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I normally use rooms between 30 and 60 feet on a side. Such a size leaves room for maneuvering and tactics, without being too large to cross in one turn.

every room should be 70 feet wide and 140 feet long. this is b/c it will force players to make use of charges and ready actions, in addition to normal movement tactics, as well as allow for ranged characters to make for use of their skills. also with this type of room most aoe's won't be able to hit every single tile in an area. also each room should be 90 feet tall to allow large jumps and limited flight, as well as chains hanging every 5 feet to allow climbing to be possible. a full dungeon should consist of 10 foot wide corriders(this is so everyone can comfortably walk about with out having to crowd) that are 120 feet long before coming to a right angle turn into another 120 foot long hallway which leads to another room of the dimensions i outlined above. all traps should be in the tunnels as rooms will be used for combat. this should be done across the entire dungeon and in every dungeon. if you feel the need to be creative, simply make one of the rooms have spiked chains instead of normal ones.

j/k of course.

that prison cell room you talked about reminded me of one of the more memorable rooms in one of the dungeons i put together for my group.

the group (falsely) believed a particular church to be in league with a cult of vecna and broke in to investigate. in the church's cellar they found entrance to to a dungeon beneath the church and found a torture room and several cells full of 2 to 3 people each. what the party did not know, was that the church was currently involved in fighting a rather persisant vampire clan, and had managed to capture a number of bloodsuckers that they were attempting to torture for information on the lair of their master. so the caged vampires spin a tale of lies about how they are just commoners being tortured and sacrificed, and the party naturally lets them all out. needless to say a fight breaks out shortly after, which causes enough of a comotion that several of the temple guards followed by the higher ranked clergy join the fray. needless to say things got a lil messy. the party ended up locking themselves in a cell and hiding behind the wall to avoid AoE and attacks. the temple won, and all of the PC's lived accept for the wizard who got dominated before he could get in the cage. of course, the clergy were not overly happy....

JayM wrote:

One thing I have clearly seen running and playing in 4e test games is that areas need to be a bit bigger then they where in 3e. The greater tactical importance plus greater ability by defenders to block passage means you need more space to move.

With 4e, I'll be moving back to 10ft halls in many cases, and bumping up room size a bit.

Jay

i'm generally loath to say things like this, but your comment saddens me. qoute-unquote defenders may have gotten some cool bottleneck abilites, and the other roles may have too, but why should that change anything? there have always been meat shields and battle field movers and the such. just b/c 4e is going to focus a lil more on movement, why should the world change to better suit a new battle mechanic?
i know this may not be the best stance to take as i am effectively telling you how to play a game of pretend, but i simply do not understand why the story, the world, and the enviroment needs to change to better take advantage of new mechanics. but then again, i've never been very big on meta-gaming.
i apoligize if i have offended you, the bottom line is that it's your game and as long as you and your group have fun, it's a successful method of playing. but for me personally, i have no intention of widening my corriders. they will continue to be exactly as wide as the creature that built them needed them to be to fit whatever purpose they serve.