Need a quick Arctic dungeon? You can follow this five-step random generator to create an entirely random dungeon shell you can fill in and personalize until your heart's content!
The entries are deliberately somewhat vague to allow more GMs to use them, as they’re open to incorporating varieties of monsters with varieties of challenges on most outcomes.
While these reference monsters from D&D, the majority of the tables and results will work at a wide variety of RPG tables outside of D&D as well.
1. Where is the Dungeon?
The following table provides you options for where the dungeon is within an arctic environment:
Arctic Dungeon Location Table
| d12 | Location |
|---|---|
| 1 | Built within a frozen chasm that descends into darkness |
| 2 | Floating on a drift in a chilled sea |
| 3 | At the peak of an ancient mountain coated in deep snow |
| 4 | At the center of a massive, barren, icy desert |
| 5 | Below a thick sheet of ice and freezing water |
| 6 | Built within a thawing glacier |
| 7 | Underneath a complicit settlement in a snowy woodlands |
| 8 | Its entrance is within a dormant volcano slowly rumbling to life |
| 9 | At an isolated hot spring protected by surrounding peaks |
| 10 | Bridging a pair of running rivers that erode away as the water rises yearly with the thaw |
| 11 | In the center of a crater built atop odd astral stones distant from society |
| 12 | At the edge of a cliff overlooking a frozen sea below |
2. What is the Dungeon’s Purpose?
The following table determines the builder’s purpose for this dungeon:
Arctic Dungeon Purpose Table
| d8 | Purpose |
|---|---|
| 1 | The dungeon marked a claim to a wealth of buried minerals |
| 2 | The dungeon was a military outpost for a war now long ended |
| 3 | The dungeon is a magical lock keeping a frozen behemoth on ice |
| 4 | The dungeon masqueraded as a trading hub that’d trick travelers into dying in the cold |
| 5 | The dungeon was built as a necromancer’s study that reanimated frozen corpses |
| 6 | The dungeon holds a secret too important to destroy that needed hiding from the world |
| 7 | The dungeon acts as a vault for a paranoid and incredibly wealthy creature |
| 8 | The dungeon was a central point of negotiation for evil factions shunned from society |
3. What is the Dungeon’s Structure?
The following table determines a general structure you can use to build your dungeon:
Arctic Dungeon Structure Table
| d8 | Structure |
|---|---|
| 1 | An insulated fortress built from frozen stone and ancient giant bones |
| 2 | A precarious ruined wizard’s tower held in place both by ice and its failing supports |
| 3 | A ziggurat decorated with chained skeletons, killed by the elements |
| 4 | A massive set of stone doors built for large or larger creatures descending into the earth |
| 5 | Once a mine, now an insulated underground village built into the environment |
| 6 | A shipwreck carried by a powerful behemoth to its current resting place |
| 7 | A castle with two outer walls both buried from the back in a mountain of ice and snow |
| 8 | A series of tunnels contained within a hollowed-out frozen Kraken |
4. Who Currently Resides in the Dungeon?
The following table determines what kinds of creatures reside in the dungeon:
Arctic Dungeon Creatures Table
| d20 | Creatures |
|---|---|
| 1 | Humans that use the structure to protect themselves from the elements |
| 2 | White kobolds, converting it more by the year with simple, yet lethal, icicle traps |
| 3 | Goblinoids, who use it as a hideout to retreat to after their raids |
| 4 | Elves, isolated and xenophobic, creating magnificent sculptures and magical decor |
| 5 | Frost giants who have retrofitted the dungeon to better fit holding their hunting equipment |
| 6 | Undead, expanding their numbers by dragging back those who perish in the wastes |
| 7 | Fey, who feed on the negative emotions caused by starvation |
| 8 | Demons, bursting from a portal within, but contained by their inability to survive outside |
| 9 | Devils, fashioning the dungeon to trap the living and force them into servitude |
| 10 | Celestials spurred to madness by their inability to react to the climate and dark magic |
| 11 | Gnolls, having trashed the place and using it to host violent contents and grim feasts |
| 12 | Dwarves, possessed by a dark mind uncovered below their mountain homes |
| 13 | A white dragon using it as a rest from hunting and a location to stash its loot |
| 14 | Orcs led to the outpost by a visionary claiming this dungeon holds the key to their future |
| 15 | Oozes and vermin who’ve become symbiotic, working together to kill and eat intruders |
| 16 | Elementals composed of ice and water conscripted to defend the dungeon |
| 17 | A beholder, having sought an isolated lair in inhospitable climates to protect itself fully |
| 18 | Arctic plant creatures hardened and conditioned by the region, hostile to non-plants |
| 19 | Gnome survivors unsure of reality hostile to living creatures that approach |
| 20 | The dungeon is eerily empty, only protected by magical and mundane traps |
5. What Rooms Are in the Dungeon?
Consider either rolling as many times as you’d like ahead of time to plot out the dungeon, or rolling as the players progress through where the new doors may lead. There are two options: an ordinary rooms table, for when you want the players to explore some mundane options, and extraordinary rooms for when you want to spice things up a bit.
The following tables can be rolled on to determine what rooms the players encounter as they progress:
Arctic Dungeon Ordinary Rooms Table
| d12 | Ordinary Room |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cold storage, deliberately kept cold to preserve foods and other supplies |
| 2 | Bar and dining, containing tables, a fireplace, a bar, and an attached kitchen |
| 3 | Housing and bunks, with a central heater and storage room for the denizens |
| 4 | Study containing desks and day-to-day planning and recording tools |
| 5 | Armory, hosting weapon racks, heavily padded winter gear, and niche weapons |
| 6 | Cells, where captives were kept, usually exposed to the elements to torture them |
| 7 | Vault, where valuables are kept, typically locked and buried deep within the dungeon |
| 8 | Library, with bookshelves, map containers, and other navigational instruments |
| 9 | War Room, with a long table, map of the region, and seats for a few dozen |
| 10 | Storage room, containing cleaning supplies, extra dry goods, or other necessities |
| 11 | Chapel, with pews or other resting locations and a central worship altar and podium |
| 12 | Throne room, with a large leading chair on a platform overlooking the hall |
Arctic Dungeon Extraordinary Rooms Table
| d10 | Extraordinary Room |
|---|---|
| 1 | Ritual chamber built around a frozen monstrous eye, blood troughs running towards it |
| 2 | Arcane laboratory using the cold to preserve monstrous specimens in vats |
| 3 | Gladitarorial arena, exposed to the elements, housing an arctic monstrosity |
| 4 | Portal room, with a series of closed gateways to other planes of existence |
| 5 | Gallery featuring frozen dead creatures as art pieces |
| 6 | Catacombs with shelves of uncovered dead preserved in black ice |
| 7 | Hatchery hosting a clutch of 2d12 white dragon eggs in chipped ice nests |
| 8 | Factory pairing magic with technology to produce icy golems or weapons |
| 9 | Puzzle trap room that drops the temperature of the room as the party tries to solve it |
| 10 | Dark altar to a creature heralding a frozen apocalypse |
