Exploring and Claiming a Dungeon


When I am a player exploring a dungeon, I like to go into every single room. I don’t skip rooms and corridors because I have found the stairs to the next level. I want to clear out the entire level, and then move on. That might be caused by my GM mentality. The GM worked on every room, and it would be a shame to ignore some of his/her work.

Now, besides exploring the dungeon, I have this idea about how to claim the dungeon. Once my character can afford such a thing, I’d like to hire a party of mercenaries or some such to follow behind me as my party explores and claims each part of the dungeon. This mercenary party is charged with making sure that nothing tries to take (back) what I have already claimed.

These mercenaries would have to find a place behind me that is accessible by only one or two hallways and set up defenses there. As my party moved through the dungeon, the defense point would change.  This defense point is also a great place for me to retreat if necessary.

The easiest place to set up these defenses would probably be at the top of a stairwell. Once the adventuring party cleaned out level 1, the mercenaries would set up defenses at the top of the stairs leading to level 2. If there was more than one set of stairs, we would need more than one party or the mercenary party would have to be large enough to split in two. However, each would have to be able to ably defend their location.

I would love the opportunity to put this idea into practice.

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