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Totally Guy
2008-09-23, 04:52 PM
I think I made a big error in the concept for a dungeon.

Essentially the dungeon is "self solving", a wall breaks down every couple of days and the monsters poof into the rooms by magic under certain conditions. The most efficient way to get to the bottom is to leave it alone for a few days and then descend fighting encounters towards the bottom. I built the session around this concept (even the BBEG's plans involve it) and included a massive array of sidequests outside of the dungeon. There's an interesting political world up there.

Unfortunately the players latched themselves onto the dungeon and will not let go. The encounters have been getting mundane and I was only able to put a bit of spice back in at the very end of the session with the presence of more adventurers that want to help (but of course the players have to debate about sharing the dungeon. Debate is a good thing.)

I'm having trouble getting any of my external hooks into the dungeon and things I don't want to use things that push them away from the (oh so boring self solving) dungeon, it'd be either contrived railroading or will be seen as an obstacle to be overcome.

Maybe I should stop using decoys. The Decoy BBEG is getting a lot of attention too under the assumption that he has some kind of evil plan, which he doesn't.

Lycan 01
2008-09-23, 04:57 PM
So lemme get this straight...

You whipped up a small side quest dungeon, and a fake BBEG to live in it... and now the Party thinks this is the man plot hook?


You could rework the dungeon. If they keep redoing it or going back through certain areas, have the BBEG have put something else there instead of what they're used to.

Or have an earthquake cause a cave-in, forever removing the dungeon from existance...

Prometheus
2008-09-23, 05:23 PM
I say use the self-solving nature of the dungeon to bring out something that is entirely unexpected that moves the plot (for example, somehow drawing in one of the personal nemesis's of the adventurers to combat them, deciding it would be easier if it "pretended" to be a defeated dungeon rather than actually being one, etc.) Of course, this requires the adventurers know the nature of the dungeon.

Totally Guy
2008-09-23, 05:30 PM
No the decoy BBEG was the week before last week but he survived the session and appeared the start of the last session (mainly due to me not concluding the scene sufficiently at 2am last time). He's still evil but, thanks to the players, lacks the motive to be a real villian.

The big dungeon was part of the main quest. With new areas opening every couple of days they make no progress by clearing a floor but attract the wrath of respawning monster (which is a plot point).

I thought about all the loose ends from the previous session and created a sidequest for all of them. So when they were at the tavern or between places at the end of the day that could be triggered without them having to worry about their commitment to the dungeon.

Of course they don't see that "no progress" angle and have not left the dungeon in 4ish days. It's been far too combat heavy for the group enjoyment.

It's the unneccessary latch on that hurting us all as all the cool adventure bits have become hack and slash.

I think I need some kind of character epiphany trigger that they can use to say "Hang on, this dungeon will not be important for another 3 days"


Edit:
[spoiler]Oh, I know what's at the bottom. The great evil that dwells within is in fact... a lich that gets killed every 1D10 days by a paladin that's been down there so long within the lichs aura he's become undead himself but still holy and good. The lich hid his phylactery inside a column that supports the town itself. The paladin longs for his freedom and hates the fake BBEG for putting him there in the first place. The paladin is responsible for the respawning monsters to keep people out but the lich is responsible for making the encounters just easy and rewarding enough to lure adventurers closer.[spoiler]

Baron Corm
2008-09-23, 05:35 PM
Have them meet a helpful guide in the dungeon. A fey or ghost or old man or something who is native to it. They can either get information straight from it or they have to go on a sidequest first.

Alternatively, have some sort of physical mechanism shown to be making the dungeon work this way. Allow a simple Knowledge (arcana) or (architecture) or (whatever) check to figure it out.