Real Dungeon Design

In order to properly build random dungeons, you have to understand the way that real dungeons are built up. And in order to understand how real dungeons are built up, you have to know what they were before they got filled with monsters.

Probably the most obvious one is the abandoned temple. However, the contrast between a real-life temple (or even one not yet abandoned), and one where monsters are crawling about is pretty staggering.

Real temples (take a church for instance) have one main area of worship. This is typically almost as soon as you come in, funnels as much traffic from the entranceway into it as possible. There are a few side passageways that occasionally connect and have a few small side-rooms off of each of them. That's about it. If you look at one designed to be a dungeon, you have to climb down three ladders, and walk down a hundred feet of corridor to get to the main altar way in the back. On the way there are dozens of branch-off passages each with one or more rooms, but none of them have obvious "main altar this way" signs. Most of the passages are even the same size!

Okay, it's more interesting like that, but less realistic. Is there a middle-ground? Of course, and while it requires just a little bit more work, it also produces far better results. Take a look at the map below.


This map could have been a real temple. One main entranceway, one main passage to the main altar, several smaller walkways to side rooms. Perfect. How does it make a good dungeon then, if you could just walk in and get to the biggest room undoubtedly holding the baddest guy? That dark grey circle in the middle. That represents a cave-in, and the main passageway is blocked from all sides, so you can't just stroll straight in. You have to take a side passage around the main walkway, entering about half the rooms in the dungeon and work your way to the other side of the rubble. It looks like a real place, it acts like a real place and it took one single grey circle to make it a good level, rather than just a real place.

Now that you have a basic design, you determine room use by location. Those mid-sized rooms right before the end? One's a bunk, the other's a mess. The small ones near the front? storage. The funny shaped ones around the side, library and kitchen. The more used and desirable a room is, the more it goes near the other desirable and used rooms. Thus, the food and the sleep go beside the worship, but the place to put all the extra mats for the ceremonies is further away (although you could put a closet nearby, containing treasure...). And the basic design is done. You can fill it with whatever you want, be it orcs and wizards, to a dragon and dopplegangers. What it was is set and now it just has to be a place for players to go and kill monsters.