Empty Dungeon Rooms Suck

Fill them up with interesting things, not just monsters.

Worst. adventure. ever.

That’s what I thought while prepping my weekly sci-fi 5e Esper Genesis campaign.

This secret moon base had multiple levels and the level I was about to run had 10 rooms and basically nothing in them. They were either abandoned labs, supply rooms or offices. How lazy of an adventure writer can you be?

Yeah, I wasn’t having any of it so, I fixed it.

I went to my trusty sci-fi random tables and got to rollin’.

This adventure was all about discovering the plot of an BBEG and it involved experimentations so I adjusted as needed.

Room #1 Small tree with cybernetic implants

Someone took the tree as a bet and was killed 2 rounds later by

Room #2 A sand elemental which came under the door and almost engulfed one of our player’s characters and killed their plant.

Room #3 A bowl of yellow powder sitting on a lab table. No idea what it did. Players did not enter.

Room #4 A elastic dog in a cage. Yep, they took the dog and named it Stretchy (gotta make stats)

Room #5 Broken examination tubes, human size.

Room #6 Room filled with disposable needles, some broken on the floor with blood and green liquid puddled up.

Room #7 Thermal Cycler (had to look that up) for DNA testing. Perfect flavor room.

Room #8 Makeshift temple to “Mother” (it looked like a hive)

Room #9 Spiked insectoids/humanoids worshipping “Mother”

Room #10 Incubators/Ovens for Electrophoresis (a laboratory technique used to separate DNA, RNA or protein molecules based on their size and electrical charge.)

My group had a blast because they had no ideas what was going to be behind the next door,

Not every room needs to be a monster but every room is an opportunity to

• build tension

• reveal a clue

• leave an easter egg (nod to a movie or previous adventure)

• tease a threat

• tell the backstory

• reveal a horror

• offer another plot hook

Don’t let players battle boredom with empty rooms. Use a random table book or Chat GPT to get ideas.

What do you like to do with your empty rooms?