Let’s face it, time is a luxury for most of us. Jobs, kids, significant others, life gets in the way. Dungeon/game mastering falls into the back of our minds and the bottom of our priority lists. However, running a game need not be so stressful. It is a game, first and foremost, ameter all. This is supposed to be fun!

The five-room dungeon is a template you can use to create adventures when you’re running short on free time before your next session.

Why Use the 5 Room Dungeon?

There is a lot of advice that I could give to a game master that specifically applies to Dungeons and Dragons 5E. Or 3.5. Or Vampire the Masquerade. Most of that advice is going to apply to one of those games, and maybe through a bit of effort could translate to others. This isn’t like that. This is a tool for anyone’s toolkit, regardless of rules or setting. Heck, you could apply this template to writing a book.

The strength of a five room dungeon is that it provides a satisfying course of events with less than usual thought or preparation. Should you use this for every single session? No. But it will give you something workable, and fast.

You can place a five room dungeon anywhere and fill it with anything. It doesn’t even need to be a dungeon (nor does it need five rooms, for that matter. These “rooms” are more like challenges, or events). Playing a post apocalyptic rpg? Your “dungeon” is an abandoned warehouse. Wilderness survival? This can be a trek through a wooded area.

Let’s take a look at each of the rooms below.

Room 1: Entrance

You have searched through the forest and have finally found the entrance to a long forgotten tomb. Before it stands a 10 foot statue of a guard. Your eyes may be deceiving you, but you’re pretty sure the statue just moved.

A concerned citizen points you toward the backdoor of a warehouse. He swears he just saw Dastardly McEvilGuy drag a helpless child through the door. You find the door is locked, but spot a broken window two stories above.

This “room” is one of the most important, but probably/usually the least thought out.

The purpose here is not only to start the story, but to give the players a reason to care. Sure, you can just tell them they’re at such and such temple: go. They showed up to play, they’ll play. But that really isn’t bringing your A-game.

Bonus points, start with a guardian to fight with, or some skill challenge to get in. That way, it gets the action going and dice rolling. Finding a door and walking in is boring. Dodging the poison dart that shot out of it isn’t.

Room 2: Puzzle

You enter a large, circular cavern. Before you stands a statue of a robed figure with an hourglass in one hand, and a dagger in the other. On the pedestal the statue stands upon, you find an inscription, written in draconic. It reads, “Before you or behind you. The path is clear.”

Ok, some people like puzzles, some don’t. This room doesn’t have to be one. The deal here is that you want to mix things up (i.e., probably not combat). This is the opportunity to give your players something to do that isn’t stabbing and hacking their way through something. A role playing challenge or maybe some plot development are great for this room as well.

Of course, your party might be a raving pack of murder hobos. If that’s the case go ahead and throw in more combat. To each their own.

Room 3: Setback

So, your party is filled with actual, genuine heroes. They got through the last two rooms with no issues at all. Your puzzle was way too easy, and that temple guardian was a scrub.

Now make them pay.

Just kidding, sort of. This is the part of the story where we want to make them feel vulnerable. Like something is actually on the line. This is usually achieved with a particularly difficult combat scenario, but it doesn’t have to be. You could make it something as simple as a plot twist. Maybe they had a map this whole time, and this is 100% where that treasure or magic item they’re looking for is…until the floor caves in.

Whatever you decide to do here, just make them sweat. High stakes reap higher rewards.

Room 4: Boss Fight

Every great adventure needs a showdown. Someone or something has to stand between the heroes and victory, and it can’t just be some silly monster.

Well, it absolutely can be (and probably is), but that isn’t the point. It needs to be more than that. They’ve had at least one, if not multiple combat encounters by now, and just slapping on more health or damage output isn’t going to do the trick.

Make this an event. Throw in some odd, difficult terrain for them to deal with, or maybe make the big bad try to talk his way out of fighting them. The more personality you add to the combat, the more it feels like a genuine “Boss Fight”.

Room 5: Reward

It’s hard work being heroes, and now they get something back for their effort. Insert cool magic items and piles of money here.

We could just end there, but of course we won’t. If you have something planned for the next adventure, this is a great place to go ahead and hook them. Even if you don’t, just throw something in there if you’re feeling it. Along with the dingus they came in here looking for, throw in a map, let the enemy escape right as they had them, or add another kink in the plan that they have to sort out next time.

Conclusion

This shouldn’t be your go-to for every single adventure. Run this several times in a row and someone is going to pick up on the pattern. Things will get boring quickly from there. But if you ever find yourself in a pinch and need something fast, you can’t go wrong with a classic five room dungeon.

Hopefully this has explained the template and the overall process to making one. If I missed anything, made some grievous grammatical error, or if you just want to say hi, leave a comment below.

Happy DM-ing!