Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 19 - Homebrew 101 - The 5 Room Dungeon

Episode Date: May 3, 2020

"Hey, what's in that cave over there?"  An innocent question that can make a DM sweat.  You didn't prepare a cave dungeon.  Not to worry, my friend.  Thanks to John Fourr over at RolePlayingTips.com, you can whip up a 5 Room Dungeon on the fly that will make your players giggle with delight and they'll have no idea you were making it up as you go. Resources Johnn Four's Roleplaying Tips

This episode of the Taking20 Podcast is brought to you by Sharon's Milk Chocolate Caffeine Tarts. The only caffeinated snack that will keep you up worrying about how fat you're getting. Thank you so much for tuning in to episode 19 of the Taking20 Podcast. This week we're continuing our Homebrew 101 series, this time focusing on the five-room dungeon. I originally read of this concept courtesy of John Fore over at www.roleplayingtips.com. I reached out to him via email and he was very kind and allowed me to discuss this topic at length this episode. So John, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy the episode and the way I cover it.

I would encourage you to visit his site and subscribe to his newsletter. He has a number of great books and articles about good DMing. He's a fantastic resource and I encourage you to head to his site and read some of the great articles that he has there. So the five room dungeon. I originally read about this concept, it's got to be five years ago at least. I actually did some searching online about the topic and found some articles dating all the way back to 2007 written by John Fore. So this concept is not a new one, but it is a fantastic model that you can use to make good simple dungeons that can be finished in a single gaming session. His assertion was this, that a good dungeon can be made containing just five rooms or encounters. The first room is an entrance or guardian. The second room is a puzzle or role-playing challenge.

The third room is a red herring, trick, or setback. The fourth room is a climax, a big battle, or a conflict. And the fifth room is the reward, the revelation, or the plot twist. Dungeons don't have to be laid out this way, but the formula is so good and so flexible, it's almost a crime not to use it every now and then. I want to talk briefly about what he calls rooms. He makes it very clear in the books that he's released and the articles he's released on the topic that these don't have to be literal rooms. He makes it very clear in the books that he's released and the articles he's released on the topic that these don't have to be literal rooms. I always think of them as encounters or

obstacles or areas or events. So it doesn't have to be a room in a dungeon. It could be a closet or a swamp or an entire floor of a building. It could be a firewall in cyberspace or maybe even an entire town. But let's break these rooms down one by one. The first room is the entrance or guardian. As you're designing your dungeon and thinking about the first room, one of the questions you have to ask yourself is why hasn't anyone been to this dungeon before? I mean, if it were wide open and anyone could just traipse right on in, it would have been looted long before now. So the entrance or guardian is the reason why there's still stuff in here for the PCs to find.

One of the ways you can do that is by having a hidden entrance. It's behind an illusion. It's beneath a waterfall. The entrance is in an unexplored wasteland buried by rubble, or the obvious entrance is a false one and the real entrance is cleverly hidden nearby. Maybe the entrance is trapped or requires a puzzle to open. There may be multiple entrances, but only one of them is actually correct, like in the module Tomb of Horrors. The entrance requires a special key or action to be performed. Think some of the Indiana Jones movies, or the Hobbit entrance to the Lon. Think some of the Indiana Jones movies or The Hobbit entrance to the Lonely Mountain. Remember the riddle about the last light of Durin's day they had to answer. Think Lord of the Rings where they had to speak friend and enter. Maybe a decker

has to hack the entrance. There's a portcullis that the ethereal guards can pass through easily but heroes must lift to bypass. There are floating asteroids that you have to jump across to get to it. So maybe there's a puzzle that they have to solve, or the entrance is trapped to prevent intruders. Perhaps the entrance has a monster that lives there, or defenses that are still active. The crashed spaceship has an automated turret defenses that targets anyone walking within 50 feet. Some creature has made the entrance its lair. There's a guardian deliberately placed at the entrance, like a golem or a guard dog or the nightclub bouncer. Maybe the defenses or monster is something that's natural,

like you have to pass through six miles of irradiated wasteland to get to the vault. But there has to be some reason why it is difficult to get in, and this first room is the reason why. The second room is a puzzle or role-playing challenge. If your first room was combat-based, then your second room shouldn't be. You should use this room for puzzles, skills, role-playing challenges, making the party come up with a different solution besides I hit it with my sword. Perhaps they have to navigate a bombed-out HQ and make skill checks to navigate the dangerous terrain.

There's a gatekeeper that requires you to answer a riddle. Ask me the questions, bridgekeeper. I am not afraid. What is your name? My name is Sir Lancelot of am not afraid. What is your name? My name is Sir Lancelot of Camelot. What is your quest? To seek the Holy Grail. What is your favorite color?

Blue. Right, off you go. Maybe there's a multi-tiered bridge that's partially blocked by abandoned cars, and the party has to weave its way through there. This second room could require negotiation. You can enter, but you must leave one of your group behind as ransom to make sure you don't profane our temple. Perhaps it's diplomacy. You have to convince the kobold tribe living in the cave mouth that you mean no harm. Maybe you have to sweet talk the guard into

buzzing you in through the security door. Or it could be simple bribery. Yeah, I know you have to sweet-talk the guard into buzzing you in through the security door. Or it could be simple bribery. Yeah, I know you want to get into the nightclub, but it'll cost you 150 credits for me to look the other way. Or, that spear there is mighty nice. If I were focused on that spear, I might just forget to lock the gate tonight. So if room one is combat or hidden, room two can easily be a puzzle or role-playing challenge. As an aside, by the way, it's really easy to flip these two rooms because maybe the entrance has a guardian that you have to bribe or negotiate or diplomatize your way through.

Then the second room could be combat based. So it's easy to flip those two rooms and still get the same effect. The third room is a red herring trick or setback. Something's gone wrong, or something is the opposite of what the characters expected. For plot purposes, you can use this to raise the stakes. Think about the way some of the pyramids and burial sites were designed in ancient Egypt. about the way some of the pyramids and burial sites were designed in ancient Egypt. Many times there was a false tomb that looked like a pharaoh was buried there, but there weren't actually real treasures. It just looked like the real thing. Maybe the players get to the third room and it contains a vault, and when they open it, it's not treasure that they find, but zombies that come

pouring out and attack them. They get to the third room, find the elves that were kidnapped, but one of them has a bomb attached to him that will go off if he leaves the area. Maybe the third room has a large trap or an alarm. They find a note on the refrigerator that says, hey, meet at Billy's house with Billy's address. There could be one-way doors in the third room. Alternately, you give them more puzzles, role-play opportunities, skill challenges, or combat if your party loves those. But that third room should be kind of an oh-crap moment, where the party isn't sure whether they're going the right way.

Maybe this is an empty tomb. Maybe it's already been looted. But that third room is the one that gives them pause and makes them think. The fourth room in the five-room dungeon is the climax, the big battle or conflict. John Ford calls this room the big show, and I love that phrasing. Here's where your big monster or your big bad evil guy is. It's the lizard man chieftain and his personal guard. It's the hive queen chieftain and his personal guard. It's the hive queen guarding the royal jelly. It's the master wizard who wants to burn down the town.

It's the giant squid who's guarding the underwater treasure. Have your big fight here and follow the usual rules for a boss fight. Give that boss powers and abilities that maybe the party doesn't see on an everyday basis. Make that big bad evil guy or big bad evil monster prepared and waiting for the PCs. If it has any intelligence and set up an alarm in room three, it's going to be prepared for the PCs to enter soon afterwards. Give the boss some minions in support of the big bad evil guy Make the party expend resources fighting off these low level minions While the big bad evil guy buffs, prepares himself And maybe targets the party with magical effects For bonus points, make the environment part of the fight

Make it changing or dangerous Place illusionary pits on the floor Where the big bad evil guy knows where they are But the characters don't guy knows where they are, but the characters don't. But in this fourth room, if the party is chasing a MacGuffin, some reason to be in this place, there's two ways you can handle that situation that I like. One of them is where the MacGuffin is within both your and the big bad evil guy's grasp, and it's a race to see who gets it first. Or maybe the big bad evil guy has the MacGuffin and is taunting the characters with it. Oh, you were looking for this? As he brandishes the scepter that you've

been trying to get for four sessions. Have a big fight and hopefully the big bad evil guy dies, gets his just desserts, and is sent into oblivion wondering what he did wrong. and is sent into oblivion, wondering what he did wrong. The fifth room is the reward, the revelation, or plot twist. The party's slain the big bad evil guy. This room could be an ending victory. You find the safe room. You collect the treasure. You find the MacGuffin.

But then again, it could be a trick. It's a trick. Get an axe. Players open the vault to find the treasure is the guardian. The treasure room contains only knockoffs, not the real staff of power. It could be a springboard to the next adventure. So the fifth room could contain plot hooks or clues about a big story arc. Or even clues to a character's backstory. So let's do a traditional five-room dungeon for low-level characters in a fantasy setting.

Room 1, the entrance. Small spiders have spun webs near the entrance to a newly discovered cave. You have to fight the spiders and or burn the webs to get through. Room 2 is a puzzle. It's one door and an iron gate. The gate is impossibly heavy and can't be moved. The door is wooden and has a small empty window. Through the window, you see a rust monster on the other side.

If the party prepares by hiding their metal, the monster will eat the gate and allow the players through. Room 3, the setback. The rust monster reaches the next room and sets off a trap. It survives and goes into a rage, attacking the PCs. Other traps remain in the room that the PCs have to deal with. Room four, the boss fight. They enter a very dry room that does 1d3 non-lethal damage every other round. There are wooden statues all throughout the room in various poses, but one is a wood golem, not a wood statue. Room five, the reward. They kill the wood golem and get the sword of smashy smashy kill things, plus one. Interestingly, you can actually create a five-room dungeon with multiple paths through it,

and I've made one as an example. Let's say the party has been tasked with infiltrating the top floor of corporate headquarters to steal evidence of connections to organized crime. The party does the analysis, and you as the DM give them two paths. The roof, that has locked doors and cameras and the like, or the front door with gates, guards, and guns. Let's say the party chooses the roof and our five-room dungeon could look something like this. One, the entrance or guardian. How do you get into the building when there are guard patrols on the roof every 10 minutes? Room two, the puzzle or role play challenge.

The party has to disable the cameras, pick the lock, and then disable the alarm on the door to get in. Room three, the red herring trick or setback. The only stairs down from the roof contain a man trap that requires you to be buzzed in by an armed guard. So maybe the party has to bluff their way through, bribe their way through, or fight their way through. Room 4, the climax, the big battle, the conflict.

Security responds to the alarm on the top floor that the party inadvertently sets off. There's a big fight with armed response, and it is touch and go for a little while as bullets fly around the room. But the party wins. Room 5, the reward revelation or plot twist. They open the safe and the evidence isn't there. A member of corporate leadership may have ties to a PC backstory and that's what they discover there in the safe. Or the characters faces in firefight video is displayed on a monitor with a scrolling bar underneath that says uploading to national news network. Now the characters are wanted fugitives,

even if they collect what's in the safe. But let's rewind. Who wants to do a roof? Let's go to the front door. So one, entrance or guardian. How do you get into the building? You have guards with guns, metal detectors, and electronic locks. So the PCs will have to bluff their way in,

fight their way in, diplom to bluff their way in, fight their way in, diplomatize their way in, figure out some way past those mean guards with guns. Step two, the puzzle or role-playing challenge. Maybe the building isn't laid out the way the map says it should be on the ground floor. So the party has to use intelligence to figure out where everything is, improvising their way through the first floor because the map that they were depending on is incorrect. For the third room, the red herring trick or setback. Getting to the floor with the evidence requires biometric authentication on the elevator, which they don't have. So either they'll need to go collect it somehow, or they'll have to hotwire it or jury rig it. Room four, you've got the climax or big battle or conflict. It's probably

the same as the one coming in from the roof. There's a big firefight with corporate armed response. And then the fifth room, the reward revelation and plot twist, same as previous. Maybe the evidence isn't unsafe or the evidence isn't what they expected. But this design is very flexible, so let's do something weird. Let's say the party's in an abandoned spaceship and has set off a trap that transports them through time. The trap was set off by touching a glowing white gem. After setting off the trap, there are four rings in the party member hands with a gem inset but no gem present. One, the entrance. The party's transported to the same room 400 years ago when the spaceship was being built. Workers stare at the party confused and try to speak to them in a language they don't understand. Their security arrives

firing ancient weapons. The party has to take the tip of one of the welders which has a similar gem to the one that they just touched. Room two, the puzzle. The party is transported to the same room 300 years ago when it was sealed off. The room is pitch black and difficult to navigate. They have to find the lost gem that's sealed in one of the containers. Room three, the trick or setback. They're transported to the same room 200 years ago when it was part of the medical bay. The gem is powering a machine that's keeping one of the aliens alive. They can pull the gym immediately, but it will kill the creature. Or they can cure the creature's disease and then take the gym. Room four, the boss fight. They're transported to the same room 100 years ago when it was part of the bridge. The party warps into a

ship bridge fully staffed by aliens. The captain is wearing the gem around his neck. Firefight ensues, and the ship begins to lurch and crash into the planet below, right where the players found it. The party wins and collects the gem. Then room five, the reward. They return to the original room, and one of the party members is holding the glowing gem. So whether you're talking about multiple paths invading a corporate headquarters, a traditional cave dungeon, or a time jumping adventure, all of them can be made using the

five-room dungeon technique. So having five-room dungeons, these are things that can be run in a single night or a single gaming session. Using these as the basis for adventures, side quests, etc. keeps your dungeons and adventures short, gives you a variety of encounter types that you can run, which allows different members of your party to grab the spotlight and be the hero for the moment. Thank you again to John 4 for letting me cover this topic. Hopefully I covered it in a way that he feels like it was actually worth something.

Head over to his website, www.roleplayingtips.com, sign up to his newsletter, and get the ultimate guide to five-room dungeons. He goes over how to build them and provides numerous examples of five-room dungeons that you could drop into your adventures regardless of the game system that you use. If you have a little bit more time,

please head over to www.taking20podcast.com, provide us some feedback, listen to old episodes. I'd love to hear from you there. Once again, thank you so much to our sponsor, Sharon's Milk Chocolate Caffeine Tarts. Have them for breakfast. Give that extra strong kickstart to your colon. My name is Jeremy Shelley.

This has been Taking 20 Podcast Episode 19, The 5-Room Dungeon. And I hope that your next game is your best game