I want to make this thread so we can bounce ideas off each other about the most important job a DM has- making dungeons. At the end of the day, it is by far the most important skill for a Dungeon Master to have after all. Showing up with a well designed dungeon will entertain your players for a whole session or multiple sessions easily with little effort on your part. There is a reason it is called a Dungeon. Master.
So anyways I'll kick us off and describe how I do it, please share how you do.
There are loads of great tools and programs out there to assist the Dungeon Master with making a dungeon. Just as a disclaimer I am NOT trying to get you to buy anything here, merely taking an analytical look at the programs I use to assist me.
The first step is to conceptualize the dungeon. What is this dungeon? Is it a tyrant's castle? An ancient mysterious ruin? A temple to some evil god? Crazy mage's tower? Now give it a bit of history- who built it, why was it built, etc. Finally, answer who or what currently dwells here and why the adventurers are interested in the dungeon.
Now that you have a concept, step 2 is to outline the dungeon. This can be as simple as a rough sketch. Just get a basic idea of the geometry of the dungeon. Fill it out later, we will get to that. I use the program Endless RPG to create my outlines. You can pick from several different templets such as stronghold, castle, cave, temple, ruin, crypt, cave, tower, etc.. each with different presets. It then outputs a PNG of a randomly generated dungeon in that style. Here is a crypt for example:
The so here is the outline, the general shape of the dungeon.
Step 3 is to furnish and document the dungeon. This is the part where you go hall to hall, room to room, and add in the details of each encounter the players will face and furnish the rooms and halls with objects and treasures, while documenting everything for when you run it. When thinking about what types of encounters the players will face, I find it helpful to keep a list of different types and add variety to the dungeon. Here is my list
Battle- Armed confrontation between the players and villains or monsters. (roll initiative)
Trap- Hidden and dangerous.
Skill Check- Players need to recognize and apply a skill check of some sort to succeed. Could be an instrument or tool, too.
Hazard- Hazardous environment impeding the players such as a cloud of poison gas.
Obstacle- Similar to a hazard but less directly dangerous and more about stopping them in their tracks, such as a great chasm.
Puzzle- Could be a riddle or some other tricky puzzle.
Secret Door- Should be a vague clue the secret door is in the area, to get them on its trail.
Social- High stakes social encounter with consequences or missed opportunity if it goes poorly.
Try to think about what each room is and what should be in it when furnishing. I like to use a program called Dungeon Painter Studio to furnish my dungeons, but it can be as simple as a crude drawing of something on your sketched outline. You can upload the outline as a template, and after installing plenty of community add ons, can search objects by name you feel like placing in your dungeon rooms and get a list of assets with a click. I furnished a few rooms below doing this (did not do the entire dungeon just the immediate entrance area)
Once the dungeon is furnished and documented, the only thing left really is to balance the encounters and add in tokens for monsters, traps, or objects you intend the players to move around. This can be minis for an in person table top or virtual tokens for online. For an in person game, you can export the Dungeon Painter Studio image and then print and laminate on 11x17 paper, or for online games just upload and stretch the image on the map layer. You can cover the map with a scattered stack of cards to simulate fog of war in an in person game, and online of course have fog of war tools.
Well that's about it. Please, let me know how you make dungeons. I'm interested.
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I want to make this thread so we can bounce ideas off each other about the most important job a DM has- making dungeons. At the end of the day, it is by far the most important skill for a Dungeon Master to have after all. Showing up with a well designed dungeon will entertain your players for a whole session or multiple sessions easily with little effort on your part. There is a reason it is called a Dungeon. Master.
So anyways I'll kick us off and describe how I do it, please share how you do.
There are loads of great tools and programs out there to assist the Dungeon Master with making a dungeon. Just as a disclaimer I am NOT trying to get you to buy anything here, merely taking an analytical look at the programs I use to assist me.
The first step is to conceptualize the dungeon. What is this dungeon? Is it a tyrant's castle? An ancient mysterious ruin? A temple to some evil god? Crazy mage's tower? Now give it a bit of history- who built it, why was it built, etc. Finally, answer who or what currently dwells here and why the adventurers are interested in the dungeon.
Now that you have a concept, step 2 is to outline the dungeon. This can be as simple as a rough sketch. Just get a basic idea of the geometry of the dungeon. Fill it out later, we will get to that. I use the program Endless RPG to create my outlines. You can pick from several different templets such as stronghold, castle, cave, temple, ruin, crypt, cave, tower, etc.. each with different presets. It then outputs a PNG of a randomly generated dungeon in that style. Here is a crypt for example:
The so here is the outline, the general shape of the dungeon.
Step 3 is to furnish and document the dungeon. This is the part where you go hall to hall, room to room, and add in the details of each encounter the players will face and furnish the rooms and halls with objects and treasures, while documenting everything for when you run it. When thinking about what types of encounters the players will face, I find it helpful to keep a list of different types and add variety to the dungeon. Here is my list
Try to think about what each room is and what should be in it when furnishing. I like to use a program called Dungeon Painter Studio to furnish my dungeons, but it can be as simple as a crude drawing of something on your sketched outline. You can upload the outline as a template, and after installing plenty of community add ons, can search objects by name you feel like placing in your dungeon rooms and get a list of assets with a click. I furnished a few rooms below doing this (did not do the entire dungeon just the immediate entrance area)
Once the dungeon is furnished and documented, the only thing left really is to balance the encounters and add in tokens for monsters, traps, or objects you intend the players to move around. This can be minis for an in person table top or virtual tokens for online. For an in person game, you can export the Dungeon Painter Studio image and then print and laminate on 11x17 paper, or for online games just upload and stretch the image on the map layer. You can cover the map with a scattered stack of cards to simulate fog of war in an in person game, and online of course have fog of war tools.
Well that's about it. Please, let me know how you make dungeons. I'm interested.