Dungeon Design Tips - Empty Rooms
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- Опубликовано: 21 окт 2024
- What do you put in all those empty rooms? Here's some ideas to help stock your dungeon.
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I remember adlibbing an empty room with just a painting of a dragon like creature in a room with broken furniture. They defaced the dragon painting, and got yelled at by a force associated with said dragon like creature deep in the earth.
That force became a force of nature. A chaotic presence that hounded the players one way or another through the campaign. All because of an adlib, and that was amazing fun.
Dang now I want to do a whole bit where I run a campaign for 5-6 sessions, always carefully explaining rooms, so that even if they're "empty", I explain the dirt and debris that may indicate fights, outlines on wall or floor for furniture, never truly empty. and then one day, "the room is *empty*" and watch the alarm bells go off
Excellent video. This matches my thoughts and design tenets. I love using "empty" rooms to foreshadow, telegraph, and provide exposition. The "empty" room indication is not literal. I hope to seldom use the word "empty" in my own adventure writing. Intentional "rest" rooms (lol) are not something I'd thought about before, but I will now!
I'm a fan of architectural accuracy in "dungeon" design.
Rooms exist because the original builders wanted them. They made sense then, even if it isn't apparent now. 50% being currently empty is still a good rule of thumb. I'd never tell players a room is safe. Let them make their own judgements. I'd get annoyed if a DM wanted to push me through a room without letting me decide if I wanted to spend time searching it. Making those decisions is an important part of exploration, one of the three pillars of gameplay, not a waste of time. Great ideas for tools and materials in "empty" rooms.
Good ideas. I try to not say a room is empty. The room appears empty, is more appropriate, allowing you to hide small treasures or tools in piles of rags, etc. I always know what the original use of the room was, in order to appropriately dress the room. I find that hiding keys and map fragments in otherwise empty rooms burns resources but if there is truly nothing there, I note the time spent and announce that they have found nothing of interest. Even old rags might be a resource if the party needs to make torches.
You really aren't talking about an empty room. The ideas are good for rooms that focus on exploration.
Are yours the weather books & parlor tricks? Just those? Are there more that are yours?
Those are it at the moment, more to come!