Empty Rooms Should be Just That and the 5 Room Dungeon
Just a quick explanation of an OSR dungeon design principle for those unfamiliar. This is maybe not a well-touted idea, but I've been brewing on this idea lately. Of course, this is all centered around how I want to play, run... etc... Take with coarse grained salt if you think your goals are different.
If you've got a dungeon, you should have some empty rooms that don't.... do anything. As in, there is nothing 'to do' in the room.
I have been brewing this idea based on what Luke Gearing said in his interview on the "Into the Megadungeon" podcast. I'll just rehash what Luke conveyed in my listening:
- Empty rooms provide a place to rest (my words)
- Empty rooms give space to a dungeon so that you don't die at every turn
- Empty rooms are tactically important for managing encounters, especially in conjunction with loops
Luke gave an easy example of how to utilize empty rooms: You pass through some empty rooms, and eventually encounter a big room with a big dragon. You bait the dragon into chasing you back through the empty rooms, which you know are safe, and use the loop to run around and kill it from behind. Very fun to plan, run, and even tell about.
A couple of oft-heard caveats that I think don't hold water:
- "Empty rooms should have lore nuggets/interesting description" a dungeoncrawl is not really about narrative experience. It's about resource management, and empty rooms provide a resource (safety). Or at least that's how I want to play a dungeon.
- "Empty rooms are boring" Yeah, that's the point. If every room is an encounter, you end up just pounding a pattern of "new room, new problem" in a way that doesn't give any 'room' for exploration without expectations.
- "Empty rooms should have something (e.g. an item) for the party," eh. the safety is already enough of a resource. This also creates expectation of either monster or reward in every room.
This brings me to the 5 room dungeon. For those unfamiliar, this is the idea that 5 rooms is enough for a dungeon. I disagree, my main complaint being there's not enough empty space.
In many 5 room dungeons I read, there is 'something' in every room. I think this creates a monotony and pretty well-justified expectation that every room has a unique encounter. This makes exploration boring, borderline not exploration. You open a door and just about know there will be A Thing. It becomes the dungeon designer having to one up themselves, because either the few encounters are majority too hard, or not hard enough. This prevents impactful exploration.
A 5 room dungeon also lacks the space to have manipulable layout. You have maybe two loops? This also is compounded by the lack of empty space. You have loops that can't be utilized if you have a full-to-the-brim dungeon. Thus any sort of dungeon layout clever play is out the window.
If you need just a cave with a single lair, 5 rooms is ok. If it ends up being one big room/encounter, that's ok I guess. I just think it's hard to have a dungeon-central game if you don't have that much dungeon. There just isn't the physical space for OSR play beyond 'lethality' and 'exploration.' No resource management, no gambling on secure spaces... things I like in OSR.
I feel completely the same and its validating to read your criticisms of certain oft-repeated advice. In reality, most of the time these ancient spaces are completely empty, leaving the origins of the room a baffling mystery. That speaks to the weirdness and ancientness of a place. It's tempting to over-design out of worry that your players will find this empty space boring. But once they realize they can move about without the dungeon exploding at them like a pop-gun constantly, and telegraphing will show the way. The resource management aspect of the game can really shine.
ReplyDeleteThese interstitial spaces where your'e burning resources in the oppressive silence of the labyrinth, encourage movement, and yeah, massively reinforce the logic of multiple factions in conflict. They provide rooms, or strategically defensible complexes of rooms, for players to establish strongholds within the dungeon if necessary, to stash and trap their own loot until it's time to skiddaddle, whatever.
The main thing for me is movement. You're going in. You're not a few turns from the entrance, you've been in here for an hour before you come upon anything interesting, forcing open doors, hoping something didn't hear from afar. The ever-present tension of the wandering monster. Going down into the abyss is a commitment. It makes dungeoneering expeditionary and long form. Suddenly rations matter in there much more, water source. There's a spelunking atmosphere that is otherwise flattened.
I'll add that environmental challenges and mapping also become vital. Details become landmarks. A weird shaped room can orient the players, whatever. Just moving about through tight squeezes, belaying down into chasms, crossing narrow bridges through open spaces, simply not getting lost, become a vital part of the challenge.
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