Dungeons: part 2, Dungeon Inspiration and recommended reading,

Inspiration for a dungeon comes from many places and having a mix of elements inspired from different things can help make a dungeon varied. I generally like to start with what major monsters live in a dungeon when designing it so to me good dungeon inspiration and good monster inspiration are the same. For example if the monster was the original creator of the dungeon part of it might be made to benefit their species and disadvantage others, such as covers for pit traps that can bear the weight of a kobold but not a larger creature, or large vertical shafts for something like a Drow that utilises giant spiders to traverse their caverns. These features can also allow different characters to shine in their area of expertise, such as a wizards utility magic allowing for you to traverse an otherwise impossible obstacle, or a thief's ability to climb or find traps.

A lot of dungeons from fantasy fiction are great for inspiring dungeon content or themes, but usually don't detail out the layout of the dungeons too heavily for obvious reasons (it not being the most entertaining reading). Video games on the other hand allow you to explore expansive dungeons and can display a wide range of layouts. Not all of these are the best, games like Skyrim tend to have highly linier layouts, but never the less video game levels are closest in terms of design concerns to D&D dungeons. My personal recommendation is the first part of the original dark souls game, it has so many interconnected locations with varied designs and is a great example of a type of mega dungeon.

In terms of books on dungeons I would recommend the Classic Dungeon Design Guide series by Kent David Kelly. It is a rather in-depth series that runs you through the different stages of dungeon design, from developing a concept and planning the floors/sections to adding in dungeon dressing and traps from a wide range of random tables (including some d1000 tables) as well as a dungeon generator book. This series is most useful for larger dungeons especially mega dungeons, you might find some useful information for smaller dungeons. I have used this book series in the past to help design a dungeon for a west march game I was a part of, and I can say I was pretty satisfied with the results.

Amazon link:https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B004AO4O36?_encoding=UTF8&node=492564011&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=author-sidecar-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader

Drive thru RPG link:https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/7178/Kent-David-Kelly?term=kent+david+ke

Let me know what inspiration or tools you use I am always looking for a good dungeon generator.

M.C.