Learn-to-Play with a 5-Room Dungeon

Posted by

Admin

On May 28, 2025

*A five-room dungeon built with Dwarven Forge*

How do we teach a new RPG? Here I modify the 5-Room Dungeon concept into a Learn to Play approach we can use to teach most RPGs.

Catch the Video

There is a video version of this blog, which is part of the Dungeon Jam 2025 community event organized by Daði at Mystic Arts! You can find the complete playlist of all videos at this link, or by finding the Dungeon Jam 2025 channel on YouTube.

Five-Room Dungeon Concept and Influences

John Four popularized the concept of a five-room dungeon, as I discuss in detail in the video. It doesn’t have to be an actual dungeon. It could be five houses in a city block, five areas in a forest, or any other grouping of five locations that will serve as our “dungeon.” The concept focuses on a one-session experience where each room (or location) has a purpose.

Entrance and Guardian
Puzzle or Roleplaying Challenge
Trick or Setback
Climax, Big Battle, or Conflict
Reward, Revelation, or Plot Twist

I like how this approach sets out to provide a variety of experiences that will please a variety of player types, while providing a structure for a reasonable story.

I also mention two other influences. During the 4E era, Wizards of the Coast organized play lead Chris Tulach came up with a three-room dungeon that broke up the experience to facilitate teaching D&D. The first room was just skill checks. Then there was an easy fight teaching combat basics, and finally the big battle with an optional negotiation with the dragon (using a skill challenge) to end the combat without having to slay the dragon. I really liked the concept of breaking up the game’s pillars and mechanics, including using specific parts of the character sheet for different room.

Scott F Gray blogged about the advantages of a small dungeon working as a flowchart, emphasizing the importance of skills, looking for hidden clues or dangers, getting an early win, and having an early glimpse of the threat that will be fought in the final encounter.

Five-Room Learn to Play Approach

These ideas and a few of my own convention experiments led me to develop a 5-Room Learn to Play approach:

Skills
Easy Fun Fight
RP or Negotiation
Showcase Additional Gameplay
Thrilling Final Battle

Let’s dig into each of these. As an example, I will use this set of rooms from the free Dungeon of Doom adventure and show how we can use it to teach 5E D&D. Further down I will provide an example with the Deadlands RPG.

Pregens are recommended for the first time we play, so the focus is on gameplay and not complicated by character creation. As DM we can provide a basic description of the nature of each pregen (“This is an elven rogue, known for stealth and deadly accuracy”) and we may describe the general mechanic of the game (“We usually will roll this twenty-sided die and add a modifier based on your skill or abilities, we will cover more later”), but we will teach the game and the details of the characters as we play through each room.

Room 1: Skills

Our first room can be the entrance or the first important room after the entrance. Here we find a number of interesting features, which engage the players and cause them to ask questions or otherwise investigate their surroundings. At the conclusion of this room, the players should feel comfortable with skill checks and have some understanding of the basic mechanics of rolling dice and adding bonuses. If the RPG does not use skills, we focus on engaging with the environment.

For our 5E example, the adventurers were hired to follow up on rumors that a white dragon, thought to be dead, has somehow returned. A scout was sent to investigate the dragon’s last known lair, but never returned. The adventurers have reached the entrance and in the first chamber they see a large set of double doors. Before it is the scout’s unmoving body.

Players will likely wonder about the body and how the scout died. Now, the DM can point out how the D&D character sheet has a large rectangle containing all of the skills for the game and how each character has training in some skills, sometimes different than those of other characters. We can ask them what they do and have them roll skill checks, explaining this basic part of the game in a relatively low-pressure situation. Rolling the D20, adding the bonus (or penalty), and so on.

We reward this by providing information, lore, and clues. They find the scout was struck by a poisoned crossbow bolt, which was fired from the side. Investigation could find that the body is on a pressure plate, still active, and the crossbow is hidden behind a false cover on one wall. Skills can help remove or counter the trap, allowing safe passage beyond.

Room 2: Easy Fun Fight

The second room provides a quick and easy fight. We want each player to get to have at least one round of combat. At the conclusion of this battle, the players should feel more confident with combat and understand the basics of initiative (or other ways the RPG tracks who goes when), combat actions, and using a few of their character features or abilities.

In our example, we could have several kobolds in the second room. If the party set off the trap in the first room, the Kobolds are ready for the fight. Otherwise, the party may get surprise or some other advantage, underscoring the importance of skills and the impact of their earlier actions.

The fight should not be dangerous, since the goal is to simply understand how to engage in combat with weapons, spells, or other available options. For D&D, this is making an attack roll and how we roll damage if we hit, or selecting a spell and how the spell tells us whether it requires an attack roll or saving throw. We may have other features, such as a rogue’s sneak attack or barbarian rage. We don’t go over every feature, instead recommending one based on what the player wants to do.

When the fight is over they may find a minor reward, such as treasure or a note with information.

Room 3: Roleplay or Negotiation

We contrast the battle with a situation where speaking is the best recourse. Discussion, subterfuge, or negation allows the characters to gain important information or bypass a danger. At the end of this encounter, the players feel comfortable with engaging in roleplay and have an understanding of how skills or other abilities may facilitate this in the game.

In our D&D example, we might find a talking door, which will only let the heroes through if they answer questions. The door is very bored and seeks to be amused. Maybe it wants to hear a good joke. Or maybe it likes gossip and wants to hear about a secret or embarrassing situation from each character. This can teach players to share their backstory, and how play can help them flesh out their character’s story and personality. The door may provide additional information and also passage to a room beyond containing some reward (and/or the kobold prisoner).

Another option could be a kobold prisoner, who was locked in the room because they disagree with what the other kobolds are doing… which is refusing to let the white dragon they serve die. The kobold priests are keeping the dragon from reaching the afterlife, and the result is a ghostly young white dragon that is very angry at all living things. The kobold prisoner is sure this will backfire on the kobolds if they ever lose control over it.

We probably wouldn’t use both scenes as negotiations – either the door or the prisoner but not both. Or, use the door, and then the kobold is simply glad to share what they know in exchange for being allowed to leave.

Room 4: Showcase Additional Gameplay

RPGs often have additional systems or aspects of gameplay we may want to highlight. This 4^th room is optional and we can use it to teach that part of the game.

For example, for the Numenera RPG we might teach how Cyphers are used. In Night’s Black Agents, we might highlight the difference between “always succeed” investigate skills and the active skills that require a roll. For Savage Worlds we might explain how Interludes and resting works. In Pirate Borg, an enchanted book they find might pull them momentarily into a ship battle, then return them to the dungeon after it concludes.

In D&D we might simple showcase a different set of skills. If earlier we used investigative and knowledge skills, now we might have characters climb a wall or make it past a trap. This works well in our trap-filled corridor in our Dungeon of Doom example. So as to involve more than one character, a trapped hallway might require one character to hold down a pressure plate halfway down the corridor, while a second character then reaches the end and turns off all the mechanisms.

Room 5: Thrilling Final Battle

Now we deliver the climax of the adventure and wrap up our story in heroic action. This reinforces the combat mechanics, while building additional player competency at using their stronger features, spells, or other capabilities. We want a relatively simple fight, but some way to reward tactics is worth including. The fun of the battle and the rewards should leave them wanting to play again. Information is a great reward, helping to conclude the story and perhaps point to their next adventure. There should be a clear path towards playing again.

The ghostly white dragon is in the center of our example room, and four kobold priests in the side rooms focus on keeping it bound to this world. The characters can defeat the priests to significantly weaken the dragon. And, it may be possible for characters to come up with other options, such as convincing the dragon to let them release it to the afterlife. Treasure should be suitable for an intro adventure, but could serve as an example of stronger treasure they may find later. For example, a wand with just two remaining charges makes it clear that more powerful wands exist in the game. Notes in the lair could establish that this is the youngest of three dragons, and name the forests or mountains where the next dragon lives.

If the DM is setting up a campaign, each player could now decide whether to continue playing the same character, modify it, or build a new one.

Benefits of the Approach

The approach is really useful for DMs because it simplifies how we explain the game. We can focus on one part of the character sheet at a time, or one pillar of play. Players are less likely to be overwhelmed and more likely to feel they are slowly gaining competence as they progress through the dungeon.

5-Room Deadlands “Dungeon”

Let’s do a second example with another RPG. To teach the Deadlands (Savage Worlds) RPG, we might set up the story this way: the posse (characters) were hired to chase down bank robbers, and have tracked them to a large and old house in the hills. We might use one of these maps as inspiration for the layout:

*Workshop & Storefront – by Dyson Logos*