{"id":105,"date":"2026-09-06T18:09:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/?p=105"},"modified":"2026-09-06T19:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T19:00:26","slug":"dungeon-ventilation-clears-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/dungeon-ventilation-clears-the-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Dungeon Ventilation Clears the Air"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Robert Plamondon<\/h5>\n

First published in Dragon Magazine #45, January, 1981.<\/em><\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong> This is the second of two related articles, both published in Dragon #45.<\/em> The other is Gas ’em Up and Smoke ’em Out<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A major design flaw in many DMs’ dungeons is the lack of a ventilation system. This is a shame, since DMs can can vary conditions in different parts of the dungeon as a function (or mal\u00adfunction) of the airflow system. The air can be hot or cold, dry or damp, pure or putrid, according to the source and amount of ventila\u00adtion.<\/p>\n

All dungeons consisting of more than a few rooms a couple of feet below ground need ventilation systems if animal life is to survive (Undead don\u2019t breathe, so they don\u2019t care). Narrow corridors and closed rooms become death traps if the air doesn\u2019t move\u2014which the early explorers of the Great Pyramids found out the hard way. To prevent this (except when you want it), let there be airflow!
\n<\/p>\n

Ventilation Systems<\/h2>\n

Designing a ventilation system is elementary\u2014the air needs to go in and the air needs to go out. This is normally done with air ducts to every room, though chimneys to the surface from every room or grilles between rooms are possibilities.<\/p>\n

Ducts<\/h3>\n

Ducts are typically in the form of tunnels in raw rock or masonry in soil, depending on local geology, and usually above the rooms. In rock, they have to be large enough for the creatures that made them to crawl through; thus, orc-built ducts will let almost anyone through, while gnomish ducts may be impassable for all but gnomes and non-claustrophobic hobbits.<\/p>\n

New duct systems will have grilles at each outlet, some\u00adtimes just rat-proof, but usually quite massive. There will be some way for creatures to enter the system, since it would require occa\u00adsional maintenance. Old dungeons may have many grilles missing, but may have traps in the ducts.<\/p>\n

Once some grilles are gone, the ventilation system will become a highway for small creatures. This could result in animals such as rats dropping into rooms after fights to eat the dead and wounded.<\/p>\n

Ducts also tend to channel sound from room to room.<\/p>\n

Chimneys<\/h3>\n

Straight vertical ventilation shafts are relatively rare, since the designer would have disliked looters continually dropping things down them. Each chimney should have at least one sharp horizontal bend to catch missiles, and a drain to divert rain, flaming oil, and the like. If the screens or grilles are missing, bats, thieves and other undesirables can use chimneys to reach deep levels which they otherwise couldn\u2019t get to.<\/p>\n

Pumping Systems<\/h3>\n

If the dungeon is inside a mountain, the ventilation system can be designed to use the wind-caused difference in pressure on opposite sides of the peak to force air through the works. This method re\u00adquires large and perhaps obvious openings that adventurers can find and exploit.<\/p>\n

Dungeons lacking natural airflow will need some kind of pump\u00ading station using fans, bellows, piston pumps, air elementals, etc. The mechanical pumps will typically be run by spells, slaves, waterwheels or volcanic steam.<\/p>\n

Pumphouses will be protected by some means. Slave-\u00adrun, unprotected pumps might appear on upper levels, but other more protected types will be on very deep levels, and are used to supply air to all of the levels above them.<\/p>\n

Quality Control<\/h2>\n

Dungeon Masters can make use of decrepit ventilators to give rooms appropriate atmospheres. Lack of ventilation can in some cases be used as an attack; just picture the stench of a room full of zombies after a few weeks. Possible forms of malfunction include:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Poisonous air<\/li>\n
  2. Too hot\/cold<\/li>\n
  3. Room full of smoke, steam or dust<\/li>\n
  4. Whistling draft<\/li>\n
  5. Lamp-dousing draft<\/li>\n
  6. Strange smells<\/li>\n
  7. \u201cBooming\u201d air pressure (causes deafness)<\/li>\n
  8. Room in vacuum<\/li>\n
  9. Room full of water<\/li>\n
  10. Room full of sewage<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A strong stench will tend to forewarn mules and elves, and that the difference between stinking air and poisonous air (which may be odorless) is hard for any character to detect. Miners have been known to bring small birds with them into mines, because birds die from bad air before people and thus provide them some warning.<\/p>\n

    Wrecking the System<\/h2>\n

    Eventually players will realize that they can ruin an entire dun\u00adgeon level by stopping the pumps or blocking the inlet shaft.<\/p>\n

    Plan A is to take the pumphouse, stop the pumps, wait for everything to die, start the pumps again and take all the treasure.<\/p>\n

    Unfortunately, intelligent dungeon dwellers will notice the lack of airflow and will try to retake the pumphouse, forming a temporary alliance among themselves to do so, since their only other choice is to run for it. Also, if this has happened before, they may be prepared.<\/p>\n

    With a large, well-populated dungeon, parties rarely survive Plan A.<\/p>\n

    Plan B is to find the intake shaft, fill it full of rocks, wait for everything to die, open up the shaft, and take all the treasure.<\/p>\n

    Of course, the intelligent monsters will try to unblock the shaft or drive a new one. Most of the nonintelligent monsters, having evolved in subterranean settings, would instinctively recognize bad air\u2014and would also attempt to flee to the surface.<\/p>\n

    Because of the difficulty in winning at vent-wrecking, DM\u2019s need not worry about it much. Even a party which can defeat any monster in the dungeon can\u2019t beat\u00a0all<\/em> the monsters in the dungeon at once. And if the party flees and waits at a safe distance, they’ll likely return to find that the problems they created have been fixed, one way or another.<\/p>\n

    Still, one must always applaud initiative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Robert Plamondon First published in Dragon Magazine #45, January, 1981. Note: This is the second of two related articles, both published in Dragon #45. The other is Gas ’em Up and Smoke ’em Out. A major design flaw in many DMs’ dungeons is the lack of a ventilation system. This is a shame, since … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-magazine-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116,"href":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/through-dungeons-deep.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}