Early D&D Dungeon Design Guidelines

OD&D

Because these guidelines came directly out of the playtest campaign in Greyhawk Castle, we can safely assume they reflect the principles and play experience from that dungeon and campaign, and use them to infer what it may have looked like and been like. 

Before it is possible to conduct a campaign of adventures in the mazey dungeons, it is necessary for the referee to sit down with pencil in hand and draw these labyrinths on graph paper. Unquestionably this will require a great deal of time and effort and imagination. The dungeons should look something like the example given below, with numerous levels which sprawl in all directions, not necessarily stacked neatly above each other in a straight line. [1]

In laying out your dungeons keep in mind that downward (and upward) mobility is desirable, for players will not find a game enjoyable which confines them too much. On the other hand unusual areas and rich treasures should be relatively difficult to locate, and access must be limited. The layout of a level will affect the route most often followed by players. Observation of the most frequently used passages and explored rooms will guide the referee in preparation of successive levels, which, of course, should be progressively more dangerous and difficult. [1]

In beginning a dungeon it is advisable to construct at least three levels at once, noting where stairs, trap doors (and chimneys) and slanting passages come out on lower levels, as well as the mouths of chutes and teleportation terminals. In doing the lowest level of such a set it is also necessary to leave space for the various methods of egress to still lower levels. A good dungeon will have no less than a dozen levels down, with offshoot levels in addition, and new levels under construction so that players will never grow tired of it. [1]

Maintaining Freshness: As monsters inhabiting the rooms, spaces, and corridors of a level are killed or captured, the level will become drab and dull. Coupled with this problem, players will have made fairly accurate maps of the level, so it will be challengeless this way also. Remembering that egress to lower levels is desirable, one must nevertheless revamp worn levels by one or more of the several methods suggested below:

1. Make minor alterations with eraser and pencil, blocking passages, making new ones, dividing rooms, and filling in others. 

2. Extend the boundaries of the map, if not already filled to the edges of the paper, adding corridors and rooms.

3. Replace monsters in new areas as well as those less frequented old areas where monsters were located and removed sometime previously.

4. Reverse directions on the map, carefully relocating ways down to lower levels so as they still correspond to markings below, and do the same for passages upwards.

5. Add a passage which continues past the established boundary of the level, creating a split or sub-level which it leads to, complete with new treasure and monsters.

Using these suggestions, and whatever else you dream up, there is no reason why participants in the campaign should not continue to find mystification, enjoyment, excitement, and amusement in the challenge of the myriad passages of the dungeons. [1]

Secrets of a Well-Designed Dungeon

When asked what the secrets of a good dungeon were, he said:

Just that, secrets:D

Tongue-in-cheek as that may be, it matches his statement that "the best part about mysteries is keeping them that", and his lifelong unwillingness to disclose the secrets of the jeweled man or the Great Stone Face. Nearly any resolution for such a mystery, would be a let-down and a disappointment. (I also suspect there may not have been any answer at all, like with some of the mysterious noises: the whole point was to get the players wonder and scheme. An answer was not needed.) Keeping the mystery alive was better than solving it. He continued:

I believe that the first quality a dungeon needs is game logic and verisimilitude based thereon. That's why I subsumed the maze beneath Greyhawk Castle had been created by a mad demi-god [as they made no sense based on any logic or ecology]. The elements needed thereafter are: 

• Challenge of exploration, increasing danger including actual PC loss, 
• varied problems, varied environments, 
• occasional humor or like relief from the tension normal to the environment, 
• mysteries, 
• rewards commensurate with the challenge overcome, 
• a series of milestones indicating achievement in the course of delving into the labyrinth, and a finally where the successful PC(s) get the big reward for staying the course and reaching the untimate conclusion. #1299

This matches the "gain an instant level and +3 equipment" for making it down to Zagyg, the deadlyness of play in the OD&D campaign, the extraplanar levels, and the scerets about the jeweled man, great stone face of Greyhawk, or mysterious sounds. 

Design of Greyhawk Castle

When new maps were made it was often nearly impossible to have the stairs and other connections line up with other maps, so a note or two and "fudging" served perfectly well, this was particularly true of the means of entering and exiting lower levels from secret locations surrounding the castle ruins.

I have laid out a new schematic of castle and dungeon levels based on both my original design of 13 levels plus sideadjuncts, and the "New Greyhawk Castle" that resulted when Rob and I combined our efforts and added a lot no new level too. From that Rob will draft the level plans for the newest version of the work. Meantime, I am collecting all the most salient feature, encounters, tricks, traps, etc. for inclusion on the various levels.

So the end result will be what is essentially the best of our old work in a coherent presentation usable by all DMs, the material having all the known and yet to be discussed features of the original work that are outstanding. .I hope :uhoh: [2]

Overall design of the levels

Each level should have a central theme and some distinguishing feature, i.e. a level with large open areas swarming with goblins, one where the basic pattern of corridors seems to repeat endlessly, one inhabited by nothing but fire-dwelling or fire-using monsters, etc. [3]

As each level is finished the various means of getting- to lower levels must be keyed and noted on the appropriate lower levels , so that if a room sinks fours levels it will then be necessary to immediately show it on 4 sheets of graph paper numbered, so as to indicate successively lower levels. A careful plan of what monsters and treasures will be found where on each level is also most necessary, and it can take as long to prepare as the level itself, for you may wish to include something UNUSUAL (a treasure, monster, and/or trick or trap not shown in D&D) on each level. [3]

Being of insidious nature, I varied the maps for levels of the castle dungeons. Sometimes I used 8.5" x 11' paper, 4 squares to the inch, sometimes 5, 6, or 8. then I'd throw in two or more levels on the same map, or use 17" x 22" paper with 4 or 5 lsquares to the inch. At least one level was done with small hexagons. Also, many of the levels were connected so that it was difficult to know when one was leaving one and entering another. [6 #1296]

The following quotation is from much later, when Gary had realized that people expected a certain level of logic and believability. 

I believe that the first quality a dungeon needs is game logic and verisimilitude based thereon. The elements needed thereafter are: Challenge of exploration, increasing danger including actual PC loss, varied problems, varied environments, occasional humor or like relief from the tension normal to the environment, mysteries, rewards commensurate with the challenge overcome, a series of milestones indicating achievement in the course of delving into the labyrinth, and a finally where the successful PC(s) get the big reward for staying the course and reaching the ultimate conclusion. [6]