Ideal Dungeon Size?

[Freddy]

In real life, generally a hallway is a way to access multiple rooms without having to pass through another room, so they usually have multiple doors coming off of them.

In a conventional house yes, but not every facility has its layout designed like these, in a mine or a cave the place of the rooms are fixed and you basically just dig corridors to connect them.

From a game perspective, having choices of which way to go is always good, but if the hallway doesn't provide that, and a room could just as easily have multiple doors coming off it, why have it?

So a solution (in a procedurally generated dungeon) could be either not to have corridors, or to have corridors automatically be branching opportunities (ie, "the next room is a cooridor with D3 doors at the far end"), in which case you'd probably only one or two per dungeon.

A corridor is an important part of a dungeon
-it forms a choking point as it is too narrow for encirclement tactics
-add some extra distance for the shooting units before cc fighters reach them
-in general it adds some distance between the rooms (think of escaping enemies or luring tactics)

If you want a procedurally generated dungeon and get a simple corridor, just generate the room it is leading too and make the two pieces into a single new discovery.

[Frugalmax]

All valid points!

I still think it's worth trying out alternatives from a game design perspective to see if fewer, no, or only branching corridors provide a more or less fun experience. If we get around to trying this out, I'll report back on how it goes!

[SgtSlag]

I've been playing AD&D since 1980.  I've done:  full 3D Dwarven Forge dungeons; 2.75D cardstock walls inserted into slotted foam floor mats; 2D printed dungeon tiles, and line-drawn maps on Chessex vinyl mats.  What's my favorite?...  All of them.  They all have their pro's and their con's.

With the Dwarven Forge pieces, I figured I would need around 4 Basic Sets, and around 4-6 Expansion Sets, to have enough to build the dungeons I would want/need.  Twenty years ago, this had a price tag of around $2,000.  Too much for me -- I sold off the one Basic Set I was gifted by my family.  Size, storage, and weight, were also factors in motivating me to find another option.  Drop-dead gorgeous terrain, but unaffordable, for me.

I printed PDF dungeon tiles on regular copy paper, applying them to the glue-side of peel-n-stick vinyl floor tiles, cutting them to size.  The issues I discovered:  I never have enough of the room/passage/feature tiles that I need; they stack nicely, but they are HEAVY, en masse; whether printed with inkjet or laser toner, they eat up the cartridges fast.

The 2.75D wall sections are feasible, but I did a mock-up of the full, Steading of the Hill Giants, in 25mm scale.  It took 2+ hours to assemble it accurately, according to the maps, and that made it nearly impossible for game conventions:  they typically give you 20-30 minutes setup/tear-down time.  There is a high time investment:  printing, cutting, gluing wall sections (loads of wall sections!); accurately cutting the slots into the foam floor mat sections, at the correct depth to avoid ruining the mat sections; painting the mat sections (fun, but time-consuming).

The 2D tiles look great, they're fun to play on, but they can be quite expensive due to the amount of ink required to print enough for what you will need for your many dungeons!  The vinyl tile pieces are easy to make, easy to cut to size/shape; they slide too easily, unless you lay them out atop an anti-skid carpet mat; they are quite heavy when you stack them up; covering their printed surfaces is a very good idea to give them longevity (clear kitchen shelf liner vinyl is perfect!).

The 2D line drawn maps using vinyl Chessex Battle Mats are the most convenient, bar none.  I use Crayola Washable Markers (no ghosting on the mats, even after leaving the ink on them for months!), with a yard stick to draw accurate lines -- this makes a very obvious improvement on the drawn maps!  Highly recommended.  The convenience factor is almost impossible to calculate -- it is sooo easy to use/erase.  You can always add 3D props, if desired.  Chessex makes their Mondo-Mat:  54" x 102", reversible (squares/hexes), to fit a standard sized Ping Pong Table top of 5 feet x 9 feet!  It is north of $125, but...  Wow!  It is amazing to play on something sooo big!  My custom gaming table is 5.5 feet x 9.5 feet.  I could not find a photo of a Temple Crawl I ran a few years ago, on my Mondo-Mat.  It was a fun time for the Player's to move their PC figures through rooms and hallways, exploring, fighting, to plop down some 3D columns, as needed.  When it was done, I sprayed water-based cleaner solution, and I cleared it off with paper towels, leaving the mat ready for the next battle.  Cheers!

[Frugalmax]

That custom table is beautiful, SgtSlag! Good options for large dungeons there, too.

[SgtSlag]

Thank you, it is.  It is made of 100% Hickory:  harder than Oak; takes stain of any color, so you can dress it up to look like whatever rare wood you would like, without their shortcomings ($$$$).  I paid a pretty penny for it, and I wish that I had spent less money on a replacement Ping Pong Table -- the best gaming table for its price, bar none.

I tell everyone who is interested in a custom table, to consider a Ping Pong Table:  a tiny fraction of the cost; can be taken down and stored away; its surface can be covered with faux leather to breathe new life into a hashed Table for years to come; at 5 feet x 9 feet, you will have tremendous room for you, and your players, 'to spread out'; it is big enough for most miniatures games, on top of being luxuriously large for RPG sessions...

I replaced the undercarriage on my first table, with four sets of steel folding legs ($200 today?); I used steam trunk hasps to secure the two halves together, to make the whole more stable ($10); the burgundy faux leather vinyl covering was seamed down the middle with carpet tape, wrapped around the edges and stapled into place -- chemical resistant, easy to clean/maintain, and it looked sexy good!

I like BIG miniatures games, and I needed another large table to add space to my custom table for my next really big mini's game, so I located a Ping Pong Table topper ($100 less than the full Ping Pong Table with its lousy undercarriage which I would immediately replace...); I attached my older folding leg assemblies to it, and I have new hasps to secure the two halves together.  Combining that with my hickory table, I will have a table length of 18 feet x 5 feet (I had 10 Players, and I Ref'd during that game, so 11 participants around that massive table setup, pushing around 1,200 figures!).  I game with plastic Army Men figures, so having a table that size, is almost big enough...  I ran an Army Men game on a table 12 feet x 30 feet, and it was the most incredible miniatures game I've ever run:  five players, with me Ref'ing -- it was gloriously fun!      My next Army Men game will be a city slog, street-by-street fighting, close assaults within multi-story buildings.  I am preparing to publish my Army Men rules through Pacific Sky Games, and this will be a play-test game for the latest version of the rules.

I hope to do more of these ginormous games, both 28mm fantasy, and 54mm Army Men games.  They are more fun than a Human Being ought to be allowed...     Cheers!