Although it’s important for dungeons to feel challenging, they should also be fun for the players to explore. When every room is filled with traps, mimics, and hostile creatures, the players won’t want to explore (until the Plot™️ forces them to). We want our players to interact with our content, therefore we should ensure the players feel encouraged to do so.
Here are my thoughts on how to keep dungeons fun:
- Not every room needs to have dangerous traps or hostile creatures. Certain areas might even help the players (a healing fountain, for example) or provide the players with useful information.
- Clever and careful play should keep the characters safer. One example of this is adding visual indicators for traps to reward observant players. You can also include environmental challenges in lieu of traps to facilitate create problem solving.
- When the party does encounter a setback, make sure they are rewarded. After all, why have a trap if there’s no valuable treasure it’s protecting?
- Random combat encounters should not turn into slogs. Save your deadly encounters for the boss flight.
- Don’t throw in setbacks for the hell of it. They should serve a purpose.
- Keep in mind the party’s motivation for entering the dungeon. Overcoming obstacles should move them closer towards their goal (or at least provide some cool information or loot for their troubles).
(This is something I noticed as a player, not a DM. Being a player and watching other DMs can give you valuable insights and perspectives as to what’s fun and what’s not!)
