Tips On Making Dungeons

[habs1009]

I'm going to be making some dungeons whenever I get my sets in and I was wondering if you guys could give me and maybe other people who need it some tips.

Thanks.

[TheAverageFan]

1. Make it your own; use any made up rules, figures, glyphs, or anything you desire, not a stiff, predictable instruction book adventure.
2. Mix it up; no 2 dungeon adventures should be the same. mix up points, rooms, rules, allies, and enemies for a new adventure every game.
3. Incorporate plot, puzzles, and peculiars; induce anticipation in the adventurers' minds! Add dialouge! Betrayal! Extra powers! In addition, don't make every room a fight. Change the requirements to move into the next room. Make your rooms confusing! Time consuming! Even creepy!
As far as peculiars, add benefits for examing objects or speaking with non-combatants of shopkeepers on the way! Hey, this dead guy had two coins on him! Thanks for the glyph, Shiori! There's numbers scratched on this rock with bloody hands!
4. End of room bosses; Nobody wants to fight the same group of drow with an extra squad of spiders every room! Bring on the dragon! Mesh together all your Marro Hivelords and create a terrifying custom monster! Give 'em treasure at the end, even though it won't matter! Oh No! The whole cave's coming down!! Fight your way back to the entrence! Aaarrrgghh!!! *Dies*
5. Be the DM; If you're building the stage, and creating the scenario and enemy armies, you're gonna be the DM. Don't worry, it's fun. I actually assist my adventurers in the battles, and control some of the adventuring figures, but I can't help with puzzles or pick up glyphs.
Good scaping! FanTheAverage

[habs1009]

Thank you very much now I just have to wait till Christams to get my DnD.

[TheAverageFan]

I'm hoping for some D&D reinforcements for Christmas myself.

[Maziken]

One of the things that I find very helpful when I'm making my maps is this:

Make the map in VirtualScape first, but don't add any enemies yet. Then I go and physically build the map so I can get a better picture of it. From there, I make changes to the terrain for stability or any other issues I see arising. I add in obstacles to try and provide a challenging journey for the players. After that, I'll figure out where to place any enemies and glyphs. I'll decide if those enemies start on the map or if they are "spawned" after a certain requirement is met. I'll also figure up any traps on the treasures / glyphs.

The nice thing about building the map in VirtualScape first is that you can quickly change pieces in and out without having to disassemble a portion of your map. It is a great way to get the groundwork laid for your adventure and then you can take it to the actual pieces to add the finishing touches.

[habs1009]

I don't like making maps in VS it's just not the same as actually putting it together.

[motoko]

Originally Posted by habs1009

I don't like making maps in VS it's just not the same as actually putting it together.

You're right. It's not the same. But me too likes to do it first in VS. Maziken figured out the point: You can swap tiles. When you start building larger maps. When you click on "My Maps" in my signature and then look at the first map. I often switched tiles, rearranged pillars. If i had to destroy the map each time i want a piece from below I never had the interest in building this map. But with VS this was no problem. Building, switching, rearraning. And after that it was build on the table. ^.^

But I think you're right. If you only build small maps with 1-2 BftU I don't think there is a need to use VS.

[belgarath]

I just concluded a scenario with my wife and son playing the heroes and me as the DM. I have played a lot of RPG's so it was rather easy to adapt heroscape to the role. I did use VS to design most of the rooms. I only have one BftU set so I stuck to small rooms when I got to the dungeon setting. First they had to battle their way into a ruined castle. I used the FotA set to make a castle with a gate and also broken sections of the wall caused by some long ago battle. I actually had wall sections laying on the board to add to the realism and also to add interesting obstacles for the players. Once they got through the castle they found that there was an opening in the mountainside that the castle was built into. This opening led to the lower levels of the castle. There was a room with castle pieces for walls and also a lot of rubble. This led to a cavern room followed by another castle walled room that was a former chamber in the castle dungeons. I used the door at one end and a pile of terrain at the other to make a cave in cutting off the chamber. They had to defeat the enemies in this room and then figure out how to get out because after they opened the door they found that it was also blocked with rubble. There was a pool or water in the room that water elementals kept popping up in and when one of the player stepped into the water they were sucked under the wall into another cavern chamber. From there they had to fight their way through several chambers to the final chamber. It was a fun little crawl.

[TheAverageFan]

I have way too much terrain to care about messing up pieces of my map, so I usually don't need virtualscape for maps. The best way, in my opinion, would be to decide which path you, as the DM, want them to go, and then build the map around that, in addition to treasure "rooms" and important enemy positions, to pressure them into taking that path...