Somnambulism 101 // Dungeon Design 03

Dungeon Design 11 // The Influence of The Fiction Over Gameplay

    It's been a while // many weeks, in fact. I've been busy. Not with anything in particular, just random nonsense that takes up time. I intend to maintain my business. However, I do consider writing this blog to be one of those things that would do so.
     There are some concerns when it comes to crunchy games about what exactly should take priority in scenarios in which adjudication may be difficult. Typically, this comes down to GM preference.
      Psychomortis interfaces with this concept somewhat strangely, as it's a game built for fluid gameplay but takes place within a very rigid environment; dungeons. There have been concerns about how exactly to grapple with this dual-nature of the experience, and while it may require a different method of approaching dungeons and their design, it's quite simple and quite possible.
    I wasn't sure exactly what category to place this one in, but since it's all about dungeons and running them, I'm sure dungeon designers would benefit from it greatly.
 
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    The Sparknotes //

  1. It's important, as a GM to reframe the keys and content of a dungeon in your mind when trying to run a fluid dungeon.
  2. For the players, a dungeon is merely a series of decisions and scenarios; it's your job as the GM to tie those scenarios and decisions to the greater environment and narrative.
  3. Random Encounters are a great way to tie an experience together and make it cohesive, but those encounters must be multi-faceted, not merely combat.
  4. When running a fluid dungeon, what you're looking for is for organic cause & effect to flow the experience towards the bullet pointed goals of the dungeon.

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    The Obstacle of Keys //

    As a GM, especially when you're running an adventure that you haven't written yourself, it's easy to get caught in a mindset of "the keys matter". Now, this isn't necessarily untrue, but it's important to understand exactly what makes the keys matter.
    The key of a dungeon serves to maintain cohesion between locations and events, scenarios, actions, etc. within a dungeon. They're there to provide mechanical logic gates // they create a structured cause & effect loop.
    Now, the purposes of many keys may change from adventure to adventure // some may contain crucial story events, or take advantage of the "Quantum Ogre" phenomena. Many don't, or will operate differently.

    As the interpreter of the keys, it's your job to separate between Crucial Keys and Flow Keys. Crucial Keys being keys that absolutely MUST be interacted with in order for the dungeon to operate. The gate in the front of the castle, the sigil that summons the demon, the key at the end of the hallway, that sort of stuff.
    The Flow Keys are keys that don't NECESSARILY demand interaction, but exist to fill in space and create that flow of gameplay. These are random encounter tables, a specific setpiece, scenario, monster or NPC location, etc.
    To give a short quick example, if the gate that blocks the PC's way is the Crucial Key, (the party MUST get to the other side) then the method to open or surpass it is the Flow Key (the party is INTENDED to use this method). A key might say that it can only be opened with a lever, but if the tower with the lever gets blown apart, there's GOT to be another way past the gate, right? Whether it's over the blown apart tower or through a secret passage under the gate, or if you just move the lever to another tower (this kind of approach isn't recommended)
// "lucky the tower with the lever didn't get blown up, right?"
 
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    Organic Cause & Effect //

    Whenever I'm running a dungeon, I read the adventure and separate these keys from each other to distinguish between what I can and can't manipulate
 
    Here's an example; there is a book that the party needs to find in a library. This is a Crucial Key. The book MUST be in an underground library, and the party MUST find it. It is a non-negotiable bottlenecked scenario.
    Now, what if something catastrophic happens to the library? Let's say it gets flooded, or lit on fire. The library itself is a setpiece, a Crucial Key, but it is still subject to the outer world. If the library becomes irrecoverably flooded, the book doesn't suddenly change location or something like that.
    The Crucial Key of "book in library" doesn't change, but now that it's flooded, the challenge within the library has changed. Now, the challenge is, instead of fighting a bunch of book monsters // perhaps it's navigating the ruined and flooded library on a time limit. At the end of the challenge, the players still receive the book, however this time it's in a lockbox, alongside some other important objects that a monk might have wanted to preserve.
 

    What's happened here is that the PC's were responsible for something unintended (the library being flooded) that impeded the content of the already existing keys for the dungeon. The keys STATE that the book is present in the library on a random shelf, but that quantum condition of the book has changed in reaction to the events that the players are responsible for.
    It's the Quantum Ogre, but for heightening the experience, not limiting choice.
 
    This technique requires some feeling around for what's exactly crucial to the experience of a dungeon, what can be changed and what needs to be placed in this quantum state of guaranteed interaction. It will shift and change per adventure and requires one to intuit it organically.
    However, using this technique of Organic Cause & Effect will make your dungeons feel much more dynamic and alive.
 
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    Random Encounters //

    No encounter should be random. Monsters should instead be in the form of roaming or active creatures within an environment, and navigating around them should be a matter of player skill.
    Say a key demands that there are orcs in this room-- that's lame. And stupid. Instead, they should be MOVING, or DOING SOMETHING. Naturally, they will be making noise, speaking with each other, and they had oughtta be real dangerous. So, instead of simply Quantum-Ogre'ing the orcs themselves to force a fight-- "oh they were ALWAYS in this room!"--
    you present them a dynamic situation; are the orcs worth fighting to make the space safer? Are you confident in your abilities to move quietly and bypass them to avoid the fight? Can you create a distraction or find other ways to get rid of them? The orcs are moving, they're interacting with the environment, they're a mobile threat that may walk into YOU, and take YOU by surprise. If they hear you, they may seek you out and kill you, or run away and try to hide themselves-- they're living, breathing creatures.
    As a general rule, avoid "forced fights", even boss fights. Treat the world like it's REAL first, and like a GAME second.

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    Recap & TL;DR //

    Whenever you're running a dungeon it's important to preserve the gameplay flow and natural consequences of the PC's actions, but a dungeon is ultimately still a place. It is influenced and affected by everything around it all the same, and is not static. This dynamic flow of interaction and gameplay can go further and spread far wider than generic faction play or finding the occasional secret door.
  1. Treat every obstacle as dynamic, and be open to alternative methods of overcoming these challenges.
  2. Use organic cause & effect to enhance the mechanized cause & effect of the keys.
  3. Understand that the keys are there to serve both you and the dungeon, use them wisely.
  4. For shorthand understanding, Crucial Keys are the "What" that the keys demand, and the Flow Keys are the "How" that the keys suggest.
  5. Experience and a deep understanding of tabletop games and game flow are important to making the most of this technique, and if you're very experienced, it's likely you do it already.
  6. Remember that creatures are dynamic, living things that are more interesting if they are mobile, intelligent, and capable.

    Never be afraid to break the keys or even redesign entire sequences of a dungeon, but always do remember; you're at the mercy of the dungeon map. Unless you intend to change it for yourself (which I do highly recommend, if you care enough), anything that you change will have to fit within the flow and format of the dungeon you're running.

    I have a game I'm designing that interacts with many of these design concepts and features. 
To gain access to the current version of the rulebook, it is free to download on the game's Discord server;
https://discord.gg/cyqYQt7Cgr

Alternatively, contact me on Bluesky;
@calicovisions.bsky.social











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