Spicing up dungeons

[Tinker Gnome]

Lets create a list of things to make dungeons more interesting and fun.

1. Have a trap, that when triggered opnes up a pool filled with blood. The PC is entitled to a Reflex save to avoid getting dropped into the pool. The interesting thing about the pool, besides that it is made out of blodd, is that it has a device at the bottom that will suck the PC into it and grind them up into little peices. Of course they are also entitled to Str checks to avoid being sucked up.

Oh and you can not say put <Insert seasoning> here on it.

 

[der_kluge]

I think anything that avoids the typical square room geometry of a dungeon will spice it up.

So, I would have to add:

#2 non-square rooms.

 

[jerichothebard]

#3) a room or corridor where water is quite obviously flowing uphill.

 

[MarauderX]

3) Go Gygax: add slime, yellow mold, fungus, shreeker, and other items that pose different threats besides those with 2 or 4 legs.

4) Chimneys, ramps, and slides are fun, especially when there are hot coals burning with a clan of druegar warming up to it. Heck, even smoke is interesting enough to follow - let the PCs follow their nose instead of Listen and Spot checks.

5) Painted walls that glow, or just fungus that glows.

6) Switch the dungeon type a few times: Dwarven hewn stone gives way to larger natural caverns, and on the far side are large worm-like holes that lead to magically molded rock when it changes to...

7) Mushroom farm. Dooood.

8) Art gallery, or a posh area that a villian needing to escape to needs to have to live and be surrounded with 'higher' culture.

9) Walls or areas that are warm for seamingly no reason. When they get to a larger cavern or to the surface that realize it's a hot spring or geyser.

10) Throw them a bone... give the un-lost players a map from a skeleton... that is wrong... and leads them to something dispicable, or more frustrating, gets them lost.

 

[Rivenknoll]

The best dungeon i've ever made goes like this.... Party (pc's with npc cohorts) is walking through the Farunian (excuse the spelling) High Forest... little do they know but they're entering a temporaly "unusual" zone of the forest. The further into the forest they go the slower time in this place passes relative to the outside world (decaying artifact trying to permanatize a timestop effect from a failing attempt at eternal life for a wizard long since forgotten... subtle backstory to rationalize what i wanted to have happen) So you get kind of a "day in the forest is a month in the world, etc." only the party is not aware of this change in time's "speed".
Bla bla bla, plot hook, sidequest, go into this cave and kill off the spiders who are assaulting the grove of this Druid Dryad who, being a dryad, can't actually go down into the cave and clear it out herself. .... yah, i think dryads are the good looking fay folk who are bound to a certain tree (or in this case tree-ent) and can't wander away from it.. anyway, she was one of those people.
So, the party leaves the Npc's on the surface of the forest and decend into the cave. With each level they decend, they return to a more normal passage of time, only they dont realize it. At one point the party decided to split up, half decending and the other half resting on the level they had just cleared out so that made things fun for me because now time was passing at different rates for the two different groups of the party. It was great to see the exploring group return after an hour or so of "recon" only to find that the resting group hadn't even taken off their armor yet. It was even more fun when the entire group came back to the surface only to interupt all the Npc's wishing them goodbye and safe passage in the dangers below. And that was how the party entered the High Forest in early spring, spent 4 days traveling, and emerged as fall was just starting up. I know it's a rather loose "dungeon" but it's the best story i've got for a thread like this.

 

[LGodamus]

Try this one.....as the pc near a dead end they notice a huge increase in the height of the ceiling if they make their spot checks........on the floor is a red gem...if they move to pick it up they instantly fall upwards due to a permanent reverse gravity that is activated by setting foot in a certain area...they slam against the ceiling spikes...causing the gravity field to shut off.....so they fall back to the floor....causing the reverse gravity to kick on once more....ad infinitum.......by the way the gem is just red glass glued to the floor so it doesnt fall up and down

 

[Matafuego]

12) A room full of Mooks, a serious threat... and everyone is blinking...
It's great for area effects, you never know who it will end up affecting...