Rumors of War

Not to be confused with destroying the dungeon.

I rather enjoy the Goliath-leveling mechanic in Borderlands 2. Among other things, it gives you something to amuse yourself — altering the objectives of combat — and access to pretty good loot. You’re guaranteed some Eridium, at least.

I’ve been trying to come up with some ways to make dungeons dynamic — consequences for entering and messing about in dungeons — and should the PCs leave, for there to be some kind of recovery or transition period for a dungeon.

Just… it can’t be too complicated, whatever it is. I mean, the PCs might never go back, so don’t put too much effort into it — right?

Here’s the thought then — adopt a system similar to that of say, the Goliath-leveling mechanics from Borderlands 2, to the advancement of a dungeon.

Unlike player characters, I can totally see rewarding dungeons for killing things — so how about advancing a dungeon by one level for every PC slain therein, or instead one level for every two NPC/hirelings slain?

Of course a dungeon can only level up once the PCs retreat — so there’s an incentive for the players to fight to the bitter end. I mean, that’s only if they don’t want the dungeon to come back stronger, anyhow.

But look at it this way, a higher-level dungeon awards better loot, right?

I guess for this to be significant in any way, a dungeon has to have levels, and those levels have to mean something. Oh yeah, I’m working on that system…

Actually, what this really did was give me a reason to start thinking about the implications of a dungeon leveling up. I mean, what do you add to a dungeon when it levels up? What advances? Does a dungeon “get better” at stuff?

Cookiemonger and I have Dungeon Keeper on Good Old Games, so it might be time for me to finally play it. My thought is that leveling a dungeon should add rooms — but how many rooms should be in a 1st-level dungeon?