

Who's there? What creatures inhabit the dungeon? Are there multiple factions? Consider populating different sections with a mix of intelligent creatures wild monsters.You'd only go into one if you had a good reason. Why are the characters going there? What's the goal? Dungeons are dangerous.What does the dungeon look like? What's the layout? I love using one of the thousand Dyson Logos maps to grab a map for nearly any situation.When preparing a dungeon, we can ask ourselves a few questions: These differentiate a dungeon from walking through a city or traveling through safe woods. A dungeon is a hostile place filled with traps and monsters.A dungeon is a focused location with fixed boundaries and meaningful choices.That said, there are some common traits when running a dungeon worth considering. The in-fiction situation drives the gameplay.

They're not that different from infiltrating a lord's manor to steal a relic or tracking down a murderer in a city. To me, dungeon adventures are location-based situations like any other in D&D. Some see running dungeons as a fundamentally different experience than running other parts of the game like wilderness exploration, city investigations, or other types of scenes. Some prefer a procedural turn-driven approach focusing on resource management such as food, lighting, encumbrance, and rests. Some DMs dread running dungeons.ĭifferent DMs approach dungeons differently. Whenever I find the story of my campaigns leading to a dungeon, I feel a great sense of relief. New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! Running a Dungeon Crawl
