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There’s something classic about encountering a proper dungeon inDungeons & Dragons.
It’s right in the name, after all.
Grey stone corridors, skeletal monsters, and swinging axe traps are all part of the original experience.
Sure, a dilapidated dungeon is a great adventuring setting.
But they don’t always make sense.
Hidden gems in history
Why would a crypt have deadly traps in each doorway.
Why does a forgotten stronghold have a spike trap in the middle of the bedroom?
Why was some powerful magic item left alone?
We have some interesting and reasonable excuses for why there’s a random dungeon scattered throughout your adventuring landscape.
He would go as far to falsify how old they seem to make them more dramatic.
This was because Mystra wanted to encourage more people to become interested in magic without being directly involved.
That kind of power requires a LOT of souls.
Dungeon Descent by Kasia ‘Kafis’ Zielinska
But this big baddie didn’t go and harvest such things one by one.
Instead, he made traps for overly ambitious adventurers: Dungeons.
Make a dungeon, fill it with tempting loot, then with deadly traps.
Elminster by Tyler Jacobson
Anyone who dies in the dungeon has their soul claimed by the Lich.
But what if that wasn’t the case?
Maybe at the heart of the dungeon is… well… a dungeon!
Elminster by Tyler Jacobson
This could lead to an interesting inversion of the dungeon crawling idea.
Instead, they are powerful illusions created by a hag to keep nosy folks out.
Maybe each trap deals psychic damage instead of physical, to allude to this illusion.
Acererak by Tyler Jacobson
A wise observer might be able to see past the illusion, making them immune to such traps.
The hag at the end can be justification for interesting loot, too.
5Clever Kobold/Goblins Took Over
Classic
Why mess with what works?
Poison Trap by Linda Lithen
Bandits, hiding out from the law, might have made some ruins their new base of operations.
They’re smart enough to have more clever of traps, and to not accidentally trigger them themselves.
And the loot found can be from their raids.
Hag by Linda Lithen
Get paid in more than electrum.
A warm hearth doesn’t feel like a dungeon.
At the end is a prize for any brave contestant willing to try.
Art by Brian Valeza
Want to keep things looking forgotten and decrepit?
Now that dreadful landmark stands as a dark and dangerous contrast to the real world.
Maybe in the Nine Hells, it was a fancy castle.
Bandits by Katerina Ladon
Something like a portal to another plane.
But maybe one day, those guarding this stronghold were gone.
Now it’s been left to ruins, but the portal, and all the traps, remain.
Zombies by Andrey Kuzinskiy
How can one man be so unlucky?
Gnome Alchemist by Egil Thompson
Shadowfell by Julian Kok
The Wild Beyond The Witchlight Book Art Via Wizards Of The Coast
