D&D: Five Quick Tips To Do Up A Dungeon
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Need to dress up a dungeon in a hurry? Here are five quick tips that can help you liven up any dank hold, no matter how sparse.
When you’re trying to design a dungeon, you don’t have to get bogged down in the details. Here are some handy tips to decking out your dungeon in a hurry.
From encounters to dressing, these dungeon tips are sure to help fill out any delve. Never be caught empty-roomed again.
Random Encounters
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One of the easiest things that can spruce up any dungeon is a good random encounter. But there’s a trick to using them. Random encounters are a great way to turn up the pressure in any dungeon.
Simply put, the longer you’re in there, the longer something might happen. Random Encounters work wonders as a way to both flesh out a dungeon – by adding in something you didn’t know was there. But also as a time pressure.
Every so many rounds of exploration, roll to see if something happens. But let the players know that this is a clock. It adds tension. Maybe going one door further is worth the risk – but who can say if it might mean another monster when resources are running low.
Secret Passageways
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These are an old dungeon standby. No matter what your dungeon is like, it can benefit from a secret passageway that connects two seemingly disconnected rooms. Or even just a secret door that leads to a hidden treasure chamber.
The point here is that these secret entrances/passages/rooms are a huge reward for players that get into exploring. Be sure and sprinkle a couple in “obvious” places, like a dead end nook. That way people feel clever for figuring out they’re there.
Hazards
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Dungeons can be dangerous places. And hazards, whether environmental or traps or otherwise, are a great way of reinforcing that. A dungeon can have all sorts of thematic hazards.
An undead knight’s crypt might have a font of necromantic energy. A deep dungeon bordering on the abyss might have a room suffused with demonic lava. Put in some floating islands and scything blades. Don’t settle for a humdrumgeon when you could have a fungeon.
Vaults
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While many dungeons contain treasure, it’s not often that you find a whole big pile of treasure in one place. Usually the treasure is scattered throughout the dungeon.
But try putting all of the loot in a single place. Maybe it’s at the end of the dungeon, maybe it’s in a secret room. But the experience of opening a door, disarming a trap, or what have you, and finding enough gold fo a whole adventure, is pretty thrilling.
Special Purpose Rooms
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Finally, why not give a room something active. In the new Dungeon Master’s Guide, Bastions have all sorts of special features. You could give a similar effect to a room in a dungeon. Maybe there’s a purpose-built room.
This could be a forge for making magic weapons. A cool chapel that confers a temporary blessing. Maybe an orrery that rotates along the clockwork rings of Mechanus and can provide a glimpse into the future.
Whatever you decide, a room that does a cool thing can really give your dungeon a ton of character.
How do you dress up your dungeons?
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