This will be a little shorter than my usual room contributions (I felt better about it when I was expecting to have this published days ago!); today I'm focusing on stairs, pits, and other descents.
Here are the "rooms":
(I have no clue what's causing this blur; maybe I need to clean my scanner or something)
...Stairs?
I was recently reading through The Vast in the Dark because I was intrigued by it's dungeon generators. There is much I could say about it; I was quite impressed with both the content and the presentation! But, the point is that one interesting feature of those dungeon generators is rooms that explicitly connect to deeper levels. As it is a generated dungeon, it seems that those deeper levels more or less "don't exist" until you find a room that connects to those lower levels. The overall conceit assumes that you want to push deeper and deeper into the dungeon to find something in particular (I won't spoil it for those who want to pick it up; I'll just say it's pretty cool), so it's important for the generator to produce explicit paths to lower levels of the dungeon (including descents that skip levels!)
Anyways, until I read that it hadn't occurred to me that "stairs" can be a "room" unto themselves.
As general commentary goes for this entry, I don't have much to offer, but I will say two things:
First, if you go the route of creating a dungeon with a generator, along with randomly generating stairs and pits that lead to lower levels it would also be pretty neat to generate stairs, shafts, etc., that lead to higher levels. Depending where those ascents are generated, it could either create more looping in the existing dungeon, or reveal entirely new entrances to this dungeon complex. That just strikes me as a cool idea.
Second, any kind of vertical shaft is a neat place to let natural light spill into a dungeon. I love the imagery (and the game implications) of a "well lit" space within a dungeon. Not only does it make for an evocative contrast with the sort of darkness and fear that are common in dungeons, but it can sometimes let you break with the usual ecology of the dungeon as well. It can also taunt hopelessly lost players with that so-close-yet-so-far feeling to escape the dungeon, or reward the particularly inventive and well-equipped party with an alternate entrance/exit.
Room notes
Stairs
In particular, remember that my focus here is on stairs that can fill the niche of "rooms". Therefore, I'm not going to spend any time talking about the sort of simple "low profile" stairs that I commonly use in dungeons (e.g. a hallway that rises or descends, or a spiral stair case off of a room or hall, etc.).
Instead, we're looking at rooms in which the stairs comprise the major feature. To me that generally means that the stairs are just like... really wide, or--more interestingly--they include an open shaft or balcony of some kind. I see three interesting consequences of this layout:
1. Visibility to lower levels. E.g. getting an hint of layout, theming, threats on a lower level.
2. Tactical positioning. Stairs can be a choke point or simply a high ground that you return to to stage your fights.
3. Navigational challenge. Particularly in the cases where stairs have partially or totally collapsed, now the space is more of a puzzle: how do we get down? Or, if that's still pretty simple, how do we get back up?
Chasms
Of course, many of my previous rooms have included pits or chasms of some kind. It is quite forgivable to not always include "something" at the bottom of such descents (though I still recommend it), but in this case we're foregrounding the intent to do so. The first example does so by making the pit the only thing in this room. E.g. you come to the end of a hall, enter a room, and the only apparent exit is the pit that is dominating this space. In other cases where the pit is less primary players can be forgiven for thinking the descent is merely an obstacle to get around or over, in this example it is instead obvious that the pit must mean something. There are other ways to do this of course: perhaps there is a frayed rope hanging over the edge (indicating that someone at some point climbed down there), or some thick roots or vines draped over the edge of the ravine giving a distinctly climbable vibe. There are certainly other sights and sounds you could employ to give a clue.
Collapses
This is a little harder to pull off with design and intentionality, but I love when my old, ruined dungeon includes places where the ceiling has caved in; particularly when that ceiling is some other chamber's floor. This has all the advantages of other kinds of vertical spaces, and it's just interesting. Where stairs sort of say "this way leads to the next level", collapsed floors are more like "woah, there's even more down there?". It's more surprising! And where a floor is crumbling, it may crumble more; a natural hazard!
I wouldn't rate this as strictly necessary, but collapses can also be flavored or justified in a variety of ways. Was the floor/ceiling simply poorly constructed? Were the builders unaware that there was a chamber below here (natural or long-lost) and simply lucky it didn't cave in sooner? Did an explosion take place here? Did a deluge of water soak and soften the floor? A fire compromise the supporting beams? Alternating periods of melting and freezing break up the ground? Acid? Wibbly-wobbly jelly magic? All it takes is one foolhardy adventurer and their turns-things-to-smoke-elixir and you, too, could have a handy hole in the floor to play with.
Elevators
Of course you may be playing a sci-fi game, in which case these are a fairly obvious feature, but even if you're just playing classic fantasy an elevator shaft is still quite a viable inclusion. Whether that be a simple wooden platform hung on chains and lifted by winch, or a magical elevator (also known as " an elevator". Electricity truly is it's own kind of magic. But hey, make it even more magical: a platform that floats anti-gravity style without any visible machinery.) Such a shaft may be long decayed, simply an interesting insight into the builder's technological advancement, or it may even be in a working or partially functional state, allowing for a more interesting kind of movement between levels. (If it's in a state of decay, perhaps its a nice short-cut, but a very noisy and risky one, what with the need for someone to winch and all the noise from those rusty chains.)
Waterfalls
It simply wouldn't do for me to pass on the opportunity to add some water! While any vertical descent or shaft could be terminated with a body of water, a waterfall reaches out and slaps you in the face with the possibility: we could just jump down there and worry about how to get up later. In other pits and drops you have to come up with the plan first; do we have a rope? A ladder? A grappling hook? A parachute? Not so with water. The landing has been prepared. It's the "push the big red button" approach on a silver platter.
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