Free tables Dungeon rooms by kind
Random Ruined keep Rooms — d20 Dungeon Room Tables
Free d20 tables for ruined keep rooms in 5e: what the room was, what's in it, what it smells and sounds like, and what lives there.
The party opened a door in the ruined keep you hadn't planned past. Roll d20 twice on the table below: once for what the room was, and once on the second column for something in it. Then d10 each for a smell and a sound, from the lists underneath.
For what's in the room now, roll d6: on 1–2 nothing, on 3–4 a creature, on 5 a trap, on 6 a stash. A third of rooms being empty is deliberate. A dungeon where every door hides a fight teaches the players to stop opening doors.
Smells, d10: (1) Old woodsmoke soaked into the stone. (2) Wet rot in the timbers. (3) Horse, though there haven't been horses here for years. (4) Mildewed cloth and dust. (5) Cooking: someone made stew here recently. (6) Rust and old oil from the armour. (7) Bird droppings and damp feathers. (8) Spilled wine gone to vinegar. (9) Rain coming in through the roof. (10) Tallow candles and unwashed people.
Sounds, d10: (1) Shutters banging in the wind. (2) Pigeons cooing in the rafters. (3) Footsteps on the floor above. (4) A door creaking somewhere, opening or closing. (5) Laughter from further in, cut off suddenly. (6) Rain on a roof that isn't all there. (7) A distant clang of metal on stone. (8) Timbers groaning under their own weight. (9) A dog barking, somewhere in the keep. (10) Nothing at all. The birds have gone quiet.
Creatures that fit a ruined keep, from the SRD with their challenge ratings: Bandit (CR 1/8); Hobgoblin (CR 1/2); Orc (CR 1/2); Worg (CR 1/2); Animated Armor (CR 1); Gargoyle (CR 2); Ogre (CR 2); Knight (CR 3); Hill Giant (CR 5); Wyvern (CR 6); Stone Giant (CR 7); Young Green Dragon (CR 8); Adult Red Dragon (CR 17); Ancient Red Dragon (CR 24). Pick one whose numbers suit your party, or let the app do the sums.
The table
20 results. Roll d20.
| d20 | The room | Something in it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A great hall, its long table split in two by a fallen beam. | A faded banner, the family device slashed through. |
| 2 | A guardroom with a weapon rack, empty except for one broken spear. | An overturned chair and a sword left where it fell. |
| 3 | A kitchen, the hearth big enough to walk into, pots still on hooks. | Birds nesting in the rafters, scattering at the first footstep. |
| 4 | A chapel, its stained glass mostly on the floor. | Graffiti from bandits: tallies, names and a crude drawing of a knight. |
| 5 | The lord's bedchamber, the canopy bed rotted but still standing. | A portrait with a hole where the face should be. |
| 6 | An armoury, stripped long ago, the racks labelled by a careful hand. | Ivy through the window, growing across the floor. |
| 7 | A dungeon cell block, doors rusted open, one still locked. | Crossbow bolts in the door, all from the inside. |
| 8 | A library, shelves toppled like dominoes, books everywhere. | A child's wooden sword lying in the dust. |
| 9 | A barracks: two rows of bunks, a card game abandoned mid-hand. | A cold hearth with a half-burned letter in the ashes. |
| 10 | A throne room, the throne missing, only the dais and its scars left. | Arrow slits looking out over the approach. |
| 11 | A stable built into the ground floor, the stalls full of rubble. | A barricade of furniture across the far doorway. |
| 12 | A treasury with its door smashed off its hinges. | A suit of armour on a stand, missing its helmet. |
| 13 | A gatehouse with the winch for the portcullis, chain snapped. | Rain dripping through the ceiling into a rusted helmet. |
| 14 | A solar, the lady's sitting room, with a view through a broken window. | A hidden door left open, a draught blowing through it. |
| 15 | A wine cellar, most of the barrels staved in, one still sealed. | Chess pieces scattered on the floor, the board smashed. |
| 16 | A tower stair that spirals up into a room open to the sky. | A tapestry of a battle the keep lost. |
| 17 | A trophy room, the mounted heads fallen and chewed. | Scorch marks up one wall where a fire was put out. |
| 18 | A steward's office: ledgers, a strongbox, a map of the old estate. | A skeleton in a guard's tabard, sitting against the wall. |
| 19 | A well room, the well covered by a heavy grate. | A bell rope hanging down from the floor above. |
| 20 | A banquet hall where the last meal was never cleared. | Fresh straw on the floor. Somebody lives here. |
Questions
How many rooms in a dungeon should be empty?
More than feels natural: around a third. Empty rooms are where the players breathe, search, and argue about which way to go, and they make the next door tense again.
How do I make a random room feel like it belongs?
Tie one detail to the dungeon's story. If the crypt belongs to a family of embalmers, the fresh flowers on one grave were left by the last of them.