SimpleDnDMapV2

     DnD is a game I have been playing for about three years now. I started out playing in one of my friends games just exited to see what all the fuss was about. Before long I decided to take on the challenge of being the dungeon master myself and before long had to map out my first dungeon. As you may expect as a beginner it didn't have much. Linear path through expect for 1 fork path #1 leading to a dead end (But some cool lore) and path #2 going to boss. But over time my experience grew and As I built more and more dungeons I started to grasp what made certain ones interesting and other mundane. While I still fall into easy pitfalls in my dungeon maps this experience all culminated into the classroom DnD map assignment. 

    THE DUNGEON

    Being a tutorial dungeon I setout wanting to make a mostly linear design with some nuggets of exploration here and there. Starting with a very bog standard room with 2 enemies that do not realize the players entering (if they say they are quite on approach) reason for this being I want to give the players an opportunity to think strategically right out of the gate. Giving option is one of the main things I feel is important to a game (especially dnd) there needs to be multiple ways to tackle any given situation else players will just mindlessly waltz through without a care. After this section it progresses into a room with semi Brocken walls with holes. In this room a snake starts attacking them through the walls. My main reason for this is it forces players to pay attention to the environment they are in. Watch your surroundings for anything that is present may be used against them, or they could use against their opponents. Following this encounter if the players investigate the room the find a far wall is also damaged. If a player attempts to destroy the wall it will break allowing to pass through the shortcut. If not the player will go around and upon landing on the the square a a fire trap is sprung. If a wizard had casted a light spell they may have seen the trap before but if not then they are out of luck. After this comes a simple lever that deactivates the former fire trap and activates another one further down the path. Hit the lever again and it deactivates. Simple lever mechanics. Then the players reach a rest point in which gives a HP potion (heal spell without negatives) a little reward for getting this far. then after a long dramatic hallway the players can choose left or right( Because choices make for fun tension increase). Left takes them to another encounter where if the players don't open the closed door and continue they will get flanked from behind. Another reminder to be mindful of the environment. However if the players take this path they will find yet another rest point along with an HP potion and a spike that looks like a glass breaker. Finally the players arrive at the boss room. This guy is all dramatic with a magic powered robotic construct phase. In which players get a free attack. The players can observe the room has 2 large mirrors on the south side and a balcony on the north. During the fight the boss will enter the mirrors and teleport to the balcony from which it will throw ranged attack. Players have the ability to break the mirrors if the went the left path doing so locks it from use. If the boss attempts to walk through a broken mirrors sister it will stun him for 1 turn. All in all this dungeons got twists turns different approaches while still being a stable linear experience. During playtesting most of the mechanics went as intended. Robosnake was a decent threat that made the players think more about positioning  and the secret pathway was discovered. However I feel the puzzle was a bit sub interesting. I didn't really lend to a Aha! moment more of an eh 'hits it again' forward I will improve this part. Maybe Ill also add a bit more flair to the dramatic hallway as well as it was less dramatic and more onward and upwards. Everything else in the dungeon worked to a decent degree however. Perhaps just spicing it up and refining the structure more would be my main goals.