French Fries, Beer and Clan Lord

I was craving french fries earlier today.  I ignored the protests of my cuisine snobbery and went to a local "neighborhood grille" franchise.  I ordered my fries, a tall beer, and opened a legal pad of paper and worked on a Clan Lord quest.

Without revealing too much, the quest that I had in mind is similar to World of Warcraft's instance dungeons for a group of players.  I had envisioned one player holding a key to the dungeon, and – much like Puddleby Housing – the key holder would unlock the dungeon's entrance and the group would follow the key holder through the entrance.  A second group holding their own key would unlock their own copy of the dungeon.  But then I got to thinking (or maybe the tall beer was affecting me in a positive way): what would happen if two groups tried to enter the dungeon at the same time?  How would the dungeon differentiate between multiple groups?

While working on my second tall beer and a way to differentiate group access, another thought occurred to me: suppose a second group wishes to join the first group.  How would that work?  Would the key holder need to come out and unlock the dungeon door for the second group?  Suppose if the key holder was dead, or if the entire dungeon party was dead, and no one could come out to unlock their copy of the dungeon.  What then?  I feel that Clan Lord has taught us that some area access restrictions can impact rescues (like the Game Preserve or the Mushroom Hut).

By the time I had finished my second beer and my order of fries, I decided that perhaps instance dungeons were best avoided.  At least I think I thought that.  I can't remember.  I'm such a lightweight when it comes to drinking and designing.