Don’t punish players for exploring a dungeon

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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?
4. Random combat encounters should not turn into slogs. Save your deadly encounters for the boss flight.
5. Don’t throw in setbacks for the hell of it. They should serve a purpose.
6. 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!)

 

GM Cross-training

In previous articles I’ve talked about the importance of practice as well as my favorite podcasts & blogs for GMs. But there are still countless other ways we can improve as GMs:

1. Read adventures & sourcebooks. Even if you don’t plan on running a certain adventure, there are tons of ideas you can lift from it. If you’re running a homebrew campaign, it’s particularly useful to see how experienced designers create an adventure.
2. Design homebrew. Through the process of creating homebrew materials (magic items, monsters, spells, etc.) you will better understand how those things work mechanically.
3. Watch / listen to actual plays. Each GM has their own techniques they bring to the game. Leverage their experience and ideas to make your game even better.
4. Play in games as a character. As a player, you can pick up on what makes a game fun and what might not.
5. Check out different TTRPG systems. Each system has its own way of doing things, and a lot of those cool ideas can be adapted for whatever system you’re running.
6. Consume fiction. TV shows, movies, and fantasy novels are all great sources of inspiration for plot points, cool locations, NPCs, etc. “We’re only as good as the obscurity of the references we steal from.” –Matt Colville

Let me know other ways you work to improve!

Puzzles as Extra Credit

It’s easy to present a situation where the party must solve a puzzle to advance the plot. This creates a clear issue, however: what happens if they can’t solve it?

Instead, it’s fun to use puzzles to give the party extra bonuses. For example, solving a puzzle may:

• Unlock a treasure chest
• Free an ally or activate a construct that will fight alongside the party (like in Fallout)
• Set off a trap to hurt the enemies in the next room
• Open a secret passage, allowing the characters to bypass certain dangers or escape a dungeon unharmed
• Provide some useful information about an enemy or their plans
• Reveal secret information about the world

By clearly telegraphing the reward (e.g. describing the puzzle as right on the treasure chest), the players become excited about the potential reward and can make an informed decision on how much time to spend on the puzzle. After all, a puzzle is a lot more fun when the players are choosing to engage with it rather than having it forced on them.

Let us know any other fun ways you've used puzzles!

The Trap of Nested Plot Hooks

Especially with homebrew campaigns, I’ve noticed a tendency to have nested plot hooks. For example: The party is tasked with rescuing a princess. They visit a local wizard to gather information. In return the wizard wants them to retrieve a lost artifact. Finding the artifact requires a map which bandits currently have. Defeating the bandits requires recruiting allies. Each ally has a quest for the party. And so on. 

Six sessions into their campaign, the group has no idea what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. They barely even remember what their original goal is. It’s too complicated. Moreover, as the party completes each step, the rug is pulled out from under them as another obstacle is presented. 

What takeaways can we glean from this example?

1. A complicated plot is not the same as an interesting plot. You shouldn’t add content for the heck of it. Make sure each aspect of your campaign is adding value.
2. Plots shouldn’t be so complicated that your players can’t remember what’s going on. The players are not living in the world all the time like their characters are.
3. Players like making progress toward their goal. It’s fine if the goal takes a while to achieve, but the players should have an idea of the scope and the steps required up front. Otherwise delays and complications can feel deflating.
4. The reward for completing a task should not just be another task to complete. Each success should take the players closer to their goal so that they are incentivized and excited to continue.

Combining ideas to create something even cooler

Recently I’ve been writing down potential ideas for a new campaign to run. The difficult part is deciding which idea I like the most. But why do we have to pick only one idea? We can combine different ideas to make something even more interesting.

Let’s take dungeons as an example. It’s easy to rattle off some typical dungeon locations: mines, caves, temples, crypts, a bandit stronghold, etc. On their own, each of those locations could be interesting, but what happens when we combine them together?

What if we have a temple built into a mountain with a hidden cave system for those brave enough to search? What if an abandoned library has been taken over by bandits and made into a stronghold? What if a foul monster has recently dug its lair in an old mine?

Now these locations have lots of history and hooks to draw on. Because they are multi-faceted they seem more real and dynamic. All together we have a much more memorable and unique location for our party to explore. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

This technique doesn’t only apply to dungeons. Ideas for campaigns, NPCs, cities, magic items, etc. can all be combined to create unique content.

Let me know what you think and what other ways you create interesting ideas!

Handling imposter syndrome

It’s easy to feel a bit disappointed with how a session went. We feel anxious when we forget to mention something or stumble over words or have to pause to check notes. We plan these grand combat or roleplay encounters only for them to be 60% as cool as we thought they would be. 

It happens. Imposter syndrome is normal, no matter how experienced we may be.

Even so, I would like to offer some tips on dealing with imposter syndrome:

• Remember that your players don’t know if something turns out differently than you expected. Unused materials can always be repurposed for later.
• It’s easy to judge a session based on your expectations, but the results are what matters. Your players probably still had a great time and had a lot of fun moments, Even if a session wasn’t perfect, it can still be pretty good.
• If there are areas you felt were lacking, the good news is you can continue to practice and focus on those areas (growth mindset!)
• Gather feedback from your players on how things went. It’s possible you’ve been stressing about things your players don’t mind at all.
• Remember that DMing is a challenging and complex beast. Be gracious to yourself!

Let me know what other ways you combat imposter syndrome!

Visual clues for traps

Recently I've started to incorporate a visual component to the traps I include in dungeons. Previously the trap would only exist in my notes and the PCs would have to make a perception check or ask about traps to notice it.

Visual trap indicators can take on several forms depending on what the trap is:

• Symbols, rules, or other markings on the floor
• A thin tripwire similar in color to the floor
• A slight outline or discoloration of certain tiles to indicate a pressure plate

Including such indicators has several advantages:

• Checking for traps becomes more engaging. Rolling dice is fun, but so is bypassing a challenge with clever / careful play.
• Players pay more attention to the map as they are looking for traps
• Traps feel less punishing as even the players had a fair shake at noticing them.
• They’re super easy to add to any VTT map!