I’ve blogged before about the 5-Room Dungeon here, and why its structure needs a bit of help sometimes to make it really shine in one-shots. I’ve been thinking about it more lately – inspired by this post which talks about 5RDs being scene sequences instead of locations. That post was talking about location-based design… but I’m interested in scene-based design as well. So what can we do to hack 5RDs a bit more flexible and epic?

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Issues with the 5 Room Dungeon

To remind readers, the 5RD, as created by Johnn Four, follows the suggested structure below.

• Room One: Entrance and Guardian
• Room Two: Puzzle or Roleplaying Challenge
• Room Three: Trick or Setback
• Room Four: Climax, Big Battle or Conflict
• Room Five: Reward, Revelation or Plot Twist

What potential problems does this throw up? Well, to start with it’s super linear – I covered in the earlier post how to mitigate this, either by mixing up the order, or allowing multiple solutions to each scene. But it’s also a bit limited in the kinds of scenes it throws up, and so I’ve got three ways to mix it up to try.

The Multiples

Basically, instead of have 5 rooms that you progress through in turn, you’ve now got 2-3 options at each stage. You probably only need one for the Climax and the Reward, so you’ve now got 8 scenes / “Rooms” in your “Dungeon.” You could even sketch this into an actual dungeon map, but as I’m going to come to later, this is more a scene-based structure really. 

As you play, you go through the stages of the 5 Room Dungeon (it’s a quick setup, after all) – but you can go to any of the multiple options presented for each one. If you think this sounds like a lot of prep, it’s not – often you’ll be using the same NPCs or adversaries just in a different context. For me, if you’re going to have non-combat options in 1 and 4, I’d want them to be framed as skill challenges so there’s some baked-in peril.

Take, as a simple example, an “clear the hex” adventure where you want to chase the bandits out of the swamp where they’ve been bothering friendly lizardmen. 

A “traditional” 5 Room Dungeon might look like this:

1 – Entrance / Guardian

• Ambush bandit patrols while entering their part of the swamp, taking a prisoner

2 – Puzzle / Roleplaying Challenge

• Having demonstrated your superior might, negotiate or bribe the captured bandits to find the secret lair

3 – Trick / Setback

• Of course, the bandit leader betrays you, and tries to raise the alarm – can you chase him down in time?

4 – Climax / Big Battle / Conflict

• Fight the bandit leader, either surrounded by his tightest lieutenants (if you snuck in successfully) or with a horde of bandits

5- Reward / Revelation

• Discover the bandits were bankrolled by the King to drive the lizardmen out (along with a bit of treasure, obviously), thus setting up the next conflict.

It’s not terrible, but it’s not great either – and there’s a few points where the linearity is obvious. What if they don’t take a prisoner? What if they take sufficient precautions (or offer a better reward) for him to not betray them? Splitting it into multiples, it can look like this.

1 – Entrance / Guardian

• Ambush bandit patrols while entering their part of the swamp, taking a prisoner
• OR sneak in and observe the bandit raids, interrupting them to take a prisoner, or just track them back to camp
• OR ambush and run them off to see where they go

2 – Puzzle / Roleplaying Challenge

• Having demonstrated your superior might, negotiate or bribe the captured bandits to find the secret lair
• OR track a fleeing bandit, through the twisting, booby-trapped secret routes to the bandit lair

3 – Trick / Setback

• Of course, the bandit leader betrays you, and tries to raise the alarm – can you chase him down in time?
• OR the bandits know you’re coming, and you’re surrounded and captured
• OR the bandit camp is surrounded by restless spirits who turn the PCs against one another
• OR a Kingsguard patrol shows up and demands you leave the swamp

4 – Climax / Big Battle / Conflict

• Fight the bandit leader, either surrounded by his tightest lieutenants (if you snuck in successfully) or with a horde of bandits
• OR trick the ghosts into helping you to scare them away
• OR negotiate with the bandits – maybe discovering they are in the employ of the King

5- Reward / Revelation

• Discover the bandits were bankrolled by the King to drive the lizardmen out (along with a bit of treasure, obviously), thus setting up the next conflict.

There’s many more options there, see, and a few different ways to play it. It’s also a good way to add some depth to the adventure – the restless swamp spirits provide you with another faction that you can work with or against.

So, have you tried this or a similar method? There are more 5 Room Dungeon hacks to come!