Dungeon Design Tips: Build Challenges Around Your Table's Abilities

It's the first session after your last level up, and you as the Game Master know your evoker just picked up fireball. They're excited as hell to use it... so at some point in the next combat, there's a moment where enemies are clustered together in perfect formation for an explosion to wreck havoc. Or maybe the barbarian just got this really handy ability that lets them get extra damage on enemies bigger than they are... and wouldn't you know it, the enemies drag out an ogre because they think it will help win the day!

Some people might call this patronizing your players. However, it's a good idea to throw them bones every now and again, and to actually understand what this represents for your game, and the give-and-take between you and your players.

So you took the fighting style for dragons? Well, how convenient...

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Make Sure They Can Actually Accomplish The Goals

A criticism I once heard for the video game System Shock 2 was that it presented itself as a full freedom RPG where you could build whatever character you wanted, but when you got to the latter parts of the game you had to be able to overcome very particular challenges. And if you didn't build a character with the requisite skills to do those very specific things, well, sucks to suck, guess you have to go back to the beginning and try again!

And while I'd argue that's bad design, I see how it happens with a video game, or even a premade campaign. Designers need to provide challenge, but they also have to take a stab in the dark, guessing what players are most likely to do, and to bring to the table. However, with a pen-and-paper RPG, the GM has all the power in the world to alter challenges to actually fit the characters who are across the table from them. And that's exactly what they should do.

Note that I said "fit" the characters. Not change the game to make it easy for them, or to change it to make it harder for them, but to specifically do something to fit the game, its themes, and the challenges, to the party that's actually in front of you.

Could I, perhaps, make a Diplomacy check or two?

Consider for a moment a dungeon that has a number of traps in it, but the party does not have anyone with the ability to actually disarm traps. Well, one solution to this is to change the nature of the traps so that it better suits the story you're actually telling. For instance, instead of a rending scythe, are there traps that try to lower a portcullis, turning them into a test of strength for the barbarian to hoist, holding the path open until the others can get through? Does a room slowly fill with water, allowing the amphibious character to hunt for the off-switch with relative ease? Or do you remove traps as a meaningful obstacle, and replace them with something your players do have the capacity to deal with?

For instance, are there doors blocking the path that require the knowledge of a certain song? Is there a maze that could be solved by someone with a ranger's unique tracking and survival skills? Or are there inhabitants of this dungeon who could be persuaded to help players walk past particular traps with the right social skill checks (and perhaps a bribe or two)?

In the original setup, the party did not bring a rogue (or just a character capable of dealing with traps). As such, the traps become significantly bigger obstacles, usually just resulting in them being a random hazard that's going to suck out resources, and feel like a punishment. "Because you came here without a trap finder, now you're just going to get hit over the head with traps." And while that might be fair according to the rules, it quickly gets boring for players, who just feel like they're being punished because they built a different character than this game was designed for.

Provide Them Opportunity, Not Success

To reiterate what I said above, you want to provide your players the opportunity to actually use their characters' skills and abilities, instead of giving them deliberately mismatched challenges they don't have the ability to deal with. Much like how if you know you have a sorcerer who specializes in fire spells, it's kind of a dick move to make all the monsters they have to fight immune to fire (or so resistant to it that they might as well be).

And you don't have to change every, single challenge in your game to suit the talents of the characters present. However, it is helpful to make sure there are multiple ways to progress forward so that you don't get to a certain point and realize you have built a challenge that your party cannot hope to actually overcome. I actually talked about this a while back on Discussions of Darkness, and GMs who don't watch that show should head over the the Azukail Games YouTube channel and at least check out Episode 6, The 3 Solutions Strategy For Storytellers.

In short, ask if there are multiple paths to success, and if the characters at your table are capable of participating. You don't want to just hand your players success; you want to hand them the ability for their character to participate in a meaningful way.

Maybe that means you allow a trial-by-combat to impress the duke the party is supposed to get close to when no one has a really high Charisma, but there are some serious bruisers in the party. Maybe that means you have the big bag's encampment guarded by deadly wargs so the druid can get some use out of their animal empathy. Perhaps there's a black market way to get spell components in prison so the wizard has the ability to participate in the upcoming jail break. Or maybe it means that you line up a bunch of enemies in a single fight so that you can give one of your players the chance to let loose with lightning bolt so they feel like they made a good decision on their spell choice.

Your players should still have to make smart, strategic decisions. They should have to expend resources. There should still be a chance that they fail. But they shouldn't be making their checks with one hand tied behind their backs because they didn't guess what skills and abilities would be most necessary for overcoming the challenges you were planning on using!

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