Your game is starting in just over an hour, and you just realized you need a dungeon…
You don’t need a masterpiece, just something that’s playable with a few rooms, some tactical interest, maybe even a secret or two that keeps things interesting… but who has the time to build a brand new dungeon map from scratch?
Dungeon Scrawl was built for DMs and GMs just like you. The ones who love creating incredible tabletop experiences for your party, but are just as busy as everyone else.
This is your guide to creating a complete dungeon map in 10 minutes or less. No experience required. Just follow along and you'll have something usable by the end.
What You'll Need
- Dungeon Scrawl (open app.dungeonscrawl.com in a new tab)
- 10 minutes
- A rough idea of what your dungeon is (optional, but helpful)
Your 10-Minute Dungeon Plan
For this 10-minute dungeon creation tutorial, we’re going to keep things simple and easy. Because once you learn how to start spinning up maps with Dungeon Scrawl, you’ll start to learn how to add more creativity and depth without the process dragging on.
We’re going to focus on making a small dungeon with:
- An entrance area with a choice
- 5-7 rooms total
- At least one loop (built so players can choose to flank or retreat)
- One secret room (because secrets are fun)
- A boss chamber at the end
This is simple enough for a solid session, but keeps the building process simple from start to finish. Now, let’s build a map!
Step 1: Set Up Your Canvas (30 seconds)
This is the easiest part: just hop over to Dungeon Scrawl and load up the tools you need to create a map. (It’s also the hardest part, because sometimes it's our own fear of failure that keeps us from creativity! Blank pages can feel overwhelming!)
Once Dungeon Scrawl loads, you're ready to go. You’ll find that the rectangle tool is already selected. This will be your main drawing tool.
Quick Tip: If you want to change the visual style, it’s easy. Simply click on the background layer in the bottom-right layers panel, then choose a preset from the "Map style" dropdown. The system is set to the default "Parchment" style, but you can select "Clean", or "Blueprint", whichever suits your purpose. For now, just leave it as is. We're drawing, not decorating.
Step 2: Draw the Entrance Hall (1 minute)
Now we need to create the room where your party will start their adventure. To create the entrance hall, simply click and drag your tool to create the first room. Easy enough, right?
Keep it simple. Build your room rectangle roughly 6-8 grid squares wide and 4-5 squares tall. This is your entrance hall.
Now it’s time to add the entrance to your hall.
Just press B then 6 to switch to the door tool (or click it from the toolbar). Then click on the bottom edge of your entrance hall and place a door. That's where the party enters.
Your one-room dungeon is born. Now it’s time to start building out and getting more creative.
Step 3: Create the First Branch (2 minutes)
There’s never been a good dungeon that didn’t have life-or-death choices. Otherwise, it’d just be a basement. (Though, those can be scary too, we suppose.) Let’s give our players a choice to make the moment they leave the entrance:
First, draw two corridors that branch off from your entrance hall:
- Use the rectangle tool (press B 1 if you switched away from it)
- Draw a corridor going left. Make it 2 squares wide and 6-8 squares long
- Draw another corridor going right, of a similar size
Now, let’s add rooms at the ends of each corridor:
- Click and drag to create a room at the end of each corridor
- Make the rooms different sizes (variety keeps things interesting)
- Left room: 4x4 squares
- Right room: 6x5 squares
Don’t forget to connect them with doors! Use the door tool to add a door where each corridor meets its room.
Now your party has its first branching choice. Do they go left? Right? Split off and try out both?
Step 4: Add a Loop (2 minutes)
You could create a linear dungeon with only one “right” choice. But that isn’t always fun – and it isn’t hard to create loops in Dungeon Scrawl that create fun tactical options. With loops, players can retreat, flank, or choose different routes.
To create your loop, draw a connecting corridor between your two rooms:
- From the left room, draw a corridor going up about 6 squares
- Draw it across to connect to the right room
- Add doors at both ends
Now, your players can choose to go left, through the connecting passage, and emerge in the right room. Or vice versa.
Boom. Instant tactical depth – and it’s only been 5 and a half minutes!
Step 5: Add the Boss Chamber (1.5 minutes)
Now comes the real fun. Every dungeon designer knows that they need a big finale. So let’s create our boss chamber.
Luckily, creating your boss chamber is just like building your entrance hall, only way more intense. From your right room (you can pick either, really), draw a corridor going up or to the side. Keep it to roughly 4 squares long.
Now, draw a bigger room at the end. This will be your map’s boss chamber. You’ll want to make it noticeably larger than the others – somewhere between 8x8 or 10x6 squares.
Remember, big rooms signal important encounters, and they act as a mile marker for players to get ready for what’s beyond the boss door. Speaking of which, make sure to add a door where the corridor meets this chamber.
Optional but fun: To really give the room an intensity, create a pillar or two using the regular polygon tool (press B 4). Click once to place a circular column. These little things give the boss chamber more visual interest (and give players some cover during combat).
Step 6: Hide a Secret Room (1.5 minutes)
You could stop there, but you still have a few creative minutes to use. So let’s create a secret room for your players to discover.
Secret rooms are dungeon maker gold. And they’re also incredibly easy to add. To create one, pick one of your earlier rooms. For this one, let's use the left room from Step 3.
Now, draw a small room (3x3 squares) and attach it directly to one of the walls.
Here's the secret: Don't add a door. Rather, we’re going to create a secret passage in the wall:
- Press E to toggle erase mode (the button turns orange)
- Use the rectangle tool to draw a small gap in the wall (just 1 square wide)
- Press E again to return to draw mode
You've just created a secret door. Players need to find it, but once they do, there's a hidden room waiting.
Drop some treasure in there to reward them for their trouble! (Or a monster, you do you.)
Step 7: Add Details (1.5 minutes)
You could stop here and have a fully functional dungeon map. But if you really want to make your dungeon feel like a “place” rather than a map, you can add some details that can upgrade the experience.
Add Furniture and Objects
You can easily add furniture and objects using images and assets:
- Click the images icon in the left toolbar (it looks like a mountain/picture icon)
- Browse through the included assets. You can pick from tables, chairs, beds, barrels, statues, etc.
- Click to place them in rooms
The key is not to overthink this. Drop in 3-5 objects total in different spots on your map to give it some variety.
You can also move those assets around using the object tool (press B 8). Just select and drag items if you need to reposition them.
Step 8: Quick Final Touches (30 seconds)
Here are a few more quick final touches you can add to your map in seconds. Just be careful – this is where your creativity can start to get carried away!
- Add stairs if your dungeon has levels: Press B 0 for the stairs tool, and click three points (top step, top step on the other side, bottom step).
- Check your doors: You’ll want to make sure every room is accessible, so make sure there are doors or passageways that are accessible.
- Add a grid: If you've turned it off, make sure it's back on for VTT use. Check the background layer settings in the bottom-right.
Step 9: Export Your Map (30 seconds)
Now it’s time to export your map! Dungeon Scrawl also makes this process super easy. Just click the download icon in the left toolbar.
The blue rectangle shows what will be exported. You can drag the corner handles to adjust it. Here are some quick
- px per cell: Leave it at 70 for most VTTs (Roll20, Foundry, Owlbear Rodeo)
- Filename: It's auto-generated with dimensions – keep it like this so you can refer to it in your downloads faster
Click "Download PNG" and you're done.
The filename tells you the grid size (like "dungeon-28x22.png"), which is handy when importing to your VTT.
Optionally, if you want to save storage space on Roll20, you can connect your map directly to your campaign following this tutorial.
Step 10: Save Your Work (Optional, 30 seconds)
Do you want to come back and keep building your map later? You can save your work by going to the File menu → Save (or press Ctrl+S)
This downloads a .ds file to your computer. You can load it later by dragging it back into Dungeon Scrawl. (But your map also auto-saves to the cloud if you have Dungeon Scrawl Pro, so you can skip this step entirely.)
You're Done!
Now check the clock. We’ll bet that you just created a fully-functional dungeon map in just under 10 minutes. That means you now have:
- A complete dungeon layout
- Multiple paths and player choices
- A secret room for discovery
- A climactic boss chamber
- Some atmospheric details
- An exported image ready for your VTT
The best part? By following this tutorial, you've used and learned most of Dungeon Scrawl's core features. Now you have all the skills you need to create 90% of dungeon maps.
So, what are you waiting for? Hop into Dungeon Scrawl now and start building your new dungeon maps! Get creative and try to break stuff! You’ll be amazed at how creative you can get in just ten minutes.
Once you create a map, why not share it with our community in our Discord? We'd love to see what you create!
Create your own dungeon right now: app.dungeonscrawl.com