There’s something classic about encountering a proper dungeon in Dungeons & Dragons. It’s right in the name, after all. Grey stone corridors, skeletal monsters, and swinging axe traps are all part of the original experience. But… why? Sure, a dilapidated dungeon is a great adventuring setting. But they don’t always make sense.
Why would a crypt have deadly traps in each doorway. Why does a forgotten stronghold have a spike trap in the middle of the bedroom? Why was some powerful magic item left alone? Well fear not! We have some interesting and reasonable excuses for why there’s a random dungeon scattered throughout your adventuring landscape.
1
Elminster Is Leaving Loot There On Purpose
It’s Enrichment For Adventurers
This one is canonical, believe it or not. Old sourcebooks from the Gary Gygax era (namely the 1998 Dungeons & Dragons book The Temptation of Elminster) give an explanation as to why these random magic items are found in old caves, forgotten strongholds, and the like.
Elminster, a powerful wizard, was instructed by the goddess of magic, Mystra, to craft interesting loot and magic items, and to leave them where other, younger, spellcasters can discover them. He would go as far to falsify how old they seem to make them more dramatic. This was because Mystra wanted to encourage more people to become interested in magic without being directly involved.
2
Acererak Wants Souls
Passive Income
Acererak was one of the most powerful liches to ever exist. That kind of power requires a LOT of souls. But this big baddie didn’t go and harvest such things one by one. Instead, he made traps for overly ambitious adventurers: Dungeons.
Make a dungeon, fill it with tempting loot, then with deadly traps. Spread rumors about the loot, and you’ll get wannabe heroes going in to claim it, only to die in the dungeon. The catch? Anyone who dies in the dungeon has their soul claimed by the Lich.
3
The Traps Were To Keep Something In
Not To Keep You Out
Usually, traps are set to catch someone trying to break into a place they don’t belong. But what if that wasn’t the case? Maybe at the heart of the dungeon is… well… a dungeon! It could be a prison to dangerous monsters, immortal demons, or something else that, should it somehow escape, might perish to the traps laid out.
This could lead to an interesting inversion of the dungeon crawling idea. Instead of struggling to get in, the party now has to try and get out before the uncaged baddie catches up to them.
4
It’s A Hag’s Illusion
Pinch Me, I’m Dreaming
Hags are powerful fey creatures, capable of manipulating one’s perception of an environment. In that case, maybe those deadly traps and strange monsters the party encounters in a forgotten dungeons aren’t real. Instead, they are powerful illusions created by a hag to keep nosy folks out.
Maybe each trap deals psychic damage instead of physical, to allude to this illusion. A wise observer might be able to see past the illusion, making them immune to such traps. The hag at the end can be justification for interesting loot, too.
5
Clever Kobold/Goblins Took Over
Classic
Why mess with what works? A goblin gang hiding out in a forgotten stronghold is a classic D&D trope, and one that plays perfectly into the idea of a trapped environment. This goblin gang holed up in a nearby ruins, setting up crude traps and hording the loot they’ve stolen from nearby caravans.
If you want something a bit more underground, like a cave or crypt, then kobolds would work just as well, especially since they have an affinity for shiny gemstones the party can find in the end.
6
Bandits Made A Hideout There
Like Goblins, But Smarter
This is more or less the slightly more sophisticated version of the previous entry. Bandits, hiding out from the law, might have made some ruins their new base of operations. They’re smart enough to have more clever of traps, and to not accidentally trigger them themselves. And the loot found can be from their raids.
This will arguably feel the least ‘dungeon-y’ of the bunch, since there will be firepits, beds, and casual conversation. A warm hearth doesn’t feel like a dungeon. If that is a concern, consider having the party find the hideout, but all bandits are already dead, having been slain by something dangerous and scary that lies within as recently as last year.
7
It’s A Burial Site
Don’t Disturb Their Resting Place
What are crypts and mausoleums but a dungeon for the dead? Similar to myths regarding Egyptian pyramids being full of traps to protect the buried Pharaoh, this crypt could be ladden with traps as a way of protecting the dead laid to rest there.
Monsters are even easier to determine: theyre the zombies, skeletons, and ghosts of the ones buried there. Valuable loot could be rare items buried alongside the ruler or wealthy members, who’s coffins lie deep within the corridors.
8
A Single Gnome Is Responsible
Ol’ Wambus Is Up To His Old Tricks Again
Instead of traps being made to keep people out, what if they were made simply for a love of the game? A gnome tinkerer with too much time and money might have decided to construct a fun-house style dungeon system, connecting several trap-filled rooms together to one glorious goal. At the end is a prize for any brave contestant willing to try.
Want to keep things looking forgotten and decrepit? Have this dungeon funhouse be long since abandoned, painting a musty and dark visage over what may have once been a clean and colorful dungeonscape.
9
It’s A Fragment Of Another Plane
A Lost Castle From The Shadowfell or Nine Hells
If something seems out of place, it’s probably because it was never supposed to be there in the first place. With grandios magic happening all the time, it’s not out of line to think that some overzealous wizard accidentally summoned a chunk of another realm into the material plane. Now that dreadful landmark stands as a dark and dangerous contrast to the real world.
Maybe in the Nine Hells, it was a fancy castle. But by being ripped into the player world, it’s become derilect, the unnatural stone hallways growing dusty as devil creatures lie in wait and hellish magic items are left unclaimed.
10
It Guards A Portal
Or Some Other Important Landmark
A stronghold is an ideal place to protect something, especially if that something is a landmark that can’t be moved. Something like a portal to another plane. Build stone brick tunnels and walls, fill it with traps and tricks, and hide it away from the world, hoping no one finds it. But maybe one day, those guarding this stronghold were gone.
Now it’s been left to ruins, but the portal, and all the traps, remain. In this way, the monster you fight can be coming from the portal, and the reward can be a grand adventure in a new land.
