Dungeon Blog

These are the musings of Monte in regard to Dungeonaday.com content, advice, game design insights, general gaming thoughts, or any other topic related to this website.

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Recent Articles

My Feet Feel Small: If you read Monday's blog, then you know that there are a few changes happening behind the scenes here at Dungeonaday.com -in fact, you probably came to today's blog looking for some kind of insight into exactly what to expect, and I don't blame you.

Transitions: As you have likely heard, I have decided to take a break from game design (again), at least for a time. However, Dungeonaday.com is very important to me.

What's Up with Orr?: A young man named Gisseny had to take on the hero's mantle early when, at 10 years old, he lead a group of knights to free his mother from the clutches of an evil mage in the northern woods...

Levels 10 and 11 in Ptolus: Level 10 of Dragon's Delve could be used as a standalone, albeit offbeat, dragon's lair located anywhere you want. Bargelos is a weird dragon encounter, but as such you could easily fit him into any setting.

As One Recedes, Another Rises: Sometimes, the players need to feel like they're accomplishing something.

Levels 8 and 9 in Ptolus: Okay, I'm backtracking a bit here, because I've been remiss to talk about using the site with Ptolus for a while. I know a lot of you use Ptolus as your setting, so I apologize.

The Nature of Level 11: The theme, if you will, of the Tomb of Orr, is deception.

(Re-)Setting the DCs: Once the PCs get to the middle levels, it becomes more difficult to set DCs for skill checks. Unlike Armor Class or saves, skill check bonuses are wildly more fluid.

Digging: When the PCs can cast spells like passwall or even disintegrate--not to mention dimension door and teleport--they can start to ignore the boundaries of the dungeon. They can go around locked doors and trapped hallways. So how do you stop them from doing so?

Using the Wendways: I've been looking forward to introducing the wendways since I started working on Dragon's Delve--it's a little like the dungeon's very own mystic subway system.

Dealing With A Deceptive Dragon: Bargelos in area 310 is an encounter unlike any the PCs have likely dealt with so far in the campaign.

If It's Here, It Must Be Important: One thing that I have to deal with as a designer is to avoid giving inadvertent clues to the players on a metagame level.

"Heroes": You might have noticed that unlike a lot of game writers, I always use the terms "characters" or "PCs" and never "heroes." There's a reason for this.

Jumping in the Middle: So, Dragon's Delve is pretty big now. And it's only going to get bigger. Let's say you're just now ready to start. So what do you do?

Room 300 and the State of Dungeonaday.com: Yesterday, I posted area 300 of Dragon's Delve. Of course, when you figure in all the bonus encounters, Terregaunt's Tower, Khorant, and Chordille Keep, we're well past 300 encounters. Still, it seems like a fine time to reflect on where we've been and where we're going.

Death and What Comes After: One thing that lots of DMs agonize over (including me) is character death and resurrection.

Finding the Path: Tropical Vacation (Part 1): The first installment of converting the island of Khorant to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Challenge Ratings of Multiple Monsters: When we designed 3E, I was the guy who laid the groundwork for the CR system. So CR/EL haters, you can hate me.

Somebody Made This, Right?: Whether you're running a campaign set in Dragon's Delve or in another dungeon, you're likely going to be in the situation where the PCs are in some strange encounter with crazy effects designed to be fun and challenging, and one of the players says, "where did this come from? Somebody made this for a reason, right?"

Stat Blocks for Non-Combatants: So, the PCs finally meet up with Master Mui Yan and there's no stat block for him? He's the greatest warrior in the history of the world--don't we need some hit points and attack bonuses to prove it?

Book of Experimental Might II and Master Mui Yan: Those using the concept of feat boosts, as described in Book of Experimental Might II (or the Complete Book of Experimental Might) may wish to alter some of the special benefits of training in the Dojo of Master Mui Yan, tailoring them to the various optional rules presented there.

Ducks and Game Mechanics: If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. If that's true, why aren't the special abilities you get in Master Mui Yan's dojo feats?

Filling in the Background: When I think of it, I usually try to put in suggestions for various Knowledge skill checks that might help the PCs put the stuff in Dragon's Delve in context: historical figures, deities, noble families, etc. But of course sometimes I forget. And the real truth is, you can give anything in the dungeon context if you want.

Harpies and Fear: When I first ran an encounter with my variant harpies, I did so because I wanted an excuse to encourage the players to really delve into their characters.

Infinite Giants, Etc.: Not counting random or revisit encounters, there are six hill giants on Level 9. But that's not really the intention.

In Defense of Magic Items: As a follow-up to the article on handing out experience, I'd love to address the misconception that the only way to reward players is via experience points.

Punishing the Curious: Area 269 is meant to be an exception rather than a rule. This encounter is triggered only if someone investigates something curious, and there's no real up side to it.

The Magical Prison of Level 9: In area 271, a magical statue can send intruders to a magical prison without their gear and from which there is no likely escape. If the entire party is imprisoned and they don't have some magical way to produce food and water (which is to say, a cleric) they're going to be in trouble.

A Palate Cleanser: It's obvious that I like ghosts and demons as foes and challenges for PCs. The dungeon's been full of them, particularly lately. So even I need a break from them.

The Duchess' Ritual: At the top of Chordille Keep's tallest tower, Duchess Andra Chordille waits to perform a horrific ritual. What if the worst case scenario happens, and Andra gets hold the knife, slays one of the PCs, and completes the ritual?

Hero Points: Remember last time when I said that I didn't used to like handing out experience points to players, only characters? Well, a lot of years ago, because of this feeling--among other reasons--I created something for my games called Hero Points.

Handing Out Experience: There's a criticism of D&D (rearing its ugly head just about every edition) that the only way to get experience points--and thus, gain levels--is to kill things. I've been playing the game since 1977 and I can't remember a time when it was true.

Running a Scary non-D&D Game: Just for fun, I thought I'd mention a few ideas for running a more general horror game, like say, Call of Cthulhu. Think of these as "advanced" horror game suggestions. Most of them are "meta" ideas. That is, they don't have anything to do with the PCs, but rather the players.

Running a Scary D&D Game: Chordille Keep is meant to a spooky place.

Design Expectations: I was asked recently what sort of group of PCs I expect when I'm designing rooms for Dungeonaday.com. In other words, what group of characters do I design for--a wizard of a certain level? A small-sized rogue?

Introducing Chordille Keep: The idea behind the so-called "ghost keep" was to have the PCs come up into it after using the main entrance/exit of the dungeon a thousand times, changing something they had long since taken for granted and giving them a real jolt of surprise.

More on Searching: A few questions arose on the forums after I wrote my previous article on searching. I thought I'd elaborate here.

Player Character Courage: Nine times out of ten, I believe the following statement to be true: Player characters will charge headlong into a fight against even the deadliest combat situation without hesitation, but put some kind of unknown device in front of them and they literally won't touch it with a ten-foot pole.

Running Two Groups At Once (Part 2): In the last entry, I discussed dual-campaigns, or running two groups in one setting at the same time. For Dragon's Delve, a two-group dual-campaign could be a lot of fun.

Running Two Groups At Once (Part 1): If you've got a lot of players but don't want to run a large game, one option is to run two different campaigns on different nights of the week. But what if you instead wanted to run one campaign, with two groups?