Tenkar’s Cavern - dungeon design

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayYBNCc-9VY

(And this has overlap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llvjPbJdFro)

He’s got some good stuff. Here he says 3 main things, OSR especially-

• Loops
• Telegraphing
• And breathing life into the dungeon

Loops, ok… hidden passages etc. And loops in paths coming back to familiar rooms. 

• Give a shorter but more dangerous route option, make it obvious. 
• Longer route is ok, but torch timers. 

Telegraphing

• Pit trap
• Dust patterns shift
• A faint draft rises from cracks
• Scratched stone that hints at past victims
• The torchlight disappears into blackness beneath the flagstone
• Other trap
• Scortch marks
• Dampness
• Dried blood or a dried corpse from before
• Monster nearby 
• Strange smells
• Claw marks
• Half eaten meals
• A rhythmic thumping echo 
• Treasure
• A glint under the ruble
• A recent footprint 
• Soot(?) that isn’t as old as the rest . ???

Make it alive. Motion

• Dripping water
• Distant clanging
• Warm or cold air currents
• Rats bolting past in fear of something 
• Chanting from deeper holes

Make it alive, Factions and territory

• Factions n territory 
• Ex, goblins avoid undead rooms. 
• Ex a cult in lower levels. 
• A beast that denies passage

Rooms exist in 3 states, normal, disturbed, or reacting. Example… patrols doubled bcuz party. Boss moves new area. Smoke alters navigation bcuz they made fire.