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View Full Version : Avoiding another Catacombs: Dungeons that last longer than expected



Fiery Diamond
2008-11-10, 09:38 AM
So, the thread title is a reference to a dungeon from last semester in the D&D 3.5 campaign I run here at college - undead-infested catacombs(yeah, stereotypical, so sue me). It was intended to last 1 or 2 sessions. Instead, it ate up almost the entire semester (sessions 1/week, 5hr sessions). So, my question to you all - have you ever had a dungeon or other kind of single mission that was intended to last for a short period of time but ended up dragging on much, much longer than you anticipated? And how, as DMs, would you go about heading off that problem if you realized that it was starting to happen? As players?


Recently, I completely cut off a bunch of stuff I had planned for a ruins dungeon because I realized that this was happening. Instead, I'm planning to stick some of the monsters and treasure in the next dungeon, which I hadn't finished writing up. This is how I took care of this, thereby "avoiding another catacombs."

Any stories, or just plain old "this is what I would do"?

afroakuma
2008-11-10, 09:39 AM
I'd ask how it managed to overrun so badly. What were the players/DM doing that dragged it out so far?

theMycon
2008-11-10, 11:28 AM
First, cut down on things that look like traps but aren't. Even if they look cool. I've had a group I was in spend three hours standing outside a glowing doorway, debating whether or not to go through, poking stuff through to apparently random effect, discussing all the things it could possibly be, until finally the DM snapped and said he hadn't thought about it that hard and expected us to walk through after maybe five minutes.

Second, puzzles that seem obvious to you should have at least one unavoidable hint. You'd be amazed the "obvious" things people don't think of.

Third, don't indulge the evil player. If he wants to do something, on his own or to the group, that you know will add two weeks to the adventure and doesn't benefit anyone else in any way, or work with your story, tell him "no, that won't be fun for the other people here."


Finally,
If your group is six or more people, here are two ideas.

1: ask someone to DM their own group, or
2: have a rotating, secret, "assistant DM". Randomly select one person who you give a vague idea of the next week's outline- those plot steps you really need them to take

bosssmiley
2008-11-10, 11:35 AM
You could always try out the Five room dungeon model (http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=156#1). Being able to barrel through two or three mini-dungeons in an evening makes a nice change sometimes.

Triaxx
2008-11-11, 12:31 PM
Remember not to tell them that it's never the blue door, then make all the doors blue. They'll never get anywhere.

DigoDragon
2008-11-12, 10:47 AM
"Castle Draclau", the BBEG castle and site for the final showdown of one campaign I was running. It was designed to take up one session (about 6-7 hours in length), but the players were so set on finding every piece of valuable loot (not nailed down or on fire) and testing every nook-and-cranny (They actually brought in a pair of 10 foot poles) for traps that it took nearly three whole sessions to get through it.

Literally, I left rooms and cabinets unlocked and opened just to speed up the search process. I handed out index cards with pre-identified info on any magic items found to speed up that process. I even began nailing down furnature and setting valuable on fire just to speed things up for the looting process. :smallannoyed:

The castle had a total of 4 traps. Only one was difficult and required thinking. The other three I made sure were obvious, easy to disarm, and placed in out of the way places the PCs wouldn't care to bother with. Somehow they found them all... even the one way out back in the garden meant to catch rabbits.

Then when they finally got to the top and confronted the BBEG I was elated. All the PCs had to do was kill the BBEG and destroy his little magic urn. Real simple, right? No tricks or catches to it. Just mindless "smashy-smashy" and the PCs win.

They. Messed. This. Up...

arguskos
2008-11-12, 10:53 AM
I once ran a dungeon that had 4 levels to it, each with roughly 30 rooms or so. It was meant to be a long, hard, drawn-out dungeoncrawl. However, the party WAS on a clock, since their allies had just been kidnapped and some other stuff was going on, so I figured we could blitz through a level a session (our sessions are roughly 12 hours long). WRONG. We did 4 rooms. FOUR. IN TWELVE HOURS. I literally cried after the session was over, since I felt like a pathetically bad DM for failing so hard. :smallmad:

No D&D session I have heard of (save for Lanky's amazingly bad luck sessions) has gone so horridly wrong.

Telonius
2008-11-12, 11:22 AM
Search Checks have been the real timeslayer in most of my sessions. I've found that it's often useful for the players to roll a bunch of Search checks ahead of time. Keep them in a list. You can use this as a bank for both search checks for secret doors and treasure. When the players declare they're taking an action that would otherwise trigger a trap, ask the Rogue if he wants to use his pre-rolled list, or roll it then.

That way, you take into account the fact that they're always on the lookout for traps and such, you leave something to chance and within the character's control, you maintain the sense of drama, and you keep the game moving as quickly as possible.

The combat-time issue does get worse as the level goes up. There really isn't any way around it. When you have more attacks, and more buffs and bonuses from the wizard and the cleric, you have more to keep track of, and more time lost. You can mitigate that at least a little by things like keeping spell lists simple, writing up little paper tags that show what bonuses (of what type) are active. At one point I wrote up an Excel spreadsheet for our Barbarian each level with to-hit and damage listed for power attack, both raging and non-raging.

One idea ... offer bonus XP for any ideas that help the game move quickly.

Tsotha-lanti
2008-11-12, 11:38 AM
You could always try out the Five room dungeon model (http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=156#1). Being able to barrel through two or three mini-dungeons in an evening makes a nice change sometimes.

This. I think a dungeon is good, generally, for 3-4 scenes at most. I never found the "days of exploring" model of dungeon crawling to make any sense (except with actually gigantic dungeons, like Undermountain or the Underdark). Then again, I generally like fast-paced adventure with some sort of time-sensitive goal.

Behold_the_Void
2008-11-12, 01:07 PM
I've gotten good at cutting large swaths of my dungeons out in the middle of a session and relocating treasure elsewhere if necessary. I don't want a group to ever spend more than one session tops in a dungeon.