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Highlighting endurance and making heavy use of survival skills, the archetypical dungeon crawl has made dungeons some of the most iconic settings in a traditional game ofDungeons & Dragons, hence the name. Dungeon Masters make use of dungeon crawls as a means to drive the story forward. However, your typical dungeon will function as a way to obtain a magical item, defeat a powerful enemy, or test the survival skills and builds of the players by lobbing monster after monster at them.
Despite being one of the most iconic aspects of D&D, creating a dungeon crawl is a skill many DMs struggle with, whether they’re new to the game or seasoned veterans. After all, there are a lot of moving parts in a dungeon. Here’s how to make it a bit easier for you.
Create Your Environment
The first thing you should do when creating a dungeon crawl isdecide the location of the dungeon.A couple of places may come to mind right away, namely the wilderness or an ancient temple.
But dungeons aren’t necessarily limited to subterranean areas or fallen castles. In its most minimal form,all a dungeon crawl truly needs is to have relatively connected traversal areas and at least a single hazard between the players and their goal.
A great example of a dungeon crawl in canon material is theTomb of Annihilation module.
Naturally, you’ll want to go a bit more in-depth than that, but the fact that a dungeon can be defined so simply makes it easier to let the pressure slip off while deciding on a location or environment.
Obstacles
Your environment will determine the hazards your players will encounter while dungeon crawling.If you want to set your crawl in a cave, you may want running water or stalagmites to feature on your battlefield, as well as narrow passages to heighten difficulty while traveling the area.
Conversely, if you want to set your crawl in a vampire’s lair, you’ll have a lot of vampires and blood slicking the floors. Maybe a thrall or two. Get it?
Equipment
One of the best ways to help in the initial stages of building a dungeon crawl is toexamine the equipment your player characters may receive.Check the Dungeoneer’s Pack, the Scholar’s Pack, and the Explorer’s Pack to help your creative process along and inform yourself as to what is feasible within the rules.
It also makes some of the smaller or odder items potentially useful, giving your players some reason to use, say, the little candles that come with their starting equipment.
Create A Story
Once you’ve decided on your environment, you’ll want to start looking at the overarching plot of the dungeon crawl.A story will help inspire interest in your players to complete the dungeon rather than feel as if they’re beingrailroadedinto a dirty slog because their DM wants to kill them.
Part of what makes a dungeon crawl a “crawl” and not a “sprint” is tomake sure you’re draining your player’s resources.If you don’t already, consider employing requirements for long rests, such as enough rations and water to get back one’s full HP, or employ encumbrance rules.
Instead of dropping them in an ancient, fallen kingdom,think about how your chosen environment affects the story.You don’t have to rely on NPCs or prior knowledge of the area to tell this story, either (though both of those things never hurt).
Why is it there? Who occupies it now? What hints can you drop using a well-placed skeleton?
One of the most skin-crawling dungeons in Skyrim detailed women mysteriously disappearing from one of the towns, only for the spirits of these women to manifest in a necromancer’s lair, leaving the player to determine through journals and environmental context what happened.This mode of storytelling works very well for the stories within dungeon crawls.
Don’t tie yourself to one idea.Let what you want to do in the crawl guide how you craft the story.
Theming The Dungeon Crawl
You may find it easier to decide on a fairly cohesive spread of monsters. So, a remorhaz may work in an Arctic dungeon, but your players might be thrown off if you have a troupe of evil clowns in the next room. The theme will help maintain consistency. This also makes it easier for you, the DM,to use the creature-type resources within D&DBeyond or the published sourcebooks.
Alternate Encounters
One mistake DMs make when creating crawls is thatthey make combat the sole aspect of the dungeon crawl.For some tables, this works well, especially if the Dungeon Master has communicated that it will be a mostly combative campaign. For other tables, though, the thought of continuing a dungeon crawl without any levity, roleplay, or breaksmight wear on certain players.
So, don’t gate everything behind a successful combat encounter.Instead, allow your players to find alternate solutions through certain rooms in the dungeon.Gear some of the dungeon toward your player’s specific skills.
Let the warlock talk their way out of a situation or utilize a fighter’s intimidation skill to get a newbie guard away from a door. Let the barbarian hold a closing gate up, and please, please, please let the monk scale a wall with the pitons they’ve been foaming at the mouth to use.
This works the other way, too.Cater to your player’s weaknesses as heavily as you would their strengths.Make them wish they hadn’t bullied the wizard back to Waterdeep, ormake your low-strength party consider new avenuesto get across gaping chasms to avoid using their pathetic little jumping distances.
Do not, however, seal progress behind skill checks.Always provide an alternative way to get through a room, even if it isn’t obvious at first. This will keep everything running smoothly.
Vary Your Treasure
Rather than giving your players the standard gold for completing areas or breaking into treasure rooms, make heavy use of magic items. Cloaks, boots, armor, and sentient swords are going to be much more useful than simply calling it a day with a handful of coppers.
A Bag of Holding is a great treasure to receive for a semi-difficult encounter, especially if you’re operating under encumbrance rules.
Not every bit of treasure has to be positive, too. By varying your treasure, you can finally curse your players for fun with too-good-to-be-true magic items!
Final Boss
Most dungeon crawls will benefit from a final boss near the end,especially as resources start to exhaust and spell slots start to slowly dwindle.This is when a final boss is absolutely critical to a difficult crawl, creating a strain on the players and potentially leading to more creative solutions to take them on.
This is also when environmental hazards and help can come in handy, creating a memorable encounter.
Encounters are still very relevant in dungeon crawls! Consider making a table the same way you might for a regular game.
A final boss isn’talwaysnecessary, though.You may also want to consider letting your story make clear that there’s a final boss in the first place to allow your players to selectively conserve their resources.
