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Old 08-03-2010, 10:14 PM   #1
tg_ambro
 
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Default [DF] Location and dungeon type survey

I have a few questions for my fellow forumites. While asked primarily out of curiousity, your answers will, of course, be put to my own nefarious ends, *Cue villainous laugh.*

The Questions:

1: As a GM, what terrain (Arctic, Desert, Island/Beach, Jungle, Mountain, Plains, Swampland, and Woodlands) do you most commonly set your DF adventures in and why?

1a: Is that your favorite type of terrain? If not, which is?

2: As a GM, what dungeon achetype (Cave, Cellar, Labyrinth, Mine, Prison, Sewer, Tomb, ans Warren) do you most often use and why?

2a: Is that your favorite dungeon archetype? If not, which is?

3: As a player, what terrain do you most often adventure in?

3a: Is that your favorite terrain? If not, which is?

4: As a player, which dungeon archetype do you most often adventure in?

4a Is that your favorite dungeon archetype? If not, which is?
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Last edited by tg_ambro; 08-03-2010 at 11:35 PM.
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Old 08-04-2010, 12:21 PM   #2
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Default Re: [DF] Location and dungeon type survey

I don't play dungeon fantasy, but I'll take a stab at these anyways.

Quote:
1: As a GM, what terrain (Arctic, Desert, Island/Beach, Jungle, Mountain, Plains, Swampland, and Woodlands) do you most commonly set your DF adventures in and why?
I've used all of them at one point or another in my games. Most commonly, though, I'll use Woodlands set on or near a coastline, interspersed with Farmlands. It's the kind of terrain I grew up in, so I can envision it better than most.

Quote:
1a: Is that your favorite type of terrain? If not, which is?
My favorite type isn't on that list: Radioactive Wasteland. Not really a Dungeon Fantasy type terrain, but it can make for some damned good adventuring.

Quote:
2: As a GM, what dungeon achetype (Cave, Cellar, Labyrinth, Mine, Prison, Sewer, Tomb, ans Warren) do you most often use and why?
I'll have to pass on this one. A current half-joking whine nowadays is "I don' wanna go back in the dungeon!". My one attempt at running a dungeon was a "ruins of an older city upon which the newer city was built"; not sure how that classifies.

Quote:
2a: Is that your favorite dungeon archetype? If not, which is?
I don't think I have a favorite type of dungeon.

Quote:
3: As a player, what terrain do you most often adventure in?
Woodlands, Plains, Desert, or Urban, although currently I'm in a fantasy game set in a fjord.

Quote:
3a: Is that your favorite terrain? If not, which is?
Favorite currently is Urban. There's something about the design of a city - running across rooftops, a labyrinth of alleyways, chases and fights throughout the main streets and central squares. It's a blast!

Quote:
4: As a player, which dungeon archetype do you most often adventure in?
Presently, I'm trying to avoid getting sucked back into a World's Largest Dungeon game. As I said before, "I don' wanna go back in the dungeon!"

Quote:
4a Is that your favorite dungeon archetype? If not, which is?
It. Is. Not.
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Old 08-04-2010, 12:46 PM   #3
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Default Re: [DF] Location and dungeon type survey

Quote:
Originally Posted by tg_ambro View Post
1: As a GM, what terrain (Arctic, Desert, Island/Beach, Jungle, Mountain, Plains, Swampland, and Woodlands) do you most commonly set your DF adventures in and why?

1a: Is that your favorite type of terrain? If not, which is?
Wooded mountains in a sub-arctic climate, for a composite of reasons.

Mountains, or at least rocky badlands type hills, because you get a variety of bottlenecked locations, which are basically the definition of "dungeon". Fort in a mountain pass (either populated with friendlies and needs defense from monsters, or populated by monsters and needs clearing out) gives you constructed buildings to adventure in and around, caverns and caves and crevices and gorges and whatnot are plentiful and plausible, hills in the right climate can get you restricted by water, and climbing a cliff face has all the usual restrictions of dungeons (can't go right, there's a cliff there. Can't go left, there's a bottomless chasm there, can't go up or down because it's sheer and half the party are incompetent at climbing... And we just came from "back". FORWARD!) plus the ever present threat of the falling damage table to make MY life as GM interesting (cackle). 3d Terrain makes for nice fight areas too.

Forests in a sub-arctic zone because that's what I've grown up in and where my local players are most familiar. Also, sub-arctic gives you all kinds of interesting environmental hazards to deal with :D

Quote:
Originally Posted by tg_ambro View Post
2: As a GM, what dungeon achetype (Cave, Cellar, Labyrinth, Mine, Prison, Sewer, Tomb, ans Warren) do you most often use and why?
I have a bad tendency to wobble between cave, mine, tomb, and warren, but as noted I'm not sure where things like "fortress" or "treetop village" or the like fit in to your scheme, and they pop up too. I need to make more use of things like the cliff-face "dungeon" too.

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Originally Posted by tg_ambro View Post
2a: Is that your favorite dungeon archetype? If not, which is?
I don't have a favorite, I just have what I default to from lack of imagination.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tg_ambro View Post
3: As a player, what terrain do you most often adventure in?
Swampland or temperate forest it looks like. about 40/40 with the last 20% mountainous.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tg_ambro View Post
3a: Is that your favorite terrain? If not, which is?
Temperate forest is pretty damn convenient, even if the travel is a little slower than plains - plains leaves me feeling exposed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tg_ambro View Post
4: As a player, which dungeon archetype do you most often adventure in?

4a Is that your favorite dungeon archetype? If not, which is?
I honestly can't categorize.

One GM doesn't do "dungeons" regularly and doesn't follow much of a pattern with the dungeons we encounter

one GM mixes it up a bunch out of all of the above (plus fortress)

and the last GM I suspect is huffing pixie dust and ground up final fantasy games while working on his adventure plans so he rarely falls into any of the above. I would be forced to loosely describe his "typical" adventure setting as "abandoned urban-ish area, above ground", but that's not strict or precise by any sense. If there isn't at least one tower of glass, gigantic sandworm pit, or monstrous collosus rampaging around to stumble through, then that's because the airship is coming by to rescue us at any second from the tidal wave, disintegrating ground, or volcanic eruption.
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Old 08-04-2010, 02:05 PM   #4
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Default Re: [DF] Location and dungeon type survey

Quote:
Originally Posted by tg_ambro View Post
1: As a GM, what terrain (Arctic, Desert, Island/Beach, Jungle, Mountain, Plains, Swampland, and Woodlands) do you most commonly set your DF adventures in and why?

1a: Is that your favorite type of terrain? If not, which is?
With the exception of Arctic, I like em all. New environments mean new monsters and I like to keep the monsters as varried as possible. That and it helps the players who took survival(type) get thier money's worth for the points.

I dont have a favorite, but I like arctic the least of those. Now that I've written that, the idea of running a DF game similar to John Carpenter's The Thing is kind of appealing :)

Quote:
Originally Posted by tg_ambro View Post

2: As a GM, what dungeon achetype (Cave, Cellar, Labyrinth, Mine, Prison, Sewer, Tomb, ans Warren) do you most often use and why?

2a: Is that your favorite dungeon archetype? If not, which is?
I like things with smooth walls and hallways because its easier to map. We lay a clear piece of Plexiglass over our Battlemap and clean lines make for quick sketching. For that reason, I shy away from extended Cave.

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Old 08-04-2010, 02:18 PM   #5
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Default Re: [DF] Location and dungeon type survey

Quote:
Originally Posted by tg_ambro View Post
I have a few questions for my fellow forumites. While asked primarily out of curiousity, your answers will, of course, be put to my own nefarious ends, *Cue villainous laugh.*

The Questions:

1: As a GM, what terrain (Arctic, Desert, Island/Beach, Jungle, Mountain, Plains, Swampland, and Woodlands) do you most commonly set your DF adventures in and why?

1a: Is that your favorite type of terrain? If not, which is?
I like Mountain, Arctic and Woodlands. Mostly because it's exotic to me. I thus mostly use them.
Quote:
2: As a GM, what dungeon achetype (Cave, Cellar, Labyrinth, Mine, Prison, Sewer, Tomb, ans Warren) do you most often use and why?
Mostly Tomb. I just love undead monsters ;)
Quote:
2a: Is that your favorite dungeon archetype? If not, which is?
Yep, it is.
Quote:
3: As a player, what terrain do you most often adventure in?

3a: Is that your favorite terrain? If not, which is?

4: As a player, which dungeon archetype do you most often adventure in?

4a Is that your favorite dungeon archetype? If not, which is?
Unfortunately, I don't get to play enough :( so I can not answer these questions.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
Wooded mountains in a sub-arctic climate, for a composite of reasons.

Mountains, or at least rocky badlands type hills, because you get a variety of bottlenecked locations, which are basically the definition of "dungeon". Fort in a mountain pass (either populated with friendlies and needs defense from monsters, or populated by monsters and needs clearing out) gives you constructed buildings to adventure in and around, caverns and caves and crevices and gorges and whatnot are plentiful and plausible, hills in the right climate can get you restricted by water, and climbing a cliff face has all the usual restrictions of dungeons (can't go right, there's a cliff there. Can't go left, there's a bottomless chasm there, can't go up or down because it's sheer and half the party are incompetent at climbing... And we just came from "back". FORWARD!) plus the ever present threat of the falling damage table to make MY life as GM interesting (cackle). 3d Terrain makes for nice fight areas too.

Forests in a sub-arctic zone because that's what I've grown up in and where my local players are most familiar. Also, sub-arctic gives you all kinds of interesting environmental hazards to deal with :D.
Well, we share the opinion here, but in my case, it's because it's beautiful, and exotic instead of familiar ;)
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Old 08-04-2010, 07:56 PM   #6
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Default Re: [DF] Location and dungeon type survey

Great answers so far guys, I appreciate it!

For those who are curious, my own nefarious ends (Muhaha) will be adding some much needed variety to my usual mixture of "plains near woodlands" which leads into "An old fort built over a labyrinth" adventures I tend to run. The D&D adventure "The Sunless Citadel" seems to have made some
lastly impressions I'd like to shake.

Also, I would like to write a publishable DF adventure in the (mid) future, and if I find out that an Island/Warren combo was for some reason universally reviled, I would want to know that before I invested myself.
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