Insight into building dungeons as told by the RPGPundit; intended for games with a director. I’m a fan of dungeons. Some of my fondest memories of early gaming, like so many of us regular gamers, was of trying to get my low-level D&D character to survive one dungeon or another (the Keep on the Borderlands was a particular favorite of mine). So of course I put a lot of emphasis on dungeons and dungeon adventures. Now, dungeon adventuring does have its pitfalls (pardon the pun). For starters, if you’re like me, you’ve gamed for years and most people in your gaming group have gamed for years. This means that you/they are likely to have “seen it all” as far as dungeons are concerned. So here are a few guidelines and ideas on how to keep your dungeons fresh. Some of these might not follow the “conventional wisdom” you’ll have heard elsewhere.

1.

Screw the whole idea of “dungeon ecology.” I’ve played in “ecological” dungeons, where every creature is there for a reason, the dungeon plans make sense, the dungeon itself was built for some purpose, and there is the simulacrum of an ecosystem. Those are boring. Not to mention that again, experienced players have done that already. Most of these “ecology” dungeons are not nearly as clever as their creators think they are. Beyond that, though, the main crime is that they sacrifice the playability and fun of the dungeon for some boneheaded idea of “realism.” The goal in RPGs is not Realism, rather emulation. And in this case, what we are trying to emulate when you do a dungeon for experienced gamers is the “genre” of the fun they once had playing D&D Basic.

2.

Resist the urge to make the “megadungeon.” I love megadungeons on paper. I love the idea of them. I love looking at twenty pages of graph-paper maps. In practice, you need to be really clever to make twenty levels of dungeon that maintain the players’ interest. If what you are trying to do is capture a feeling, make the game nostalgic and fun, that is best done in small doses. Not more than a couple of levels. Intersperse your dungeon time with some overland travel, city adventuring, or whatever.

3.

Should your dungeon have a point? Sure, and that point should be “Kill something and take its stuff”. Part of what creates a sense of routine in a dungeon is the eventual collapse into tedium of going room-by-room, searching traps, fighting monster, getting treasure. So its fine to have a goal, something that will push your players to try to move quicker and go further. Have a big bad, or a big treasure, or a hot babe to rescue. Make time of the essence.

4.

Make sure that your dungeon looks like something. No, I’m not going back on what I just said about ecology. I’m saying that if you want to create an image in your players’ minds, you need the dungeon to have a style. This can also be a good way to create some barriers to movement in the dungeon. Is it a buried temple? Do parts of the dungeon mix with a natural cave complex? Does it have collapsed rooms? Is it partially flooded? Is there something odd about the walls? What’s that slime?

5.

Lighting, sound, and food issues can be useful, but don’t overdo it. It is great to create an atmosphere of both challenge and danger by pointing out how dark it is and how little their torchlights really illuminate the corridors by mentioning the occasional odd noises. This stuff quickly devolves into diminishing returns. The more you talk about how dark it is or the more strange sounds there are, the less that will impact your players and the more likely it is to annoy them. Likewise, tracking things like rations can be useful to keep the players on-target and to make them understand how managing their resources is important. Don’t get anal about things like encumbrance, however, or else you just slow down the whole game.

6.	When in doubt, add robots. Not literally robots, but something really weird that does not belong in the “standard” dungeon. Save this for when things seem to slow or players delay gameplay by discussing things like who is going to carry the torch—that is when you throw the Dalek at them.

7.

Don’t forget to include at least one absurdly overpowered magic item, at least one really awful cursed item, and at least one monster that the party can’t defeat just by hacking at it. Yes, not everything in the dungeon should just be about combat. There should be at least a couple of friendly encounters, a couple of unusual objects, and some situations where the adventurers must find alternate ways of dealing with problems. The less predictable a routine of going through the dungeon is, the more likely you are to keep your players’ interest.

All of this can be summarized with one simple concept: your dungeon does not have to make sense. Having fun is the point. Let’s face it, nothing like dungeons have ever existed in the “real world.” They were never about making sense, rather a playing field for old-school fun. Worry less about your dungeons making sense, and more about them being cool.