Dungeons & Dark Souls

Or: "How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Delve"

So a while back I had an idea...

I’ve been struck by an idea, recently.

A D&D game where players are piecing together the lore of what happened in a ruined world by examining its artifacts- a la SoulsBorne games.

— Steven "Is there a God Of Just SOME Cats?" Lumpkin (@Silent0siris) March 2, 2018

You’re some kind of Planar Affiliate delving into ruined pocket planes to figure out what the hell happened there! Most people are dead, and the ones who are alive all have an agenda- but artifacts carry the imprint of their truth upon them, and your librarian can read it.

— Steven "Is there a God Of Just SOME Cats?" Lumpkin (@Silent0siris) March 2, 2018

I'm imagining heavy use of a virtual tabletop directly AS a library space / lore puzzle space.

Lore cards with information about the artifacts you've had. You can move them around, restructure the tabletop... Probably there's no "right answer" that's rewarded!

— Steven "Is there a God Of Just SOME Cats?" Lumpkin (@Silent0siris) March 2, 2018

So that was all interesting, but that was maybe an entirely separate RPG.  But the other part I was really interested in pushing on is 5th Edition's concept of "the adventuring day"- especially the Dungeon Master's Guide's assertion that a party of 4 should be fighting between six and eight medium to hard encounters before needing a long rest.  This assertion has always surprised me, from the beginning, and I don't think I've EVER run a game of 5th that actually hit that marker- my players have always elected to take a long rest early.

So... what if there was a game that was set up explicitly to push against that daily limit?

Read on.

Just blew this thing wide open.

Works well with 5e: insert into mega dungeon, get as far as you can, trying to grab your reward. Extract at any time, must extract to take a long rest; dungeon resets once you extract.

Intricate, thoroughly jaquayed layout, plus tons of secrets.

— Steven "Is there a God Of Just SOME Cats?" Lumpkin (@Silent0siris) March 2, 2018

Compatible with West Marches style drop in drop out play- each session is a self contained delve, trying to see how far you can get with your current group in the communally shared mega dungeon.

— Steven "Is there a God Of Just SOME Cats?" Lumpkin (@Silent0siris) March 2, 2018

(Jacquayed, a term paying homage to Jennell Jacquays, author of Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia, meaning to build a convoluted layout with multiple entrances, many interconnecting paths, and many connections between levels- offering players much in the way of choice for how they move through the dungeon space)

Another weird thing that comes out in traditional megadungeon play: My character went to the left, and got blown up by a fireball trap and died.  My new character steps into the dungeon and immediately says "DON'T GO LEFT."

Surely we could look to Dark Souls for some inspiration in how to solve that particular bit of weirdness.

As all game design should be done to solve a problem, let's talk about the problems we're trying to solve:

• How do we push players to continue adventuring to their point of failure?  How do we hit the 8-encounters-per-day limit?
• How do we solve the mental disconnect where characters die, but players retain knowledge of the dungeon from that death?
• How do we give players the ability to make informed choices when exploring a sprawling labyrinthine megadungeon?  How do they decide whether to go left (and maybe get blown up by a fireball?) or go right (and maybe fight some goblins)?

And some answers:

• How do we push players to continue adventuring to their point of failure?  How do we hit the 8-encounters-per-day limit?
• Force players to leave the dungeon to take a long rest.  Encourage players to push as far as they can by adding consequence to resting without reaching a checkpoint- in this case, by making encounters respawn on a long rest.  As a carrot- the objective drawing players forwards- players can reach various checkpoints.  Either a shortcut, allowing them to bypass some encounters, or a new entry point, that lets players enter the dungeon beyond content they've already mastered.
• How do we solve the mental disconnect where characters die, but players retain knowledge of the dungeon from that death?
• Losing a character isn't necessary for "death" to be impactful!  If the players are attempting to push through a certain number of encounters in order to hit a checkpoint, then if a death makes the team weaker overall, it's still something to be avoided.  There's no need to fictionally remove a character who dies!  Effectively, as in Dark Souls, player characters are immortal.
• How do we give players the ability to make informed choices when exploring a sprawling labyrinthine megadungeon?  How do they decide whether to go left (and maybe get blown up by a fireball?) or go right (and maybe fight some goblins)?
• If characters don't truly die, then players are free to learn by trial and error.  They went left and got blown up by a fire trap?  That's fine- they can come back later after they find the stash of fire-resist potions on level 3.  In that way, by running into the problems of the dungeon, players learn to make intelligent and informed choices about how to move through the space in order to accomplish their goals in play.

So what does this turn out to look like in practice?

Game prep game prep pic.twitter.com/jVHNJQbowu

— Steven "Is there a God Of Just SOME Cats?" Lumpkin (@Silent0siris) March 23, 2018

In summary, the rules I'm using at the table look like:

• After combat, a surviving PC can take 5 minutes and spend one use of a healer's kit to restore a dead character to life with 1 hit point.  This resuscitation inflicts 1 level of Exhaustion on the resuscitated character.
• If the party wipes, everyone wakes up in the infirmary outside of The Delve, having fully recovered.
• You may extract from The Delve at any time.
• In order to take a long rest, you must extract from The Delve.
• Every time you enter The Delve, the dungeon is reset.

The emphasis in a dungeon of this style is in seeing how far players can stretch their limited resources before they begin tapping out.

As a short term goal, the dungeon is riddled with secrets- hidden treasure, secret doors, tricks, twists, and traps.  In every play session, players should be able to find something new; perhaps even something new in an area they've already been through... maybe even an area they've been through multiple times.

As a mid term goal, the dungeon is built to be thoroughly complex, with many shortcuts to find and unlock- these don't reset when the players re-enter, so if they open a shortcut on one run, they can use it on a future run.  All of a sudden, when it used to take 5 encounters to reach the Fountain of Crystal Seeing, now that you've opened the portcullis, it only takes 1.

As a long term goal, the dungeon contains multiple insertion points.  Exploring and fighting all the way to a secondary insertion point and unlocking it on discovery means players can then choose where they start from when they enter the dungeon.

As a metagame goal, the dungeon contains hidden information that subtly hints at a story.  Careful examination of the environment and items found may start revealing clues that sharp players can piece together.


So I started building it.

I had my first session on Sunday, which is the subject for another post- but suffice it to say it was a great success, and now my mind is buzzing with more ideas.

I can't wait to tell you more about them.