"But what do they eat" is one of those key questions from writing advice that game masters/developers can learn a lot from.

I thought I was the only person who knew about "Kingdom of the Dwarves". That books forever informed the depictions of dwarves in my campaigns.

I know it'd be more for the second part, but I remember playing a session in 2300 where we boarded an abandoned ship from an alien species. The airlock into the ship was kinda trapped by design. Due to how they saw colors, red was their color for safe and green was the danger color. So as we approached the airlock it was pressurized, but looked safe to open. It was just a small detail that helped to show the former owners were different from us.

Seth I would like to say that I will be trying my hand as a keeper for the haunting this Saturday. I'm very exited and thank you for introducing me to Call you Cthulhu

Secret doors are the best. I have very fond memories of a private school I attended that was in an old mansion that had a hidden staircase. It opened to a closet on the upper floor. Old houses sometimes have servant's quarters/wings that might be a bit concealed to allow unobtrusive movement.

I can't help but click when you post because you have gotten me back into table top RPGs. My kids know DnD because of you, keep up the great work.

@15:15 When Seth was describing reuse of the giant bronze doors, I saw one door suspended over a fire and used as a giant hibachi grill. Kobolds loudly running around prepping meals and delivering provisions in and out of the chamber.

That shot of the 2nd edition catacombs guide brought back a sudden flush of memories for me. I gave TSR a LOT of my money back in the day... well my parent's money.

One of the things I enjoy doing when I forget and make a secret door essential to a dungeon is to have the characters catch a denizen using that door we're going down what appears to be a dead end Passage

With the room checklist at 34:48 I was very much expecting to see Seth list latrines. Clown nursery was a complete surprise

Solid gold as always. Over the last couple years I've been running a campaign centred arround a knightly order that hid the parts of a powerful magical device in effectively "Dungeon Safes". First defence was no one knew they existed, but if you can locate them, then you have to find a way in, and through to the vault. Had a great time working out linear dungeons with traps and bad guys who could be there through a long time, so elementals, automatons, undead, that sort of thing, but also making the challenges simple to bypass if you know how, but deadly if not, so the Knights could get through to the vault, but intruders would likely die trying. Players have had a blast, and I had great fun designing them too!

I am currently running the pathinder 2e adventure path Abomination Vaults. One of the main features is an indestructible lighthouse artifact that extends down through all 9 underground levels above a shrine to an outer god. When the players find that circular room it gives them a refrence point for whete they are in this place.

Here's a like and a comment for the algorythm. Also thanks for the quality content, Seth, you're the man. Also the ork and the demon and the cthulhu god - everything GM has to be :D

35:53 Honest, I played in a game back in the 80s where the DM described the dungeon as being made of cyclopean masonry and one of the other players (never having heard the term, which I admit is idiomatic) asked what he meant. The DM responded, absolutely deadpan, by telling him that every single giant block of stone had a single staring eye carved on it. Rest of the table broke up laughing, leaving the guy who'd asked totally confused until we explained the joke. On the rare occasions we get together to game these days we've all been working those stones into things, been going on for decades now - even the guy whose question started the gag.

"Marty, you aren't thinking 4th dimensionally!" is what I heard when Seth was talking about needing to think in 3 dimensions when it comes to planning your room layouts lol.

On the topic of secret doors, the question is why have a secret door in the first place? In real construction secret doors served one of two purposes. The most common was that residents of manors didn't want to see servants--the secret doors were a system by which servants could fulfill their roles without being seen. Second, quick escape. You wanted a way out (either of the structure or of rooms) that your enemies weren't aware of. Either way they weren't random, they served a purpose. This can help determine secret door placement. If you're in a "dungeon" that was once intended as a residence, you could have secret doors to various high-status rooms in tucked-away areas allowing easy access if you can identify them. If it's meant as a more sinister location having means of escape can be justified--the people building it wanted to have a way out in case things went wrong.

In case anyone hadn't come across it yet, I'd also recommend the book "Image of the City". It's a short urban planning study/survey, and how people's spatial mental map building-blocks are paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks.

Clown nursery! Of course! That's why my dungeons suck-because I always forget to put in a clown nursery! Thanks, Seth!

A few years ago my sisters got me a book called "The Monsters Know What They're Doing" by Keith Ammann. Great book with great ideas on how encounters with different monsters might work in a dungeon or which dungeon types work with which monsters in which ways. Highly recommended.

It’s a great day when a long form Seth video is upload

I would have given anything to have been your friend in high-school and college. You seem like you would've been the best dm. Me and my brother grew up on a farm, and he led me through many dungeons as a child, most of which he made up as we went. He had a wonderful imagination, just like you. Thanks for doing what you do.

In designing a structure/dungeon, I like to consider how the denizens travel through it. Sure, it may be "neat" to have hidden, locked or trapped doors every other room but imagine how it would feel if there was a band of bandits spending their days there. Before a week was out they would start propping the doors open and disarming the traps rather than spend 20 minutes getting from the commissary to the lavatory. Think of a security building... it has secure locks at the entrances and between floors and at offices, sensitive rooms and labs but the rest of any given floor is generally open access.

I always did forget about the clown nurseries, thanks for the tip!! 🙏

30:20 Y'know, I kind of like the idea of a dungeon where some or all of the 3D features make no sense once the PCs have seen enough of the dungeon. If it leads them to go back and poke at them to try to figure out what's going on - well, that's when they find the space-warped areas the dungeon builder created for this place and all the interesting stuff inside them. I had one dungeon back in the 70s where one of the hallways gradually got smaller as you walked north along it, shrinking you as you moved so it wasn't obvious, with a whole dead-end complex of teeny, tiny rooms at the end of it. When you eventually left the place going south embiggened you to normal, but you'd eventually wind up on the far side of the whole setup and your map would make it look like the tiny complex couldn't possibly have been where the map says it is.

Seth! Thank you for all you do. Probably one of my favorite KZfaqrs - thank you very much for your traveller series; by a long shot, it's the best explanation of traveller rules on YT!

No other channel has been so responsible in shaping me into the dm I am today, thank you Seth for your wealth of knowledge. Keep on keepin’ on!

I've drawn a lot of dungeons since 1977, and learned much of what you covered, yet still picked up some good points from your video. Thanks Seth.

In regards to habitation needs, N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God has animated zombies that operate a pump to keep the swamp-based dungeon from flooding.

Thanks, Seth. I literally just saw a video where you said you're a badass dungeon designer. I think it was the first episode of the Modern Mythos podcast. I may be wrong. But I'm really looking forward to seeing this all play out. I love all your videos and I'm excited to read your books

I'm about to build a big temple dungeon, thus couldn't have come at a better time. Excellent advice, especially with the "make sure things that live here could actually live here" type advice.

My favorite dungeon concept I ever ran was when my players were following clues to learn about a warlord who had campaigned across the world centuries before. They found a small island where a tribe, knowing the warlord was coming, built an underground bunker full of traps and choke points to try to hold him off. When he arrived and saw how dug in they were, he collapsed the entrance and simply waited for them to starve to death. So the players were left to push through all the traps and vengeful spirits of dead warriors left behind, but the whole thing had an air that, this tribe was full of brave men who were denied the final stand they deserved, so fighting them was less about killing spooky undead and more about giving honor back to people who had theirs stolen. Once the party had learned the stories of the people there, the entire structure let out a final gasp, like it had been holding itself up until someone came and set right the things that had happened there, and it crumbled around them. After they escaped, they looked back and realized that any trace of the civilization was gone forever and vowed to keep the tribe alive in their memories. It was a fun, exciting adventure but also had an emotional core that is often lacking from fight-y trap-y dungeon runs.

Temporary walls or obstructions made of trash; barriers or choke points created by collapses. Natural threats and dangers like flooding, collapsing cielings, cold or high winds. Pathways with features like very steep stairs, slippery ramps, or one way trips due to spikes like a car park. It's fun to bring the environment to life. :)

There's so much inspiration in this video alone, it feels more like a worldbuilding video than a dungeon video.

Resources for ideas: ancient Egyptian tomb complexes, De Re Metallica by Agricola (illustrated treatise on mining from 16th century,) The Pyrotechnia by Vannoccio Birunguccio; also, salt mines from the mountains around Salzburg.

Never have I ever thought a random book I picked up at a second hand store would be mentioned by a creator I've watched for years!

"Clown Nursery"??? Officially the creepiest dungeon room ever.

I usually just go with whatever feels fun. Like Krampus' castle, which my players will going through later this month as they fight to save Christams.

I always felt that Arx Fatalis was a great introduction to dungeon design by presenting a whole open world withing a network of tunnels and dungeons. Where ever there's an outpost, there's a few hints at the ecology of the place, though in a very small scale. Playing it at several points of my life did wonders for my imagination when coming up with dungeons in TTRPG:s. And sure, I'm aware Ultima Underworld already introduced many of the stuff Arx did, but this was my foray into the genre.

Speaking of social ecology one of my favorite dungeons, Return to White Plume Mountain, puts a whole ecology in white plume mountaun like the aftermath of the first adventurers wrecking things.

Back in 3rd edition D&D, I bought the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook. It was more of a supplement that had rules for PCs to buy and build their own stronghold. The book was a game changer for me. I was making all of the dungeon mistakes Seth talked about, not thinking 3 dimensionally with my dungeon design and not thinking logically about the dungeon layout. The Stronghold Builder's Guidebook really opened my eyes to the fact that strongholds and dungeons populated by humanoids should have enough rooms and beds for them all to sleep in and what not. My mind was just stuck in this sort of video game mentality where I mostly made linear dungeons with no thinking behind them.

Wow... a Seth masterpiece.

YESSSSSS!!!! I’ve wanted this video forever!!

A lot of good points made; two of which I would single out for particular attention… Leave space for empty space. Not only might that include storage rooms which could provide the PCs with a reasonably secure place to camp; but it should also mean bypasses, particularly if there are “puzzle” elements to the layout (not just puzzle rooms). I recently acquired the first adventure of the Dungeon magazine Scales of War campaign, which makes a big thing of the “puzzle” of finding all of the hostages - except they’re all basically out in the open in spaces the party have to transit through anyway… low traffic routes to these locations, where the players could sneak around recovering the hostages (even only some of them) would have added a lot to the game and made talking to the hostages far more valuable. Telegraph information somehow; if there’s a kissing maiden trap ahead then describe the weird stains on the walls, a rock fall trap? Cracked flagstones and so forth… don’t make the players search for traps in every square of your dungeon; don’t make them search every wall for secret doors… because if you don’t offer them some hints, they are quite capable of going back to basics and tapping everything with a ten foot pole - you won’t enjoy it, they won’t enjoy it and everyone will get frustrated. How you telegraph the information is up to you; if the secondary treasure chamber is behind the secret door then perhaps you keep it very subtle and behind a roll (or passive perception) and some Last Crusade style billowing cobwebs are all you give them, a hint that there’s something to search for. If the boss’s chambers and an insight into the story is the prize then maybe one of the fire-dogs is more worn and polished than the other. If half the dungeon is locked up behind it then perhaps grooves worn into the floor where ropes have been used over and over again, an anchor point in a nearby wall, almost everything short of a neon sign… Of course if you and your players are trying to recapture the days of ten foot poles then ignore all that - if they walk into a kissing maiden in that sort of game then it’s on them.

Funhouse dungeons! I once made a monster mash just for a laugh, but to also fit a story. It was an overgrown villa located in a tropical caldera. A normal villa, but inside was a strange array of creatures. Giant scorpion that was too big for the door to the room. Wild beasts. Animated Candlesticks even. All very confusing to the party. It was funhouse because I did just randomly select everything... as experiments being done by a sorcerer who was hiding out there.

this was food for thought i must say, your videos usually are

Underground, water flowing through the earth accumulates. Getting rid of or controlling that water is a big part mining engineering. Flooded tunnels offer HUGE opportunities for underwater adventures. Uncorking backed up drain systems could be the key to wiping out powerful enemies, and weather above ground can impact game play as rainwater seeps through the rock/earth to inundate those below

34:53 Clown Nursery - what do I win?

24-part series! GO! 😁

Fantastic work, Seth! These "common sense" construction foci always seemed important to me, but I also thought I was being too nerdy & detail-obsessed. Thanks for the validation, friend! Dungeons have to make some kinda sense.

In case of DnD i find it sometimes challenging to populate a dungeon with thematically fitting monsters that are all in the same difficulty/challenge range. For example, there are loads and loads of different undead monsters in the monster manual, which makes it rather easy to populate a crypt or tomb or something like that and they can very easily brought together as they're just a bunch of dead people with different flavor. But there are a lot less Celestial monsters that all fit well together thematically AND provide the same amount of challenge without rewriting or changing up the statblocks for them. So yes, i agree that this is often times the most important but also most difficult part in designing a coherrent and believable dungeon.

Very well done sir! Well done! I love the part of the old Catacombs guide where it talks about constructing an example castle complete with events. After an event floods the land one stone giant looks to his son and says " and that's why you don't build a castle in a swamp!" For some reason, that just captured my imagination and made the whole thing feel like a real story.

Useful questions. What is the source of fresh air? What is the source of fresh water? What is the source of fresh food? What is the source of illumination? How much of the above do they have in storage? Where does each creature sleep? What does each creature do during the day?

Your guidelines for creating a dungeon are the same as mine. If there is an encounter in a dungeon, there needs to be a reason why it's there. I did a Mummy’s Tomb dungeon for a 5e one-shot, heavily based on actual Egyptian tombs. Most *living* monsters wouldn't work - this tomb had just been discovered, nothing inside should be able to survive. However, my solution was the inspiration from the Egyptians mummifying animals, including big cats. So I took the stats for a cheetah and templated it to be Mummified. So when two large Mummified Cheetahs appeared after being awoken by a trap, my players were caught off-guard. They loved it because it was a monster that they had *never* encountered before, and it presented a good challenge for them. It was also incredibly on theme AND there was a reason for them to be there.

Man you are doing so many videos recently. Holy cow!

Another little detail to remember: underground chambers will most likely have arched or vaulted ceilings because it's more architecturally sound in supporting the literal tons of earth and rock above them. Flat ceilings are more prone to cave-ins (unless they're properly supported, of course).

As a DM who's been running games and Doodling dungeons for a couple decades, I learned a ton! What a great video!

I'm impressed not only that you have so much to say, but that you bothered to 'illustrate' so much of your video with examples. Finding images and splicing them in really adds a great deal to your vids, as opposed to just being a talking head. Kudos.

This video gave me such a cool idea. A dungeon where when the heroes are exploring it the entrance caves in, thus blocking out the only source of incoming air. The players have to play against the dungeon but also the clock because if they don't find a way out of the dungeon fast enough they suffocate.

18:15 OOOH! Maybe that "open pit" underwater is actually a shaft to a lower level! It acts as a trap AND an egress to another area. I know I've seen that in some old school module but it's a great possibility.. This is a great video and I'm looking forward to part 2. I had created a campaign where the PCs were adventurers in a "new world" expedition. A sage/cartographer hired them, among other parties, to help survey a valley. It started with an overworld hike where they simply had to get to peaks on the mountains and map what they found on the way. They'd start discovering small caves with pueblo style dwellings, but some had entrances to the underground. Long story short, the PCs eventually find out the entire mountain range is actually an enormous space ark that landed here millennia ago, which explained the bizarre monsters and led to the discovery of old "magic" technology.

12 Hours ago, I didn't need this. After watching the video, I needed this!

Clear and concise, with great information and suggestions! Looking fwd. to part 2 already!

nice, my easy click of the day. seth doing excellent seth things.

I usually start by figuring out the original purpose of the dungeon and then what happened since if anything. Sometimes I am a bit inspired by real places, like the Catacombs under Paris or the tomb of King Tut, that way I can be inspired by real floorplans and photographs (makes good handouts, we all love those). Once that is done I sketch out a very basic idea and then I finalize the build in either my Dvarven forged tiles or tiles (I use either tiles from Descent or Shadows of Brimstone, or sometimes I find some online and print them out), it depends a bit on the aesthetics I am going for. If there is less then 10 rooms I usually use Dwarven forged but for the massive multi layered dungeon it isn't worth the work of setting it up and putting all the tiles back after the game. I sometimes mix it up and have a couple of important rooms in full 3D (I could also add a single unimportant room in 3D just to mess with the players, but I rarely do that since if overused it loses it's impact). I tend to make a lot of changes during that last stage since when I actually puzzle out the entire thing I can what looks good and what might look good on paper but wont look as great when the players will see it. It might also run into some tiles that just look too good with the other stuff not to use. The 3D tiles do add a lot, like when the players can see that suddenly a room or corridor is a natural cave in an otherwise built dungeon, you know, show don't tell. Okay, I might have a bit of too much junk so my process might be depending a bit on that (hey, all that stuff was expensive, I bloody well is going to use it). I also really like visual aides while others might be more of the "theater of the mind" types. What I pick also depends a bit on where we are playing, if we are playing at my house I can spend a long time setting up everything before the game, if we play somewhere else I can't exactly spend hours building a perfect dungeon so then I either use very basic Descent tiles or I print out each room and corridors on my color laser printer. Drivethrough RPG have some nice tiles cheap, others can just be find free on the net and a little Microsoft paint can be used to edit and puzzle things out (including shrinking everything for the DM map). Of course it all depends on your own style, my dungeons is usually more focused on puzzles and traps the players need to figure out, if it is just monster encounters I rarely use 3D tiles like for a goblin lair or something like that. I do enjoy seeing the look on a new players face when they see a full 3D dungeon though, but remember to either cover up what they can't see yet (some cloth or cardboard does the work nicely, back cloth is a bonus) or to set each room or smaller sections on a magnetized board so you can bring out each new areas to reveal to the players as they discover it, it just makes things way more exciting then if you show them the entire map at the start, With Descent times or printed rooms I just have them sorted in a way so I quickly can set them up during play, don't let the players wait longer then a minute, preferably less then 30 seconds so the action keeps going. Anyways, that is my process but I think each game master have their own way of doing things and that is kinda the charm with RPGs. It is always worth to check out how other GMs do things but find your own style that works best for you and your players. Also, I don't play super often which allows me far more prep time then someone playing 2 sessions (or more) each week. If you want something super complex and don't have the time it might be a good idea to not use dungeons too often, mix in pre made modules or run another game with less preparation time by the side.

A dungeon is the story. Build the dungeon to tell the story. Build it in the same way one builds the story.

One of the reasons I love using Dungeondraft for this sort of thing is because it makes thinking vertically easier for me. I can overlay two floors to make sure the rooms fit into a scheme logically.

I like the idea of traps that no longer work, because why would they operate perfectly in an uninhabited setting after centuries, but they can still serve as a nice moment of false alarm for the characters.

For the Layout, I use random Generators to get Quantity fast, then rearange the tiles to make sense as a whole. This way I get a dungeon fast AND consistent.

My first dungeon was a cave with 5 rooms, 1 hidden room and one cliff that could be scaled inside. It was partially natural and partially made by magic, so the entrance and 3 of the chambers were natural and served the necromancer in the cave in ways that were convenient, like putting the failed experiments in one big chamber to wander around and ward off intruders, a smaller chamber to throw bodies and parts that hadn't animated properly which had rot grubs in among the rotting meat, or the final chamber of the natural cave which had a second passage carved into the back, leading to the first artificial chamber, which was the lab and boss chamber. The final one was a smaller sleeping quarter hidden by an illusionary terrain orb, which housed the preserved body of his dead love. She.. didn't love him back but.. he was still trying to bring her back

Thank you, Seth. A very, very useful video and just on time, too. May i ask if you're planning to do the similar series/video about the world building?

The infravision-based mosaic would also make a great puzzle where the players would have to line up different sections based on the heat each material gives off.

Please, i beg you, make em as loooong as possible! I just cant enough 🥰

Clown nursery. I immediately thought of a nursing room for clowns. Lol

Room list: One of them is not like the others. Clown Nursery, it's the Clown Nursery.

Great video. Glad there's another coming up

Awesome!

Always good to see the contents !!! Cheers !

just something I thought I'd point out since it also came up on evil overlord list item 62. "I will design fortress hallways with no alcoves or protruding structural supports which intruders could use for cover in a firefight." you can still put the alcoves on the sides for style as the original creators of the location might not of been concerned with this problem, but the new inhabitants if they are more combat minded might have piled up some odds and ends on the ones furthest from any guard stations the idea being you'd have to go towards them out in the open, and by the time an intruder got into cover they would have moved into cover themselves and probably gotten a few ranged attacks off or by the time the intruder gets into cover the local guards are close enough to just engage in close combat making the cover less useful.

Thank you being my favorite RPG content creator. Love the books also. Looking forward to the next part in the series.

I've been playing RPGs since 1979...and still found this not just entertaining but informative as well!

33:45 Damn, there's so many rooms there, I'm getting "Undermountain" flashbacks. AD&D style.

Did a dungeon dive one shot for thanksgiving. Really wish this was out while I was working on it haha! Great job as always seth! Keep it up!

Can't wait for Part 2!

Thank you so much Seth! I loved it. I have thought many times about these things, the realism, air-shafts and pulley driven elevators, and sometimes my players appreciated it. Sincerely, Alicia from Sweden

Well done Seth! You are an amazing fountain of fun and useful ideas! Looking forward to part 2

Honestly great stuff and super well organised. Looking forward to part 2

Another amazing video! Great content!

I used that map you gave us. Particularly the multi-level version with the balcony and secret door. Players enjoyed the adventure.

This video is just gold, cant wait to see more

Clown Nursery. I now have a theme for my next dungeon.

Thank you!

Congrats on the 100k Seth! You deserve it!!

Half of this video (which I enjoy) is Seth spoiling The Tomb of Horrors without saying he’s spoiling the Tomb of Horrors. Having been caught by the pit trap’s secret door myself, I am all for this passive aggression.

This is a really great video and very inspiring. So much content to absorb I’ll probably listen to it two or three more times. Thanks, Seth!

Loved this video, great stuff in here

I’m way too afraid to even try to GM a game so I’ll never need the information in this video. However, Seth is entertaining so I’m still gonna watch. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 👍🏻 🥇

Woah! Just what i needed desperately!

Interesting! My most inspiring ecology-book was the old MERPS supplement Gundabad. It made orcs something more than simply chaff

What a great video. Lots of great info. :D

GMing an OSR-like (Forbidden Lands) after not playing pen and paper rpgs for 15 years, this topic is right up my alley.

Good advice all around, worth the extra length, looking forward to the continuation