Mage Wars RPG Dungeons
The over-all goal of module design is a very heavy "show not tell" concept. Effectively, the whole story needs to be told by the environment, the encounters, and at most a few lines of recorded narration. If players want to read a book they will go read a book, any story that requires pages of text is to boring to tell.
Each continent will include 1 capitol city and 2-3 minor cities, each of which will have a number of instanced dungeons and repeatable quest lines. These are the real grinders for fast XP and loot. The capitol might have as many as 15 while the minor cities would have more up to 5. Small towns, depending on their size, may have one or two. Wilderness areas will also be full of static and procedural dungeons.
Dungeon Type
- Static Dungeons: a static dungeon is one that is unchanging. Each time a player visits it, it will contain the same monsters in the same locations and have the same layout. More or fewer monsters might be included depending on difficulty levels, but at difficulty the dungeon will not change.
- Procedural Dungeon: a procedural dungeon is different each time. Different layouts, spawn locations, and spawn numbers, though balanced according to difficulty level.
- Inception Dungeons: basically a dungeon within a dungeon, this is a dungeon found within a static or procedural dungeon. Chains of procedural dungeons might form a sort of endurance mini-game as parties of adventurers try to run as many as possible in a row.
Dungeon Challenges
Each dungeon will have a number of challenges associated with it. While each mob will give XP, completing dungeon challenges will give extra XP, offer special loot, or be part of a quest.
Clear: kill every mob inside. Boss: kill the boss mob Puzzle: solve a puzzle Challenge: complete some form of challenge such as no deaths, no re-entries, use only a specific type of weapon, etc Quest: quest-specific goal
Dungeon Difficulty
Each dungeon will offer players entering an option for a difficulty rating, based on 1-8 stars. Some dungeons will let the players choose, others will have a minimum "star" count. Additionally, dungeons will have minimum level requirements. See MRPG Experience
