Dungeon Room Appendix: (Mega)Dungeon Hooks for the Rules-lite Crawl

There are many reasons why people enjoy dungeon crawls. In brief, it is an activity that's well structured, viscerally satisfying, mechanically tight, comparatively easy to prepare, and frequently evocative--and as a core element of roleplaying games from the beginning, it enjoys the benefit of decades of refinement.

Even so, the draw to dungeon crawling varies strongly across groups and playstyles, and among popular rules-lite systems it's not so clear why players would turn to this activity. To be sure, in the abstract it is not too hard of a sell to send a group of players into a dungeon temporarily--at least from time to time. The problem comes to the forefront, however, when the dungeons get big. (And you know I like big dungeons.) Big dungeons come with at least one of the following expectations:

• You should explore this space. The idea that your path will not be a straight line in and out.
• You should come back to this space. The objective here cannot be achieved in a single delve, because lingering too long in the dungeon is too risky; or the space is rich in possibility, and provides new reasons to keep coming back.

If neither of these expectations are met, then the effort you put into making or preparing a dungeon runs a great risk of being wasted. If you truly enjoy the activity for its own sake that's a wonderful thing (welcome to the club), but over time this work can still be taxing and disappointing if your creations are only cute, occasional side-shows.

Of course, standard OSR systems are built to obviate these expectations. Players gain levels. Leveling up feels good. Leveling up requires experience points. Experience points come from gold. And where better to find gold than in every nook and cranny of a sprawling subterranean murder hole?

A level-less, experience point-less system--on the contrary--does not provide a built in solution to the problem. Therefore, let's explore motives for dungeon crawling that don't require the mechanical scaffolding of gold-to-XP. (And that can hopefully form the basis for the sustained delving of dungeons both big and really big.)

Goal structures

The bottom line is you're probably going to have to give players a reason. You're going to have give them goals.

However, a single simple goal is not enough for the kind of sustained, non-linear dungeon crawling that megadungeons beg for. With that in mind, let's revisit those expectations I alluded to earlier--with that in hand, we can think about how to build player goals that will serve our needs. When we make a Big Dungeon™, we have a few high level desires we want to fulfil. It's worth naming them:

• We want players to enter the dungeon. This sounds simple, but in many cases it actually isn't. Dungeons are at least moderately dangerous. There are already reasons not to go in, and these need counterbalancing. Even if the game is built entirely around a dungeon, a push is needed to motivate risk-taking, and get the ball rolling. At the very least this is another version of the problem inherent to "you start in a tavern; what do you do?"
• We want players to explore the dungeon. What this implies is that we don't want players walking in a straight line; maybe we even want them to wander or backtrack a bit. There are certainly things we can do at the level of dungeon layout that will serve this desire, but our current focus can bear fruit as well.
• We want players to return to the dungeon. We're already assuming the dungeon is too big to be seen in one outing, but we should also consider the shelf-life of our hooks. Once a dungeon is exited--for any reason--we're back to an echo of the first problem again: we want players to enter the dungeon.

With these needs formally enumerated we can describe some goal structures. The idea is this: how can we arrange incentives to encourage players to do these things? (Unfortunately, not everyone goes into dungeons just because they're there, as I am inclined to do. *sigh* Back to watching Urbex videos on YouTube for me.)

• Big Hook and Obstacles. This is probably your "standard" goal structure. There is a big, seductive goal that can be achieved only by reaching deep into the dungeon. However, reaching deep into the dungeon is no simple thing. The path is long, the obstacles are many. The setbacks are frequent. The quest is more than you can accomplish now; knowledge, improved equipment, and a bit of luck may be necessary to ultimately reach the goal. Each obstacles forms a sub-goal towards completing the ultimate quest. This will lose steam if there isn't a sense that progress is being made, though.
• Little Hook, next Hook. A simple objective brings the group into the dungeon. The sort of thing that can be done in a single session. A discovery while in the dungeon, or follow-up request from the quest giver sends them back with the need to go deeper. The next hook may be a Big Hook, with the first just being a prologue to establish the setting, or the next hook may be only a Slighter Bigger Hook that pulls the players just a bit deeper--no doubt to be followed up with Yet Another Hook that continues to pull them ever deeper. (You probably can't do this indefinitely. Eventually a Big Hook will probably have to come along, or just pack up and accept that the dungeon had a good run.)
  
• Many Hooks. Multiple quest givers need something from you. All of those needs can be fulfilled by entering the dungeon, and require you to visit different parts of it. Alone, any one of these goals might be a simple in and out job, but together they require exploration or planning, and the broad delve is less likely to be accomplished in one outing.
• Big Hook and Side Hooks. The impetus for entering the dungeon is deep and enticing--but not so urgent as to require anxiety or haste. Along the way orthogonal goals are discovered, or small-but-urgent goals arise that require immediate attention. The side goals don't just require postponing the big goal, but also draw the group into parts of the dungeon they wouldn't have explored otherwise.

Of course, if you can manage to chain these structures together (e.g. Many Hooks, one of which baits the Next Hook and then the Next Hook which is the Big Hook with Obstacles) then this will provide many reasons and fresh opportunities for pushing into your megadungeon! That may be easier said than done, but it's a worthwhile exercise to consider.

Dungeon hooks

Goal structures (or whatever you want to call them) are only as good as their substance. Ultimately, we need interesting goals to build our structures out of. That substance cannot come from simple piles of gold and a table of min-maxers chasing their next dopamine hit. (No hate. Your fun is valid.) Fortunately or unfortunately, in the absence of meta-game incentives, it has to come from tangible things that player or non-player characters want.

As is my way, here is a brain dump of ideas to inspire you:

• McGuffins
• The Wishing Stone is at the bottom of the dungeon. It could make your wildest dreams come true.
• A special dark-dwelling flower grows in the lower levels of the dungeon. A local alchemist believes it can be made into a life saving potion.
• A priceless heirloom of one of the dungeon builder's descendants is somewhere in the dungeon. It would mean the world to them if someone could retrieve it.
• A young lover entered the dungeon only days ago. Their partner is very worried and desperate to see them return.
• A former adventurer entered the dungeon and was never seen again. They wore a valuable set of armor that the noble family would like returned. (It is scattered around the dungeon. Their end was messy.)
• The key to an ancient vault was carried off by a dungeon dwelling creature. The one who retrieves it would be able to access the vault's legendary treasures--and pay of a few debts as well.
• Roadside thieves have looted your caravan in the night, stealing a personal keepsake in the process. They make their base inside the dungeon.
• A local youth stumbled into the dungeon and dropped a borrowed tool before fleeing for their life. The lender will soon be expecting it back, and the youth doesn't have the courage to get it themselves.
• An auburn mold that grows in the dungeon is a nearby delicacy. Supplying some is sure to win the favor of the locals.
• The Sword of Destiny™ is at the bottom of the dungeon. Do I really need to say more?
• Information
• Ancient records in the dungeon may hold the answer to cure a plague that is ravaging the land.
• Locals are disappearing. One was last seen walking towards the dungeon in the night. No one knows why.
• The dungeon contains proof of ownership that would settle a local dispute over valuable land.
• The map to a lost weapon of destruction is in the dungeon archives. The one who finds it will hold the lives of many in their hands.
• The locals have lost the knowledge of their history, and who they are. It is carved on the walls of their ancient vaults, which are now too dangerous for them to enter.
• A magician wants to understand the unnatural properties of the creatures that come from the dungeon. They ask for samples of the dungeon's creatures to complete their research.
• The dungeon connects two sides of the mountain, if a path could be charted through it, it could become a valuable trade route.
• People who enter the dungeon return with their minds broken. Only by entering may you discover the cause, and perhaps even a cure.
• The dungeon builders possessed technology that would ease the burdens of local craftsmen. If some trace of it could be retrieved, they might be able to reproduce it for themselves.
• The dungeon's records include knowledge of someone's genealogy. They seek knowledge of where their people came from, hoping that they might return.
• Problems.
• A predatory swarm nests in the dungeon. The local livestock can't survive this ongoing threat, if they're not rooted out.
• A local thief makes their den in the upper levels of the dungeon. Everyone would very much like to see them brought to justice--and they want their stuff back, too.
• A blight from another plane is leaking from an ancient portal. Someone needs to close the portal or we'll never have another harvest.
• The denizens of the town over the dungeon are cursed with eternal undeath. Their misery can only be ended by destroying the cancerous heart at the center of the dungeon. They are not able to enter themselves.
• A dejected tribe claims part of the dungeon as their ancestral home. The current denizens are pillagers who cast them out.
• This is a great setup for a gut-wrenching plot twist where the "pillagers" are actually the rightful owners, and you helped the real bad guys kick them out. You would have my undying respect if you could successfully foreshadow that but also not give it away until the climactic moment.
• Part of the dungeon is the local aquifer. Something is causing it to leak, leading the wells to run dry.
• A valuable resource is an essential part of the nearby towns economy. External sources are running out, but it is known that a much larger wellspring exists in the dungeon.  
• You have contracted a sometimes deadly disease. The cure can be brewed with the hair of a dungeon beast.
• Vengeful spirits haunt the local community, and they will not rest until an artifact is returned to it's rightful place in the dungeon's depths.
• A dragon lairs in the dungeon and demands yearly sacrifices. We're running out of maidens!!!

These categories are a little arbitrary of course, and some hooks might suit multiple categories, but it's a good way to get started; and for every idea it's not hard to come up with endless variations on the theme. 

Ultimately, the ideas you come up with will be closely tied to the kind of setting you've imagined and the particulars and themes of your dungeon. But implicit in this is one (hopefully conventional) piece of advice: the bigger a dungeon gets, the more it needs to have going on. A hundred rooms of more of the same might be impressive, but megadungeons are not just already big dungeons with extra rooms--they are more like many smaller (but possibly still big) dungeons woven together in interesting ways, and full of lively entities both individual and factional.

(One last idea that is wholly unique and doesn't fit with the rest: the party awakes inside the dungeon; amnesiac, or fully aware of how they were dragged down there by brigands or giant spiders. Now they want to escape. The Vast in the Dark is kind of a version of this. I think it would be a lot of fun.)

Thanks for reading!