Dungeons are, in a sense, the meat and potatoes of an adventure. Dungeons range from old abandoned mansions that house the undead, ruins of long forgotten or remembered kingdoms and cultures, caverns that are home to monsters, sewers (but does anyone really love the sewer level of a game?), fortresses that house your enemy, etc. Basically, in the fantasy game dictionary, a dungeon is any place of danger that houses monsters, traps, and treasure. Its' usually a culminating point of an adventure, and can be of any size. Some can be as small as a few rooms, and some, like Undermountain in Forgotten Realms, are so huge not even a boxed set can map it out entirely. Some house boss monsters, but not all, in fact, in my campaigns, at most 1/3rd of dungeons have a sort of boss monster.
In this post, we shall discuss the making of a dungeon, while once again returning to Wintermoot for an example to follow along with. Like I said for world-building, this is strictly my own process that you can also follow. If you have a process that works better for you, by all means, use that! This is the process I use because it works for me, and I bring it forth so you can also use it, or improve on it, or even to just not use at all. So, with that being said, let us travel to the frigid land of Wintermoot and explore the Ice Palace, the giant iceberg fortress of the White Dragon only known as either She or the White Bitch (which, by the by, I did not get from Epic Movie, its a White Dragon that brought down the Frost Giant Jarldom, you would call her a White Bitch to if she came and knocked down your house).
The cold frozen entrance to the Ice Palace lies before you, the air
having a sting of frost in it that feels unnatural to the arctic sea...
(SOURCE)
The first thing is to look at the landscape in which your dungeon is located. Is it in the mountains, under the earth, in a dark forest, or maybe within the decrepit parts of a city? This should set the tone, monster selection, local lore, everything. Location like this is super important. In fact, I would say that, with location in mind, this blog is done. However, there is more to it than location, and don't use location to lock yourself into not using certain creatures. Maybe your abandoned mines on the side of a coastal mountain accidentally opened a shaft to the sea, in which Sahuagin jump out and ambush your party? Maybe your volcano mysteriously has a portal to an Ice Elemental Plane that is sustained by a cult of mages hoping to use the ice to wreak havoc on a Gold Dragon's lair, and the portal has arctic creatures near it, staying near the gate to survive? Don't let a set location trample your imagination, yet don't let your imagination destroy the willful suspension of disbelief.
You have a location set, the next step is the pre-dungeon fluff. Unlike the world, where you would want to think like a God and work your way down, you want your mind to work like an explorer, an archaeologist, and work your way in. Play through the dungeon in your mind's eye, in fact, it's a good idea to do it a few times, at least thrice. Why work it like this? Because unlike the world, which has danger on the side, the danger is up front and in your face in a dungeon, and you want it to be tough, but not the Tomb of Horrors! Anyway, back to the pre-dungeon fluff. What do the locals say about the place? Does it have any urban legends? What do local tribes of monsters say of it? Maybe the Goblins know of something in said dungeon that the people in the town do not. What? You do use Goblins and other Humanoids besides the Player's Handbook races for purposes other than experience and gold farming fodder right?
The Gates of Hell in New Jersey is a perfect example of urban legend and folklore
about what could be equated to a real-life dungeon (but don't let the police see you
explore it :P)
(SOURCE)
Finally, we get to the dungeon itself! Now, before we even populate it, we should plan out what it looks like, either by making a quickdraw map to base your battle grid, or by making a map that is like a battle grid already. Suck at making maps? Well, then I have three suggestions. First do a freedrawn map in paint or on paper, don't even worry about grids, you can do that later during the session. This also works with the "Mind's Eye Theater" style of role-playing, which I enjoy immensely, though there is the difficulty of knowing where everyone is during combat. Second would be using maps from another game and going from there. Third, and I have done this to, is to use this amazing site here, which generates a dungeon map for you.
Here is what one of the generated maps look like. Now all you have to do
is work with it, however, do try to learn how to make your own maps, just for variety
<--- Here we have a very basic rough draft of the Ice Palace's ground floor (I usually denote F# for above ground floor, and B# for below, with G for ground floor, this being Ice Palace G). We see that I have a few encounters set up, namely some desperate pirates looking for a way out, and White Dragons feeding on a Frost Worm. We also have two traps, the niches for which a White Dragon to breathe it's breath weapon down, and a boulder a la Indiana Jones that rolls after you at the entrance to F1. We have here a populated dungeon floor, a basic one, and will be updated later (I will have a Wintermoot Adventure page up soon). So how do we place traps and monsters? How do we do this in the most effective way possible.
Well, As you can see, the first encounter you have there is a very easy encounter with desperate pirates. Not too hard, and the White Dragons will be weakened fighting the Frost Worm. You want to lure the party in. Entrances are usually heavily guarded, and not just with monsters, but also traps The entrance to the upper (and lower) floors begin on F1, the ground floor is just there for an introduction. The hallway to the official entrance is guarded with murder holes that a breath weapon can go down, and a rolling boulder trap. Once in, think about where to best put the monsters and traps strategically, if they have enough intelligence to think strategically that is. Generally, monsters come in two types, monsters that stay in one place, like in a room or hallway, and monsters that move around. Granted, all monsters will move around during their day to day lives, so there is some overlap between the two categories, but in general, monsters that stay in one place will stay there unless they must move. Traveling monsters generally, the way I do it, have a lover overall CR than those that are in a room. Also, monsters that are intelligent should also use traps to their advantages. A bugbear, knowing where a pitfall trap is, would try to bull rush its opponents into the pitfall, and archers would take full advantage of archer slots and coverage.
I am very, VERY tempted to buy this shirt! Plus this pic fits the trap discussion
(SOURCE)
Finally we come to treasure and, of course, the boss monster. Don't pool all your treasure into one place. On the Ice Palace G map, you can see a small room with treasure in it. This treasure probably fell through cracks in the ceiling, which hints to another treasure room above. Let treasure both act as an incentive to fulfill amazing challenges, and as a trail of bread crumbs, leading the adventurers towards more. As for boss monsters, like I stated above, NOT EVERY DUNGEON SHOULD HAVE A BOSS MONSTER! Not every little nook and crevice in the world is home to some Red Dragon or Shoggoth or Pit Fiend. Maybe its just a home to a Chimera? Not every hole is a "nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell,
nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat":
it could just be a hobbit-hole (and they mean comfort).
However, in our case with the Ice Palace, there is a boss monster. You want a boss monster to be either one of three types: A monster a CR level or two above the party that is meant to be fought, a very high CR monster that is meant to be out-witted, or a very high CR monster that is meant to be just plain old run from. In this case, we have a mix of the latter two. We have the White Bitch herself, in all her magnificent glory. Being an Ancient White Dragon, by Pathfinder reckoning, she would have a CR of 15. The Ice Palace over all is about a CR 9 dungeon. While a smart party could take her on in combat, it might be more prudent to find some means of escape, and live to fight her another day.
I mean, look at the size of that mini, and that's just an Elder White Dragon!
(SOURCE)
And there we have it, a dungeon making process that not only builds the place from the ground up, but also has you look at the place through both a commoner's eyes and the eyes of your party. So not only do you build a location, but also you build fluff, and give the characters reason to go. Now would you rather go to some bland generic Goblin infested cavern, or would you want to go to the Goblin Fortress of Pratzch, built into a cavern, and protected by devious traps? I think I know your answer ;).
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