#How to make a dungeon?

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

visual fossil
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I’ve been DM’ing a text based game with some Discord friends. For the longest time I’ve been using pre-written stuff and just connected everything together, but now I’m doing original stuff. So I need to come with a dungeon.

The plot is the big bad makes the party investigate the magic item museum and find the secret section of the museum where they keep the dangerous items. Any advice would be helpful.

fossil gale
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The important things to check in dungeon creation are:

  • What was the dungeon before it was a dungeon?
  • What is the dungeon's current purpose?
  • Who is in the dungeon?

Once that baackground information is out of the way, you can use that to inform what goes in it.

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So layout and contents would be informed by the dungeon's history.

visual fossil
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I was leaning towards the secret section of the museum being in the sky. Which is why no one ever found it.

fallen furnace
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Are you playing 5e? Do you have a Dungeon Master's Guide? That has tables that are a good starting place.

If you need practical software suggestions, Dungeon Scrawl is a simple web-based mapping tool: https://www.dungeonscrawl.com/

visual fossil
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What about the type of enemies that are in it?

scenic pagoda
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the trick to planning out enemies in a dungeon is considering "what makes the most sense", followed by "don't overthink it", and then "what sounds interesting/fun/entertaining"

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additionally, my go-to method of making dungeons isn't to map out the whole thing, at least not at first (often never but that's a preference aspect), but consider the larger components that make up the dungeon.

-what are the big and/or important rooms that you need to have mapped out?
-where are the fights most likely to occur?
-if it's big enough of a dungeon, where might the PCs camp to rest?
-what would make for a kickass setpiece?

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lastly, for your first handful of dungeons, avoid puzzles. unless the puzzle is "how to get from point A to point B", because frankly, word puzzles and zelda-style puzzles rarely work in TTRPGs

spare mason
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in general, I would like to direct you towards Sly Flourish's The Lazy Dungeon Master, which is wonderful in guiding GMs on how to prep/make campaigns with minimal effort

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also depending on the setting's technology level, if it's a museum things to keep in mind:

-Emergency Exits

  • Windows
  • Money location - donation and patron entry fees
  • Other amenities for the patrons - is there a cafe? is there a bathroom? wheelchair accessible? headphones to listen to display information?
  • Breakrooms for employees
  • janitor's closet and supplies
  • night janitor may be present
  • interactive exhibits for patrons and children
  • how does the museum keep things safe? is everything behind glass or is it just a rope and prayer?
  • is there some form of monitoring or scrying active in the museum for security?
  • vents
  • keys - where are they and what keys are available to what employees, and how are the keys secured?
echo moth
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Oooh, my first session GMing was in a museum. For me, there was:
•Storage rooms
•Interactive exhibits
•Minimum wage security guards
•A restaurant (McDemons)
•Security centre
•Break room
•Records room
•Maximum security vault
•A gift shop
•Ancient siege weaponry that was inexplicably in perfect condition and ready to fire
•A dinosaur skeleton exhibit that got reanimated by the security systems

spare mason
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•Minimum wage security guards
My favorite kind of NPCs - the ones you think will be an issue, but aren't paid enough to beone

echo moth
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Utterly disposable, yet I got so attached to one of them that I simply couldn't have the dinosaur comedically eat her as planned

visual fossil
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Sorry. I just came back here and noticed this.