Scampir

@Scampir

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One Canuck built the #ttrpg tag and the #mecha tag. And that was me.

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Scampir @Scampir7/21/2024, 6:33 PM

Scampir @Scampir

Scampir @Scampir7/21/2024, 6:13 PM

It is kind of funny that after years of trying to find a good explainer on how to run a dungeon, running dungeons, then running a megadungeon, the case is that to run a dungeon you need rooms with activities in them, and when you have completed or become bored of an activity you move on to the next one. Also, agency and exploration are expressed by foreshadowing activities (or not!) and letting players pick which activity to engage with.

It's really that simple. The practices is more about the individual trees than the cohesive forest. That's what dungeons have been and all they have to be! A way to organize the roleplaying game activity into a variety or prompts. The Dungeon is the obfuscation technique that is deployed to enchant the whole process. Not only are you cycling through roleplaying prompts, you are doing so in the context of a series of "rooms" within the dungeon.

#TTRPG

Scampir @Scampir7/21/2024, 6:33 PM

ok maybe as whined about by scampir

#scampir addendum

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in reply to @Scampir's post:

Clouder @Clouder7/21/2024, 10:07 PM

When you say "understand what's going on," is that at, like... a systemic level? An ecological level? A sociopolitical level? Something else or a combination?

Scampir @Scampir7/22/2024, 12:40 AM

how the aforementioned pieces fit together.

Clouder @Clouder7/22/2024, 3:41 PM

I think I've linked it before, but have you looked at Nick L.S. Whelan's Flux Space? It's an attempt to design dungeon exploration play for spaces that are "Large, Samey, and Confusing." In practice, it reads to me as taking the idea of a dungeon and attaching it to a random roll table of a map, and using that to create an adaptable or changing space between more important locations in a setting (a town, an important site, etc.). Whelan ties advancement through the flux space to triggering enough encounters to advance, but it seems adaptable enough that you can tie it to other metrics, like understanding a theme or faction within the space.

M A R M @virtualmarmalade7/22/2024, 2:57 AM

I really think that the lessons from GMTK's Boss Keys series translate well to a TTRPG format. A fair few of my most memorable dungeons have a Zelda-dungeon-like layout. For example the players might have to remember something from one room so they can come back later once they have the right tool (could be an item, an NPC, some information, etc.); they might have to go the long way around to avoid a trap only to uncover a shortcut on the way back; or they might do something in one room that dramatically changes the rest of the dungeon, like flooding it or flipping it upside-down.
I think complicating the exploration/navigation process like this makes the players think more about the dungeon as a place and less as a series of Activity Chambers.

Scampir @Scampir7/22/2024, 3:15 AM

I think you're nailing it with the idea that there are factors that complicate exploration that need to be discovered in different rooms! The whole key-and-door element from LoZ is something I could do without though.

M A R M @virtualmarmalade7/22/2024, 3:35 AM

It can definitely get tedious if overused that's for sure - no one likes an overlong scavenger hunt lol. I don't mind a locked door or two in moderation tho, if they serve an appropriate purpose. But also in a ttrpg players often have more latitude to figure out a way to get past a locked door without the exact key you have planned necessarily, and that kind of creativity is rewarding too

Scampir @Scampir7/22/2024, 3:53 AM

Ok so, that's something I really don't like about keys and doors, because you want to show the door before you get players looking for a key. If you have the key first, then the game is just about using the key on everything.

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