How to Host a Dungeon Changed My Life

photo "borrowed" from Planet Thirteen Games.

The other day (week), I had a life-changing experience.

That sounds a little dramatic.

What I mean is, I had a paradigmatic shift in my approach to thinking about dungeon design, all thanks to How to Host a Dungeon, from Planet Thirteen.

I picked this up when I ordered The Purple Worm Graveyard because 1)it's about dungeons (duh, do you need a better reason?) and 2)it's a solitaire game. I was powerless to resist it.

In brief: the game starts with the land in a pre-dungeon state and takes it through several ages, from construction to manipulation to the arrival of The Big Bad and beyond if you desire. The resulting map and history can then be used to create a dungeon for use with your favorite RPG.

So, what exactly was so great about it?

For one, I rarely draw dungeons from the side-view (like the example of the Haunted Keep's levels in Moldvay Basic) but there is an obvious benefit for starting there - it's easy to see how the levels physically relate to each other and where the connections might be.

Second, it reaffirmed the benefit of something I've been doing lately: drawing maps on blank paper. The lines aren't perfect and the dimensions aren't precise(that can be hand waived as "settling" and such) but, importantly, it frees you from the stiff linear nature of graph paper. The resulting look can be more organic or in my case, it looks like the levels were constructed by drunken dwarves.

Finally, the game gave me a real sense of the history of the place. This is the part that really gets me excited.

Knowing why each level was constructed, it's easier for me to produce a traditional top-down map: I know what features to include on each level. I also know what may have survived from the earliest days of the dungeon, and what has likely been overlaid/built-upon/destroyed by successive generations of inhabitants. When I felt like sketching a few additional levels, i found it easy to justify their existence into the whole story.

The best part? I only completed the first two "Ages" of the dungeon and my brain was off and running! This is absolutely worth checking out if you're into solitaire games and/or dungeon settings.

Will this have any benefits at the table? I'll find out soon enough, as I'm going to be running a dungeon-based campaign (I'm calling it a "mini mega-dungeon campaign", an idea taken from Dyson's Delve) in this dungeon in less than 2 weeks.

The Ever Expanding Dungeon: Session 17

[We rejoin our party in the dungeon, where we left off last session. ]

Kroyden, having regained his sight, scouted ahead to an intersection to his right ,a door, to his left, a 10' passage to a four way intersection, which he scouted as well. There, he found steps up to the north, and doors to the East and South.

The party started with the first door, and although Perceval heard a drumming sound emanating from within, the room turned out to be empty. There were no visible exits, but Dleggit thought the North wall might connect to a previously explored hallway. Hi search proved fruitless and he was unable to find any such door. 

At the "East" door from the four-way intersection, Perceval again heard something within: this time, footsteps. Kroyden searched for traps and found none, nor was he able to pick the lock. [I really wonder why I bother doing this except that it's his job in the party, and he gets XP for trying.] 

Perceval again forced the door open. The party was greated with the the smell of rotting and five giant centipedes swarming about eating whatever it was. [Since I rolled giant centipedes, when i checked the Is the Monster in Here? table, I rolled at -2. I rolled a 2.]. 

Again the room appeared to be a dead-end, and so, Perceval, remembering the disease brought to the late Feldspar by the bite of a centipede, told the party to turn back. 

They approached the "South" door and this time heard nothing behind the door. 

While Kroyden searched for traps, Sister Linkat - who was covering the party's rear during listening/lock picking - spotted a war band of 8 kobold's coming around the corner.

They were not overly hostile, but they were confident as they approached [I rolled that they were on patrol], and they seemed to be without fear. The apparent leader of the group hollered something in Kobold.

Dleggit, gifted with knowledge of the language, translated for the party "They want to know if we've seen a giant snake, covered with thick armor plates moving through here. It was headed this way and they lost it when it went around a corner."

He replied they had not and an exchange began between the party and kobolds, with Dleggit acting as translator:

[The kobold speech content was generated by Rory's Story Cubes]

"You seem to be far from home. This place is full of traps and disease. It would be best if you leave, " said the leader.

Sister Linkat put down her mace, and stepped toward the kobolds with an open hand and had Dleggit tell them the party meant them no harm and that if they needed healing, if her god ordained, she could provide. 

[Rolled reaction - they were indifferent]

"This place is our home, and you seek only to invade it and take what is ours."

It's hard to argue with the truth, so Perceval offered them 10 gp as a sign of good faith,and promised that the party would avoid the kobold's lair, provided that the leader would tell them its location.

The leader hesitated and then accepted the offer. He indicated on the party's map the region they kobold's use for their lair [in game terms, this means my party won't be mapping that section at least while Perceval is alive]

Kroyden meanwhile had found no traps, and began to pick the lock. He succeeded, but his success was accompanied by a small explosion which sent shrapnel of the lock through his eye and into his brain. 

He was dead on the spot. [It figures that I finally roll well for the pick locks check, and he becomes the 18th victim of the dungeon]

After Kroyden's body was loaded on the mule, Perceval argued that the party should return to town, while Dleggit and [to my surprise] Sister Linkat argued that Kroyden was dead and that forcing their way in could be an act of revenge in his honor. Perceval was convinced.

[I used my group decision mechanics to play out the discussion.]

Perceval forced the door open - [I rolled the room contents: Monster. I then rolled up Dwarves, followed by a check on my Is the Monster in Here table with a 1. ] in an instant he saw two dwarves tending to an injured third [I rolled a 12  for their reaction - hostile,to say the least] and then those first two were charging him, weapons drawn.

The two dwarves attacked Perceval [they won initiative and I then checked to determine if they could see Dleggit, in hopes that would stave off the attack. But Mythic was adamant that they could not ,I rolled exceptional No. In fact they were in a blind rage and it wouldn't matter anyway].

The attacks were useless, and Perceval moved aside for Dleggit to join him at the front and shout that they meant the dwarves no harm.

It fell on deaf ears.

[the party won initiative  6 to 5]

Without an alternative, Perceval struck the dwarf nearest him, cleanly killing the dwarf in one blow. Dleggit landed a solid hit on his target, and though he did not kill him, the fight was over [dwarves failed morale].

"I am too tired for this" uttered the dwarf.

The party forced their way in and then Sister Linkat, as she had done for the kobolds, had Dleggit translate her offer for healing. The dwarves refused but she was not satisfied with that and finally they conceded. She healed both to full HP.

And a long discussion began thereafter where the party [and I] learned the following:

• The dwarves tunneled into this complex and don't live in the mountain/ridge but rather live down deeper.
• The mural the party (well, Perceval) saw early on was a celebration of the unveiliing of a new observatory on top of the mountain.
• The Dwarves are at war with the Goblins who lair in the dungeon.
• The Goblins are powerful - they have a Bugbear contingent, wolf riders and are actively negotiating with other humanoids in the dungeon, the Orcs in particular.
• The Goblins recently turned their attention to recruiting the Gnolls on the 1st level but so far it has not panned out.
• The Kobolds keep to themselves mostly and the Goblins do not consider them a threat.
• Some Gnomes have been exploring lately and that is sure to bring conflict with the Kobolds.
• The Dwarves don't consider the Kobolds a threat but if the Gnomes sue for an alliance it's quite likely they'd have to go to war against the Kobolds.

Before they leave, the dwarves teach the party a hand-signal that identifies them as a friend of the clan, in order to prevent future "accidents".

With no healing spells left and Kroyden dead, the party opted to abandon the dungeon for the day. They returned to town where they built a funeral pyre for Kroyden and wished him well in the After.

*****
Kroyden's death was disappointing. I thought for sure he'd make it to 2nd level. Oh well, such is life in the dungeon.

Perceval crossed over to 3rd level and Dleggit is within 27 XP of 2nd level.

The increased HP is a nice buffer - but I'm still looking to avoid combat encounters as much as possible. 

I was particularly happy to learn a bit about the factions in the dungeon. All of that was facilitated by asking Mythic questions and interpreting replies. This might help me build 9Q adventure sessions which follow a more story-oriented progress.

Thinking About Poison

This morning, while waiting for my laptop to finish some updates, I read Poison: From AA to XX in Best of Dragon vol. II (originally appeared in issue 32, December '79).

The gist of the article is that:

1) Among humans, only alchemists can make poison

2) It can only be purchased from the Assassin's Guild 

3) PCs, other than thieves and assassins, may only use type S (sleep poison).

4) Locksmith's can use poison as part of setting an appropriate trap.

5) AA is the weakest of the poisons, XX is the strongest, and their costs reflect that.

6) Poison gas (one of my favorites) is generally used only to guard the most valuable treasures.

It also gives info on coating blades, damage, etc. 

It got me thinking about The Ever Expanding Dungeon (which I will get to play this week, so help me!), and my other dungeon crawls, and the frequency of poison needles and gas traps.

Are all of those poisoned traps set by the humanoids currently in the dungeon or are they holdovers from the past?

If they aren't holdovers, how are the humanoids making or acquiring poison which is essentially XX? That's really potent stuff, extremely expensive, and unlikely to be easily obtainable in such quantity that every few doors and chests are trapped with it.

Plus, I have been treating them all as Save or Die, with no other damage - so no 1/2 damage on save, and no chance of non-lethal traps. Is this a way to reduce the lethality of the dungeon in a manner that easily fits the narrative without my having to show any undo favoritism to my PCs?

As you probably have guessed, I'm working on a table to randomly determine the strength and type of poison, as part of my revisions of how traps are generated in The Ever Expanding Dungeon. 

I hope to have a draft ready by the next session.

Third Time Proves Itself Not to Be the Charm

Last night I took a break from my fun-but-failed attempts at modeling a T-34 hull and made a third delve into my ever expanding randomly generated dungeon.

Unfortunately, Feldspar, the strongest fighter and the highest hit points, had to stay at the inn to recuperate from his run-in with the nasty end of a giant centipede (hmm. i'm going to guess both ends are pretty nasty). He's got 9 more days of recovery in front of him.

Brother McCleary, Malazar and Inga went to the tavern to see if they could scrounge up another fighter or anyone for that matter - but the well was dry. Word had gotten out that the last two torch bearers didn't make it back, and they could find no one who would fill that position either. Perceval agreed to go in once again, for an equal share of any treasure. With no other options, the party agreed and went to the dungeon the next morning notably under strength.

Thoughts and memories of the delve:

• Retracing steps is slow and why did that bugbear nod at us like he knew us? 
• Some armed and unfriendly dwarves pass peacefully followed only a little later by a single elf trailing them. The latter tries to enlist the party in capturing the dwarves with a tale of woe and the promise that it would prevent bloodshed. The party decides not to get involved and moves on.
• A mad warrior "king" seated atop a ramshackle throne offered a reward if the party can get the wizard on the 3rd level to dis-spell the glowing orbs of light. He hasn't slept well in ages and it's making him crazy.He also warned that if they bash down his door again, he won't be so understanding.
• Brother McCleary tried to make a sign of peace to 6 goblins seated around a table drinking and playing cards. He accidentally signed the goblin equivalent of "My nose hair is longer than your man-hood." Not surprisingly  a fight ensued. The party gave a fine account of themselves.
• A bugbear guard struck down Brother McCleary and Inga. Malazar's sleep spell saved what was left of the party. Erring on the side of safety, Perceval delivered a killing blow. It's easy when they are unconscious. The net result? 6 gp.
• Remember kids, you don't get rich fighting monsters!

Epilogue : Perceval and Malazar carried their fallen comrades out of the dungeon through an exit discovered early into this 3rd trek. To their surprise it was sealed by a large door of amber.  Although it was tempting to chip some away to try and sell back in town, they decided it best not to linger in case anyone was following them.

Looking forward to rolling up some new PCs to conveniently arrive in town and join the party. There's no way I'm sending Malazar (1st level M-U) and Perceval (0-level human) back in by themselves!


****bookkeeping***

Body count: Brother McCleary (C:1), Inga Fireforge (F:1)
Kills: 6 goblins, 1 bugbear
Rooms explored: 4 new rooms (not going to account passing through previously explored rooms)
Treasure: 67 sp, 6 gp
Turns: 38

Dungeon Generator Updated: Now with More Reasonable Room Sizes!

Late last week, after becoming dissatisfied with the sprawling nature of the hallways and the rather over-sized rooms (an experience Jeff from Saxe-Bearstein also had), I revised the most recent version of my dungeon generator. I did some testing last night and it definitely appears to work better. I'll continue to test it tonight, but thought I'd release it into the wild as well.

Please give it a try and let me know if you find any weirdness!

No Budget No Frills Pencil and Paper Dungeon Generator 

ver 4.1

Tools needed:

• an ordinary deck of playing cards, jokers removed
• d4, d6, d8, d10
• graph paper and pencil/pen or electronic equivalents

Instructions:

• Shuffle your deck of cards
• Place your starting room with more than one exit on your graph paper
• Draw a card
• Ace = Stairs up or Exit in X squares (player's choice or roll 1d6. 1-3 Stairs, 4-6 Exit)
• 2 = Stairs down or Exit in X squares (player's choice or roll 1d6. 1-3 Stairs, 4-6 Exit)
• 3 = Straight Hallway for X squares w/ Trap (Roll 1d6. 1-3= pit trap, 4-6 other trap)
• 4 = Straight Hallway for X squares
• 5 = 4-way Intersection in X squares
• 6 = Turn Right in X squares
• 7 = Turn Left in X squares
• 8 = T-intersection in X squares
• 9 = Room(draw a door and then proceed to room generator)
• 10 = Room (draw a door and then proceed to room generator)
• Jack = Room (draw a door and then proceed to room generator)
• Queen = Dead end in X squares or Draw Again(player's choice)
• King = Reshuffle deck and draw again

I've had equally good results ignoring the King, waiting until all 4 Kings are drawn to reshuffle, and with using every King as a reshuffle trigger. 

• Add the indicated item to your map (for rooms see the Room Generator).
• Where it says "X squares", roll the appropriate die:
• Hearts = d10
• Diamonds = d8
• Spades = d6
• Clubs = d4
•  Keep in mind that you may need to be creative or fudge it a bit if there isn't room or you run into the edge of the paper.
• If playing solo, resolve any encounters.
• Repeat

Room Generator

• Roll the die specified, and then modify according to the Room Dimensions Modifier below:
• If room card is Hearts then d10 x d10 squares
• If room card is Diamonds then d8 x d8 squares
• If room card is Spades then d6 x d6 squares
• If room card is Clubs then d4 x d4 squares

Room Dimension Modifier

• If the values of both room dice are equal, do nothing.
• If one value is odd and one is even, divide the larger value in half and round it up. 
• If both values are even or both values are odd, divide both in half and round up.

Additional Room Exits: 

• Roll 1d4. Subtract 1 from the result. This is how many additional exits are in the room. Place randomly or wherever makes sense given the dungeon's layout.

Room Content
(or use the room content generator included with the rules you are using)

• Roll 1d6:1-2 Monster
• 3 Trap
• 4 Weird/Unusual Stuff (talking statues, magic fountains,etc.)
• 5-6 Empty 

Secret Doors

When rooms and/or corridors abut without a means of passing between them, you may check for a secret door.

• Roll 1d6. On a 1 there is a secret door.
• Roll 1d6 again:
• 1 - One-way, in the direction you're going
• 2 - 5 Both directions
• 6 - One-way, opposite the direction you're going.

The Second Incursion: Labyrinth Lord Dungeon Crawl

Last night, the boy slept unexpectedly well - so I got to do some unexpected gaming.  Here follows the account of the 2nd attempt at the dungeon which I have yet to name:

The party returned to town where they paid for another night of lodging at The Zealous Dagger, divided the loot among the survivors, paid the porter and then went shopping at the provisioners and the weapon shop. After stocking up on things like holy water, oil (for lighting things on fire) and some additional weapons, it was off to the tavern for dinner and to find another torch bearer and some others to join the party.

A few rolls of the dice and they were able to hire Tobor, a 0-level torch bearer, for a 10% cut. They also found a new PC to join the party, Inga Fireforge, F:1, HP 9. I had hoped to find two PCs to replace Theodotus and Irongrim but the dice were against it.

At this point, I noticed I had documented Feldspar's HP as 8, when it should have been 10 with his CON bonus. In any case, he needed healing still, so one Cure Light Wounds from Brother McCleary and he was patched up to his full amount.

Feldspar's high charisma (actually all of my PCs have above average CHR, which is a rarity when I'm rolling the dice) was instrumental in convincing Perceval to rejoin the party. That and we sweetened the deal - we offered 25% of the loot and a sword so he could protect himself if the need arose. He agreed.

The next morning, the party set off for the dungeon again. With map in hand, they quickly headed for the unexplored hallways. As they had been gone less then 24 hours, they only found that one door had been repaired - the one to the hallway with the mural-painting dwarves.

The mural appeared to be of a mountain top observatory either sending or receiving a message from the stars. This lead to some head scratching, but not much as time dawdling is time for monsters to find you.
 [One plausible theory is that the dungeon goes up to the top of this mountain, and there is an observatory up there]

In the first "special" room encountered thus far, the PCs found a lone chest in the middle of the room. Brother McCleary (whose motivation is "glory") volunteered to examine it. When he got within a few feet, it opened, burped out a meal of roasted potatoes, sausage and a pint of what appeared to be stout. Like all my clerics, he isn't one to turn down alcohol, and he took a swig which was quickly spat out; it was in fact, a pale ale disguised as porter. He swore to the gods and left the meal untouched.

Further on, a chance encounter with four giant centipedes turned south when Feldspar was hit and failed to make his save, making him extremely sick and unable to do anything but walk at 50% his movement rate. As I had just started, I decided the party would press on, albeit at an extremely slow pace.

The first role playing encounter of the night was with three warrior-types (berserkers) who rounded the corner ahead of us. I was fearful of a combat, especially with Feldspar being useless, but they were more interested in asking us for food than combat. In exchange, they informed us that the left leg of the intersection we approached would take us to an exit to the surface, while to the right we could go further into the dungeon. We thanked them and parted ways.

I suppose I could have exited then, but again, it was still early.

In a fairly large room, we ran into an evil adept patrolling his territory (what I had thought, and still think, might be dwarven-held as well. In any case, I think the adept may be somehow connected to the zombies and skeletons from the first delve), in light of our numbers, opted to demand an explanation for our intrusion. We explained we were just looking around and asked to pass, but he was strangely silent on the matter. Perhaps the fact that we had just smashed down his door wasn't very helpful to our cause. Still, we outnumbered him, so, we did it anyway, and though he didn't try to stop us, he warned menacingly that we were to leave the crystal torches where they rest, or there would be no escape.

I have no idea what that means but I'm sure they'll turn up further into the dungeon.

As the party went to explore an adjacent room, a lone robber attacked and, though he did some damage to Inga and Feldspar ,was easily overcome. Tobor took the thief's sword and the party pocketed the 6 gold they found on his body.

I was getting ready to wrap up, but opted to press on just a bit longer, and of course, Tobor fell in a pit and was killed from the fall.

It's going to be really hard to find torch bearers if we loose one every time we go into the dungeon!

Some giant rats in a fairly large pack (there were 9 of them) convinced me to get the party out of harms way. As the PCs retreated down an unexplored hallway, they found another exit to the surface and this time took full advantage of it.

*****
Session Summary

Time spent in the dungeon: 58 turns (at 6 turns an hour, that's nearly 10 hours)

On turn 27, I drew the fourth king and reshuffled the dungeon generator deck. I drew 17 cards for the remaining 31 turns, mostly due to the extremely slow movement rate. A 30' hallway was 1 turn!

Body count: Tobor the torchbearer

Kills: 4 giant centipedes, 1 robber (2nd level thief)

Rooms explored: 15

Resources used in addition to Labyrinth Lord rulebook: D30 DM Companion, Labyrinth Lord AEC (for special room generation), Risus Monkey's Dungeon Words

Into the Dungeon Again! Part 2

The Results of the Initial Foray

The initial exploration (which I began last night and continued at lunch today) lasted 49 game turns, 27 cards from the dungeon generator deck, and included three PC deaths: 

Throm (NM:0), Theodotus (T:1) and Irongrim (F:1). 

The first two died in a room of poison gas, while the latter was cut down in a scrap with a party of thieves.

Both Perceval (NM:0) and Feldspar (F:1) are injured so healing is a necessity. Thankfully, in LL, 1st level clerics do get one spell a day.

The first level of the dungeon thus far appears to be more of a connecting level, as the party has discovered four separate stairwells so far, two of which lead up into the mountainside, and two which descend. It's also lit by magic orbs of light which is a little bit unusual, but the meaning of which is unclear.

Two hallways were abandoned before they were fully explored - one due to a giant gecko feasting on a corpse and the other due to some dwarves painting a mural who had blocked the hall. 

The party also encountered two wandering clerics who were neutral to the party's presence and when asked if they had any info about the complex, refused to answer. Four more thieves were found in another room ,but they were busy arguing about something and paid the party no mind. Ditto for some dwarves they encountered on the way out who were busy discussing lunch (well, the party didn't know that, as none speak dwarf).

In addition to the thieves, the party killed a carrion crawler, two gnolls and destroyed 2 zombies and 7 skeletons.

Their treasure haul so far amounts to 1100 sp and 18 gp. They'll re-group in town, try to find or hire another fighter perhaps, or some 0-levels to fill out the ranks and maybe pick up some holy water and oil for lighting everything on fire. 

Given the presence of dwarves painting a mural and other dwarves going about day to day life, it does give the impression that perhaps there's a dwarven city or mine or something, which connects to this level. I'm not sure how I'll work that in, or if I'll continue to just rely on random rolls for encounters.

Into the Dungeon, Again! Part 1

With the baby sleeping so erratically, I decided to forgo painting last night, as the interruptions would be too frequent. Instead, I rolled up a dungeoneering party and set the off in search of adventure and loot. 

I'm using Labyrinth Lord,  my dungeon generator, and the D30 DM Companion. This is the first time I've really gotten to use the latter - since my players are so anti-dungeon crawl. 

 The D30 DM Companion is handling general info about the dungeon, room details, doors and traps, treasure generation, encounters with monsters (wandering and otherwise) and supplying the stats as well.

If you haven't already picked this up, do it! It's a steal at $3.00 at DriveThruRPG and only $8.95 in print from Lulu.com (the preview there is of the entire book. You'll know exactly what you're getting before you buy, so I don't feel compelled to write a proper review, although I may do just that anyway, just not at the moment).  

The setup:

Some loggers recently discovered the entrance to a here-to-for undocumented underground complex. The race is on to explore it and retrieve the riches which, as rumor has it, are entombed inside (of course, since no one has ever been in it that anyone knows of, these rumors have no foundation in reality). The small logging town is bracing for a boom as adventurers and salvage companies flock to the area.

The PCs (all run by me) had, by good fortune, arrived shortly after these stories began to circulate, before others had yet made their way here. After hiring some locals to handle torch and treasure bearing duties (after all, the thing must be loaded with gold right?), the party set off into the dungeon.

At the start of the adventure, the party consisted of:
Irongrim - F:1, HP 7
Brother McCleary - C:1, HP 7
Malazar - M:1, HP 6
Theodotus - T:1 HP 5
Feldspar Greytooth - F:1, HP 8
Throm (torchbearer): NM:0, HP 2
Perceval (porter): NM:0, HP 3

More Random Dungeon Generator Goodness

For those of you new to this blog, or maybe you're not new but you've forgotten, I am obsessed with dungeon crawls. 30 years after I experienced my first such game, I still find them fun to play and create.

Today's idea is primarily a re-working of my most recent d12 dungeon generator using a deck of playing cards. Why?

Last night I was generating a dungeon for fun while watching TV with Lady Shadowmoss and I was using a d12 I hadn't used for the task before. The dungeon itself came out fine, but because of the flaws in manufacturing dice with rounded edges, certain numbers came up noticeably frequently and that bothered me, at least conceptually. I've experienced this before, but last night was the tipping point.

I also realized that, when playing solo, knowing the contents of a room (empty, monster, trap) prior to entering takes away some of the anticipation/fun, and so I wanted to change that too. I decided to modify the generator that way as well.

Finally, after some further testing, I realized I have the same problem with room size as I do with which dungeon-morphs come up frequently based on the d12 used - my rooms were consistently gigantic thanks to the d10 I had chosen - not a bad thing but again, conceptually it bothered me. After all, they had to carve this space out underground and it seems to me that extremely large spaces would be rare.

Here then is the rough draft of the new version of my random generator:

No Budget No Frills Pencil and Paper Dungeon Generator 

ver 4.0

Tools needed: 

• an ordinary deck of playing cards, jokers removed
• d4, d6, d8, d10
• graph paper and pencil/pen or electronic equivalents

Instructions:

• Shuffle your deck of cards
• Place your starting room with more than one exit on your graph paper
• Draw a card

Ace = Stairs up or Exit (player's choice or roll 1d6. 1-3 Stairs, 4-6 Exit)
2 = Stairs down or Exit (player's choice or roll 1d6. 1-3 Stairs, 4-6 Exit)
3 = Straight Hallway for d10 squares w/ Trap (Roll 1d6. 1-3= pit trap, 4-6 other trap)
4 = Straight Hallway for d10 squares
5 = 4-way Intersection in d10 squares
6 = Turn Right in d10 squares
7 = Turn Left in d10 squares
8 = T-intersection in d10 squares
9 = Room (draw a door and then proceed to room generator)
10 = Room (draw a door and then proceed to room generator)
Jack  = Room (draw a door and then proceed to room generator)
Queen = Dead end or Draw Again(player's choice)
King = Reshuffle deck and draw again

I've had equally good results ignoring the King and with using it as a reshuffle trigger. 

• Add the indicated item to your map. 
• If playing solo, resolve any encounters.
• Repeat 

Room Generator

• If room card is Hearts then d10 x d10 squares
• If room card is Diamonds then d8 x d8 squares
• If room card is Spades then d6 x d6 squares
• If room card is Clubs then d4 x d4 squares

If playing a solo dungeon crawl, you can listen at the door. If you are successful, add +1 to your roll when you check for surprise, if you fail, add -1. Once you open the door, roll for room content.

If you're generating a dungeon for a group, you can just roll for room content.

Additional Room Exits: Roll 1d4. Subtract 1 from the result. This is how many additional exits are in the room. Place randomly or wherever makes sense given the dungeon's layout.

Room Content
(or use the room content generator included with the rules you are using)

• Roll 1d6:

1-2 Monster
3 Trap
4 Weird/Unusual Stuff (talking statues, magic fountains,etc.)
5-6 Empty 

Secret Doors
When rooms and/or corridors abut without a means of passing between them, you may check for a secret door.

• Roll 1d6. On a 1 there is a secret door.
• Roll 1d6 again:

1 - One-way, in the direction you're going
2 - 5 Both directions
6 - One-way, opposite the direction you're going.

*******************
I'll post a better formatted, more complete version after I have a chance to sit down and make one. Tonight, I have some hobby time and I'm going to use it to try and finish up my painting goal for November and get a jump on December.

Random Dungeon Generator PocketMod

Maybe it's the wargamer in me, but I'm rarely content to let any system I've constructed go untouched. While it is the most visited post on this blog, and has served me well, I decided A No-Budget No-frills Pencil and Paper d12 Dungeon Generator needed some tweaking.

I present to you the love-child of A No-Budget No-frills Pencil and Paper d12 Dungeon Generator and my homemade mini-dungeon tiles:

A No-Budget No-frills Pencil and Paper d12 Dungeon Generator ver. 3.0: Pocketmod!

**** If you are using Google Chrome, you may need to right click the link to save the file using Save Link As. It seems to work fine in IE and FireFox ****

I've had good success with this version generating interesting dungeons - I  hope you find that to be true as well.

So, why a PocketMod? It is my belief that anything in PocketMod format has a leg up on anything that is not.

I realize I am  probably in a minority on this, so a full-sized version will follow soon enough.

For those who don't know or need a refresher, here's a video on how to fold a PocketMod,

Saturday Night Spare Time Dungeon Crawling

Saturday night, I had some time to spend gaming and I set about testing an idea I had for a new random dungeon generator. You know, because there aren't enough of them already available on-line. 

This was my third test, and the first in which I tried to generate something larger than a handful of rooms. I was rather happy with the results - I generated two levels of a dungeon with multiple entrances/exits, and a variety of points up and down. In fact, of the two levels I generated, both have unconnected areas that can only be accessed by passing through the other level. 

I hope to finish the write-up and post it later this week.

I also managed to squeeze in a USR dungeon crawl to clarify for myself the pros and cons my approaches to magic with that system. Scott at The Trollish Devler, and author of USR, posted his thoughts on a magic system the other day - worth a look if you enjoy the game!

With regards to the dungeon crawl, I rolled up 3 characters (fighter, halfling and a magic user) and a hireling (using "shifted dice": a d6, d4, d3 rather than a d10, d8, d6) to enter the dungeon using USR and my b/x conversion. 

Rather than generating a map or using tiles or even using the method I posted last week, I closed my eyes and pulled a Rory's Story Cube from its bag, rolled it and then made up an encounter based on the image. Each encounter used a new cube. If I got through all nine, I'd have found the steps down.  

If I ran into any issues where I wasn't sure of something, I used the ever reliable 1d6 "yes and" method:

1 "Yes and" [fill in the blank]

2-3 "Yes, but" [fill in the blank]

4-5 "No, but" [fill in the blank]

6 - "No and" [fill in the blank]

I got through 6 encounters(to be fair, one of them was a totally peaceful encounter with some helpful treants) before I needed to pull the party out back to the base town. What loot they had gained was spent resurrecting the fighter (he was struck down by a stone golem) and healing. The party's halfling was the hero of the hour - deadly accurate with his bow -  while the magic-user was just about useless unless he was throwing his daggers (and he only had two of those!). 

The last point illustrated very clearly the potential problem with one of my approaches to magic!

Dungeon Squad Assemble!

The other night I was feeling in a dungeon crawl mood but I didn't want to spend time coming up with characters, or monsters, or a plot - I just wanted to move miniatures on dungeon tiles and fight stuff.

Enter Dungeon Squad:

Dungeon Squad is a role-playing game designed expressly for young players with short attention spans who demand action and fun.

Rather coincidentally, that also sounds like me sometimes (minus the "young" part).

For the dungeon, I used the Official Tabletop Diversions No-budget No-frills d12 Pencil and Paper Dungeon Generator (with some judgement calls due to the limits of the coffee table) but rather than breaking out the graph paper, I used my Dungeon Tiles Master Set - The Dungeon (contrary to what it says, you can use it with any rule set - there's nothing 4e specific about it).

I set up a an encounter table (I opted to make a goblin lair with some random monsters as well) and a wandering monster table and had at it:

The fighter with no name and his hapless companion burst through the door to find two skeletons rather irritated at their arrival:

Hack and Slash, the Bones Brothers

 A furious fight ensues, but the fighter is victorious.

The next encounter did not go so well.  The Cannibalistic Barbarian of the 2nd Level had been rummaging around the first level when the fighter and hapless companion burst in on him.

Cannibal the Barbarian

I lost 7 hit points (I had lost 4 with the two skeletons). A healing potion that I had purchased in town wasn't worth the money I paid for it. Three lousy hit points.

A skeleton patrol rounded the corner and the fighter with no name, at great personal risk, charged into the fray. Aided by the narrow hallway, he made fast work of the bone brigade.

Skeletons in the Hall

Unfortunately, the next room held the self-declared and undisputed guardian of the dungeon, the Chaos Knight:

Chaos Knight - One Bad Ass Dude.

I may have made his stats a little on the tough side - and paid for it. There was only one option:

Run away!

And here for your viewing pleasure, the dungeon:

Try Not to be Distracted by the Table

In addition to the faux mother of pearl inlay on the coffee table, you probably noticed that not a single goblin appeared. This is undoubtedly because I spent half an hour looking for them before the game began. Had I not gone looking for (and found) them, they most certainly would have turned up every encounter.

Another Solo Unbelievably Simple Role-playing Dungeon Crawl

A few posts back I mentioned I started another dungeon crawl with some characters generated using Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying. I've been playing here and there in odd moments during lunch and even waiting in my car to meet Lady Shadowmoss at the gym. Today, I exited the dungeon with nearly a TPK (the characters are detailed below the image as well as showing how I handled the Cleric's spells).

Only the fighter, Blarg, and the torch bearer made it out alive and even then, Blarg was down to 1 HP. His armor kept him from biting it in the dungeon and only a Cure Light Wounds (from the cleric before he was taken down) prevented the torch bearer from becoming a casualty. The worst part? Not a single coin was found, gold or otherwise. They did find a finely woven tunic of a kind not worn in this region worth something perhaps, but it raised some questions as to what it was doing there.

They also discovered what appeared to be a map of the area indicating a village and various trade routes. But they couldn't discern what it might be for.

Whether or not I'll send Blarg back in, I haven't decided. I sent the party in to search for a creature that's been killing livestock and had killed at least one of the local villagers but now there's possibly two more threads to follow.

Here's the map, generated on the fly using my No-Budget No-Frills Pencil and Paper d12 Dungeon Generator:

Behold the Power of the No-frills No-budget Pencil and Paper d12 Dungeon Generator!

Room 5 was a real bugger.

First the party encountered some kobolds there, and they surrendered after the first one was killed. The party opted to leave them and continue searching, on the way back to the room, the kobolds were all dead and there were some battle-crazed gnomes standing over them! A fight broke out and only ended when the last gnome standing surrendered. The party let HIM go too, and watched him run out the door in the north wall, presumably towards the steps down. 

While they were searching the bodies for loot, skeleton warriors attacked them, entering through the door to the west.

Finally, on his way out of the dungeon, Blarg and Reginald the Frail, Jr. were set upon by three more skeletons in the same room! The pile of bodies in that room is ridiculous!

***** the cast *****

The characters (3 standard fantasy RPG archetypes):

Blarg, Fighter
Action d10, Wits d8, Ego d6 HP 14
Swordsmanship (action +2), Smashing doors (action + 2), lifting heavy things (action + 2)
Armor: plate (-3), shield (-1) (that means he can ignore the first 4 points of damage each time he's hit)

Nimbles, Thief
Action d10, Wits d8, Ego d6, HP 9
Detect traps (Wits +2), Disarm Traps (Wits+2) : both are rolled against trap's difficulty, Pick locks (Action +2) (doors typically are hard difficulty)
Armor: leather (-1)

Father O'Maley, Cleric
Action d8, Wits d6, Ego d10 HP 13
Cure Light Wounds (Ego + 2) - roll against recipient's ego. If higher than recipient, recipient receives 1d6 HP, if lower, no effect. Can use once per recipient per game day.
Turn Undead (Ego+2). - roll against each target undead's Ego in LOS. If target loses, is turned otherwise no effect.
Protection (Ego +2) - roll against target Ego (including self), if success, target gains an armor bonus of -1 per level of spell (i.e. Ego+2 = -1, Ego+3 = -2, etc).

Hirelings:

For the hirelings, as they are just normal humans and not adventurers, I opted to use dice with less sides for their attributes. I found this was also effective for kobolds, who in D&D b/x are 1/2 HD each.

Reginald the Frail, Jr., torch bearer
Action d6, Wits d3, Ego d4 HP 6farmhand (action +2)


Moose Smythe, Porter
Action d6, Wits d4, Ego d3 HP 8
bar room brawler (Action +2)

I had back stories for everyone, generated from various random lists. Unfortunately, I can't read my own handwriting!

Download Available and Some Recent Acquisitions

I've put up a download link at the top of the page. There you'll find a link to view the latest version of the Official Tabletop Diversions No-Budget No-Frills Pencil and Paper d12 Dungeon Generator. It's a pdf on GoogleDocs DropBox **edited 8/22/12 If you're using Chrome, you may need to right-click the link and save the file. It seems to work fine in IE**

This way, I don't have to keep editing the original post and it's easier to print out too.

and, since the last couple of posts have been devoid of eye-candy, this arrived in my mailbox today:

Old School

I stumbled on this on ebay one day where it was going for around $1.50. I decided to bid on a whim and won it for around $2.00. With shipping from England, it came to about $8 and still a good deal.

And a couple of weeks ago I got a really good deal on these two:

What would we do without Osprey?

Peter the Great's Army 1: Infantry has been fairly hard to find at a price I consider reasonable so I was pretty excited about this. I picked up the Tarawa book to go with my Guadalcanal book in helping me come up with scenarios for the Pacific Theater island fighting I have planned.

A No-Budget No-frills Pencil and Paper d12 Dungeon Generator

Some Introductory Thoughts
*** check out the newest version - 8/24***

This is a very simple generator for use in solo dungeon crawls (with or without miniatures) when you don't know or don't want to know what the dungeon looks like ahead of time.

I suppose you could even use it to create dungeons for gaming groups if you’re lucky enough to have players willing to enter dungeons (Lady Shadowmoss despises dungeons crawls that are set in actual dungeons) but it might be a little lite for that. I have found several generators online but either they were quite robust (read tedious to use) for an on the fly generator - like the generator from the old AD&D DM Guide, or they were missing things I thought key. And frankly, it was just fun to do this.

I started out with a variety of dice, but inspired by The Dungeon Dozen, I settled on the d12 since it really never gets used for anything else in any game I play.

The tables below have been developed after extensive testing. Ok, extensive may be overstating it a bit. But I created a few maps this way and they worked well enough. There were some fairly long corridors with a lot of twists and turns which is unusual when I create dungeons free-hand. I’m OK with this for now - it allows wandering monsters some space to play and they keep me moving as I search for that ever elusive room with treasure in it. There's also more stairs than I might be inclined to put in but this gives the possibility of multiple areas of the dungeon that are not connected to each other directly except via an intervening level - which makes it possible to have a wider variety of creatures inhabiting a given level in a way that doesn't seem more impossible than the game might already seem.

If you desire more rooms and less corridors or vice versa, tweak Table C.

The tables undeniably reflect my personal biases - I don’t like drawing round rooms on graph paper, I use a 10’ per square scale so dimensions ending in 5,e.g. 45’, are unwelcome, aesthetically, I prefer rooms around 30’ to 40’ at least in one dimension, I think really large rooms should be minimal because I don’t have many tiles that are over 50’ per side, I think 5 or more exits on a 4 sided room is awkward, etc.

If you like odd shaped rooms, or favor different dimensions, etc. feel free to modify away. You might prefer to use d20, or d100 or what have you. I encourage you to do so, but try to keep it simple. Making many die rolls just to generate a 60 foot corridor will likely impede the game - after all, the point is to dungeon craw and win fame and fortune, not to fiddle with minutiae.

One obvious missing feature is room contents and encounters - I use the tables in my rule books, stuff I find online, Rory’s Story Cubes, Mythic, my imagination, as well as tables I make up on the fly to fit the dungeon theme or plot (if I have one in mind). Traps in corridors are also missing but you could just as easily add a table for this as anything else or just throw one in whenever you feel like it.

Something I tested that didn’t make the cut was including the angle of a turn in Table D. 90, 45 and 135 are obvious choices. This would have required more slots than a d12 provides however, for me to be happy with the results on my maps. I also felt that ultimately it over complicates things. I leave it to the user to decide the angle based on the dungeon and available space. However, if you want to roll on a table, try Optional Table E whenever a turn is indicated. It has not been play tested as I don’t consider this table strictly necessary.

Finally, remember, if the roll of the die results in something that either seems difficult or impossible to implement e.g. 4 exits on a 10’ wall, or would cause a room to overlap another feature or a hallway to pass through one, you might:

• Re-roll
• Treat it a Dead End*
• Think outside the box and make it work - e.g. 2 of the exits are doors but there are two openings near the ceiling, the room/corridor is above or goes under the existing feature or perhaps it is passes through the feature by means of secret doors*
• Make a seat-of-your pants decision

In short, do whatever makes it easier to get on with the game.

and now I present:

The Official Tabletop Diversions No-Budget No-frills Pencil and Paper d12 Dungeon Generator Version 1.0


****EDIT 4/20/12****Further play with this generator has shown that Table C and Table D as originally written give too many stairs and dead ends. See the changes indicated below.
*********

Materials needed:
You will need 1 d12
Paper (graph paper has a special place in my heart but you can use blank paper or notebook paper even) and/or dungeon tiles
Pencil (if drawing this on paper)

A suggestion for getting started:
There’s no hard and fast rules to this. I prefer to place the stairs to the surface world in the middle of the paper(or game table if using tiles).

Roll 2x on Table A for the room dimensions, and then 1x on Table B adding 1 to the result (to avoid a dead end right away) and place this room so that it connects to the stairs.

Proceed from there.

Table A: Dimensions
For a room roll 2x, 1x for Length, 1x for Width
For a corridor roll 1x (this assumes all corridors are same width)
1 10’
2-3 20’
4-6 30’
7-9 40’
10-11 50’
12 60’

Table B: Additional Exits in Room
1 None - Dead end
2-4 1, roll 1x on table B.1
5-7 2, roll 2x on table B.1
8-10 3, roll 3x on table B.1
11-12 4, roll 4x on table B.1

Table B.1.: Exit Location
Use either the compass directions or the relative directions as you prefer
1-3 North/Ahead
4-6 South/ Same wall you came in on
7-9 East / Right
10-12 West / Left

Table C: What’s on the Other Side of the Door When

You’re in a Room1-7 Corridor, Roll 1x on Table A, then 1x on Table D
8-10 8-11 Room, Roll 2x on Table A and 1x on Table B
11 Dead End*
12 Stairs (1-6 up, 7-12 down)
12 Dead End (1-4)/Stairs (5-8)/Roll again on this table -1 (9-12)

You’re in a Corridor
1-3 Corridor, Roll 1x on Table A, then 1x on Table D
4-10 4- 11 Room, Roll 2x on Table A and 1x on Table B
11 Dead End*12 Stairs (1-6 up, 7-12 down)
12 Dead End (1-4)/Stairs (5-8)/Roll again on this table -1 (9-12)

Table D: Corridor Continuation
1-3 Continues Straight, Roll 1x on Table A, and then again on Table D
4 Turns Left, Extend 10’, then roll again on Table D
5 Turns Right, Extend 10’, then roll again on Table D
6 T-intersection, Extend 10’ in each direction Left/Right, Roll again on Table D for each direction you check7 + - Four way intersection, Extend 10’ ahead, left and right, roll again on Table D for each direction you check
8 Dead End
9 Stairs (1-6 up, 7-12 down)
10-12 Door, if you open Door roll 1x on Table C
8 Stairs (1-6) / Dead End (7-12)
9-12 Door, if you open door, roll 1x on Table C

Optional Table E: Turn Angle
Use whenever a turn is indicated, prior to the 10’ extension in that direction.
1-7 90 degrees
8-10 45 degrees
11-12 135 degrees

*I handle Dead Ends and Secret Doors by testing to see if I succeed in finding a secret door per the RPG rules I’m using and only THEN determining the likelihood of there being one, i.e. I pick an number based on how much space I have on my map,whether there’s a feature on the other side of the dead end, etc. and then roll against that. This way, if I don’t succeed, I still don’t know if there’s a secret door there or not, but if I do succeed, I find it if it exists.