I think only one of my players uses this site and I don't think she checks it at all, so anyways
Cypher! The Cypher system is very cool and lets you run any genre in it. I had been interested in running something else after running Masks and Monster of the Week (Two powered by the apocalypse engine games which are about being superhero teenagers and hunting monsters weekly, respectively) and I always had this cool idea kicking around in my head for a world.
One where things are kind of cyclical, a lot like the old Aztec Five Suns belief, where they believed the world had been destroyed and remade five times. Well shit, what if I ran a world that HAD been destroyed 5 times? There've been 5 or so fuckin apocalypses and people are still kicking around?! You gotta be shitting me.
Meanwhile there's these ooold old Gods still hanging out on the planet, with their own little domains and beliefs, forming microcosms of society wherever they decided ages ago. They have their secrets, and shit might not be what it seems, yadda yadda worldbuilding. I got sidetracked, this post isn't about my world, it's about DUNGEONS.
I had never designed a dungeon prior to now, mostly because systems like Masks and Monster of the Week weren't exactly conducive to traditional dungeons. Areas to be explored, certainly. But a dungeon has some expectations. You crawl into a disgusting (?) hole (?) in the ground (?) somewhere (?) and kill (?) monsters (?) and get some epic (?) loot or whatever. You could challenge just about every point of this basic premise, and I think making a memorable dungeon involves challenging a lot of these points. A dungeon could be anything. Colville has a lot of great videos on them. But for me, I wanted something simple for my first one.
Five room dungeon. The classic, the framework recommended to me by a friend.
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An entrance.
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A setback.
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A puzzle.
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A reward.
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And a boss.
Five rooms. Maybe there's other rooms between those to indicate some kind of flavor or what kind of dungeon it was, but those are the five important rooms. So I made a five room dungeon. A lab holding secrets from the old world, from before the current era.
An entrance, which begs the question, "Holy shit why is everyone dead?". This should paint what to expect, or be unexpected in my opinion. It's a wasted opportunity if the entrance to your dungeon is just... a big door. A dungeon may often be a place people used to inhabit, or a place that is still inhabited. You wouldn't leave the front door open (I hope) to your home would you? Neither would they. An entrance can be hostile, an entrance can paint a picture, an entrance can do a ton.
A setback, when the lab powers on for the first time and realizes it has intruders, and begins to reject them with its ancient defense system. This one's pretty flexible too. Say your dungeon isn't even a dungeon, it's a warehouse some PCs need to break into. Maybe they bribed a crooked guard to look the other way, but now he's demanding for more pay or he'll trigger the alarm. Setbacks can be social, physical, but I think they should always make the players go "Oh for fucks sake" and have to think about how to navigate around or through them. A setback that may appear easily ignored may come back to bite them...
A puzzle is an interesting one. A puzzle doesn't have to be the old traditional... well, there's a bunch of runes that open different doors, so lets figure out which rune does what. A puzzle can be a roleplaying encounter, or something that can benefit or hinder people going forward. So why not have a puzzle that's actually just trying to navigate a weird sentient monster with its own wants and desires?
A reward is also interesting in its own way. In trying to divorce myself from traditional 5e and masks concepts, and thinking more about the fiction, I realized a reward doesn't have to be material. Colville goes over this as well, bless him, but why tether a reward to something simple sometimes like gold or a sword? Is wisdom and new abilities not something we learn from our experiences? Maybe you clear a dungeon and the boss or someone in it had the ability to move swords with their minds. That ability could be yours!!! Or something.
A boss... Well, I'm a sucker for Cool NPCs. I love to see something in media and go "OOH I WANT THAT IN MY GAME BRO". Fuck it. Do whatever the fuck you think is cool. Follow your heart.
This post is kinda rambly and I'm not sure what i was going for, but writing stuff is fun. Thanks for reading.
