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Dungeons Make No Sense

Started by RPGPundit, December 04, 2014, 02:17:08 PM

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LordVreeg

#90
December 27, 2014, 11:53:08 AM
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;806098"How did the dungeon come to be like that?" is answered in the same way as all the other questions players have about the game world.

"Interesting question. How will your character discover the answer?"

While they ponder that, I roll for wandering monsters.

Seriously, it's alright for some things to be mysterious, to remain unknown. What you call, "that makes no sense!" I call a "sense of wonder."

It can certainly be.

I like both.  In a good game, where either the GM or that particular setting historically does 'make sense', the credibility you earn buys the suspension of disbelief and the PCS look for the underlying logic they are sure they will find.

In many games, where this has not been earned, this breaks verisimilitude.  So in my view, the ability to create this Sense of Wonder is earned.
Currently running 1 live groups and two online group in my 30+ year old campaign setting.  
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My current Collegium Arcana online game, a test for any ruleset.

Phillip

#91
December 27, 2014, 10:08:03 PM
Quote from: LordVreeg;806082Hmm.  Sounds like you described many 'dungeons' quite well.
I would say they are what they are, and the D&D-ish underworld is what it is, and I don't go out of my way to make one like the other.
And we are here as on a darkling plain  ~ Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, ~ Where ignorant armies clash by night.

BarefootGaijin

#92
December 28, 2014, 07:17:17 AM
All this has made me think about how to use a dungeon as a shamanic journey.

A wha..?

Rather than start in a tavern, go to a ruin, delve ruin etc. Go find tribal healer-type, ingest relevant brew/dance/fast/and so on to enter an altered state. From the altered state the party will journey into another realm for whatever reason and to whatever outcome. There is lots of material out there on the iconography and cultural experiences that can be mined for inspiration.
I play these games to be entertained... I don't want to see games about rape, sodomy and drug addiction... I can get all that at home.

Will

#93
December 28, 2014, 02:59:34 PM
I actually had an idea like that for a D20 Stone Age game I was debating.

Regular play would have minimal/subtle magic, but there would also be shamanic dances that would involve highly fantastical encounters. The dances would then have an impact on life... like fighting the spirits afflicting a sickly child.
This forum is great in that the moderators aren\'t jack-booted fascists.

Unfortunately, this forum is filled with total a-holes, including a bunch of rape culture enabling dillholes.

So embracing the \'no X is better than bad X,\' I\'m out of here. If you need to find me I\'m sure you can.

Arohtar

#94
December 28, 2014, 08:30:42 PM
Quote from: Old Geezer;802304Sure, but it's a YMMV thing.

I tried the 'heavy research' thing years ago, complete with money in pounds, shillings, and pence, not to mention groats, farthings, crowns, and guineas.  Historical weights and prices for everything... I spent several years researching prices.  Et cetera.  Real city maps.  The whole nine yards.

My players didn't give a shit.  Except that they wanted to go back to "10 copper equals one silver, 10 silver equals one gold."

I save my historical research jones for my model railroading.

Also, lad, as a personal favor could I ask you to please use some capitalization and punctuation?  Your posts are hard for these old eyes to read.

I guess it is about detailing things that matter. Detailing how many silver pieces there are per gold piece or how many pounds exactly a crossbow weighs does not matter much for the gaming experience (as long as the estimates used are realistic), but a dungeon where the encounters does not make sense, would be boring to me. I would for example find it exciting to - from the layout of the rooms discovered so far - to be able to deduce that the orcs' dormitory must be there and there, so they can be surprised like this - for example. A series of rooms with random monsters for hack and slash sounds boring to me, but if it works for your players, great. It's easy.
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