Dungeon Dressing: The Floor
The dungeon’s floor is the one feature with which every adventurer will interact.
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Major Features
1. This floor is comprised of an eight-by-eight array of alternating squares of black and white marble; the four centre squares reverse the pattern.
2. A round floor sits in this perfectly square room; the gaps in the room’s corners created by the floor’s arc reveal another hidden room underneath with no other obvious entrances or exits.
3. This stone floor slopes downward to the east; the western side sits one foot higher.
4. The cobbled stones comprising this floor seem more at home in a city street than a dungeon.
5. This tiered floor has six-inch-tall steps every five feet; the centre square has a shallow circular indention.
6. The marble floor does not meet the wall on any side; the two-inch gap separating the floor from the wall reveals a narrow trench of unknowable depth.
7. Pitted and old, the flagstones comprising this room’s floor have a diseased crumbling look. Investigation reveals the stone is easy to scuff, bash or cut.
8. Mahogany slats securely fastened to one another comprise this floor’s surface.
9. This polished steel floor’s mirror-like surface clearly reflects the images of all treading upon it.
10. At regular intervals, coffin lids jut from the floor’s surface; prying the lids open mostly reveals empty coffins or centuries-old corpses. A few of the coffins, though, might hold guardian undead.
11. A circular seal dominates this marble floor; the seal has a blue edge broken through by a golden roc.
12. The metal floor echoes with a tone, which increases in pitch as a character proceeds toward the far door.
13. This transparent floor has the hardness of stone and reveals another room below with the same dimensions as this room.
14. An etched map covers the floor; this map could show another level of this dungeon, the location of a hidden treasure or another location altogether.
15. In each corner of this room, a soft light emanates from the floor, illuminating nothing more than the section of floor where it glows.
16. Thick, plush carpet covers the floor; the carpet has a strange, almost hypnotic, pattern.
17. This “floor” comprises several wooden planks over a deep pit. One of the wooden planks is rotten.
18. Each five-foot square section of floor lights up with a different colour and sounds a different tone when something weighing more than 50 pounds steps (or lands) on it.
19. Glyphs cover the floor’s entirety; any attempt to study them reveals them to be nothing but gibberish.
20. Metal grates line this floor; investigation reveals an eight-inch-tall crawlspace underneath.
Minor Features & Dressing
1. Fresh guano coats the floor.
2. The floor shows evidence of a heavy rectangular object dragged from one door to another.
3. In a dark corner, a cluster of five-foot-tall purple fungi grows in damp earth.
4. Charred insect carcasses litter the floor; a handful of the insects reflexively twitch.
5. A 10-foot square section of the floor glows red and becomes warm to the touch, but it deals no damage to a character touching it.
6. A thin coating of grease covers the floor. Characters moving at full speed may fall prone.
7. Long grooves mar the floor’s surface as though a large and powerful clawed creature pawed at it. The stone is scrapped and splintered.
8. A ten-foot-high ant mound has erupted through the floor; thousands of ants swarm nearby.
9. Crude chalk arrows mark a seemingly random path along this floor.
10. Broken shards of glass, set so the pointy sides are up, jut from the floor; treat them as caltrops.
11. One section of floor gives slightly when a character weighing more than 150 pounds crosses it.
12. The floor suddenly ripples as if some large creature moved just below it.
13. The floor constantly cleans itself; blood, dirt and other minor detritus dissolve within two rounds.
14. A hole pierces the floor in one corner as if a rodent had chewed through it from underneath.
15. “Danger” is scrawled on the floor in fresh blood.
16. A thin layer of pebbles covers the floor, making moving silently here difficult.
17. A series of two-foot-tall wooden barricades dot the floor.
18. The floor is uneven and in bad repair.
19. Something has removed the top of the floor; the new surface bears indentions indicating the floor was carved into a jigsaw puzzle before removal.
20. Insubstantial tentacles erupt from the floor and grasp ineffectively at the characters.
Credit
This is a short system-neutral extract from GM’s Miscellany: Dungeon Dressing. The book is available in 5e, System Neutral and Pathfinder 1 editions. The OSR edition will be available in early 2023.
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