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Writing rooms in pairs

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Summary

To create more interesting dungeons, try writing rooms in pairs that connect conceptually. For example, if one room has goblins, the paired room could feature their chief. This method not only builds connections but also reduces the amount of work needed to design the dungeon.

Highlights

When you’re working on a key for a dungeon or other location, it can be difficult to come up with all the concepts you need to round the place out. One trick I’ve learned to cut this in half is to write rooms in pairs.

So the idea is that you maybe have a shitty or boring list of rooms like so:

  1. 1d6 goblins.
  2. Treasure chest with some gold.
  3. Empty room.
  4. Orc.
  5. Pit trap.

Right? It’s not far from basic dungeon stocking. What we do is take these rooms and create a second room to connect them to conceptually.

So:

  1. 1d6 goblins. 1A. Goblin chief served by the goblins in 1.
  2. Treasure chest with some gold. 2A. Prisoner who knows the location of the treasure chest in 2.
  3. Empty room. 3A. Secret room accessible from the empty room 3.
  4. Orc. 4A. Goblin hiding from the orc in 4.
  5. Pit trap. 5A. Treasure horde at the bottom of the pit trap in 5.

You can think of these rooms as sequels and prequels to the rooms you’ve already come up with. Setups and punch lines.

I started thinking like this when writing Mothership modules because horror depends on building tension. I found that every horror encounter should be preceded by two or three omen/aftermath rooms.

Even if you’re not running your dungeon like a horror game, thinking of setups and punch lines takes you a long way to having a narrative that’s more conducive to dungeon exploration play than story arcs based on events. Dungeon narratives work best as archaeological delves, or crime scene investigation. Your players are always asking β€œwhat happened here?”