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Question: Hey Dungeon Monkey!  So I had a question for you, one of the greatest tricks I have is coming up with a reason on the fly for a random dungeon “adventure of the week” and also, more often, in finding time to design a dungeon that makes sense internally.  Any suggestions on how to come up with something in a few hours rather then several days that will grip my group’s interest?

Answer: Well the dungeon, such as it is, represents a particularly specific form of story-telling engine when running an adventure, usually a dungeon is either a linear path experience in which the players are forced to follow a specific course or something in which their choices are highly limited.  The problem, of course, is most players actually resist this sort of direction or require a lot of careful preparation to actually make a dungeon avoid appearing as just that, a random structure with no form or purpose that appears suddenly in front of the group to challenge them.  A few simple techniques though will help you create dungeons that are memorable, generally easy to construct, and also will allow you to generate a story line that links all these seemingly random encounters together.

First you need to put your dungeons in far-away locations, the key goal here is something remote, so remote in fact that no one visits it regularly.  The reason for this is quite often players are sent into a dungeon which is either in the middle of a high-traffic region (near a major settlement or, goodness help you, a major city is a particularly poor setting choice in most cases) can be the kiss of death for attempting to connect people to a dungeon.  Granted exploring the massive sewer system and catacombs under the city of Crystal Might can be fascinating but if it is taken over by some sort of rat-people working with giant spiders your players might start to rightly wonder why this sort of thing is not reported by the local sewer workers.  For that matter, if you mention that the sewer workers don’t live to tell the tale, that is another thing that might raise attention.  Finally city sewers should be avoided, along with other functional infrastructure, because failures in such systems are noticed by people and provoke reactions.  Trust me if you want simplicity then you should go for remote locations.  Generally research stations on remote islands, hermitages on remote mountain tops, wizards towers in the deep mountains are all excellent places for your adventure.

Second, contain the scope of your imagination by remembering that in any functional structure much of the space will be taken up with boring, functional utility spaces.  These do not really require much description on your part and in a good design should take up between thirty percent to sixty percent of the total structure.  A fortress in the remote frontier is going to have places for soldiers to sleep, storage for supplies, an armory, and support buildings.  A research station is going to have areas for storage of supplies, dormitories, and spaces for recreation as well as defense.  Even a wizards tower is going to have areas in which garbage is tossed, supplies are kept, and horses are stabled.  The point is for these spaces you need only include a line or two of description, unless there is a clue or something interesting in the location.  However utilitarian does not necessarily mean dull, if you have ever seen a horror movie then you know creatures hide or nest in such locations all the time.  Spring one or two nasty beasts on the group while they are checking out a store room or a dormitory to keep them on their toes.  Even if the creatures have nothing to do with what caused your dungeon to be abandoned or harmed (see below) creatures move into empty spaces.

Third, whatever your location is it has been lost/abandoned/contact has failed and the group is being sent in to figure out what happened.  You can have survivors in the location if you like but keep the number of non-player characters (NPCs) to a minimum.  Each NPC needs dialogue, a story, and a reason for being there, if you have to work fast keep the number to a minimum.  Usually someone in shock or hiding, only able to give a few key clues before fainting or dying, is a great if over-used means of conveying information without requiring a huge investment of planning time.

Fourth, have a smaller percentage of the structure be interesting, this is the part the group will find while exploring and will need to do more to figure it out.  A few rooms is usually enough, they should house something or someone interesting.  Make whatever it is mysterious and unexpected and your players will be drawn in to figure out what is going on.  Ideally make it only mildly threatening at first and then have its true danger revealed after some time has passed.

Finally, don’t let the players figure out the whole story in one dungeon.  Leave a mystery that comes back when they return and find something else in the same region has also gone off the beaten track.  Then your dungeon-of-the-week turns into a campaign arc of solving a problem.

- Dungeon Monkey

Have a question for the Dungeon Monkey?  Want to seek out some gaming suggestions?  Email Dungeon Monkey at dungeonmonkey@umich.edu and get your answers!