This is purely hypothetical, just for fun. In this scenario, you don’t get to know who the GM is in advance, but they do have to run it as written. The players can leave whenever they like, but the GM has to stay until either all players leave or the players beat the dungeon.

  • djnattyp@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    On the map of the level, pick a room near the center of the dungeon (as long as it’s not where players enter) and label it as “1”, circle this rooms in a random order, labeling them 2, 3, 4, etc., making sure rooms that have connections don’t have consecutive numers… keep circling outwards until all rooms have numbers. Then put the rooms in numerical order in the GM module book. Only refer to the room number on the map and the heading of the room. Don’t use the room number to reference exits from the current room either, just state things like “a cave exit is to the east and a wooden door is in the north wall”.

    The DM will constantly have to refer back and forth from the map to the book - and have to flip to random parts of the book since the numbers aren’t “in order”.

    For additional hate, make sure that north doesn’t point toward the top of the map, and/or don’t place a compass rose on the map.

    For even more additional hate, make the players hunt down opponents/creatures in the dungeon that also move through the dungeon as the players move rooms.

    • Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      Make sure that any “when any player first enters this room, [x] triggers” is at the veeeeeery last part of the room description, after the DM has already read the description to the players and the players have already started planning what they want to do in said room.

  • RagnarokOnline@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    The BBEG is located at the center of the dungeon. Each sealed room of the dungeon is guarded by a magic djinn which will only open the next room if certain fetch quest items are collected. All of the required items are located in the dungeon, but require the PCs to traverse trapped rooms to get them (you now how PCs just love dealing with traps).

    There are 100 sealed rooms to get to the center of the dungeon. Players can take a long rest after each room.

  • 𝕸𝔞𝔩𝔦𝔫@dice.camp
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    1 year ago

    @Susaga Every room references another room, by number. No page numbers or other references.

    No statblocks. Just look up the statblocks in the Monster Manual, this splatbook for Druids, and an online PDF, available for free after signing up.

  • Boz (he/him)@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    I start by making a map. I am terrible at making maps. I try to improve my map by using a transparent quilting ruler, defining a scale, and carefully noting the measurements of all the rooms. I somehow manage to change my scale several times during this process, write down the wrong measurements, and get confused about which lines are which on my quilting ruler. Complicating matters, my quilting ruler is big and heavy, and slips around on the page. (Naturally, I don’t notice).

    Since my dungeon has multiple levels, I am very careful to include staircases, which, since none of the floors are the same size and shape, don’t actually join up from level to level. I notice that everything looks a little sloppy, so I go over it in pen, and erase the pencil lines. This makes it look nicer. It also destroys any last traces of geometric plausibility.

    When I’m finished, my Escher-esque monstrosity is so impossible to navigate that it doesn’t even need monsters. The entire party will just get sucked into the treacherous anti-grid of the map itself, and never be seen again. If the GM asks me to explain the map so they can extract the players, I will be unable to do so, since I have a terrible memory, and can’t read my own handwriting.

    • Susaga@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      1 year ago

      This is magnificently evil. It’s also extremely specific, to the point I’m worried this happened in your life.