Dungeon scenarios remain one of the most enduring formats in tabletop role-playing games. Their structure is both intuitive and flexible, and when designed with care, they offer challenges, exploration, and narrative that resonate across systems and player types. The following breakdown of core elements is based on the comprehensive list in Tome of Adventure Design 2e (2022) by Matt Finch, and its interpretation in Abenteuer Gestalten (2019) by Andreas Melhorn.

While the concept of a location-based scenario might sound simple, its potential lies in how the space itself becomes part of the gameplay. In such a design, the environment is more than a backdrop – it is a dynamic component of the adventure that shapes player choices, tactics, and story development.

Core Components of the Old School Dungeons

Backstory – Puzzle and Payoff

The backstory is the invisible engine that gives a dungeon its soul. It answers the question: What happened here that turned this location into a place of danger and wonder? A strong backstory builds curiosity and provides a narrative arc that players can uncover throughout the adventure.

Backstory shouldn’t just sit in a GM’s notes. It should emerge through discovered clues – scratched inscriptions, murals, letters, and environmental hints. Perhaps players stumble upon a desiccated skeleton clutching a cracked locket engraved with a noble crest. Why is it here? What happened to the former inhabitants? These small details reward player observation and piecing them together delivers narrative satisfaction.

An effective dungeon backstory functions like a mystery. Players don’t need the entire history upfront, but they should leave the dungeon knowing something they didn’t before. This payoff transforms exploration into discovery and gives purpose to each encounter beyond combat.

Location – The Dungeon as Game Board

In old school design, a dungeon isn’t merely a setting – it’s a mechanism. The layout must support gameplay through features that challenge, enable, or restrict player movement and strategy.

The dungeon should act as a literal game board, where choices of direction, spacing, and elevation have consequences. A corridor that loops back on itself might allow tactical retreats. A narrow bridge spanning a chasm introduces risk and verticality. Strategic architecture enhances emergent play and creates dilemmas without dice rolls.

Consider a dungeon flooded waist-deep: players must weigh the risk of wading through water that slows movement and muffles sounds, possibly concealing both threats and opportunities. Thoughtful design ensures the space drives action and consequence.

Opposition – Creating Conflict: Denizens with Purpose

The creatures that inhabit the dungeon are more than obstacles. They represent active opposition that creates tension, drama, and complexity. Good dungeon design doesn’t merely place monsters at regular intervals. Instead, it asks: Why are these beings here? What are they doing?

Opposition with purpose makes the environment feel alive. A colony of fungus-covered goblins might worship a bioluminescent growth in a hidden cave. Their behavior and territory tell a story. Intelligent placement encourages interaction beyond combat – negotiation, deception, or evasion.

Including both expected and unexpected foes reinforces variety. An iconic skeleton sentry may feel familiar, but a blind carrion beast that tracks by echo and consumes light sources adds surprise and challenges assumptions.

Variation of Challenge – More Than Combat

Memorable adventures don’t rely solely on combat. A well-designed dungeon tests players through a spectrum of encounters: puzzles, traps, hazards, riddles, moral dilemmas, and social interaction.

Consider a room where stepping on a certain tile triggers a shifting wall. Is this merely a trap, or a mechanism to reveal hidden chambers? Mixing challenge types prevents monotony and keeps player engagement high.

Variation also applies to solutions. A bridge guarded by a troll can be bypassed, negotiated, or defeated. Encouraging creative problem-solving deepens immersion and player agency. A dungeon becomes a playground for experimentation – not a linear gauntlet.

Exploration – The Joy of Discovery

Exploration is one of the pillars of dungeon play. In old school adventures, getting lost isn’t failure – it’s part of the experience. Mapping the environment by hand, discovering hidden chambers, and navigating complex passages create a powerful sense of immersion.

Good exploration rewards curiosity. Secret doors behind tapestries, hidden stairs beneath loose flagstones, and strange sounds that lead to unexpected areas all invite investigation. Exploration creates the rhythm of the dungeon: tension, discovery, payoff.

But it’s more than finding loot – it’s about uncovering structure and meaning. When players realize a loop connects two previously disconnected areas, or that a statue’s gaze aligns with a secret vault, exploration becomes revelation.

Race Against Time – Time Pressure Makes Adventure

Without pressure, exploration becomes wandering. Time constraints – whether explicit or implicit – generate urgency and elevate stakes. A dungeon that slowly floods, a ritual that nears completion, or dwindling torchlight all push players to act decisively.

Time is the invisible adversary. Even simple limitations, such as food supplies or magical durations, force players to prioritize. Do they press onward or retreat to resupply? Do they investigate that sound or ignore it to stay on schedule?

An effective race against time amplifies every decision. Even a subtle time mechanic, like an enemy patrol schedule, introduces risk management and momentum.

Resource Management – Managing Scarcity in the Dungeon

Classic dungeon design shines when it makes every resource count. Light sources, healing, spells, inventory space – each has a cost. Managing these resources turns ordinary rooms into hard decisions.

Consider a low-level party with three torches left. They find two passageways – one smells of ozone, the other of rotting meat. Which path do they take, knowing they may not return? Also, when to use a healing potion becomes a critical tactical choice.

Scarcity elevates tension. Overdoing it turns the game into bookkeeping, but when balanced, it fosters smart, memorable play. A dungeon that respects limited resources asks players to weigh every move.

Milestones and Conclusions – Designing for Payoff

Adventures gain structure and momentum from clearly defined milestones. These may be combat encounters, narrative revelations, or the discovery of key locations. Each milestone signals progress and builds toward conclusion.

Well-crafted milestones provide a sense of satisfaction by showing players what they’ve accomplished. Reaching the lair of the necromancer, rescuing a prisoner, or discovering the origin of the dungeon’s curse offers emotional payoff.

A meaningful conclusion doesn’t always mean defeating a boss. It might be solving the dungeon’s mystery, escaping with a cursed artifact, or sealing a portal. Closure – narrative or mechanical – validates player choices and anchors the experience.

Continuation Options – Future Hooks in Present Tense

A strong dungeon doesn’t end with the final room. It opens possibilities. Continuation options give players direction without dictating it. They provide the seeds for future adventures – maps, leads or clues, unresolved mysteries.

A mural that shows a second, unknown dungeon. A journal describing an expedition that never returned. A captive who mentions a forgotten temple. These leads create connective tissue between scenarios.

Continuation options respect player agency. They don’t force sequels; they offer choices. The world feels larger, and the dungeon becomes part of a broader, persistent narrative.

Practical Lessons from Classic Design

The elements described here aren’t rules – they’re tools. Used thoughtfully, they create engaging, flexible, and deeply satisfying dungeon scenarios. Their power lies not in rigid formulas, but in how they interact to shape narrative, challenge, and discovery.

Designing an old school dungeon means crafting an environment that rewards thinking, invites curiosity, and creates consequences. It’s about space, story, scarcity, and surprise.

By mastering these core components, any game master can turn a simple map into an unforgettable adventure.