Adding on to premade dungeons

[Stallrein]

So I just recently picked up the D&D essentials kit and I'm really liking some of the new dungeons they've added to the Phandalin area.

My only issue is, most of the rooms in premade WOTC dungeons are empty other than flavor text descriptions of mundane items in the room.

Are there any strategies one might use to enhance the dungeons? Extra monsters, more interesting mundane items (I.E. barrel filled with spell components rather than filled with dust), or NPC's? I've put in a few things to add to a premade dungeon so far, but at this point I'm hitting a creative block with adding new things.

For context, I'm using the Axenholm Dwarven Forttress ruins from the new D&D essentials kit as a template for my homebrew campaign. The one filled with ghouls.

Any advice or input from your own games would be greatly appreciated!

[Grimmnist]

There are two ways in which I handle pointless rooms, handwaiving them or adding a use.

Empty rooms are in the dungeon to add a sense of scale without taking up too much player time. If every single room had an encounter or secret the pace of the game might slow too much (plus that adds to your prep time), depending on your group they may not want to make what feels like an endless string of Investigation checks. Often times I will describe the room the players walk through without giving the opportunity for checks, keeping the game moving. This might not be the type of game your players want, but don't be afraid to leave empty rooms empty.

When I add something to a prebuilt room I always think through the backstory of the room. What was the dungeon originally/what is it being used for now? What kind of rooms would be needed for it's original or new inhabitants? Once you know those two things, what would be stored here? Often times your answer might be nothing of value, rotted away food in the abandoned pantry, rusted metal scraps in the old workshop. If you can think of a reason for useful items to be stored in the room I recommend looking at the Adventuring Gear table (PHB pg 150), the Tools table (PHB pg 154) or the Trinkets table (PHB pg 160) though this last one isn't useful items so much as flavorful ones.

[DrowPiratRobrts]

One thing to do would be to leave a few open rooms for the players to potentially set up traps and things.

Other than that, I haven't read the module you're using but it sounds like a friendly Dwarven spectre hawking mundane magical items or mysterious, powerful items could be fun. Maybe he's under a curse where he can't leave the premises that used to be his home and he has to send word via the Astral Plane for his fellow Dwarven spirits to hunt down these items.

[Nagog]

Could be a safe place for the party to hunker down for a short rest, or potentially a long rest if they need it or if they can barricade the entrances/exits. Such resources are lifesavers in dungeons, particularly for Monks, Paladins, and Warlocks.

[Lunali]

Honestly, I find that most dungeons have too much stuff in them if you try to think of them as actual places that people/monsters live in. Having mostly empty rooms makes a world feel more real than a world where you go around kicking in doors and fighting whatever comes out. If you want to add to the dungeon, a better approach might be to actually add to it, make it bigger with more rooms, some of them also mostly empty.

[opaopajr]

Oh there's tons of methods to do this! :smallcool:

First, think of our own homes -- notice that it is divided into regions?
Kitchen, Dining, Garage, Backyard, Bedrooms, Bathrooms... Upstairs, Downstairs, Attic, Basement... Front, Back, Side Wing...

That gives you an idea to divide up areas into Thematic Regions. They can be based on the rooms themselves, the floor, the building facing, but they are all Tied to Theme. Use this to shortcut your General Description of such Regions.

e.g. Basements: naturally air conditioned, sometimes damp often still air, usually unfinished walls and floor, etc.
e.g.2. Bedrooms: Sleeping place, clothes storage, often ventilation for comfort, personality reflecting articles.

Next, Sprinkle Interact-able Things, that which can be played with! Boiling cauldrons that can be tipped over, closets where one can rifle through (or hide,) bathrooms stalls where one can plausibly be left undisturbed after a warning *cough*, etc.

This does two things: 1) helps you paint mental images faster in players, 2) highlights fun toys for GM and PCs for improvisation!

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

Now for Inhabitants!

Add Creatures with Routines and Approaches! So when you pick monsters, give them a region they enjoy. Give them a little timed routine -- this way they can end up unexpectedly elsewhere for your PCs, or not even encountered at all if PCs are really, really quiet! And, when PCs are making a ruckus, give them a standard approach to stressful events ("I'm being home invaded!" :smalleek: )

e.g. Tiger. Hunts at night, returns at dawn to sleep, marks territory around dusk. Strange smells & sounds leads to caution, sometimes predation if the smell or sound seems like solo invader.

Ta-dah! At that point you can improvise and hardly had to delve into mechanics! :smallcool:

When you got smarter creatures, you can introduce Complex Motives, like goals, even subtlety! :smallsmile:

And all this without having to write much, just a Monster card with some notes. Just decide what lives in this dungeon area (Thematic Region), maybe a Random Encounter Table if there's several things living there, and a Monster Card each (with Routines, Approaches, and/or Motives). Boom, you have a dynamic place where you can adapt to players choosing different times, different paths, & different approaches.

And in the end you have re-usable Monster Cards, Random Encounter Tables, and Interactive Descriptive Locations for other party's to try their luck! :smallcool:

[opaopajr]

Here is another method I find fun to re-use those extra and unneeded CCG cards...

Grab a few CCG cards, shuffle them, draw a hand (7 cards?) and try to make a story for why those belong in a Thematic Region.

e.g. Mountain, Mountain, Lightning Bolt, Mons Goblin Raiders, Goblin Grenade, Stone Rain, Sol Ring?
Deep in the mountains (two Mountains), where the weather is lethal with electrical storms (Lightning Bolt), a dungeon hall has a fabled ring of fire artifact used to fuel massive arcane spells (Sol Ring). Removing it threatens to destroy a whole mountain outright (Stone Rain, land destruction). It is protected by a goblin tribe (Mons Goblins) -- at the cost of their own lives if necessary (Goblin Grenade)!

Or, shuffle the cards and then seed them face-down into dungeon rooms, overlapping as you like, and stopping when you feel like it. Flip up and try to explain why the results are there.

e.g. Benalish Hero in the Dungeon Kitchen with a Channel Fireball?
Maybe there's a potential NPC ally pinned in the Dungeon Kitchen by an overloading magical oven! :smalleek: It offers to 'Band' with you if you could help it!