Use "Door,Key 'n Passage" to improve Dungeon Crawl

Larienna,

I've not played or designed a dungeon crawler before, but SiskNY and I are collaborating on a game right now that sort of has some similarities.

I like the concept behind what you're proposing, but the execution could be difficult. The question always becomes "how does the dungeon KNOW what it contains, and where it can be found?" For example, the lock-and-key approach. You come to a door. It is locked. You must find the red key to open it. So, you go wandering around looking for the red key. How is that achieved? Well, maybe there's a deck of cards representing things you discover, and certain rooms have "discovery" icons that let you look at one of those cards. But in game terms, look what you're doing -- you're just wandering around aimlessly trying to parse the deck, and worse, what happens if the locked door is in such a position that you can't actually find a key without going through the door itself? And furthermore, how do you know you want to go through the door in the first place?

The idea of secret passages and hidden staircases and such is also interesting, but again, how do you achieve it? How do you look for a passage, and how does the game "know" that it's there (without it always being there in every game, which could kill replayability)? How does it know where you end up? How do you know you want to go there?

The problem of motivation seems, to me, to be hardwired into dungeon crawls. It's the same problem with monsters; why do you want to fight this monster in the first place? I suspect that most games give you the answer "to gain experience". I think that a lot of these games likely just have you bumping around in the dark, waiting for stuff to happen, but with no particular idea of where you're going or why, except to amass points.

Our game is an Indiana Jones themed game, and you are exploring a lost temple trying to find a single artifact (eg, the Holy Grail). But, the temple isn't randomly assembled; there is a solution key that tells you how the temple is laid out. You spend roughly the first 2/3 of the game outside the temple, gaining information about the temple, and the final 1/3 of the game racing through the temple trying to be the first to pass through the traps and acquire the artifact. We think that this is an interesting twist on the dungeon crawl concept because the temple has an actual pre-arranged structure to it, which you can know in advance, and around which you can base decisions, or at least guesses. It does have the limitation of needing a clue table, which is an extra component and which limits the replay somewhat compared to a randomly assembled temple. But the advantage is that it really becomes possible to have the things you're looking for -- strategically placed locked doors, traps, secret passages, etc.

I don't have any great ideas for how to achieve some of these effects in a randomly-assembled dungeon. One way to do secret passages might be to have cards that tell you two rooms that are linked, and once you find yourself in one of those rooms you can reveal the passage card and "skip ahead" to the other room.

To do a "puzzle", perhaps there are 4 cards, labeled red, green, yellow, and blue; these are shuffled and 3 of them are placed in a particular spot on the table. They represent the arrangement of three "key stones" to pass through "the great door" in the game. During the exploration of the dungeon, you can acquire key stones of these various colors, AND you can earn the right to look at these cards, to have some idea what to acquire. When you get to "the great door" in the dungeon, you first announce which stone will be your first stone, and then reveal the first "solution" card. If they match, you get to try the second stone; if not, your turn ends. This is basically how Dark Tower works, but perhaps it could work here. AND, something like this gives some rhyme and reason to the dungeon exploration, since the goal becomes "to make it through the great door".

Definitely an interesting topic, and I'll be interested to hear what people come up with to achieve these effects without a solution table or GM.

-Jeff

Temple of the Beastmen is a moderately entertaining but overpriced boardgame that does a nice job with the dungeon crawl concept.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/4273

Instead of the usual Tolkien/D&D ripoff, this game uses the Space: 1889 setting from GDW, so it's Victorian adventurers battling pulp era Martians. It's been a few years since the last time I played this game, but I recall that the entire underground complex consisted of 5 or 6 levels of a 3x3 tile grid. The center tile on each level is face-up for the entire game, representing a central ventilation shaft/spiral staircase. The other eight tiles are revealed as the players explore the complex.

This game does have potential for secret door situations. The orientation of the tiles is determined by an arrow pointing towards the central shaft. Inevitably in each game, at least a couple of tiles will end up with an open tunnel on one tile matching a blank wall on the adjacent tile. In that situation, the open side is easily passed through, but on the opposite side, it's considered a secret door, and the played needs a lucky die roll to notice it. Open passages pointing away from the complex are considered to be secret exits, useful for a hasty escape, especially at the end of the game.

Temple of the Beastmen is actually a neat game. It's a little heavy on the randomness, and often one or two players get off to a good start with some lucky discoveries, and then stay in the lead for the rest of the game. But the rules are clear, the discovery of new tiles is always fun, and the familiar theme has a distinct flavor. The card deck functions as a game timer, with the endgame beginning as the last card is drawn. And the beastmen get a combat bonus equal to the level of the complex where the combat occurs, making trips to the lower levels of the complex more scary.

I remember a "Star Wars" game that was out a while back...the concept was finding / locating "key cards" - the key cards each had a two numbers listed on the bottom. The game was themed in the Death Star (a dungeon crawl). The opponents were racing to get to the key cards (they were randomly placed on the board) to take them out of the game.

When the "hero" would get a card, dice could be rolled when the players reached the central location (hmm...docking bay). If the hero holding the key card rolled the EXACT numbers listed on the cards, the "key cards" worked. The idea was gathering enough of the key cards (each had different combinations of numbers) would ensure a good chance of rolling the desired combination.

Something like this (if not already mentioned) could work in a similar fashion (and with a random layout.) The key cards could represent keys that work in for every door, etc. You have a key, check to see if it works.

Naturally, the downside is that you would eventually have the hero standing at a door, waiting to "roll" the combination, which could drag it down. Counter that by saying each time the players attempt to open the door (and it fails) a monster is generated. So many monsters destroyed - another key card is granted to the players...something like that.

and like above, using the Gauntlet idea, once the key is used, it's used. Re-cycle the keys back into the game through the monster kills, etc.

Another console game I liked was called Lost Vikings. Each viking (there were 3) had 1 special power he could use. In order to advance to the next level, you had to figure out which viking's power was the correct one to use at any particular obstacle. You had to get all 3 vikings through the level too, so you couldn't just leave one behind - there was always a way to keep them together, if you figured it out.

Maybe someone should pursue that license for a cooperative board-game??

Rock 'n Roll Racing and Blackthorne were made by Blizzard. Good games too. :)