DragonCon Best Dungeon Ever Panel Notes

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I was able to get away to #DragonCon for a couple days, and one excellent event I attended today was “Best Dungeon Ever” with @MonteJCook and @JasonBulmahn.  Here are my notes:

  • We love dungeons because there is a common trope we all understand.  It also limits choices, while still giving choices. (More on that below.)
  • Great Dungeons have an ecosystem… clear out half, come back, others will will have refilled the “cleared” areas.
  • Can apply dungeon concepts principles to non-dungeon.  Wilderness, city, etc.  You can design a city for example where an encounter will happen at the general store, another is set with the city guard, etc.
  • What makes a great encounter?  Jason: I like to take a bad encounter concept and make it good. Such as a maze… it can be boring if you just directly map it out…  getting lost is the fun. Monte: I like dungeon encounters where the pcs are their worst enemy.  Pit trap w gelatinous cube at the “bottom”.  Save the thief who fell in, and he falls rest of the way.  Cues help avoid tedium of traps so the PCs don’t feel they need to search everything.
  • How to handle high level characters? Jason: Don’t take away their toys.  If they teleport to the lich at the end, he can cause dimensional anchor so he gets to his phylactery but prevents them following, and the PCs have to fight out, so they don’t get the warnings going in. Monte: Plan for high level abilities, in some cases require some to be used.
  • Good dungeons have meaningful choices… hear noise one way vs drag marks another way. Avoid linear-ness.
  • Have a cool encounter the PCs skipped?  Move it to where they’re going next.
  • How to keep party moving (and avoid frequent rests breaking the game): Have the foes react.  Ex: The kobolds know the party is resting in a room, the trap the exits.  Not just a random encounter check.  Also as mentioned earlier things change around them given time (reinforcements arrive, etc.) Time pressure is another way to prevent constant resting.  Ex: The dungeon is sinking or the king will die by a certain time.  But don’t overuse this or it will feel forced if every adventure has some outside time pressure.
  • Mix up encounter difficulties.  It is OK to have some easy encounters that make PCs feel awesome.  If encounters are getting boring, play with encounter settings to make them more interesting.  (Add something 3-dimensional for example such as a bridge.)
  • Not every room has to have an encounter, but it is nice to give PCs clues that there is nothing there so they aren’t searching vainly all the time. Also consider putting some non encounter item of interest there. A scratch, a smell, etc. Maybe there’s a reason it is empty.