Dungeons

Page 110 provides guidelines on how to manage dungeon exploration while playing — but what about preparing those dungeons? How much information will you need? Should you have a map of the location ready?

To make sure this is clear from the beginning: dungeons aren't necessarily a thing in Fabula Ultima, and you might run an entire campaign without the Player Characters ever entering one.

A dungeon generally covers one or more of the following functions:

• Slowly eroding the heroes' resources before an important confrontation by having them face several weaker enemies.
• Telling more about a character, place or people.
• Rewarding careful exploration with hidden treasures that may prove useful in the dungeon itself or a future situation.

If a dungeon isn't doing any of these, you probably shouldn't have it in your game: "dungeons for the sake of dungeons" is never a good idea.

Prepared and Improvised

The first distinction we should make is between prepared dungeons (the ones you thought about before the session started) and improvised dungeons (the ones that were introduced as part of the current session).

While prepared dungeons can be more complex, the ones you have to improvise on the spot will necessarily be simpler — but simple doesn't mean boring.

• A prepared dungeon allows for all three modes of exploration; most of the time you will rely on dungeon scenes or detailed exploration (page 110), but if the layout of the place isn't important you might even get it done with an interlude scene.
• An improvised dungeon, on the other hand, will rarely allow for detailed exploration (unless you have a dungeon archive ready; see page 261) and generally fall in the middle between dungeon scenes and interludes.

Note that this distinction has nothing to do with the importance of the dungeon: a key strategic location might be unexpectedly introduced halfway through a session, and you might know about a minor ruin along the road with no plot relevance weeks before you play through its exploration. Don't worry, we'll deal with this too.

Philip Forlenza (Order #)