What Makes a Dungeon?

Greetings!

I have been thinking about what makes a "dungeon" a "dungeon."  The most fun I have had with dungeons is when they have real character and flavor, are filled with interesting challenges, encounters, and things to play around with, and when they facilitate open-ended, freeform play.

Many others have written about techniques to make dungeon-crawling more fun.  I highly recommend the following resources:

• Questing Beast's videos on designing dungeons, available here and here
• Goblin Punch's post on the Dungeon Checklist
• The Alexandrian's article on "Jaquaying" the dungeon, which means applying the technique created by Jennell Jaquays, who designed multiple classic adventures.  In short, this technique allows you to craft a dungeon with tons of interesting routes which present meaningful choices, rather than one in which the players are shunted along a boring, straight-line railroad.

It might be helpful to start with a working definition of a "dungeon."  A dungeon is a confined space.  It is a space composed of rooms connected by corridors, doors, and other modes of entrance and egress.  Running a dungeon can be easy on the GM's brain - she only needs to think about the immediate room (and perhaps note if monsters from other nearby rooms may hear or smell the players and come looking).

A dungeon-crawl can be a great starting game type for an aspiring GM to run.  The GM need only design a flavorful dungeon, fill it with interesting things, craft some problems for the Players to face (and the GM certainly does need to know the answers to those problems, for the Players will likely think of unanticipated solutions), and present the Players with an objective (rescue the prince who got himself trapped in the dungeon; acquire the Crown of All-Knowledge; slay the ancient horror that makes the dungeon its nest).

There are many types of dungeons.  But I like to think of dungeons as ruins that have transformed into something bizarre and wonderful - usually a lair of monsters and repository of treasure.  Ruins reflect the institutions of their respective cultures.  For instance, the ruin of a religious institution (a temple or shrine); the ruins of a governmental institution (a palace or castle).

In my next post, I will provide a handy table that may help you to generate ideas for your dungeon!

Saints Paul and Stephen by François de Nomé