Advice on Phys-repping Dungeons

jwconvery

jwconvery

Mentor
I am looking for some advice on creating the classic dungeon crawl, within the confines of low-budget larping. I would like to create things like doors, traps, hallways etc. The players can suspend a lot of disbelief, but I'd like to help them out as much as I can.

I've seen the 'Stay on the path: waves of monsters' mod. Which wont work for what I have planned.

Bunk beds in a Cabin in one door out the back, might work but I don't know if I like the downtime to change the set-up each time through.

I've seen stakes on the ground to simulate walls in an open field. This would be better, but I am worried about tripping hazards.

What is everyone's opinion? I can set things up ahead of time, so that's not an issue. but what has worked foryou guys, from both a plot perspective and a player enjoyment side?

thanks,

-joe
 
The last few games we have had at Camp Sheppard here in Washington we have used tarps and plastic sheeting to facilitate dungeon crawls inside cabins. This has worked really well for us at this camp because the cabins are enormous and have three entrances and staircase leading up to a loft. Generally once the tarps and heavy plastic sheeting are unrolled and set up for the first mod it only takes a few minutes to re-arrange the set up for the next area or module, and multiple entrances into the building gives us more options.
We have had a measure of success with this at other camps as well, but none of the cabins we've used have been as large or as versatile as the ones at Sheppard.
 
Back in Nero Central Illinois, they had a combination of tarps and 4x8 plywood boards, that stood upright thanks to simple "feet" that bolted onto the bottom. The feet had holes in them that a metal stake went through and into the ground, and the boards themselves had small holes along the sides that allowed them to be quickly connected with canopy bungee cords" like these. http://www.bungeeco.com/subcategory.php?subCatId=91

She had a trailer to hall these things back and forth to the site, and we even used them for demonstrations and special events. We even took them out to a kids Asthma Camp and ran a dungeon full of monsters of them to throw packets at. Good times.

If you want, message me, and I'll draw up a diagram, scan it, and send it your way. The idea was, if each player could donate a couple boards, then over time you could make dungeons anywhere there was a little scrap of land. The next phase was gonna involve either painting the boards, or painting tarps on either side (to have reversible backgrounds) to drape over them. However, when she found out that she was having twins, she realized she wouldn't have the time to dedicate to a larp, and shut down.

Once staked into the ground, and bungeed together, those walls were pretty sturdy. I was about to propose a goal to make 100 straight wall, and 50 curved walls, but alas, the chapter closed. Maybe you'll have a chance to try it out. Even if you don't want to paint stonework patterns on the boards or tarps, you could at least paint them gray. It would help a lot with suspending disbelief.
 
By the way, the plastic sheeting they're talking about is usually landscape plastic sheeting. it comes black and opaque to light - it's used to kill weeds as well as hold mulch. The trick is finding a place that will sell it in 6 foot width - most is 3 foot - but you could always tape it together. A quick search on Amazon.com shows some rolls of 3'x50' being only $3-$5 (not sure about the shipping addition though). You can also pick up some cheap bamboo stakes and twine at the garden/landscaping store as well and use them as wall posts and run the twine between the posts and you can tape the sheeting to that.
 
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