I want to incorporate a pretty lengthy 40 - 50+ room dungeon into a campaign I am in the process of writing and I have a pretty good layout with cave systems and ravines separating elements of the dungeon, but it needs something else to make sure it is not an uninteresting dungeon crawl with room after room of the same things. I have never run a dungeon before but I have been a part of a pretty boring campaign with more than its fair share of dungeon crawls. Ideas, thoughts, insights, puzzles, traps, and encounters are all welcome.
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Coffee is a must, sleep is a must, and DND is a must, in that order.
1. why does the 40-50 room dungeon exist? is it a subterranean fortress or town? a tomb? a prison? a burrow system? natural geologic formation?
2. why are the characters in this dungeon? rumors of a long lost artifact? rescue mission? delivering a critical message to a captain fighting a battle? just going home?
3. other than the physical layout, what connects the rooms in the dungeon and/or how does the state of the dungeon evolve over time? do guards spy on one area of the dungeon and beef up security in another part if they see someone? does a lever pulled in one room effect a puzzle/trap in another room? do sounds of combat in one room alert creatures in other rooms?
4. is rest possible in this dungeon? under what circumstances?
5. is the dungeon strictly enemies and pitfalls, or are there any allies or benevolent effects at work?
6. which enemies mindlessly fight to the death and which know when to retreat, parley, or beg for their lives? which enemies are undefeatable through violence and must be negotiated with, persuaded/deceived, or avoided?
Traps and tricks help. Forcing the characters to be cautious works wonders.
Even if you don't actually have a trap in mind, just set the mood as though you do. When my group was going through a kobold cavern, I had the party rogue tell me exactly what route they were taking through the space, and it instantly created excitement, tension, and relief when they finally made it through unharmed. In truth, I had nothing planned. Make sure there are some traps for them to actually trigger, but the rest can be smoke and mirrors.
Something else is in this dungeon… Watching them, stalking them, even if someone in your party has extremely high perception, it doesn’t mean they get to see exactly what the creature is, just that they actually saw it. It doesn’t mean that they get to kill it immediately, Because they would actually have to catch up with it, which he would make extremely difficult and dangerous since this creature knows the layout of the dungeon and knows how to avoid its traps and rooms of enemies and they do not. As they go from room to room doing their thing… This will always be the hairs prickling up on the back of their neck, this will always be something looming in the back of their mind making things feel multidimensional.
you could have a variation of this where it’s not another creature, but another adventurer or thief also in this dungeon with their own motives. Perhaps trying to steal some thing they are trying to take as well, or after something that they don’t even know about. Perhaps another hook to the story at large outside the dungeon, who knows?
… Another separate idea… as they learn the ins and outs of the dungeon, and where its traps are, sometimes learning the lesson painfully, they are pursued by some kind of rival or even insignificant enemy. But they begin to use the old rooms of the dungeon against their enemies who don’t know the terrain very well. Even if this only happens once in the dungeon around room number 12 or 20 or 30… It will be a hilarious memorable moment that might break the space of them, the party, monotonously moving forward but them actually turning back with new information and completely obliterating some insignificant wanna be nemesis of theirs. Almost a comedic moment but also a fun trap that they get to lay instead of walking into traps that have already been laid out.
I recomend including bits of the player's backstories. That can make them get really excited and invested in the story if they are roleplayers. Have the warlock's patron or the cleric's deity contact them. Maybe there is a sign that the fighter's long lost brother who has been missing for thirty years has recently passed through here. Have them come across the paladins sworn enemy. Anything that lets them roleplay their characters like that can be really fun.
I recomend including bits of the player's backstories. That can make them get really excited and invested in the story if they are roleplayers. Have the warlock's patron or the cleric's deity contact them. Maybe there is a sign that the fighter's long lost brother who has been missing for thirty years has recently passed through here. Have them come across the paladins sworn enemy. Anything that lets them roleplay their characters like that can be really fun.
That is something that I think would add to the overall story as well as enhance the dungeon's playability and the players'
interest in continuing through the dungeon, maybe acquiring something at the end of it for their patron, god, etcetera. Thanks for the advice
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Coffee is a must, sleep is a must, and DND is a must, in that order.
I always enjoy creating additional leads for the party to give them something to be excited about when going through a dungeon.
Captive that needs help getting out so they can get back to their village/family.
A note that leads the adventurers to some additional interaction with an NPC.
As someone above said, an item or piece of someone's backstory.
Another approach is to include opportunities for the party to think creatively.
A seemingly impassable gap. Have a mundane way around ready in your head, but let them be creative with spells and equipment.
Puzzles. These don't have to be complex. Hidden stone door latch, matching, replace some mystical energy source, etc.
The last thing I sometimes like is for the party to have a glimpse of a future villain. They see a shadowy figure go into a room, but when they enter they find only a broken TP circle.
Time limits re a good one - having a section of the dungeon fill with sand or water, or simply having something chasing them down (at low levels, a Gelatinous Cube is an option for this. At higher levels, an Iron Golem) that they do NOT want to fight.
Add to the tension by having them hunted through the dungeon. Have windows and spyholes and such which let the glimpse a room they were just in, and which now has a hellhound sniffing their footprints on the leash of a Death Knight. That sort of thing. Get them trapped in the dungeon by virtue of going back meaning a nearly mpossible fight.
ermanent consequences. Have a side-section of dungeon which looks interesting actually become sealed off by their careless pulling of levers. This will have them appreciate that their actions have consequences.
Traps that slow them down or hinder, rather than ones that just hurt them. The ones which just hurt them are boring and feel bad - "Whoops, you rolled badly, you take damage, now moving on". Better to have a PC fall into a 30ft pit that they then need to find a way to climb out of than falling into a 10ft pit with spikes which does the same damage and then they hop out on their next turn with ease. Further bonus points if the floor of the trap is a mimic, so they can suddenly not jump! Pitting one character into a combat while the others try to save them forces the players to make choices, which is good for gameplay - a trap just dealing some damage and being forgotten forever doesn't prompt any meaningful choice, and is therefore kinda rubbish!
Puzzles, but thematic and logical ones. Nobody is going to make the holding cell for their magical weapons accessible by solving a riddle on the door. Use thematic foreshadowing to offer ideas for the solutions to puzzles (I had a dungeon where the party were being constantly electrocuted, and then they found a door that needed to take ligtning damage to open!).
I rarely do dungeons, but when I do, I make it someone's home. So the ... 'ancient temple' is now the home of a swarm of goblins, and when they discover foul surface dwellers in their midst, they throw up barricades, set traps and ambushes, making them fight for every inch of their territory.
Having goblin rogues circle around to attack the party from behind, just as they're moving to attack the latest improvised fortification can quickly expend ressources. Be careful not to actually kill the party though, because large numbers of small, harmless enemies is quite, quite deadly.
But done right, it's fun.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
multilayered dungeons with similar layouts compared to previous rooms but also randomness in their layouts. Some sections seemingly unnaturally different.
-Parts of it seem engineered and build by humanoids, others rocky outcroppings.
-subterranean forests, deserts, or waterways
-make use of the the random table of environments on oh 99 of the DMG for each room.
-Make use of weather effects within the areas. unexplained rainfall, winds, fogs, snow, heat and cold
-varied use of lighted conditions. Places somehow unnaturally dark, regular dark or dim. Others that have areas if bright light that seem to peek through the ceiling or floors, if the lights direction can even be discerned at all.
-verticality. Reward climbing and use of techniques that might increase mobility.
-different obstacles and objects within the environment that can clearly be used for 1/2 or 3/4 cover.
-make use of foliage or other natural/unnatural phenomena to create light and heavy obscurity.
-“random” creatures that might have a pattern of use depending on the selections you’ve made earlier, perhaps the creatures grow in strength the further the party travels.
-account for environmental destruction. What happens if a player actually cuts down a tree or blows out a wall/floor with shatter.
-methodically placed bosses/Demi bosses every predetermined number of rooms.
-somehow granting the ability to make use of short cuts or faster travel.
-perhaps the rooms are the same but the creatures might repopulate or be different.
-designated “safe” areas where resting and perhaps merchants can be bartered with.
The secret to creating interest is to create variety. So the first thing to do is to create a dungeon that makes sense and has a dynamic layout. It doesn’t have to be super-complex. Just a bunch of room that interact with each other is enough. Secret doors and passages are the obvious thing here, but there could also be rooms that deactivate traps in other rooms, or a bunch of rooms with a coordinated defense.
The second way to add variety to to vary the encounter type. Many dungeon rooms already feature combat encounters, traps, and puzzles naturally. Those are the natural challenges in a dungeon. But you can also create a dungeon with spell and skill challenges. A traversal challenge asks your players to use Fly or Spiderclimb to pass the challenge, or a bunch of skill checks. Place checks in particular for skills and racial features your PCs have, to reward them for choosing those features. For instance, have a room with hints that could be uncovered with Drwarven (Stonecutting) and History (Int) features.
You could also feature a multi-encounter scenario in which your players are either being chased or chasing something. That’s a chase encounter. You can put a skill challenge in the middle of this scenario - for instance a difficult group skill challenge to uncover a Secret Door quickly. You don’t have that much time, so failing skill checks thrice will mean the creature has escaped, or your party has run out of time.
Finally, you can have dynamic dungeons, with hints in many rooms and on passageways on how the dungeon has changed in the past, and how the party can change it further or change it back. For instance, a former sahuagin underground fortress in the Underdark was drained of water by their enemies which forced their retreat. It’s been taken over by a bunch of exile Driders and spiders, but there’s no easy way to navigate the settlement and strongpoint without flying. When it was underwater, the sahuagin swam, so they have no need for staircases and they could just connect rooms to each other with passageways at any orientation and height. Driders and spiders stick to walls, so they had no problems using the space either. But a party that doesn’t fly will have challenges with access shafts that have no stairs and rooms that connect to each other vertically with no stairs. Put a feature in the dungeon that allows the party to resubmerge the entire complex. Doing so will drown the Driders and spiders and give them free rein to explore without deadly encounters, provided that they have Water Breathing (this is a 3rd level Ritual Spell available to all Clerics and Druids).
That’s just an example that’s easy. You could have a dungeon that’s turned on its side (the party might ask a friendly giant party to push it back upright), teleport-only strongholds built by Shadar-Kai for Shadar-Kai, or a maze of madness twisted by the psychic screams of an Elder Brain gone mad (after they defeat it, it turns out it was just straight corridors all along).
I am working on just such an idea. I am thinking I am going to base each level or segment based on a terrain type. So rather than being in a dungeon all the time they may step through a door and portal into a different dimension or reality. I think for a very long dungeon there may be a three way portal between realities. One to go back to their HQ, the portal will stay open until they go back. Though for every 24 hours they leave it open something has a chance to sneak back.
Using the different environments.
Arctic
Coast
Desert
Forest
Grassland
Hill
Mountain
Swamp
Underdark
Underwater
Urban
Or based each area on a different type of monster. aberration beast celestial construct dragon elemental fey fiend giant humanoid infernal vehicle monstrosity ooze plant swarm undead
2. Many empty rooms, some especially near entrance are trapped. Creatures that run away know where the traps are.
3. Twists and turns that allow retreating enemies to quickly break line of sight, while the players will have to run past an intersection where other creatures have held actions to attack.
4. Rooms that clearly have a secret passage based upon the layout, but don't. That empty space doesn't actually have to be a secret room.
5. Stuff that makes combat interesting, and generally favorable to the enemy because they chose that location for its defensive value. Cover and hard to reach locations for ranged attackers. Take advantage of fog to make life difficult. It is hard to see a trap in a super heavy fog.
6. Force the party to split up. Maybe a moving wall separates them for a couple rooms.
7. Make them swim to get to certain rooms. Place the room far enough that they can't reach the next room with less than half their swim distance. Or maybe just the best athletes can get to the next breathable spot, but as soon as they see it they are attacked.
I made a dungeon once that I thought was kinda cool and interesting.
The town of Silverbrook was founded by a cleric - St. Antoun - after he defeated an orc incursion. The orcs had built a fortress, The Fist, atop a lone cliff on the moors. St. Antoun had occupied the fortress for awhile, but it was lost again and ruined in a final revenge attack by the orcs. So, first part of the dungeon: Ruined fortress.
Hidden among the rocky crags of the cliff were a deep fissure, a vertical shaft leading down into the earth. This was where the orcs initially emerged, and it was where they managed to launch their final attack from. The shaft was full of broken, rotten construction - stairs and platforms and defensive positions the orcs had built on their way up from their original home deep below. At the bottom of this shaft was a cavern in which a wyvern had since made it's lair. The players knew there was a wuvern around, had seen it in the sky, but hadn't put 2 and 2 together and realised they were in it's lair. Oh, and the main enemy in the fortress was a sort of conglomerate ghost of all the human soldiers who died when the orcs torched the keep.
So, in the utter dark (the group was blessedly without a mage, but had torches of course), they were descending the shaft, checking for old traps, tying off ropes to climb down - and suddenly the tiny speck of light from the opening above goes dark, and a powerful wind pushes down on them. They can't see a thing, of course, but this is the wyvern descending the shaft, filling it almost wall to wall. Luckily, the wind also blows out the torches. Anyways, queue wyvern fight. I have another stroke of luck as the wyvern is wounded but not killed, and drops to the bottom of the shaft still alive (it still has wings, so it doesn't take falling damage).
At the bottom of the shaft, the players had the chance to befriend the wyvern - sparing it and it's unhatched eggs, and paving the way for wyvern mounts for the Silverbrook town watch. No biggie. Also, no wyvern mounts for the players. I like travel. On foot.
Beyond the wyvern's lair was the original settlement of the orcs. Long fallen into ruin, and bereft of life, it was still testament to why the orcs invaded: Their tribe had outgrown the cave, and they were no longer able to feed themselves. There were some fights with undead orcs and carrion crawlers, but the main feature of the cave was the Ski'i-tai - a type of beetle. They're kinda like brain moles? Enough of them together creates a hive mind, thousands of beetles sharing a single, psionic consciousness. Possibly a monster, but not an enemy - well, not necessarily. The ski'i-tai are corpse beetles, and reduce dead things to dust. But they also extract the essences of what they eat, and can destill those essences into potions, meaning you can drink a dead orc to gain Bulls Strengh (as an example). Precisely how the 'distillation' takes place is best left unconsidered. The beetles, btw, could animate any corpse they'd devoured - essentially by crawling all over it - thus gaining something not entirely unlike a humanoid shape.
From here, an underground river led on to further adventures, but the players didn't chose to go that way. Had they done so, they'd have found the kuotoa who blocked the orcs options to find more food without invading the surface.
Some time later the players returned to the former orc settlement. In the meantime, the ski'i-tai had colonized much more of it, partially ressurrecting (so to speak) many of the dead orcs. When doing so, each colony of beetles would gain some of the memories and habits of the host creature. Just glimmers, but enough to make the town a very creepy pantomine of what the town had once been - when the orcs were alive still.
I feel like that was a cool dungeon =)
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Remember just because it's a dungeon crawl doesn't mean there can't be roleplay. My favorite dungeon crawls, like Dungeon of the Mad Mage, or the Sunken Citadel, have different factions within them, some vying for control of the territory while others have their own reasons for being there. Each faction presents an opportunity for the players to make different choices and have further reached consequences for the players after they leave.
My advice would be, to break up the slog of the dungeon crawl, include non-combat social encounters with different factions that can provide separate goals. Maybe goblins and kobolds are fighting over the dungeon to turn into a base of operations, maybe a rival adventuring party is also their trying to find an ancient lost artifact to resurrect their dead leader. Maybe a blustering professor wants to hire the players as escort so they can examine the burial chamber (and secretly wants to summon the soul of the dread-lord imprisoned there! ). Include side-plots and goals to keep things interesting.
Does it need to be as big as it is? Another poster mentioned figuring out why it was there. What purpose did it serve before it became a dungeon. I'd recommend starting there. Design the cave system, or prison, or whatever it was. Then think about how the current inhabitants would modify it and what they are using it for. But think about how big those creatures need it to be. The current inhabitants aren't going to spend their time and resources building out every room if they only need a few of them. Similarly, don't just decide you want 50 rooms, and then try to figure out reasons to fill them, go from the opposite end. Let the story guide the size of the dungeon. Then, every room will have a purpose and help advance the plot, and it shouldn't get boring no matter how big it is.
One thing you can consider is making the dungeons story be revealed as they go. Start with extremely obscure hints and red herrings, and move towards the reveal of its true purpose. Have the purpose become an obstacle for them getting back out again.
Think about why the dungeon exists, and what to reveal about it to keep them exploring.
I want to incorporate a pretty lengthy 40 - 50+ room dungeon into a campaign I am in the process of writing and I have a pretty good layout with cave systems and ravines separating elements of the dungeon, but it needs something else to make sure it is not an uninteresting dungeon crawl with room after room of the same things. I have never run a dungeon before but I have been a part of a pretty boring campaign with more than its fair share of dungeon crawls. Ideas, thoughts, insights, puzzles, traps, and encounters are all welcome.
Coffee is a must, sleep is a must, and DND is a must, in that order.
Traps and tricks help. Forcing the characters to be cautious works wonders.
Hidden passages work.
Seemingly random monsters work.
1. why does the 40-50 room dungeon exist? is it a subterranean fortress or town? a tomb? a prison? a burrow system? natural geologic formation?
2. why are the characters in this dungeon? rumors of a long lost artifact? rescue mission? delivering a critical message to a captain fighting a battle? just going home?
3. other than the physical layout, what connects the rooms in the dungeon and/or how does the state of the dungeon evolve over time? do guards spy on one area of the dungeon and beef up security in another part if they see someone? does a lever pulled in one room effect a puzzle/trap in another room? do sounds of combat in one room alert creatures in other rooms?
4. is rest possible in this dungeon? under what circumstances?
5. is the dungeon strictly enemies and pitfalls, or are there any allies or benevolent effects at work?
6. which enemies mindlessly fight to the death and which know when to retreat, parley, or beg for their lives? which enemies are undefeatable through violence and must be negotiated with, persuaded/deceived, or avoided?
Even if you don't actually have a trap in mind, just set the mood as though you do. When my group was going through a kobold cavern, I had the party rogue tell me exactly what route they were taking through the space, and it instantly created excitement, tension, and relief when they finally made it through unharmed. In truth, I had nothing planned. Make sure there are some traps for them to actually trigger, but the rest can be smoke and mirrors.
Something else is in this dungeon… Watching them, stalking them, even if someone in your party has extremely high perception, it doesn’t mean they get to see exactly what the creature is, just that they actually saw it. It doesn’t mean that they get to kill it immediately, Because they would actually have to catch up with it, which he would make extremely difficult and dangerous since this creature knows the layout of the dungeon and knows how to avoid its traps and rooms of enemies and they do not. As they go from room to room doing their thing… This will always be the hairs prickling up on the back of their neck, this will always be something looming in the back of their mind making things feel multidimensional.
you could have a variation of this where it’s not another creature, but another adventurer or thief also in this dungeon with their own motives. Perhaps trying to steal some thing they are trying to take as well, or after something that they don’t even know about. Perhaps another hook to the story at large outside the dungeon, who knows?
… Another separate idea… as they learn the ins and outs of the dungeon, and where its traps are, sometimes learning the lesson painfully, they are pursued by some kind of rival or even insignificant enemy. But they begin to use the old rooms of the dungeon against their enemies who don’t know the terrain very well. Even if this only happens once in the dungeon around room number 12 or 20 or 30… It will be a hilarious memorable moment that might break the space of them, the party, monotonously moving forward but them actually turning back with new information and completely obliterating some insignificant wanna be nemesis of theirs. Almost a comedic moment but also a fun trap that they get to lay instead of walking into traps that have already been laid out.
I recomend including bits of the player's backstories. That can make them get really excited and invested in the story if they are roleplayers. Have the warlock's patron or the cleric's deity contact them. Maybe there is a sign that the fighter's long lost brother who has been missing for thirty years has recently passed through here. Have them come across the paladins sworn enemy. Anything that lets them roleplay their characters like that can be really fun.
That is something that I think would add to the overall story as well as enhance the dungeon's playability and the players'
interest in continuing through the dungeon, maybe acquiring something at the end of it for their patron, god, etcetera. Thanks for the advice
Coffee is a must, sleep is a must, and DND is a must, in that order.
Fake doors.
Doors hung on the wall to look exactly like real locked doors. A trick but not a trap.
Mirrors in a room to make it look like someone else is in the room on a failed check.
Magic mouth set to make sounds like someone else is in the room.
A hole in the floor covered by a rug.
I always enjoy creating additional leads for the party to give them something to be excited about when going through a dungeon.
Another approach is to include opportunities for the party to think creatively.
The last thing I sometimes like is for the party to have a glimpse of a future villain. They see a shadowy figure go into a room, but when they enter they find only a broken TP circle.
Time limits re a good one - having a section of the dungeon fill with sand or water, or simply having something chasing them down (at low levels, a Gelatinous Cube is an option for this. At higher levels, an Iron Golem) that they do NOT want to fight.
Add to the tension by having them hunted through the dungeon. Have windows and spyholes and such which let the glimpse a room they were just in, and which now has a hellhound sniffing their footprints on the leash of a Death Knight. That sort of thing. Get them trapped in the dungeon by virtue of going back meaning a nearly mpossible fight.
ermanent consequences. Have a side-section of dungeon which looks interesting actually become sealed off by their careless pulling of levers. This will have them appreciate that their actions have consequences.
Traps that slow them down or hinder, rather than ones that just hurt them. The ones which just hurt them are boring and feel bad - "Whoops, you rolled badly, you take damage, now moving on". Better to have a PC fall into a 30ft pit that they then need to find a way to climb out of than falling into a 10ft pit with spikes which does the same damage and then they hop out on their next turn with ease. Further bonus points if the floor of the trap is a mimic, so they can suddenly not jump! Pitting one character into a combat while the others try to save them forces the players to make choices, which is good for gameplay - a trap just dealing some damage and being forgotten forever doesn't prompt any meaningful choice, and is therefore kinda rubbish!
Puzzles, but thematic and logical ones. Nobody is going to make the holding cell for their magical weapons accessible by solving a riddle on the door. Use thematic foreshadowing to offer ideas for the solutions to puzzles (I had a dungeon where the party were being constantly electrocuted, and then they found a door that needed to take ligtning damage to open!).
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Active defense.
I rarely do dungeons, but when I do, I make it someone's home. So the ... 'ancient temple' is now the home of a swarm of goblins, and when they discover foul surface dwellers in their midst, they throw up barricades, set traps and ambushes, making them fight for every inch of their territory.
Having goblin rogues circle around to attack the party from behind, just as they're moving to attack the latest improvised fortification can quickly expend ressources. Be careful not to actually kill the party though, because large numbers of small, harmless enemies is quite, quite deadly.
But done right, it's fun.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
One thing I did once that my players loved was having a rival party trying to complete the same or a similar quest.
Orange Juice!
The DLC for Dragons Dogma, dark arisen.
multilayered dungeons with similar layouts compared to previous rooms but also randomness in their layouts. Some sections seemingly unnaturally different.
-Parts of it seem engineered and build by humanoids, others rocky outcroppings.
-subterranean forests, deserts, or waterways
-make use of the the random table of environments on oh 99 of the DMG for each room.
-Make use of weather effects within the areas. unexplained rainfall, winds, fogs, snow, heat and cold
-varied use of lighted conditions. Places somehow unnaturally dark, regular dark or dim. Others that have areas if bright light that seem to peek through the ceiling or floors, if the lights direction can even be discerned at all.
-verticality. Reward climbing and use of techniques that might increase mobility.
-different obstacles and objects within the environment that can clearly be used for 1/2 or 3/4 cover.
-make use of foliage or other natural/unnatural phenomena to create light and heavy obscurity.
-“random” creatures that might have a pattern of use depending on the selections you’ve made earlier, perhaps the creatures grow in strength the further the party travels.
-account for environmental destruction. What happens if a player actually cuts down a tree or blows out a wall/floor with shatter.
-methodically placed bosses/Demi bosses every predetermined number of rooms.
-somehow granting the ability to make use of short cuts or faster travel.
-perhaps the rooms are the same but the creatures might repopulate or be different.
-designated “safe” areas where resting and perhaps merchants can be bartered with.
The secret to creating interest is to create variety. So the first thing to do is to create a dungeon that makes sense and has a dynamic layout. It doesn’t have to be super-complex. Just a bunch of room that interact with each other is enough. Secret doors and passages are the obvious thing here, but there could also be rooms that deactivate traps in other rooms, or a bunch of rooms with a coordinated defense.
The second way to add variety to to vary the encounter type. Many dungeon rooms already feature combat encounters, traps, and puzzles naturally. Those are the natural challenges in a dungeon. But you can also create a dungeon with spell and skill challenges. A traversal challenge asks your players to use Fly or Spiderclimb to pass the challenge, or a bunch of skill checks. Place checks in particular for skills and racial features your PCs have, to reward them for choosing those features. For instance, have a room with hints that could be uncovered with Drwarven (Stonecutting) and History (Int) features.
You could also feature a multi-encounter scenario in which your players are either being chased or chasing something. That’s a chase encounter. You can put a skill challenge in the middle of this scenario - for instance a difficult group skill challenge to uncover a Secret Door quickly. You don’t have that much time, so failing skill checks thrice will mean the creature has escaped, or your party has run out of time.
Finally, you can have dynamic dungeons, with hints in many rooms and on passageways on how the dungeon has changed in the past, and how the party can change it further or change it back. For instance, a former sahuagin underground fortress in the Underdark was drained of water by their enemies which forced their retreat. It’s been taken over by a bunch of exile Driders and spiders, but there’s no easy way to navigate the settlement and strongpoint without flying. When it was underwater, the sahuagin swam, so they have no need for staircases and they could just connect rooms to each other with passageways at any orientation and height. Driders and spiders stick to walls, so they had no problems using the space either. But a party that doesn’t fly will have challenges with access shafts that have no stairs and rooms that connect to each other vertically with no stairs. Put a feature in the dungeon that allows the party to resubmerge the entire complex. Doing so will drown the Driders and spiders and give them free rein to explore without deadly encounters, provided that they have Water Breathing (this is a 3rd level Ritual Spell available to all Clerics and Druids).
That’s just an example that’s easy. You could have a dungeon that’s turned on its side (the party might ask a friendly giant party to push it back upright), teleport-only strongholds built by Shadar-Kai for Shadar-Kai, or a maze of madness twisted by the psychic screams of an Elder Brain gone mad (after they defeat it, it turns out it was just straight corridors all along).
I am working on just such an idea. I am thinking I am going to base each level or segment based on a terrain type. So rather than being in a dungeon all the time they may step through a door and portal into a different dimension or reality. I think for a very long dungeon there may be a three way portal between realities. One to go back to their HQ, the portal will stay open until they go back. Though for every 24 hours they leave it open something has a chance to sneak back.
Using the different environments.
Arctic
Coast
Desert
Forest
Grassland
Hill
Mountain
Swamp
Underdark
Underwater
Urban
Or based each area on a different type of monster.
aberration
beast
celestial
construct
dragon
elemental
fey
fiend
giant
humanoid
infernal vehicle
monstrosity
ooze
plant
swarm
undead
Random ideas
1. No long rests allowed
2. Many empty rooms, some especially near entrance are trapped. Creatures that run away know where the traps are.
3. Twists and turns that allow retreating enemies to quickly break line of sight, while the players will have to run past an intersection where other creatures have held actions to attack.
4. Rooms that clearly have a secret passage based upon the layout, but don't. That empty space doesn't actually have to be a secret room.
5. Stuff that makes combat interesting, and generally favorable to the enemy because they chose that location for its defensive value. Cover and hard to reach locations for ranged attackers. Take advantage of fog to make life difficult. It is hard to see a trap in a super heavy fog.
6. Force the party to split up. Maybe a moving wall separates them for a couple rooms.
7. Make them swim to get to certain rooms. Place the room far enough that they can't reach the next room with less than half their swim distance. Or maybe just the best athletes can get to the next breathable spot, but as soon as they see it they are attacked.
I made a dungeon once that I thought was kinda cool and interesting.
The town of Silverbrook was founded by a cleric - St. Antoun - after he defeated an orc incursion. The orcs had built a fortress, The Fist, atop a lone cliff on the moors. St. Antoun had occupied the fortress for awhile, but it was lost again and ruined in a final revenge attack by the orcs. So, first part of the dungeon: Ruined fortress.
Hidden among the rocky crags of the cliff were a deep fissure, a vertical shaft leading down into the earth. This was where the orcs initially emerged, and it was where they managed to launch their final attack from. The shaft was full of broken, rotten construction - stairs and platforms and defensive positions the orcs had built on their way up from their original home deep below. At the bottom of this shaft was a cavern in which a wyvern had since made it's lair. The players knew there was a wuvern around, had seen it in the sky, but hadn't put 2 and 2 together and realised they were in it's lair. Oh, and the main enemy in the fortress was a sort of conglomerate ghost of all the human soldiers who died when the orcs torched the keep.
So, in the utter dark (the group was blessedly without a mage, but had torches of course), they were descending the shaft, checking for old traps, tying off ropes to climb down - and suddenly the tiny speck of light from the opening above goes dark, and a powerful wind pushes down on them. They can't see a thing, of course, but this is the wyvern descending the shaft, filling it almost wall to wall. Luckily, the wind also blows out the torches. Anyways, queue wyvern fight. I have another stroke of luck as the wyvern is wounded but not killed, and drops to the bottom of the shaft still alive (it still has wings, so it doesn't take falling damage).
At the bottom of the shaft, the players had the chance to befriend the wyvern - sparing it and it's unhatched eggs, and paving the way for wyvern mounts for the Silverbrook town watch. No biggie. Also, no wyvern mounts for the players. I like travel. On foot.
Beyond the wyvern's lair was the original settlement of the orcs. Long fallen into ruin, and bereft of life, it was still testament to why the orcs invaded: Their tribe had outgrown the cave, and they were no longer able to feed themselves. There were some fights with undead orcs and carrion crawlers, but the main feature of the cave was the Ski'i-tai - a type of beetle. They're kinda like brain moles? Enough of them together creates a hive mind, thousands of beetles sharing a single, psionic consciousness. Possibly a monster, but not an enemy - well, not necessarily. The ski'i-tai are corpse beetles, and reduce dead things to dust. But they also extract the essences of what they eat, and can destill those essences into potions, meaning you can drink a dead orc to gain Bulls Strengh (as an example). Precisely how the 'distillation' takes place is best left unconsidered. The beetles, btw, could animate any corpse they'd devoured - essentially by crawling all over it - thus gaining something not entirely unlike a humanoid shape.
From here, an underground river led on to further adventures, but the players didn't chose to go that way. Had they done so, they'd have found the kuotoa who blocked the orcs options to find more food without invading the surface.
Some time later the players returned to the former orc settlement. In the meantime, the ski'i-tai had colonized much more of it, partially ressurrecting (so to speak) many of the dead orcs. When doing so, each colony of beetles would gain some of the memories and habits of the host creature. Just glimmers, but enough to make the town a very creepy pantomine of what the town had once been - when the orcs were alive still.
I feel like that was a cool dungeon =)
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Remember just because it's a dungeon crawl doesn't mean there can't be roleplay. My favorite dungeon crawls, like Dungeon of the Mad Mage, or the Sunken Citadel, have different factions within them, some vying for control of the territory while others have their own reasons for being there. Each faction presents an opportunity for the players to make different choices and have further reached consequences for the players after they leave.
My advice would be, to break up the slog of the dungeon crawl, include non-combat social encounters with different factions that can provide separate goals. Maybe goblins and kobolds are fighting over the dungeon to turn into a base of operations, maybe a rival adventuring party is also their trying to find an ancient lost artifact to resurrect their dead leader. Maybe a blustering professor wants to hire the players as escort so they can examine the burial chamber (and secretly wants to summon the soul of the dread-lord imprisoned there! ). Include side-plots and goals to keep things interesting.
Does it need to be as big as it is? Another poster mentioned figuring out why it was there. What purpose did it serve before it became a dungeon. I'd recommend starting there. Design the cave system, or prison, or whatever it was. Then think about how the current inhabitants would modify it and what they are using it for. But think about how big those creatures need it to be. The current inhabitants aren't going to spend their time and resources building out every room if they only need a few of them. Similarly, don't just decide you want 50 rooms, and then try to figure out reasons to fill them, go from the opposite end. Let the story guide the size of the dungeon. Then, every room will have a purpose and help advance the plot, and it shouldn't get boring no matter how big it is.
One thing you can consider is making the dungeons story be revealed as they go. Start with extremely obscure hints and red herrings, and move towards the reveal of its true purpose. Have the purpose become an obstacle for them getting back out again.
Think about why the dungeon exists, and what to reveal about it to keep them exploring.
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