Dungeon Building

*(This material comes from The Perilous Wilds with slight adaptions)*

A dungeon record is a piece of paper to keep track of the elements which go into creating a dungeon.  They are listed below.

## Name & Foundation

A dungeon may start out with a **name**, known through rumor or legend, or the party may give it a name it themselves. The GM may simply list it by its **foundation** in their notes. Once it is dubbed something specific in the fiction, that's how it should be generally referred to in the fiction. A dungeon's foundation is a 2-3 word description that paints a broad picture of the physical environment and what sorts of things the adventurers might encounter there.  “Dwarven Prison,” “Natural Lair,” and “Cult Library”
are examples of foundations taken from combined results on the Dungeon Builder and  Function tables..

## Themes

Every dungeon has one or more themes, each of which is a simple phrase that describes an organizing principle of the
dungeon’s contents. A dungeon’s theme is a reference point for you to describe the environment and create Discoveries and Dangers as the party explores. You can make up whatever themes sound interesting to you, borrow from or roll some up on the Dungeon Theme table.  Each theme in a dungeon has a countdown,which is used to track the degree to which that theme has been explored.  Circles are drawn next to the theme in the Dungeon Record, number dictated by the dungeon size.  As the theme is revealed in play, the circles are marked off one by one until they are completely marked off.  When all of a dungeon's theme countdowns are marked off, the dungeon has been fully explored.

## Dungeon Area

Just like regions, dungeons contain different areas. Each area can be thought of as a one or more locations or rooms categorized by function or proximity within the dungeon. Each area is identified by a name, and is classified as either **common** (it may recur
multiple times in the same dungeon) or **unique**: (occurring only once). The number of common and unique areas in a given dungeon is limited by its Size.

## Dungeon Size

A dungeon’s size determines how many themes and areas it can have (see chart below) as well as the size of each theme’s countdown. The
Themes column on this table refers to both the number of themes and the size of each countdown. The number listed under Area Limit is
both the number of common areas and the number of unique areas to be found in a dungeon of that size.

Dungeon Size
 4-9
 10-11
 12

## Rumors and Legends

When the characters first hear about or come across a dungeon (ruin, tower, sewer system, monster lair, etc.), and it makes sense that at least one of them would have heard about the place, ask some or all of the following questions. Otherwise, answer the questions yourself or utilize the linked tables. Because these are rumors and legends, they may not actually be true. They're only bits of lore; the adventurers will have to brave the depths and find out what is really down there to be sure.

* Who or what is believed to have built this place? (Dungeon Builder Table)
* For what purpose was it built? (Dungeon Function Table)
* How did it come to ruin? (Dungeon Ruination Table)
* What Dangers is it said to conceal? (monsters, forces, traps, etc. Dungeon Danger Table )
* What Discoveries may lie within? (clues, puzzles, treasure, etc. Dungeon Discovery Table)