10 Tips for Designing Dungeon Maps in D&D 

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I actually really like the idea of a wizard who became so obsessed with geometry and the beauty of shapes that he made his entire dungeon out of basic shapes. He could even have things like magic reflective surfaces that he could bounce spells off of in predictable ways.

Funny story: My players encountered a bridge guarded by 3 orcs. The orcs were suffering from an indefinite madness. The orcs thought the bridge was sacred and they were going to fight to the death to keep anyone from crossing it. I figured I'd roll die and multiple the result by 10 for the dimensions of this bridge at the table. Rolled all 1's and the bridge was 10 ft wide, 10 ft across, over a 10 ft deep crevasse. Made the concept of the sacred bridge worth dying over that much more absurd.

DM, "The door opens on a square room..." Player, "Square?! Stand by! Prepare for Hounds of Tindalos!"

Players: Every single room is a perfect square.... This is highly suspicious, we must flee. DM: no, please don’t.... I worked really hard on this adventure! Players: 🤨

This guy deserves wayy more views and attention than he gets. Definitely one of the better content creators in this community.

You guys have any idea how lucky you are that this man's videos exist? We had no DMs to ask and if you found one it was like D&D in real life. "You seek greater knowledge of the Realms?" Yes, Master, teach us. "It's called THAC0"

"Words. Are. Hard." I have been saying this for over 10 years.

Totally love the characters on this one 😀

This is fabulous advice! Thank you! I will incorporate this on new maps & dungeons... However, I want to share with you one of the dungeons in my setting. It's the "Clockwork Dungeon" built by a crazy gnome who wanted to make a sort of "fun house adventure". Unfortunately, she died the day before it opened some fifty years ago in an unfortunate accident. Since then, the dungeon's clockworks have been annoying the citizens of the city. Every ten minutes, the gears and mechanisms activate, sending loud noises throughout the town, shaking things, etc. The dungeon itself (and the players know this going in) breaks nearly every rule you listed: every hallway is exactly the same: 35'x15', with a door on each end. Every room is exactly the same: 75' circular with a domed ceiling, two doors opposite each other, and are lit because the metallic substance making up the walls seems to glow magically. While in the rooms and hallways, the PCs experience the shifting movement (like riding an elevator that doesn't just go up and down). Upon entering each room, they immediately see the challenge, be it monsters (clockworks or golems) or the puzzle. A hologram of the builder (Delegardenia Nfewny) appears and recites a short rhyming poem that explains the room. She vanishes and the monsters activate. Furthermore, the sequence is linear. There are no choices - go from one room to the next. That's it. When they get through the last room, they step into the giant chamber where they see all the clockwork mechanisms that move all the rooms and corridors about, like a giant octopus carnival ride. (TLDR? Sorry.) Of the 4 groups that went through this dungeon, three found it to be a lot of fun. They loved the progression of the monsters, the comedic aspect of the holographic gnome, and, in some ways, the predictability. The one group that didn't enjoy it so much kept trying to break the dungeon (jamming the doors open, trying to cut through the walls, etc.) in hopes to short-cut it. I might add that this particular group folded due to personality conflicts between players, and the ones that complained about this dungeon weren't invested in the setting's plots and stories. My point: even a linear, featureless dungeon can be fun, if done properly.

Excellent advice, though I should warn about not overusing doors. I made the mistake of building a dungeon with doors in every room, hallway, and tunnels. Some doors were fake and had nothing beyond them, most doors were trapped (Which I realize was a bad choice based on another video done), and while I had excellent flavor text set up for each room, the sheer number of doors caused the players to get bored. I have since learned from this mistake.

I'm making a campaign for my friends to play through and this popped up so I watched it and got so much inspiration that I created an entire 4 floor dungeon. Thanks a lot for inspiring me to finish my campaigns planning

I'm loving the content on this channel. I am currently a DM. I think I have been labeled our groups forever DM. You make it easier to plan my sessions. Keep it coming bud!

This actually reminds me of the advice I provide to GM's who ask me about my own dungeon design, which is: take notes from the "Puzzle Box" dungeons of the Legend of Zelda series. These dungeons have definite requirements to finish them, namely finding certain keys/switches/items and boss/mini-boss encounters, but there are also optional elements, such as treasure chests and key items (compass/map) that are not required to finish the dungeon but add a level of payoff and/or ease. Additionally, there are simple but engaging puzzles that CAN CHANGE THE ENTIRE LAYOUT OF THE DUNGEON to access new areas and test your creative mind with verticality and alternative routes. And, of course, the creative shapes of the dungeons just look good on paper. BUT, since this is D&D and one should always expect players to be dumb as hell, some things can get toned down or simplified. You could provide a map or guide in the central room that gives clear direction, allowing players to skip entire areas or carefully plan their approach. The dungeon could even be cut down a little, reducing the overall number of rooms or general size to make exploration easier. Overall, though, using LoZ designs keep the dungeons fun and engaging if done right. There's a few videos dedicated to these designs on YT that I could link if these sound up your alley. And I'm sorry if linking different videos is betraying your trust, Luke :(

Most people skits gets old, but yours stay funny and entertaining. You're my favorite channel man thanks.

The skit was so meta I'm crying rn. Great video as always! Thanks for keeping the bloopers in the video, always a good time on the channel!

In my call of cthulhu lost temple of yig dungeon, I made the third section of the dungeon a set of mirrored halls. It doesn't matter which way you go, they lead to the same place, but it's really funny because anything you do in one affects the other.

The best barbecue I have ever had was from Angelo's in Fort Worth, Texas. People used to make special trips from overseas to get them. Soooo good.

I used to run a campaign in a labyrinth setting where from a large list and a little creativity here and there I'd roll to generate rooms as my players wandered around. It was pretty fun

Listening to this video, I feel validated as a dungeon master. The only dungeon map I ever designed had all of these points covered. I had secret paths, a variety of rooms, multiple entrances, etc. The cave system led into an underground temple and the main battle took place in the central ritual chamber. There were lots of side rooms and pathways the group could take to get around, but I made it harder to take some of the paths and more advantageous to go towards certain areas than others. I feel really good about my design philosophy now. (My players loved it too, so that was my initial validation, but it's nice to see that I did a lot of stuff recommended by a long-time DM too.)

Just in time as always

My players ask so many questions of empty rooms that I now have temp/humidity levels, building materials, percentage of mold in cracks between bricks, what the person who built it was drinking that day, if anyone's had sex in this room, ect... Ready for them

That was great summary. Love your videos and advices. I see big improvement in my DMing since I started watching your channel. Great job!

I just found this channel looking for inspiration for my video game dungeons. I feel like all these points are going to make my game that much better and less mindless.

The intro gave me such a nice inspiration. Thank you! Im gonna create a dungeon which is designed like "The Cube" in which every room is similar, and when you pick the wrong direction, you end up in the beginning room like in the one forest of Zelda. In paper mario 64 also was a forest with 4 ways in which one thing wasn't the same like before. So you could go further. You can also implement some traps or monsters in there for every new entered room. For the code to succeed to the last room, i would pick the konami code to go to the end. Or pick something else. But i love the idea. 💡😊

Great video as always Luke. Best way to start my day. Thanks for all the great help 💙

Tomb of Anihilation's actual Tomb is a really cool dungeon, and I think it gives of the tomb of horrors vibes without being so... 80's dnd.

Hmm. My starting adventure (Parish of Lost Souls) has a kobold warren with loops, ledges, barricades with archers, slopes, traps, pits, a garbage chute, secret doors, and has two separate ways to get to the end room (one the expected way, and the secret kobold way. The end boss is a kobold sorcerer guarded by two dragonshields... There were traps made by the kobold inventors, giant rat breeding pits, and shreikers bred specifically in intersections as a warning area. The final area was worked stone with a stone portal activated by blood sacrifice. I've run it twice with two groups and it's always been a blast. Note: the starting village for the players isn't human. It's a Halfling village. (Which gets attacked by the kobolds, who capture several villagers for their sacrifice)

This is probably my favorite skit so far

That dragon head is brilliant xD

I always look forward to the videos you release. This was was especially helpful, as even though I love dungeon design, I often get writer's block and don't know how to structure something. Do you think you could release a video on how to properly "theme" a dungeon?

One thing that has been really fun for my group is non-Euclidian spaces. They can be a bit difficult to run but throw off the player's natural assumptions about a space. If you've ever played Anitchamber or a similar game you may have some idea of how these can work. I've written it that a powerful wizard is experimenting with making these spaces for nefarious purposes, and if I'm running the dungeon on a grid I use special markers for non-Euclidian areas. Quantum spaces can also be interesting (i.e. objects/architecture can move or behave differently depending on observation).

Great tips! I’m thinking of designing some sort of Kobold warren situated near a city or town. I can definitely use these tips to add some spiciness to my dungeon

Great content. The one thing I would add is about caves / cave-like areas: Consider if the players are mapping and how experienced they are. The cave-like areas are great for variety and adding a sense that everything underground is not just carefully built angular tools. But, if they might be something to avoid at first if you have an inexperienced mapper, as they can be tricky to draw, or to describe in a mapper-friendly way. So use with caution unless the players are ready for it.

In a recent session my party found a dungeon i tried to make not too linear, giving different options and paths more or less dangerous... They went back in town to get a NPC knowing the fastest / most secure way. As smart as it is from their characters, first time i got a team basically asking me to railroad them. Definitely learned something there. Anyway amazing video as always, so many good tips ! (like...ten, ten many good tips.)

Awsome tips, thanks

Very good!! Thank you!!

There's this little $5 short dungeon run (Against the Barrow King, I think it's called) I've used at least 6 different times in different games, just by changing out who's in the place. Best $5 I ever spent

The advice is good and all but i think i come for the skits first now. Good timing on this for me though, building my first large dungeon for this weekend.

Thx you again for your videos sir. It's great to learn from you to be a better GM

This convinced me to sign up for descryb. I've seen it advertised in a few places recently

So helpful!!! Thank uou

Aw rats, I'm not much of a BBQ ribs guy... Does that mean I have to undo my like? Seriously though, great advice as always and thank you to all the folks behind the scenes (patrons, editors, etc.) that make these videos possible!

I just wanna point out that the Into the Fey maps are awesome. My players love to explore (and loot) everything, so they enjoy them a lot

This video showed up on my home page but not my sub feed unless I clicked your channel specifically.

Love the HeroQuest DM Shield!!

Where did you get that DM/GM screen? It looks so cool!!

I love the hero quest dm screen I have the same thing!

Oh yeah bbq ribs are so good! Lol. Very helpful list, thank you!

Flat land: I built modular cliffs for D&D Starter Set the Wave Echo Cave. Used 2" Styrofoam terrain for the the players. Some scenarios were just EASIER with physical maps done in 3D terrain and minis.

cool video! cool content! side note: i'd love the option of skipping to the section of the video that is most interesting to me, especially when it's got a numbered list of tips/ways/suggetions for doing something. could you maybe divide the video's timeline in chapters or something?

Thank you for the tips! I do nww doors...slammed shut.

Great video

I am a budding DM. For my first dungeon, I wanted to basically design it as a giant robot. I figured that, to make it easier to understand and draw, I would have Every Room Be a square. Now I'm not so sure of that idea, lmao

Part of the dungeon being submerged in water is always fun as a DM but terrifying as a player.

The first dungeon map I drawed back in 3e (before 3.5e) was exactly as you described: A winded cave labyrinth of secret passages, loops over several levels... only downside (but it was a huge downside): It had three different enemy types... Zombies, Grimlocks and a mind flayer psionic necromancer boss. It was boring as hell... and I had that one room that was considered as a trap with a huge pile of animated corpses (around 100 Zombies). I didn't consider that Zombies in 3e could take only one action (move OR attack) and that room was just 4 squares wide... so the party had to fight only 4 zombies simultaneously. They entered the room at level 1 and left it one hour later at level 5 XD. And every Grimlock dropped just two items: A stinky loincloth and a crude axe. It was almost a catch phrase: "You find a stinky loincloth and a crude axe!" It was my first DM attempt... and the "boss fight" was somewhat underclimactic because when they arrived the boss room they were way overleveled so they killed it within 3 rounds. But at least the map was awesome.

Great video Luke! I love dry rubbed ribs. Yum!!!

Excellent video; poignant examples, well explained without side tracks. The DMG largely omits this critical aspect of running thr game.

Off day? Lol. Thanks for your hard work!

Succulent. Also, I'm gonna click the link to show support. I've already signed up for them though

The random generation tables are...random. when you start out, they're fine. But they don't make much sense. Look towards floor plans for any sort of building, especially multilevel ones. String them together, add your features where they make sense.

Bonus tip, DMG Appendices A has some great tables you can roll on to create random dungeons or just give you ideas for sizing and spacing rooms stairs and doors.

Bbq ribs are indeed awesome. I smoke mine at 200 for eleven hours, wake up sauce em up then grill em at 300 for another hour. give em another coat of sauce then caramelize it in a broiler.

Good video topic, well done, love me some BBQ!

With the loop map part. Would it still work if instead of petty basic loops it was a trick of some sort that the party required to think outside of the box and find out how to get out of the loop?

Oh man, I feel like the rogue was talking strait to me. Lol

The wizard is my favorite character in your videos. Followed by the barbarian.

A test chamber dungeon of a mad mage... I did that once.... I loved it

Is something up with this video? It was uploaded over an hour ago but it never showed up in my subscription feed. I found this on the home page for some reason on mobile. I checked and I am still subscribed to this channel, so I'm not sure why it isn't showing up.

I have a bad habit of putting in more doors than necessary. Once I even put a door embedded in the granite wall, just the rock behind it, the iron studs on the door just nailing it to the rock behind. When the players couldn't easily open it they just put in more effort (and noise, attracting some unwanted attention).

Yeah...doors, and multiple entrances...great advice. Was in a high lvl game. DM didn't put any and one way in or out. Used Arcane Eye to scout out the area. Was a Warlock so could cast it at will via an invocation. Asked if we could take a short rest means we just scouted with the Arcane Eye and none of the cultists saw anything, DM said sure. During that time I changed my resistance to psychic damage with Fiendish Resilience. Dimension doored to the center of the map, used Maddening Darkness. 60ft radius sphere. It spreads around corners 8d8 psychic damage on failed, 1/2 on success per round. I was in range of it for one round. With the resistance I gave myself+War Caster I succeeded my check for concentration and then dimensioned door out of there. One of my party members sealed the only entrance to the cave with wall of force. 10 mins later, the cultists in the cave were dead. Think there were 20 of them.

I always had this concern about the functions of the rooms on a dungeon. That place Is or was something! The bad guys are activelly doing something before the group arrives.

form follows function. A dungeon full of empty rooms all of the same size, design and interconnected with the same type of doors will leave you lost after a few rooms. Regarding Arcane Eye: every dungeon needs to keep the group's ressources in mind. But not every dungeon should have doors. The purpose tells which interior makes sense.

I love ribs! And cooler maps :)

RU-vid didn't notify me of this video. What's better, barbecue ribs or barbecue baby back ribs?

I'm just going to suggest (quietly... ish) that I've long defaulted to a 2X2 foot square when using grid-paper... and a 1 meter/yard Hex, whenever using Hexes... Standing normally with my feet about shoulder-width apart, I take up VERY VERY close to a dead-on 2X1 foot space... making it just feasible for two (2) creatures/humanoids to exactly occupy a single grid-square at once... to scale... This helps when using "stick pins" to color-code PC and NPC/monster locations on a piece of grid-paper adhered to cardboard... So long as there's a world full of cardboard, I can align all the grid-paper I can STAND to cardboard with a little cheap adhesive (glue... whether goopy or sprayed) and make the map as blood HUGE as I need. It can become any shape I need, and even become modular or otherwise as I need/desire... AND with a little playful arguing, we can concede that shifting from one part of ONE square to any other part of THE SAME square does NOT exactly have to constitute "movement" or deduct from the "move" score/abilities... AND most of the time (even if they abuse it a little bit)

After making the map, how would you balance the traps and or mosnters you put into it?

Well done.

I love me some good ribs! I think I will cook some up this next weekend :)

I am in the process of designing a Winchester mansion inspired dungeon, so many room, some rooms inside other rooms, corridors leading nowhere, stairs leading to walls, false doors, room loops, magical and automatic traps. Due to it being based off the Winchester mansion there are possible shortcuts... it is large multi-layered mansion ,475ft by 500ft, at its largest dimension (it does change), and the target is to get into the heart of the mansion, the original manor house.... (not possible directly) but windows show it and the fact that there is a void in the heart of the mansion may well show where this is...... Have already created the lore for this. just need to build it. (Lore is a mix of the Winchester Mansion and also the story of the bloodstained labyrinth from the anime Ghost Hunt). The front part is looted fairly well, but later parts not as much.

In regards to arcane eye and doors, if the enemy knows that arcane eye is a spell, then the enemy would include doors in the dungeon. Using Arcane Eye may seem creative to the players, but using Arcane Eye in the context of the world has probably been done thousands of times.

I feel like he has been looking at Level 17 of Dungeon of the Mad Mage recently. I can quite pin down why I feel that way 🤔

It's easy to design super crazy interesting stuff. Much harder to run these things, especially on a small table xD

3:05 "That thing most GMs draw out on grid paper." Wow. Talk about being stuck in the olden days. ;)

Easiest way to make your dungeon feel like an actual place people live in. Put in a bathroom! Everyone poops.

Bbq ribs are indeed delicious ha and thanks for the vid!

Succulent ribs are the BOMB!!

Do you have any tools/websites for creating good virtual dungeon battle maps?

I never got notified for this. I think YT is messing with the subfeeds again

While I agree with your "door" point and your Arcane Eye explanation and that it takes away the fun of exploration, what the spell does in actuality is it completely removes the option of a natural cave from the game. I think the spell is overpowered.

Actual content starts at 5:05

7:30 while I agree that loops and whatnot makes things interesting... why would a monster concerned with the security of his lair build those? I can understand an "abandoned" structure be falling apart, opening new paths that shouldn1t exist, or some cowardly creatures like kobolds and goblins have their lair loop back to a high place in the first room such that they can escape if adventures breakthrough the otherwise linear path toward them, but, otherwise, why add lots of loops? when looking at classical and medieval fortresses, it seen like the to-go methodology was to force the enemy through a linear path, allowing the defenders to stack up as many defenses as they could along the one, two or half a dozen ways to reach the actual keep (depending on rather we are talking small castles or a fortified city with a castle inside it)

I had bbq ribs for dinner last night, and i approve of this video

I like the idea that secret places are easy to find but opening them is the problem. Make it a lever puzzle or something. Like a pressure plate that has to be at a certain weight, or a lever/chain in a different part of the map, or and missing piece of something that they need to find and bring back to the door like a statue missing its head or something.

The comercials reached the skit part...run¡ ruuuun¡

Elevation you say? Mayhaps Fat cat may need the high ground?

I do think that bbq ribs are gorgeous. So... thumbs up

And just as I was about to dislike this video as anathema to all I stood for, you just HAD to mention BBQ ribs!

DScryb has a addon module for Foundry 😜

My subscriptions tab still doesn't show this video. RU-vid, I didn't ask for that.