Every Dungeon Should be Weird

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July 10, 2024

Every dungeon should be weird. Living in confined, underground spaces attracts and magnifies weird characteristics. Only the most bizarre of beings and creatures would choose to do such a thing. If you woke up one day and thought, "That old castle outside of town? Oh yeah. We're moving in," then you must have a screw loose. It's absolutely deranged to do such a thing. So, make your dungeons weird.

There are different types of weird. All of them could lead to dungeon dwelling. There is garden-variety Just Plain Weird, where you can cultists, goblins, and generally pretty well-mannered humanoids in a dungeon for that reason. When intrepid adventurers encounter this type of weird, it should be noticeable and juxtaposed with some sorts of normality and acceptable behavior. For example, making your bed after rising in your dank cave, and going to brush your teeth. Then committing unspeakable acts to a forgotten god.

Another type of weird is outcast weirdness, where being weird is unavoidably presentable, and thus you are isolated in the dungeon by choice (maybe not your own). "I have too many arms. No one sees my potential as a surgeon, or a paper filer. I've decided to just stay here in these ancient ruins and ponder my choice, in between flailing at the visitors who come to inevitably mock me." Or you are a monstrosity, and trapped by a more powerful force (cf. The Lamb). But in any case, you don't like the fact that you are in a dungeon, but you are here as a result of being weird. A party of delvers should be kinda squeamish at this type of weird.

Another type of weird is so-called Being Evil. Yes, to the average town- and city-dweller, doing perfectly normal activities like sucking blood from young women, grinding bones to make bread, and regenerating limbs after maiming livestock is somehow Evil.  Don't ask me why, I think they are pretty weird for impinging on my personal needs. So much for the tolerant civilization!

So, make your dungeons weird. Every member of your dungeon gang should have a reason to be in a dungeon, first of all, but that reason should evoke from the players a bit of hesitancy. "Uhh.… you have mushrooms sprouting out of your where?" "And you just extract spleens for the taste? Oh, you dry and grind them? Wonderful." "Tell me more about the ancient lord who will one day return. How does that make you feel?"

Too much logical coherence makes the dungeon a bit predictable. If a majority of the rooms don't make the players go "WTF???" then push some more weird in. Weird can be an overarching theme of the dungeon, or just a few unsettling details. Eyes on the back of the head, for instance. Or holding an extra, animate hand. Or a green cow.

The purpose here is not to create a specific mood, or adhere to an overarching theme (though you could use weird to do this, and to great effect), but to paradoxically provide a coherence to the dungeon. Of course the Hand-Man is here, no taverns allow severed hands! That would be quite the deterrent to business.

I think it also allows diversification of fantasy. Weird should be synonymous with fantasy, as genres (in my view, at least). While it's fine to include elves, dwarves, orcs, and the others; it is more interesting to the gaming mind to have unusual and interactive elements. Then you can multiply possible outcomes. The more weird, the more unpredictable. And more fun.

All of this said, there are some dungeons that are not Weird that I enjoy immensely. They scratch a different itch: one of thematic consistency and immersion. Different ideas apply for that. But for a ludic fun, highly interactive, confined, underground space, this is my suggestion.

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