With the exception of a time limit and duration based dungeons (exceptionally hot/cold), I am at a loss for creating dungeons for my party.
They adopted the tactic of making Right-hand turns. (place a hand on the wall and never let go....eventually they will make it through 90% of all dungeons despite walking into every dead end). The exception is circular map designs. They check for traps and it just seems repetitive. "Check for traps, walk to next hallway turn right"-
They check for traps often and it just seems repetitive. "Check for traps, walk to next hallway turn right"-aaaannnddd repeat.
I feel like I should just have a list of encounters and traps and skip the whole map thing. Using a map sketch seems to slow progress.
I am new to being a dm and would like some input....Thank you in advanced.
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(Sedge):
Moved to: Dungeon Masters Only
You can consider the following tips for a dungeon:
1) A bunch of secret doors. Which may lead to an easier path for the party. You can make them spot the secret door with a Perception check, but you may allow to open the door with a different check (like Religion, for religion-based dungeons, Arcana for magic-based door or even a riddle in a uncommon language (Sylvan, Abyssal...)).
2) Some dungeon hazards (from the DMG) like the green slime or the yellow mould.
3) unsecure path, like a rope bridge. With this trick, you put your party in an exposed position, you can slit the party if the bridge breaks up, and, if they are not careful or creative you can impose al lot of damage.
I recommend having story-driven encounters. Dungeons are a great place for filler-encounters, but make several if not most of them story-driven.
So, if the players are all going right, have them find some rooms that give clues about the origin/purpose of the dungeon.
If you want to discourage them from just going right all the time, you need to somehow entice them toward other goals. First and foremost, I think, would be to make the dungeon mcguffin an enticing goal. If you have to obtain an artifact, rescue an npc, or stop a ritual - that should be motivating enough to the characters that they head that direction. Side directions can be fun, but may be hazardous and drain resources that the PCs will need in the main encounter of the dungeon.
Also, there might be transitory story hooks that are only available when presented - a fleeting glimpse of a shadow/ghost/apparition, an NPC who is goal-oriented and will press on with or without the PCs, etc. If the PCs give up on them, not only is the reward lost, but there might be some story penalty as well - triggering an extra encounter, or the npc who rushed ahead gets him/herself captured.
It is also on the players to get involved with the characters and the story - no group of real human beings all robotically explore areas in the manner you describe, with the possible exception of highly trained military units (I don't know - I'm not in one of those, so I can't say). Ask the players to think about their characters' motivations for being in the dungeon in the first place. No hero from literature ever said, "The kidnapped prince is in the highest tower being guarded by a troll? Well, he can wait while I check out this broom closet and ensure that the shoebox has no traps on it."
I feel for you, though. It's a tough spot for a DM.
Just make sure going right keeps leading the PCs deeper into the underdark.
Also make sure your dungeons aren't so big that going right isn't the best option. Keep your dungeons small and more linear than random. There can be turns but not so many you could get lost for days upon days. Remember people built the dungeon for a specific purpose and getting lost was usually not that purpose. So dungeons shouldn't be random. Every room should have a purpose. If your dungeons are random then they are actually making a smart choice by only going right. In other words make your dungeons real places where real people loved and worked and used it for real purposes rather than a maze to aggravate the players.
Basically they are telling you they don't like mazes and randomness.
And never let the PCs get lost. This will only further the always go right approach to not get lost. If they fail a survival check it should take them longer to end up outside (and risk more random encounters) but not be impossible.
Another question to consider is why they are in the dungeon to begin with. This should help them want to explore it.
You can also plant loot that helps the PCs fill in story elements or get something really cool. If the PCs start wondering when they are going to get magic items, just let them know they passed most of them up.
Try to never split the party in a dungeon, unless it is toward the end and you can schedule two different game sessions to handle their adventures alone. While you might anticipate it's going to take a small amount of time before the PCs reunite.... You never know when they are going to end up spending a couple of hours apart.
Even worse when they end up in combat.... Especially an encounter you planned for the whole group.
If they are constantly checking for traps at every turn, normalize this. Focus less on waiting for them to roll and just start to narrate it into the scene. "You turn the corner and the hallway runs for another twenty feet and ends abruptly at a door. Checking the area for traps you find nothing, it all seems to be fine, safe, and the door is very door-ish."
As far as "Always turn right" letting them see everything, making mapping pointless - try branching paths. Instead of everything being interconnected, have a few major forks in the road that each lead to minor forks. Let no fork touch the other. Technically always turning right results in the same result, but it won't feel as much like a circle or box.
Lastly, maybe instead of going through it all in detail you do just stop for scenes and encounters of importance. Instead of making them crawl every 10 feet with trap-fueled paranoia, just start them when/where something interesting is happening.
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With the exception of a time limit and duration based dungeons (exceptionally hot/cold), I am at a loss for creating dungeons for my party.
They adopted the tactic of making Right-hand turns. (place a hand on the wall and never let go....eventually they will make it through 90% of all dungeons despite walking into every dead end). The exception is circular map designs. They check for traps and it just seems repetitive. "Check for traps, walk to next hallway turn right"-
They check for traps often and it just seems repetitive. "Check for traps, walk to next hallway turn right"-aaaannnddd repeat.
I feel like I should just have a list of encounters and traps and skip the whole map thing. Using a map sketch seems to slow progress.
I am new to being a dm and would like some input....Thank you in advanced.
You can consider the following tips for a dungeon:
1) A bunch of secret doors. Which may lead to an easier path for the party. You can make them spot the secret door with a Perception check, but you may allow to open the door with a different check (like Religion, for religion-based dungeons, Arcana for magic-based door or even a riddle in a uncommon language (Sylvan, Abyssal...)).
2) Some dungeon hazards (from the DMG) like the green slime or the yellow mould.
3) unsecure path, like a rope bridge. With this trick, you put your party in an exposed position, you can slit the party if the bridge breaks up, and, if they are not careful or creative you can impose al lot of damage.
I recommend having story-driven encounters. Dungeons are a great place for filler-encounters, but make several if not most of them story-driven.
So, if the players are all going right, have them find some rooms that give clues about the origin/purpose of the dungeon.
If you want to discourage them from just going right all the time, you need to somehow entice them toward other goals. First and foremost, I think, would be to make the dungeon mcguffin an enticing goal. If you have to obtain an artifact, rescue an npc, or stop a ritual - that should be motivating enough to the characters that they head that direction. Side directions can be fun, but may be hazardous and drain resources that the PCs will need in the main encounter of the dungeon.
Also, there might be transitory story hooks that are only available when presented - a fleeting glimpse of a shadow/ghost/apparition, an NPC who is goal-oriented and will press on with or without the PCs, etc. If the PCs give up on them, not only is the reward lost, but there might be some story penalty as well - triggering an extra encounter, or the npc who rushed ahead gets him/herself captured.
It is also on the players to get involved with the characters and the story - no group of real human beings all robotically explore areas in the manner you describe, with the possible exception of highly trained military units (I don't know - I'm not in one of those, so I can't say). Ask the players to think about their characters' motivations for being in the dungeon in the first place. No hero from literature ever said, "The kidnapped prince is in the highest tower being guarded by a troll? Well, he can wait while I check out this broom closet and ensure that the shoebox has no traps on it."
I feel for you, though. It's a tough spot for a DM.
Just make sure going right keeps leading the PCs deeper into the underdark.
Also make sure your dungeons aren't so big that going right isn't the best option. Keep your dungeons small and more linear than random. There can be turns but not so many you could get lost for days upon days. Remember people built the dungeon for a specific purpose and getting lost was usually not that purpose. So dungeons shouldn't be random. Every room should have a purpose. If your dungeons are random then they are actually making a smart choice by only going right. In other words make your dungeons real places where real people loved and worked and used it for real purposes rather than a maze to aggravate the players.
Basically they are telling you they don't like mazes and randomness.
And never let the PCs get lost. This will only further the always go right approach to not get lost. If they fail a survival check it should take them longer to end up outside (and risk more random encounters) but not be impossible.
Another question to consider is why they are in the dungeon to begin with. This should help them want to explore it.
You can also plant loot that helps the PCs fill in story elements or get something really cool. If the PCs start wondering when they are going to get magic items, just let them know they passed most of them up.
Try to never split the party in a dungeon, unless it is toward the end and you can schedule two different game sessions to handle their adventures alone. While you might anticipate it's going to take a small amount of time before the PCs reunite.... You never know when they are going to end up spending a couple of hours apart.
Even worse when they end up in combat.... Especially an encounter you planned for the whole group.
If they are constantly checking for traps at every turn, normalize this. Focus less on waiting for them to roll and just start to narrate it into the scene. "You turn the corner and the hallway runs for another twenty feet and ends abruptly at a door. Checking the area for traps you find nothing, it all seems to be fine, safe, and the door is very door-ish."
As far as "Always turn right" letting them see everything, making mapping pointless - try branching paths. Instead of everything being interconnected, have a few major forks in the road that each lead to minor forks. Let no fork touch the other. Technically always turning right results in the same result, but it won't feel as much like a circle or box.
Lastly, maybe instead of going through it all in detail you do just stop for scenes and encounters of importance. Instead of making them crawl every 10 feet with trap-fueled paranoia, just start them when/where something interesting is happening.