"Why was there a spike trap here?" "Well, Tonio already paid the 400 GP for the parts and the Dwarven smiths already delivered them by time we knew they weren't needed. We still had a few days with the mason's guild under contract, so Gregorio decided to put it here since it wasn't a load bearing wall."

Isn't murder hoboing and looting an actual active "dungeon" just a straight up armed robbery? Like, the PCs should totally be expected to be met by the local sheriff and a posse as they exit the "dungeon."

The toilets I've put into dungeons are usually an excuse to have gelatinous cubes. They live down the shoot as waste disposal. They're usually kept down there by a ring of salt or salt heavy rock that rings the shoot. But wouldn't you know it, by the time the players get there the ring has eroded or just failed and the cube is now loose.

My players love my dungeon designs as I always include a kitchen and toilet rooms.

And of course there is the best of both, a "New" dungeon that was abandoned recently because of some major disaster...

Dukes archives in dark souls 1 is a great example of a younger dungeon. Its kind of older but seath is still quite alive and well at the end of it (he is just hiding because hes afraid for his life), and the dungeon is his lab. The main purposes are clear, a holding cell for his lab, the giant machines he is working on, his captured wives, and his library, finally his living chamber

I want to run a dungeon that's actually ALIVE. Like, the Dungeon Core trope kind of alive. This one isn't specifically trying to kill them (though it would prefer if that happened), but all its traps and monsters (summoned/created by the dungeon) is just to protect one room. The Core Room. Loot is generated to lure in Adventurers and traps/monsters are to make them exert themselves, expending class abilities/spells, the energies of which the Dungeon feeds on.

The best example of a new dungeon I have is a kobold den. You got your traps, your creatures (kobolds and everything that runs with kobolds), a hoard area, and everything!

An interesting thing about "different times Dungeons" is their purpose. Most dungeons are veeery old, with ancient people needs. So always remember to think: would that use still be necessary for the current common regiment? Killing traps? Lootboxes? The video talks about it in the third section, so pay attention!!!

the overwhelming majority of my dugeons are "young" dungeons: bandit infested warehouses, basements of recently abandoned buildings, tracts of the sewer system, goblin hideouts, etc. Old dungeons are usually places the party needs to investigate to find ( or they would have been looted already) and i usually reserve those for high lvl encounters, or high stakes discoveries. be old or young, the important thing is they make sense and "tell a story".

Honestly, all dungeons should be designed with the idea that either people live and/or work there. Even if the dungeon is old and abandoned, its design should be based on whatever its original purpose was supposed to be. A collection of random rooms and corridors filled with monsters and loot won't seem particularly real if that's all it looks like.

I put bathrooms and pantries as well as barracks in every functional dungeon, unless i can hide it behind collapsed tunnels. (dungeons masters guide ftw)

Weirdly, I almost always start my dungeon design with "why was it made?" - new or old, I try to make it make sense in active existence first and then add layers of time if it's old. (unlike caves and such, most 'crafted items' are crafted with a purpose, even if it's just for show)

I had one Dungeon that was in the Midst of being built by a dwaven prepper who was afraid of dragon attack. 2 campaing later its finished and the plot is a dragon invasion on the continent.

I don't play DnD, but was still curious about how these old tropes could be changed. Not disappointed!

Literally every single map I make, I always make sure to include a bathroom of some sort. That is something that I am extremely proud of!

The ultimate test on this subject was my campaign inside captured academy. It was a big castle with 4 wings for different disciplines and central hub area. There was everything: bathrooms, living rooms, huge kitchen, patrols in the relatively safe corridors, sewer system, garden, more dangerous rooms with the results of interrupted experiments or containment for poverfull artifacts. Many things were enchanted to work on a schedule: magic lights at night, opened/closed doors to a certain areas, what can you order from servants in the dining room (without them being grumpy). It was meant to be a random thing in the middle of nowhere just to test some ridiculous homebrew. But my players liked overarching theme and asked to make fullsize campaign in this world. So, I guess, it was a success on my end.

New dungeons work great for heists and stealth adventures where the characters are infiltrating a fortress/tower/vault to try and steal something from the baddies, gain information, or rescue a prisoner. Just my two cents as a DM! Great vid!

What you propose as "Raiding a New Dungeon" vs. "Heist Quest", they are the same.

Funny dungeon I built was a slave center, the place had an arena-like main room where each prisonner could see each other from their cell since it was a circle. Uptop were the boss discussing prices with clients, I rolled a random client each time a new group of players intruded or werebeing subdued into it... The idea was to change the atmosphere inside to suit the tastes of the client, since the guys selling slaves would have to decorate it to suit them. A rich vampire looking for exotic bloodlines... A entrepeneur looking for a cheap alternative to workers... Etc... Funny thing is the traps were placed inside the arena, and the guards posted outside the arena, clever players could exploit the traps inside the arena and escape when the guards were rushing in... it's just one of many ideas, have fun !

BTW: About bathrooms in your dungeons…that *used to be* (in the TSR days) a regular feature of dungeons, whether purpose built structures or “cave full of monsters” style. Of course in a “cave full of monsters” it was either an area full of holes (often above moving water) or just an area that was used for the purpose; which was often decided by what type of creature was there. The heavy use of medieval and ancient structure designs as guidelines by early dungeon designers helped with that.

Another consideration is who or what might have built the dungeon can give inspiration for the design, especially for newer dungeons. For example, Beholders often make smooth tube or pipe-like tunnels for their lairs as it would be more comfortable for them to move about, and they would care very little for the comfort or inconvenience to their staff if they even have staff.

A well constructed topic and video. Awesome.

You can get some wacky things in just from construction teams having rulers of slightly different lengths, or being slightly out of line with the orientation, ending up with parts of mechanisms that are supposed to be under a floor running across it or hallways having extreme jinks. Imagine a combination mine foundry dungeon, where the tunnel that workers use to get to the mine intersecting with the chute that coal is dumped down. During normal operations, you have a drawbridge arrangement, but if you don't operate it correctly? Instant pit trap, crushing hazard, and or fire trap (coal dust explosion)

Traps that are locked or disabled by a guard's key is brilliant. Stealing that.

I always have a bathroom on the map somewhere, after I noticed it on an old D&D adventure map from 2nd edition and thought, "oh yeah, there should be one of those here". I call my version "Ye Olde Commode"

I once used a container ship at sea during a storm that was being hit by operator tier mercenaries who were there to steal roller luggage case full of diamonds that was being smuggled on the ship. The PCs were working security for a Norwegian oil company and were flown in because the ship was off course, not responding to hales, and was on a course that risked it plowing into one of their offshore rigs. I got to use the general layout and capacity plan of a real container ship as the map. It was fun.

3:02 This is actually something I do very often, and the way I normally do it is a single square room, so five by five, that has a wooden seat to sit on and below this room is a ten by ten by fifteen foot room that has a gelatinous cube in it. I also tend to have rooms with trap doors that drop into a g cube room near the kitchen and dining area for waste disposal. Just take the waste barrel and tip it over the hole in the floor and don't worry about it. If a g cube doesn't work thematically I use something else that eats fecal matter and slash or refuse that does but most of the time a g cube is not out of place as long as you keep it contained.

"How many of you put bathrooms in your dungeon design?" * Raises Hand *

A trap in a dungeon corridor can easily be explained as having been something set by a previous adventuring party's rogue or wizard character (the long dead skeletons of whom might be found deeper inside).

Fascinating take on dungeon design. Well written and narrated, as well as very nice illustrations.

In order to move a lot of treasure quickly, how about a Room Of Holding? Like a Bag Of Holding, but it looks like a large door with an ornate border. Simply place the door against any wall, open the door, and there is a room inside a pocket dimension ready to be filled with treasure. When the king leaves, he takes the door with him. Maybe centuries later, it's original use has been forgotten and now it is upside down and used as a small table or footstool for a Hill Giant. Imagine your party's reaction when they are hired by some sage to raid a Hill Giant family and steal their furniture.

I just had an idea of a town who made business by using local dungeons for archeology and convenient quarry sites. Technically old, but young enough to have manned guards and with more excavation equipment (maybe decor if being renovated into livable area). Like many renaissance and medieval cities that decided to use local Roman ruins for stone (in some cases, Colosseum in Rome was turned into a residential area with a Church built in the arena area with marbles and metals being dug out, or Trier's guardhouse becoming a monastery before renovated as an iconic landmark).

I recently built a dungeon like this, still abandoned but those who used it were still alive and lived in it for a significant amount of time. It was essentially a vampire CIA compound with functional utilities and traps designed to kill mortal beings but leave vampires unharmed. I finally got to use the classic "roof falls down" trap in a hallway. Heartbeat sensors lined the walls of a narrow passageway. Vampires could use it without issue, but if one of their prisoners managed to escape and make it deep into the heart of the facility... smoosh.

Really thinking now of having a pit not intended as a trap, but rather as a crude latrine.

In both the abandoned dungeons i made (our group don't do much dungeon delving) i've put in toilets. Because, those were lived in places once. When making it, every thought was why and where the function of the rooms were. So of course the lord had his own bathroom, of course there was a dingy little restroom for the servants, out of sight. Even put in an indoor well. One of them i made with Godbounds dungeon creation/inspiration tables. So when a room called for "Unusual decay and traps" i put in that the roof had collapsed, allowing nature inside, as well as water. Many mushrooms were in the damp environment and the traps? An old magical stove that had been blasted out of the kitchen and sporadically spewed fire. But yeah, thinking of how a place worked, and then ruining it feels like the correct way to do dungeons.

well in that respect, its not necessarily a dungeon at all, and more or less just a building, like a bank, someones really big home, or the marketplace at night if a dungeon is just a map for PCs to explore, then almost anything can become a dungeon

I designed a dragon temple once. It had 4 bathrooms and the toilets were shaped so you were sitting in a dragon's lap. It was an old dungeon and an otyugh had moved into one of the bathrooms.

A working dungeon is an easy plot hook. Guards at the front workers inside. New and shiney.

bro i'm just devouring your videos and you are a genious!!! I feel like a kid discovering new ways to play a game that i play for almost 15 years!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I have a setting that takes place in modern not-Earth. Every large building became a young dungeon, and my players did not like exploring a building that fell into a sink hole. :)

In Mystara a lot of dungeons are created by villains attempting to become Immortals by following the Entropic Path of the Dungeon Master.

I feel like all or at least most of these are really obviously but like you don't think about it at all until your doing it or hearing. Its kinda refreshing hear all these ideas, and its helped me realize some things about a castle my party eventually will go to and what I should start thinking about!

Treasure Hunters in a Wealth Depository Dungeon (Like Fort Knox) one of the people most in danger is the paymaster of the guards.

Pit trap? End result of a sinkhole undermining the foundation. Couldn't be fixed, so a renovation crew rigged up a cheap cover.

An “in use” dungeon is a temple/fort/tomb complex/etc, which will be full of humanoids and maybe some creatures they have as guardians/helpers…after that gets cleared out by your friendly neighborhood adventurers/evil army/rampaging monster is when the process of breaking down into the “abandoned place full of wildlife” begins. Just like a real life abandoned town or building.

A reason the duneons architecture could be fucky is the reason the Winchester house is so strange: the creator just wanted experiment with different styles and additions and just adding things in randomly as they think of them, and they just add what they thing would be fun as they build them

one thing I some times do with younger dungeons is install choke points and fatal funnels the players can jam them selves into if they manage to agro the whole dungeon. To date no party has managed to do that, but I did have one incident where they alerted some guards in the barracks, just 4 weak bandits- should be no problem-right, I decided that the guards would move some of the beds to make a barricade. I found out very quickly how much of an advantage this gave as it funneled the players and nearly wiped them. we laughed it off and the players told me of a time their DM had them terrified of Kobold territory because of how well the enemies used terrain and traps.

You can pull a cyberpunk and make a merchant guild or aristocrat's home your "dungeon".

One tip: If a dungeon has magic weapons, someone is probably wielding them. If the items aren't in use, there's probably a reason. Maybe they are holy, held in trust for someone else, or terribly cursed.

Great video, funny that it’s just in time for one of my campaign settings. What about ancient dungeons being renovated to now be used?

If you count the orphanage that an 11-year old gnome PC had to escape from as a “dungeon,” then I absolutely have included the bathroom (or rather, outhouse) as part of the dungeon.

I've always thought that Dungeons was just the interior setting of a location for the adventure. So an ancient crypt or an active school house can be a Dungeon.

A small thing i would add is that a dungeon that is currently in use doesn`t have to be in pristine condition. Some rooms are neglected, some are still under construction or renovation, some are filled with clutter and others are straight up unused. What appear as a pit trap in game could just be a part of the floor that recently collapsed and nobody bothered to fix it yet.

Imagine the dark lord is defeated because the player characters show up and offer his guards a place to poop and they go rushing towards it. That's one way to get into the big bad evil guys lair.

There are great examples of functional "dungeons" in many of the AD&D modules, dungeons that aren't just abandoned ruins but ones that have reason to exist.

I love to put bathrooms in my Dungeons, because it provides a dangerous place to put both an otyugh and secret lost treasure, possibly even a garbage compactor trap! Also, if all the bathrooms and trash chutes lead to the same place, that creates a dynamic branching path.

I'm so thankful I found this great channel. So much information to nom on as a newbie DM ^^

New dungeons definitely fit the heist format over the classic dungeon delve, but there's definitely a lot of space for things to feel like "old" dungeons too. Not all construction goes as planned, wings may be abandoned, construction may have been discontinued, maybe the foundations have gone and a whole side is slipping into a sinkhole, monsters that should be in cages have gotten out, all sorts of "proper" dungeon elements can happen in recent constructions

the one time i put a toilet in the dungeon, a player sent their familiar down the shithole. that poor snake is named sacrifice thereafter.

Create a dungeon that's like that Titanfall level in which players have to flip back and forth between the ancient, crumbling, trap-filled dungeon and a recently-built but heavily guarded dungeon

I like the idea of a recently-inhabited mine or the sewer system of a city that was destroyed earlier in the campaign that was encroached upon by monsters and made into their lair, or a discreet new hideout or temple made for a group of transgressive wizards or warlocks who dabble in the dark arts. A dock-town in the middle of a body of water that's being taken over by eldritch abberations.

The thing about most 'dungeons' is that they are not really dungeons at all. New or young 'dungeons' are just going to be castles, caves, sewer systems or some other generally mundane thing. They only really become 'dungeons' after they are old and have changed hands several times. Castles and fortifications are a good example of locations that should rarely be abandoned fully. They will always be built in commanding places and someone will want them always. If the kingdom that built it fell then another kingdom will take it, or bandits, or demi-human races like hobgoblins. Such places will rarely just fall into disrepair unless a new and more powerful location has been built close by. Sewer systems are a good one to make 'young' and 'old' at the same time. The system directly below the city should be semi-clean and patrolled by some force often, even if that is just regular adventurer parties. Because of the nature of it however, some tunnels might be changed, or moved or even just built over. This can lead to hidden 'old' sections that act like a dungeon below the 'modern' works or even just small parts off to the side that were bricked up. Cave systems are the interesting one where the system itself will be 'old' but what is inside could be new and young. Caves are generally defined by what makes it home. Showing older refuge from past inhabitants is a good way to make caves feel 'old', having them fairly clean and only showing signs of the current inhabitants tends to make them feel 'young'. Something I have fun running is an old castle that has a force of Goblins on one side fighting a force of Kobolds on the other. They two have claimed the entire castle but neither has the strength to fully defeat the other, so they stick to 'their side' and only skirmish a bit. Both have completely different feels as the two races make use of the spaces in different ways. This also opens up the possibility of the PCs joining one side or the other to take the entire castle.

I always build "functional" dungeons even if they are abandoned ages ago. Last I made was a broken spaceship, which I described as an out-of-place temple. Strange humming noises, metal and "bone" (read plastics) walls and floors, mutated animals as enemies etc. The adventurers did not know the purpose of the architecture, yet I built the whole thing as a spaceship. (I did close off most of the place by putting in unopenable bulkheads.) But I felt that this gave the whole dungeon an even more haphazard feel. Like they already could not comprehend the purpose of the place, and the rooms they could access were seemingly random. We never got to the end of it sadly. They did told me the whole thing was frustrating. When I build an abandoned fort for example, the dungeon layout is an actual fort. (I do forget to put in latrines though...) And the rooms had a purpose once, and depending on the dungeon's history, rooms might serve another reason. For example, I had a mess hall that became the first room of a dungeon, and the centuries old furniture became barricades and funneling points, while the armory became the new mess hall. The former captain's quarters became both the new treasury and the personal quarters of the goblin shaman ruling the place. He made the air vent into his escape route. Party failed to get him and he became a nuisance later. Anyway, building the dungeons functional, old or new, can enhance the dungeoneering greatly.

Hey now, my brother and I put bathrooms in EVERY dungeon we design. It's a meme in our group now with players cheering when they find them or actively use them. One time in a more modern game we had a player steal all the enemies toilet paper.

Random example using real life: A dungeon that houses 3000 pairs of shoes with several armed guards and traps, you'll learn why.

This video kicks butt, for real

Whoop needed this.

Theres also the possibility that traps are there when the guards are not, or are hiding behind it if an enemy force is coimng... that would explain why when it is abandoned, they are always active.. cause nobody is there to turn em off

Thanks for the content.

I always worry about bathrooms, and when I put in midden piles, the players constantly thought there would be treasure or magic items hidden in them.

I kinda want to make a dungeon occupied by two kobolds. Or maybe 3 kobolds. Only two at the start, but the third one has hatched by the end. They finally saved up enough to get a place of their own. This would just be a one session thing though.

Very cool and a totally fun idea

I made a magical bathroom door that appears when summoned by it's key, so my players can go away during the narration if needed, needless to say they used it to buy time in important battles or to plan out in secret hiding when they wanted to take more time before a heist! sadly the bathroom in my house cant contain 8 people at the same time so, cramp up folks!

Well I got one. So this new dungeon idea is a nursery with a bunch of goblin and kobold guards, and at the heart of the dungeon’s vault, there is a young adult dragon, which was laying upon a massive pile of gold. However, this dragon won’t give the gold so easily, so the players fight and then they find out what they did way too late as the dragon turned out to be a mother dragon tending to its eggs.

Congratulations. You have now escalated from adventuring to breaking and entering. teehee

Spiked floors were very in fashion

I have put a bathroom in my dungeons before, not many, but a few... actually one of them happened to become a "natural trap" as the toilet had been clogged for centuries... in a closed room... accumulating the smells... make a con save XD

There was a dungeon I took inspiration from Skyrim. It was a prison in the middle of nothing (because you want dangerous people AWAY from commoners) that fell into a river when the bank eroded away. Full of food and undead, usable weapons and the actual treasure was the money for the guards. Also crumbling architecture and flooded passages completed the experience.

You have alot of good guide videos but curious do you have any campaign or game clips or videos from some of your D&D sessions?

If no toilets is good enough for Skyrim, it's good enough for me! Unless, of course, a toilet justifies some kinda cleanup crew monster: gelatinous cubes, otyughs, black puddings, etc.

Hello MTD, great video & topic. The best way I have heard to set up a dungeon or building. You set it up like your home. Bathrooms, living space, bedrooms, kitchen, garage, ect... Guards changing shifts or having guards eating lunch or anything else that happens at a certain time is just to hard to track. If you want a guard being caught coming out of the bathroom, that's something that a DM has to setup. I look at those as random encounters. Time, light and sound are not covered in any D&D book. How far can a fight be heard, but what if there is closed or open doors in between. How far away can someone spot a light source, what if there are corners or many objects between the light source and the person spotting the light. It can get way out of control really fast. As a DM it just to much to think about. I like a set plan with a few options. Plus the party is going to do something completely different anyways, lol. I could talk forever about this topic. Thanks MTD, you have a wonderful day!

Modern players have much more sophisticated expectations than that of the original players. The first dungeons were designed by people in engineering and were literally flowcharts. As in they were based on computer programming if/then flow charts. Making its construction make any more sense then that was simply not considered.

The last young dungeon I used wasn't long ago, kobold den, freshly carved and very inhabited

The reason I don't do younger dungeon is that I have no idea how to enable the players into going through it without alerting everyone. It's too easy to swarm them with guards. And then they just murder everyone.

Yet agian a great video ☺️☺️☺️

A dungeon could be so decrepit that it's age makes the traps themselves. Columns or the ceiling is weakened and walls are crumbling and floors are caving in to the next level down. No combat really but really good rolls or else, cave-in or ya falling down to the next level down.

....So the players start being accused of a crime they didn't commit (old Bethesda style lol) and are taken to the opening pit of a dungeon. Used to drop prisoners into via rope lift. Once in they have to navigate it with ZERO arms and armor. Maybe spells if they have them prepared. They may have to face natural or unnatural denizens of the dungeon in order to escape. Do they escape or does the dungeon overcome them.... Also add small cave entrances for things like Orcs or kobolds or goblins to start infesting the place with weapons and tools lol. Thank u for helping me create this idea lol. Love your work.

I think medieval dudes lived by without toilets, they could just do it outside. I mean, even Versailles didn't have them. EDIT: loved the video, it inspired me to design a young dungeon, subscribed

For a younger dungeon I ran it had rooms where the guards would sleep at night. Why did I have this design? Wouldn't it be easy for the players to sneak in? No it had traps like arrows and stuff that were triggered by heat (they where closed in the day) and a gelatinous cube patrolling the halls and since it was the cleaner and it was a trap in it's self and since the gelatinous cube was cold it didn't trigger traps... That was a fun TPK since one of the traps was a gas trap that ignited if a flame was near and the wizard casted fireball in a room full of gas

Hmm. Various monsters imprisoned within, who will inevitably escape, and bring the dungeon to ruin if you, dear traveler, do not intervene.

How do I get a print of that god saying “yo” to the dungeon planner?

The best dungeon I've made was a olive garden.

When I'd heard "how many of you have placed bathrooms in your dungeons?" I felt personally called forth, as I recalled many dungeons, even old, ancient dungeons that I'd designed with bathrooms within... even one that was just horrendous and probably a health hazard at one point.

Nice

How would one go about, say, using a town as a dungeon?

I know the point of this was dungeons that are active & not ancient & old but I thought of a fun ancient dungeon idea a dungeon that has been told to have incredibly valuable treasure, many people have tried to raid it but none have returned. In truth the dungeon has no such treasure, it was just a ploy from a lich or something to get souls *but* because of how much people have died there, there is now lots of loot on the corpses around the place

2:00 "Y tho?"

I have included a latrine in a dungeon. Does that count?

Dwarven spare Armory or Treasury