Dungeon Layout Concepts and Rhetorical Questions

  1. Understand how challenges and rewards interact with room layout.
  2. Interconnectivity promotes exploration and keeps players hooked.
  3. Secrets are tweaked by their degree of concealment, but hints don't give answers.
  4. Traps are permanent tools.
  5. Deeper levels means tougher challenges.
  6. Breaking preconceptions is frustrating during and rewarding after.

Context

As a fun little exercise, I decided to make a dungeon according to the loose procedures in the OD&D original booklets. In this, room layout and traps are completely open to referee discretion, while monster stocking and treasure is mostly randomized. This made me realize: I need to think hard about the layout of the two free elements, rooms and traps. The 6 points listed above (room layout, interconnectivity, secrets, traps, leveling, and preconceptions) are are tools to be deployed in dungeon design to keep the exploration going.

I wrote this as salient points I've considered in my progress on the journey. I think the dungeon will be done soon.

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