DM Prep--multi entrances

[Malrex]

Bryce has shared his opinions and I tend to agree with him that having multiple access points for a dungeon/tower/whatever is a good thing. I wanted to look at this comment though from the latest review:

Alex says:
December 20, 2024 at 4:40 pm
It’s an interesting comparison. I think folks are just more comfortable running megadungeons than hexcrawls. It feels like the party’s path is more predictable and easier to prep for, even though it depends entirely on the particular dungeon how true that is.
E.g. in Arden Vul, the cliff face at the start has entrances to the ruins, level 3, 4, sub-level 8 and sub-level 13. From there, if the party takes the right path they could get to level 1, 2, 5 or 6 in the same session. Yet nobody seems to think all that needs to be prepped before starting.
In Gods the underworld entrances are NOT easily accessible; they’re at the bottom of dungeons or at the back of high-level monster lairs. The PCs would have to be very lucky/motivated to get there in the first several sessions. Yet Tom H. above feels he needs to read the entire underworld before starting.
So, I think it’s partly the adventure type causing people to overestimate prep for this (and underestimate AV prep)."

This comment got me thinking---how to best prepare a DM when there are multiple entrances? For me--I usually read the full adventure first and prep, so this doesn't affect me much at all (except I spend a few hours prepping beforehand, but if it's a huge adventure, I will probably forget some things), but I always think of 'the others' who open the book and playing withing 5 minutes or whatever. The Arden Vul example above sounds awesome--but I could see it putting strain on a DM if the players choose an entrance that they hadn't prepped for. I also think this is another reason why some DMs don't like running city adventures---because it's hard to know which area to prep for when it's wide open.

So, for adventure design--what is a good way to help a DM in these types of situations?
My thoughts:
1. Have some sort of 1-2 paragraph summary of the level/area to quickly give the DM the high/important parts about the level?
2. Some sort of table summarizing important things? For example, when to roll for a wandering encounter, what monsters may hear things and investigate, other stuff...
3. Other? Is it overkill?

The way I'm thinking about this...is for example---a mansion....there could be a special guard patrol and timing is important on the second floor....so you convey that info in the beginning of the second floor section. The PCs decide to access the 2nd floor through a window and enter a room marked #48 (but it could be any room really with a mansion with multiple window options)....so the DM goes to #48 and reads it, but may miss the info about the patrol....

I think for a city--it makes sense to have a quick summary about the district/area. But for a dungeon, although might be helpful, seems a bit overkill...but also necessary if there are important things to keep track of? What's your thoughts for helping a DM/designing an adventure correctly for handling multiple access points?

 

[DangerousPuhson]

This stuff is always going to be entirely subjective - some folk need to know everything in advance, some folk can just wing it; some folk need to prep many levels ahead of the party, some make it up on the spot. So there's no answer that will please all people. Best practice would have to write to the most common denominator though, so it's always good practice to include more details than fewer (BIG CAVEAT - too many details is just as disruptive as too few; DM juggling fatigue is an omnipresent concern).

All that being said, a competent DM will prep however much they need to prep - you do not need to pace their information for them; you merely need to communicate the information in a clear, concise, and useable manner. Tell them what they need to know when they need to know it. If there is something valuable to know in advance, you must communicate it in advance - an obvious tautology I know, but it warrants saying.

The Multiple Entrance Problem I think would be best addressed by diverting the DM to the appropriate information once they arrive at the fork in the adventure, which is usually shortly after the players are given the site overview (or "scenic vista", per Bryce):

"Before you, a two-storey mansion in the Gnomish style, festooned with piping and ornamental cogs - flickering lamplight is seen from curtained windows on both floors, and a clay chimney puffs a glittering, iridescent smoke." Determine the party's course of action - if the party is entering by the front doors or main floor windows, go to p.23; if they are entering by second floor windows or down the chimney, go to p.30" etc.

From there, the module points immediately to what must be foreknown ("p.23 - there are four guards patrolling the main floor, and a butler who answers the door..."). Any DM who wants to prep either scenario can, but it also helps the "go-with-the-flow" DMs who don't need to glut on so much prepwork, and find extraneous information cumbersome.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Of course all this depends on how each part interacts with each other part too. If your players can see Areas 23-27 from where they stand in Area 9, you'd need to duplicate the information, putting all the visible stuff from 23-27 into the key for 9 (albeit abbreviated).

Again though, stuff goes where it works best to go, based on practicality to the DM running the adventure... and the best way to figure that out is in playtesting, by making notes of when you interface with certain elements (and should therefore have access to play-facilitating information for said elements).

 

[Beoric]

Slight tangent, but when I'm stocking a dungeon with multiple entrances I use a tool (4e specific and no longer available, or I would link it) which flowcharts dungeon areas and tracks accumulated experience. The chart assumes locations at the top of the chart are cleared before entries at the bottom. And it will draw a line wherever it is likely that the party will level; essentially, it says "if the party clears everything and gets all of the experience for these keyed areas at the top of the dungeon, the partly is likely to increase by one level.

When I have several entrances that are reasonably easy to find, I try to encourage exploration by making what is behind them relatively similar in terms of level of risk. What I don't want is to discourage exploration by demolishing the party if they don't use the most obvious entrance. So I treat all of the entrances as leading to the top level of the dungeon. So "deeper into the dungeon" doesn't mean a change in physical level so much as being the distance from the nearest readily accessible dungeon entrance. This is what that looks like for the Abbey Dungeon:



When I review the dungeon to prep, I focus on the first few encounters that are likely to occur for each entrance. As long as I have a general recollection of the rest of the dungeon, I find the first few encounters is all I really need, because after that I'm warmed up and have an easier time doing things on the fly.

So if this makes sense to you, maybe have a "mini prep" section for each entrance, tying together the first few areas of each entrance? You could probably do that even if you want certain entrances to be more dangerous than others.

[If anyone wants to talk about the flowchart, I will post this over in the N1 thread so I don't derail this one.]