On the Releasing of the Necessity of Content
No dungeon room is ever really empty. This is because every room starts with nothing. It goes through various contents, a monster, some treasure, an adventuring party. Between sessions, there is nothing. Is an empty room ever encountered? No, that is wrong thinking. If you think this is because a party must encounter a room with nothing in it, and thus it is not empty, that is also wrong thinking. When a room is encountered, one may think "combat encounter," or "social encounter," or "stealth encounter." It is from this that actions are adjudicated and consequences are resolved. These myriad interpretations fail in the face of a room with nothing. The duality of design is thus: a room must give the opportunity to do anything imaginable and feasible, but still keep a coherent playstyle and encourage the party into those constraints. There is a freedom in constraints, and it breeds creativity in play. When your constraints are four stone walls, the op...