Some time back there was a very interesting article over at Role Playing Tips on The 5 Room Dungeon. The basic idea is to create a quick and interesting one shot adventure type of scenario involving a complex with just 5 rooms. To make things interesting each room has a distinctive feature:
- Entrance Guardian - The reason the dungeon hasn't been plundered before (e.g. trap, lost key, literal guardian);
- Puzzle or Role Playing Challenge - this room ought to allow access to both rooms 3 and 4;
- Red Herring - something about this room looks appealing but investigating it turns out to be a mistake;
- Climax, Big Battle or Conflict - this is where the big boss is, or where the climax of the plot leads;
- Plot Twist - a room that features something unexpected that takes the story in a new direction;
I'm paraphrasing quite a lot here and I would recommend that you read the full post in the link above if you decide to do the challenge. So the challenge just is to map a 5 room dungeon according to the above format. It doesn't have to be a "fantasy" dungeon, nor even a "dungeon" as we typically understand it. What does need to be included is the following:
- A five room complex of some sort;
- Some form of explanation of what's happening in each room (a key would be nice but a simple explanation will do).
One other thing, apparently they ran a contest over at RP Tips for writing a 5 Room Contest and if you are looking for inspiration or even just some examples you may want to check this out.
Please include the following in your entry threads:
Title each new thread December 2013 Entry - <your title>
Precede each WIP image with the tag ### Latest WIP ###.
The challenge will end on or around the first of January, and the winner will receive a golden compass, an enviable accolade here at the Guild.
*** December Challenge - Map a 5 Room Dungeon ***
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Originally Posted by Carbus
