#dungeon mapping

[the-goblin-dm]

Tracking Time in a Dungeon

Dungeon modules may include instructions like

"Every 10 minutes, roll for a random encounter”

or

"characters who spend more than 5 minutes in this room must make a DC 10 constitution save against poison."

To clarify, these refer to time in the game world. There's no need to start a stopwatch for your players. It is useful to measure time outside of combat, though.  Especially in a dungeon where it's dangerous to linger.

It also makes it easy easier to answer questions like "how long until it's dark out?" or "how long have they been gone now?"

Tracking Time

Get a piece of graph paper or open Excel/Google Sheets.

Make a table with 12 hours that you can fill in and room for notes below.

Make notes of events like when torches were lit, when spells wear out, monster movements, when the party will need a long rest next, etc.

On paper, I do an X for 10 minutes and a single line for 5. I add a horizontal line to make an asterisk if there was a combat. Three X’s = half an hour. I also use vertical lines to track events so they don’t clutter up the time marks.

Example:

You don't need to record exact times or activities - it's fine if things are fuzzy. The goal is not to provide a log of what happened, it's just to estimate how much time has passed.

I try to abstract most actions into 5 or 10 minute intervals.

5 Minutes: A quick or simple task, or one that is aided by specialized tools or expertise. Most combats (1 round of combat is around 1 minute)

10 Minutes: A task that takes care or attention, or a task with complex steps. Examples:

Casually check a 20 x 20 area (1st edition)

Thoroughly search a 10 x 10 area (1st edition)

Move a distance equal to movement speed while mapping or checking for traps (1st edition)

Cast a ritual spell (5th edition)

1 Hour: A short rest.

But Why Add More Bookkeeping?

While it may be a little awkward at first, this soon becomes an unobtrusive part of play. It's actually easier than trying to track time by memory.

But more than that, time brings the dungeon to life. When time is part of play, you get events like torches sputtering out and mage armor wearing off that force players to strategize.

Monster movements become much easier to manage, as well. I like to write a rough schedule of when monsters will move barring interference. You could use it to move patrols or track progress in a fell ritual, for example.

For a simple 5-room delve, not necessary. But for a crawl? Indispensable.

Edit: you’re not crazy: I’ve edited this post for concision and to show what the graph looks like when it’s done on paper.

[pmdthecampaign]

Dungeon Mapping

What initially stumped me when I thought about beginning this project was how would I be able to do the dungeon layouts.

In Pokemon Mystery Dungeon normally, no dungeon floors look the same, and can come in a variety of different shapes. So how was I going to replicate it? My solution was this:

A bunch of different handmade cardboard tiles with custom shapes. All of them are measured to be 1 inch squares, which should fit most game pieces.

I could have just bought a bunch of different squares or custom maps, but I wanted to save money, and also wanted to be able to move tiles around as I pleased so that they could fit the variety of different tables my group usually plays on. 

How it’s worked in the test run--and the system I’ll be using in the campaign--is that I first lay out the above tiles I want, then I place items on the board that look like this:

They’re made out of Sculpey and what isn’t it pictured, but I also sculpted, is the staircase. I also have little cardboard Wonder Tiles and squares that denote a Pokemon Spawn.

I pick and choose where on the board to place items, then I cover it up with thick paper, so that only the room my players are in is revealed at the start of each floor. I ask my players to either move away from the table or take breaks as I set up each floor so they don’t know what’s there. 

It usually only takes 2 minutes at most for this whole process, since I decide ahead of having the session what items can be found in each dungeon. I’ll probably do a post about that when more of our campaign is revealed.

At the very first floor, I describe what the dungeon scenery is like, and what’s unique about it. Because I’m crafty with clay, I’ve also been thinking of making slim bas-reliefs that have different terrains on it to place in between the tiles, but I’m still thinking about that.

For ambiance too, I sometimes have music playing in the background, but the possibilities are endless for those deciding to DM for this. Be as creative as you like, but I hope you guys liked how I set this up! My players specifically enjoy “picking up” the items.

[noblecrumpet-dorkvision]

Dungeon Crafting: Puzzle Dungeons

image source: Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

Now, I don't know if you people have seen Mark Brown's miniseries on YouTube known as Boss Keys, but it's pretty great. It picks apart and analyzes some of my favorite dungeons from the Legend of Zelda games and finds out what makes a dungeon a Zelda dungeon. I have always loved these dungeons because they have a lot of density and force you to explore the space slowly and think your way through its puzzles. Definitely check out Boss Keys. From what I learned from those videos plus my own experiences as a DM, I'm going to try and detail how to create a Zelda-like puzzle dungeon. There are a few hallmarks that you should hit on:

Dungeon Density

Each area in the dungeon should be complex. It should have several things to interact with in each room other than the monsters or guardians. Everything doesn't have to be immediately useful or usable, but it should provide context for the dungeon. For ideas, think what the dungeon was used for and research what sorts of things might be in an ancient tomb, lost temple, or forgotten keep. Have certain puzzle elements stand out. A good example from the Legend of Zelda is the eyeball above a closed door. I would stray away from that type of "puzzle" as it's very well-known, I assume, that you have to hit the eye to open the door. On the other hand, a well-known puzzle like that could signal to the players that this is going to be one of "those" dungeons.

Making a dungeon complex and dense will mean that you have less rooms to populate, and will make it feel robust and well-used. It will also give a feeling of slight confusion for the players as they try to organize all of the information you're giving them, but as the dungeon progresses, they can pick and choose which parts of the dense dungeon are integral to solving the dungeon!

Hub Areas

With all of that dungeon density I've been talking about, it's good to have some sort of hub area. It could be a large room, a safe sanctuary, or have some overbearing landmark for players to imprint on. This will be the main part of the dungeon that they remember and can rely on. They will pay the most attention to this hub. So if this hub is a main part of solving your dungeon puzzle, they will notice changes made to the room very easily. For instance, a hub room could be a gaping chasm with bridges that seem to be mechanical. When certain levers in other parts of the dungeon are pulled, some pathways in the hub open up and some close off as the bridges ascend, descend, or turn. Back in my post about dungeon tempo, this creates a nice rhythm for players to always come back to a room that they've cleared and notice progress.

Branching Paths

Branching paths are a key part of puzzle dungeons. Don't have a dungeon that is all one path that railroads players to the end of the dungeon with a puzzle for each room. Players need to be able to explore and discover the available paths in the dungeon and find the path for themselves. In the Boss Keys miniseries I mentioned, Mark constantly differs Legend of Zelda dungeons by whether they make you find a path versus making you follow a path. I personally enjoy finding the path and I think most players do too. It is key in creating what are known as...

A-Ha Moments

An a-ha moment is not that feeling you get when listening to Take On Me, but it's pretty close. It's that feeling a player gets when they figure out a puzzle by suddenly putting two and two together. There are a few aspects to create this in dungeon and level design:

Foreshadowing: implying that one part of the dungeon must be revisited later or implying something further in the dungeon exists. Laying this groundwork puts thoughts in players’ heads to help them markedly acknowledge that it’s okay to leave this area, because something lies ahead.

State Changes: the environment of the dungeon or its parts changes based on the actions of the players. This is the “puzzle” part of the a-ha moment. Pressing a button to change gravity, move a pylon, or change water levels can would count as a state change. Even acquiring a key item that can affect the dungeon or the players’ movement would count (see Link’s Pegasus Boots, Hover Boots, Silver Gauntlets, etc.)

Backtracking: After the state change, the dungeon has shifted. Some areas that were once inaccessible can now be accessed, and areas that were once open have closed off. This forces the players to backtrack. Where do they backtrack to? The place that foreshadowed the backtracking.

How does this look in practice? Let’s make an example:

The players enter a dungeon and quickly make it to a hub area with four doors. three of the doors have a bridge extending from it to a central platform. The platform and bridges are 100 ft. above a pit of spikes, which are very satisfying to kick the kobolds in this room onto. Once players tire themselves of punting kobolds, they notice that the central platform has a large plinth with a stationary mirror set into it. The mirror is facing one of the directions of the bridges. The mirror can’t be easily moved without tools, and it has no apparent use yet. The players move on to one of the doors connected by the bridge.

The players go through several chambers, fighting monsters and avoiding traps, when they find a room with a lever in it. When pulled, they hear a low rumbling and grinding of stone elsewhere in the dungeon. When they return to the hub room, the central platform and bridges have rotated, allowing passage to the door that didn’t have a bridge leading to it before.

Down this new route, the players find a stone button with an angel relief on it. After pushing a huge rock onto it, they hear another rumbling. On returning to the hub room, an angel relief is now visible on the wall as a stone slab has moved away to reveal it.

The yet unexplored room is still accessible by the bridge, and after exploring down that path, the players find a crank near a gilded relief of a sun. The crank opens up a sunroof in the hub area. The sun (if daytime) shines light onto the central mirror in that room, which then reflects it out in one direction. The only problem is, the beam of light from the mirror isn’t facing the way the PCs want (towards the revealed angel relief in the hub area).

Realizing that they need to point the mirror so the light shines on the angel relief, they must backtrack to the room with the lever that rotates the bridges and mirror until the mirror is oriented the way they want.

This example has density. It’s essentially four rooms with all the things they need to solve a puzzle in the hub area (the central room with the bridges). It could use more density though with more puzzle intertwined throughout some filler rooms or with more things to do in each room; I was light on description for the purpose of the example. It has three branching paths (four if you include where they entered from). The mirror foreshadows a light puzzle, and the sun icon foreshadows the opening of the sunroof. The bridges, angel relief, and sunroof all exist in the hub area and change states based on the players’ actions in the rest of the dungeon. Players have to backtrack to the room that changes the bridge orientation so they can rotate the mirror to face the right direction. This is a fairly simple puzzle, but in the context of a session of D&D where the story less shown and more told, it can prove more difficult. Keep all of these factors in mind when making a puzzle dungeon, and don’t forget to watch Boss Keys!

[the-goblin-dm]

Stocking an Engaging Dungeon

I struggle with dungeon stocking, but I think I may have stumbled upon the (as-usual) embarrassingly simple solution to my writers’ block.

instead of getting bogged down in dungeon dressing and other specifics, just jot down what there is to do here. Secret doors to find, hazards to navigate, monsters to fight, locks to pick, puzzles to solve, and traps to disarm are easy go-to’s, but consider also:

A spy-hole into another room or passage

An idol that can offer a blessing if the forgotten deity’s name is invoked

Other adventurers exploring the dungeon

Monster tracks

Unusual ways up/down (chasms, wells, portals)

a partial map scrawled on the wall

Petrified or time-stopped monsters that the players must avoid “activating”

It’s best if each room has at least two things to interact with. Make at least one of them something the players don’t have to search for.

This bakes adherence to DMing Rule #1 into the map itself, and helps give the players direction without removing their freedom of choice.

[noblecrumpet-dorkvision]

Dungeon Crafting: Mechanic-Driven Design

image credit: tooth-w

Something that all DMs can learn from is video game level design. One aspect of this is called mechanic-driven design, which is shaping the environment to be a challenge for the main character’s abilities or the game’s mechanics. Mario can jump, so he has platforms and enemies that can be jumped on and question-blocks to jump up and hit. His jumping mechanic defines his environment and lets the players overcome the environment.

The best way I can think of to post about this for a dungeon master to use is in list form. This way, a DM that is making a dungeon can look through what aspects their PC group is composed of and make a sort of checklist of ways to challenge them! Be advised that this is merely a jumping-off point, so just checking off one challenge per player may challenge each player, but it also may not. Maybe that social interaction meant for the bard gets killed by the bloodthirsty barbarian instead. Having multiple challenges for each player will make the dungeon more fun for everyone, eventually.

Another note, players will eventually overcome almost any obstacle you give them, given enough time and resources and persistence. Don’t be afraid to give them a challenge that they might not be the best suited for, mechanically. Maybe add a locked treasure chest despite the PCs not having any characters with thieves tools or sleight of hand to unlock it. They will find a way to open it, and that is part of the fun!

Anyway, the list:

Mechanically Favorable Challenges For…

Barbarians:

big boss monsters (lots of HP, AC and sustained damage)

traps (avoided by Danger Sense)

athletics checks (high STR score)

monsters with attacks needing CON saves (high CON save)

Bards:

opportunities to rest in the dungeon (Song of Rest)

roleplaying encounters (high CHA score)

acrobatics checks (high DEX score)

group efforts like big encounters (Bardic Inspiration)

Clerics:

deities/religious symbols to identify (religion proficiency)

undead to fight (Channel Divinity: Turn Undead)

monsters that apply condition debuffs (Restoration spells)

moral quandary/test (to test loyalty to alignment/deity)

monsters with attacks needing WIS saves (high WIS save)

Druids:

animals/plants to identify (nature proficiency)

outdoor area (to get best of out spells)

hard to reach areas (to make use of Wild Shape)

roleplaying encounter with animals/plants/fey

monsters with attacks needing WIS saves (high WIS save)

Fighters:

big boss monsters (lots of AC, Action Surge, and sustained damage)

lots of monsters (several attacks per round)

athletics checks (high STR score)

monsters with attacks needing CON saves (high CON save)

tactical environments (more interesting fights)

Monks:

lots of monsters (several attacks per round)

athletics/acrobatics checks (high DEX and STR scores)

tall ledges (to use Slow Fall)

stealth encounters (high DEX score and often stealth prof.)

moral quandary/test (usually strict about alignment)

Paladins:

evil monsters (to detect)

big boss monsters (high burst damage from Smite)

moral quandary/test (paladin’s code)

someone to protect (paladin’s code)

deities/religious symbols to identify (religion proficiency)

overland travel or outdoor areas (to use mount)

Rangers:

long range encounters (archery style)

lots of monsters (dual wielding style, attack with companion)

big monsters (colossus slayer, flank with companion)

animals/plants to identify (nature proficiency)

favored enemies to track (survival proficiency)

outdoor areas (for companion, spells, and long-range)

Rogues:

traps (to disarm or avoid)

locks to pick

acrobatics checks (high DEX score)

monsters with attacks requiring DEX save (high DEX save)

single targets (to ambush and burst down)

places to hide (while in midst of combat)

stealth encounters (stealth proficiency)

Sorcerers:

lots of monsters (plenty of area of effect spells)

ranged encounters (to snipe with spells)

dragons (if draconic power origin)

spell-based traps, arcane things to identify (arcana proficiency)

scrolls (to temporarily expand limited spell list)

tense situations (to use sorcery points for quickened spells)

opportunities to use Fly spell

Warlocks:

fiends/fey/aberrations (depending on power origin)

big boss monsters (to burst down with eldritch blasts)

spell-based traps, arcane things to identify (arcana proficiency)

scrolls (to temporarily expand VERY limited spell list)

hard to reach areas or spy missions (if Pact of the Chain)

consistent challenges for their chosen spells

Wizards:

spell-based traps, arcane things to identify (arcana proficiency)

spellbooks and scrolls to loot (to add to spellbook)

opportunities to use Fly spell

unique challenges to be overcome (versatile spell list)

challenges that relate to their specialized school of magic, fight fire with fire

lots of monsters (plenty of area of effect spells)

big dumb monsters (for spells requiring WIS saves)

Characters with strong alignments:

moral quandary/test (to test how they adhere to that alignment)

Dwarves:

stonework to identify (Stonecunning)

Goblins, Orcs, or Giants (dwarves war with such factions)

Elves:

wandering nocturnal monsters (elves don’t sleep)

nature checks (elves often have an affinity for such things)

fey (elves have fey ancestry and will appreciate the encounter)

Halfings:

crawlspaces (that only they can fit into)

fear effects (they are resistant to fear)

other halflings (they are a community-driven race)

Gnomes:

crawlspaces (that only they can fit into)

INT/WIS/CHA saving throws (they have adv. against mind-affecting spells)

stealth encounters (tinker gnomes can use trinkets to distract)

Half-Orcs:

smaller, weaker NPCs (intimidation proficiency)

racial tension (often outcasts amongst both humans and orcs)

racial ambassador (roleplay between humans and orcs)

Half-Elves:

racial tension (often outcasts amongst both humans and elves)

racial ambassador (roleplay between humans and elves)

Dragonborn:

monsters that use energy damage (to complement their resistance to certain energy types)

dragons (to roleplay with)

racial tension (their scarcity and monstrous appearance can create obstacles)

Tieflings:

racial tension (their scarcity and fiendish origin can create obstacles)

fiends (to roleplay with)

monsters that use fire damage (to complement their innate resistance)

Basically, know your players. Know what spells they have at their disposal, which items they have, and whether they took any feats. Then you can tailor your levels to challenge each player and make each player feel special.

[logicalcalamity]

I'll be running the first chapter of Lost Mine of Phandelver as a one shot for some friends interested in trying dnd on Saturday, here's the progress of the Cragmaw hideout map.