“Many of the Jaquays Techniques deal with elaborating, enumerating, or complicating the transitions between levels. So let’s take a moment to consider the many different ways in which levels can be connected to each other.”
“STAIRS: The very first level connector mentioned in all of D&D”
“SLOPES: Similar to stairs, but without the stairs”
“CHUTES: Vertical passages that cannot be traversed on foot”
“LADDERS: Like a chute, but with a climbing aid already onsite”
“TRAPDOORS: Trapdoors may lead to stairs, slopes, chutes, or ladders, but they may also taunt PCs from the middle of a ceiling. Or drop down directly into a lower chamber”
“WINDOWS: In Dark Tower, Jaquays gives us a window looking down into a lower level of the dungeon”
“TELEPORTS: Teleportation effects allow for rapid transit through larger dungeon complexes, but also have the potential to leave PCs disoriented until they can re-orient themselves at the other end”
“TRAPS: Pit traps that drop PCs into an underground river three levels below”
“MULTI-LEVEL CHAMBERS: Large, vertical chambers can contain entrances leading to different levels within the dungeon”
“ELEVATORS: In their most basic configuration elevators are chutes with a self-propelling means of passage”
“BASKET AND PULLEY: These are similar to elevators in their operation, but have the distinction of allowing their passengers to directly observe their surroundings for the duration of their trip”
“ETHEREAL TRAVEL: Sections of the dungeon in which normally solid obstacles (like the floor) can be moved through by way of the Ethereal Plane”
“RIVERS: A natural variant of the slope. If the river runs flush with the walls, however, getting back upstream may require some tricky swimming”
“UNDERWATER: In the real world, the fluid level in any connected system has to be the same, which means that underwater journeys will be most useful in moving PCs across divided levels, nested levels, or to sub-levels on the same horizontal plane of the dungeon”
“However, magic, alchemy, and steampunk technology can provide any number of airlocks and semi-permeable barriers allowing for underwater dives to the depths of an otherwise dry dungeon”
“COLLAPSED PASSAGES: A variant on any chute, stair, shaft, slope, or passage”
“TRANSPORT: Think Charon on the River Styx”
“BEING SWALLOWED: “The cave is collapsing.” “This is no cave.””
“BRUTE FORCE: Tunneling through walls using a stone shape spell. Levitating or flying through “unreachable” vertical passages. Using gaseous form to traverse “impassable” air vents”