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Hey, that looks like a successful session to me! They saw and interacted with most of what was prepared and there were even a few RP-driven decisions
Yeah. Not everything has to be a movie. If you want the little dudes to do exactly what you had laid out for them, get some action figures man. If you want your players to play on the playground just give them some toys, a rough objective, and let 'em run around.
If you want your players to interact with something, make it either related to something they already care about and actively want to achieve, or else thrust them into the middle of it without any choice about it. If instead of that you turn them loose in the dungeon and they just run around having fun killing monsters and having hijinx then there is nothing in the world wrong with that and it is the expected result
Recycle your unvisited rooms for next dungeons. I know it’s cheap, but hey you’re the only one who would know.
I’ve got an NPC who has been in the last six towns because nobody ever wants to talk to them
lol Poor guy
Or my experience with D&D…
Encounter giant pit monster
Everyone argues for 20 mins about how everyone else should use their turn
Repeat until monster is dealt with
Run out of time of the the evening, so go home
Chess clock / egg timer. If they don’t decide fast enough then no action for them! You don’t even need to actually do this (it would be a bit extreme in most situations), but the threat that it might happen should give them the necessary kick. Too much time deliberating? This monster just remembered it can take a legendary action on your turn!
My players like to save their worst rolls for perception checks to find secret doors. Even when they specifically know there’s a secret door and just need to work out how to open it, out comes a parade of 1s and 2s.
So they means they still find it but it takes ages and a monster sneaks up on them in the meantime, right?
Mostly it’s just meant that it takes ages - usually time is a big enough price that no other punishment is needed. Their recent actions generated a group of ghosts though, so ghosts wandering through the room while they’re searching is now a thing.
My players and party members would NEVER forget a door! Not even if the place was falling down around their heads!
If you’re making your dungeons from scratch, try taking some design cues from a Zelda game. (Excluding the NES ones) In those games every room has an essential function necessary for progression, so none of your hard work will go unappreciated.
Actually, a good number of dungeons have a room or two you can completely skip. These usually hold bonus loot, like rupees or pieces of heart.
Heck, that shrine in BotW with the ball maze apparatus. Most people just flip it over and skip the maze. Some even just bomb jump over the gate and skip the apparatus.
Instead, I recommend you just accept that you might work on something the players won’t see. Save that stuff for later.
