How to Make a D&D Dungeon From Scratch (OSR, Dungeons & Dragons)

ko-fi.com/gfcdnd give me some GP for XP, I got lost in the dungeon without a light source and perished
With nothing more than a pencil, graph paper, dice, and an indomitable will, you too can make a dungeon in about an hour. Here's how!
Delta's blog referenced in the video:
deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2010/0...

[@kaitengiri]

For writing out room details, I have to say that the pre-gen dungeons from OSE have completely blown me away in terms of ideas. They basically keyword out descriptions, and then only describe unusual features. Additionally, they keyword in investigations in the room. So for example, it might just say "North: Faint wind. East: Smell of mold, Light off in the distance." And that's all it will say. The "Hole in the Oak" adventure has like 72 rooms, and they fit tons of details about them in an incredibly small space with pictures and wide margins. It's lifechanging in my opinion.

[@gfcsdnd205]

Sounds useful!

[@blither_8420]

I was literally thinking, I hope he does a video on dungeon design, and here it is! Thank you and keep up the good work, you should scan your work and add it to a patreon or a link on your blog. Id happily pay a dollar or something to get a copy of your notes as and when. Really enjoy your no BS style and super appreciate your help through these tutorials.

[@gfcsdnd205]

reading your mind using haarp frequencies obv

[@Motavian]

Dude I made a frozen sunken palace with an ice warrior man wielding a sword of entropy. LOOOOL. I love it when the burnt out grogs I play with go wide-eyed and have a freak out over the dumb weird shit I throw attem.

[@gfcsdnd205]

Sounds dope as hell man! I bet it will be a blast to run/play!

[@Motavian]

@@gfcsdnd205 Have you read the blog entry 'On Set Design' from Hack n Slash? If not it's a really good way to shorthand format a room key in a way that doesn't diminish coherency.

[@gfcsdnd205]

@@Motavian I'll have to check it out!

[@VicSicily]

If only more content creators were like you. This is so much gold I feel like I've leveled up my game so much already just watching what you've out out. My players are in for a surprise on the next session.

[@gabriellabelle3915]

Was just thinking/hoping you'd have another video soon

[@gfcsdnd205]

Me, too!

[@namelessjedi2242]

This is excellent. Sensible, compact and thorough!

[@gfcsdnd205]

Glad it could be of use!

[@jebibones4282]

Nice, you really make OSR stuff look really easy and fun. I’ll try the dungeon generation as I mostly find difficult to make dungeon layouts from scratch and Online generators like DonJon don’t feel right, they are a bit too “fake” for my taste.

[@gfcsdnd205]

Before I started using appendix A actually mapping the dungeons was my most dreaded part because I was never happy with how they turned out. Appendix A completely fixed that for me. Glad to hear it's looking fun! Thank you!

[@jebibones4282]

@@gfcsdnd205 yo, I tried generating a Dungeon with the AD&D DMG Appendix A, but I got a few question. 1. When generating the exits of a Chamber/Room, what do the area side of the table mean? there is already a standalone table for sizes. 2. When generating doors, what does it mean to roll again on table I? Should I check for the side of the door and unless it’s “ahead” I just continue with table I? 3. Im getting lots of Angled passages, what is a good ratio to ignore them like it’s suggested in Delta’s blog?

[@gfcsdnd205]

@@jebibones4282 1. There's one entry for if your room/chamber is up to a certain size, and one if it's over. For example, if you roll a 4 and your room is 500sq ft, you'd have 2 exits, whereas if it was 700sq ft, you'd have 3 exits. 2. Roll again on Table I IF your door is NOT straight ahead (if it is, just roll on table II as normal). If your result from table I is anything OTHER than "door," then ignore it, add 30' of hallway past the door, and then roll on table I again, continuing as normal. If your result is "door," then consult table II to see what the space beyond that door is. (this seems super complicated and honestly can be ignored entirely, subbed for something that gives you results that you like) 3. I personally try to reset to cardinal directions whenever I can, only having an angled passage continue past 30' if I roll angled passage twice in a row.

[@jebibones4282]

@@gfcsdnd205 ah I see, thanks for clarifying, there is literally no video or blog explaining the process for using Appendix A on the internet. Just discussions that assume you already know how to use it. Btw, is there a good way to “cut down” the length of the corridors? In my experience having a lot of long corridors makes the dungeon crawl a bit slow to traverse and can make the players get sandwiched very easily by monsters. (Although you could argue that’s the whole point of OSR dungeon crawling). I’m trying to implement a Zelda-like dungeon style, and those dungeons have much shorter corridors connecting stuff.

[@gfcsdnd205]

@@jebibones4282 Yeah, Appendix A can be a bit confusing. My suggestion would be to place a room to break up very long corridors

[@ChipAltmanxD]

Oh man, you cross your sevens and zeros. AND, your content is helpful. I think I'm gonna like your channel a lot 😊

[@gfcsdnd205]

Thank you!

[@THEFabianValenzuela]

Hey, I just wanted to tell you that this video helped me a lot, in fact all of your videos inspired me when I was starting to dm, but I found your channel through this method. I hope you don't stop making videos, and have a good one.

[@b.w.6919]

This is quite excellent! Thank you for sharing this. I've had the DMG for a few months now and never realized that it had tables for dungeon generation! When I get to it, I'd love to share what I came up with! Take care!

[@gfcsdnd205]

Looking forward to it! Thank you!

[@comeon1464]

i'm not commenting often, but man! Your content is so awesome! Pleeease keep doing what you do°!

[@gfcsdnd205]

Thank you, will do!

[@doofmoney3954]

What's cookin' good lookin'. Anyways you make some of the most informative OSR videos out there, always a joy to see a video of yours pop up in my feed

[@gfcsdnd205]

Thank you! Glad you're enjoying them

[@megamonstercookies]

Very helpful indeed. Thanks for making this. I’ve never used the DMG appendix dungeon generation before. I will be studying up on that.

[@gfcsdnd205]

No problem!

[@someguy403]

Players: May I have something to eat? Magic Conch Shell: Maybe someday.

[@gfcsdnd205]

🐙REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[@someguy403]

@@gfcsdnd205 lolol

[@nigelparkinson781]

Awesome work, this is so interesting seeing your method!

[@slushbubs]

All hail the magic conch!

[@LordOfMetal666]

I love your videos, you're an absolute MADMAN!

[@gfcsdnd205]

LOCK ME UP (thank you bud :DD)

[@TheReedZissou]

your videos and blog are great resources, please keep it up!

[@gfcsdnd205]

Thank you, will do!

[@tatuira93]

Mirin' dice, those look slick.

[@gfcsdnd205]

average chessex fan vs. average GameScience enjoyer

[@slushbubs]

A man of culture as well

[@stuukwerk]

You are one of my favourite people, your videos are the best :)

[@gfcsdnd205]

Thank you, I really appreciate it!

[@vinimagus]

One more excellent video you present us! Thank you!

[@gfcsdnd205]

I'm glad you liked it!

[@andrewhaldenby4949]

So helpful! Ty , your videos are excellent and inspiring

[@gfcsdnd205]

I'm happy to hear it!

[@Aaron-mj9ie]

This is very similar to how I do it, but it's incredibly useful to see the whole process drawn out in front of you. I may have to try out that brainstorming method, though!

[@gfcsdnd205]

Thank you! I hope it's useful for you.

[@rdmths]

Your videos are some of the most helpful for dms. Can I request a video detailing your town generation process? I know you have it in your blog but a video would be very useful.

[@gfcsdnd205]

Absolutely! That one's coming down the pipe :)

[@paavohirn3728]

Wow! That's really helpful. Will keep it in mind.

[@gfcsdnd205]

Thanks, glad you liked it!

[@RegularBeico]

Great stuff, appreciate your content!

[@gfcsdnd205]

Thank you, I appreciate you appreciating it!

[@leviritter6279]

This is the content I crave

[@gfcsdnd205]

mmmmm, content

[@MrArchonAlarion]

Great stuff. Thumbnails are good too, ignore the /OSR/ general.

[@gfcsdnd205]

("always do the opposite of what /osrg/ says" scribbled on palm)

[@laugechristophersen9913]

This has been so helpful I subbed

[@gfcsdnd205]

much appreciated!

[@everthingtotal8798]

Brilliant! Do you plan to do another video like this? If you were to, it could include a town or even city design? Excellent videos!

[@gfcsdnd205]

Town design is something I've been thinking a lot about! I have an old blog post you might be interested in: guccifuligincloak.blogspot.com/2020/07/generating-village-step-one-generic.html

[@everthingtotal8798]

@@gfcsdnd205 Thank you; I'll take a look.

[@stevemanart]

Beyond still trying to get better at the brainstorming step (I tend not to have nearly as many options on my lists) this isn't that different from my own method. Excellent video fren.

[@gfcsdnd205]

Just takes practice! Thank you!

[@joshuawilliams8230]

This is great. Could you do a video explaining Appendix A in the 1e DMG? I just tried it for the first time tonight and the process seems really unfriendly.

[@alguienvivo5438]

cool

[@gfcsdnd205]

😎

[@Leekster75]

Do you know of any other books are tables of rooms with the exact specifications? That looks really useful.

[@gfcsdnd205]

I use ole' reliable - the AD&D DMG!

[@janmartense]

how do you decide how much gold to put into a floor? I know you said 5k because the floor is small, and that you'd double/triple for the second/third floor, but I imagine you factor in things like: - how much XP to level up - the smaller percentage of available gold they'll actually recover - the amount of danger/likelihood of deaths - equipment and hireling cost - living costs while outside - other factors (not necessarily present in this floor of the dungeon) like undead that do level damage, etc. How does all that work together in deciding to put a certain gold value? I realize this is maybe a bit much to answer in a yt comment but if you could give me some direction where I can get more info that would be really appreciated. For me I think if my players recover 5000 gold they'll all level up that session. Is that normal? Or would they probably not actually manage to clear the floor in one session?

[@gfcsdnd205]

So, stocking according to RAW would result in an average of about 255 gp per room on floor 1, but that's "randomly placed" treasure, and RAW also mentions for DMs to "individually place" treasure. Delta (of Delta's DnD") has written extensively on the topic; keep in mind that players won't find ALL the treasure on a given floor and that xp will be "lost" through attrition i.e. character death. Keep in mind that if a party of 4 players recovers 2,000 gold per session, that's 500 xp each (without henchmen), so it would take 4 sessions to reach level 2 assuming no character death - that's a month of gameplay assuming you meet once a week!

[@nephilimrephaim3949]

Incredible vid, also based and wolfepilled

[@gfcsdnd205]

thank you sieur

[@ScribbleKith]

Do you know approximately how long it usually takes you to make a dungeon like this? Just curious.

[@gfcsdnd205]

Probably 1-2hrs for 3 floors, depending on how thorough you want to be. But as you're getting used to it, maybe expect an hr per floor.

[@megamonstercookies]

YES!!!

[@gfcsdnd205]

:D

[@Hepabytes]

How’d you figure ~5000 gold? Is there a table or just instinct?

[@gfcsdnd205]

You get a feel for stocking after a while. Random stocking using B/X procedures generally results in a mean of 255gp per room on the first floor (not counting magic items). As a general rule of thumb, I like to have enough treasure on the first floor to level up a party, so my individually-placed treasure is usually [2000(party size) - 255(number of rooms)]

[@someguy403]

Do you typically use procedural generation tables for making your dungeons or do you also build them without rolling and do you think one is generally better than the other? Also how many rooms would you consider to be an average amount for a dungeon or is it something that varies wildly from dungeon to dungeon?

[@gfcsdnd205]

I like the results I get from randomly rolling and making a few edits here and there. As for generally better, I certainly prefer random generation but I'm pretty bad at designing dungeon layouts on my own so I guess it depends on how comfortable you are making your own. It varies from dungeon to dungeon and group to group, but since I like to keep my map and key on a two-page spread, I usually go for 15-20 keyed rooms per floor.

[@someguy403]

@@gfcsdnd205 That's interesting, I like the random generation too but I think I prefer just doing it on my own after planning out what sort of rooms the dungeon will have in a general sense, unless I am playing solo. As for the amount of rooms I read that you put on average 255 gp worth of treasure per room, but that seems like more gold than deserved unless you are putting quite a few monsters since the Basic rules state that 1/4th of xp should come from monsters. Honestly though, I could just be misunderstanding something since I'm pretty inexperienced with B/X and dungeon mastering in general.

[@gfcsdnd205]

@@someguy403 So, I actually arrived at the 255gp number by running a script to randomly generate rooms and treasure according to B/X stocking procedures. In fact, to have 10,000gp on the first floor of a dungeon (about enough to level up a party of 4-5 level 1 fighters) you'd need about a 40-room floor. When you take into account extra treasure for referee-placed monster lairs and XP from defeating monsters, you are left with roughly anywhere from 25-35 rooms per floor, depending on how dense[ly populated] you wish your dungeon to be. Keep in mind that there will be a rate of "attrition" as PCs die in the dungeons, or as players rotate from session to session if you do open-table style games, as well as player-hired henchmen getting their split of XP and treasure.

[@someguy403]

@@gfcsdnd205 Ah, that makes a lot of sense! I guess I will need to add more treasure but that won't be too difficult as my party only got through a few rooms in their first dungeon.

[@gfcsdnd205]

@@someguy403 I like to be open-handed with my treasure, making my dungeons high-risk high-reward

[@DueyLewisandtheJews]

Is this dungeon uploaded anywhere?

[@gfcsdnd205]

No, it's just an example more or less off the top of my head. If there's interest I could conceivably make a writeup.

[@jakob8412]

this is so coned 👍

[@gfcsdnd205]

your home for schway dnd content on YT

[@krinkrin5982]

Which edition and level is that? 250gp per room feels like a lot.

[@gfcsdnd205]

B/X D&D, for level 1. Keep in mind that it's an average of 250 per room, and for a party of 8-10 this will still take a few sessions to level up.

[@krinkrin5982]

@@gfcsdnd205 For a party of that size it is quite nice. I think I was running my calculations with a party of 4, as was standard in later editions. It's still hilarious to imagine finding more money than a peasant would make in a decade in one room that isn't even a treasury.

[@gfcsdnd205]

@@krinkrin5982 D&D economics get weird!

[@davehart4476]

3000 Electrum Pieces? Really?

[@gfcsdnd205]

it happens!