Dungeon Design Elements, Explained!
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- Опубліковано 4 сер 2024
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Are your Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder 2e dungeons lacking depth and immersion? How do you design your dungeons with all the right elements to make your players feel engaged in the story, and engaged in the lore of the place they are exploring? This video has the answers! - Ігри
I really appreciate this step by step method. WAY more useful than the one in the DMG, IMO
More useful than most other guides I've seen
I'd like to add that just because it's called a 'dungeon' doesn't mean it has to adhere to your idea of what a dungeon is. A 'dungeon' can be any collection of spaces that are in any way related to one another. So a collection of inter-connected portals to pocket dimensions can be a dungeon. Or a cave that leads to the basement of a tower that connects to a floating platform in the clouds via magic carpet also qualifies. Or a series of trenches left over from a battlefield. And so on. Wrestle the idea of a dungeon away from an underground dwelling and tickle the imagination of your players!
Right? The current dungeon I have my players in is actually 3 dungeons in one. The first is the typical underground dwelling, but the second is an overgrown abandoned castle ruin on top of it. The third is the castle town that existed in front of it. They all hint at a time long gone and have all sorts of stuff laying around. My players haven't even figured out that there's anything beneath the castle, though. And I'm gonna make them find that out for themselves, as that's where all the good stuff is lol.
Sometimes I will run an overland journey as a dungeon to make travel more interesting.
@@rworrick8037 That's not a bad idea. Something like an enchanted forest like the Lost Woods from Zelda with some modifications to it would make for something really interesting and fun!
@@Zac_Frost I've had a hard time over the years not losing the interest of my players on long journeys so I had to get creative. It's a much more engaging experience for the player, which means there's a lot more benefit for me. It's a win win situation.
@@rworrick8037 That's a good way of going about it. I've kinda started to telegraph to my players, in a way, if there'll be something of interest while traveling. If I don't make them "fast travel" that means something will happen lol.
Stuff from bandit encounters, meeting other travelers, to being stopped by Crownsguard, etc. If I just say, "after x days of travel, you arrive in the next city. Is there anything you wanted to do while traveling?" then that's the "fast travel" lol.
For the initial step I recommend Wallet Dungeons by AwkwardTurtle and Brian Stauffer. A Dungeon Generator that fits on a business card. And it's free!
Man when you got to the themes bleeding into each other I was extremely surprised and inspired.
This video was amazing, can't wait for the video on dungeon critiques.
Tying treasure offering to opposing themes is a useful incentive to explore the entire dungeon.
An example would be finding potions or items within the webs and victims of the Spider section that become useful in the mushroom section. Spiders have no use for things like potions, rings and so on. They just want the bodies.
Furthermore, if your dungeon has a magical or environmental effect that makes mapping difficult, or makes getting lost easier, placing a minor trinket that helps is always a good idea. That trinket might be a mechanical canary that always turns north before singing. Heck, opposing factions within a dungeon might have rough maps of their enemies section. Collecting all these as treasure makes for player engagement as they discuss the veracity of these maps.
Having opposing or rival factions in a dungeon creates possible RP opportunities, and more than a little strategy.
I also suggest adding usable victims. Ghosts who know a key secret, or tables for Speak With Dead results might help.
Random rumours about the dungeon, possibly tied to one or more PC backgrounds might set off player based subplots too.
I cannot tell you how long I have been looking for THIS. EXACT. GUIDE.
Glad you found it useful!
wow what a crossover! Two awesome channels!
@@AndrewWilson-ol6jb For real!
Man, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your prescribed numbers and ratios for creating things. I get so wound around the axle trying to get things just right when I make something myself, so to have you give a concrete framework (like one third monsters, one third empty, and the remaining third split between traps and discoveries) is such a HUGE help.
9 times out of 10, I will ignore them if I am inspired to do something better, but having those guidelines in place helps me focus my creativity, and I've noticed this is several of your videos.
Loving the content - please keep up the great work!!
Given your interest in geopolitics, here's a video idea for you: Dungeon Factions- Bipolar vs Multipolar Balances of Power. Bipolar dungeons are typically the norm for shorter dungeons and are the simplest; PCs join forces with one faction to crush the other. A possible (neorealist, a la Kenneth Walz) exception to this could be a nuclear Cold War analogy; both sides possess powers capable of destroying each other and therefore can't engage each other directly, so they subtly enlist the PCs to poke around the edges of each other and throw the PCs under the bus if they go too far. Good for dungeons that require subtlety or when you don't mind things blowing up horribly.
A multipolar dungeon would work better for longer dungeons. The PCs would have less of an opportunity to change the status quo permanently and would have to take advantages of brief periods of disorder and asymmetry that they cause to advance further in the dungeon.
the amount of advice and ideas you pack into a video that's less them 10 minute long is truly impressive Baron! thanks as always for all the great content!
This was amazingly useful for how short it was.
Thank you, and well done!
Great tips! To anyone that wants more tips, I recommend searching up and reading The Alexandrian's "Jayquaying the Dungeon." It's basically a deep dive guide into designing a dungeon by applying the methods of legendary classic designer Jennell Jayquays.
All of these methods for map design (specifically, branches, loops, and elevation changes) are important for making a rich and interesting dungeon experience. This video gives you the quick way to apply them, but the Alexandrian's article tells you _why_ these elements are important, and how you can use them with more purpose and intent to improve your dungeon layouts.
This channel has also talked about these techniques in his excellent CounterStrike video, though obviously the article goes a bit further into detail.
You have introduced the scrying practices of the ancient and mideval world to the D&D milieu. Not only does that seem somehow apropos to the theme of the game, its a lot less messy than reading entrails or even tea leaves. 3D12 kudos to you.
Thank You sir. I am running a campaign and my players are going to some egyptian catacombs, i had already planned out the dungeon, but watching this made me rethink it and its so much better now, with more details, more interesting encounters and challenging events.
There's a lot of talk of creative juices around here. Do you sell them by the can?
Those videos are among the best you can watch on the subject on youtube. Thank you very much :)
got to say your short-form to-the-point and packed-with-info videos are always increadbly inspiering. so glad I subbed
I enjoy much of your work, but i must say that this has been my favorite. I have a dungeon coming up for my players, and will use this exact formula. Thank you, Baron.
This video was awesome, man. I think this just helped me out of a real writing block that I've been dealing with. Thanks for making this
I can't believe this mans videos always end the same way, but are not pre-recorded at all.
This is phenomenal. The type of video that becomes canon for new DMs.
Very well put together overview and explanation! I had to constantly pause and take notes as well as pause whenever inspiration struck. This video helped me realize how I can generate dungeons in with a strong foundation and formulaic manner which in turn makes it easier for me to be inspired and creative when constructing and generating dungeons! Thanks for sharing!
Some good stuff in here. I agree that tying a theme to your dungeon can be a great way to immerse players. I've never done the dice method for generating the map before, though. Will have to give it a try.
Dice dropping to start your design off is a lot of fun. :P
~ Adam
I am just impressed by the tie bar... those are hard to find these days. Great video!
All very good points. Inspiration for dungeons can take many forms. The starting point can vary also - start with the map, the monsters, the treasure, the theme - whichever sparks your imagination, and as long as you tie the rest back to that starting point you'll have a coherent whole.
Funny thing about my Warlock is that she has a knack for lucking into squaring off loops, so we know where we've been and where we still need to explore. Despite a negative WIS modifier, she somehow has the best sense of direction.
That was incredibly helpful.
Thank you for the concise step by step guide.
Brilliant thank you. I’m just designing a new dungeon for my kids, going to use these ideas. I’d picked up the idea of a general theme for a level or sub level - but not for each loop - that is really helpful ty. I’m also going to incorporate a lot of the ideas and maps from B10 nights dark terror, but put them all in a dungeon
Thanks Baron. Helpful as always
Terrific video as always
Highly recommend looking at Ironsworn Delve for great inspiration for the its terrific theme and domain cards
Excellent video! Concise and informative. 👍
I love the mix of GM/storytelling theory and practical steps. Thanks for sharing!
This is a big help. I work best with iterative design, and the hardest thing for me in these situations is just getting _something_ down. Once I have a bad first draft, I can work on it and fix it; but getting to that first draft is the hardest part for me.
So far as a DM I've basically just aped other peoples dungeon maps. I've been trying to build my first full adventure from scratch (instead of piecemealing it together from other people's stuff), and actually mapping out the dungeon--let alone putting design into the process, has been the biggest hurdle.
This is an excellent Video, I have to say! Thank you!
For me they have to be functionally designed over random. Random ones annoy me and means the room exploration is just random. Like why would you not have a kitchen/food prep storage near or. Lose to a dining area.
Same, you typically access rooms through a single hallway. Also having a room just filled with enemies standing around makes little sense.
I like a well thought out dungeon.
What purpose was this designed for?
Why are these monsters coexisting in this dungeon or whatever.
Would there be traps?
Would there be alarms?
Questions like that I use when I make a dungeon.
Genius! This is great stuff, as always.
Amazing video, ty!
The room and hallway generation is literally how my first C++ game worked. A crappy little rogue-like. It was wild watching you describe the exact algorithm I came up with way back then!
Very smooth ad placement
You are the master of conclusions! I always hated writing a conclusion.
Fantastic stuff!
You are inspiring me to DM again. Thanks!
Great and to the point
This is great, thanks
Another great video. Though I would have liked a much more in-depth one with plenty of examples etc. I wouldn't mind a 30 or 60 minute deep-dive in dungeon creation :)
I like adding clues to traps in my dungeon, maybe theirs a lot of dust on the floor and footprints which stop suddenly, indicating a trap door in the floor. Maybe theirs signs of people coming here prior and they left behind marks on the walls to indicate an arrow trap hole or peep hole in the wall
Well thought out. You must be an awesome DM.
This may be for pen and paper, but you gave some interesting ideas for dungeon generation in my MMO.
I would love to hear about settlements. The DMG gives a good start and tables to do on the fly, but how do I give more flavor? How much is too much for a big settlement? How much is too little for a small one?
How to interconnect small settlements?
Have you played with the sine nomine publishing games? From Hexmaps over random encounters to dungeon design your philosophy appears to very closely match to that laid out in their source books
Thank you, can you speak about possible habitats of monsters and how to make the believable. How do they feed themselves? Do they share their habitat with other monsters, i.e. Goblins with hobgoblins.
While I’ve gotten the meaning of ‘Funhouse dungeon’ through context/some past history, I think it would be helpful if short definitions/tooltips popped up on screen to explain it when the term pops up- or, if you’ve done a video on it, maybe show the link in the top right thingy? Whatever would work best.
Some very interesting and useful ideas. As a grognard DM I use a more narrative and imaginative approach: I think about the history of the dungeon. Who created/started it and why? When? Who else has added to it and moved in and/or abandoned it? It takes a long time but I think it’s the most realistic approach and helps players to stay immersed in your world.
Is it possible to find the song at the end of these videos?
I love the use of Prim's algorithm for finding the Minimum Spanning Tree of the dungeon. Sneaky inclusion of Graph theory/algorithms
In Baron's description of how to connect the rooms, he says that after following the procedure you have created the shortest path to connect all the rooms. But I'll bet it's not! This problem seems like the traveling salesman problem. Baron's procedure will create a short path, but I don't think it will be the shortest.
Very helpful.👻
Another great video, Baron! I have a question, though; How do you create a dungeon using motifs like "Warm and Spikey"? "Mushroom Forest" and "Spider Infested Cavern" are evocative and I can very much create things out of prompts like that, but something like "Warm and Spikey" just... confuses me, I guess? Even "Damp and Musty" is a bit too little for me to go off of in and of itself. Do you have any "mind tricks" to come up with ideas that fit those types of motifs?
Add a noun. “Warm and spikey flesh” “Damp and musty wood”. Adding a noun always helps me ground the idea in reality.
This is a brilliant idea. Do you come up with these yourself, or is this through experience or reading stuff from other sources?
All of the above. 27 years of dungeon mastering means you've seen a lot of shit.
I really have a problem with spider infested caverns
Well, now I have to choose: dice dro on isometric graph paper, or upon paper?
Is there a textual write up of the process described in this video?
Hmm, you're still leaving a lot of the initial design left to chance, but I do like the idea of giving a theme to different loops.
Any ideas / advice for running celestials as a enemy in the dungeon ?
Same way you do demons. Lesser celestials are in a sepulchre trying to open a portal to bring a terrifying solar to the material plane.
Oh yes, that's totally why I have so many dice 😉
the proc gen bit shouldve been its own video, but not bad
People think that the map is important. It isn't. The rooms are. Brainstorm a list of rooms that would be there or interesting room ideas first. Add monsters, treasure, and other challenges. Make sure each room has at least one thing the heroes will find interesting or memorable. THEN add connections.
Excellent advice.
Dijkstra pattern Dungeon Design. :) I don't know if you are a developer but i wonder more and more at every video of yours i finished watching. :)
NOICE
Am I the only one seeing the image of a girl in the picture at 5:31??
This will truly help me to create a...
Dungeon Masterpiece 😎
i just struggle so much with stocking the dungeon...i guess i have a mental block about giving away too much powerful items and breaking the game.
Bare N'Drop
MDGA
Love the soothsayer approach to dungeon building. Just hope the village scryers dont emerge. I hate those guys.
is the "mushroom cap walkway" image suppose to look like a woman's silhouette?
creepy vibes... inspiring, though.....
Great video! What you call 'Stocking the dungeon' is what I call dungeon design. No rooms should be empty. There can be rest rooms with puzzles, reoccurring dungeon encounter features, or social encounters can be the rooms that PCs rest in.
Re-reading this I sound far too sassy. I liked your point about loops as a sub theme section. I just use floors like that.
Why do I feel like you should have a kippah on your head?
Give the man a break! He already wears a suit and tie.
I more expect to see him in an episode of Resident Alien like a lost cousin or doppelganger.
Man that was a lot of words.
Probably helpful if you fallow along and go step by step but just watch left me puzzled. Need more sleep.
Rectal-linear
Lol
Despite it being half the name of the game I find Dungeons to be dreadfully boring because I’m more into interesting interactions between characters and the world then fighting random creatures for 8 hours
This is crap advice. Just start drawing dungeons while keeping in mind that your corridors & hallways shouldn't be too maze like & make the place have some order to it. Each room should be there for a reason. I literally stopped the video right after he said "draw some rooms out where the dice land". Horrible advice!