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2011-06-15, 11:23 PM
So I've run into a problem, as we all tend to do at some point or another. I've been designing a dungeon, and it is going quite well despite that I have little idea what I'm doing. However, I need some serious help with the thematic elements and ideas I'm playing around with.
Be prepared for a long read.
Here is the basic idea:
History: A powerful psion was intent on conquering the world with armies both mundane and supernatural, etc. etc. On the other end of the spectrum is one of the most powerful cities in the world, a mageocratic city-state of awesome magical power. Epic battle, all that. Suddenly, in the middle of everything, both sides fall silent. Search parties are sent from the other countries as civil wars erupt in the lands the psion has previously conquered.
None of the search parties return, and because of the power imbalance, no one can bear to send extra resources to try to find out what happened. Over time, the city is forgotten and becomes a legend. Still, rumors abide about the city, and the lost knowledge and wealth draw speculation still.
What happened was that during a duel with a circle of mages, the psion lost focus and ended up causing a giant... doom... thing. It sealed him away and killed everyone else within a 3 mile radius, as doom...things tend to do. It also fractured his consciousness into three parts, driving him quite insane.
The present: Now, in come the players. They're eager little buggers, and want to get their hands on the treasure, knowledge, or even just answers about what happened to mom and dad 20 years ago. They'll explore the city for a while, but not find much. It's completely abandoned, apparently in the middle of the siege. They catch shadows out of the corners of their eyes, all that. After the players have looted their way through the city, they'll set their eyes on the real prize: the still-mostly-whole archmage's tower. Naturally, after climbing up the tower's 673 steps they'll reach THE DUNGEON.
A large, unusually placed and evil-looking door leads apparently into the wall, but as soon as anyone touches it the PCs and the entire contents of the room will be warped into a strange and foreign dimension inside(inside of the psion's head!).
The problem: Now, here's where I'm running into problems. I plan for there to be a series of challenges and encounters, each under interesting and novel conditions as they try to escape an abberation themed nightmare world combining the pleasant charm of the dreams of an insane psion with the refreshing comfort of an abandoned victorian urban wasteland. However, it seems that it will get boring quickly with encounter after encounter. I'm throwing in all the interesting ideas that I can, including, but not limited to:
Snakes
Randomly Changing Gravity... with scythes!
Octopuses with the Dark Template
Fighting Giant Snakes in Zero Gravity
Running through the city during the middle of the siege
A good number of encounter traps(Dungeonscape)
A maze populated by hostile Will O' Wisps.
And so on.
Probably seven separate challenges or so in all, with 1-3 encounter type things per challenge. The city will be the final level.
The basic format I'm considering is that the PCs must travel through seven doorways, one for each challenge, and retrieve a magical sphere from each. There will be nine in all, one gained through the opening scenes in the dungeon, seven through finding them during challenges, and one from the final level mentioned above. Along the way they'll meet the three denizens of the dungeon(and the three components of the psion's shattered mind):
"Id": An insane young girl who writes on the walls with chalk, keeping out of sight and never speaking
"Ego": A cryptic middle-aged man who designs inventions and creates clocks all day. Speaks, but only in strange phrases that range from prophetic to nonsense.
"Superego": An aged janitor figure who simply follows the PCs around, locking and unlocking doors for them. He also does not speak.
All three are only projections of the psion's will, none existing in the dungeon except as illusions. They occasionally manipulate reality with a modified mage hand effect. Of course, they don't have real names, but rather have working names so I can actually refer to them as something.
At the very end of the dungeon, the players would find themselves back at the top of the tower, which is now collapsing due to the destruction they've wrought. They'll find their treasure(it was hidden beneath the tower! Sneaky!) and whatnot, ending the adventure and leaving everyone satisfied and happy. Or so I hope.
So my question is, how do I keep this all exciting and interesting? Seven to twenty-one straight encounters will become monotonous, no matter how many interesting diversions exist. I'd also like the dungeon to have some feeling of meaning to it, not just trying to escape in order to become rich. A life lesson, if you will.
I'd also like opinions on some of my dungeon design ideas: does the system where a door leads to a challenge seem too linear and dull? Is gathering items overrated?
Any suggestions, playground? Any help is much appreciated!
TL;DR: How do you keep a group of players motivated through a combat-heavy dungeon while also making the dungeon interesting?
Info about the group and my inspiration:
The dungeon isn't part of any overarching plot for a reason. Our group is rather flighty and tends to not stay working on a campaign for more than a few sessions before skipping off to try another one. I'm also a VERY new DM and I'm not sure I want to get too deep into anything on my first real try at DMing. I'm looking at only having this last for 3-4 sessions in order to keep with the circumstances. The dungeon lacks meaningful NPCs because, to be quite frank, I'm really bad at dealing with them. As it is, our group also tends to be severely lacking in roleplaying skills, including while dealing with NPCs. In keeping with our playing style, I've decided to focus on combat and traps and let the party determine how much roleplaying they want to do on their own.
Be prepared for a long read.
Here is the basic idea:
History: A powerful psion was intent on conquering the world with armies both mundane and supernatural, etc. etc. On the other end of the spectrum is one of the most powerful cities in the world, a mageocratic city-state of awesome magical power. Epic battle, all that. Suddenly, in the middle of everything, both sides fall silent. Search parties are sent from the other countries as civil wars erupt in the lands the psion has previously conquered.
None of the search parties return, and because of the power imbalance, no one can bear to send extra resources to try to find out what happened. Over time, the city is forgotten and becomes a legend. Still, rumors abide about the city, and the lost knowledge and wealth draw speculation still.
What happened was that during a duel with a circle of mages, the psion lost focus and ended up causing a giant... doom... thing. It sealed him away and killed everyone else within a 3 mile radius, as doom...things tend to do. It also fractured his consciousness into three parts, driving him quite insane.
The present: Now, in come the players. They're eager little buggers, and want to get their hands on the treasure, knowledge, or even just answers about what happened to mom and dad 20 years ago. They'll explore the city for a while, but not find much. It's completely abandoned, apparently in the middle of the siege. They catch shadows out of the corners of their eyes, all that. After the players have looted their way through the city, they'll set their eyes on the real prize: the still-mostly-whole archmage's tower. Naturally, after climbing up the tower's 673 steps they'll reach THE DUNGEON.
A large, unusually placed and evil-looking door leads apparently into the wall, but as soon as anyone touches it the PCs and the entire contents of the room will be warped into a strange and foreign dimension inside(inside of the psion's head!).
The problem: Now, here's where I'm running into problems. I plan for there to be a series of challenges and encounters, each under interesting and novel conditions as they try to escape an abberation themed nightmare world combining the pleasant charm of the dreams of an insane psion with the refreshing comfort of an abandoned victorian urban wasteland. However, it seems that it will get boring quickly with encounter after encounter. I'm throwing in all the interesting ideas that I can, including, but not limited to:
Snakes
Randomly Changing Gravity... with scythes!
Octopuses with the Dark Template
Fighting Giant Snakes in Zero Gravity
Running through the city during the middle of the siege
A good number of encounter traps(Dungeonscape)
A maze populated by hostile Will O' Wisps.
And so on.
Probably seven separate challenges or so in all, with 1-3 encounter type things per challenge. The city will be the final level.
The basic format I'm considering is that the PCs must travel through seven doorways, one for each challenge, and retrieve a magical sphere from each. There will be nine in all, one gained through the opening scenes in the dungeon, seven through finding them during challenges, and one from the final level mentioned above. Along the way they'll meet the three denizens of the dungeon(and the three components of the psion's shattered mind):
"Id": An insane young girl who writes on the walls with chalk, keeping out of sight and never speaking
"Ego": A cryptic middle-aged man who designs inventions and creates clocks all day. Speaks, but only in strange phrases that range from prophetic to nonsense.
"Superego": An aged janitor figure who simply follows the PCs around, locking and unlocking doors for them. He also does not speak.
All three are only projections of the psion's will, none existing in the dungeon except as illusions. They occasionally manipulate reality with a modified mage hand effect. Of course, they don't have real names, but rather have working names so I can actually refer to them as something.
At the very end of the dungeon, the players would find themselves back at the top of the tower, which is now collapsing due to the destruction they've wrought. They'll find their treasure(it was hidden beneath the tower! Sneaky!) and whatnot, ending the adventure and leaving everyone satisfied and happy. Or so I hope.
So my question is, how do I keep this all exciting and interesting? Seven to twenty-one straight encounters will become monotonous, no matter how many interesting diversions exist. I'd also like the dungeon to have some feeling of meaning to it, not just trying to escape in order to become rich. A life lesson, if you will.
I'd also like opinions on some of my dungeon design ideas: does the system where a door leads to a challenge seem too linear and dull? Is gathering items overrated?
Any suggestions, playground? Any help is much appreciated!
TL;DR: How do you keep a group of players motivated through a combat-heavy dungeon while also making the dungeon interesting?
Info about the group and my inspiration:
The dungeon isn't part of any overarching plot for a reason. Our group is rather flighty and tends to not stay working on a campaign for more than a few sessions before skipping off to try another one. I'm also a VERY new DM and I'm not sure I want to get too deep into anything on my first real try at DMing. I'm looking at only having this last for 3-4 sessions in order to keep with the circumstances. The dungeon lacks meaningful NPCs because, to be quite frank, I'm really bad at dealing with them. As it is, our group also tends to be severely lacking in roleplaying skills, including while dealing with NPCs. In keeping with our playing style, I've decided to focus on combat and traps and let the party determine how much roleplaying they want to do on their own.