"Why not play a dungeon?"

We are continuing our playtest of the Warhammer RPG, and an interesting question came up during play, "Why don't we just roll up a dungeon and play that?" Before I get to answering that, let me tell you how we got to that question.

Our Warhammer play through is focused on the traditional Warhammer style of adventure, a roaming, story-based adventure that changes locations, situations, and NPCs rapidly as the characters travel about the local land while trying to solve a big problem. It is definitely not a dungeon, like an OGL game would use, but more of a series of situations the characters are free to solve any way they would like, and the outcome determines what happens next.

Contrast this with an OGL game, where a simple dungeon map is good enough. That is the adventure, and the reason for playing is to gain loot and get XPs. This is a similar motivation of D&D4, it is simple, and that simplicity is its appeal.

Let's look at Pathfinder and also D&D3.5 circa Forgotten Realms. Here the adventure de-jour is a roaming story, much like our Warhammer play through, but with an emphasis on throwing in the occasional dungeon run. A great example of this adventure style is the Pathfinder adventure path. It is different than a pure roaming story adventure in two ways: you still have a strong loot motivation, and dungeon interludes are emphasized strongly.

"Why don't we roll up a dungeon and play that?" Is a valid question when playing anything, and the answers to this question are often more interesting than the question. With Warhammer, there is no strong loot motivation - the game is very character based, and the definition of success and failure is 100% on the story and the world. There are no huge lists of magic loot in the game (with the set we have), and the things to buy in the game are limited. Advancing your character is a goal, and solving the next problem is what lies ahead. Roaming around in a dungeon is pointless in the larger scheme of things.

With OGL or D&D4, the same question is valid, and the answer is, "Why not?" There are strong loot motivations in these games, and the motivation to go out in the world and accumulate 'great power' is often the primary motivation for playing. This is a shift, and we have saw many players more motivated by power than story - to them with power, any story is solvable. D&D4's power cars, item upgrades, and focus on the combat minigame focuses the accumulation of loot like a laser.

Pathfinder has a more story based focus, thanks to the legacy of its adventure path setup. We still have a strong loot motivation, even better loot that D&D4 in many cases, but the players the game attracts typically are balanced between power and story based gamers. It is a fine balance to keep the dungeons in the adventure paths feeling like they belong in a story-based adventure, when the party wants to move the story along and not get bogged down in a dungeon crawl.

"Why not play a dungeon?" Is a great question, and you can learn a lot by answering it. Even the negative responses can teach you a lot about a game, what the game's motivations are, how the game expects to be played, and how the designers focused game play. Understanding what a game rewards and the behaviors it discourages helps you understand a game better, and increases the enjoyment you get from it. Asa  game master, this understanding is critical to how much fun your players will have at the table.