Forum

[Grimstaff]

Originally Posted by crash_beedo

The Five Room Dungeon
A modern theory I like is the five-room dungeon - it's a compartmentalized approach to design (like the 'Delve') - here's a typical 5-Room Dungeon style:

• Room One: Entrance And Guardian
• Room Two: Puzzle Or Roleplaying Challenge
• Room Three: Trick or Setback
• Room Four: Climax, Big Battle or Conflict
• Room Five: Reward, Revelation, Plot Twist

Okay, so what's a 5-Room Dungeon doing in my Megadungeon?! Keep on the Borderlands is a good example of how a dozen independent lairs, loosely connected in a sandbox, can be assembled to form something larger. I'm keeping the 5-Room dungeon option open as a design model, assembling the megadungeon from a series of lairs or delves. It means you don't sit down and design 20 rooms... you sit down and design a handful of loosely connected delves or lairs.

You may note that assembling a larger dungeon from a series of delves or lairs appears to be the model for the 4E published adventures - it's present in H1 where you see the dungeon level 1 broken into areas like 'Goblin Encampment', 'The Tombs', and 'The Caves'; level 2 has 'Hobgoblin Borough' and 'Dungeon Chambers'. H2 and H3 are similar.

Good stuff, keep it coming~