Hello new DMs (veterans can likely pick up a thing or too as well), today I am going to teach you what is far and away the most important thing to a game of dungeons and dragons- how to make dungeons. Lets get into it.
Firstly we need a basic geometry. We can get one on the site "Donjon" using the random dungeon generator. Save an image of the output.
Next what we are going to do is say what the dungeon is, and give it a name: The Lost Fane of the Spider Queen (Temple)
Then we will import this image to our dungeon making software of choice, and lay down the flooring. The flooring is important to set the tone that you want for the dungeon. During the flooring phase, you can also expand or tweak what you don't care for about the Donjon output. I like to widen the place up and remove some of the weird dead-ends.
Next we will add the thresholds of the dungeon (doors, arches, portcullis, etc) as well as the room numbers. We can either take or leave the donjon threshold suggestions, I usually find I like to cut some of them out because there are too many. Doors are obviously doors, arches are choke points that can be used tactically, and portcullis create barriers that can be raised and lowered. The point of the room numbers is to allow us to start documenting the dungeon in a word doc by explain what each room is and has in it. Keep the room numbers off of the map and in unused space so the players don't see them.
1. Entrance Foyer
A.....(add more detail as you see fit)
B.....
2. Quarters for lesser priestesses
3. Chapel
4. High Priestesses' quarters
5. Jails and torcher chambers
Next, we are going to elevate the dungeon where we add stairs, internal walls, ramps, ladders, balconies, watchtowers, etc. and add the most important objects to each room. Limit yourself to only 1-2 of the most objects. This gives our dungeon depth and character.
Now we will add the decorations to the dungeon. With this step we can scatter these objects about as applicable:
Table/bed/chair/bench/dresser
Rubble/rock/debris/stone
Skeleton/corpse/blood
Boxes/crate/barrel
Vine, plant, tree, flower
Torch, picture, trophy,
Carpet
Table filling, statue, armor
Urn, pot, basket, lantern
Webs
And there we are! Only thing left to do is finish the documentation with more detail, the letter parts of the 1A.. 2B.. etc. and add then add monsters, traps, hazards, challenges and puzzles that the players will need to overcome. Start with budgeting your dungeons for the typical daily budget, and from there you can adjust based on how skilled your players are to properly challenge them.
Remember the magic word new DMs: DUNGEONS. Stay focused on it. That is what this game is truly about. Adventurer (player) go into dungeon, to fight monster, to get treasure. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that, especially at first.
You can now print the dungeon on 11x17 paper and laminate it for an in person game, or upload it to a virtual and lay down the sightlines (dynamic lighting in Roll20 the one I use) and monster tokens.
So, it's awesome that this process work for you, however I'd suggest that this process is incompatible with the storyteller/worldbuilder style of DM. If you're doing a hack and slash this is great. However, all. of the locations that I drop in front of my players are there for a reason. A dungeon doesn't just exist for the sake of it. A dungeon has a purpose and a history.
Not all DMs are going to be able to work the way you suggest. For those more like me, I need to know what the history and purpose was as that defines it's design. So for example, a mine that has become a dungeon is going to have a main central shaft and many dead ends along naturally flowing (no straight lines) paths because the miners followed the seam of whichever ore they were persuing. Likewise, if the dungeon was an abandoned or long forgotten crypt it's going to be straight, faced stone...it's going to be straight lines and corners as it's been built by non-natural means. There are likely to be traps to protect the valuables buried with those who were interred here.
That's not to say you don't have an interesting process, it's actually really good. I take some issue though with the way you have phrased it. This isn't 'the' way, nor is it necessarily the 'best' way to generate dungeons for the game. In fact I would suggest that if you are talking to a storyteller or worldbuilder then the location having a reason and purpose to exist will enhance the story being told or the world being built. Your guide is amazing for a hack'n'slash, or those who want to just kick in the door and crawl through unnamed dungeons.
Even for absolute newbies, dungeons aren't necessarily the most important things. When looking at starter adventures for example, each location has a history, a reason for existing, and a reason that adventurers should visit. So, perhaps don't assume that this is a good guide for every DM style. It works for yours and that is awesome.
This is really nice for folks who use VTTs and the like. Also for folks who are just trying to get something thrown together for a fun game, a pick-up game, or maybe a first timer one shot. However:
The Map is not the most important part. Hell, you can draw the map as the final step.
The descriptions are.
And those descriptions should always include the full range of six sense as the first thing: Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch and Feel. That last one sets the mood of the space, creates the atmosphere around it, gives it that bit of immersion.
Making things feel and seem real, providing the "eyes and ears" for the player, that's the most essential and most important part to what makes a good dungeon. I don't disagree -- story, the reason the dungeon exists, the basis and all of that for the dungeon -- all of that is stuff that matters eventually, but what you seem to mean this to be for is folks who are unfamiliar with VTTs and still relatively new to creating their own adventures who want to start with the simplest, easiest thing.
This is the stuff we did in high school, during lunch, for example. And as far as making a map goes, it is very good for that.
But a Good Dungeon is built around the descriptions and the balance of the challenges that face the characters. The mapping is incidental to that once you know how to create a description.
43 years of being a DM, well over 2000 sessions, and I haven't created a dungeon in that manner in 40 years. Were I to do such a thing, I'd likely break out my old 1e random dungeon stuff again, and wouldn't even bother drawing it out.
I have the players draw the maps if they want them. They usually do. That's a leftover thing from the 1e days -- I don't give them handous of the map, I give them handouts of what they might see in a room, though (like a photo of the room). I may not even draw a map out. At all. Certainly not for a small dungeon.
For my last campaign (all three years of it) and my next one, I "cheated" -- dungeons were/are essentially traps -- lures, bait for those desperate enough but not always wise enough. You can go to a dungeon one month, come back in another and it will be mostly unchanged, though different treasure, different creatures, and even the dressing of a room may all be different.
My last campaign centered, ultimately, on a 53 level dungeon that I did draw (well, ok, strictly speaking I used maps from the 100 level dungeon I built one year in the 90's for fun) where each level had a minimum of 25 "rooms". Each level had a theme, and there were NPC parties that were in the dungeon at the same time as the PCs were, and they all would often leave and come back and find things had changed slightly (except maps).
In the last game it was because demons reset things, in the next one it will be because an entire race of people like to have fertilizer for their vast fungi farms, and worse. There is an entire reason behind it all, and it is one of the mysteries that PCs can choose to try and solve if they so choose.
But the big key here is that I have an Open World, sometimes called a Sandbox, where the DM does not tell players to go here or there, does not rope them into a story that they must follow. They basically are there in the world and then they have to survive in it -- so I have dungeons, ruins, sidequests, cities, towns, villages, huge, vast tracts of unexplored wilderness featuring gently mounded hills and deep, hidden valleys.
That style of play is much more effective if things are looser, more open, and if you put in effort to understand the world and why things exist in it.
Veteran is a pretty iffy term -- this is a hobby, so veteran can be anyone from someone who has run a game since 1976 to someone who started during the pandemic. pre-Wotc, most (but not all) of the DMs won't find a lot of value here -- because it makes many presumptions about their ability to use tools and provide things in a way that a huge chunk of them could care less about.
But all of them will already know how to do all of this.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
The tip I give to most people is to simply pinch them from elsewhere. First, go through the 'official' sources. Have a look and see if there's anything there that will meet your needs. Then, browse places like 2 Minute Tabletop, or Inkarnate or the like and you might find dungeon designs there that work just as well.
You can always change up the contents of the dungeon. Change the monsters. Change the traps.
This is where (and it is mad difficult) but read the Dungeon Master's Guide...I posted this elsewhere recently. The DMG is badly written and poorly ordered...but does contain random tables to roll on for things like builders, history, occupants and the like. Mix other people's well designed and well thought through locations with the random rolls and bingo...you've got an old thing wearing new clothes.
So, it's awesome that this process work for you, however I'd suggest that this process is incompatible with the storyteller/worldbuilder style of DM. If you're doing a hack and slash this is great. However, all. of the locations that I drop in front of my players are there for a reason. A dungeon doesn't just exist for the sake of it. A dungeon has a purpose and a history.
Not all DMs are going to be able to work the way you suggest. For those more like me, I need to know what the history and purpose was as that defines it's design. So for example, a mine that has become a dungeon is going to have a main central shaft and many dead ends along naturally flowing (no straight lines) paths because the miners followed the seam of whichever ore they were persuing. Likewise, if the dungeon was an abandoned or long forgotten crypt it's going to be straight, faced stone...it's going to be straight lines and corners as it's been built by non-natural means. There are likely to be traps to protect the valuables buried with those who were interred here.
That's not to say you don't have an interesting process, it's actually really good. I take some issue though with the way you have phrased it. This isn't 'the' way, nor is it necessarily the 'best' way to generate dungeons for the game. In fact I would suggest that if you are talking to a storyteller or worldbuilder then the location having a reason and purpose to exist will enhance the story being told or the world being built. Your guide is amazing for a hack'n'slash, or those who want to just kick in the door and crawl through unnamed dungeons.
Even for absolute newbies, dungeons aren't necessarily the most important things. When looking at starter adventures for example, each location has a history, a reason for existing, and a reason that adventurers should visit. So, perhaps don't assume that this is a good guide for every DM style. It works for yours and that is awesome.
Thanks for the feedback. Didn’t mean to come across as if this is the be-all end-all way to make a dungeon, clearly there are tons of ways to go about it. Wanted to share my way with the forums because I think it is a streamlined way to produce quality dungeons quickly, took me just over an hour to make the above one. It’s the best process I’ve been able to come up with.
To respond to your point about not being compatible with a world building game, I think it can work you will just need to constrain the randomness to your purposes and make sure the documentation is relevant to your story.
Totally possible to do mines and cave dungeons, I’ve done it many times. Donjon has a “cavernous” option which gives you natural cave-like geometry. From there pick a dirt or rocky texture for the flooring and lay down pits, cliffs and stalagmite structures when elevating the dungeon and you will be well on your way. Decorate with mining equipment, cart tracks, precious ores, mushrooms patches and the like.
This is really nice for folks who use VTTs and the like. Also for folks who are just trying to get something thrown together for a fun game, a pick-up game, or maybe a first timer one shot. However:
The Map is not the most important part. Hell, you can draw the map as the final step.
The descriptions are.
And those descriptions should always include the full range of six sense as the first thing: Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch and Feel. That last one sets the mood of the space, creates the atmosphere around it, gives it that bit of immersion.
Making things feel and seem real, providing the "eyes and ears" for the player, that's the most essential and most important part to what makes a good dungeon. I don't disagree -- story, the reason the dungeon exists, the basis and all of that for the dungeon -- all of that is stuff that matters eventually, but what you seem to mean this to be for is folks who are unfamiliar with VTTs and still relatively new to creating their own adventures who want to start with the simplest, easiest thing.
This is the stuff we did in high school, during lunch, for example. And as far as making a map goes, it is very good for that.
But a Good Dungeon is built around the descriptions and the balance of the challenges that face the characters. The mapping is incidental to that once you know how to create a description.
43 years of being a DM, well over 2000 sessions, and I haven't created a dungeon in that manner in 40 years. Were I to do such a thing, I'd likely break out my old 1e random dungeon stuff again, and wouldn't even bother drawing it out.
I have the players draw the maps if they want them. They usually do. That's a leftover thing from the 1e days -- I don't give them handous of the map, I give them handouts of what they might see in a room, though (like a photo of the room). I may not even draw a map out. At all. Certainly not for a small dungeon.
For my last campaign (all three years of it) and my next one, I "cheated" -- dungeons were/are essentially traps -- lures, bait for those desperate enough but not always wise enough. You can go to a dungeon one month, come back in another and it will be mostly unchanged, though different treasure, different creatures, and even the dressing of a room may all be different.
My last campaign centered, ultimately, on a 53 level dungeon that I did draw (well, ok, strictly speaking I used maps from the 100 level dungeon I built one year in the 90's for fun) where each level had a minimum of 25 "rooms". Each level had a theme, and there were NPC parties that were in the dungeon at the same time as the PCs were, and they all would often leave and come back and find things had changed slightly (except maps).
In the last game it was because demons reset things, in the next one it will be because an entire race of people like to have fertilizer for their vast fungi farms, and worse. There is an entire reason behind it all, and it is one of the mysteries that PCs can choose to try and solve if they so choose.
But the big key here is that I have an Open World, sometimes called a Sandbox, where the DM does not tell players to go here or there, does not rope them into a story that they must follow. They basically are there in the world and then they have to survive in it -- so I have dungeons, ruins, sidequests, cities, towns, villages, huge, vast tracts of unexplored wilderness featuring gently mounded hills and deep, hidden valleys.
That style of play is much more effective if things are looser, more open, and if you put in effort to understand the world and why things exist in it.
Veteran is a pretty iffy term -- this is a hobby, so veteran can be anyone from someone who has run a game since 1976 to someone who started during the pandemic. pre-Wotc, most (but not all) of the DMs won't find a lot of value here -- because it makes many presumptions about their ability to use tools and provide things in a way that a huge chunk of them could care less about.
But all of them will already know how to do all of this.
A counter-argument you can make in favor of putting effort into the maps, is that when done well they can do a lot of the describing for you, meaning you won’t need to write as much. The players can just look and the map is essentially describing itself. Sure you can still add a few pertinent descriptive words to each room (which you can add to the documentation) but not nearly as much is needed.
Hello new DMs (veterans can likely pick up a thing or too as well), today I am going to teach you what is far and away the most important thing to a game of dungeons and dragons- how to make dungeons. Lets get into it.
Firstly we need a basic geometry. We can get one on the site "Donjon" using the random dungeon generator. Save an image of the output.
Next what we are going to do is say what the dungeon is, and give it a name: The Lost Fane of the Spider Queen (Temple)
Then we will import this image to our dungeon making software of choice, and lay down the flooring. The flooring is important to set the tone that you want for the dungeon. During the flooring phase, you can also expand or tweak what you don't care for about the Donjon output. I like to widen the place up and remove some of the weird dead-ends.
Next we will add the thresholds of the dungeon (doors, arches, portcullis, etc) as well as the room numbers. We can either take or leave the donjon threshold suggestions, I usually find I like to cut some of them out because there are too many. Doors are obviously doors, arches are choke points that can be used tactically, and portcullis create barriers that can be raised and lowered. The point of the room numbers is to allow us to start documenting the dungeon in a word doc by explain what each room is and has in it. Keep the room numbers off of the map and in unused space so the players don't see them.
1. Entrance Foyer
A.....(add more detail as you see fit)
B.....
2. Quarters for lesser priestesses
3. Chapel
4. High Priestesses' quarters
5. Jails and torcher chambers
Next, we are going to elevate the dungeon where we add stairs, internal walls, ramps, ladders, balconies, watchtowers, etc. and add the most important objects to each room. Limit yourself to only 1-2 of the most objects. This gives our dungeon depth and character.
Now we will add the decorations to the dungeon. With this step we can scatter these objects about as applicable:
And there we are! Only thing left to do is finish the documentation with more detail, the letter parts of the 1A.. 2B.. etc. and add then add monsters, traps, hazards, challenges and puzzles that the players will need to overcome. Start with budgeting your dungeons for the typical daily budget, and from there you can adjust based on how skilled your players are to properly challenge them.
Remember the magic word new DMs: DUNGEONS. Stay focused on it. That is what this game is truly about. Adventurer (player) go into dungeon, to fight monster, to get treasure. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that, especially at first.
You can now print the dungeon on 11x17 paper and laminate it for an in person game, or upload it to a virtual and lay down the sightlines (dynamic lighting in Roll20 the one I use) and monster tokens.
So, it's awesome that this process work for you, however I'd suggest that this process is incompatible with the storyteller/worldbuilder style of DM. If you're doing a hack and slash this is great. However, all. of the locations that I drop in front of my players are there for a reason. A dungeon doesn't just exist for the sake of it. A dungeon has a purpose and a history.
Not all DMs are going to be able to work the way you suggest. For those more like me, I need to know what the history and purpose was as that defines it's design. So for example, a mine that has become a dungeon is going to have a main central shaft and many dead ends along naturally flowing (no straight lines) paths because the miners followed the seam of whichever ore they were persuing. Likewise, if the dungeon was an abandoned or long forgotten crypt it's going to be straight, faced stone...it's going to be straight lines and corners as it's been built by non-natural means. There are likely to be traps to protect the valuables buried with those who were interred here.
That's not to say you don't have an interesting process, it's actually really good. I take some issue though with the way you have phrased it. This isn't 'the' way, nor is it necessarily the 'best' way to generate dungeons for the game. In fact I would suggest that if you are talking to a storyteller or worldbuilder then the location having a reason and purpose to exist will enhance the story being told or the world being built. Your guide is amazing for a hack'n'slash, or those who want to just kick in the door and crawl through unnamed dungeons.
Even for absolute newbies, dungeons aren't necessarily the most important things. When looking at starter adventures for example, each location has a history, a reason for existing, and a reason that adventurers should visit. So, perhaps don't assume that this is a good guide for every DM style. It works for yours and that is awesome.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
This is really nice for folks who use VTTs and the like. Also for folks who are just trying to get something thrown together for a fun game, a pick-up game, or maybe a first timer one shot. However:
The Map is not the most important part. Hell, you can draw the map as the final step.
The descriptions are.
And those descriptions should always include the full range of six sense as the first thing: Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch and Feel. That last one sets the mood of the space, creates the atmosphere around it, gives it that bit of immersion.
Making things feel and seem real, providing the "eyes and ears" for the player, that's the most essential and most important part to what makes a good dungeon. I don't disagree -- story, the reason the dungeon exists, the basis and all of that for the dungeon -- all of that is stuff that matters eventually, but what you seem to mean this to be for is folks who are unfamiliar with VTTs and still relatively new to creating their own adventures who want to start with the simplest, easiest thing.
This is the stuff we did in high school, during lunch, for example. And as far as making a map goes, it is very good for that.
But a Good Dungeon is built around the descriptions and the balance of the challenges that face the characters. The mapping is incidental to that once you know how to create a description.
43 years of being a DM, well over 2000 sessions, and I haven't created a dungeon in that manner in 40 years. Were I to do such a thing, I'd likely break out my old 1e random dungeon stuff again, and wouldn't even bother drawing it out.
I have the players draw the maps if they want them. They usually do. That's a leftover thing from the 1e days -- I don't give them handous of the map, I give them handouts of what they might see in a room, though (like a photo of the room). I may not even draw a map out. At all. Certainly not for a small dungeon.
For my last campaign (all three years of it) and my next one, I "cheated" -- dungeons were/are essentially traps -- lures, bait for those desperate enough but not always wise enough. You can go to a dungeon one month, come back in another and it will be mostly unchanged, though different treasure, different creatures, and even the dressing of a room may all be different.
My last campaign centered, ultimately, on a 53 level dungeon that I did draw (well, ok, strictly speaking I used maps from the 100 level dungeon I built one year in the 90's for fun) where each level had a minimum of 25 "rooms". Each level had a theme, and there were NPC parties that were in the dungeon at the same time as the PCs were, and they all would often leave and come back and find things had changed slightly (except maps).
In the last game it was because demons reset things, in the next one it will be because an entire race of people like to have fertilizer for their vast fungi farms, and worse. There is an entire reason behind it all, and it is one of the mysteries that PCs can choose to try and solve if they so choose.
But the big key here is that I have an Open World, sometimes called a Sandbox, where the DM does not tell players to go here or there, does not rope them into a story that they must follow. They basically are there in the world and then they have to survive in it -- so I have dungeons, ruins, sidequests, cities, towns, villages, huge, vast tracts of unexplored wilderness featuring gently mounded hills and deep, hidden valleys.
That style of play is much more effective if things are looser, more open, and if you put in effort to understand the world and why things exist in it.
Veteran is a pretty iffy term -- this is a hobby, so veteran can be anyone from someone who has run a game since 1976 to someone who started during the pandemic. pre-Wotc, most (but not all) of the DMs won't find a lot of value here -- because it makes many presumptions about their ability to use tools and provide things in a way that a huge chunk of them could care less about.
But all of them will already know how to do all of this.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
As a new dm making dungeons is kinda hard
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As an old Dm, making dungeons is hard!
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
The tip I give to most people is to simply pinch them from elsewhere. First, go through the 'official' sources. Have a look and see if there's anything there that will meet your needs. Then, browse places like 2 Minute Tabletop, or Inkarnate or the like and you might find dungeon designs there that work just as well.
You can always change up the contents of the dungeon. Change the monsters. Change the traps.
This is where (and it is mad difficult) but read the Dungeon Master's Guide...I posted this elsewhere recently. The DMG is badly written and poorly ordered...but does contain random tables to roll on for things like builders, history, occupants and the like. Mix other people's well designed and well thought through locations with the random rolls and bingo...you've got an old thing wearing new clothes.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
Thanks for the feedback. Didn’t mean to come across as if this is the be-all end-all way to make a dungeon, clearly there are tons of ways to go about it. Wanted to share my way with the forums because I think it is a streamlined way to produce quality dungeons quickly, took me just over an hour to make the above one. It’s the best process I’ve been able to come up with.
To respond to your point about not being compatible with a world building game, I think it can work you will just need to constrain the randomness to your purposes and make sure the documentation is relevant to your story.
Totally possible to do mines and cave dungeons, I’ve done it many times. Donjon has a “cavernous” option which gives you natural cave-like geometry. From there pick a dirt or rocky texture for the flooring and lay down pits, cliffs and stalagmite structures when elevating the dungeon and you will be well on your way. Decorate with mining equipment, cart tracks, precious ores, mushrooms patches and the like.
A counter-argument you can make in favor of putting effort into the maps, is that when done well they can do a lot of the describing for you, meaning you won’t need to write as much. The players can just look and the map is essentially describing itself. Sure you can still add a few pertinent descriptive words to each room (which you can add to the documentation) but not nearly as much is needed.