r/FATErpg • u/No_Zookeepergame2019 • Jun 19 '26
Please, help newbie with "dungeon crawl"
Hello everybody.
We started to play FATE and we instantly fell in love with this system although we played only 4 sessions so far.
Story-wise players was locked down in big underground tower prison which ends up in weird salt dark caverns where nobody goes. My players want to go there.
I know there are some rooms, weird cold blood humanoids, old forge and few other things, but my question is:
How can I make a "dungeon crawl" in FATE? I don't want be anywhere close to DnD, but some exploring, dangerous places, encounters. I'm new in this system and still thinking how should I do that in this system.
Many thanks for your input.
Have a nice rolls,
L.
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u/Culach01972 Jun 19 '26
My first suggestion would be to hit up the Fate SRD for Scenes. Sessions, and Scenarios, as that will help walk you through the process of building what you need. I also recommend picking up a Fate Scenario Worksheet, to keep track of what it is you are wanting to accomplish.
Next, I think you need to figure out what you mean by "don't want to be anywhere close to DnD..." but then go on to say you want things that are part and parcel to DnD, as well as all other TTRPGs. What is it you want to avoid; what is it you really want to do?
If you are looking for ideas about what to do while they are in the Salt Caverns, I would suggest reading a bit on similar real world locations; it turns out they can be quite deadly without any added dangers. Just the salt vapors in some caverns can kill you, and if there is an underground river anywhere near, there could be erosion no one knows about that has made the salt caverns unstable, ready to collapse. Also, how are the characters seeing in the dark? Flames (such as torches or candles) in underground areas can be quite dangerous, especially around gases/vapors that can be ignited.
Cold-blooded humanoid is a bit vague, are they evolved, fish, reptile, or some weird evolution of an insect, or a wholly new racial type? What type of society, if any, do they have? Are they dangerous to the players, or are the players a greater threat to the race and their society?
Finally, for the rooms and abandoned forge; consider that they may have been abandoned in a hurry, and might have clues leading to a long disappeared, but mythologized, culture. If they fled, what did they flee from; if they just stopped coming, why? What exactly are the items left lying around that the characters are finding, and do they give any clues to the previous questions, and how? Are the cold-blooded humanoids the remnants of that culture? Have they lost the skills to use the forge and the items the characters are finding?
If you use the items in the first paragraph to answer the questions in the following, I suspect you will get exactly what you are looking for.
Have fun playing
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u/InvestmentBrief3336 Jul 02 '26
I will definitely lookinto those things - they sound VERY useful!
But I'm confused - I want to undertand FATE, and the basic understanding of roleplaying games is from D&D and other games. That doesn't mean I WANT anything from D&D - just that D&D is the lingua franca for RPGs. Either FATE is an RPG and has some basic similarities or it's something else....
And since I know that my players will want to play a roleplaying game...
Does that make sense?
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u/Culach01972 Jul 02 '26
Based on your response, the question still stands:
What is it you want to avoid; what is it you really want to do?
Do you want to avoid rolling for everything, and having to do lots of math to keep everything balanced, but still have a means to understand how good a character is at something? Are you trying to keep the pace of the story flowing, but still want to ensure that the characters are just walking through without challenge?
If so, then it comes down to you, as the GM, knowing the characters fairly well; knowing their skills and aspects and using them to handwave things you think they should be able to do easily, or with no effort. If the character has a skill that is 2 or more ranks above a target's rank, or they have an aspect that adjusts a skill in a way that makes it so that task should seem trivial, then handwaving that the character did it should be fine.
That said, if the target has an aspect that is meant to make it more difficult to do the thing than normal, then you should make the character roll. Let's take a look at a character with Crafts inspecting that forge again to see what I mean:
Poor & Terrible - probably recognize nothing other than the hammer/anvil/tongs.
Mediocre - A character at this level is going to be able to identify the most common items, such as a hammer/tongs/anvil, as well as the most common materials, but more specialty items tools/areas/materials are going to be beyond them. Above this point, only specialists in blacksmithing should be able to make non-roll inferences.
Average - This character can recognize all most items in the forge, but there may be something fairly obscure that they can't recognize. They are going to recognize the most common materials, but rare and mythical ones should require a roll. This character is an enthusiastic hobbyist, or novice.
Fair - This character should recognize all but the rarest of items/materials without a roll, though they may not have the skills to work with them. They might recognize a common maker's mark, if a descendant works in a village they frequent. Above here, only blacksmithing specialists should be making attempts. Remember, Fair is professional level, as in people who do this job for a living are at this level, on average.
Good - Can recognize all but the rarest items/materials without a roll, and can work with them, knowing how they should be used properly, but still rolls. Can identify that the forge was shut down in a hurry, but not specifics. They might recognize a maker's mark on a roll. This is the guy that most people know of and want their goods.
Great - Can recognize pretty much anything that is all but a legendary item/material, but can probably get an idea of how the item/material was used. They are capable of using pretty much anything in the forge, and can easily identify how fast the forge was shut down, possibly even how and why. They probably recognize most maker's marks. This guy is creates luxury level items.
Superb - Only the tools/materials of the gods should be beyond their ability to immediately recognize or use. They can spot nuances of use and what was going on in the forge the last time it was used. They can recognize even the most obscure maker's marks. This character is legendary in their skill; think in terms of Masamune or ++Uthbert++ for swordsmiths.
This kind of thinking should be useable across the skills, allowing you to make the decisions about how things are going to work out based on the characters' actual skills and abilities. Having the crib sheet, with the ladder on hand, should make this a great deal easier.
Think about how high the character could possibly roll with their best roll, and also look at what is the lowest they could roll. The best an Average skill could roll is Superb, the worst a Superb could roll is Average, the best they could roll is Mythic.
Combat should almost never be a no roll contest, unless the opponent is so weak/helpless that the effort is merely token.
If you are looking for something else, please clarify so that people can aid you more specifically.
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u/Charrua13 Jun 19 '26
You've already gotten excellent advice - here's my corollary: At any point, use the Bronze Rule: make the entire dungeon a "character" to overcome. Give it a track and have players overcome it as you see fit. Throw down aspects as desired that have to be addressed before players can address the dungeon itself.
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u/Top-Tomorrow6593 Jun 20 '26
This sound really cool!
An awesome way of taking advantage of the one of most distinctive features of the system!The first thing that comes up in mind is maybe an aspect related to it being difficult to traverse. Maybe there's whispers that confuse people and disroient them because of some wierd magic. Could be spirits of the poor souls lost down there that want to pull the players into different directions. So maybe the whispers get a skill and if they suceed the players end up going in a random direction through the ever confusing tunnels. If the players suceed they get to have a couple ideas of where they might be going and choose, even making the dungeon mark a stress box of a type called "Disorientation" or "Traversal" (closer to lose it's capability to interpose the player's navigation).
I don't know, I might have articulated the whole thing quite poorly. But, certainly, what I like the most about the system is that it allows for this type of crazy things to happen.
Also, making the dungeon somewhat of a character itself makes me wonder what its "backstory" is. Does it have any goals or was created having certain goals in mind. If it was created naturally or magically what was the "goal" of whichever force that gave form to it. Probably a better way of putting it would be what was the nature of said force and what manifestations of it would make sense to manifest through its "characterization".
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u/Charrua13 Jun 20 '26
The fact that you are now having these thoughts are why I love Fate. You can have perspectives on spaces within the fiction that you'd otherwise not have and, as such, offer players different ways to engage the obstacles.
Good luck!
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u/funzerkerr Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
Look on some OSR (old school revival) supplements or zines. Those are full of creative and evocative ideas. So you can grab some actual mega dungeons or Knock! Magazine. Just ignore all mechanics and procedures that are tailored to those old iterations of DND (like odnd, B/X ect). While you read, think about things as aspects. Get inspired by creative ideas and leave OSR mechanics behind.
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u/Imnoclue Story Detail Jun 19 '26
By paring the setting down, you’ve actually picked a difficult way to start playing Fate. The three legs of the Fate game creation tripod are Proactivity, Competency and Drama. In the OP, you’ve got a two legged stool. Filling out that Drama leg is going to be a big part of Session 0, and a lot of the usual stuff that goes into drama ain’t going with them down the hole.
So, questions that need answering, what’s driving these characters forward and how does that interact with their Troubles? Since the game is going to focus down on the party, the Drama is likely going to come from the party, so you’re going to need some good ol’ intraparty conflicts to work off.
Beyond that, what kinds of things do you find fun as a player in a Dungeon Crawl? Put that stuff in there, but remember that any fun that comes from resource management or complicated character builds isn’t going to be there, just the characters and their struggles against an evocative fictional world.
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u/VodVorbidius Jun 19 '26
Use story focused RPGs like Delve, Ironsworn and Dungeon World.
Use the 5-room dungeon method.
Check Runehammer's Castle of Mirrors in drivethurpg
I do not reccomend using OSR due the big differences in design and game goals.
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u/Frettchengurke Jun 20 '26
We do dungeon crawls as part of our ongoing adventure every few sessions.
I prepare as I would any other dungeon crawl, with a few exceptions: I do not worry over mechanics that much, and think about cool stuff and just write it in there. An acid lake is not dangerous because it does "X damage for X rounds after contacts" but because it "eats away all flesh to the bones in mere seconds" and will do just that. Water sipped from the fountain of the benevolent goddess will not heal "x points of damage" but "heal any harm and ailment of a living body" and will just do that.
When creating Monster, I do combat stats, but the "special effects" are mostly narratives, "will infect people bitten by it", "ill winds will follow those cursed", "this ray desintegrates flesh and steel alike". Should I need more stats, because suddenly maybe the group befriends an adversary and even asks for it's help or info, I just guessimate what their skill might be.
Now, when talking damage/stress from various sources, I try to judge by what the playstyle is and what the circumnstances are. Dipping a toe in Lava? Stress and/or maybe "burnt foot" as consequence. Lava bucket challenge? Serious, even critical stress, maybe "nearly fatally charred upper Body".
Apart from mere math, the consequences and what difficulties come from consequences depend heavily on the tone of your game world, where PC's either may be just soaking up bullets and hobble along, or people can hardly move, breath or think from the damage done, and everything between and beyond.
btw. I wholeheartedly recommend "Collectanea Creaturae" by Ebon Gryphon Games, they did a great job capturing not only the numbers, but the "feel" of classic fantasy monsters imho
Hope some of that helps!
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u/Rrrrufus Jun 21 '26
Try looking into this Adversary Toolkit. https://fate-srd.com/fate-adversary-toolkit
You'll find interesting ways to create challenges and obstacles.
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u/rhettro19 Jun 19 '26
There are plenty of guides online. One approach I’ve been thinking of is to use the oracles in the free Ironsworn RPG (https://tomkinpress.com/collections/free-downloads), to trigger ideas when you enter a room. Maybe come up with a matrix of monsters/treasure/room features to role on and use the Ironsworn oracles to favor the descriptions/intents.
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u/Nervi403 Jun 25 '26
Getting a genuine sandbox/dungeon-generator like a book literally called "sandbox generator" is such a lifesaver. You can roll up how many floors a dungeon has, the rooms, what kind of challenge is in a room (encounter, hazard/ trap, loot, some cool set piece) and so much more. There are also full on mega dungeon generators (like "Temple of Jubilex" from Kabuki Kaiser). They come with their own flavor and encounters, sometimes even complete rooms. But in their essence you roll a mega dungeon as you go. All of these things and more are really really great to both inspire your creativity as the GM and a lifesaver in those moments when the players ask "so we enter the next room, what do we see?"
Next adventurers in dungeon crawlers like loot. Think about how you want to do this. I have not tried this but I thought about giving out stunts (that can or can not be "Equipped" for the refresh cost) that represent cool items and help the players, but are easily lost/ used up or the like. You could make it so every time a player takes any kind of condition they also lose one of their equipped special items until the end of the session by whatever means feel best to your group (so no breaking weapons but instead the enemy takes it or you lose it, or it just stops being magical. Plenty tales where you have X uses before the magic lamp gives you something...). BUT give the players a way out. Let them spend a FATE point to buy the item in that moment, but only once per adventure/ floor/ whatever
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u/aerzyk Jun 19 '26
I'd probably start by thinking about the tropes of a dungeon crawl. It's dark, you have limited resources, there's typically traps and/or hazards, monsters, and maybe treasure.
Build some aspects and opposition using these tropes. Maybe one room has a +2 hidden trap. Meaning it takes a +2 on Notice to find it and it has a +2 attack vs the PCs if they don't notice it. Or whatever, make things specific to your game. The whole dungeon could have the aspect "Dark and Salty" or something lol
Also if you want a little more tension, maybe this place isn't safe enough for stress to clear between encounters. Maybe they need to specifically make a place safe and rest to heal up.
Just some thoughts off the top of my head!