Brock Savage
Cosmic Barbarian
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2019
- Messages
- 5,013
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On the surface this seems like a non-issue ("duh, as far as you want it to be") but for games that focus on horror, dungeons, and wilderness exploration it's an important consideration.
For purposes of this discussion dungeon means "enclosed space housing multiple encounters that cannot be conveniently entered and exited at whim." The City of the Elder Things in Beyond the Mountains of Madness is as much a dungeon as Castle Greyhawk. I would add that resource management of some kind is almost obligatory for a good dungeon.
My rule of thumb for D&D and derivatives are that low level dungeons should be within a day of civilization with increasingly longer distances of days, weeks, or even months as PCs grow more capable.
My players have developed a SOP of leaving civilization at dawn and leaving the dungeon by dusk because all the really fucked up and dangerous monsters are active at nighttime (wandering monster table changes). There's constant time and resource pressure. They hire plebs as porters and light bearers thanks to encumbrance rules. They offer shares of treasure to attract NPC adventurers as well. The dungeon is invariably surrounded by dangerous wilderness area so they gotta haul ass back to civilization to get that long rest. Things like local guides or characters with superior survival skills are important to cut down wilderness travel time, find interesting sites, and allow more time for dungeon exploration.
Anyway I am just looking to mix things up and fishing for ideas.
For purposes of this discussion dungeon means "enclosed space housing multiple encounters that cannot be conveniently entered and exited at whim." The City of the Elder Things in Beyond the Mountains of Madness is as much a dungeon as Castle Greyhawk. I would add that resource management of some kind is almost obligatory for a good dungeon.
My rule of thumb for D&D and derivatives are that low level dungeons should be within a day of civilization with increasingly longer distances of days, weeks, or even months as PCs grow more capable.
My players have developed a SOP of leaving civilization at dawn and leaving the dungeon by dusk because all the really fucked up and dangerous monsters are active at nighttime (wandering monster table changes). There's constant time and resource pressure. They hire plebs as porters and light bearers thanks to encumbrance rules. They offer shares of treasure to attract NPC adventurers as well. The dungeon is invariably surrounded by dangerous wilderness area so they gotta haul ass back to civilization to get that long rest. Things like local guides or characters with superior survival skills are important to cut down wilderness travel time, find interesting sites, and allow more time for dungeon exploration.
Anyway I am just looking to mix things up and fishing for ideas.