Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site spp2.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!stassen From: stassen@spp2.UUCP Newsgroups: net.games.frp Subject: Re: Dungeon planning Message-ID: <357@spp2.UUCP> Date: Fri, 11-Jan-85 16:16:48 EST Article-I.D.: spp2.357 Posted: Fri Jan 11 16:16:48 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 14-Jan-85 04:42:18 EST Distribution: net Organization: TRW, Redondo Beach CA Lines: 33 [] A friend of mine came up with a rather neat kind of dungeon planning. Unfortunately, you really can't use it for all of the dungeons in a campaign. Problem: in order to pose neat and intriguing puzzles to the party, you often have to break the puzzles up into pieces and scatter the pieces throughout the dungeon. There are always items you want the party to find, or monsters that you want the party to encounter before some other encounter. However, this method is almost always doomed to failure, as the party will never visit the right places in the right order. Of course, a *really* well- planned dungeon will not have these problems, but *really* well-planned dungeons are difficult for a lot of people to make. Solution: "the dungeon of predestination". With the exceptions of a few alcoves and special rooms, this dungeon was carefully designed so that all rooms were approximately the same size. Then, the DM wrote out the descriptions for the first room the party should get to, the second room the party should visit, and so on. The DM *did not*, however, assign specific places for the rooms on the map. Then, no matter where the party travelled, or which doors they opened, they would always get to the "right" room next. Of course, once a door was opened, that room becomes "assigned," and will always be there if the party returns in the future. I know it sounds like the DM is taking away all of the "free will" of the party, but I can tell you from experience that it was one of the most fun dungeons that we have ever explored; and we didn't notice the "predestination" at all -- the DM admitted it at the end of the game. -- Chris