A GM’s work is never done, so to make things easier on you, we’re providing a series of tables to help you flesh out your encounters, your adventures—your world. This week we’ve got a plethora of dungeon dressing tables for you. From sounds and smells your players may encounter to, well, actual encounters, these tables will provide you with everything you need to build an engaging dungeon for your party to crawl their way through.
| 1d20 | Smell |
| 1 | Moldy |
| 2 | Dank |
| 3 | Dusty |
| 4 | Rotten |
| 5 | Decay |
| 6 | Ashy |
| 7 | Fresh |
| 8 | Clean |
| 9 | Earthy |
| 10 | Sickly sweet |
| 11 | Fragrant |
| 12 | Floral |
| 13 | Burnt |
| 14 | Acrid |
| 15 | Metallic |
| 16 | Grassy |
| 17 | Smokey |
| 18 | Musty |
| 19 | Tangy |
| 20 | Sulfur |
| 1d20 | Sounds |
| 1 | Dripping |
| 2 | Shrieking |
| 3 | Trickling |
| 4 | Grinding |
| 5 | Clattering |
| 6 | Banging |
| 7 | Whispering |
| 8 | Hissing |
| 9 | Crying |
| 10 | Laughing |
| 11 | Snapping |
| 12 | Clattering |
| 13 | Footsteps |
| 14 | Skittering |
| 15 | Cracking |
| 16 | Clanking |
| 17 | Whistling |
| 18 | Humming |
| 19 | Buzzing |
| 20 | Slurping |
| 1d20 | Surface Textures |
| 1 | Slimy |
| 2 | Dry |
| 3 | Crumbling |
| 4 | Smooth |
| 5 | Wet |
| 6 | Mossy |
| 7 | Fuzzy |
| 8 | Squishy |
| 9 | Rough |
| 10 | Pitted |
| 11 | Muddy |
| 12 | Gritty |
| 13 | Sandy |
| 14 | Hard |
| 15 | Soft |
| 16 | Solid |
| 17 | Porous |
| 18 | Oily |
| 19 | Slick |
| 20 | Bumpy |
| 1d10 | Airflow |
| 1 | Still |
| 2 | Gentle |
| 3 | Gusting |
| 4 | Howling |
| 5 | Whirling |
| 6 | Whipping |
| 7 | Swirling |
| 8 | Calm |
| 9 | Slight |
| 10 | Suffocating |
| 1d10 | Air Quality |
| 1 | Humid |
| 2 | Stagnant |
| 3 | Frigid |
| 4 | Hot |
| 5 | Warm |
| 6 | Pleasant |
| 7 | Chilly |
| 8 | Dry |
| 9 | Cold |
| 10 | Damp |
| 1d20 | Quantity | Domestic Items |
| 1 | 2d10 | Sacks, flour |
| 2 | 2d6 | Sacks, coffee |
| 3 | 2d10 | Bags, empty |
| 4 | 6d4 | Barrels, empty |
| 5 | 6d4 | Barrels, grain |
| 6 | 3d4 | Casks, wine |
| 7 | 3d4 | Coffins, empty |
| 8 | 3d4 | Coffins, occupied |
| 9 | 2d6 | Crates, empty |
| 10 | 2d6 | Crates, vegetables (fresh or rotting) |
| 11 | 3d6 | Cords of firewood |
| 12 | 2d4 | Buckets, ash |
| 13 | 2d4 | Buckets, empty |
| 14 | 1d4 | Chamber pots, empty (thank the gods) |
| 15 | 2d4 | Pewter plates |
| 16 | 2d6 | Sets of pewter flatware |
| 17 | 6d6 | Linen napkins |
| 18 | 1d4 | Meat hooks, hanging |
| 19 | 6d4 | Sewing needles |
| 20 | 10d10 | Skeins of rough wool yarn |
| 1d20 | Interior Design Element |
| 1 | Intricate floor mosaic in shades of blue and green |
| 2 | Cracked yet elegantly carved stone columns |
| 3 | Ceiling beams carved to look like winding serpents |
| 4 | Elaborately painted wall murals of a mountain range at sunset |
| 5 | Racks, hooks, chains, and other elements of torture bolted into the walls and floor |
| 6 | A curved, stepped floor, resembling an amphitheater |
| 7 | An elegant stone bathing pool, green with algae |
| 8 | Twelve stone plinths, each with a twelve-inch statue of a different beautiful elf in semi-sheer silk robes |
| 9 | A circular pit in the center of the room, 20 feet wide and 40 feet deep |
| 10 | A chessboard-pattered tile floor, featuring red and black squares, each 24-inches wide |
| 11 | A huge orrery, 30 feet tall, made of tarnished brass and silver, the smallest sphere of which is 12 inches in diameter, the largest 12 feet |
| 12 | A dozen long stone troughs, filled with soil and dead plants |
| 13 | A wall carved with a stone relief of a fruiting apple tree |
| 14 | A ceiling painted to resemble the heavens: none of the constellations are familiar |
| 15 | A floor carved with hundreds of screaming faces |
| 16 | A single stone sarcophagus in the exact center of the room, carved with a name, but the name has since been chipped away |
| 17 | A dozen long stone troughs, filled with rotting and congealed blood |
| 18 | A dry fountain |
| 19 | A long room with a raised dais on the far side |
| 20 | Walls that are covered with strange reliefs of various humanoids, all looking as if they are in pain or afraid, and were caught partially trapped in the wall |
| 1d20 | Random Found Objects and Decor |
| 1 | A broken longbow |
| 2 | Cracked and gnawed bones |
| 3 | A perfectly round sphere of quartz, three inches in diameter, with a large crack |
| 4 | A life-size statue of a humanoid in a long robe, it’s face obscured by a draped hood |
| 5 | Five rusted longswords |
| 6 | A shattered full-length mirror |
| 7 | A long dining table, set with service for eight and covered in a thick layer of dust |
| 8 | Piles of old, moldering clothes |
| 9 | A humanoid skeleton in tarnished armor |
| 10 | A dented pewter goblet |
| 11 | A moth-eaten taxidermy dire wolf head, missing most of its teeth |
| 12 | A single black feather the length of a human arm |
| 13 | Spiderwebs: lots and lots of spiderwebs—but no spiders |
| 14 | Decaying tapestries so dirty and worn their images are no longer discernable |
| 15 | A crumpled banner from a forgotten kingdom |
| 16 | A cracked ceramic ewer |
| 17 | Fourteen arrows scattered about the room, all missing their arrowheads |
| 18 | Three empty bookshelves |
| 19 | A pile of paver stones, carefully stacked |
| 20 | Keys to a lock that no longer exists |
| 1d20 | Encounters | CR |
| 1 | 2d4 swarms of rats | 1–4 |
| 2 | A wererat | 2 |
| 3 | A gelatinous cube,of course | 2 |
| 4 | 2d6 giant bats | 1–6 |
| 5 | A black pudding | 4 |
| 6 | 1d4 phase spiders | 3–10 |
| 7 | 2d6 rust monsters | 1–8 |
| 8 | A manticore | 3 |
| 9 | A mimic | 2 |
| 10 | Four ghast of Leng (see Creature Codex) | 10 |
| 11 | An empty cloak (see Tome of Beasts) | 1/4 |
| 12 | Two animated armor | 3 |
| 13 | A chimera | 6 |
| 14 | A goreling (see Creature Codex) | 1/4 |
| 15 | Three doppelrats (see Tome of Beasts) | 9 |
| 16 | A corpse thief (see Creature Codex) | 1/2 |
| 17 | An errant dogmole (see Tome of Beasts) | 3 |
| 18 | A tveirherjar (see Creature Codex) | 7 |
| 19 | A hungry otyugh | 5 |
| 20 | A blemmyes (see Tome of Beasts) | 8 |
Thank you for this series. Things like this are such huge time savers at the table and during prep. Even just as inspiration fodder they are wonderful. Please continue!
I loved the old Dungeon Dressing tables in the 1st Edition DMG. I still have my copy, faded and dog-eared. Nice to see the tradition continue.
Flavorful! Added to the Blog Database.
https://jonbupp.wordpress.com/for-dungeon-masters/chapter-5-adventure-environments/dungeons/dungeon-dressing/