Dungeons: part 1, place in the world

Dungeons are a corner stone of early level play in many editions of D&D and OSR systems, I think that a understanding of dungeon design and techniques can benefit a DM.

Firstly dungeons are an example of location based play, not all locations are dungeons but all dungeons are locations. Part of this is a dungeon usually has a map, this helps with a lot of dungeon crawling procedures that relies on time and distance to operate smoothly. Size is a matter of needs at the end of the day, as part of a hex crawl smaller dungeons and locations can be useful as travel adjudication and decision making takes up a suitable portion of play. Common small dungeons and locations encountered in a hex crawl may be monster lairs and camps, having some maps of these ready made are a good idea before starting a hex-crawl. More moderately sized dungeons around 10-12 rooms are usually want you want for something to last a few sessions, and mega dungeons usually have infinite rooms, mega dungeons are either a site that can be returned to over and over again with other dungeons and adventures in-between or almost the entirety of the campaign.

Trying to tie the dungeon into the wider world is important for immersion and creating the feeling of a living virtual world, many module dungeons don't do this as part of the limitations of modules and there are exceptions but bare in mind that some tweaking may be beneficial expressly if the dungeon is meant to last more than one or two sessions of play and if it is meant to be a location the players go back to repeatably. One way in which a dungeon can be tied into the wider world is due to a piece of loot sometimes found in OSR system's treasure tables, treasure maps!, these are self explanatory its a set of directions or an image of a location with the promise of even more treasure, this can generate its own adventure depending how far away or how hidden/guarded the treasure is, having some sort of distinctive landmark be described or shown on a map can help the players find the treasure easier.

Next time ill talk a bit about inspiration and books I have found useful in building dungeons.

M.C.