One of the things that I don’t think is common for a lot of newer DM’s to think about is one of the simplest things that you can do to add real challenge to a dungeon crawl.

With a lot of new dungeon masters (mainly talking about ones that I have seen playing in the 5th edition), they seem to struggle to make the mega-dungeons really challenging and interesting for their players. There is an element of threat that exists in those games that is missing in the newer editions. I am not about to go on about how the old days were better because the characters were disposable, so don’t worry. I think that change to the game was actually a massive improvement. But the threat doesn’t have to be life or death, just the presence of suspense enough to let the mind run with the what if.

If you have the chance to go back and play the original Resident Evil games, you will know that one of the most powerful storytelling elements you have at your disposal is something you most likely overlooked. If you don’t know what I am talking about please do yourself a favor and go watch some of the footage of the original game (or play some if you have the chance… mmmm tank controls). But the cool thing is that every time you step through a doorway, you are greeted by the same creaking sound, and animation that stretches out the process, and no knowledge of what is waiting for you on the other side of the door. Play it long enough and you start to fear the doors, and if you don’t fear them they are definitely a harbinger of things to come. This is the element that we are trying to harness…

What type of door makes sense?

Think about this: many of the places that you go to on a daily basis have very distinctive doors, and their functions are varied. There are shop doors, mostly open via glass, to allow you to see all of the carefully curated goods for sale. There are some places that have fire doors for utilities and safety. There are some doors that are gated to prevent people from entering or to tell them this is not the place to be. Mausoleums also have doors, they serve a special purpose as well, interestingly both functional as well as symbolic.

So think about the location that the players are in and what it is that they would be looking upon. No matter what is happening during the gameplay, when the players come up to the door, this is the moment of making a choice. Do they risk what is possibly on the other side of that door?

Think about any decorations or markings that would be on the door, as we like to adorn some special doors in our world. Maybe it bears the markings of the king and the royal guard. Maybe it contains the markings of an ancient order trying to keep the creatures within sealed. Possibly, it’s a door that says “Fae Staff Only”; it’s your game. But with each of these, there is some small hint that you can give to the players that something is about to happen. The puzzle before the encounter.

How thick is that door?

Again this is going to be dependent on the type of location that you are at and the nature of the room that is on the other side. Does it make sense for a bedroom to have a stone door, probably not. But there might be a very intriguing reason that this bedroom might. That’s up to you and your players, but the point of this is: the first adversary that your players will encounter is going to be the door.

The thickness of the door is going to affect other aspects of the behavior of the door, and remember that in a place where everything is trying to kill you, there is going to be nothing better than describing the screeching of an unoiled door when the party is attempting to be stealthy.

Does it stay open or does it close?

Once you have gotten the door open then you have only really started the fun of all of this, if you think about doors as a binary state either being open or closed you are missing a lot of really interesting possibilities. For example, how would the players react to having to make a CON check to see if they could slide through a door that only partially opens, failing that, they would have to have someone give them a strength check to get them through the rest of the way? What happens if they open the door and there are objects placed in the space to make it impossible for them to pass through but would alert others to their presence? How would players react if they opened a door only to find a wall behind the door (similar to the Winchester mansion)?

Is it smooth or permanently stuck?

There is a big difference between a door that open easily and one that doesn’t, but the inverse of that it also true, there is nothing worse than trying to flee from a situation and wishing that the door would close and it doesn’t. While it is assumed that any intelligent creature is capable of opening the door, that doesn’t mean that everything can. This can lead to some very interesting situations when they assume that the creature on the other side of the door is going to give up the chase just because the door shuts.

If you live in a house with a pet and there is at least one room that opens into another, that creature knows how to navigate the space. In a dungeon, the same would be assumed to be true as well… if there is a displacer beast that is living in the dungeon, it knows the areas well, and it knows which doors open and which close automatically. It knows how to navigate the space because it lives down there. If it lives down there, then it hunts down there. Creatures like that don’t trap themselves in a room, never to escape (although if it isn’t a permanent resident, then it is possible that it’s confused for the beginning). So if there is a room and the players shut the sticky door on it, it’s fun to have them run into the same encounter with their back against the door four rounds later now with their back to the stuck door.

Bringing it all together

I hope that this has given you some interesting things to think about in the realm of doing a dungeon crawl, or really any of your encounters. Doors are something that can be overplayed but utilized at the right time, they can have a huge cinematic experience for your players.

As always, I hope that you have found this interesting, and if you have any thoughts, please feel free to reach out.