Simple DnD Map v3 - ePortfolio Post

09/27/22

Simple DnD Map v3 - ePortfolio Post

For this iteration of the simple Dungeons and Dragons level, we had much more freedom and ability to customize our levels, so I feel like this version came out a lot better than the previous two levels. I have also gotten a lot better at using Roll20 and was able to utilize the tools a lot better, such as fog of war, and the use of tokens. Since we had the theme of prison break and alien apocalypse, I based the level off of the idea that the aliens were using an old broken down human prison to keep humans trapped, and that the players would play as a military team breaking into the prison to free people, rather than normal people trying to break out. I thought this added a nice story to an otherwise stationary level. As for the main level design, I used 2 main or “key” items, one that allowed players to travel from the prison into the vents and back, and one that was obtained later on and was used to pry open the cell doors, giving access to parts of the prison that could not be accessed before. I used the cell doors to act as a sort of window showing players what they could have, but that they were not prepared to obtain, such as having straight cell doors to the final boss after defeating the very first enemy, giving the players an idea of what to expect for the finale, and building excitement for what is to come.

I used this same idea by putting an item beyond a cell door in the beginning that players were not able to get through, but once they reach the crow bar item, they unlock a shortcut through the original cell doors facing the boss, which brings them straight back to the item. The other items I used were bread for a health increase, a grenade for a flat damage increase, an armor plate for defense increase, and the first item that isn’t obtainable immediately, a stick of dynamite which does a hefty chunk of 15 extra damage and is very useful for defeating the boss. The level was not too long this time, and took roughly 17 minutes to complete. There were checkpoints at each crate, which showed up after every major battle and awarded a unique item, health regen, and a save point for the team. I added an inventory and stat screen off to the side of the level as well, where I would drag items and adjust the stats of the characters accordingly, depending on who equipped which item.

This level overall seemed a lot better made than my previous two, but it obviously had some flaws along with it. Since the free token selection is very limited, I found myself reusing enemies and including items that made no sense in the context of the level. This included using a slightly altered version of the first worm enemy multiple times, and using items such as wooden spoons and cups as stand ins for the crowbar and grenade respectively. Though this did take away from the immersion a bit, I was able to play off the items in ways that made them seem reasonable, mainly thinking of them as “makeshift weapons the prisoners crafted”, so this did not end up causing too much of an issue.

The other main issue I had, which was one of the only issues that directly affected gameplay, is I put ranged enemies at the end of a hallway and vastly underestimated their damage, to the point that by the time players reached the end of the hall, they were extremely low health. So though there were some major flaws to the level, It turned out a lot better than the previous two and I thought I did a good job at introducing some interesting mechanics through the use of items.