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No, really, I need some. It's for a thing I'm planning. I'll start with some examples. Feel free to get as specific or as general as you want.
1. The dungeon where all the traps and machinery are made of bones.
2. The dungeon overtaken by plant life. No, it isn't carnivorous (for the most part). The place has just gotten really overgrown. Some traps have broken down, while others (especially glyphs and the sort) function unpredictably. The monsters that haven't left mostly just tolerate it.
3. The dungeon where gravity reverses every ten minutes. Whenever this happens, the levels themselves scramble, so you can end up four levels higher or lower than you intended to be. Many of the traps and monsters are designed to capitalize on this.
4. The "megadungeon" that stretches across multiple neighboring villages, providing places to withdraw into the village you're currently under for supplies if you're clever enough to spot them.
5a. You actually have to go up into the village to advance—either because you need a certain item or piece of intel, or because the entrance to the next "branch" of this dungeon is located somewhere in the down.
5. The dungeon where anybody who dies rises as an undead in 1d4 rounds (or hours). They aren't necessarily hostile, though they will be if their living selves would had reason. Don't use your henchmen to spring traps, guys.
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6. A microdungeon that is externally all one room, but functions as a regular (is bizarre) dungeon equivalent to a bag of holding consisting of multiple rooms in an extra dimensional space.
6a. Or, more weirdly (or maybe less, I'm tired), a dungeon that is one big room, but "splits" into more when you go to certain parts. For instance, there's "the tile room", which you find yourself in when you go to the corner with the weird tiling, or "the chest room", which you find yourself in when you go to the chest at the end of the room.
It's kind of like one of those games where each thing you click on in the room launches you into a separate minigame.
7.) A dungeon where everything is clowns, clown themed, or somehow clown or funhouse related.
Used this one before. Had jesters that breathed fire and everyone had to save or become more clown-like (the Monk got a big honkin' pair of clown shoes permanently attached to him. Well, as long as they wer ethere anyway.).
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8.) The fetch quest dungeon. It consists of finding a series of gems all over the dungeon. Once said gems are placed on their proper pedestals, the PCs are teleported outside and the dungeon shrink down. Said shrunken dungeon is they to enter a different dungeon.
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9) A hall-of-mirrors style dungeon. Formed by lava/dragon's breath or similar coming into contact with desert sand, there are some transparent walls allowing you to see a distant goal, or allowing enemies to watch the approach. There are also mirrored walls and passages, which can be used to disorient foes or to mess with illusion or pattern type spells.
12) A dungeon where every room had two doors to enter it, a safe door and a trapped door, and a clue would be located in each room to hint at which of the next two doors was trapped.
14) The old Dungeon adventure Ex Libris (essentially a grid of rooms where rooms randomly shifted to the side or up/down, and you had to fetch "keys" to control the movement so you could escape)
Well... anything that DOESN'T look like a dungeon would work.
15) A library, like a HUGE one, with a few magic tomes hidden left and right.
16) A museum with animated exhibits.
17) A mansion... as dumb as it sounds, a mansion with multiple accessible floors, multiple rooms and wide spaces doesn't scream ominous... until whatever haunts the place shows up. I'm not talking about a castle, but an actual house.
19) A dungeon or castle that is actually made up almost entirely of a series of illusions and the monsters that are trapped there, maintained by a trickster gnome sorcerer who steals from the adventurers who wander in there.
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20) A dungeon that's all treasure, high-level magic items, and great loot. It turns to dust when you leave.
HAH!
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22) a dungeon that look like a giant chamber with treasure chests sporadically lying around...
But the camber is actually a whole complex with invisible force walls... oh and traps (magic and mundane) everywhere...
If you want to be cruel make like 50% of the chests mimics...
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23) A dungeon with all the walls made of ice- along with 4 magical gems that act to keep the temperature below zero. If the party gets greedy and removes the gems the temperature rises, and the ice starts to melt...
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24) The placement test dungeon
Low level PCs get a tip about an old treasure laden dungeon, have to make knowledge local checks and pay bribes to get more information. Finally find someone that knows where to get a map of the dungeon for a price, and all secondary sources says the offer is legitimate.
PCs get map (by paying or other means), and dungeon is trap filled with modest treasures - no monsters or living inhabitants. Oddly there are remains of past adventurers, yet no equipment left behind.
Behind the scenes - the dungeon was recently built by an eccentric that spreads the rumors and sells information to fund this venture. The eccentric also collects the equipment of unsuccessful adventurers to pay for the "trinket loot". The whole thing is a test, and those that pass have shown a knack for doing dangerous tasks reliably. The identities of such adventurers are sold by the eccentric to those willing to hire skilled, proven adventurers rather than random armed hobos.
Dungeon 6 from Knitifine sounds like a monster driven TARDIS - or a certain walking hut.
25. The dungeon where nothing works as you expect. An apparent door opens a giant sideways treasure chest full of copper pieces (potentially crushing small people who open it). Opening an apparent treasure chest causes all the doors in the room to swing open. The lever causes the door to open...and shut and open and shut so fast that getting near it is potentially deadly. The chained-up door isn't holding back a horrible boss monster—it is the boss monster, and you just released it.
Bonus points: The dungeon is infested with nilbogs.
No, what's mean is that before the party entered they contracted with an NPC to pay them to carry around their stuff, with the NPC getting paid based on the value of the items acquired/carried... you now have to pay up, the party is good-aligned, and you started with nothing... welcome to crippling debt...That's not eccentric! That's just mean! :P20) A dungeon that's all treasure, high-level magic items, and great loot. It turns to dust when you leave.
HAH!
I'd call it "The Dungeon of Neutral Evil Conversion." Especially if that NPC is a djinni who does this all the time. Heyoo!
26) The massive greenhouse of an eccentric wizard with habitats for all of his most dangerous plant life.
The '15' puzzle dungeon, composed of sections on rails that can slide past each other. At some interval, changes occur, with distant grinding noises, near grinding noises, or Reflex saves vs Prone status, depending on whether the section moving is far, near, or the same as the section the party is in.
The 'gap' in the sections might be impassible, or it might be the actual way forward. If it is, it's surely trapped/inhabited/machinery...
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28) (assuming Thornborn just forgot the number) Shamelessly stolen from Goblinscomic: A dungeon you enter through the sword of a fallen titan. Inside you have to race towards the end. Why? Because you have to be quicker than all the other partys - which are your party from alternate dimensions.
29) Also shamelessly stolen: Dungeon in control of a mysterious, but curious entity which continuously talks to the party. Every new chamber...er, room is declared as some kind of test. What exactly is the entity testing? What useful info can be obtained from "How will the party survive five orcs who can breathe fire?" Nobody knows...
29a) Bonus points for portals.
30) Dungeon in which every room is filled with fire as soon as the party leaves. Except for one. What is different about this one room? Nothing, but it will screw with the party!
31)Let's have an Adventure! To enter you need a key amulet. You usually have to defeat a goblin or kobold to take it. It's an amulet of inescapable location(keyed to a crystal ball in another universe where the events are broadcast on their TV networks) that when pressed to a keyhole next to the door causes it to open for 10 rounds.
Each amulet has a different power. 1=+1 AC stacks with anything, 2=Spell storing 3 levels, 3=+1 to hit and damage with primary weapon(can be natural), 4=Can cause hypnosis if swung back and forth, 5=Hold monster 3 times a day, 6=Wearer can lay on hands like a paladin of same level, 7=first level magic missile once a day per person(you can pass it around), ect...
In the dungeon there is a beautiful Spinx who spins a wheel for each character(The wheel has both monsters and treasures on it). Elsewhere the ghost of Monty Haul lets each party member choose door number one, door number two, door number three, the curtain, or what's in the box. Warning, in this version of Celebrity Name Game, the bowl actually explodes!
32) For low level characters, an enchanted dungeon in which each character sees and hears something different. The party has to figure out who is seeing or hearing the right thing for different rooms (race-based or class-based). Obviously a very high DC to disbelieve. Interacting can reveal the truth but can also be harmful if the characters are not careful. As an example, the Half-Orc sees a small lava-filled chasm and jumps over it to a landing platform, but only the Elf in the party sees that that there really is no landing platform. In the next room (where they pause to heal the Half-Orc), only the human can see that they are not alone!
33. A klein bottle.
34. A door in an abandoned wizard's tower leads to his small demiplane.
All the limited demiplanes have merged to become one big plane. It's populated by descendants of servants and monsters who were being farmed for parts. Some ex demiplanes are actual farms for worlds where crops cannot be grown. Some are prisons with cells containing either killers, monsters, or political prisoners. The prison guards range from corrupt to rules obsessed.
35. A Never Winter Nights Module called Bortiis. The entire city is the dungeon. (most dungeons in NWN that people made not all doors opened, in this case, ALL the doors opened) Some of the doors lead to an extra dimensional space where there there is a BBEG. These doors are marked in some way since the city is so huge. Some of the extra dimensional stuff is ripped out of video games. One of the extra dimensional spaces is Dune. Another is The Matrix. (the writer for this mod wasn't very good). Through out this dungeon you will run into familiar adventurers like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lara Croft. In fact there is a whole room full of them!
There is more to this, but I will leave it there.
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36. Everything is made of pillows and cushions, and the monsters are all plush versions of regular monsters. Everything does non-lethal damage. Any lethal type of damage from weapons or spells destroys the monsters and cushions, but fills the air with stuffing and feathers, making it difficult to see, and at times breathe.
36. Everything is made of pillows and cushions, and the monsters are all plush versions of regular monsters. Everything does non-lethal damage. Any lethal type of damage from weapons or spells destroys the monsters and cushions, but fills the air with stuffing and feathers, making it difficult to see, and at times breathe.
It's Adventure Time!
36. Everything is made of pillows and cushions, and the monsters are all plush versions of regular monsters. Everything does non-lethal damage. Any lethal type of damage from weapons or spells destroys the monsters and cushions, but fills the air with stuffing and feathers, making it difficult to see, and at times breathe.It's Adventure Time!
Is this the dungeon you find Feather Tokens? And you have to have a pillow fight to find them?!? ;P
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37. Dungeon Nomic: The dungeon space itself is a single room. However, the room transforms into new spaces with treasures, monsters, deathtraps, etc. depending on the actions taken and statements made by the PCs. They have to figure out how the rules of the transformations work to find the room that leads to the exit.
29) Also shamelessly stolen: Dungeon in control of a mysterious, but curious entity which continuously talks to the party. Every new chamber...er, room is declared as some kind of test. What exactly is the entity testing? What useful info can be obtained from "How will the party survive five orcs who can breathe fire?" Nobody knows...
29a) Bonus points for portals.
"HELL-o, and, again, WELL-come to the Aperture Thamaturgy construct aided enrichment center. You-havvvvee-been-processed and are now ready to begin the test proper. Before we start however keep in mind that although fun... and learning are the primary goals of all enRICHment center activities, serious injuries may OCCur. For your own safety and the safetyyyyy oooooffffff ooothers, pleaserefrainfromtouchinnnnnggGGG...*FIZZLE*"
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38. The Clockwork Ball: a demi-plane dungeon decked out like Versailles. Numerous clockwork characters go about, holding a party. Not following an enigmatic set of rules draws disapproving stares, and eventually their ire. Brief, somewhat repetitive conversations can be held with the clockwork party-goers.
39. Sinking Ship: a half-sunk massive ship, filled with treasure. Parts of the ship are sunken, and massive arm-length eels occaisionally harry those who attempt navigating the submerged portions of the ship. The best treasure in towards the bottom, and players will have to budget time at various air pockets to get it.
40. Hunting Grounds: a dungeon populated with a few sparse encounters that are easy encounters for the PCs, but all have the common theme of making a poor meal for large predatorial creatures. Have one such creature, with a CR of 3 above the party level, stalking the corridor.
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41. Tidal wave: the weirdest one I ever ran was a dungeon on a Cliffside overlooking the sea below. The first room is a tomb with a secret door predictably under a sepulcher. By opening the secret door a pump begins pulling massive amounts of seawater up and starting the wave. What follows is part dungeon, part Chase Scene as you must speed towards the end collecting whatever clues, treasure and info you can along a winding stairway with galleries until the bottom which is an enormous, flooded hall. Finally you cross the water to the final tomb where upon defeating the last obstacle the room seals and begins flooding. Ironic that the faux-stone sarcophagus in the last tomb is in fact made of wood and large enough for four, Medium sized creatures...
House of Mirrors dungeon
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42. An underground dungeon, as soon as you walk into the initial hallway you see the body of a dead man. Branching off of the hallway you find a lounge, a dining room, a kitchen, a ballroom, a conservatory, a billiard room, a library, and a study. Randomly placed in each room you find a candlestick, a dagger, a lead pipe, a revolver, some rope and a spanner. As the players move from room to room, their skins start changing colour, one red, one green, etc. also, as they move around they get a niggling feeling at the back of their mind that one of the party murdered the victim.
44. Each room or area is contained inside a mobile entity (think golems and/or "inside-giant-creature dungeons"), and the dungeon is traversed by leaping from room to room to find keys or the like, or to reach a stable platform on the other side of a chasm/lake of acid/otherwise impassable region.
45. A dungeon containing a old man who wanders from room to room. The only way out is to kill him and claim the magic teleporting sphere he swallowed, but he is oddly lucky, and only one brave adventurer can be the one to claim the sphere. Luckily, weapons such as monkey paws and Killing Joke books are everywhere.
46. And his stupid Scottish Terrier is there, too.
47. I had an idea for a thrice cursed dungeon of reality. Within it everything is realistic. Everything is damp and all the monsters are sick. All the weapons found there have rust and tetanus. Falling damage goes up by squared, cubed, ect. It was 1D6, 1D6X1D6, then 1D6X1D6X1D6, and so on. One way to get there was the collapsed section of a room ceiling. In the wizards study, the crystal ball only worked there. You take it out of the room and it becomes inert.There was a broken trap that made noises and never really trapped anything. There was a room where remains automatically animated.
I ended up using parts of it for The Cleaves.
50. The entire dungeon is a real place twisted into a dying child's nightmare
51. The "dungeon" is a ruined city completely consumed by flora
52. A dungeon where each room is a famous painting the PCs must resolve some conflict for
53. A series of pocket dimensions based on popular video games
54. Hundreds of magnetized plates floating in an ionized field with random polarity
55. A dungeon controlled entirely by different songs; players are invited to sing in order to influence secret doors, traps etc.
I actually ran #53 when I was a little kid, based on Intellevision games popular at the time. There was a Tron section where PCs could drive light cycles and floating tanks and even collect a laser disc as a weapon; there was a racing section; there was even a place where you could get a rebel's machine gun from the game Utopia.
Nowadays it would probably be even cooler!
56. A nice conservatory which turns into one overflowing with vicious plants, to a twisted magic jungle, which eventually leads to a portal to the Abyss if you go too far. There should be clear warnings to prevent accidentally plane shifting; maybe the PCs have been hired to shut down the portal.
57. A magical place where you take on some of the attributes of defeated opponents, until you defeat another and take on the new opponents attributes. Expect to see PCs running from oozes.
58. A crashed Tardis or spaceship. High tech rooms such as medical bays, transporter rooms, and labs. Aliens, bug eyed monsters, and robots that were not programed for this. Devices that could burn a hole in creatures or raise the dead.
59. A ball-pit dungeon. Slowing movement and hiding opponents.
60. A dungeon where the connections between rooms are metal slides. You have to be careful sliding down (traps, monsters, etc.) and you may have a hard time climbing up (because the slides are slippery).
61. A dungeon with invisible walls - you can see your destination and even the monsters. But you cannot go straight to where you want because you have to traverse the maze of invisible walls.
62. A dungeon where all the monsters are civilized and reasonable, yet all the humans/humanoids are barbaric and wild...and dangerous.
63. An overgrown dungeon where the sentient plants are your greatest allies, hope you didn't hack your way through the vines