Delving a dungeon, or developing one for my players, has always been my favourite part of D&D.
I just think that the dungeon, regardless of the size, provides the opportunities for the perfect mix of the Three Pillars of Play the game mechanics are built around: Exploration, Roleplay, and Combat.
Above all, the act, or art, of crafting a dungeon for your players is an opportunity to flex your creative muscles and make something that will be fun for everyone at the table. I try to build each dungeon around those basic elements: Moving around the dungeon is exploration, interacting with it is roleplay, and combat is combat — if it comes to that.
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I don’t like building linear dungeons unless they’re intentionally so. Most of my dungeons have hidden passages, something the players can see at the start but can’t quite reach. It’s incredibly satisfying for a player to come back to something they wanted earlier in the game but couldn’t get until x, y, and z were done. Returning to the first room with the key and unlocking a whole new dungeon is a common trope in my games.
Anyways let’s get to the list.
Loot
Adventurers naturally seek places of legend, they know those places are filled with goodies.
Loot can come in many different forms, it need not just be a +1 weapon or shield. Though, those certainly are valid items to give to your players for a small boost to their stats, any Mcguffin will do. Knowledge is a powerful gift, something that pushes their quest line forward, or maybe a hint that helps them in the future. A party may stumble across someone else in a bad spot and make a new ally.
A task
Why are the players here? What are they going to do? Slay a monster, solve an intricate puzzle, reason with the inhabitants? More importantly, what obstacles are going to be in their way? This is the quest at hand, the little white or yellow exclamation point that directs the party.
Ecology
Without getting too technical or scientific (this could be its own post, which I’m sure I’ll write eventually) this is what fills the space.
This will help design the dungeon in a more cohesive way along with giving you some additional points for description.
Some things to think on when designing a dungeon, or modifying one:
- Where is it, and how do the players get there?
- Who first created the dungeon? When? For what purpose: to reside or to hide
something? - What has happened since?
- What defense systems (traps and puzzles) are in place? How are they circumnavigated?
- What is the material/composition of the dungeon? Is it dug into the earth or a brick tower,
a dank cellar, some ancient ruin nestled in a swamp, or an Escher style platformer on the
Infinite Staircase (I will build this one day!). Or, any of the other crazy ideas you’re
scheming. - Who lives there, and for how long. What is their relationship to the space? This should
cover enemies and NPC’s. - Is there any vegetation that has crept into the space or been cultivated by its denizens?
Is it endemic? - Where do they source their food and water, is it in the dungeon or do they need to go
outside to get it/have it brought to them? A band of orcs residing in a small cave will
need to do something about that, a swarm of skeletons in an underground necropolis not
so much.
By answering these questions you’ll have a solid base and just need a few more things.
Secrets
Not every dungeon needs a hidden passage or secret doorway the Cleric with the Observant feat can’t notice passively. A secret is simply the unknown. It could be any sort of Easter Egg that finally unfolds at a later date, such as a piece of cryptic information in a language the players can’t read so they search for someone who can. Something for the future, as currently it’s properties and potential uses remain a mystery.
A map
Like the above note, not every dungeon needs to be a hex-crawler with Dwarven Forge miniatures and the whole sha-bang. I certainly don’t have the disposable income for that.
Some of my favourite sessions with friends started fully in the theatre of the mind and then turned into three circles on a notepad for the rooms, chess pieces for the players and bottle caps for the enemies. Anything that helps your players visualize the game is doing its job. This is in no way a paid post — just the things I have used and discovered in my decade playing the game.
Some ideas, tools, and supplements for map making are:
- My personal favorite is the Chessex rewritable battlemaps with tacky homemade crafts
- Grid paper (any paper — use the inside of your textbook if you want)
- Print maps off the internet
- TV-installed-in-the-table-hooked-up-to-the-computer-like-a-god
- Lego
- There are a bunch of online tools for building maps big and small online, give a few of
them a try to see which one you like best - New things are always popping up on Kickstarter, too, so patience may pay off if you
keep your eyes peeled.
So, yeah, that’s it. Your dungeon should have loot to loot, a task to accomplish, an ecology that
fleshes it out, a secret or two, and a map.
It’s not thaaaaaat much work — so go spend eight hours getting your room descriptions just the way you like.
