Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Pros and cons of dungeons for hack and slash roleplaying

Black Leviathan · 07-09-2019, 11:20 AM

Ultimately whether you're travelling down a corridor from room 1 to room 2, or walking along a trail form clearing 1 to clearing 2 or sailing on a ship from island 1 to island 2, it's all just window dressing in a hack-and-slash game. There's no great emphasis on environment or resource use or exposure or geographic boundaries. The dungeon format is popular because it works. Players are on a highly constrained path with an immutable environment and predictable environmental features like doors and stairs that they can prepare for. It can be just as realistic or unrealistic as any other location. If you don't like monsters mingling put barriers between areas of the dungeon. Use areas of undead that are programmed to guard certain places as separations. Have destroyed underground bridges that keep the knolls from battling or teaming up with the troll.

My greater concern is about "realistic". I've seen you grappling with D&D world construction and common sense in a lot of your posts. Ultimately if you want to get away from logical inconsistencies in a dungeon world you have to get away from a world where things are built into the game world so that they can be in the game world. Build your own game world starting from a place that makes sense to you.

07-09-2019, 11:20 AM	#21
Black Leviathan Join Date: Sep 2018	Re: Pros and cons of dungeons for hack and slash roleplaying Ultimately whether you're travelling down a corridor from room 1 to room 2, or walking along a trail form clearing 1 to clearing 2 or sailing on a ship from island 1 to island 2, it's all just window dressing in a hack-and-slash game. There's no great emphasis on environment or resource use or exposure or geographic boundaries. The dungeon format is popular because it works. Players are on a highly constrained path with an immutable environment and predictable environmental features like doors and stairs that they can prepare for. It can be just as realistic or unrealistic as any other location. If you don't like monsters mingling put barriers between areas of the dungeon. Use areas of undead that are programmed to guard certain places as separations. Have destroyed underground bridges that keep the knolls from battling or teaming up with the troll. My greater concern is about "realistic". I've seen you grappling with D&D world construction and common sense in a lot of your posts. Ultimately if you want to get away from logical inconsistencies in a dungeon world you have to get away from a world where things are built into the game world so that they can be in the game world. Build your own game world starting from a place that makes sense to you.