Designing dungeons was one of the first skills I learned as an RPG enthusiast back in the 80’s. I spent hours with graph paper and a ruler, working out how many rooms each area would comprise and what kinds of fascinating encounters players would uncover as they journeyed through each map. Along that same vein, one of my favorite boxed sets of D&D happens to be the old Ruins of Undermountain set, which contained absolute truck-loads of dungeons and dungeon-related goodness for the discerning DM.

However, later in life, I started to enjoy other aspects of gaming, particularly in games that were not D&D and followed a very different experience at the table. I started thinking about how I was building adventures and encounters in games like Champions, Savage Worlds, and Shadowrun, and I realized that there only a handful of important locations I needed my players to visit. Everything else came up on the fly or was highly influenced by the players’ own decisions.

In 2021, I resolved to run a special D&D game, one where I was going to put every reasonable effort into building immersion and creating a memorable experience for the players. Overall, that campaign is going very well, but there was an innovation that I used a few times that seemed to go over better than I had expected when I came up with the idea. I call it, “Round-table Dungeon.”

Using this approach, I create a few specific rooms that I deem important for the PCs to explore. I come up with the overall concept and story of the dungeon. And then, when it’s time for the player characters to enter the dungeon, we go a bit abstract.

Here’s how it works. I make sure the player characters have some understanding of the dungeon’s purpose. Then, I go around the table, offering each player an opportunity to create and describe some kind of encounter, trap, challenge, or environment that they have to traverse in order to continue. Once the player describes this obstacle, I then rule on what is needed to pass it—typically, this involves making a single skill check or using a particular ability. If the player’s description is particularly cool or entertaining, I award them a point of Inspiration. Once I’ve ruled on how the player characters navigate the obstacle, we move on to the next player and repeat the process.

An Example in Play

My players were about to enter a dungeon that was created by a Mind-Flayer as a “psychic prison” for a soulknife NPC (a mentor for one of the PCs). I had explained that this prison was close to the Far Ream and involved a number of unpleasant beings from that plane, and established the overall “feel” of the dungeon as a place for these beings to experiment on and exploit psychic prisoners. I had set aside three rooms that were vital for the players to find. One of these was the residence of the former ruler of the region, now an exile. The second was for the Warden, the Mind-Flayer themselves, and the special prisoner they were trying to rescue. The third room was designed as an encounter with some recurring NPC villains that were going to have a reveal that they were all being psychically controlled by the Warden—and were, in fact, implanted with his Illithid tadpoles. The rest I left up to my players.

As I went around the table, my players came up with some very interesting encounters and challenges to overcome. The first player described a disturbing “laboratory” where mind-controlled thralls carried out bizarre experiments on other prisoners. This required a Stealth roll to pass through without raising the alarm. The second player chose a long, trapped hallway filled with Intellect Devourers who scuttled along the floors and ceiling. This was a short combat scene, with each player contributing a single attack and then describing how they escaped the trap—which was a descending ceiling block intending to crush anyone left behind. We kept going around the table until each player had an opportunity to contribute, and when it was all over, we agreed that the experience was satisfying and fun.

What if the players fail?

Allowing the players to come up with challenges and encounters for the dungeon means that they’re aware of what they need to do to keep going. This also means that they’re going to feel frustrated if they completely fail to pass the challenge that they themselves came up with! As a DM, you have many tools in your toolbox to address this issue. One of my favorites is to say, “Failing means it just takes you longer,” and incur some other kind of penalty. I like to say that failing to pass the challenge means the group suffers a level of Exhaustion, or explain that the players must spend one hit dice (like you would during a short rest) to indicate just how difficult it was to get through. I’ve inflicted small amounts of damage (usually 1 or 2d6) as a consequence for failure, or explain that one of the spellcasters had to use one of their spell slots so that they could proceed. In any case, this approach differs from the more hard-core OSR mindset where you are more encouraged for the players to fail and moves it in a more narrative, story-focused approach, where the players still manage to keep going but accept a consequence for their poor die rolls.

Benefits of This Approach

Reduced Prep Time. Using this approach, a DM only needs to prepare for the rooms that are absolutely necessary for the experience. For me, this means rooms where the group are going to encounter a boss, a recurring NPC, engage with a major story beat, or advance the main plot. Once that is done, and assuming the DM adequately communicates to the players the overall theme and concept of the dungeon, they can do the rest!

Increased Player Engagement. Keeping your players engaged over several hours is not easy. However, one sure-fire way to keep their attention is to involve the players in what’s going on. The player who describes the encounter is going to be on the edge of their seat, seeing how everyone else deals with this challenge. Meanwhile, the rest of the players are likely to be taking notes or thinking about what they’re going to present on their turn.

Fast-Paced Dungeon Gameplay. For me, the biggest benefit of the round-table dungeon is that it makes dungeons a fun part of the game without absolutely dominating the session with exploration. I’ve enjoyed the standard dungeon crawls in the past, but as a DM, I often prefer to keep the focus on the player characters’ stories and reactions rather than guiding them through a maze. This approach lets me get the best of both worlds – my players have a good time engaging with the dungeon and I don’t have to build something that will take them all day to get through.

Problems of This Approach

It’s not for everyone. Not every gaming group is going to enjoy a round-table dungeon. It requires a level of trust and improvisation that not every player is comfortable with. In addition, many players are unsure of what kinds of challenges or encounters one might find in a dungeon, and therefore may simply be lost for ideas. Lastly, this kind of “collaborative DM’ing” works best with a group of experienced players rather than new ones.

It may break the immersion. Some groups vastly prefer to stay as immersed in-character as possible, and dislike the idea of shedding that skin in order to pitch an idea for something the group may encounter. Likewise, some players have no real idea about the relative strength of a monster to the party or how difficult a task might be for your group’s level. In these cases, it is always good for the DM to veto, embellish, or otherwise adjust the player’s contribution to make sure it works with the story of the campaign.

It may diverge from your plans. Likewise, a player might use a round-table dungeon to tell something of his own character’s story—and this is a good thing! However, they might choose to involve NPCs you already had plans for, an item they don’t yet control or own, or even bring in a villain you did not intend to involve in the scenario. Like the previous issue, this is where the DM needs to be clear about adjusting the encounter to better fit the campaign as a whole without outright denying the player a chance to participate in the process.

In Conclusion

The round-table dungeon is a powerful tool in my DM toolbox, and I’m likely going to use it again in the future of my D&D campaigns. I think I would continue to use regular dungeons as well—and there are some dungeon crawls that are excellent!—so this approach is not an entire replacement, for me. Instead, I plan to use it as the standard and then bring in the actual-for-real dungeons as a special event.