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6/19/2025, 8:16:38 AM
It's tempting, but Zelda dungeons are designed to be solved in a particular way. Designing dungeons with an intended solution is the antithesis of TTRPGs, since it makes you less open to the solutions your players will come up with.
Having said that, there are two ideas that potentially translate well to TTRPGs:
The first is a "Puzzle Motif". I ran a dungeon filled with elementals that could combine their powers in unique ways, with order mattering. For example, if there was an earth elemental and an air elemental, the air elemental could summon a bolt of lightning that stretched from it to the earth elemental, and the earth elemental could kick up a cloud of dust or sand. The goal was to find four elemental altars and use them to enchant special keys such that they had a Lightning Key, an Ice Key, and a Mud Key. The combat encounters were fun, but the players just brute-forced every combination of elements until they had the required keys.
The second idea is a section of the dungeon with monsters that are a pain to fight until you find the special dungeon item. There are modules that do something similar, but depending on how it's handled, it can feel a bit too "video gamey". If you're doing a more old-school dungeon crawl, your players won't even trust that the item is safe to use.
Having said that, there are two ideas that potentially translate well to TTRPGs:
The first is a "Puzzle Motif". I ran a dungeon filled with elementals that could combine their powers in unique ways, with order mattering. For example, if there was an earth elemental and an air elemental, the air elemental could summon a bolt of lightning that stretched from it to the earth elemental, and the earth elemental could kick up a cloud of dust or sand. The goal was to find four elemental altars and use them to enchant special keys such that they had a Lightning Key, an Ice Key, and a Mud Key. The combat encounters were fun, but the players just brute-forced every combination of elements until they had the required keys.
The second idea is a section of the dungeon with monsters that are a pain to fight until you find the special dungeon item. There are modules that do something similar, but depending on how it's handled, it can feel a bit too "video gamey". If you're doing a more old-school dungeon crawl, your players won't even trust that the item is safe to use.
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