OSR and Video Game Design Series Part 1: Secret Success (Or, Dungeon Design as Level Design)

In this opening post, we'll be exploring video game level design as found in old school dungeon crawls, 90s first person shooter games, and the Legend of Zelda series as those concepts can apply to tabletop RPG dungeon design.

The first time I played DOOM 64, wildly gunning and chainsawing my way through the first few levels in what can only be described as all-consuming glee, I abruptly clipped through a wall and thought I'd glitched the game. I hadn't. I'd actually stumbled across a secret room with a power-up inside. My mind was blown. I was overjoyed - full of wonder and victory. It seems like a simple idea: that dungeons should be filled with wonder and secrets, but its the implementation of the secrets that makes the difference between an experience you never forget and an experience you don't bother committing to memory.

So how do we implement a good secret in a tabletop RPG? How do we make it special? How we, as GMs, design a dungeon in a way that leads the players toward something without railroading them into it?

There are a few rules I follow:

1) The secret is something non-essential. The moment it becomes an essential part of the campaign or dungeon, it stops being a secret and just becomes a necessary detour that involves effort that the party doesn't have the agency to opt out of.

2) The secret is placed in a way that players can miss it and will feel clever when/if they find it, but not so far out of the way that the odds of finding it become ridiculous. It shouldn't be hidden so well that finding it becomes random chance.

I might have stumbled across the false wall in DOOM 64 by accident, but my finding it was hardly a matter of random chance. DOOM 64 took advantage of the level layout and the physics engine of the game in a way that caused me to accrue enough forward momentum to end up slipping through the wall simply by running forward and not slowing down around a tight corner. Clipping through the wall wasn't random, it was a likely outcome because of the layout - the meticulous design - of the level. A more cautious player might  have missed it by not barreling through, but it was hardly out of the way.

It even looks like a D&D dungeon with guns

D&D doesn't have a physics engine, of course. At least not in the same sense. The laws of physics in tabletop games are largely more a suggestion than a concrete rule. But D&D does have a GM. So let's take a second to draw inspiration from an underappreciated cousin of DOOM - the Marathon Trilogy*.

A great series doomed by its hardware.

The Marathon games took the DOOM formula and added a dose of (time bending, sci-fi, gonzo) story. As you clear the levels, you discover computer terminals through which the story unfolds.

What does lore via 90s sci-fi FPS computer terminal have to do with secrets in tabletop RPG dungeon design? Jennell Jaquays pioneered the art of of excellent dungeon design in her classic modules for the Judges Guild when she insisted that a dungeon, rather than just being a series of corridors for monster killin', should feel organic. A dungeon, she asserted, should act as a distinct self-contained world with it's own ecosystems (a premise we'll be revisiting in Part 2). Things in the dungeon should have a reasonably organic presence - they should belong.

This is why Marathon is important. It took the DOOM formula and said "what if we added environmental storytelling?" It was heavy handed, but it worked to make the game fresh. In a sea of DOOM clones, Marathon stands out as different in important ways.

The same concept, though with potentially a bit more subtlety, can apply to secrets in dungeon design. Maybe you usually run DOOM dungeons, and that's awesome, DOOM in (almost) all its variants is awesome. But if DOOM were my only option for game formula for the rest of my life, I think I'd get bored pretty quick. So let's same-but-different it.

A wizard's tower might be a perfect place to take cues from Marathon. A series of crystal balls tucked away, perhaps, on different floors, that function as stand-ins for the terminals. A trail. Audio logs, perhaps, that offer a combination of lore, the wizard's weaknesses, and hints at perhaps some greater secret. A weapon that can easily end the wizard, or some great valuable artifact stashed away.

Of course, in Marathon the terminals aren't optional, but in this example they are. The players might stumble across one, realize it has value, and seek out more, a side quest that provides a reward for the effort of its discovery.

Likewise, a note on the body of a dead goblin might point the way to the body of a former adventurer, and who knows what that adventurer might have on him. A kobold might flee from combat and, if followed, crawl Golum-like up a wall (dungeon verticality is something I am passionate about!) into a tight crevice that opens out into a secret room.

Secrets offer two things: they offer a nice diversion to the typical "get in, get out, get fat loot" of the dungeon crawl, and - when done properly - they add to that sense of organic ecosystem within the dungeon, taking the dungeon from a game-space designed specifically for the looting of the PCs, to a natural extension of their theme with the illusion of being lived-in, independent of the concerns of adventuring parties.

So we've examined how to insert a secret. And that can be enough for a lot of sessions for a lot of parties. But what if we want to extend the utility of the secret? What can we do to make the secret more useful?

For inspiration in this section let's look at dungeon crawls as revived through the Legend of Grimrock games. Grimrock is both famous and infamous (especially Grimrock 2) for adding puzzle elements to the classic dungeon crawl formula. I contend that these puzzles were a great idea but, like my premise on secrets, should have been leaned on less as a necessary game progression tool and more as an optional route. As a GM I'm all about player agency and giving my parties a toolbox instead of a path.

But just because Grimrock leaned on them for progression doesn't mean we have to. I think a puzzle that uses a secret item or secret knowledge to let players access a shortcut or an alternate route toward what they want. This is a way that secrets can transform from a way of mixing things up to an entirely different way of approaching the entire delve. Let them turn the delve into a stealth mission via the dungeon equivalent of air-ducts or a sub-level. Enable them to use creative means to unlock non-combat options so the combat doesn't get stale.

Let's even take the idea one step farther. Let's look at the classic Legend of Zelda formula as seen in A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, or even Ocarina of Time.

Look at that gorgeous Sony Trinitron my wife will never forgive me for making her help haul up the stairs.

The formula of these games takes the idea of a puzzle-dungeon and makes it a core gameplay loop. To beat the games, tools have to be acquired from various puzzle dungeons that are then use to progress through more puzzle-dungeons that give more tools, etc etc. This all culminates, of course, in a final test of the player's skill (and, generally speaking, a fantastic soundtrack that will haunt your dreams).

How do we adapt this formula to D&D while still following my rules for secrets-as-easter eggs outlined above? Well, let's look at how secrets could build over a campaign arc to offer players more agency in how they complete objectives.

Let's go back to our first example - the wizard's tower. Only this time, let's make the wizard the Big Bad. The focus of an entire series of sessions. His apprentices, also varying degrees of evil, have set up their own twisted lairs across the land. Perhaps they're jockeying for power and approval in the eyes of their master. Perhaps he got sick of dealing with them and kicked them out. Maybe he's holding some kind of evil scholarship contest to see who gets to stay on as his protege. In any case, they're evil wizards doing evil things that are, most likely, evil in effect.

The intended effect of this knowledge upon any clerics in the party

The party volunteers or is assigned or contracted to take out these apprentices and then go after their boss. For every apprentice, the party is now confronted with a unique, thematic dungeon. For every distinct dungeon, a hidden secret that can somehow make the apprentice of that dungeon easier to take down. These secrets don't have to be hidden the same way. Maybe one is behind a secret door at the end of a maze of enemy-infested corridors. Maybe one requires a puzzle to be solved. Maybe one is at the bottom of a subterranean lake only accessible if the party defeats the giant in the room above, causing his corpse to crash through the floor and open the way.

Then, let's double the utility of the secret. It works against the apprentice, but maybe it also factors into making the defeat of Big Bad easier, by either making the way to arrive at that battle easier, or by containing some weakness of the Big Bad himself. If they find all of the secrets, that extra effort then combines to make either the traversal of Big Bad's lair easier, the defeat of Big Bad easier, or both. And even if they only find some of the secrets, they still gain some advantage. This way the players are rewarded for exploring, taking alternate paths, and putting effort into discovery, without being shoehorned into the GMs vision of how the campaign should play out. Maybe they choose NOT to go after the easter eggs, or get them but choose not to use them because they have a different plan. That's cool too, but they had the option. The point is: the players had the opportunity to engage with the campaign arc beyond a series of run-and-gun gore fests on their own terms. They either chose to put in the work on an alternate approach and were rewarded or they decided "nah, today I want DOOM" and grabbed the Super Shotgun and whooped some ass. But it was their agency that led to whatever ended up happening, their decision, not the GMs.

This is only one idea, of course. There are a million ways to draw lines from video game design to tabletop RPG design. I'm excited to explore more of them. For some reason I've encountered grognards very resistant to any talk of video game inspiration, still bitter about the so-called video game influence on the much maligned 4th edition. But video games are not one thing and they offer insight into what makes narrative gaming - in all its forms - fun.

What kind of ideas have you pulled from video games for your sessions? How did it work out?

Part 2 is already half drafted and will focus on Metroidvanias, Roguelikes, and the megadungeon as a self-contained world.

*As a final note - for those who missed out on the Marathon Trilogy back in the day because of its ill-timed release on Mac in an age where gaming was transitioning hardcore to not Mac, Bungie was kind enough to release Halo's esteemed grandfather as a free download a few years ago and the awesome folx over at Aleph One have ported everything over to work on modern operating systems. If you're curious about this classic you can download the games here free of charge. The games have, in my opinion, aged at least as well as DOOM (which I also love).

An Extremely Belated Blog Update

Where have you been you unreliable bird?!

Me, an unreliable bird, being slower to update than Windows

It's a fair and highly warranted question, considering I started this blog, wrote an introductory post, then disappeared for several months. The tl;dr is - I had a surgery, re-learned how to walk, and as I was in recovery the world temporarily ended due to epidemic and all my campaigns were put on hiatus. On top of that, I got sick with what may have been the epidemic, though we'll never know for sure because Pennsylvania had/has a shortage of tests.

But now, having recovered, I'm back.

To re-launch the blog in the absence of any ongoing games to report on, tinker with, and obsess over, I'm going to lean into the theme of Electric Polyhedra and do a 3(?) part series of posts based around dungeon and world design and how classic video games can provide resources and frameworks for modern tabletop gamers to better their play. I'll be posting part 1 - which will focus on level design as it applies to dungeon design - sometime before next weekend. I plan to reference some beloved classic titles including, but not limited to, Doom 64, the Marathon Trilogy, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and The Legend of Grimrock 2.

I hope to see you all there. You have my apologies for this somewhat absurd delay.

Introductions - Who Am I? What is this? I Have No Memory of This Place, etc.

Welcome to Electric Polyhedra - a blog at the intersection of sci-fi/fantasy media and tabletop roleplaying.

Early tabletop games, inspired by books and comics, inspired early video games, both of which have in turn inspired television shows, movies, and additional books and comics. Around and around we go having created a genre-specific, but medium-spanning, feedback loop of creativity.

What does this mean and why should I care?

Well, that depends. How many times have you looked at a piece of media as a fan and said "man! I want to live in that universe, or at least play in it a while!" and then, how many times, have you found either no official tabletop RPG for that universe or, worse, a game that you rush out and buy only to realize it's not at all what you or your group were hoping for?

My goal here, in part, is a goal based in tone and mechanics. I want to evaluate different RPGs, not just for their novelty or mechanics, but for their application to different styles of game. I also want to look at different intellectual properties and discuss which sorts of systems would work in translating those worlds, or worlds based on them, to the table. I want to help facilitate the matching of GMs and players with the games they've been wanting to run in the systems that can best match their expectations.

You said that's your goal 'in part' - what's the rest of your goal?

Good question, imaginary reader!

My heart lies in the OSR (Old School Revival/Renaissance). The OSR is as much a philosophy of how games should be run as it is a loose collection of retro clones and homebrew systems. The movement focuses on a pre-AD&D (or, some would argue, pre-3rd edition D&D) approach to gaming (rulings over rules, moderate to high lethality, gold for xp, an emphasis on sandbox play, organic and logically consistent dungeons over balanced encounters, and a certain DIY ethos). OSR games are certainly not the only systems I own or play, but I am biased toward the OSR style and its design principles. A lot of content on this blog will, as a result, be OSR focused.

One of the wonderful games I'm running right now. The best retro-clone on the market, in my opinion.

On this blog there will be, in addition to product reviews and genre musings, actual play reports and reflections, ideas on homebrewing, and my own collection of hacks and tweaks that I've used at the table.

I roll all my rolls openly, not behind a screen, so my players know I'm not fudging anything. RIP Archibald, level one Thief, bisected and devoured by a Large Crocodile.

Is that all?

No

My other passion is player-focused, inclusive gaming. As a GM I see it as my job to facilitate fun, challenging, and exciting sessions where everyone at the table feels at ease. I'm a fan of folx all being on the same page and yes, I do plan to implement trigger warnings on this blog, so if I miss one, please make me aware so I can edit it in.

Who are you and why should I read what you have to say?

Fair point. There's a lot of Pen and Paper RPG blogs out there on the wilds of the internet. The OSR on its own has a thriving blogosphere. So what do I, and Electric Polyhedra, bring to the table?

First, my name is Jay, like the bird.

The bird, not me.

I've been GMing various systems for a decade now. In those ten years I have not run a single session for what might be described as the "stereotypical" or "standard" D&D demographic. Most of my tables have been overwhelmingly composed of non-cisgendered, non-heterosexual, and non-neurotypical folx, women, and a lot of players who had never touched a D20 before sitting down for our session 0. I myself am a non-binary transmasculine person (they/them or he/him pronouns, please) who was introduced to the world of nerd stuff at age 12 by my Star Wars obsessed, Lord of the Rings obsessed, Harry Potter loving, bookstore owning Aunt Sherry who was always the first person to shut down "geekier than thou" pissing contests and who was perpetually excited to introduce new people to the things she loved.

I'm emphatically not a grognard.

This all puts me, I think, in a unique position. While this blog is not intended to exclusively revolve around minority experiences in gaming, I do want it to be a platform for those discussions. Likewise, my thoughts and positions on a number of subjects are obviously informed by my personal experiences as an AFAB, trans, queer gamer, and by the experiences of those that I've shared a table with. 

I also have an English degree and did a seminar presentation and associated paper on cross-medium adaptations and the struggle of translating, for example, books to film. It was this paper that planted the seed in my head that eventually became this blog (yay! thanks Dr. Villa for letting me skip class an entire semester and write a huge and niche paper instead!) - a lot of times people ask "I want to play a game in a world like x" but can't identify exactly what about x they're trying to reproduce. That over-enthusiastic paper along with a penchant for obsessing over game design (table, rpg, or video game) led me, eventually, here. 

I like to think my degree and design fixation have prepared me for what I want to do at Electric Polyhedra. I intend to post a minimum of once a week. Ideally, I'd love to foster a community here where we can collaborate, discuss, and provide an affirming space for each other in the tabletop rpg world. 

Maybe we'll even answer the titular question: do gamer androids dream of electric polyhedra?

Onward to adventure! Let's get gaming!