{"id":56,"date":"2026-09-05T06:31:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/?p=56"},"modified":"2026-09-05T06:31:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:31:55","slug":"running-low-level-dungeons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/running-low-level-dungeons\/","title":{"rendered":"Running Low-Level Dungeons"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Running Low-Level Dungeons<\/h1>\n

By Robert Plamondon<\/h4>\n

\"DifferentThis article was originally featured in Different Worlds #11<\/em> (February\/March\u00a01981).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps the most crucial adventure in fantasy role-playing is the first game, when a novice player with no experience plays a first level character and enters into a dungeon scenario.<\/p>\n

In spite of its importance\u00a0as a means of hooking people on FRP games, the low-level adventure is often casually thrown together by Game Masters because it’s “only first level,” and doesn’t hold his attention the way Asmodeus’ bedroom torture chamber does.<\/p>\n

This leads to discouraging or boring first-level dungeons, even when run by competent GMs. To help rectify this problem, I have some suggestions for running a first-level dungeon, which apply equally to all versions of Dungeons & Dragons, <\/em>and most of the other FRP games as well.<\/p>\n

First off, I\u2019d like to comment on the philosophy of GMing.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Killer Dungeons<\/h2>\n

For the last time, the GM is not supposed to be trying to kill off the player characters! Some GMs have decided that since they are playing all of the monsters, their goal must be to beat the players. This is horribly wrong\u2014if you kill off an entire party as GM, do you win? Is it a moral victory if you design dungeons so nasty that everyone dies and no one enjoys the game?<\/p>\n

This would be no problem if they could find a group of masochists who wanted their characters to be killed once a week. Unfortunately, these killer GMs depend on novice players coming to their games, as no one with any experience wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot halberd. Thus we have the worst GMs doing much of the recruiting of new players; and after having their characters killed two or three times in a row, these players will probably forswear FRP games forever.<\/p>\n

Keeping this in mind, let’s look at some common problems in low-level adventure campaigns.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Low Hit Points<\/h2>\n

As 1 said, probably the most discouraging thing about first-level characters is that they die all the time. Some GMs think this teaches the players valuable lessons, but by the time a player’s third fighter in a row dies, this time from a giant ant bite, he tends to get discouraged. The lesson they learn is that the game is no fun. I’ve seen too many promising characters die at first level because they had only one hit point or just twenty gold pieces of starting money.<\/p>\n

To alleviate this problem I start first level characters with the maximum hit points for their class and with maximum starting money. This takes their odds of survival away from the character-creation dice and prevents the characters from feeling doomed because of their poor initial rolls.<\/p>\n

Badly Run Monsters<\/h2>\n

Another common problem is lack of imagination on the part of the GM when creating and playing the monsters. Although it’s certainly easier to have every Orc in your campaign armed with identical weapons, it tends to be boring. The monsters need variety in kind, weaponry, and in attitude.<\/p>\n

An example is a low-level campaign where Goblin swordsmen would always charge directly to the attack even though it kept their archers from getting off any shots. Given this kind of uniform stupidity on the part of the Goblins (this GM was me in my early days), it’s not surprising that the party developed strategies that involved destroying the Goblins with arrow fire, since the GM never let the Goblin archers shoot back. Which is fine for a while, but after that the players found Goblins tiresome, and rightly so. What the GM should have done was to vary the Goblin’s tactics, since the survivors would learn something from their previous encounters. At worst, the Goblins could have fled the party that had massacred so many of their fellows in the past. At best they would have done new things, such as setting traps and ambushes or even finding allies. It would have kept things fresh.<\/p>\n

Another problem with first level adventures is that there never seems to be any parleying between players and monsters. This is partly due to statements like \u201cmonsters attack until destroyed\u201d in early versions of the D&D rules, which kept my encounters brainless until I decided to give precedence to morale checks. The players soon found trying to outwit monsters to be a good alternative to fighting them, especially when they’re too big to kill safely.<\/p>\n

Good initial situations for negotiation can be set up by putting a relatively large monster with no treasure in the dungeon. For example, the party would have no particular reason to attack a pair of Ogres met in a hallway if the Ogres didn’t want the party for lunch. On the other hand, the Ogres might be persuaded to lead them to a suitable treasure on a bribe or profit-sharing arrangement. If properly handled, the party might even convince the Ogres into fighting for them. On the other hand, the Ogres might try to kill off the party by misdirection if they thought they could get away with it.<\/p>\n

A typical plot would be for the Ogres to show the party to some area of the dungeon with a concealed pit trap. The Ogres would bring up the rear. The leading party members would fall into the pit and the Ogres would push in the rest. The players have an incentive to learn to read the room.<\/p>\n

This kind of plotting and counter-plotting adds depth to campaigns that otherwise would devolve into a hack-and-slash exercise, and often rewards the players for using their imagination when dealing with monsters.<\/p>\n

Traps<\/h2>\n

Traps are another method of convincing the players to find another GM. Many GMs are fond of putting killer traps in dungeons. Since first-level thieves have about a snowball’s chance in hell of discovering these traps, it’s a bloodbath. Whoops!<\/p>\n

Players resent having their characters bumped off in this way, and to keep the players in the campaign, the GM should follow the following guidelines when placing traps in lower levels:<\/p>\n