Alternative Dungeons

[Yora]

I just saw a video game level that took place in an abandoned supermarket, which admitedly had the aisles arranged in a weird way to make it a single long corridor, but it did make me wonder what other kinds of places could be used as dungeons, especially for fantasy games.

I guess the standard ones are the classic castle dungeon, castles themselves, crypts, evil temples, and (unrealistic) natural caves. What other environments are there, that could work just like dungeons, but are something different from what you usually get to see?

[nedz]

I've had great fun with large mining complexes.

Adits — Underground canals — in fact a whole network with sumps (lakes), even a disused underground aqueduct. Just give the party a small barge and a mule. Even the disused (dry) adits were fun, having a raised walkway on one side made a change from the usual 10' wide corridor.

Underground railways (mining) — with Iron Golem Locomotives.

Shafts, with spiral staircases and a hoist at the top.

Lifting machines to take the ore to blast furnaces.

Blast Furnaces — cold due to disuse.

[Guunshtaff]

It can be difficult to imagine an environment setting for a dungeon that is absolutely original, but one of my favorite ways to make a dungeon unique is to combine two different settings! Imagine, say, an abandoned castle in which, as you descended down ever deeper layers of the basement, you see signs of subterranean monster inhabitance. Then at one level, you find the location where the creatures forcibly tore through the floor/wall. Quite suddenly you find yourself in a network of tunnels excavated by monster, not built by man. The sudden change can really spice up an otherwise stale dungeon both aesthetically and in gameplay. While in the castle you might have maps, treasure chests, armories, and traps, but at the point you enter the burrow, the dangers you face become distinctly more nature based. In the torchless, randomly forking tunnels, getting lost is a huge concern. Cave ins could be more likely as there's no humanoid engineering expertise in the construction of these tunnels. I could go on, but suffice it to say, now you have a dungeon where a rogue's mechanical expertise AND a druid's ability to survive in nature are both valuable!

[DrBurr]

My brother when he was DMing used a Dense Forrest, instead of grabbing graph paper and drawing out corridors we made note of Landmarks, Dead Orcs and the Location of the sun though the Leaves to navigate. It was pretty fun and is one of the most remembered experiences of our group.

[Friv]

1) Occupied cities in the immediate aftermath of a major battle can make a great one-shot dungeon; you have collapsed buildings, traps left by the defenders, roaming parties of attackers, looters who have to be fought or avoided, civilians who have to be saved or avoided, looting that can be done...

Most of the good stuff is already gone, of course, but that's half the fun!

2) A massive, magical private zoo whose exhibits have gotten loose. Most of them are staying in their habitats, but not all are, and those that are might still get violent if you get too close. And presumably there's some kind of magical wards you have to restore to get everything back to normal, but most of them were near major exhibits, which are now broken open...

3) Dragon Age made good use of a tower dungeon that was the school where wizards learned to control their powers. It was a mix of laboratories, libraries, sleeping areas, demons running amok and magical traps.

[Anxe]

My middle school would make a great dungeon.

The other DM in my group bases a few of his dungeons off of hikes he goes on. Twisting passages and environmental traps galore!

[DJDeMiko]

I built a giant water clock for a dungeon. The whole thing was made of metal and wood with the players climbing across gears/tubes. They find it empty but at the bottom have to turn it on and suddenly all of the automated defenses turn on . . .

[Greylond]

An old Dungeon magazine had an an adventure named Forbidden Mountain which featured a non-Euclid dungeon. At the beginning of the dungeon it had a good article about GMing non-Euclid geometry dungeons. I usually pull that out when I want to throw a group a curve ball... ;)

[Kelb_Panthera]

An old Dungeon magazine had an an adventure named Forbidden Mountain which featured a non-Euclid dungeon. At the beginning of the dungeon it had a good article about GMing non-Euclid geometry dungeons. I usually pull that out when I want to throw a group a curve ball... ;)

That sounds interesting enough that I might want to look into it further. Do you remember or can you quickly find out which issue of Dungeon it was?

For the OP's question; the innards of a massive creature. It's patently absurd if you want realism, but it can certainly make for a memorable delve. You might try LoZ: Ocarina of Time or Gears of War 2 for inspiration, since both games had just such a segment. I'll bet there're others that I'm not remembering off the top of my head too.

[Greylond]

That sounds interesting enough that I might want to look into it further. Do you remember or can you quickly find out which issue of Dungeon it was?.

Yea, it was Dungeon# 6.

[Yora]

For the OP's question; the innards of a massive creature. It's patently absurd if you want realism, but it can certainly make for a memorable delve. You might try LoZ: Ocarina of Time or Gears of War 2 for inspiration, since both games had just such a segment. I'll bet there're others that I'm not remembering off the top of my head too.

Which reminds me of Monster Beehives. Like the collector base in Mass Effect 2.

[ReaderAt2046]

Other random ideas:

Some kind of vast network of bridges and platforms (a little like the WoT Ways). Youre mobility is still restricted, but you can see and shoot people who'd be totally inaccessible in a more conventional dungeon. Great fun, but make sure to have a way to stop them from flying.

A chaos-based dungeon where rooms change at random (so one minute you're in a room with some torches and pillars, and the next you're bobbing in a fishtank with people in odd outfits staring at you and the next you're in a ice cave and up to your ears in frost Mephits.)

An amusement-park style dungeon where the encounters are scattered at random among pathways and people selling deep-fried chocolate. You have to beat all the challenges, but there's no order you have to fight them in and you can rest up in-between or snack at Ye Olde Pancake Emporiume.

The inside of a giant machine of some sort (dodging pendulumns and gears is always fun).

[Coidzor]

Schools, jails, and other "institutional" buildings at least in a lot of the U.S. are pretty much set up like a dungeon. Sometimes they're less linear, but, eh... Though there's some concerns in outright taking anything from real life as a model if I recall.

Arcades, Children's amusement places like Chuck E. Cheez and similar ideas, especially with varying states of repair, functionality, and catastrophic damage might be of interest. Especially since if they're actually in use then the crowds can form sort of "soft" walls.

The right sorts of shopping mall or art gallery also would be suitable.

I bet a science center/museum would be a good dungeon too. Add in a touch of magic/phlebotinum and that special room set up to be like the inside of a human heart could be even more interesting... And let's not even get into the crawling through a human's intestinal tract thing for the kiddies....

[Tvtyrant]

I kind of what to run the swanky mansion of a Mountain Giant (MMII.) They are colossal creatures (over 40 ft. tall apparently,) so if one had a mansion it would be crazy large. Buckingham Palace scaled up to Mountain Giant size for instance would be as long as several football fields, be around 400 ft. tall and have 136,950,000 sq ft of space. Also, around 500 rooms to play in.

Then I would probably have the dapper giant stay in the master bedroom, and the players have to deal with the various vermin and civilizations that live in the house.

[Greylond]

Another old Dungeon magazine had an adventure at an old roadside rest cabin/area. It had a powerful magic item stuck somewhere on the grounds so that anyone(or creature) who stayed inside the area of effect of its magic for too long shrink down to miniature size. The party went to sleep in the building and woke up in the middle of the night as they were shrinking. Then they had to deal with various normal sized creatures who weren't shrunk(bugs/insects) and the various lairs of creatures who had shrunk previously and already established themselves. The goal of the adventure was to find the magic item and cause it to cease functioning and thus reverse the shrinking magic.

The adventure was called Chadranther's Bane from issue# 18.

[valadil]

I had fun one ready for my last campaign. During a storm a bunch of ships that had been denied dock tied themselves together to avoid being capsized. When the storm ended they basically threw a big pirate party that never ended and more and more ships joined up. It was basically the raft from Snow Crash. I really wanted to have a chase scene on that, where the players were jumping from boat to boat. They stayed away from that locale though, so it never went anywhere.

[Jay R]

I once developed the abandoned Castle of the Mathemagician. There were non-Euclidean levels based on the sides of the five platonic solids (d4, d6, d8, d12, d20). There were specific areas based on various mathematical games.

The most vicious level (which nobody ever reached) was entirely hollowed out via a unique spell that could turn stone invisible and ethereal. This meant that:
a. The stone was still there all around you, and
b. Every entire corridor and room radiated magic, and
c. A Dispel Magic spell could kill you all, instantly, as the stone reappeared around you.

--------------

I also worked for two summers as a Ranger at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. I set a series of wilderness adventures there, since I pretty much knew all the trails. Every mine was an entrance to the Underworld. The gold mines near the top of Old Baldy were the entrances to the dwarven kingdom.

I knew where to put the buffalo, antelope, elk, bears and mountain lions. There was a retired ranger living at Rayado. (Yes, I had Kit Carson living in the Kit Carson home.)

[Tvtyrant]

Another old Dungeon magazine had an adventure at an old roadside rest cabin/area. It had a powerful magic item stuck somewhere on the grounds so that anyone(or creature) who stayed inside the area of effect of its magic for too long shrink down to miniature size. The party went to sleep in the building and woke up in the middle of the night as they were shrinking. Then they had to deal with various normal sized creatures who weren't shrunk(bugs/insects) and the various lairs of creatures who had shrunk previously and already established themselves. The goal of the adventure was to find the magic item and cause it to cease functioning and thus reverse the shrinking magic.

The adventure was called Chadranther's Bane from issue# 18.

I like it! Although you would have to be fairly low level for ants and stuff to be a threat.

[Seharvepernfan]

Here is the "places" chunk of my ideas folder, and part of the "challenges" chunk.

Witch/haunted/shadow-infused area where light sources gradually shed less the farther towards the center you go. Visual/auditory mind****s.

Dungeon/cave that is roughly vortex shaped - tunnels start out being widely spaced near the top, but slowly converge and tighten the lower you go. A large “Rising Deep” style monster lairs at the bottom, its’ tentacles climb up through the dungeon to spy on/attack people coming in. They get larger/stronger the farther down you go, until you reach the beast itself. Perhaps the dungeon is split by a large rift/chasm? Caves/cavern that wraps around a dungeon/vertical shaft? Large pit of water/acid at the bottom that the creature lives in? Is it created by a “chaos” or “life” crystal? Do its’ tentacles have eyes, mouths, lazers? Does it have a large eye, set of eyes, big maw? Alternatively, is it a large octopus style monster that roams around the dungeon, trying to surround or trap the crew? -Deep Spawn?

Underworld Chutes and Vaults - climbing/levitating enemies - beholder patrolled - mind flayer structure with magic floor-seal (summons a cthulhu spawn) - Dwarven forever-ladder

Abandoned mansion, stone first floor and basement(s), wood upper stories. Missing floors, holes in floors/walls/ceilings, areas of weak construction (stairs may collapse, roof may fall, floor may give out, wall may fall down), kicking in a door may cause a collapse, rats/spiders crawl through the walls (swarms? poison? disease?), certain areas require indirect routes to reach, hidden areas (separate basement? hidden doors? attic area? tunnel to barn?), battle magic will cause structural damage (this may be used constructively) - laundry chutes?

Ancient half-destroyed castle - the keep has been sheared nearly in two, as if a tornado tore through half of it. Rooms of several floors are exposed to the sky. Perhaps the castle has merely been split - the other side is past the gap?

Wild terrain with tunnels running underneath it – lava tubes? Dwarven/gnomish tunnels?

A cave filled with poisonous (or flammable?) gas.

Coastal-cliff cave-dungeon - the entrance is submerged during high tide and guarded by swimming monsters - exposed during low tide, but is patrolled by monstrous crabs

Stone structure hidden within iceberg floating in the ocean or within glacial ice. Perhaps has to be dug to? Chopping/melting the ice.

Giant-built ruin (castle?) - huge halls/rooms/doors/stairs, man-sized wooden risers built over the stairs

Desert wasteland (radiated? "poisonous winds"? constant overcast?), with odd rock formations and dangerous terrain, the location of a large-scale magical disaster, was once a lush prosperous land/nation, undead? living spells? spellwarped creatures? - mutants? lizard-people with regeneration? black-tower lich? connected with next idea?

Black glass/obsidian/crystal skyscraper in sandy-desert valley/area ringed by mountains, created by Aluuvari? Surrounded by sandstorm tornado? Gateway to invisible floating city? Invisible? Related to chuck norris dream?

Elf/Fey/Sorcerer forest manor - either made out of a tree, or incorporates several trees/plants into its construction, very natural, lots of plants and water - animals. Dryads live in the wood, guards use tree stride to getaround, will'o'wisps guard the lawn
Stone/glass/ferns/moss house in the elf city/district?

Forest realm (Verdant Reach? Emerald Horizon?)- large forest or closely-placed forests that cover the terrain (hills/mountains/valleys/cliffs/rivers/lakes/caves/plains/etc). Large glades and meadows in places where falling trees, forest fires, or even meteor impacts have rid the area of trees. Elves are the de facto rulers of the forest, though they only inhabit part of it at any one time, and that part changes with time - they often leave cities/villages/buildings behind when they un-inhabit an area, sometimes leaving it garrisoned, sometimes guarded, sometimes not. They sometimes live in very large/tall trees (artificial or not) where they build villages or cities, and other times live on the forest floor or in the canopy of normal trees. There are sections of the forest (usually the parts with larger trees near the center) that contain ecologies of dire animals (as well as other powerful beasts and green dragons) that the elves avoid and patrol the borders of. A few other scattered powerful beasts roam or lair in other parts of the forest. Ancient stone structures or delves exist in the forest that the elves avoid, as well as caves and the like. Maybe a human realm or string of villages exists along the borders of the forest, in the glades, or along rivers within its’ borders? Half-elf realm? Elf-ruled human realm?
-super tall “observation post” cloud tree/interlinked “neighborhood” tree/huge squat “fortress” tree/tree-stride “gate” tree/totem pole “sentinel” tree/”smart” tree walls-roads

Tall monolith in the forest surrounded by tall trees intershot with caves, flying creatures outside, climbers on the trees, briars at the bottom,
nest at top with giant avians (redwood tree[s]?).

Dwarf delve with several levels, connected by stairs (some of which are retracting, with runes above the doorway in dwarven or terran, that, when spoken, cause the stairs to pull out), shafts, and even elevators. Each shaft/elevator might only connect to one other level, and to get to a certain level you may need to go up and down several times. (goblin filth on the floor that makes the short ceilings even shorter? allows tracking? centipedes? fire releases stinking cloud?) (inhabited by goblins in bone armor and clubs with rust monsters? - dwarf summoned earth elementals and stone spikes?)

Dwarf fortress on/in mountain, with entrances/exits at various places at various heights on the mountain, from the peak to the valleys. Some of the entrances don’t have any paths leading to them, so must be climbed or flown to. Lifts? Furnace shafts with grates at the top?

Ancient stone dam in the wilderness, closes off a valley – the only exit is a tunnel through the bottom of the damn that herd animals (and their predators) occasionally move through (perhaps utilized by a dragon to trap herds of prey?)

Dungeon full of traps and challenges, but no enemies.

Parts of a dungeon sitting at an angle, perhaps with certain areas collapsed. Lamps hang straight down as normal. Doors swing wrong. Collapsed floors leave openings under locked doors. Can collapse a floor under a difficult door to get past it (with knowledge dungeoneering or arch&eng).

Dwarven forever ladder/stair (endurance check to keep climbing) - has occasional rest areas/landings.

Partially/completely flooded dungeon? Currently flooding? Try to beat the flood? Bronze door airlocks? Flooded vertical shafts that lead to unflooded rooms? A standing vertical shaft of water than can be swam up (Turok)?

Enjoy.

[Greylond]

I once developed the abandoned Castle of the Mathemagician. There were non-Euclidean levels based on the sides of the five platonic solids (d4, d6, d8, d12, d20). There were specific areas based on various mathematical games.

The most vicious level (which nobody ever reached) was entirely hollowed out via a unique spell that could turn stone invisible and ethereal. This meant that:
a. The stone was still there all around you, and
b. Every entire corridor and room radiated magic, and
c. A Dispel Magic spell could kill you all, instantly, as the stone reappeared around you.


Awesome idea. I like it!

[Greylond]

I like it! Although you would have to be fairly low level for ants and stuff to be a threat.


Well, it was for AD&D 2nd Edition and it is written for Levels 4-6.

[scarmiglionne4]

A chaos-based dungeon where rooms change at random (so one minute you're in a room with some torches and pillars, and the next you're bobbing in a fishtank with people in odd outfits staring at you and the next you're in a ice cave and up to your ears in frost Mephits.)


I once thought to do something like this, but I decided against it due to fear of keeping up with it. In retrospect, I suppose I could have had a random room table or something? How would you go about doing this one?

Also, I have done some unusual dungeons as part of my Super Mario Bros inspired D&D campaign. I had an enchanted forest inspired by the haunted forest in Paper Mario. It was separated into several octagonal sections or "clearings." Each clearing had eight possible paths and several clues as to which was the correct path. Walking down the wrong path brought you into the same clearing from the opposite path. The trees formed a bramble-wall to prevent walking anywhere but along the paths. I have used this bramble-wall concept in other enchanted forest dungeons.

This enchanted forest was followed by a haunted town. At first it did not seem that the town in the forest was anything but a normal town. There were clues that hinted that something was not quite right. Townsfolk directed the visitors to Geisthas Manor, where a local lord of sorts lives. Once inside the doors slam shut behind them and they are trapped inside the haunted manor. The only way out is through. I filled this mansion with puzzles. I had one based on the octagon room in the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World. I had Boo Diddleys that I called Pheeries. They were the ghosts of murdered children. THey would appear as incorporeal child like forms covering their faces in their hands. Once you turned your backs on them they would transform into gruesome, toothy, maws with long arms ending in vicious claws.

I am saying too much. Enchanted Forest with Bramble Walls. Haunted Puzzle Mansions.

[DigoDragon]

The Winchester mansion is a great modern dungeon, with halls and stairs twisting and ending in unusual paths.

[prufock]

A large library can be good an creepy.

Inside the body of a colossal+ size creature.

Cube.

[Incom]

How about a totally outdoor dungeon? Maybe a giant plain or desert or somewhere else that's easy to get lost in, not because it's so closed, but because it's so open. Add some reason you can't just go from point A to point B (maybe there's a path of least resistance, maybe the good old cursed maze trope where you end up back where you started if you try to go in a straight line) and you're golden.

[JohnnyCancer]

The layouts and decoration of casinos are designed to be disorienting.

[Doorhandle]

The layouts and decoration of casinos are designed to be disorienting.

Particularly in Vegas. I remember visiting it once with my parents when I was about 14. Because children aren't allowed in gambling establishments in australia, we were really confused when we found that you have to wall through walls upon walls of slot machines in order to get anywhere.

On not including the fact they have fake outdoors areas inside, complete with fake weather and lighting so that you loose track of time... :smallbiggrin:


For my 20 cents on this... Their needs to be a dungeon based on the obstacle course form wipeout. Or based on the Aggro Crag. Both of them at once...

[Gbrngfol]

For the OP's question; the innards of a massive creature. It's patently absurd if you want realism, but it can certainly make for a memorable delve. You might try LoZ: Ocarina of Time or Gears of War 2 for inspiration, since both games had just such a segment. I'll bet there're others that I'm not remembering off the top of my head too.

This reminds me of an idea I have that ends with a climatic duel inside a colossal undead black dragon. It's hollowed out though.