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Here's the thing. I very, very rarely do straight up dungeon-crawl types of games, even when I run D&D. A large part of this is that it's always been hard for me to /get/ the standard RPG dungeon. It's just not all that intuitive. But since some of my mind is sliding back towards classic fantasy gaming, I've been thinking about dungeon design. I think, as I create a dungeon, I need to work to establish a few things:
1. Original Purpose. Dungeons are rarely just...dungeons. People just do not dig a series of underground passages and fill it randomly with traps and monsters. So, what was it? A dungeon doesn't necessarily have to be underground...it could be a city, where some buildings have collapsed and only their undercellars are still standing, whereas some towers still rise a good thirty feet in the air.
2. Ecology. If there are monsters, are they living? If they're living, what do they /eat/? 'Adventurers', while a fun answer, is probably not sufficient, unless there's a godawful stream of adventuring fellows wandering in. I like the idea of mapping out areas where food is grown, or massive grubs are farmed. Also, midden heaps, living quarters, and 'territory'.
3. Traps. Traps are odd. If they were set by the original denizens...why? And why haven't they all been set or broken by now? What are they guarding? Unless your past civilization was particularly bloodthirsty, all traps do not have to be lethal, either. Many civilizations might simply want their intruders confined or knocked out, so that they can be caught. Later denizens, of course, may set cruder traps to guard territory and the like. But there should always be a /purpose/ to a trap.
4. Treasure. Mmmm, treasure. I like treasure! However, I'd like to see it come in more varied forms. Ancient books of lost knowledge, murals painted with pastes made from crushed gemstones, statuary and other objects of art, and so forth. Stuff that's fun and fits the setting.
1. Original Purpose. Dungeons are rarely just...dungeons. People just do not dig a series of underground passages and fill it randomly with traps and monsters. So, what was it? A dungeon doesn't necessarily have to be underground...it could be a city, where some buildings have collapsed and only their undercellars are still standing, whereas some towers still rise a good thirty feet in the air.
2. Ecology. If there are monsters, are they living? If they're living, what do they /eat/? 'Adventurers', while a fun answer, is probably not sufficient, unless there's a godawful stream of adventuring fellows wandering in. I like the idea of mapping out areas where food is grown, or massive grubs are farmed. Also, midden heaps, living quarters, and 'territory'.
3. Traps. Traps are odd. If they were set by the original denizens...why? And why haven't they all been set or broken by now? What are they guarding? Unless your past civilization was particularly bloodthirsty, all traps do not have to be lethal, either. Many civilizations might simply want their intruders confined or knocked out, so that they can be caught. Later denizens, of course, may set cruder traps to guard territory and the like. But there should always be a /purpose/ to a trap.
4. Treasure. Mmmm, treasure. I like treasure! However, I'd like to see it come in more varied forms. Ancient books of lost knowledge, murals painted with pastes made from crushed gemstones, statuary and other objects of art, and so forth. Stuff that's fun and fits the setting.