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The Well is an atmospheric exploration dungeon created using Core for the D&D Design-a-Dungeon contest held by Wizards of the Coast along with Manticore Games.
The dungeon is inspired by the first dungeon I created when I started DMing for my friend group a few years ago. It’s built around two environmental puzzles and a theme of recursion.
The contest had a few categories, but I decided to enter within the “Dungeons, caves and catacombs” category, which narrowed the character of the game slightly.
I also decided to recreate a dungeon I had previously designed for D&D. The original design had the benefit of existing solely in players’ imagination, but presented the particular challenge of being adapted into an actual game.
I started the design by going through my original campaign notes and figuring out what could be built within a limited time frame. I defined a scope that seemed reasonable and then decided to test the concept by recreating the first room of the dungeon, which serves as an introductory puzzle. A plain room, with no doors or clear exits, and a well in the middle. I wanted to see if this room could live up to the intent of the original design, to set the tone for the rest of the dungeon as a place where things are not always what they seem.
I used obvious point lighting to guide the player’s attention (this would be a common language used throughout the design).
This room felt mysterious enough, so I moved on with my campaign notes. Originally for my D&D game, jumping into the well brought you back into the same room. It worked as a portal that transported you to a hole in the ceiling. A recursive, apparently inescapable room.
I really liked this idea, but when creating it in game, I didn’t want it to feel like a trick. I wanted it to follow the rules of a real space, and I didn’t feel good about simply translating the player’s position upwards or hiding the jump behind a loading screen. This is how I started thinking about the larger design of the dungeon around the idea of a loop. Physically bringing players back to this space, completing a loop without them realizing it. This became the focus of the design.
Following the logic the space dictated led me to building a shaft for the well. This took me underground and I continued following that logic. Under a well there should then be an underground river… So I created one and tied it into the theme of the contest. The underground river contained a cave and a catacomb.
I once again used lighting sources to guide the player’s path.