How exactly do you prep a large dungeon?

[valadil]

So this is kind of embarrassing, but I've never actually run a dungeon before. Sure I've put the players in a hole in the ground and kept them there for a whole session. But in my 7 years of GMing I've never used a proper dungeon. I'm more of a story and intrigue kind of GM.

Anyway, in my current game I'm trying to break my old habits and assumptions, or at least try to see the other side of the fence by trying out things I haven't used before.

Here's some of the plot leading up to the dungeon. I don't think it's necessarily relevant, hence the spoiler tags.

One set of bad guys has captured a major MacGuffin (the still beating heart of Karsus (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Karsus)), taken it to what remains of their stronghold, and dumped it in their arcane vault. The other set of bad guys has mustered an army and is a couple sessions away from besieging the stronghold. The bad guy who comes from the second set, but is really working independently and has the PCs reporting to him is trying to get the players to steal the MacGuffin before the siege happens. If that's not cause for a meat grinder dungeon crawl, I don't know what is.

So I've got a good overview for what I want to do with the dungeon. I'm just not quite sure how to implement it and make it fun. The last dungeon like thing I did was a trip through the Underdark. It was a series of battles that bored me and the players. (I usually prefer to punctuate plot with meaningful violence. Violence because there's an obstruction in your path is uninteresting to me, so I run the fights with less than my usual enthusiasm and when the players pick up on that they end up bored too.)

I've got a pretty decent uber puzzle for the whole dungeon and I think I can get some reasonable mini puzzles between fights too. What I'm struggling with is figuring out how to make the dungeon tell a story. The PCs care about the plot that's happening above ground, and that plot is going to be cut off while they're in the dungeon. The best I can come up with is to have other people down there. Maybe they're also searching for the MacGuffin. Maybe they're locals who can give out more info. Maybe they're just left over journal entries from someone who starved in the dungeon.

tl;dr I'm good at writing plots, but I've never done a dungeon before. I have a big dungeon coming up. What do I need to know to make it fun and interesting? How should I prep?

[Gan The Grey]

Write a story for your dungeon. Why is it there? How old is it? Who has controlled it in the past? Who controls it now? What has happened to it throughout the years? Knowing the answers to these questions will help flesh it out, and in order to keep players interested, you need to have little mysteries all over the place, things to question.

Why is this trap here, outside this empty room?
What is this strange stain?
Why is this section completely destroyed?
Why does it seem like parts of the dungeon are newer than others?
What is that strange noise I keep hearing?

So forth, and so on.

[DwarfFighter]

If you are going to use a fully developed dungeon, I am sure you will find it more rewarding if the players actually realize the effort you've put into it. While you can certainly have it all mapped out with history, factions and themes, don't take it for granted that the players will pick up on this. After all, they can only see what you tell them.

An effective way to dump exposition onto the players is by the means of hand-out documents. Take the time to write down a few pages worth of text that deals with the dungeon and it's denizens. A page from a journal of an adventurer that came to the dungeon can hint at treasures and warn of traps. A passage from a religious text can describe rituals and provide hints at solving puzzled. Even simple sketches can establish mood and atmosphere.

Unless you plan to re-use the dungeon with another group, adding a lot of detail may be a wasted effort if your players don't pick up on it. At worst, your finely crafted dungeon will just another "hole in the ground". :P

-DF

[Gan The Grey]

If you are going to use a fully developed dungeon, I am sure you will find it more rewarding if the players actually realize the effort you've put into it. While you can certainly have it all mapped out with history, factions and themes, don't take it for granted that the players will pick up on this. After all, they can only see what you tell them.

An effective way to dump exposition onto the players is by the means of hand-out documents. Take the time to write down a few pages worth of text that deals with the dungeon and it's denizens. A page from a journal of an adventurer that came to the dungeon can hint at treasures and warn of traps. A passage from a religious text can describe rituals and provide hints at solving puzzled. Even simple sketches can establish mood and atmosphere.

Unless you plan to re-use the dungeon with another group, adding a lot of detail may be a wasted effort if your players don't pick up on it. At worst, your finely crafted dungeon will just another "hole in the ground". :P

-DF

Just to expound on this a bit, it is necessary for you to establish a sort of mysteriousness to the dungeon. DwarfFighter is correct. The players only see what you tell them. This counts for what you initially give them, information you provide unprompted, but also for the answers to their questions.

The trick is to make your players want to ask questions, and make gaining the answers to those questions require some effort on their part in order to make them care about the information. Search, Knowledge, Int and Wis checks...all these and other skills can help a character learn the answers to their questions, and using these skills gives the players a sense of accomplishment. You have to be careful that the DC's aren't too high, and that multiple characters have the chance to gain the info. And it can't be an explosion of information. You have to trickle it out slowly, each answer spawning more and more questions.

[Hat-Trick]

On the bit on trickling information, I was reminded of this (http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/players-caring.html) which I read just the other day. May be relevant.

[Gan The Grey]

On the bit on trickling information, I was reminded of this (http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/players-caring.html) which I read just the other day. May be relevant.

Good call, sir. Great article. Says what I was trying to say MUCH better.