Things You'll Need:
- Dungeons and Dragons rule books
- Graph paper
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Step 1
Start with a general concept of what the dungeon will be like and where it will be located, then work downward from there, fleshing out the details.
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Step 2
Decide on a specific area and overall style of the dungeon. Is it underground, in a castle, deep in a secluded forest or on an entirely different plane of existence? If it's underground, is it in the sewers below or a city, or perhaps a series of tunnels dug by goblin sappers and their bugbear overseers? Is the castle an abandoned ruin or a still-functional keep being used by an evil wizard?
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Step 3
Figure out how many levels or rooms the dungeon will have. A dungeon meant for a lower-level party will probably need to be smaller, as they characters exploring it will have less resources at their disposal to keep them adventuring for an extended period of time. At the very least, there should several "safe" areas where the party can rest in between encounters.
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Step 4
Come up with a plausible reason for the dungeon to exist and for it to have the configuration you will be crafting. A sewer system filled to the brim with all manner of expensive and expertly crafted traps and occupied by giants who couldn't fit through the main entrance doesn't make a whole lot of sense; however, a long-forgotten temple deep in a mountain range that has been taken over by a group of marauding ogres is more believable.
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Step 5
Draw out a map of the dungeon on graph paper, leaving out the major features of each room and the creatures that are likely to be encountered there, so that the player's won't know ahead of time what they will find. Mark each room with a code, such as "B1" or "F6," then make a cheat sheet in which the description of the room corresponds to the code, so you can quickly see what is going on in any given section of the dungeon.
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Step 6
Envision how the denizens of the dungeon would go about their average day, and how they will react when the player characters come barging in. Soldiers don't just sit in their barracks 24 hours a day waiting for armed adventurers to ambush them; they would instead be moving around, going to the kitchen for food, making forays to the privy and patrolling the premises for intruders. More chaotic and unorganized creatures, such as kobolds and orcs, are less likely to have regular patrols or sentries, but they still won't remain stationary in the same room for all eternity.
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Step 7
Put enemies in the dungeon that are appropriate challenges based on the level of the characters who will be fighting them. Make certain to check those enemies' statistics and any special rules associated with them. A flying monster doesn't have much of an advantage in a cave with a low ceiling, but out in the wilderness, the same creature is suddenly much more dangerous.
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Step 8
Place traps for the party to encounter only in areas where they make sense. A trap that shoots arrows across the main entrance of a keep would be just as much of a hindrance to the player characters as it would be to the people living in that keep.
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Step 9
Do not forget about the real lure that pulls characters into dungeons, which is the treasure. The players want to be rewarded for storming the castle and wiping out the trolls who murdered the royal family, and that reward should be in the form of either gold or magical items that will enhance the characters' abilities.
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Step 10
Create a boss-type creature who either runs the dungeon or is strong enough that the other creatures living there give it a wide berth. Every dungeon should have a final challenge that truly tests the wits and brawn of your players' characters; the more grandiose and intimidating it is, the more your players will feel they have accomplished when they overcome it. Low-level dungeons will probably feature a normal creature like an orc that has a few levels in a character class or a minor magic item that enhances its abilities. Higher-level dungeons will require ever-more spectacular enemies, such as ancient red dragons, pit fiends from the nine hells, a 1,000-year-old undead wizard or an entire clan of hill giants.
