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[thread] One issue I have with dungeons designed for play with miniatures is that the rooms tend to get too big for my taste. The dungeon loses its claustrophobic properties, instead becoming more of a battlefield with fantastic features. #DnD
The main reason for this is that if you wish to design fun “tactical” encounters, you tend to need space for pawns to move around in order to keep it interesting from a gameplay perspective. Thus you will need to create large encounter areas in your dungeon.
Movement is one of three vital components of tactical combat (the others being firepower and protection). If you play with miniatures, moving these pawns around is part of the game. If there are few options for movement the game suffers from it.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with playing like this. I love a good skirmish game as much as anyone, but in recent years I’ve started to lean more towards claustrophobic exploration of horrible underground environments when running D&D.
Nowadays I focus less on miniatures than I used to. I like to keep them on the table to indicate marching order, and sometimes just to roughly clarify where player characters and monsters are positioned in relation to each other, but that’s pretty much it.
Combat certainly occurs, but it’s a fast, chaotic and bloody affair. It’s over in seconds, often with catastrophic consequences. There’s usually little space or time for thinking about clever moves and positioning miniatures. Find a chokepoint. Kill or die. Fast.
There’s still room for tactics in such a playstyle, but the big choices are made before the encounter rather than during it. In a game without miniatures and challenge rating “if” we fight is more important than “how” we fight. Preparation as much as execution.
Considering the above is how I design my dungeons. To me it’s more important to provide a dreadful exploration than a series of tactical encounters. Winding corridors and small, dark chambers. Again: claustrophobia is a dungeoneering keyword.
When I do design larger rooms in the dungeon it’s a different creative decision than providing a suitable battleground. I do it to break monotony, indicate significance or to inspire awe.
Again; I’m not advocating for or against designing for miniature play. But good dungeons design is about making creative decisions, and even more important; understanding why you make them and how it will affect your game. [/thread]
