M.T. Black
Hero
A published adventure from your pen - an 8-15 room dungeon.
Empty Rooms
Rod Staffwand
aka Ermlaspur Flormbator
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.
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
Hero
Great suggestions, Rod!
TBeholder
Explorer
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.
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.
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.
Well, yeah - one man's trash... even bugs and goblins may leave alone some things. Like inedible pigments.
"The room wouldn't be here if it wasn't important"?
Speaking of which, it's a good way to check sanity.
pdzoch
Explorer
"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
Legend
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
Adventurer
Similar Threads
