Not every dungeon has the same kind of rooms. Dungeons are built for different purposes. In some instances dungeons are built to create a safe place from enemies. Often, however, they are created as a safe place to keep one’s enemies. Sometimes they are created for different purposes entirely.
But often dungeons will have one or more of the following types of rooms:
- Throne Rooms
- Torture Chambers
- Traps
- Treasure Hoards
Not all of these types of rooms will be found in every dungeon. And traps, of course, might not just be found in a room. Sometimes a room, itself, is a trap.
Throne Rooms
Many dungeons are built beneath castles. Sometimes these castles have a real expectation of being attacked. In order to protect the royal family the builders often go underground. The throne room for the castle may well be deep within this safe space under the surface.
Most throne rooms, however, will be on the surface. Often they will be extremely lavish. The throne itself might be decorated with gold or jewels. There may be royal tapestries hanging from the walls. Fine art often decorates such places. Portraits of the royal family or their ancestors might be prominently displayed. Ornate pillars and columns might also be present to hold up the roof as these types of rooms are often quite large.
Throne rooms often have wide spaces to accommodate the large audiences which might have business before the king. As many other members of royalty are often part of a royal court the room will also have wide spaces for them as well. And of course…there must be guards. Many guards will typically be present to protect the royalty from attack and to maintain order.
Torture Chambers
What dungeon is complete without a torture chamber? Every kingdom has enemies. These enemies will occasionally be caught. In order to extract information from these enemies torture chambers are present. Some cruel kings might choose to use the torture chambers merely for punishment of these enemies rather than seeking information from them.
Torture chambers often have certain devices which are useful for these purposes:
- The Rack
- The Iron Maiden
- Thumbscrews
- The Wheel
- Hot Irons
In order to have ready access to the prisoners to be “questioned” there would need to be cells nearby. Some of these prison cells might be still occupied when adventurers explore the dungeon. There may be evidence of prisoners left even in a very old abandoned dungeon. Bones, escape tunnels, manacles or eating utensils might still be found. Markings on the walls might indicate the number of days (or years) of incarceration.
Individual torture devices might also still be occupied when the explorers arrive. Or there might only be “parts” of those prisoners left in the device.
The torturer himself might still be present in the room. And he might even be in the act of torturing a victim when the adventurers arrive in the room. Torturers are often sadistic people or creatures. Who would make a fitting torturer for a dungeon? Some possibilities which come to mind are:
- A mind flayer who also inflicts psychological damage on her victims
- A particularly nasty Ogre who feels abandoned by society and hates everyone
- A bold Goblin who feels empowered now that he is able to torment people much bigger than he is
- A demon who has been summoned to this plane and decides he is having too much fun in the torture chamber to ever leave it
Traps
What dungeon could be complete without traps? There are far too many types of traps to discuss in this article but there are several categories which are worthy of a mention. Some of these categories include:
- Room traps – where anyone within the room is likely to be killed, imprisoned or maimed
- Hallway traps -where anyone traveling down the wrong path might find themselves gravely wounded or slain
- Staircase traps – to injure those entering from the wrong place or to kill those attempting to descend to lower levels of the dungeon
Not every trap is intended to kill. Sometimes they are intended to maim, injure, slow or confine enemies. In some cases traps are merely to set off an alarm.
The use of traps in games like Dungeons and Dragons is not without controversy. Many Dungeon Masters do not see the need to use traps in their games. Others use them liberally in their games. To me it is about injecting a little reality into the game. A place with vast treasures which has no traps protecting any of them is not a very likely place to find. People, and monsters, want to hold on to the treasures that belong to them. Those with any intelligence will understand that they will not always be present to guard the treasures every minute of the day.
Some, but not all, of the possible traps that one might encounter are:
- Flood traps
- Shifting hallways
- Arrow, spear and dart traps
- Pits
- Collapsing staircases
- Magical traps
- Gas spraying traps
- Caltrops
- Cage traps
- Falling blocks
- Collapsing ceilings
- Elevator rooms
Treasure Hoards
The Treasure Hoard is the goal that most adventurers are seeking when they explore a dungeon. Treasure is what makes the world go around. Without treasure one cannot buy armor, weapons, horses, castles and those other things which adventurers dream of. Treasure hoards contain thousands (or perhaps even millions) of coins. They may contain gems and jewelry or valuable artwork. And most important of all…..they often contain magic items.
Treasure Hoards are often trapped. And they are almost always well guarded. They may come with some other surprises as well. For other explorers are often looking for such places. Some may have found them before the adventurers did. Their bodies might still be present in the room to warn of the possible traps that might be present.
Hoards such as these should consist of more than just large piles of coins. A detailed list of the things that are present should be made and then the adventurers should spend time deciding what is valuable enough to carry off. These decisions should not be easy ones. Some items will be heavy and bulky. Others will be small and quite valuable. But who will know which is which? Obviously a group of six or eight adventurers is not going to be able to carry off a few tons of treasure in a single trip. Who will stand guard while the others carry treasure to town? Will anyone? How will the heavy things be extracted? Or will they be left behind? A detailed list of treasures can lead to interesting adventures all on it’s own.
These types of places are just some of the interesting places one might find in a dungeon
Dungeons are filled with different types of rooms. These are but some of them. Places which are likely to be the center of action should probably be made in the greatest detail. Adventurers are likely to spend a great deal of time in Throne Rooms, Torture Chambers and Treasure Hoards. They will probably prefer to spend less time with traps. And certainly they will want to spend little or no time in a Torture Chamber as the recipient of the torture.
If you enjoyed this article then you might enjoy these:
- Thieves in Dungeons and Dragons
- Torture Devices in Dungeons and Dragons
- Sieges in Dungeons and Dragons
- The Tax Man in Dungeons and Dragons
- Psionics in Dungeons and Dragons
- Illusions in Dungeons and Dragons
- Illusions in Dungeons and Dragons Part Two
