Crafting a Dungeon Crawl for Your RPG

Crafting a Dungeon Crawl for Your RPG

August 12, 2014

What is a role-playing game without a good dungeon crawl? Now if I’m giving game master tips to a newbie GM or DM I’d say when it comes to planning adventures less is more.

You don’t want to make your players feel like their always entering the “dungeon”. Sure every once and a while throw in the classic “YES” this is absolutely a dungeon crawl style adventure, but mix things up a bit.

What is dungeon-

For all intents and purposes when we are talking about a Dungeons and Dragons style game a dungeon is a confined space with defined boundaries limiting the choices your players have as to where they can go and has an objective for your players.

Objectives could be as simple as; clear all the monsters from the dungeon, find all the gems of Galyn-Goth, bring them to the statue of the demon prince located in the beginning of the dungeon, and insert them into it, or rescue the princess and bring her home safely.

Game Master Tips-Elements of a good Dungeon Crawl

Traps- All of the classic dungeon crawls have traps. This could be flooding rooms, pit traps, exploding doors, poison needles, crossbow traps, falling blocks, or whirling blades. The traps don’t always have to be hidden either. For instance a room full whirling blades that your players have navigate through or a corridor with smashing blocks that come out in intervals from all sides. These while traps have characteristics of puzzles in that they need to be figured out or solved.

Puzzles- Anything from riddles to pictographs needing to be solved to continue on is fair game here. It could be a problem that needs to be solved to get the door to open or it could be the sphinx that will only not eat you and let you pass by answering his riddle.

Hazards- Fall somewhere between the puzzle and the trap in that they might have to be found in order to avoid them or problem solving skills might be required in order to not fall victim to a particular hazard. Examples- an area filled with shriekers large fungus like creatures that scream when coming into contact with other creatures. While they pose no danger in of themselves if they begin to scream they will alert other monsters of the player location. Or a simple collapsed wall creating difficult terrain from the rubble or even an impassable passage without clearing of the rubble first.

Tricks- In of themselves do not pose a threat to an adventurer, but they might make his life more difficult. Examples- Rotating rooms that leave the party going in a undesired direction. Someone or something changing or erasing marks that the party was using to not get lost. Things that tend to delay or slow down the party without actually causing them harm. This could be a real issue if their quest is time sensitive.

Monsters- Well of course we need to populate our dungeons with monsters. This is the hardest yet simplest element of a good dungeon crawl. Sure it’s easy to pick a bunch of random monsters and throw them in some rooms, but does that really make sense? Coming up with reasons why all your monsters are inhabiting the same dungeon complex as neighbors without tearing each other apart is the tricky part. I like my dungeons to make sense. It should have it’s own little ecology that is logical in a fantasy world at least. The type of dungeon you are crafting will kind of help direct you towards how your monsters interact with each other.

Game Master Tips Dungeon Crawl Video

Something important to keep in mind about crafting your dungeon crawl is it doesn’t have look or feel like a typical dungeon.

Game Master Tips- Ideas For Interesting and different Types Of Dungeons –

A long dead god’s enormous corpse floating through the astral plane that holds something your players need.

A crashed spaceship that adventures wish to explore.

A labyrinth your players need to find their way out of or get to the center of while being hunted by a minotaur that easily navigates the maze. The whole time their being stalked and harassed with hit and run tactics.

A large sunken ship at the bottom of an ocean.

A cavern complex

A sewer system in a large city

An ancient hero or villain’s tomb

These are all examples of ways to present dungeon crawls to your players. Also remember just because the adventures are in a dungeon doesn’t mean there can’t be social interactions and role-playing scenarios. Actually the dungeon environment will give you the opportunity introduce truly bizarre and interesting role-playing encounters that don’t work in civilized settings.

Feel free to share your fondest dungeon crawling moments down in the comments either as a player or the DM we’d love to hear all about it here at Nerdarchy.