Somnambulism 101 // Dungeon Design 01000001

Dungeon Design 01000001

// It's About Making Connections

It has been brought to my attention that the last blogpost I made read like it was written by an udder madman. I promise you that it might have been, but I will make an effort to write in such a manner that is more easily understood and with better flow. This time.

There are a few things I need to make very clear on this topic. I will not be writing basic advice here // standard things like looping your rooms, or "Jaquaysing" a map. There are numerous ways and places you can find that kind of information, and there would be no reason for me to write about it.

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Breaking Down some Preconceptions //

Dungeons should never be designed to simply be rooms connected by hallways. If a map is laid out this way, it doesn't matter how 'jaquaysed' it is, or how much it loops, it will always be boring.
Let go of the concept of the "5 Room Dungeon" plot framework.
Try to avoid thinking of rooms as singular contained environments. These are merely locations in a place, not isolated spaces.
Convention and predictability are the greatest tools, and also the greatest enemy when designing a dungeon/map.
The dungeon is not a holder or container for content, it IS the content. (And it is also an NPC)
Linearity is a tool, not a desired goal or an obstacle.
Verticality is difficult to do, but possible and extremely useful.

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Hallways & The Flow of Interaction //

I'm assuming you already know the ACTUAL basics. The standard stuff. So instead, as an introductory writing on more advanced techniques, I am going to discuss hallways, connection points, and general dungeon flow.

Of course, that full topic is too large for a single blogpost being made after a long week out of town, and perhaps I would rather split it into multiple pieces. So, today I'm going to write about hallways.

There is nothing inherently wrong with hallways in a dungeon. In fact, I use them quite often, for extremely obvious reasons. Take a look at this map;

(I am aware that it has 5 rooms)

You look at it and it has a very obvious flow and layout. You have 5 "points", those being the rooms. You move from point 0 (outside of the dungeon) to point 1, and then have the options of moving to say, point 2 or point 4. After completing your activities in point 1, you move to one of those other points and complete the activities there. It's simple, it works, and there's a reason so many people do it. But yet... it's boring. Let's redesign this with some more intention directed towards flow and layout.

Black areas are walls, grey areas are pits, the lines are stairs.

What has been done here is a foundational reconsideration of the content of the dungeon // a process done by trying to remove or make interesting as many hallways as possible.

The top 3 rooms had their hallways widened and opened up, with certain parts of the rooms being moved or shifted to accommodate this change. Then, the bottom 2 rooms were shifted completely // their context has been changed from being rooms to now being platforms above a wide pit. There are no walls, so the sightlines are open. For variety, some extra sightlines have been opened from this area to view the topmost room, which would be a floor above due to the stairs.

Technically, all of this could be done while "preserving" the hallways, but the process of removing them has forced the mind of the designer to think deeply about how they can "spice up" the motion of the space. Instead of moving from point to point, the party now has more to consider and chew on as they move through the environment. Since the lower area is open and has wide sightlynes, new kinds of monster encounters or traps could be made, and such dangers would be considered by the party. Or perhaps the party could use the open platform a story above to get the drop on some monsters on the platforms below. If the platforms are made of wood, they could be burned down, drastically influencing the content and layout of the map. Even if each "room" has the exact same content, the fundamental film of interaction has changed, and so has the atmosphere, gameplay, and emotional communication of the dungeon. You could not justifiably state that this dungeon has any "hallways" at all, actually.

Now, take a look at this final map;

In this case, the pits and stairs have been removed in order to show a virtue of the hallway. The classic maze. (mayze) (maize) (maeese) If you examine the flow of the space provided here, you can see how the bottom center room, which was previously merely a room like any other // it is now a sort of "hub" for the dungeon. Once again, the fundamental flow of the space has changed, as attaching a room to a maze which then connects to all other rooms in the dungeon means that the party now must put legitimate thought into their traversal. The risk of getting lost in this particular maze is really rather low, but the fact that it exists at all is worth consideration // with no words being said yet of the separated sequence of rooms that now forces the party to engage in a particular way.

What is seen here is the use of nonlinearity and linearity as both functioning tools to force the party to engage with the dungeon in a particular way without designing a videogame stage. No matter where the party enters the dungeon first, they will be forced to contend with a changing environment as they continue deeper, and each of these different "biomes" (the maze at the bottom, the linear segment on the right, and the open rooms to the top) can benefit from different kinds of challenges, and provide a huge variety of obstacles unique to each other.

Beats the Hell outta the "5 rooms and hallways" we started with, huh

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Recap & TL;DR //

Like all things in a dungeon, you have complete control over the environment. This gives you, the GM, the unique ability to manipulate the minds of your players through every single facet of the space // this begins first with the hallways. It is important to consider deeply the layout of your rooms, passages, and the kinds of environments you place the party in to.

In all of the examples provided, by simply changing the content around the hallways and some minor details on them, you have drastically transformed the dungeon map and gameplay experience to have many many more dimensions of interaction than before. Not only is the layout more interesting, running and PLAYING the dungeon would be more interesting as well.

Wide caverns, deep pits, rivers, elevators, the options in this case are endless. Your primary goals when thinking about this should always be;

Force your players to THINK about the environment as if it were a real space
Encourage your players to think about traversal as PART of the experience, rather than a side effect of the dungeon layout
Design challenges that take advantage of these new dimensions of interaction, and interact with the spaces in an interesting manner
Think about the dungeon as a multi-dimensional entity or "thing" that requires characters to use every single one of their senses to succeed // not against the CONTENT of the dungeon and its rooms, but rather the DUNGEON itself
Characterize the dungeon with a personality through its layout and design.

All of these points may be elaborated on in the future as well. I have much to say, and only so many fingers to type with.

I have a game I'm designing that interacts with many of these design concepts and features.

To gain access to the current version of the rulebook, it is free to download on the game's Discord server;

https://discord.gg/cyqYQt7Cgr

Alternatively, contact me on Bluesky;

@calicovisions.bsky.social

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CALICO // VISIONS