Here's one: Why all those dead-ends in classic D&D dungeon maps? Was it simply lazy design, or just wanting the players to waste time exploring and become frustrated? Not quite; here's what Gygax included in the original list of "Tricks and Traps" suggestions:
"Sections which dead-end so as to trap players being pursued by monsters" (OD&D Vol-3, p. 6)
I was reading through B1 in preparation for running it for a new group, and noticed this huge spiral section that dead ends in the SW section of the 1st level. I was wondering what the point was, and now I know. If the DM holds the party to a strict movement rate/turn, something like that will generate a lot of wandering monster checks.
ReplyDeleteIt also gives referees who love to tinker various places to expand the existing dungeon floorplan.
ReplyDelete^ It's true, you get all those benefits in addition. Just thought it was interesting that the earliest explanation wasn't something I'd ever considered before.
ReplyDeleteSo dead ends in dungeons are to trap PCs who are being pursued by monsters. Is this from a DM's (Gamist) perspective or the (Simulationist) perspective of the in-game NPC who built the dungeon? Given the costs to construct dungeons, does it make any sense to dig out a tunnel for say 100 feet and apply masonry just to say 'Gotcha!' to some future wannabe robber?
ReplyDelete^ I would certainly guess that this is Gamist first (along with the rest of the list of tricks/traps), with whatever explanations are convenient coming afterward (like: unfinished tunneling). And I think that's consistent with what I call the "AD&D golden rule".
ReplyDeleteWhen my player wandered into a dead he had the habit of look for secret doors. My wife noticing this tendency put them into her dungeons when she felt like adding a new level.
ReplyDeleteIn order to make sense of the Gamist design elements of dungeons, a friend of mine stipulated that most of the dungeons found in the world were underground temples to a god of madness and chaos venerated by one of the lost civilizations of the region.
ReplyDeleteNice -- and very much in line with Gygax's use of Zagyg the Mad Archmage as master of the original Greyhawk dungeons.
DeleteThough ancient this post is, I'm surprised no one mentioned the real life practice of false passageways and covered tunnels in tombs, i.e. the Pharaohs of Egypt.
ReplyDeleteGood point!
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