How to Host a Dungeon 2nd Edition

I'm having a ton of fun with the game but really struggling with how to interpret the Relocate actions, especially when it's on a monster which does it every turn. I think I'm stumped on what the difference was meant to be between Scout, Relocate, and Explore.

Explore is clear, pick a random direction and dig until you find something interesting. The point is to open some kind of opportunity for the group in question.

Scout seems to mean that the group broadens it's territory, trying to find new opportunities by taking ownership of unoccupied rooms, picking up lost treasure along the way.

The issue I'm having is that Relocate seems to suggest that the group of Monsters pack up and move all their stuff elsewhere, digging through rock if needed. On average this means 3-5 beads changing location at the same time and digging out just as many new rooms if there are none available at the location. As it doesn't count as an Invasion, I assume they shouldn't push out current occupants....See more As a result, Groups that relocate every turn seem to turn the unexplored parts of the map into swiss cheese, or bounce between a set of unoccupied rooms.

Am I doing something wrong?

Nice little game; heard about it in a forum comment about breathing life to megadungeons and, given the price, I purchased it. I like procedural dungeon generators, and this one in particular helps developing the history of the dungeon as you add elements to your map.

Couple things...

Typo: the Feature table (p. 4) has 6 options but has a d8 title.

Rules suggestion: is is unclear in what order end-of-turn events take place. Like corrupting a strata or spawning a new monster group. It's not important and is easily hand-waved, but I'd appreciate a sentence somewhere to settle the matter.

A broader suggestion: I and probably others play this game not just as a pass-time but as a way to design a dungeon for future use in tabletop RPGs. And, in my opinion, dungeon crawls are never as fun as when the dungeon houses multiple factions of monsters. It then feels like a living place with dynamics of its own, and player characters' action will truly matter as they typically...See more upset the fragile balance of power. This then introduces some politics, in the form of having to pick a side and resort to "enemy of my enemy" thinking.

The game does that part well with the Age of Monsters, but the subsequent Age of Villainy is geared toward modeling the rise of a single major threat, with the risk of the end result being a quasi mono-group dungeon. Even if the Villain eventually fails, it'll leave most of the dungeon to the largest non-villain group.

Although it's possible to quit at the end of the Age of Monsters, what about designing an alternative to the Age of Villainy that's about consolidating a small number of entrenched factions or possibly coalitions of groups? Ideally you'd have three groups to really drive that "Mexican standoff" stalemate which PC's are bound to disrupt: if one side gets ahead the other two temporarily join forces to contain it.

Anyway, thanks for making this game!

Cheers

You roll "Features" for each stratum, and three times the text says "roll 1d8", including the table heading...but there are only six options? Also, Nexus option 7 "Cyclopean complex" says "If you got this by rolling on the caves table"...but there's no option on the caves table that sends you to the nexus table???

Hey there! One thing i cant understand is if i buy "How to Host a Dungeon 2nd Edition" it doenst came with the cards? Do i need to buy "Civilization Cards for How to Host a Dungeon" and "Monster Cards for How to Host a Dungeon" or they are extra/different stuff to add on top of the base?

Hey there Tony! the PDf indicates this comes with the Monster and Civilization cards...bu tI only got the monster cards with the game.

Thanks!

So does this version not have arch villains like the liche-lord, or the Dungeon Master? I see no mention of seasons either.

Hello!

The PDF seems to be missing the Empire Villainy information.