How to Design a Dungeon

I've described my playstyle before, which revolves around roleplay and improvisation. I'm not big on things like combat, but there is a place for it at the table. This time, I'm taking some time to talk about something I don't do very often, which is designing dungeons. I'll be doing so with a focus on roleplaying so that you can create a dungeon that doesn't rely entirely on combat. 

The first key to designing a dungeon is knowing what lies at the end of it. You want to build your players' experiences toward a grand finale, so knowing where you're going is vital. Let's base this finale on the story you're trying to tell. For example, let's say your players are planning to fight a BBEG and need a special weapon in order to stand a chance. So we're designing a dungeon that gives the players this special weapon. Our enemy is a fire elemental, so we want our weapon to reflect that; our weapon will be the Ice Spear of Norlet, a grand and intricate spear which does double damage to fire-type enemies. Now we have our weapon, so let's develop the finale. 

In the final chamber of the dungeon stands the Ice Spear of Norlet. It is a round chamber with the spear at the center of the room. A mezzanine hangs over the room from the opposite side of the entrance the players enter through. Now we need someone to defend the spear. Let's say that it's a powerful orcish mage named Curr Grent, whose magic is also aligned to ice magic because he has studied the spear so closely. Now we have the reward, the boss, and the boss' fighting style. But the players are likely to ask about the history and powers of the spear, so we want to develop that as well. 

The Ice Spear of Norlet was created by Derk Norlet, an orcish mage who sought to protect the icy steppes of his homeland. He developed the Ice Spear to be a tool of defense, shutting down entire regiments of armed forces with slowing and freezing effects. The Ice Spear can either cut three enemies' movements by half or completely stop one enemy, both effects for 5 rounds. These effects can be used a combination of three times per day. Deals double damage to fire enemies. +1 to hit, 2d6+STR damage. 

This is a basic framework of information about the Ice Spear. I'm not using a particular magic weapon from official D&D resources--I'm creating an item from scratch. The risk in going this route is that we might add some imbalance to combat, so we want to make sure that things are neither overpowered nor underpowered. These numbers would be appropriate for characters between 5th and 8th level, when players are starting to fight increasingly powerful foes. But if it does prove to be off-kilter, we can always improvise a bit to restore balance. 

When Curr Grent sees the players, he offers a brief monologue: "I have spent much of my life guarding this weapon, and I will not see it fall into dastardly hands. Stand and deliver, enemies of order!" We can establish that Grent is willing or unwilling to converse further about his motives. I usually opt for the NPC being willing to speak for about a minute before getting frustrated and attacking--this gives the players the option to learn about the situation and roleplay a bit, but still forces them to reckon with the enemy they're facing. 

So now we have our encounter to supply the finale of our dungeon. Now we can go back and create the steps that lead to this encounter and sprinkle in details that spice up that finale. 

We generally want a dungeon to take up one session of play time. Less than a session feels like a mini-episode, and longer than one session makes it feel like the whole adventure takes place in the dungeon. A good middle ground is to have about 15 rooms in your dungeon--your players will explore about half of them, and they'll likely spend about five minutes per room without enemies and about half an hour per room with enemies. This means that a 15-room dungeon would take about two or three hours, assuming you have combat in 4 or so rooms before the finale. Don't worry if your balance is slightly off--the important thing is that your players progress through the dungeon steadily, and you can balance that as you play. 

We want to have elements in the dungeon that reflect the finale, so let's include three to four rooms that tie into the finale. (1) The opening room of the dungeon is icy cold, mounded with snow. The weather outside the dungeon is balmy and warm, but the first room is stingingly cold. There is a long icicle sticking out of the ground in the center of the room. (2) A bookcase of magic spells written in orcish sits in an early room in the dungeon. There are handwritten notes on the spells and the first page identifies this book as belonging to Curr Grent. Many of the books' pages are hardened and frozen together. (3) A large dungeon keep sits on the other side of a wooden bridge. The keep is outfitted for heavy combat, with arrow slits and a portcullis. Piles of snow create uneven terrain, and icicles hang from stalactites above. When combat begins, the piles of snow animate into snow elementals. (4) An armory inside the keep is outfitted entirely with spears, each with icy shards hanging off their points. Enemies in the room use these icy spears to fight the party, doing an extra d4 of ice damage when they attack. 

We want to ensure that players encounter these rooms, so we'll place these rooms at bottlenecks in the dungeon. The other rooms we have yet to design will be more optional, placed along digressions from the dungeon's path. We have 11 rooms yet to design, though, so let's get to work. We're looking for rooms that make this a realistic dungeon but which also make the exploration of it interesting.  And overall, we want our dungeon to suggest that this is a forgotten but still living place--somewhere with history but also somewhere that has a new reality. 

1. A kitchen larder and a small dining room for up to a dozen people. The food is packed densely with ice, preserving the rations despite their apparent age. One enemy resides here, preparing a meal for the others. 
2. A storage room filled with icy crates, each containing various wares, including bowls and cups, clothing, and bedding materials. Ice rats scurry on the floor, having apparently eaten holes into the cloth materials. 
3.  A grand ballroom, now derelict, with a large dining table, dozens of chairs, a low-hanging chandelier, and a medium-sized stage with crimson curtains. Three enemies chase each other around this room until they notice the party. They do not bother to raise an alarm because of their distance from the rest of the dungeon. 
4. A small room with colorful tapestries covering the walls. A round table with two chairs sits in the center of the room. A cracked crystal ball sits on the table with a few icy divining cards. This room is markedly warmer than the rest of the dungeon. 
5. A bathing hall with long rectangular pools of water carved into the floor. The water is frozen partially, with large chunks of ice encasing cold water beneath. One enemy is in the room, struggling to crack the ice and get to the clean water below. 
6. A portrait hall with a dozen paintings of noble orcs and warriors. The last portrait in the room is of a warrior-mage named Curr Grent, and more ice clings to this portrait than any of the others. The eyes of each painting are fierce and seem to follow the players wherever they go in the room. 
7. A large room with a dirt floor, piles of snow gathered in heaps around the room. There are two doors--the one the party comes in through, and one at the opposite end that opens into a small caged area. This is a makeshift arena, and there is a viewing platform along one side of the room which comes from somewhere the players can't see. There is an ice elemental waiting in the caged area, though the gate is unlocked and it can emerge at any time. 
8. Looking much like a bar, a room with tables and chairs and a bar area. There are rows of frosty mugs sitting along the bar top and a few barrels of ale and spirits behind the bar. Four enemies sit at a table, drinking and being rowdy. They are slow to notice the players because they are drunk and engaged in conversation. 
9. A low, wide room with about 30 trophies--exotic skins from hunting, metal trophies celebrating military victories, and the armor of vanquished foes. Icicles cling to each trophy, but an enemy is using a damp rag to wipe them clean of dust and ice. The enemy is taken off guard by the players and calls for help from the next room.
10. A large, sweeping room with a pit in the middle. Carved stairs around the outside of the room descend into a makeshift quarry, with large blocks of stone missing at the bottom. The stone appears to be low-quality granite. An astute player recognizes that most of the constructions in the dungeon are from this quarry. Two enemies work at the bottom of the pit, mining bricks from the ground. 
11. A small room with chamber pots and two large vessels of water. The top of the water has frozen in a thin layer of ice. One enemy is using a chamber pot, preparing to empty the rest, when the party arrives. He is surprised and calls for help. 

Now we have all the rooms for our dungeon and it's time to decide how they're organized. Ordinarily, I would simply sketch out a map on some graph paper, but for the sake of showing you how to do this step, I'll be photoshopping a crude map for the dungeon. We start by deciding the shape of this dungeon. Some dungeons are relatively square, with most of the rooms close by others. Other dungeons are longer and more linear, which pushes the rooms apart from each other. In this case, we want the few enemies who call for help to stand a chance of getting help, so we'll do something in between--a rectangular map with a balance of close by rooms. A good ratio will be a standard screen's dimensions--I'm using 1920x1080, and that's close enough to what we want to use. 

I'm using this brick pattern as a ground level for the dungeon, just so we're not working with blank space to begin with and we have a little flavor on the map. 

We've determined that the first room will be the entryway with the huge icicle from our first step in creating rooms that suit the dungeon, so I've turned down the opacity of the brick background and placed the first room. If you're new to photoshop, you can do this by using the rectangular selector to outline the room, then using the paint tool to fill it in with black, then selecting the pixels of the box and selecting "Select" and then ""Modify" and then "Contract"--5 pixels is good for an outline--followed by deleting the inside of the box. You get something that looks like this:

That's our first room. 

We also want to remember before proceeding that this is our first room, so we should number it. This will allow us to copy our notes on what happens in room one into a list that corresponds with the map. Then let's add a few more rooms connected with a hallway. 

Our first batch of rooms, now with numbers for us to track each room. 

I've made each room's shape and size reflective of what purpose it served. Room two is the dining room/larder, where there needs to be enough space to seat a dozen people. The storage room, room three, is smaller because it only needs to hold several boxes and not be lived in. Room four is larger because it is the ballroom, with a grand stage and room for many people. We've already written that the enemies in the ballroom are too far away from their allies to call for help, so we need to consider that as we place the next rooms. 

The addition of rooms 5-8. 

Looking at the map so far, we can see that in order to progress, the players have to go through room five. This is the bottleneck feature I described earlier. You want your players to discover the spellbook room for certain, so you place it on the route to the end of the dungeon. The other rooms are optional, but it's guaranteed they'll see it here. I then added rooms six through eight; room six is our divining room, room seven is the bathing hall (the enemy inside is a decent distance from room 4, who know not to call for help), and room eight is the portrait hall. Again, the size and shape of each room goes into consideration, and now we're halfway through our dungeon. 

Rooms 9-12, including detail for the wooden bridge in the keep. 

Though I didn't originally write it, we do want enemies to be in room nine, where the keep is. The strategic features of this room (the bridge, the arrow slits, the portcullis, the uneven terrain) make this an interesting place for combat. So we'll throw four enemies in here for a challenge that the players can handle--we'll make them roughly as powerful as the players, but a bit less so that they can win the fight and still have juice left for Curr Grent. The keep, once breached, leads to the next three rooms: ten being the arena, eleven being the bar, and twelve being the trophy room. Let's add the rest of the rooms and finish the dungeon. 

Rooms 13-16, including detail for the pit in the quarry. 

A hallway leads the players from the keep (9) to the armory (13), from which they can access the quarry (14), the chamber pot area (15), and the final chamber where Curr Grent awaits (16). The enemies in 13 are close enough to hear the combat happening in 9, so we want to keep that in mind while running the encounter. Perhaps two or three rounds into combat, ice spear-wielding enemies join the enemies in the keep. That's up to you to decide--you should be making choices like that based on the momentum of the fight. Don't overwhelm your players completely--only you as GM can decide whether the players are likely to be killed or not. 

We still have some details to fill in. First, we need an enemy type to populate this dungeon. We might choose orcs to honor the background of Curr Grent. We might decide on more classic fare for dungeons and choose goblins or knolls, something that has moved into a once-great place. We might want to give our players a selection of D&D's more colorful enemies, like beholders and displacer beasts. Whatever we choose, we want it to be consistent with the story we're telling. In this case, Curr Grent strikes me as a faithful defender of the ice spear, and I like to think that he has trained underlings to follow his methods. So I would use a collection of lower-level orcs, each of whom is decent in combat and has a spell or two at their disposal. This makes it seem like an armed force of soldiers, the kind who would have a keep and an arena in their compound. So we'll go with that for now; the enemies indicated in the outline are slightly magical orcs. 

We also want to add something besides combat and dungeoneering. Let's add a puzzle or two for good measure. Our puzzles should occur in the bottlenecked rooms so that the players can't miss them. We'll start in the library, room 5. The players can discover here that the order of orcs who defend the ice spear do so because it is a powerful weapon which they don't want to fall into the wrong hands. Thus, the players may convince the orcs that they are using the weapon for good. Or the players may discover that all of Derk Norlet's spells are defensive, which they can use in combat. This is good information that can affect how the end of the dungeon plays out. Let's get more puzzly in the next room. 

The next bottleneck is room 9, the keep. This is ideal fare for puzzles. Let's say that the wooden bridge across the gap in the keep is straining and will snap if more than two players move across it at once. Then they'll need dexterity saves to hold on and strength checks to pull themselves back up. If they fail, they'll take falling damage and need to find a way up. Additionally, the portcullis complicates the combat. If the players are separated from each other, their strategy must change. If the orcs all fall to defensive positions behind the portcullis, the players must figure out how to open it. The uneven terrain can be used to grant advantage or disadvantage rolls in combat. These all make combat much more than rolling to hit, so we'll use them to add a dash of puzzles to the proceedings. 

But now we want a real puzzle, something for the players to solve. Cue the armory. As noted before, the spears in this room are covered in ice and do additional damage. But ice will not hurt an ice enemy, so we plant a puzzle in the room. The players may notice that a small, controlled flame burns in the corner beneath wall carvings of spears flying through the air with steam rising off the spear tips. On the opposite side of the room sit the ice spears, pale light from a hole above filtering down to them. Above them are wall carvings of spears flying through the air, ice hanging off the spear tips. The players may then hold a spear tip in the flame, which causes the ice to melt away and the spear tip to become instantly very hot. These heated spears cause double damage to ice creatures, including Curr Grent. 

So now our dungeon is more than combat. It has clues and strategy and puzzles on top of the exploration of the place. All that's left now is to combine everything we have into one finished product. I'm adding a name to the dungeon and compiling our rooms and puzzle information into one product, which follows here:

Our final dungeon map. 

1. The opening room of the dungeon is icy cold, mounded with snow. The weather outside the dungeon is balmy and warm, but the first room is stingingly cold. There is a long icicle sticking out of the ground in the center of the room. 
2. A kitchen larder and a small dining room for up to a dozen people. The food is packed densely with ice, preserving the rations despite their apparent age. One orc resides here, preparing a meal for the others. 
3. A storage room filled with icy crates, each containing various wares, including bowls and cups, clothing, and bedding materials. Ice rats scurry on the floor, having apparently eaten holes into the cloth materials. 
4.  A grand ballroom, now derelict, with a large dining table, dozens of chairs, a low-hanging chandelier, and a medium-sized stage with crimson curtains. Three orcs chase each other around this room until they notice the party. They do not bother to raise an alarm because of their distance from the rest of the dungeon. 
5. A bookcase of magic spells written in orcish sits in an early room in the dungeon. There are handwritten notes on the spells and the first page identifies this book as belonging to Curr Grent. Many of the books' pages are hardened and frozen together. The players can discover here that the order of orcs who defend the ice spear do so because it is a powerful weapon which they don't want to fall into the wrong hands. Thus, the players may convince the orcs that they are using the weapon for good. Or the players may discover that all of Derk Norlet's spells are defensive, which they can use in combat.
6. A small room with colorful tapestries covering the walls. A round table with two chairs sits in the center of the room. A cracked crystal ball sits on the table with a few icy divining cards. This room is markedly warmer than the rest of the dungeon. 
7. A bathing hall with long rectangular pools of water carved into the floor. The water is frozen partially, with large chunks of ice encasing cold water beneath. One orc is in the room, struggling to crack the ice and get to the clean water below. 
8. A portrait hall with a dozen paintings of noble orcs and warriors. The last portrait in the room is of a warrior-mage named Curr Grent, and more ice clings to this portrait than any of the others. The eyes of each painting are fierce and seem to follow the players wherever they go in the room. 
9. A large dungeon keep sits on the other side of a wooden bridge. The keep is outfitted for heavy combat, with arrow slits and a portcullis. Piles of snow create uneven terrain, and icicles hang from stalactites above. Four orcs sit on the other side of the portcullis. When combat begins, the piles of snow animate into snow elementals. The wooden bridge across the gap in the keep is straining and will snap if more than two players move across it at once. Then they'll need dexterity saves to hold on and strength checks to pull themselves back up. If they fail, they'll take falling damage and need to find a way up. Additionally, the portcullis complicates the combat. If the players are separated from each other, their strategy must change. If the orcs all fall to defensive positions behind the portcullis, the players must figure out how to open it. The uneven terrain can be used to grant advantage or disadvantage rolls in combat.
10. A large room with a dirt floor, piles of snow gathered in heaps around the room. There are two doors--the one the party comes in through, and one at the opposite end that opens into a small caged area. This is a makeshift arena, and there is a viewing platform along one side of the room which comes from somewhere the players can't see. There is an ice elemental waiting in the caged area, though the gate is unlocked and it can emerge at any time. 
11. Looking much like a bar, a room with tables and chairs and a bar area. There are rows of frosty mugs sitting along the bar top and a few barrels of ale and spirits behind the bar. Four orcs sit at a table, drinking and being rowdy. They are slow to notice the players because they are drunk and engaged in conversation. 
12. A low, wide room with about 30 trophies--exotic skins from hunting, metal trophies celebrating military victories, and the armor of vanquished foes. Icicles cling to each trophy, but an orc is using a damp rag to wipe them clean of dust and ice. The orc is taken off guard by the players and calls for help from the next room.
13. An armory inside the keep is outfitted entirely with spears, each with icy shards hanging off their points. Four orcs in the room use these icy spears to fight the party, doing an extra d4 of ice damage when they attack. The players may notice that a small, controlled flame burns in the corner beneath wall carvings of spears flying through the air with steam rising off the spear tips. On the opposite side of the room sit the ice spears, pale light from a hole above filtering down to them. Above them are wall carvings of spears flying through the air, ice hanging off the spear tips. The players may then hold a spear tip in the flame, which causes the ice to melt away and the spear tip to become instantly very hot. These heated spears cause double damage to ice creatures, including Curr Grent. 
14. A large, sweeping room with a pit in the middle. Carved stairs around the outside of the room descend into a makeshift quarry, with large blocks of stone missing at the bottom. The stone appears to be low-quality granite. An astute player recognizes that most of the constructions in the dungeon are from this quarry. Two orcs work at the bottom of the pit, mining bricks from the ground. 
15. A small room with chamber pots and two large vessels of water. The top of the water has frozen in a thin layer of ice. One orc is using a chamber pot, preparing to empty the rest, when the party arrives. He is surprised and calls for help, potentially alerting Curr Grent in the next room. 
16. In the final chamber of the dungeon stands the Ice Spear of Norlet. It is a round chamber with the spear at the center of the room. A mezzanine hangs over the room from the opposite side of the entrance the players enter through. Appearing at the edge of the mezzanine is a powerful orcish mage named Curr Grent, whose magic is aligned to ice magic because he has studied the spear so closely. The Ice Spear of Norlet was created by Derk Norlet, an orcish mage who sought to protect the icy steppes of his homeland. He developed the Ice Spear to be a tool of defense, shutting down entire regiments of armed forces with slowing and freezing effects. The Ice Spear can either cut three enemies' movements by half or completely stop one enemy, both effects for 5 rounds. These effects can be used a combination of three times per day. Deals double damage to fire enemies. +1 to hit, 2d6+STR damage. 

And that's basically all that you need to design a dungeon. You can get very detailed with combat challenges, puzzles, or roleplaying challenges in sequences like this, but many players simply want to enter a dungeon and get treasure, especially when that treasure serves a storyline. So take this method and tweak it according to what you need. But the basics of dungeon creation basically just require you to work backwards with your end goal in mind. 

Coming soon: how to spice up combat and how to describe scenes with just the right amount of detail. Stay tuned!

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