The Return of the Sample Dungeon

Cover of the 2024 DMG featuring Warduke, Skylla and Venger

Out this week is the latest version of the Dungeon Master's Guide, and in addition to bringing back Greyhawk as a sample setting, it also features the return of the Sample Dungeon. In this case, I don't mean the Tower of Zenopus, which goes only by the title "Sample Dungeon" in the Holmes Basic rulebook, but rather the general concept: an example of an adventure for new DMs to both run and base their own designs on.

This was a common feature in the DM section of D&D rulebooks throughout the 1970s and 80s, with OD&D, AD&D 1E and every version of Basic including one, and the dungeons while brief were strongly remembered due to their evocative details and because they were often the first adventure for new players. And decades later, these memories and shared experiences would promote a sense of community among the fan base for each rule set.

The idea started with the original D&D rules in 1974, which included a "Sample Map of Underworld Level" in Vol 3. This dungeon level by Gary Gygax lacked any real theme other providing examples, mostly of tricks and traps that could be used in designing a level. For the first Basic Set in 1977, J. Eric Holmes overhauled the example, creating a coherent first level for beginners complete with a brief backstory to provide a hook for exploring it, and concluding by inviting the DM to create additional levels.

Two years later, in the AD&D 1E DMG, Gygax followed Holmes' example with another dungeon level with a strong story behind it, colloquially known as the Ruined Monastery or the Dungeon of the Fire Opal. Unlike the Zenopus dungeon, only a few rooms of this level were fully detailed, presumably so the DM could complete the keying of the map, along with designing the unshown second level. It also advanced the use of this as a teaching tool by including an integrated Example of Play; i.e., it's set in the described dungeon rooms.

The next two iterations of Basic D&D continued the tradition of including a short dungeon written by the editor. Moldvay Basic (1981) had Tom Moldvay's Haunted Keep, which more tightly integrated the exemplary level into the dungeon design concepts presented in the DM section. The accompanying Cook-Marsh Expert rules from the same year also provided a Sample Wilderness which mentioned that a town, Luln, was a base for exploring the Haunted Keep, although the town was only briefly described. 

In Mentzer Basic (1983), Frank Mentzer expanded the introductory material by adding a solo adventure teaching the basics of play in the Players book, which was followed by a starting group adventure, Castle Mistamere, in the DMs book. One idea common to each of the above was that the dungeon was not complete, giving the new DM a base on which to practice adding their own ideas. The Mentzer Expert rules included the same Sample Wilderness from the previous set, but revised to include a new "Home Town", Threshold, along with a series of eighteen briefly described (single paragraphs) adventures for the DM to use with this setting.

In 1989, however, there was a big change: the revised DMG for AD&D 2E had no sample dungeon at all. The 1991 Rules Cyclopedia similarly lacked an adventure, although the complementary "Black Box" Basic Set from this time did include one, Escape from Zanzer Tem's Dungeon.

The DMGs from 3E (2000) and 3.5E (2003) brought back the sample dungeon by including a revised version of the Ruined Monastery dungeon from the original DMG. These include an updated map, partial level description (first three areas only) and an integrated Example of Play, but the background from the original is severely curtailed.

The 4E D&D DMG (2008) included a sample town (Fallcrest) and setting (Nentir Value) with an integrated sample dungeon called "Kobold Hall", which with 5 encounter areas literally follows the 5 Room Dungeon design model. (Thanks to Karla Adder on Twitter for the heads up on this.)

Jumping ahead to 5E, while the 2014 DMG included material on generating random dungeons (Appendix A), and a number of sample maps (Appendix C), including an updated version of the Fire Opal dungeon map from the 1979 DMG, as with 2E it lacked a true introductory adventure. 

But now with the new DMG, the concept is back in full force and with new innovations. Rather than just a single dungeon level, there are five (!) short adventures, each for a different level of characters, and with the suggestion that they can be run sequentially, particularly the first three. There is also a mix of adventure settings: towns, wilderness, small dungeons that rely on the maps by Dyson Logos found in an appendix, nautical, and other planes. In addition, the first four adventures are given locations in Greyhawk that are found in the setting material and maps elsewhere in the book. 

In my next post, I will look a little closer at these adventures and their locations in Greyhawk.

The new DMG is available for order on Amazon