In anticipation of #dungon23 I’m going to be trying to build up just a bunch of generic semi-abstract tables to help guide writing the dungeon. Some of these will be thematic, but others are more intentionally tied to the actual form of the dungeon-crawl. Today’s table is the latter type--a list of all the things that the dungeon can take from players foolish enough to venture into it.
The core loop of a megadungeon is a series of delves, each of which are based around a process of attrition; you go in at full strength and slowly the dungeon grinds you down. You try to get as much profit out of the dungeon as you can in the time you have before you are forced to turn around and flee. Here’s a list of some of the forms that attrition can take, with some more specific examples.
Examples are listed loosely in order of how painful they are to lose, with later elements needing more and more care to remain fun. I’ve included a roll-table at the bottom for #dungeon23 use.
Hit-Points
This is the default resource that dungeon crawls are ultimately built around. You start with full health, and if you ever run out of it you die. Hit-Points are easy come and easy go; players probably have some healing, and you don’t get any less able to affect the world if you aren’t at full health. HP are meaningful without being too stressful or discouraging to lose.
Examples: An arrow trap that triggers when you step on a plate, a spray of acid from a pipe, falling down a non-bottomless pit, staying in a room so hot you take damage for each minute you spend in it
Competence
Status effects that temporarily weaken a player. Often they stick around for the length of a session but are cured up by the next, so they can throw a wrench into one session without being too much of a bummer.
Examples: A poisoned needle in a chest that leaves you weak, caltrops that reduce your move speed if stepped on, a blinding flash of light, thick mud that clogs up inventory space, a curse that forces you to only walk backwards.
Safety
Hazards that create new hazards are a lot of fun in a dungeon. They might be hazards that alert the monsters of the dungeon to the PCs presence, or that activate a previously sleeping or deactivated danger. Such hazards can be great for ratcheting up tension without reducing the strength of the player characters.
Examples: Mushroom that screams really loud when you approach it, a hidden scout that calls for reinforcements if not discovered, perfume that attracts monsters until washed off, a lever that activates a disabled trap, a sleeping monster that will hunt the players if awakened, a sign saying ‘No Trespassing", a ghost who haunts anyone in possession of their cursed ring.
Resources
Hazards that can use up a character’s resources, such as held items or limited use abilities. These can vary quite a bit in how painful they are--some items such as torches or rations are bought to be expended, while rare and expensive magic weapons are devastating to lose. Resource use can be explicit or implicit--a field that rusts all metal that passes through it directly destroys gear, but a cliff that needs a rope to climb also forces the players to use up their items.
Examples: Sheer cliff needs a rope to climb, strong wind blows out torches, fungal spores render rations inedible, magic door needs Knock spell to open, toll booth requires treasure to open, siren charms and kidnaps hireling.
Morality
Treasure hunting is inherently a morally fraught act, but you can still have situations that test the morals of your players. A situation where the players have to put themselves in danger to help a NPC, or where they have the opportunity to treat a NPC badly for a profit are probably the main two types of this. How these land will really depend on the expectations of your players, and on how much you’re asking them to give up in order to be moral. Moral gotchas, where the actions of the players unwittingly cause harm, tend to feel bad but can be used sparingly if there’s then a chance for the players to make things right.
Examples: A NPC in a dangerous situation that the players would need to risk to rescue them, a helpless NPC holding a valuable treasure, two factions in the middle of an ideological conflict asking for player assistance, a noxious NPC trying to hire the players to do their dirty work, a magic portal that requires human sacrifice to open, a doppelganger that will wreak havoc on whatever settlement the players bring them to.
Orientation
Being able to run away is vital in a megadungeon, so any hazard that disorients or forcibly moves the players is incredibly frightening. Of all the hazards in this list, this is the one most likely to cause a TPK, as it removes the ability of the players to end the session once the attrition piles up too high. Being lost in a dungeon is very dangerous, but also very thrilling.
Examples: One-way doors, teleporters, spinning rooms, subtly sloping hallways, magical confusion, pit traps that dump you on a lower level, rearranging hallways.
Time
Time is safety in a dungeon, where the longer you take on any task the more wandering monster checks you have to make, the more torches you burn through, and (potentially) the more rations you consume. Time-wasting hazards can leave a player group vulnerable, but they’re more fun as a novelty than as an everyday occurrence. I suppose hazards that waste IRL time would also fall under this category, but those seem likely to outstay their welcome very quickly.
Examples: A dart that paralyzes a party member for an hour, a hallway blocked by rubble that would take 20 man-hours to clear, a door that only opens at midnight, a cage trap that automatically opens after six hours, a very slow-walking NPC that you have to escort, a NPC who wastes everyone’s time with a long shaggy dog story.
Selves
Hazards that permanently change player characters exist on an entirely different level of stakes than all the other types of hazards. This is a good and a bad thing. It’s good because it makes for high stakes situation, but incurable negative effects can be seen by some players as a fate worse than death for their character, as they now will simply always be weaker and less competent than other characters of their level. Permanent changes should only be on the table with a lot of foreshadowing. The degree to which these changes are reversible will have a big impact on how brutal they will be seen; in many ways instant death is the lightest of these conditions, as most fantasy games have some spell for bringing back the dead.
Examples: A trap that cuts off a player’s hand, a throne that grants a player a mutation for sitting on it, a needle coated with instant death poison, a helm that mind controls anyone who wears it, level drain.
d20 Hazards
1-6: Hit-Point Loss
7-10: Competence Loss
11-12: Safety Loss
13-14: Resource Loss
15-16: Morality Loss
17-18: Orientation Loss
19: Time Loss
20: Self Loss
Well, what do you all think? Have I missed anything?
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