Friday, April 20, 2018

Discussion: Do You Enjoy Dungeon Crawls?

I'm curious how much people enjoy Dungeon Crawls. There is obvious merit to them. The puzzles and brain teasers can be fun to beat. As can the combat challenges. Mix it all together and you can have a fun, mostly game mechanics and puzzle based time.

However, most games I've been in also tend to slow down a lot with dungeon crawls. There's a lot of uncertainty regarding which way to go, when to go, how to handle doors, and that sort of thing.

So, where do you stand? Do you love dungeon crawls? Or not a huge fan of them?

3 comments:

  1. Not a fan. However, I am the person who gets the most fun talking to/carrousing with people in town, and telling about how my character spent their downtime.

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  2. Dungeon crawls are how I got into D&D and RPGs to begin with, so I tend to get a bit nostalgic about them. But once I was exposed to the wider world of playing RPGs, I realized I don't actually enjoy them much.

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  3. I like them, but not for the puzzles and brainteasers. Those are the worst aspect of them for me, because it's too easy for the puzzles to block any possible way forward. Even if there are alternative paths to pursue, if only one person wants to sit and play 20 Questions with the DM, it's hard for anyone to have fun actually doing anything.

    I don't tend to like how monsters in dungeons tend not to have any goals of their own. In the classic Caves of Chaos, there was a plot by some of the monsters to invade the town, even if most of the rest were just hanging out. Generally, though, there's no time limit and little or no reaction from the inhabitants, because the DM wants to encourage exploration of their creation. That's a recipe for boredom, in my experience.

    But, change all that up and I think dungeons have potential. They tend to limit choices the way a city or surface map doesn't, which helps focus discussions on where to go next. Visibility is limited, so melee skill is more likely to matter.

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