D&D: Five Quick Tips To Do Up A Dungeon
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
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
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
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
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
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?
