Well as I said here is a small but effective guide on how to design a good dungeon.
First Step: Thinking in the constructor and purpose.
and builder Because if I do not mean you but the individual (s) or creature (s) who created and built the place, if you were a fanatical cult of Orcus or an old elf king. to determine whether this is also the builder of the place is the villain of the adventure or someone who died long ago.
must also determine the purpose of the place, if a tomb, a temple or a wizard's tower in the woods, remember that no purpose for the site then we will not have a clear idea of to do with it. At this point I was surprised by my son because he decided his dungeon was a defensive maze designed to protect the treasure and the tomb of a legendary king of the dwarfs, which in my over 15 years of play never thought of it, after researching I realized that in the history of our world and labyrinths have existed for similar purposes.
Step Two: Costs of construction and essential elements.
We have to think if the creator of the site thought to create something focused on efficiency or on aesthetic and in any case no one will build rooms without any purpose or rooms in which giant people spend long hours just going from one place to another cleaning or meeting their daily work.
To avoid falling into these errors we must first make a list of the rooms that require our dungeon. Torture chambers, rooms for the guards, cooks, shops, laboratories, cells, and an item that no one seems to give importance, one bath.
Finally a place for the rest of the warrior
Step Three: Style architectural and traps.
This is where all the visual detail we decided we should include as few things more boring than the classic empty room with only maybe a monster that seems to be doing nothing but wait for the adventurous.
Think of something that makes exciting place, multiple levels connected by stairs, more than one ticket, ornamentation in the form of gargoyles, stone statues, spiderwebs, bridges or maybe track designs in the floor tiles. Something that makes the experience enjoyable for players and allow them to imagine that's about it.
Now before you put the first trap we must ask if the place was designed for continuous use, because if so we can not put many of these, as a place where its inhabitants spend half the time remembering passwords and avoiding traps is not very attractive place to live do not believe.
remember that all traps have a way off (by the owner of the treasure guarded must have a way to recover back right? And detected. Small holes in the wall or mysterious mats on the floor show places where skilled players can find traps, even without a good score in their ability to search.
Step Four: Monsters and treasure.
There are three types of monsters and creatures around Dungeon, Originals, intentional and accidental. The first are those that were put there by the creator / owner of the place, like zombies in a catacomb or cultists in a temple. The second are those who may have got after the place and are determined to stay or to establish their base of operations there. Orcs decided to store the gold of looting in those ancient ruins or Drow who use the site to sell slaves to other underground races. Accidental and finally are those who came to the place by mistake and decided to stay or simply could not back out, examples of these are: Umber hulks, or green slimes to vampires. We see our cell as an ecosystem in which all residents must have a way to get food, water and oxygen.
Adding treasure we must take into account that this must be significant and / or useful for the site operator or people, that many did not see much logic to the priests who guard the powerful book of infinite spells or beast Offsetting that guards a chest with potions. The treasure must be attractive to local people not the players.
Step Five: Drawing the place.
Now if with all the proper training should not be too difficult to draw a map containing all the elements mentioned above, do not forget also to be creative in history that will take our players to the place.
I leave you with some pictures of the fighting in the maze designed by my son.
Happy shots
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