This video was actually hugely helpful for me! I am partway through a metroidvania-inspired DnD campaign rn, and the party just arrived at the big main dungeon - a crashed spaceship from the future. I used the hubs-and-spokes approach to design the map in a way to enhance exploration: A huge central hall, that gives glints of what's ahead in each direction, with hurdles in each way, and reasons to visit each. And then some smaller points of interest in each area that get unlocked via buttons and items from other parts of the ship. The first session in the ship was already a blast, and I'm looking forward to more.
yo that archmages tower idea is dope! I am so glad you linked it! It would break the theme of your videos so far but I'd love an in depth video on just that tower!
Hi, I'm really impressed by how polished this video and the others on your channel are. Great tips to make use of, too! Can't wait for more I'm sure you got a bunch of video ideas lined up already, but your FPS maps video makes me very curious about other competitive PvP concepts that could translate well into the mostly-PvE D&D
I reaaaally want to find a good excuse to talk about fighting games since that's what my background is in (I've been playing Smash Bros competitively since 2008, and made my own fighting game back in the day called Rock Paper Scissors 2), but so far, no luck, it's really hard to find anything I would say is a good idea to bring over to D&D. By their nature, these games have a gameplay that, in D&D, we would probably describe as "adversarial"
@Trekiros could do something about tempo/timing Not sure if this would be in a strictly combat scenario Just thinking of spacing a timing in the old street fighter, or like guilty gear
That tower dungeon sounds so cool! Definitely going to try something like that. I hope you dont mind recommending a different channel, but Game Maker's Toolkit here on RUclips had an entire series on Zelda dungeon design that might also be worth taking a look at.
This is incredible, and has given me a lot of inspiration for a city campaign I'm planning as a first-time DM (I've bitten off way more than I can chew, but that's what you do I guess when you want to get into DnD and none of your friends want to DM). I had already designed my city around a central hub, with neighborhoods spreading out around it sort of like a wheel, but was having trouble figuring out how to balance lots of adventure hook ideas I have and a larger campaign arc, while also trying to leave lots of freedom to my players. Having this story hub/central puzzle correspond with the geographical hub, and each neighborhood match up with mini puzzles that give keys to the central puzzle I think will allow me to run a bunch of seemingly unrelated (at first) adventures that can then connect to a larger arc. As each neighborhood or district is "unlocked", the PCs can get info or an item that hints at the larger picture going on in the city. My players can have a lot of freedom to explore any plot hooks/neighborhoods/adventure genres at their own whim and while I naturally weave them into a larger plot. At least that's the idea lol....In all likelihood the PCs will decide to leave the city and run for the hills despite my prep and pitch that this is an urban campaign haha edit: also, LOVE your channel and work on your website. Everything I've seen has been super helpful!
Loving the videos so far. It has become increasingly clear to me that DnD is designed as a dungeon crawler first, and that a lot of the issues people have are from either trying to play the game as some other sort of game, or from attempts to add features to the game that are aimed at other types of game leading to conflict with the dungeon crawling aspect of the game. For example, this video reminds me that DnD dungeons are supposed to be large multiday events. Getting all your resources back after a long rest undercuts the multiday resource management aspect of that type of journey. The removal of the multiday aspect leads to smaller maps and more narrative focus. But it also leads to expecting combat to be more deadly, which I realized when I warched your video on fixing the CR ratings. The easy, medium, hard and deadly encounter labels show that the game is designed to have many easy encounters whittling away at player resources. That leads to combat feeling off, and homebrew rules such as taking a bonus action to drink a potion. Because the standard D&D potions kinda such as in-combat healing items, but are much more important if your players have to go several weeks without access to proper healing. I'm not actually sure how older editions handled long rests, I'll need to look into that next.
A quick google search says that hit dice recover at 1/2 levels worth per long rear in 5e(?), which is something I think most people miss (I did), and 3.5 used levels worth of HP regained in a long rest. Both of these provide stakes for extended trips, though to different degrees.
This is some great stuff! I'm tempted to join your server to discuss map ideas. Have you considered making a video about D&D boss encounters specifically? It seems like a video you'd have an easy time making. When I DM I am more interested in being able to tell the story, and while I don't want to railroad my players, I really don't want them to just shut down the boss before there has been time to roleplay and talk, to find out the plan of the villain and such. Beyond that, I'm sure you've got good insights into how D&D boss encounters could be improved.
I think your channel would benefit greatly from a video on 1) destructible /tactical environmental items and setup (ala Divinity and it’s exploding barrels or pools of water players can shock or turn to most to hide, bait and retreat to an entrenched position where they are disadvantaged etc) and 2) encouraging intel gathering and methodical “puzzling” of mechanics before “initiative” (WoW/Splinter Cell/Hitman: can you pull the patrols without alerting other enemies and dispatch them so as not to fight them all at once, or how blueprints in empty room A tell you a way to shutdown major threat in adjoining room C that may need to send someone to “investigate” before charging the boss room). In this way it encourages non-linear or “maze-logic” gameplay but instead some back and forth and meandering and interaction to remove as many threats as possible before moving into the center room with the BBEG. This is not done enough in D&D currently and we see it employed in many other areas very well. Just a thought. Great stuff so far! Got my sub
Thanks for the great video, Trek! I will be testing the tower on unsuspecting players, and will let you know how it went! Also, this video made me curious in how to implement this dungeon designs in one-shot adventures. I play and GM on a one-shot guild server, and sadly it mostly lends itself to short and quick dungeons that have little room for extended puzzles. Anyway, I will be tweaking and testing what I learned here to adapt it to my situation. Thanks again for such a cool video! See you in the next one!
Well I'm kinda surprised you didn't mention that in the previous vid as both Doom and Wolfenstein were actually famous for having level designs very reminiscent of RPG games' dungeons
I didn't feel like I could competently talk about Jaquays-style dungeons like Caverns of Thracia, because I wasn't exactly born at the time of their publication and have no first-hand experience of them. They're pretty interesting for sure, but I'm leaving that topic for people who've been around longer than I have.
@@Trekiros Well, both collections of classic Doom games and Quake games (that followed pretty much the same formula but in real 3D), but there are so much more games that followed this dungeon-like map design for solo champings outside of ID software portfolio, pretty much majority of early FPS games (back when they were called Doom clones) and heaven early CoD titles before they went for more linear and scripted solo champings for "cinematic" experience, and honestly there are even more recent examples of games following this formula but expanding on it like Dishonored series, or even modern reboots of Doom and Wolfenstein do follow this old dungeon-like formula for their stages
My players are just about to enter the tower of a missing archmage, and I stumble upon this video. Thank you so much for this amazing video and for the free resources !
Great video! My biggest takeaway (aside from creating eye-candy hubs that act as puzzle elements) is that now I really want to run your tower dungeon! Do you have a mini-module for sale that describes it?
Not for sale, the closest I have is that there's basically a human-readable version of my DM notes in the video description for free I don't really use modules, which makes me really, really bad at writing them, unfortunately :p
7:08 Wait wait wait. The portholes are closed so you travel to the present, open them, then travel back to the past and go through them? How does that work? Surely opening them in the present doesn't also open them in the past. It's in the past. o_O
I'm sorry, but I'm a bit hard of hearing, and the audio is a bit muffled... any chance you could add subtitles to this video? I can only make out about 50% of what you're saying... the auto-generated subtitles kinda suck.
*After 6 minutes all i could hear was the 12 second Music Loop in the background.* Please never use that music again and never use that short music loop again. You have some good ideas here but damn I can't even finish the video because of the music loop.
This video was actually hugely helpful for me! I am partway through a metroidvania-inspired DnD campaign rn, and the party just arrived at the big main dungeon - a crashed spaceship from the future. I used the hubs-and-spokes approach to design the map in a way to enhance exploration: A huge central hall, that gives glints of what's ahead in each direction, with hurdles in each way, and reasons to visit each. And then some smaller points of interest in each area that get unlocked via buttons and items from other parts of the ship. The first session in the ship was already a blast, and I'm looking forward to more.
I'm always amazed at how quickly and concisely you get to the point. Fantastic analysis every time!
yo that archmages tower idea is dope! I am so glad you linked it! It would break the theme of your videos so far but I'd love an in depth video on just that tower!
Hi, I'm really impressed by how polished this video and the others on your channel are. Great tips to make use of, too! Can't wait for more
I'm sure you got a bunch of video ideas lined up already, but your FPS maps video makes me very curious about other competitive PvP concepts that could translate well into the mostly-PvE D&D
I reaaaally want to find a good excuse to talk about fighting games since that's what my background is in (I've been playing Smash Bros competitively since 2008, and made my own fighting game back in the day called Rock Paper Scissors 2), but so far, no luck, it's really hard to find anything I would say is a good idea to bring over to D&D.
By their nature, these games have a gameplay that, in D&D, we would probably describe as "adversarial"
@@Trekiros
100% would still watch it
@Trekiros could do something about tempo/timing
Not sure if this would be in a strictly combat scenario
Just thinking of spacing a timing in the old street fighter, or like guilty gear
God damn that's really interesting, subbed
That tower dungeon sounds so cool! Definitely going to try something like that.
I hope you dont mind recommending a different channel, but Game Maker's Toolkit here on RUclips had an entire series on Zelda dungeon design that might also be worth taking a look at.
This is incredible, and has given me a lot of inspiration for a city campaign I'm planning as a first-time DM (I've bitten off way more than I can chew, but that's what you do I guess when you want to get into DnD and none of your friends want to DM).
I had already designed my city around a central hub, with neighborhoods spreading out around it sort of like a wheel, but was having trouble figuring out how to balance lots of adventure hook ideas I have and a larger campaign arc, while also trying to leave lots of freedom to my players. Having this story hub/central puzzle correspond with the geographical hub, and each neighborhood match up with mini puzzles that give keys to the central puzzle I think will allow me to run a bunch of seemingly unrelated (at first) adventures that can then connect to a larger arc. As each neighborhood or district is "unlocked", the PCs can get info or an item that hints at the larger picture going on in the city. My players can have a lot of freedom to explore any plot hooks/neighborhoods/adventure genres at their own whim and while I naturally weave them into a larger plot.
At least that's the idea lol....In all likelihood the PCs will decide to leave the city and run for the hills despite my prep and pitch that this is an urban campaign haha
edit: also, LOVE your channel and work on your website. Everything I've seen has been super helpful!
my boy needs way more subs fr fr
Okay, this is a really cool video throughout each section, and some amazing resources.
Thank you!
Loving the videos so far.
It has become increasingly clear to me that DnD is designed as a dungeon crawler first, and that a lot of the issues people have are from either trying to play the game as some other sort of game, or from attempts to add features to the game that are aimed at other types of game leading to conflict with the dungeon crawling aspect of the game.
For example, this video reminds me that DnD dungeons are supposed to be large multiday events. Getting all your resources back after a long rest undercuts the multiday resource management aspect of that type of journey.
The removal of the multiday aspect leads to smaller maps and more narrative focus. But it also leads to expecting combat to be more deadly, which I realized when I warched your video on fixing the CR ratings. The easy, medium, hard and deadly encounter labels show that the game is designed to have many easy encounters whittling away at player resources.
That leads to combat feeling off, and homebrew rules such as taking a bonus action to drink a potion. Because the standard D&D potions kinda such as in-combat healing items, but are much more important if your players have to go several weeks without access to proper healing.
I'm not actually sure how older editions handled long rests, I'll need to look into that next.
A quick google search says that hit dice recover at 1/2 levels worth per long rear in 5e(?), which is something I think most people miss (I did), and 3.5 used levels worth of HP regained in a long rest.
Both of these provide stakes for extended trips, though to different degrees.
Mighty algorithm, please bless this legally distinct floating eyeball monster with page views and effective search engine optimization. Amen.
You have blown my mind again and taught me I should try again to play some of these games.
I would love more of these TTRPG design videos that don't focus on D&D. I've never DMed D&D, but I love writing campaigns for other games
May the algorithm smile upon you!
This is some great stuff! I'm tempted to join your server to discuss map ideas.
Have you considered making a video about D&D boss encounters specifically? It seems like a video you'd have an easy time making. When I DM I am more interested in being able to tell the story, and while I don't want to railroad my players, I really don't want them to just shut down the boss before there has been time to roleplay and talk, to find out the plan of the villain and such.
Beyond that, I'm sure you've got good insights into how D&D boss encounters could be improved.
I think your channel would benefit greatly from a video on 1) destructible /tactical environmental items and setup (ala Divinity and it’s exploding barrels or pools of water players can shock or turn to most to hide, bait and retreat to an entrenched position where they are disadvantaged etc) and 2) encouraging intel gathering and methodical “puzzling” of mechanics before “initiative” (WoW/Splinter Cell/Hitman: can you pull the patrols without alerting other enemies and dispatch them so as not to fight them all at once, or how blueprints in empty room A tell you a way to shutdown major threat in adjoining room C that may need to send someone to “investigate” before charging the boss room). In this way it encourages non-linear or “maze-logic” gameplay but instead some back and forth and meandering and interaction to remove as many threats as possible before moving into the center room with the BBEG. This is not done enough in D&D currently and we see it employed in many other areas very well. Just a thought. Great stuff so far! Got my sub
you're making some great videos dude
Good videos so far mate. Just a little error, at 10:30 your audio level drops a bit.
Let's get this guy the popularity he deserves! Let's gooooo!
This channel is incredible and I’m so glad the algorithm sent it to me. My players will be thankful, too!
Thanks for the great video, Trek! I will be testing the tower on unsuspecting players, and will let you know how it went!
Also, this video made me curious in how to implement this dungeon designs in one-shot adventures. I play and GM on a one-shot guild server, and sadly it mostly lends itself to short and quick dungeons that have little room for extended puzzles.
Anyway, I will be tweaking and testing what I learned here to adapt it to my situation. Thanks again for such a cool video! See you in the next one!
Well I'm kinda surprised you didn't mention that in the previous vid as both Doom and Wolfenstein were actually famous for having level designs very reminiscent of RPG games' dungeons
I didn't feel like I could competently talk about Jaquays-style dungeons like Caverns of Thracia, because I wasn't exactly born at the time of their publication and have no first-hand experience of them. They're pretty interesting for sure, but I'm leaving that topic for people who've been around longer than I have.
@@Trekiros Well, both collections of classic Doom games and Quake games (that followed pretty much the same formula but in real 3D), but there are so much more games that followed this dungeon-like map design for solo champings outside of ID software portfolio, pretty much majority of early FPS games (back when they were called Doom clones) and heaven early CoD titles before they went for more linear and scripted solo champings for "cinematic" experience, and honestly there are even more recent examples of games following this formula but expanding on it like Dishonored series, or even modern reboots of Doom and Wolfenstein do follow this old dungeon-like formula for their stages
My players are just about to enter the tower of a missing archmage, and I stumble upon this video. Thank you so much for this amazing video and for the free resources !
Id rather have a looping structure than hub and spokes. Lost caverns pf thracia is the gold standard
This is great. Thank you for all that you do
Great video. Disney puts a lot of work into making their experiences, so its a great idea to steal their ideas!
Great video! My biggest takeaway (aside from creating eye-candy hubs that act as puzzle elements) is that now I really want to run your tower dungeon! Do you have a mini-module for sale that describes it?
Not for sale, the closest I have is that there's basically a human-readable version of my DM notes in the video description for free
I don't really use modules, which makes me really, really bad at writing them, unfortunately :p
I love this! More worldbuilding videos from you is all I want from RUclips
Another great video wow
7:08 Wait wait wait. The portholes are closed so you travel to the present, open them, then travel back to the past and go through them? How does that work? Surely opening them in the present doesn't also open them in the past. It's in the past. o_O
has anyone sent this video to Defunctland yet?
I'm sorry, but I'm a bit hard of hearing, and the audio is a bit muffled... any chance you could add subtitles to this video? I can only make out about 50% of what you're saying... the auto-generated subtitles kinda suck.
*After 6 minutes all i could hear was the 12 second Music Loop in the background.*
Please never use that music again and never use that short music loop again. You have some good ideas here but damn I can't even finish the video because of the music loop.