Generators Guide to Dungeons (Updated)

"A wide broken statue in a dark cliff side marks the entrance to this dungeon. Beyond the broken statue lies..."

Find out what tools and random charts there are for visualising, detailing and expanding your Dungeon. Description above from a dungeon description generator at Fantasy Name Generators

[Photo by Elena Maffioli on Unsplash]

Disclaimer: I'm an affiliate for DriveThru RPG and DM's Guild

Starting Points

Dungeons have evolved since they first showcased the roleplaying game of D&D. There is a story behind many of them, and certain sense in them. Mega-dungeons like Undermountain or Rappan Athuk stand beside the 5-room Dungeon and other developments

Related Guides include Dungeon Maps and Random Dungeon Titles.

5 Dungeon Random PDFs

Here are a few pdfs of random tables for Dungeons. Taken from the full list of Dungeon PDFs.

GM's Miscellany: Dungeon Dressing (System Neutral) from Raging Swan Press brings together lists to fill out urban areas from smaller titles
Caves are covered with Pink Dice Bag Publishing and the Cave Generator with 16 tables to detail those cavern
The Random Dungeon Room Generator is written by Kent Kelly with an old school look. It has a generator and many tables for creating unique dungeon rooms
The Dungeon Builder's Deck from AAW Games has 114 double-sided poker-sized cards of dungeon maps.
Inkwell Ideas has Sidequest Decks: Dungeons, Caves, & Ruins Fantasy, 50+ cards with dungeon plots and encounters.

Dungeon Overview

Maze of the Destroyed Witch. Point of the Secret Serpent. The Voiceless Cells. The Bellowing Tombs.

...from Dungeon Name Generator at Fantasy Name Generators

A good name can help or hinder a dungeon in the same way as it can a character. If it's a cave complex then "The Colorless Caves" or "Stratdover Overhang" are suggestions from the related cave name generator.

If you want more details then start with a brief dungeon description from Cosmic Peril Adventure. I've written some random tables for 5-room dungeons here on Rand Roll.

Dungeon Maps

Maps for dungeons is a large topic that has a guide to itself.

First of my favourites is One Page Dungeon from watabou which creates a dungeon and annotated descriptions.

Dave's Mapper is a tile-based map generator that can handle dungeon, caverns or both at the same time. Double click on an artist to create a map with just tiles of their art.

Rooms

"Entering, you find yourself in a Dining hall, built for use by the priesthood. The walls are decorated with bookshelves with texts of Enchantment. The floor is made of seated tiles of metal. A fearsome squad of Harpies and Peryton defends the room. The room is on fire, and it's spreading. There are no other exits to the room."

...from Room Generator at Cosmic Peril Adventure

Rooms are hard to create generators for as there are many elements to put together.

Filling our dungeons with monsters are 100 Interesting Dungeon Encounters from d/100 on reddit.

Traps and Obstacles

"There is a magical ward in front of the character. Before they trigger it, they might notice the faintest of odors left by the painting of the glyph. Once activated, the magical ward will conjure 5 poisoned arrows to fire at the character."

...from Dungeon Room Generator at 5thDnD.com There is also a trap description generator on the site

To challenge characters without monsters or npcs a dungeon creator can turn to traps, puzzles and other obstacles. Whether they maim, kill, frustrate or provide clues they are important in a well-rounded dungeon

Try one trap from Chaotic Shiny or ten at once from donjon. Another site had options for traps at Harmless, Moderate or Deadly.

For puzzles there is a puzzles generator from Cosmic Peril Adventure for a change to traps or maybe 100 Riddles and their answers from DnD Speak gives a different type of challenge.

Doors

"a locked bone door. It has a built-in mirror"

...from a simple Dungeon Door generator I made at Chartopia

A well-presented door can bring a group of adventurers to a halt, no matter how powerful they are. The thought of "what might be beyond?" can play on their minds.

We have detailed doors at Ennead Games they might be paranoid about. You can create a few well-described doors at once from Cosmic Peril Adventure or maybe it is a secret door from donjon. Or a magical portal from Chaotic Shiny

You might like a special key for the door from Springhole too

If pdfs are your thing try The Incredible World of Doors and Locks or a trapped deadly dungeon door (pdf)

Dungeon Dressing

Seen: Pile of ash.

Heard: Low rumbling.

Smelt: Smoky lamp oil

... from sights, smells & sounds at Ennead Games

Rooms and caverns need furniture to search, altars to ransack and bodies to loot. So try a furniture generator, a random altar (Ennead Games) and a bodies chart from the Dungeon Dozen.

Then there is home to many a treasure or trap, a chest generator Ennead Games.

Auto Roll Tables (under the Dungeon tab) has all sorts of dungeons and ideas. There are several tables with dungeon dressing at r/DnDBehindTheScreen on Reddit.

And something to put on any surface try some graffiti from donjon, more detailed graffiti from DnD Speak and a few mystic runes from Chaotic Shiny.

More Recommendations?

I'll keep this guide updated so please suggest Dungeon generators in the comments or on my Discord server