A common failure mode I run into when designing a dungeon is the need to have rooms with a purpose. I'm very much a fan of verisimilitude in my games, whether those be tabletop or video games, and I like form to follow function. The problem with this is that it's often boring; most historical castles didn't have a huge variety of needs. Think about your own house - you have a kitchen, a living room, enough beds for everyone, a bathroom, a garage, maybe a storage room or two... and then what? This is one reason why I struggle to play much Minecraft these days - I've built a bedroom, a storage room, an enchanting room - what else do I need?
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| Farleigh Hungerford Castle, in Somerset, England |
We can see most of these have rough analogues in medieval castles (and therefore fantasy). We can even throw in some things that are historical but not really in the right place - why does every other dungeon in Skyrim have a well-stocked forge, anyway? - but we're likely to end up with a laundry list of rooms that don't really have much to distinguish between them. I love Appendix I as much as the next man, but for most purposes the difference between an armoury and a workshop is pretty small, and trying to make them make sense can raise further questions that really don't need to be asked. Using realistic rooms also limits the shape, and the things you can put in it. What order should they go in? Should the conjuring room come before the audience chamber? Does each of them need an antechamber? Where does the robing room go? What is a robing room? At this point I usually look for an actual map of a castle and use that, therefore defeating the purpose of the exercise.
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| Excerpt from Appendix I, from the Advanced D&D Dungeon Master's Guide |
So trying to keep dungeon rooms to some kind of reasoning is pretty fraught with difficulties, and worse, it doesn't really matter! I could walk through Bleak Falls Barrow in my sleep at this point, but I couldn't tell you if the first room was a great hall or an throne room. What was the room with the giant spider? There were burial urns in it. There were burial urns in every room, come to think of it - and my enjoyment was about the aesthetic and gameplay of the room, not the realism. There's high ceilings and low ceilings, walls covered in cracks and walls covered in webs, floors that are level and floors that rise and fall like rolling hills. Bone-chilling winds passing through one room, coiling mists seeping across another. Cave rooms, as well - what's the purpose of this room? Doesn't have one, it's a cave. There's three giant spiders and a silver ring in there, go whack them.
So, to excuse the unannounced two-week holiday from Sternvale Adventures, I present my personal checklist on how to make a room. Even one of these things, sufficiently emphasised, can make a room stand out, so don't overdo it, but they can make a good starting point, which can be varied as you wish throughout the dungeon.
