OminousP
2015-02-02, 11:57 AM
I consider myself a pretty good DM, at least as far as newbie DM's go. But I'm still kind of inexperienced and need some help with my dungeon-crawls.
My last D&D campaign went great, but it wasn't very dungeon-crawl heavy. The players stole a pirate ship and sailed around exploring all of the islands in the land, negotiating with the local villagers, and fighting the evils that lurk on the coasts. I made some cool 'enemy lairs', which were like my own mini-dungeons. By that I mean- most of the time I created a series of 3 or 4 rooms in a cave/ruins/fortress etc and each room had a big, open battle in it and an interesting environment and backdrop for that battle. Once in a while I'd throw some traps and treasures in there too.
This was a lot of fun for everyone and the campaign was a great success. But now I am DMing a campaign that I didn't write myself. It's actually "Shackled City", the 3rd edition adventure path. And it seems very dungeon heavy. In fact the first dungeon is this big, complex enclave with dozens of small rooms and a series of keys that the players need to collect. And I anticipate having a little bit of trouble with parts of it since I'm not used to running such an elaborate dungeon.
My question is: how do I get my players to know where they are in the dungeon? I have a book full of awesome maps for myself, but how do I give the players a visual representation of where they are in the dungeon without showing them the full map (and killing the sense of 'exploration')?
These players are very used to me walking them through ruins and cities and letting them explore big open environments. Shackled city has these elaborate deep dungeon crawls with lots of small tunnels and rooms and small battles in each one. So I need some advice on how to keep them both immersed in the dungeon and aware of their location in it.
If any of you experienced DMs have advice or techniques to share, please do. Thanks for reading this!
My last D&D campaign went great, but it wasn't very dungeon-crawl heavy. The players stole a pirate ship and sailed around exploring all of the islands in the land, negotiating with the local villagers, and fighting the evils that lurk on the coasts. I made some cool 'enemy lairs', which were like my own mini-dungeons. By that I mean- most of the time I created a series of 3 or 4 rooms in a cave/ruins/fortress etc and each room had a big, open battle in it and an interesting environment and backdrop for that battle. Once in a while I'd throw some traps and treasures in there too.
This was a lot of fun for everyone and the campaign was a great success. But now I am DMing a campaign that I didn't write myself. It's actually "Shackled City", the 3rd edition adventure path. And it seems very dungeon heavy. In fact the first dungeon is this big, complex enclave with dozens of small rooms and a series of keys that the players need to collect. And I anticipate having a little bit of trouble with parts of it since I'm not used to running such an elaborate dungeon.
My question is: how do I get my players to know where they are in the dungeon? I have a book full of awesome maps for myself, but how do I give the players a visual representation of where they are in the dungeon without showing them the full map (and killing the sense of 'exploration')?
These players are very used to me walking them through ruins and cities and letting them explore big open environments. Shackled city has these elaborate deep dungeon crawls with lots of small tunnels and rooms and small battles in each one. So I need some advice on how to keep them both immersed in the dungeon and aware of their location in it.
If any of you experienced DMs have advice or techniques to share, please do. Thanks for reading this!