Take a Stroll Through the Gatehouse

When I first heard the term "funnel adventure", I had this image of a gauntlet style dungeon, a real meat grinder where players had to try to make it through a series of increasingly difficult rooms, funneling them to a final destination. Maybe they make it, maybe they don't. Having looked up actual funnel adventures, I suppose I wasn't too far off.

Anyway, I liked the concept, a dungeon where each room was more difficult than the last, and thought I'd try that out on a small scale when designing The Gatehouse, March's #dungeon23 map. The Gatehouse is, so far, the least "Jaquayed" map in the dungeon. From a topographical point of view, it is quite linear, and I'm okay with that. Rather than relying on navigational variety, I tried to experiment more with providing different options  to overcome increasingly difficult obstacles. A lot of the "rooms" in The Gatehouse are just one big area, but with a lot going on in each of them. The challenge comes from finding a solution to get from one area to the next.

That said, it does offer some branching navigation vertically, since you're able to get into The Sewers via the fountain puzzle. More on that later. Plus yay, finally managed to connect that ladder in The Sewers from January!  

I also intended this to be, basically, the main entrance to the mega-dungeon. While there will be other entry points, The Gatehouse is the most obvious and the most fortified. Let's dig in.

On the south side of the map, players are introduced to a drawbridge, flanked by two large towers. A rickety bridge is a pretty classic challenge, a bit of a warm-up. Beyond that, there's the iron gate, that may be picked or forced open. If the gate proves to be too much trouble, there's a path through the open hole in the east tower that can be climbed through. Or perhaps players would like to scale the middle rampart. Climbing is likely the more dangerous option, should they fall, but also less likely to call attention to their entry. So, the first area is fairly straightforward with a choice of simple obstacles to overcome. 

Next up, a little further north, the energy cannon area. There's a warning here, the second gate already has a hole blown through it, letting players know that's probably not the safest entry. Though you could try! There's a strategically placed bush further in that just might save your life. Players who used the towers to enter The Gatehouse  may miss the second gate entirely, so the cannon might be a bit of a surprise. They will, however, be in a better position to make it to the power grid, on the upper level, to shut off the cannon.  Or use some of the tools and materials found in the storage rooms, also located on the upper level. This area, overall, ramps up the danger, but provides several paths and choices to overcome it.

After that, I thought I'd try my hand at designing a puzzle, since I haven't included anything along those lines in the dungeon up until this point. Also to add a bit of a breather from a pacing point of view. The entire area is focused on a fountain, which is actually a "door". Certain statues surrounding the fountain need to be rotated a certain direction for it to unlock. The "combination" is presented with lore (oh no), provided by carved slabs on each statue. This grants access to The Sewers area below. I don't know how well this will work in practice, or if I've managed to explain it well enough in my notes, but I'm glad I gave it a shot. At the very least it adds a little flavor to the dungeon by getting to know a little bit about what happened before the player characters showed up.

The last part of the gauntlet is the northern courtyard, where the end goal is in sight: A grand set of doors, the entrance to the inner keep. This area continues to increase the difficulty, things will be coming at the players from several angles and are all quite lethal. Crossing the courtyard triggers an orbital lance that will fire from space. This is telegraphed by a series of craters scattered about the courtyard, though if that's not enough, the first person to step out will make it quite obvious, as there's a good chance they will be vaporized. Maybe this is too much, but in the spirit of continuing to ramp up the danger, I decided to leave it in. Upon reaching the doors, two robotic sentry units will activate, so there'll be that to deal with as well.

To the east and west of the northern courtyard are some additional areas  that help to flesh out the feel of the dungeon a bit more. I'm particularly proud of the ghost-horse on the west side, continuing to sprinkle in the themes of the expendability of life. Checking out the east side provides a means to deactivate all the Gatehouse's defences, a reward for making it so far. 

The gradient of difficulty might be a little harsh, using just three areas here (not counting the fountain). I suppose with a range of five or six rooms, it would be a little more gradual. Something to experiment with further, elsewhere, maybe.

Alright, that's probably enough. See you next month!