How do you guys make your dungeon? What are must haves and must

Do not allow your dungeon to be make-or-break on the basis of certain skill checks. That is to say, if your party is stuck somewhere and literally can't find a way out because they couldn't pass a skill check, you fucked up.

>>50842891
It's a personal belief that dungeons ought to have a lore-based reason for existing, and that whatever traps, tricks or treasures exist inside should fit the dungeon's theme.

File: IMG_1859.jpg (154KB, 992x1600px) Image search: [Google]

154KB, 992x1600px

bump coz i'm currently planning out a dungeon and am curious about what other people do as per OP's question.

>Puzzles?
Just tarps.
>Enemies?
Yes, but only a few. With timed shifts throughout the day. Also noted plans to retreat/call for aid.
And, separately, rolls off a wander monster table.
Quantity of fights has more to do with exploration time than with exploration space.
>Mutiple paths?
Yup. The first room of the dungeon (or section) should have *at least* 3 ways to go. Probably 5.
Everything beyond that can be mostly "linear", just weave them into each other and (occasionally) add extra branches.
Sections of the dungeon should be largely seperate, with a limited number of entrances/exits.
>Backtracking?
The PCs will do them on their own.
>Traps?
Should be almost as frequent as monsters.
Mostly simple stuff though. Pitfalls, snares, needle traps... maybe a few deadfalls, etc?
No more than 2 "sophisticated" traps per section of the dungeon, though likely not even 1.
Mundane hazards as traps are also a nice touch.

>How do you guys make your dungeon?
Doodle rooms, then decide "why" they were there originally. Then populate them.
>What are must have nots?
Don't take too much space for notes.
Draw the dungeon (or section) on a single page. Use a separate single page for *all* of the contents.
2-3 lines per room, 1 line for "empty" rooms. One sentence to describe the room, everything else is monster/trap/treasure info.

>>50842891

First step of dungeon design: "atmosphere."

Is this a well-lit, level one dungeon full of piñata monsters with treasure around every corner? Or is this where your players come to die?

The second thing to think about is "theme."

Have you ever seen one of those big doors with all the carvings on them? Those are fun things to cover with EXACTLY what your adventurers are going to find in the dungeon. After the door, the hallways of a chaos dungeon are going to look very different from a nice orderly dungeon.

One thing you might not be thinking of is how nerve-wracking an empty hallway can be sometimes. They do stuff in jumpscares all the time where the hallway is empty until something jumps out. In a nice dungeon, there are a lot of short hallways, and a lot of doors. Nothing is coming out of the doors until the players get a chance to listen at the door and open the door themselves. Long hallways have lots of room in the middle for trapdoors, traps and worse.

Next you want to show your players "things to come," windows, clues, the kind of things people drop wherever when they first get home. They kick off their shoes, drop their keys somewhere, and take off their coats as they bring the groceries. However, when translating this to monsters, there are footprints, what might once have been horses, disguises...

Lots of players expect "skeletons," but how else are you supposed to describe an alchemic rubber mask except as "a pile of human skin" laying on the ground?

Now you might have had parents who told you to pick up your stuff before someone trips over it. Bad kids don't listen to their parents, and most dungeon residents are considered "evil." Hallways full of garbage are rightly considered difficult terrain, full of things that make a lot of noise when they are stepped on and break or kicked over and bounce / rattle down the hallways. The players freeze, and then they hear it...

But how do you actually make a dungeon? Like, what resources are there online? Keep in mind this would be for somebody without any money at all.

>>50844821

The sound of whoever or whatever is wondering what that noise was. A messy hallway is full of places to hide, but when the players dive for cover, they always land in something. Hiding under a hall couch, where people sit down to untie their shoes, seems like a great idea. However, consider the things a player might expect to find on the floor of a dungeon: skulls, rats, mysterious slime molds. Finding these on the ground when standing up with a sword in hand is one thing, diving face-first into it when you can't even scream because there is something BIG coming to look for you is something else.

And we're not even out of the hallway yet!

Now assuming your players stay quiet until the dragon goes back to "unpacking the groceries," the players have a choice: Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3. Just for fun, I like to add a goat noise right here, before they start listening at the doors. They know that "behind one of these doors is a goat," but which door do they want? Any player brave enough to peek their head out knows which door the dragon went into, but "Roll for Stealth Check" usually changes their minds.

In a nice dungeon, each door leads to a single room with something inside of it. We've covered empty rooms and jumpscares, so sometimes there is nothing inside but an open door or tunnel. Whatever is waiting for the players in the darkness of the tunnel, they still have the option to close the door and try the other two.

My favorite is "exploding goat wakes up the hungry spiders living inside of the ceiling for the bloody feast." Did I mention I have the "screaming goat" meme? It works great for things like this. And of course door number three leads to orcs, bandits counting loot, and cultists dabbling in human sacrifice after a kidnapping. Everything the players came for, but instead of a "roleplay encounter," the actors in the group have to deal with convincing the other characters, in character, to take the right door.

>>50845108

Now we come to the Secret Door.

You don't have to have a secret door, but some players like looking for them, so have a random table set up. Now as for me personally, I like having a Secret Door. The orcs behind Door #3 only have half of whatever it is the party came from. They broke it and they are trying to fix it when the party comes in.

"Kill them! We can say they broke in and smashed it once they're dead!"

Now the other half is either down the long creepy tunnel in the room behind Door #1, or behind a secret door. Now you know why I recommended the random table, because even I don't know what is behind the Secret Door. Roll the dice and see, then put the other half of the MacGuffin "someplace interesting."

Also, check the clock to see how much game time is left. If you have ten minutes, have your players succeed their check for a secret door. The nice thing about dark, jumpscare tunnels is that players are already trying to make spot checks, which spot secret doors as well as monsters. They find the door, find the item, and make it out before the dragon comes.

If you have the time, fighting a dragon might actually be fun. The secret door could where an orc made a "shrine" to their favorite Halfling bard. A little music box playing super sugary sweet music is suddenly horrifying when the players hopes are destroyed...

...the secret door was their way out, their one chance to not see what was down the creepy tunnel...

...long creepy tunnels are a chance to have a "parade of horrors." The players already know there is a big dragon, or lich, or something "unpacking the groceries." It is something way beyond their current level, that's why they hid under the "hall couch of horrors." Their only hope is that there are enough monsters between them and the dragon that they can gain a level.

You could roll a random encounter table, and its fun to make your characters think you are. However, I like to do "puzzle encounters."

>>50845333

You see, the players are already checking the corpses of every group of monsters I throw at them, hoping they have the other half of what they came for. Hope is a wonderful, fragile thing that is so much fun to CRUSH! Of course these monsters don't have the MacGuffin, the players have a dragon to fight! But perhaps one of those spider monsters, those snake monsters, those scorpion monsters have a poison that would make a short work of the dragon.

Assuming, of course, that they didn't leave it behind in frustration at not finding the thing they were looking for...

Players like random elements, DMs like random elements too, but what they really love is the ILLUSION of randomness. If there is no way the players can beat the dragon on their own, keep hitting them with monsters carrying what they need.

Of course, I'm not a fan of monsters who don't USE the items they are carrying, especially items that would have logically been very helpful in their fight with the player characters.

This means in addition to taking the hint, players have to find the unused item on the corpses. And I don't want to give the players too much help, so I throw a few non-hint encounters between the useful ones. Those are actually random encounters, which helps the illusion of randomness I'm trying to create.

Now for the kicker... Where are all these random monsters coming from? Why are all these monsters carrying items in the long creepy tunnel leading to the dragon's lair? Obviously, they are there to kill the dragon!

The players don't want the MacGuffin to fall into the wrong hands. If it is literally going to bring the apocalypse, then no one does. That's a very good reason for all the mercenaries who are supposed to be guarding the dungeon to turn traitorous. However, I prefer to have the monsters in the long creepy tunnel to be sent by another dragon, or similar evil, to set up the next adventure...

>>50845548

The monsters not only drop what the players need to defeat the dungeon boss, they also leave clues to who sent them.

I like to set it up so one player finds the clue that only a different player understands the significance of. It's a good use of the character's backstory, to find a clue to the person who they are seeking revenge on, or whatever. This gives them an in-character reason to follow the clues.

Anyway, big climactic boss battle with actual dragons in actual dungeons to end the night. Party can split on whether to go back to town and tavern or keep looking for secret doors, but I try not to have more than one secret door per level.

Also, while most people assume secret doors are behind walls where you press a specific rock or brick, those piles of garbage are just as effective at hiding things and some can contain minor random loot. I try to have enough broken random items laying around from failed evil plans that a determined player could MacGuyver something, but spread it out enough that most groups won't take the time. The idea that each pile contains one broken device/part/substitute helps to organize descriptions and provide inspiration. Random bags could contain black powder, a discarded "two-goblins" coat could cover the shell, and there's plenty of string in the pile with the broken fishing pole and the dungeon wall repair trowels to act as a fuse.

>>50845013
I'm particulary found of donjon's rpg tools
https://donjon.bin.sh/

>>50845797
Not OP but I love the advice/info you've posted.

>>50847261
same