Using Random Dungeons -- Experiences?

[ZX6Rob]

Hey, all.

I'd like to run a short non-story-oriented one-shot dungeon crawl for my team at work as sort of a team-building exercise. None of my co-workers have had any experience with the game, but they've all asked me to run one for them, and are quite excited about the possibility.

I'm no stranger to new players, so I'll be providing pre-made characters with simple archetypes and try to limit the math for them as much as possible. That being said, given that I don't have a lot of prep time, I'm thinking of just running them through a dungeon crawl. No need for story building and lots of NPCs and what-not. This will be more of a collaborative survival effort.

As such, I'd like to use a random dungeon generator, specifically the Donjon one (http://donjon.bin.sh) to build a quick, moderately-sized dungeon for the group to hack through. I'm curious as to whether anyone has actually run a game using a randomly-generated dungeon and what your experiences were with them.

[Laserlight]

Random rooms is fine; there are ways to justify that, including "Mad King Thunderfist was a heck of a general, but absolutely crazy as an architect. That's why we keep having these stairs that don't go anywhere, and rooms that lead you in a circle, and a 40ft x 40ft closet next to a 5x10 bedroom."

I don't much like random monsters. Maybe the occasional one, but I'd pick a monster type (goblinoids, for example) and a theme (such as frost). So you might have them run into snow wolves, then skirmisher goblins with pet wolves, then heavy infantry hobgoblins, then hobgoblins with caster support, and so forth. Let your players learn about each recurring foe so they can adapt and plan together. "When we run into hobgoblins, Phil can cast a fireball on the right, I'll run through the hole in their formation to get their caster, Janet follow along and protect me, Ed and Tommy keep the ones on the left busy" rather than "oh, another monster where we have no idea what it does. Let's have an uncoordinated spasm of violence, as usual."

[hymer]

I'm curious as to whether anyone has actually run a game using a randomly-generated dungeon and what your experiences were with them.

I was a player in one once, and I could tell. It didn't quite ruin it for me, as the DM was willing to make up stuff on the spot, and this wasn't supposed to be an integral part of the campaign. But it didn't feel like a place we visited, but like some squares on a board.

I guess I'm not a fan, but I can see the allure. I hate spending hours on making areas, and I hate spending hours being stuck on making areas. Maybe it's just my pride.