(An Italian translation of this post is available on Dragons’ Lair)

It has been my experience that even the most creatively written dungeons tend to ignore the opportunity to be creative with their basic building blocks. This isn’t the worst thing. Stone walls and wood doors work. Dungeons don’t exist to be flashy, they exist to channel play into interesting situations. That said, something as simple as giving your dungeon carpeted floors and steel doors goes a long way towards making it memorable. After being introduced those details can easily slip into the background, until brought forward again when the Magic User tries to power up their Lightning Bolt by rubbing their socks on the carpet.

Because this table is made up of details which are meant to slip into the background, I have specifically indicated that each results applies to everything of its type. That’s just my framing, though. If you roll “Floors are carpeted,” it is worth considering that instead of all the floors, perhaps only some are carpeted. Alternatively it may be that all floors in a particular section are carpeted. For that matter you might also consider that if the floors are carpeted, what does that say about the walls? The ceilings? Are they carpeted as well, or do they have some other styling which seems like an appropriate accompaniment to carpeted floors?

Thanks are due to Qpop for proof reading this post.

The Dungeon d100s
1 – Themes
2 – Structures
3 – Rewards
4 – Doors, Floors, Walls, & Ceilings
5 – Factions
6 – Locks & Keys

Bonus – Auto-roller, at Liche’s Libram.

d100 Dungeon Doors, Floors, Walls & Ceilings:

1. Doors are all heavy portculli. They are difficult to lift, and will slam shut again the moment they are released unless special care is taken to brace them.
2. Doors open automatically whenever someone comes near them, and automatically close again behind them.
3. Doors are all quite small, requiring adult humans to crouch or crawl to pass through.
4. Doors all swing freely in either direction, like saloon doors do (also called batwing doors).
5. Doors all have windows in them. Perhaps open bars or safety glass which can only be looked through, or perhaps easily broken plate glass.
6. Doors all have windows in them which advantage viewing from a single side, such as peep holes, or sliding hatches.
7. Doors are all terribly noisy when opened or closed. Perhaps their hinges squeak, or maybe each has a chime attached to it.
8. Doors have arms on the hinge side, allowing them to be barred. Some or all may even have bars nearby ready to be put in place.
9. Doors are all high up on the walls, and must be climbed up to.
10. Doors are all trapdoors in the floor or ceiling. Thus even rooms on the same dungeon level are connected by passages above or below.
11. Doors are all one-way. They close behind each person who passes through them, and cannot be opened from the other side.
12. Doors are all revolving doors, with “wings” that rotate around a central pivot point. There may be 2 or more of these, creating separated sections between them.
13. Doors are all open doorways, without any way of being closed.
14. Doors are all insubstantial. Hanging drapes, or strings of beads. Just enough to block clear sight, but not sound or entry.
15. Doors are all rollup style, like a garage door. The rails which guide and hold it might be exposed, or could be enclosed within the wall.
16. Doors all have a stable door style, with upper and lower halves. (Also called Dutch Doors.)
17. Doors all have smaller “wicket doors” built into them. (Are the wicket doors for creatures smaller than humans, or are the proper doors for masses of humans / large creatures?)
18. Doors all have a lower lip to step over as you go through them, like those found on ships.
19. Doors are all air tight, and opened via a time consuming turn crank or wheel.
20. Doors are all airlock chambers, with air tight doors on each side, and a space between where characters must wait. The airlocks might exist because the rooms are kept at different temperatures or pressure levels, or because their atmospheres contain trace elements which are dangerous when mixed, or potentially for no reason at all.
21. Doors are all janky, old, and often get stuck.
22. Doors are all locked, barred, or otherwise intentionally sealed. Some creatures may carry key rings, key cards, know passwords, etc.
23. Doors are all sliding doors.
24. Doors are all folding doors, to one or both sides.
25. Doors are all double doors.
26. Doors all have sticky notes, thumbtacks, or doodles on them. Clearly they’re being used as a means of casual communication between dungeon inhabitants.
27. Doors are made in the style of oversize pet doors. Great flaps which must be lifted as one passes through, and fall back down behind.
28. Floors are carpeted.
29. Floors are all slippery, perhaps covered in goo, or ice.
30. Floors are a raised constructed path through a natural space. Like a catwalk through a cave, or a pontoon walkway along a canal.
31. Floors are packed earth, or so thoroughly covered in dirt that they may as well be packed earth.
32. Floors are sandy, snowy, or otherwise provide awkward and unstable footing.

33. Floors are bouncy. They might be springy lick a trampoline or mattress, or they may have been coated in flubber.
34. Floors all have drains in them, and are gently sloped so water will run towards these drains.
35. Floors have dry channels running at their edges, perhaps once used as gutters, or ruts for wheels.
36. Floors are cracked and uneven. Footing is poor, and dropped items may be lost.
37. Floors have many weeds growing up through them, perhaps dense enough to occasionally tangle feet during vigorous action.
38. Floors are loose tiles or boards which can be removed easily.
39. Floors are noisy: metal plates, creaking timbers, or covered in dry leaves.
40. Floors all have paths to various locations painted on them, like you might see in an airport or train station.
41. Floors are solid marble.
42. Floors are angled steeply to one side, as if the dungeon is tilted at a 20°+ angle.
43. Oops! All pressure plates! There is nowhere to step that doesn’t depress with an ominous mechanical click.
44. Floors move those who stand on them. They may be conveyor belts, or be under the influence of magical riptides.
45. Floors are scattered with toys. Dolls, balls, bicycles, left scattered haphazardly about.
46. Floors have a rail system built on them. There may be mine carts or handcars.
47. Floors are wet, soggy, or perhaps even covered in ankle-deep water.
48. Floors are very wet. The water is at least waist high. A boat may be required.
49. Floors are fragile. Glass, or ice. One must tread carefully lest it crack, and drop them into danger, or simply into a lower level.
50. Floors are metal grating.
51. There is no proper floor. One must traverse the rooms and corridors by hopping between stepping stones.
52. Floors are pointy, covered in caltrops, broken glass, or nails mounted as spikes.
53. Floors are covered in detritus and trash. It may be omnipresent but scattered, or so dense that one’s feet sink into it.
54. Walls are easily destructible, perhaps made of rice paper.
55. Walls are dense with written language. It could be intended carvings, modern graffiti, or science fictiony scrolling text.
56. Walls are dense with art, perhaps carved bas relief, or murals.
57. Walls are dense with holes, cupboards, drawers, or animal burrows. These are mostly empty, gross, dangerous, or filled with useless junk.
58. Walls are dense with buttons, switches, and other controls. Some don’t do anything, others seem to cause random events to occur. Insert your favorite random table here.
59. Walls are dense with shelves displaying tchotchkes. Ceramic figurines, papercraft, old toys, fake flowers. Objects which once brought someone joy, but now serve only to collect dust.
60. Walls are plaster, and perhaps covered with wallpaper. The pattern could be nearly anything.
61. Walls are densely stacked with bones.
62. Walls have regularly spaced air vents built into them, which are too small to climb into.
63. Walls have regularly spaced air vents built into them, which are large enough to climb into.
64. Walls are very smooth. Not even the most skilled climber could find handholds.
65. Walls are rough. Even a complete novice can climb them with relative ease.
66. Walls are padded. Perhaps thoroughly so to prevent injury, as in an asylum. Alternately they may be fine tufted leather or velvet, meant to create an air of sophistication.

67. Walls often have windows into adjacent spaces. These might be glass, wicker, barred with metal, tiny arrow slits, etc.
68. Walls are periodically interrupted by half columns which could be used for cover.
69. Walls are constructed of a thick bramble, like blackberry bushes.
70. Something icky oozes out of the walls. Slime, blood, or more feculent excretions.
71. Walls are limited force fields. They might keep air in, and water/vacuum/monsters out. However, if one were to stumble, they’d go right through, and may not be able to get back.
72. Walls are constructed of poorly mortared bricks, many of which are loose.
73. Walls are made from honeycomb, shellac, or other insect excretion.
74. Walls on the interior of the dungeon are all metal bars. They can be seen through, reached through, and for particularly small characters possibly squeezed through.
75. Walls are dangerous to touch. Perhaps because they are very hot or cold, are dense with sharp protrusions, or charged with electricity.
76. Walls and Ceilings can be walked on as easily as floors.
77. Walls are great ramshackle heaps of junk. Oak tables nailed to bed frames, densely stacked chairs, supported by cast iron bath tubs, and insulated with soiled mattresses.
78. Ceilings have pipes running along them.
79. Ceiling leaks. Probably water, but perhaps fluids less wholesome.
80. Ceilings have thick roots protruding through them from plants up above.
81. Ceilings are low. Human sized creatures will need to hunch, or even crawl to get through.
82. Ceilings have cameras, crystal balls, or disgusting organic eyes on them. It’s unclear who (if anyone) is observing.
83. Ceilings are high enough that most light sources cannot illuminate them. What might lurk up there?
84. Ceilings are mirrored.
85. Ceilings have skylights or open shafts in them, which partially illuminate the dungeon.
86. Ceilings do not exist. The dungeon is open to the sky, perhaps with some danger on top of the walls preventing easily cheating one’s way through the dungeon.
87. Ceilings are covered by colorful drapes. These might be bright and tidy, or soiled and tattered.
88. Ceilings are home to a number of birds who’ve made their nests in the dungeon.
89. Ceilings are covered in sleeping bats, or docile insects. If disturbed they will swarm.
90. Ceilings are covered in loose paneling, which could be pushed aside to access a crawlspace above.
91. Ceiling has exposed rafters.
92. Ceilings are made up of something which, if the laws of physics were being obeyed, ought to immediately collapse. Something like water, or loose sand.
93. Ceiling has regularly placed fans, which may or may not operate.
94. Ceilings droop precariously, and are supported by ramshackle post hoc construction.
95. Ceilings have footprints on them.
96. Ceilings are coated in a weird and dense mist. If it is dangerous to breathe, it is at least too high to be accidentally inhaled.
97. Ceilings are dense with hanging chains, hooks, pulleys, and rails.
98. Ceilings are metal of a peculiar color. Anything which hits them bounces directly away without losing energy.
99. Ceilings are dense with hanging papercrafts clearly made by children.
100. Ceilings are dense with precarious icicles or stalactites, ready to drop dangerously if jostled.

Also, All Cops Are Bastards.