Empty Rooms

[M.T. Black]

I don't know. What would you want to see?

A published adventure from your pen - an 8-15 room dungeon.

 

[Rod Staffwand]

I'd say consider the following:

Landmarks. Make the empty room a navigational aid. The big dragon skeleton. The three-headed demon statue. The really really smelly room. The room with "The Cake is a Lie" written on the wall. This is especially useful if you're doing a confusing OSR dungeon.

Foreshadowing. Use it to set up a later encounter. If there are trolls in the next room, add a big pile of troll dung. If there are ghosts, have the PCs hear chilling whispers from the dark. This is especially good for trick or puzzle monsters (trolls, medusas, undead, etc.) that can have devastating abilities but are much easier to deal with if you can prepare.

Ambiance. Use it to set add suspense, add backstory or interesting information, or just help players get a feel for this specific dungeon rather than some bland cookie-cutter thing. Exploring an elven tomb? Add bas relief sculptures of the deceased glorious deeds. Going into a dragon's lair? Show the massive footprints.

Usable features. Make the terrain in the room interesting and useful. An empty room split into an upper and lower section, separated by a 10 foot drop can be employed by a resourceful party. Or perhaps there's an obvious pit "trap", precarious (and heavy) statue, a one-way door, narrow passages or even something outlandish like a reverse gravity effect. All of these might be used to great effect against creatures in adjacent chambers if they can be lured in. Remember, tactics suggests using the terrain to your advantage. This is hard to do if the party is constantly forced to fight the monsters on their own terms. Give them interesting terrain options and get them thinking about how to maneuver baddies to their advantage.

Spacers. One of the most important aspects of empty rooms is as spacers. They slow down the craziness and add an important element of doubt in the mind of the players. If EVERY room has a monster, trick or trap than the players are on full alert at all times. If 1 in 3 rooms is "empty" and not dangerous at all, then they don't KNOW the demon statue is a trap. They just really suspect it. It makes a world of difference in pacing, suspense and overall engagement. As such you can present a few features that look like they might be dangers or treasures and have them, upon further investigation, be nothing.

Easy Challenges. I like to throw in extremely easy challenges for the party in some rooms. Puzzles with obvious solutions, dangers that aren't particularly dangerous, hazards that are easy to avoid or even enemies far below the party's level. These challenges should be easily assessed and quickly overcome, but they give players a burst of confidence, give the sense of advancement and, at the same time, add a certain verisimilitude to play as it's unrealistic to think all challenges faced by a party will be level-appropriate. For experienced characters it can be a reminder of how far they've come.

 

[M.T. Black]

Great suggestions, Rod!

 

[TBeholder]

I'd like to make more use of "empty rooms" in my dungeons, as they provide a nice change of pace. But I struggle to make them interesting. (By "empty", I mean they don't have a monster, a trap or a trick in them.)
The "go to" empty rooms I use are -

* A library (often contains clues about the inhabitants)
* A latrine (no information, but sometimes some lost treasure)
What other empty rooms do you suggest?

A pantry. Scoured of anything edible for bugs or obviously useful for the squatters long ago, but who knows - there may be intact earthenware or something.

How can you make an empty room interesting?

At this point you could go all the way and design the place for use by the previous owners rather than as a random maze with monsters.

You should have no truly empty rooms. Fortunately, you seem to have already recognized that, as what you are calling 'empty rooms' are just rooms without monsters.

An empty room is also information. Think about it - you wander through some ruin... and there's a room, which unlike all others is really empty - just a little dust, but no cobwebs, moss, bats, pill bugs, anything. I'd probably try to avoid it.

The same goes for 'treasure'. It should be everywhere.

Well, yeah - one man's trash... even bugs and goblins may leave alone some things. Like inedible pigments.

I approach empty rooms (understood as no encounter elements int the room) in the same vein as every other aspect of the dungeon. What is its purpose to the story? What is it telling the characters? If it does not advance the story by either providing information, evidence, or something to support the plot (or various subplots) of the story, then it does not have a purpose and it gets rewritten or removed.
Remember that every room should provide clues about the inhabitants. Information is not always in libraries. or on desks. They are found in sleeping areas, eating areas, work areas, and even in passageways.

"The room wouldn't be here if it wasn't important"?
Speaking of which, it's a good way to check sanity.

 

[pdzoch]

"The room wouldn't be here if it wasn't important"?
Speaking of which, it's a good way to check sanity.

I have so seen this -- overthinking what's right in front of them!

 

[Celebrim]

An empty room is also information. Think about it - you wander through some ruin... and there's a room, which unlike all others is really empty - just a little dust, but no cobwebs, moss, bats, pill bugs, anything. I'd probably try to avoid it.

Absolutely. Actual emptiness is clearly indicative of either a disintegrate trap or the presence of a gelatinous cube. Take out a few copper pieces and toss them into the room in a probing pattern to see if anything happens. Mark it as a potential hazard on the map, and come back only if you find no other way forward.

 

[was]

try:

http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ru/20051026a