Thanks for the advice. It's aligns nicely with some of the ideas I've been pondering.
The encounter bandolier is something that already occured. I envisaged it as two circles at either end of a page, one representing the entrance and its gatekeeper and the other the final confrontation (escape, defeating the nameless evil or whatever other goal might be in play). Between the two are a cluster of other circles, each representing an encounter of a set difficulty that occurs within an environmentally distinct portion of the dungeon - the forgotten tombs, the gaol, the great bridge and so on. As the characters progress from circle to circle the narrator joins the cluster together using the pass/fail arrow notation, allowing it to guide him to the next appropriate challenge. Simply put the map adapts itself to story demands rather than existing as a preset configuration.
On the horror angle: I've always prefrreed dungeons as Underworlds over subterranean military installations. Whatever I end up writing will emphasise the sense of gnawing dread that attends would likely such an experience. I'm using the anglo-american horror 'The Descent' as toal inspiration for some of it, shored up with the grandiose, echoing dereliction of Moria.
I also think you raise an important point on establishing goals within the environment. It's something I'll return to later.
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> --- In HeroQuest-RPG_at_yahoogroups.com, "Jeff" <richaje@> wrote:
> > Funny this should be coming up - we are working on a dungeon crawl for HQ2 in the Sartar Companion.<
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> Some things we have been talking about to help you.
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> The pass/fail cycle is definitely one way to handle this. have a bandolier filled with encounters of varying types (obviously that make sense for the story) and then throw new 'encounters' of appropriate difficulty at the players as the pass/fail cycle prompts. A map is not really important, what is important is using the setting during those encounters i.e. narrow squeezes, the dusty ancient tomb, chasms, crumbling bridges. Those 'features' provide credibility test obstacles for abilities or 'furniture' for narration during contests.
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> Second, look to horror over action movies for better story here. We have been too influenced by D&D and first person shooters, to think of dungeons in terms of ebbing hit points, lowering magic points, and balancing that power ups, magical items etc. Going back to the source it is usually a lot more about penetrating an 'alien' realm where you are not in charge, but desperately trying to stat alive long enough to rescue the hostages before they are sacrificed, find the magic item that will save the village etc. In many cases the dungeon is seen as overwhelming - there is no hope of beating it, only surviving it.
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> So you definitely want to throw Hard and Very Hard encounters at the heroes to keep them on the back foot, and their objectives should be more about 'finding a path' than 'clearing out the dungeon'.
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> One thing I'm intrigued by here is to what extent the pass/fail cycle is different for horror over action i.e. in the rising action on you get a lot more tough encounters but in the climax you get easier encounters.
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