Whimsical Dungeons!

[Libertad]

Going through a dungeon is like an obstacle course: an obstacle course full of monsters and traps!  But dungeons are often the long-time living residences of said monsters.  When a dungeon's layout demands a lot of time, effort, and thought to get from one room to the next, this often leaves players thinking "why would anybody choose to live here?"  Play any Zelda game to see good examples of this.

So, is this ever a factor in your games?  Does your dungeon creation process feel like a cross between Home and Gardening TV and Ultimate Ninja Warrior?

I don't really mind if my dungeons aren't optimal living spaces; I try to keep things plausible to a point (underground caves aren't the best of places to live), but nobody at the table really minds as long as we had a good game.

[caelic]

A lot of the really old-school dungeons were like this--just take a look at older modules for, say, Tunnels and Trolls, or a lot of Dave Hargrave's Arduin stuff.  The basic philosophy seemed to be "Screw verisimilitude, let's have an adventure."  It's not necessarily a bad philosophy, either, just as long as everyone at the table is comfortable with it.

[kitep]

I admit these thoughts do cross my mind when I'm designing a "dungeon".  Thus I tend to keep my traps focused on the entry points to the place, and not have internal traps.  I know I don't want to remember which tiles not to step on when I get something from the fridge 

If I have a treasure room/chest, those might be trapped as well.

But then again, I tend to not use a lot of traps.  Mostly because I hate the way the game plays when the party's checking for traps every 5 feet.

[CaptRory]

It really depends on what kind of dungeon it is. As mentioned, if there is an active colony living there the traps are probably focused more on the entrances and exits and a few rooms you need to have secured.

Traps in other areas would probably stay disarmed until the colony went to "Red Alert" and everyone scurried to battle stations/shelters.


Now if it's the tomb of a liche in some sort of eternal slumber of doomy doom filled with undead and constructs and things, you have more leeway, since they are 1) Immune to a lot of things (that poison gas trap that rearms itself isn't any bother) 2) Can be programmed to bypass traps.

[JohnnyMayHymn]

My dungeons get pretty ridiculous sometimes with switches that reverse gravity and strange contraptions that provide basic amenities, like running water.  But when it comes to traps I tell my players not to worry about it and I make the check for them, (sometimes while I'm building the dungeon) to determine if they see the trap.  Of course if they buff in unexpected ways, it ruins my prep rolls.

[veekie]

I personally tend to favor some degree of consistency, and prefer dungeons with the basic amenities(food, water, shelter, safe passage, garbage disposal and drainage) in there SOMEWHERE. Beyond basic needs though, free rein goes, people make illogical architecture all the time anyway.
If the goblins did not need to have man high tunnels, it may be that they dug into a natural formation, or got the place second hand. The pit trap might just be a skillfully patched sinkhole, except it wasn't built to handle the weight of five humans in full kit, etc. Rooms may be abandoned from population pressure, politics or simply because theres a bad smell you only notice after you sleep in it.

What the basic amenities are great for is establishing structure and dealing with the unexpected. What are they doing if the PCs sneak in and avoid alerting the whole place to combat readiness? Ways to poison the lot of them, investigate their livestock and rubbish. Its the small trivial things you expect that are jarring when not found.

[littha]

I have only ever used traps inside of a dungeon if it involved kobolds... because... yea...

Other than that, I like my dragons to have some way of making their fighting/living area covered in magical darkness. Seems like a sensible idea if you have an AoE breath weapon and Blindsense.

Does make it a bit of a bitch to fight dragons... go figure.

Living space/amenities are usually on a separate (hidden) level to the rest of the dungeon. Just for convenience sake.

[b100d_arrowz]

For me it depends on what the party is invading. For example if they are storming a castle, there is definitely going to be an ordered layout, wih mess hall, actual bedrooms, storage space, and few mechanical traps, but many prepared ambush points. If the party is raiding a tomb that will be trapped to th teeth. Invading the wizards tower well they are dead but hey:) anything goes there.