D&D 5E Dungeon Design

[Hussar]

Some basic Dungeon Design Stuff:

1. I try to have a sort of 3 tier approach to how alert the dungeon is. Rest - Alarm Raised - Full Alert. ((Note, this obviously depends on the dungeon - not much of a Full Alert in an abandoned crypt full of traps and the bit of undead)) It's not that hard to do - I just have three maps which rearrange the encounter locations.

2. Put encounters in hallways. This is something that really makes adventures pop. Take those trolls in that room and move them into the hallway - either coming into the room or moving past it, whatever.

3. Give information to the players. Make sure that the players have a way to learn about the layout and inhabitants of the dungeon early on. If they are just randomly exploring, then there's no real choices. But, if they have some information, then they can start choosing paths, avoiding encounters, that sort of thing.

 

[aco175]

I'm finishing play of Forge of Fury which has some maps that could be used for inspiration. It is set up that you can get in from a few locations, but one is likely. Each level is kind of its own dungeon in that there are a set of monsters ,or two, that live there and may or may not be on some sort of truce terms with the others. For instance, the orcs and the troglodytes fight, but the duergar and the dragon do not. I like that they all will not come swarming to fight the PCs once they have been discovered in the dungeon.

I like to have blank spaces that make fighting less able to be heard in other areas. This can also be negated with things like noise from a waterfall which also helps to make terrain more useful. I also place areas to rest in the dungeon between the groups of bad guys.