What are some good ways to create a dungeon setting in RW?

[Madmaxneo]

I am looking to create a dungeon within RW. I went into RW looking for an area to put this in and found "Adventuring Area", but it did not seem to be what I am looking for.
Is there a simple place that I may have missed that has a spot for a dungeon?
I will need to add a map then sections for room numbers and the room descriptions. I am basically designing this as I go along by area or room by room so do not have a map just yet.

FYI, this will be a dungeon designed for high level characters and was inspired by the Tomb of Horrors (though this is not D&D or any of it's clones, it is HARP). I was actually thinking of using the Tomb of Horrors with some changes to fit the game system and my campaign background.

[daplunk]

I usually start with a Storyline. In that I put a Smart Image containing the map.

Under the storyline I use 'Encounter' topics to create opne topic for each room.

I pin the topics to the map.

[Madmaxneo]

Originally Posted by daplunk

I usually start with a Storyline. In that I put a Smart Image containing the map.

Under the storyline I use 'Encounter' topics to create opne topic for each room.

I pin the topics to the map.

Awesome idea!
I was looking at other areas for something like that. Thanks for the idea/inspiration!

[Silveras]

My structure:

Source
__Storyline (Chapter 1)
____Adventure Area (Main Location)
________Smart Image (linked to each Level)
______Adventure Area (Level)
__________Smart Image (Linked to each Room)
________Location (Room)
__________Encounter A (Encounter) (On the way in)
__________Encounter B (Encounter) (On the way back out, for example)


Alternatively, for places that might be re-used in whole (for example, the PCs take over and make it their campsite or headquarters)

For example, if the adventure site is in town, I would put the non-adventure-specific location information in a Location topic under the Town, then add nested Locations for "Floors" or other sections. In the body of those, links to the encounters would be added.

The adventure-specific stuff *such as encounters) goes under a Source for the main adventure (Tomb of Horrors, for example), with nested GM Synopsis and Additional Information as needed. Then an Adventure Area for each Level, with the map linked to the both the room descriptions in the other "tree" and the nested encounters under this Topic. Each Encounter cross-links back to the room it occurs in.

[kbs666]

I do it mostly how Silveras does it.

Adventure areas are meant to be dungeons. This is where I put the smart images. Locations are meant to be rooms in dungeons. Scenes can be useful for creating encounters that do not precisely conform to a specific location.

Generally I try not to have the encounter info in the location because PC's might come back to a location any number of times and do who knows what there. Better to leave it as blank a slate as possible.

A scene describing a room as the PC's first enter it including monsters or what not can easily be contained under the location.

It all depends on how much time and effort you want to put in and how long your players will be spending in the dungeon.

[Madmaxneo]

Originally Posted by Silveras

My structure:

Source
__Storyline (Chapter 1)
____Adventure Area (Main Location)
________Smart Image (linked to each Level)
______Adventure Area (Level)
__________Smart Image (Linked to each Room)
________Location (Room)
__________Encounter A (Encounter) (On the way in)
__________Encounter B (Encounter) (On the way back out, for example)


Alternatively, for places that might be re-used in whole (for example, the PCs take over and make it their campsite or headquarters)

For example, if the adventure site is in town, I would put the non-adventure-specific location information in a Location topic under the Town, then add nested Locations for "Floors" or other sections. In the body of those, links to the encounters would be added.

The adventure-specific stuff *such as encounters) goes under a Source for the main adventure (Tomb of Horrors, for example), with nested GM Synopsis and Additional Information as needed. Then an Adventure Area for each Level, with the map linked to the both the room descriptions in the other "tree" and the nested encounters under this Topic. Each Encounter cross-links back to the room it occurs in.

Interesting. I started to do this but wonder if I set it up correctly.
Is it possible you could post a screen shot just to see how you got it set up?
Thanks for your help so far!

[kbs666]

There is no "correctly" in RW. There is a way that works well for you.

Try setting up the dungeon however feels right. Try running it. See what works. change what doesn't. Rinse and repeat.

[Madmaxneo]

Originally Posted by kbs666

There is no "correctly" in RW. There is a way that works well for you.

Try setting up the dungeon however feels right. Try running it. See what works. change what doesn't. Rinse and repeat.

I get that. But the structure doesn't seem to fit right. I asked for a screen shot
because there might be something here I can learn about RW. For that matter there is a lot I can learn about RW but I barely have the time to develop my campaigns.......

[daplunk]

I understand the query as I have pondered it myself.

A dungeon is a place, so why is it not in the location information?
A dungeon is also a part of the story so should it go with the structure of the story?

Ultimately it's up to you.

I tend to put them in the story section because I tend to run modules. I therefore put everything together in the same structure of the book. This make's it easier to run IMO as I know Chapter 9 contains the dungeon and can easily locate that within the tool.

The parent article has the Smart Image containing the map.

In this screenshot I am working with a module. The dungeon appears in Chapter 5 so instead of moving it I left it in the same place it's defined in the module. This make's it easier to use IMO because I'm running a book module.



As you can see I create a Storyline as a parent topic and contained within the parent are topics for each room within the dungeon. I always create extra names for those rooms to match the code that is assigned to the room as it's common for modules to refer rooms in the text by these codes and I want linking to work.

I also use a Prefix on each to ensure the rooms are sorted in the same order as they appear in the book.

The map is pinned and linked to each topic.



The reason why I do this is so that I can use the smart image as a navigation pane. So running the dungeon looks like this.



Now you can obviously contain dungeons within the locations section. Setting it up is much the same. Ultimately it doesn't matter what category you use. I like the Storyline and Encounters one because I like to make all my modules match.

In the example below I have located the Tome of Horrors into the location section. This was not part of a module but an individual dungeon that I placed within the campaign world so it made sense for it to reside here.

[Vargr]

Thank you for the look into how you do it.

Always nice to see others' work and how they set it up and be inspired (sometimes also known as outright theft :-) )