30 Minute Dungeon Guide: Room Prompts

Hey so you know how I made the 30 Minute Dungeon thing that blew up for a while? Well I've been working a little on refining it.

For those of you who may be new to the blog, the 30 Minute Dungeon method is something I came up with where you set a timer for 30 minutes and make a 10 room dungeon, using the following checklist for what must be included:

3 Empty Rooms
3 Combat Encounters
2 Traps
1 NPC
1 Special/Weird Thing

It took off and I compiled a collection of the dungeons I made, selling them in a pdf which got a justifiably mixed review by Skerples of Coins and Scrolls fame.

A big problem I had with the formula is I kept being repetitive with how I designed the dungeons and how I would sometimes waste time getting stuck not knowing what to do for rooms. So I decided to come up with some prompts that help me come up with ideas for rooms without being too specific, ultimately coming up with 6 prompts for each room type, therefore allowing me to roll a d6 to randomly determine the prompt.

Empty Room

1. Something that points the characters to an NPC
2. Something that tells the characters about the dungeon's history
3. Something that alerts the characters to a combat encounter
4. Something that alerts the characters to a special room
5. Something that alerts the characters to a trap
6. Something useful to the characters


(From Dark Souls 3)

Special Room

1. Something that changes the characters who interact with it
2. Something physically impossible
3. Something that provides a boon for a sacrifice
4. Something that can result in great reward or terrible disaster
5. Something that seems ordinary but isn't
6. Something weird to witness/experience


(The well in The Ring)

Non-Player Character

1. An ally
2. A villain
3. A victim
4. A rival explorer
5. A quest-giver
6. A weirdo



Combat Encounter

1. A horde of weak opponents
2. One tough opponent
3. A weak opponent and their guards
4. A pair of tough opponents
5. A tough opponent and their underlings
6. A group of competent opponents, worthy adversaries to the characters


(From Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark)

Trap

1. Something that will inconvenience the characters
2. Something that will kill the characters
3. Something that will incapacitate the characters
4. Something that will trap the characters
5. Something that will alert/summon enemies
6. Something that will separate the characters


(I think this is from 4e, and Jesus Christ it looks complicated)