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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7022834" data-attributes="member: 20323">What a great insight <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I totally agree. But I think in actual practice – in the process of designing a dungeon – that there can be a fuzzy boundary between "filler" and "meaningful content." For example, having an otyugh eating the waste of the dungeon inhabitants certainly answers a common sense question, perhaps providing for increased verisimilitude / a secret route for clever players to explore / a monster for the actor-type players to make a deal with. OTOH, the otyugh is a dungeon cliche, doesn't really contribute towards any sense of final conflict/climax, and doesn't involve a great deal of creative design. Is the otyugh in the dung heap "filler" or "meaningful content"? I've found that when you approach that fuzzy boundary, these sorts of questions are generally answered by the players of a particular group rather than the DM.I also wonder about empty rooms. Many designers such as <a href="https://gregbilsland.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/my-dungeon-has-empty-rooms/" target="_blank">Greg Bilsland</a> advocate including empty rooms. Not necessarily to the extent of older editions, where you might have nearly half the rooms empty and a waste of time. But empty rooms can reinforce the dungeon as not a madhouse of action & secrets, but a living breathing space with its own internal logic. Also, empty rooms can...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">provide needed breakpoints for the players (time to strategize, go to the bathroom, crack jokes, shake off a tense encounter)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">build tension/suspense with clues and foreshadowing</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">serve as spill-over spaces for moving combat encounters</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">serve as ambush points for monster patrols</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">provide opportunities for DMs to scale the dungeon to their particular party (e.g. making it harder by putting traps/tricks in empty rooms, or making it easier by having certain empty rooms be safe resting places).</li> </ul>What I'm curious about is how does the design principle of get rid of any rooms or passages that feel like filler interact with include empty rooms in your dungeon?</blockquote>

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