looking at 10-15 total encounters, with roaming units and stationary units alike, some of which can be avoided based on the party's motives.
The campaign is built entirely point-to-point, so i have overworld maps with a list of various regions (Mountains/arid/forest/desert/towns/castles/dungeons) and i piece it together as the party moves or gets information so as to allow myself not to get too caught with material i don't have). Dungeons are similar to the user you just responded to. Style of adventure and style of quest have a lot to do with it