hackventures

[hackventures]

Dieter Rams Design Principles - for Dungeon Design

image source: Tales from the Yawning Portal, the Doomvault

Recently I came across Dieter Rams’ 10 principles for good design. Although his design rules were originally meant for timeless, user-friendly product/industrial design, I thought it would be interesting to apply this to designing D&D dungeons or levels!

1) Design should be innovative

Your dungeon should introduce something unique for the players. Perhaps this is some cool new combat situation, new puzzle, or new environment, just make it something the players haven’t encountered yet. If your dungeons use the same monsters and puzzles and settings the dungeon won’t be as memorable nor will the players feel challenged.

If you are publishing the dungeon, ensure there is something in it that no other dungeon has. Remember, you don’t have to stick to the rules as written. New magic and creatures will make the dungeon unique.

2) Design makes the dungeon useful

Always keep in mind the purpose of the dungeon. Why are the players there? Why must they subject themselves to danger? What is their goal? Beyond this, why is the dungeon used in the world? Most dungeons either have or used to have a purpose. Why was the dungeon originally built and how is it being used now?

3) Dungeon design should be aesthetic

A dungeon should look pleasing. Make rooms interesting and make the layout balanced. A dungeon with a boring appearance would have rooms that look too much like one another or are too convoluted, confusingly complex layout or too simplistic of a layout, with no objects inhabiting the rooms. Neither players nor DMs should be bored or overwhelmed by the appearance of a dungeon.

4) Design helps us understand a dungeon

The dungeon should be intuitive enough for players to extrapolate information from its design. Players should be able to make connections like “oh this must be a feasting hall” and “this looks like a gate house.” The dungeon’s design, its architecture, inhabiting objects, and other hints will clue the players in. The dungeon can also help players further understand the setting and game world as they investigate the history of the dungeon and speak to sentient inhabitants.

5) Design should be unobtrusive

It’s often said that good design is invisible. The dungeon shouldn’t look as if it’s been overly designed. This is often noticed when the “correct path” is hamfisted and all the other exits are completely not an option. The players shouldn’t feel completely railroaded through a dungeon, unable to choose their own path. The players shouldn’t feel as if the dungeon is too much of an enigma for them to comprehend, nor too abstract for regular travel.

6) Design should be honest

The dungeon is not unfair. Players should have adequate foreshadowing for traps. Players should be able to overcome just about any encounter. This doesn’t mean they need to all be of an appropriate challenge rating, but a difficult encounter should have some other way around it. A dungeon that is designed only to kill the players serves for both terrible storytelling and unfun gameplay. If players feel cheated, as if their agency has been stolen from them, that is dishonest dungeon design.

7) Dungeons should be durable

While yes, the dungeon should be structurally sound, durability is more about using a product over and over again. If you intend to publish a dungeon, be sure that the adventure is self-contained so it’s easy to add into any campaign. Also ensure the dungeon can still be fun if played through again. Riddles and plot twists should occur probably just once per dungeon since each becomes known after one playthrough.

8) Design is consequent to the last detail

Every detail you describe in your narrative or add to your dungeon should be added with purpose, no matter how small. Even something as small as dust informs players of two things: the area is old and has not been disturbed.

However, you don’t need to add details that do not inform the players or are not relevant. For instance, a book might show signs of its age and have information they need, but you don’t need to write the entirety of the book if the players only need one passage. Omit objects and details that cannot be used for either story or combat.

9) Design is concerned with the environment

The dungeon is affected by the world around it. Whether it is crumbling from time, settled by new creatures, inhabited by its original owners, spoken of in rumors, avoided by the villagers, or what have you.

On a more abstract level, the dungeon should also be concerned with the narrative environment. Should the dungeon be a sprawling megadungeon when the players just got out of one? Probably not. The rhythm and flow of the dungeon in the overarching story of the players should be considered.

10) Dungeons should have as little design as possible

Simplicity is stronger than designing every last detail. That’s not to say details shouldn’t exist, but those details should be meaningful. Simplicity means that players will be able to run through your dungeon more easily without spending hours being lost or stuck without knowing what to do. Overwhelmed with the unnecessary, they wrack their brains until they give up. You players should never want to stop playing. And trust me, even the most competent players will overthink the most simple puzzles, so you don’t need to try too hard.

Furthermore, an overabundance of design can come from trying to guide the players’ movement, actions, and decisions. Such design should be done subtly and infrequently or else it becomes obvious and intrusive; an insult to players’ intelligence and a consequence for pro-active exploration. Instead, such things should be rewarded. Only employ such design when players might potentially get confused to help subconsciously guide them.

[hackventures]

Shields And How They Work

One of the mechanics I roll out to new players to Hackmaster is the Shield mechanic. Like I mentioned in the last post, defense is as active as attack. You’re rolling and adding defensive bonuses.

The easiest thing to assume is that a shield increases your AC.

Well...yes and no.

Wearing a shield doesn’t make you harder to hit. In fact, you should be easier to hit now with your shield. Rather than moving out of the way, part of your defensive tactics is catching blows on your shield. Those certainly aren’t misses.

That’s where the advantage comes in: Damage Reduction.

We’ll talk armor later but for right now I’ll just mention that the benefit of ALL armor is damage reduction. Most armors make you easier to hit since you’re slower than someone stark naked.

So if you get hit on your armor you reduce an amount of damage. Catching the blow on your shield reduces even more.

And here’s where the mechanic gets fun:

Shields increase your defense bonus (unlike armor) because your body is harder to hit...it’s behind a little wall. But to represent you actively trying to catch blows on your shield, you now have this -10 window on your die roll.

For example:

I swing an attack and get a 14. You defend with a 15. Now without a shield you have successfully dodged my blow. But if you’re wielding a shield, there’s a window of 5-14 that’s still a successful *HIT*. You caught the blow on the shield and now I have to hit through your shield’s damage reduction AND your armor.

Now that means if I swing mightily I can still do some damage (or even break your shield but more on that later). And that makes sense. A brutal blow from a troll may still break your arm.

But now this post is TOO long and I’ve already dropped some more rules bread crumbs. Stay tuned. GAME ON, FOLKS

[hackventures]

The Virtue of Extra Mechanics

So Hackmaster’s a system that prides itself on granular, nuanced mechanics. Sure, we’ve got some abstraction (after all...unless we have a computer processor capable of simulating every detail of all levels of life we can’t physically work without abstract numbers) but for the most part many facets of a medieval life has a system to help it. For example: all defenses are active.

By active I mean to say you roll for it and with defenses, you take the time out of your busy gaming day to roll a d20, add your defense bonus, and react to an attack. In most systems this is an abstract constant representing a sum total of your armor, your dexterity, and luck all in one. In a fight, this is the number people need to hit.

But combat ISN’T like that. You’re never as fast or as armored or as lucky as you are in one moment versus another. So Hackmaster makes you roll for it. And if you roll poorly...joke’s on you.

There’s a realism to it. And though it might take some extra steps there’s MORE storytelling to it. Why did you defend so poorly? What maneuver did you perform to defend so well? As a GM, in any system, you ought to be asking your characters how they defend themselves. Otherwise it’s just a series of dice rolls against more dice rolls. And if you’re not using the extra mechanics to tell a better story why are you giving yourself more work like that?

I agree that storytelling is the high concept goal of all roleplaying systems. That’s why many roleplaying mechanics try to abstract outward to the mundane. But I find there’s a value in making the little things granular. I’m attacking you and you’re defending against it. And if one of us fails we can come up with a reason why rather than chalking it up to some arbitrary number.

We’ll talk more about these mechanics later but I think this is a semi-decent start.

GAME ON, FOLKS

[hackventures]

Starting Up

Hardcore, low-fantasy, medieval role-playing for the modern day. Let’s shine some light on this epic system.