Handbook of Erotic Fantasy: Adult Dungeon (Patreon)

There are many kinds of dungeon. Not all of them are friendly to newcomers. 

For my part, I do love me an old-fashioned crawl. There’s nothing quite so satisfying as lighting the torches, brandishing the 10-foot poles, and storming the dungeon like it was Frankenstein’s monster. But like Frankenstein’s monster, dungeons can have a mind of their own. They may be stronger than you think, more malevolent than they seem, and turn on their creators in nothing flat. That’s why I’m grateful that  we have CR systems to keep everything in line. Of course, not everyone shares this opinion.

Hop onto any gaming forum and bring up the topic of Challenge Ratings. You’ll inevitably get stories about low-CR swarms and slimes that beat face. You’ll also get stories about big badass boss battles that turn into cakewalks. This leads to the view that CR is a useless measure, and that GMs are better off ignoring those numbers and playing encounter design by ear. I think that shortchanges the system though. CR is a mathematical measuring stick. Here’s how much damage a monster of this difficulty ought to do. Here’s the average hp. Here’s a suggested save DC. That’s all down to system. But it falls on the GM to know which monsters are counters to their particular PCs and which are designed to fall to the local fire mage. 

A dungeon makes this mess even more complicated. The further you get from the entrance, the more variables you’ve got to deal with. Has the party rested? Is there a healer in the group? Do our plucky heroes have a bunch of un-spent gold that isn’t contributing to their power level? 

All of the above can be a factor, but the most important consideration is blind chance. We play these games with dice after all. An unlucky crit can fell even the mightiest barbarian, and bad dice luck on the party’s part can transform a lowly goblin into an invincible action hero. (Seriously. My group still talks about the 1 hp goblin that just wouldn’t die.) This doesn’t mean that CR is somehow broken. It just means that you’ve stumbled upon a data point that’s way out on the edge of the bell curve. In my view, it behooves a GM to consider CR for what it is: a measuring stick for average difficulty. Just keep in mind that individual battles—and individual dungeons—don’t care about averages. 

Question of the day then. Have you ever encountered an encounter that was more difficult than its CR would suggest? Were there any other factors that lead to the difficulty? Let’s hear your tales in the comments!