Stocking a Moldvay Dungeon with a Deck of Cards

I was fiddling around with a deck of cards today, and it occurred to me that it might be possible to emulate the math of Moldvay's table for stocking a dungeon on page B52 of the his Basic Rulebook with a deck of cards. He has us rolling 1d6 to determine the contents of a room:

1-2 Monster 

3 Trap

4 Special

5-6 Empty

A second roll determines whether or not there is Treasure: 

Monster: 1-3 Yes; 5-6 No

Trap: 1-2 Yes; 3-6 No

Empty: 1 Yes; 2-6 No

If you include a pair of Jokers, a deck has 54 cards, which is dividable by 6. That means we can assign each of the four outcomes of our Room Contents Table to 9 cards. This comes out to 18 cards for Monsters, 9 cards for Traps, 9 cards for Specials, and 18 cards for Empty Rooms. With these groups, 9 of the Monster, 3 of the Traps, and 1 of the Empty Rooms would indicate a Treasure.

A deck of cards could thus be divvied up as follows:

2D = Empty with Treasure

3D-5D = Trap with Treasure

6D-AD = Monster with Treasure

2C-5C = Empty

6C-AC = Monster

2H-5H = Empty

6H-AH = Special

2S-8S = Empty

9S-AS = Trap

Jokers = Could indicate an Empty Room or Placed Encounter

Of course, all of this assumes that your dungeon has multiples of 54 rooms... but being a fan of the megadungeon, this is no real issue for me. 

The Gygax 75 Challenge Part 4

In a continuation of Week Three of the Challenge, the next step on the list is placing monsters. Otus suggests 11 (probably to make coming up with a Wandering Monster Table based on 2d6 (2-12) dead simple. Lets compare this to the math of my favorite style of stocking a dungeon — Moldvay:

The number of rooms in this dungeon design range from 21 to 36. At the low end, Molvay’s math suggests 7 monsters and 12 and the high end. With 28 rooms, my dungeon is representative of an average dungeon size using Otus’ suggestion of 1d6+6 rooms per level. According to Moldvay’s math a dungeon that size should have about 9 monsters and a dungeon with 11 monsters would have 33 rooms.

So, the monster density is a little high for my personal taste; however, it is not outside the realm of possibility if one were to use Moldvay’s random method rather than simply adhering to the math.

So here is the list:

1st level: 9 Stirges, 3 Dinosaurs (Giant Lizard, Gecko), and 4 Giant Crab Spiders
2nd Level: 5 Subhumans (Hobgoblins), 4 more Subhumans (Hobgoblins), and 1 Ice Walker (Ghoul)
3rd Level: 3 White Apes, 4 more White Apes, 1 Skinwalker (Wererat who can disguise himself as a White Ape), and 1 Skinwalker Overlord (Doppelgänger)
Chasm: 1 Winter Beast (Gelatinous Cube)

In terms of numbers, I followed Moldvay’s suggestions on his Wandering Monster Table.

The next step is to place 1d6 features through out the dungeon. I rolled a ‘4.’ This is a wild deviation from Molday. According to the strict math of Moldvay’s Stocking Table my dungeon of 28 rooms should have 4.67 traps and 4.67 “specials” — more than twice the amount I rolled up and 1.5 times the maximum roll of 6.

I will concede, however, that traps and (particularly) specials may very well be the hardest part of creating a dungeon according to the Moldvay model. So, in context of quickly churning out a dungeon with three levels, this is understandable. That said, if one is fortunate enough to own The Tome of Adventure Design it has tables that let you randomly create both traps and tricks. So, several rolls can get you well on your way to 8 to 10 traps and specials.

One can tell I am used to designing dungeons using Moldvay’s model by my choice of using a Crashed Spaceship for a theme — it allows for a lot of the Traps and Specials demanded of the style to be creatively dressed up. In making my map, I planned for three: two engines room (one intact, one melted down) and the bridge which has a window which looks out into a frozen lake and a domed underwater city.

That leaves me with one feature: neanderthal cave drawings in the entrance cave depicting a star falling from the skies.

The next task is placing Treasure. This is interesting, because this number is going to be higher than Moldvay. Had I used his math (and his distribution of monsters, specials, traps, and empty rooms), I would have 4.5 monsters, 3.1 Traps, and 2.3 Empty Rooms with Treasure for a total of 9.9. In contrast, according to Otus’ math 7.3 monsters, 2.67 features, and 2.1 Empty Rooms have Treasure, for a total of 12.

Whether or not you like this depends on what system you use. Since I am using Moldvay’s Basic D&D as my chassis, 1 gp = 1 xp. Thus, Otus’ method of distributing Treasure means more potential experience for my players. I see this as a feature rather than a bug. To put this in perspective, here is my list of monsters with their xp value:

9 Stirges = 117 xp
3 Dinosaurs (Giant Lizard, Gecko) = 150 xp
4 Giant Crab Spiders = 100 xp
9 Subhumans (Hobgoblins) = 135 xp
1 Ice Walker (Ghoul) = 25 xp
7 White Apes = 535 xp
1 Skinwalker (Wererat) = 50 xp
1 Skinwalker Overlord (Doppelgänger) = 125 xp
1 Winter Beast (Gelatinous Cube) = 125 xp
Total xp = 1362

An average party of 4 PCs needs between 8000-10,000 xp total to get to second level. That means if this dungeon is to advance the characters to second level, there needs to be a minimum of 6,638 gp in treasure. Distributed over 12 rooms, that is an average of 553 gp per room. To make things simple, we can round up and say 600 gp per room.

As an aside, if I use the average gold amounts for the Treasure Types as noted in Moldvay, and leave out the Individual Treasure Types, here are the monsters that have treasure and their treasure totals:

Stirges = 250 gp (no Magic Items)
Subhumans (Hobgoblins) = 4000 gp (15% chance of 3 Magic Items)
Ice Walker (Ghoul) = 2000 gp (10% chance of Magic Item)
Skinwalker (Wererat) = 1000 gp (10% chance of 2 Magic Items)
Skinwalker Overlord (Doppelgänger) = 2500 gp (25% chance of 5 Magic Items)
Total Treasure = 9,750 gp
Total Potential XP = 11,112 or 2,778 xp per PC in a party of 4.

I am actually really happy with that.

As far as Magic Items go, Otus suggests that 3 “Wondrous Items” be placed throughout the dungeon. He suggests pulling these from the source materials. I appreciate the use of the word “Wondrous.” This gives me the wiggle room to provide either actual Magic Items from Moldvay, unique items inspired by my source material, or “Specials” inside the dungeon that have “wondrous” effects. In other words, I can taylor this part of the dungeon design to how much magic I want in my campaign world.

Since one of the main points of dungeon delving in my campaign is to find greater sources of magic, I am sore tempted to use Moldvay’s Magic Item suggestions and re-skin them for my campaign. This would mean that I successfully rolled for either the Subhumans to have magic or I got lucky and I rolled for both the Ice Walker and the Skinwalker to have magic. Despite the incredible luck that I would have to have, I prefer the latter because it spreads things onto two different levels with the bigger reward on the 3rd level.

I (seriously) rolled up a Sword +1, +2 vs. Lycanthropes for the Icewalker (Ghoul). I’ll re—skin this as an ice weapon that is used against Skinwalkers and has a side affect of “freezing” them in a single form.

For the Skinwalker (Wererat) I rolled a Sword +1, +3 vs. Undead (seriously). This will be a plasma weapon usable by anyone that is extra effective against the “ice” creatures associated with the Winter Witch (Medusa).

Finally, I rolled up a Scroll with 2 spells on it. I randomly determined the spells and came up with Detect Evil and Dispel Magic; however, due to the hint of further adventure underwater, I decided to substitute the latter with Water Breathing.

The final step is the distribute any of the Theme Budget that is left (which, if you follow my advice from my last post, becomes irrelevant).

The Extra Credit for this week was to map out on graph paper the map, which I did as default (and interestingly it is suggested that Gygax saw this step is imperative) and to create a Wandering Monster Table. Here is mine:

Wandering Monster Table (2d6)

2. Skinwalker (Wererat)
3. 1d6 White Apes
4. 1d4 Dinosaurs (Giant Lizard, Geko)
5. 1d10 Stirges
6. 1d10 Neanderthals
7. 1d8 Fire Beetles
8. 2d4 Subhumans (Goblin)
9. 1d6 Subhumans (Hobgoblin)
10. 2d8 Winter Walkers (Zombie)
11. 1d6 Ice Walkers (Ghoul)
12. Winter Knight (Thoul)

Here is the final map with all of my notes:

The Gygax 75 Challenge Part 3

Otus quotes Gygax as an introduction to the third week of this challenge, saying that it “is very difficult and time consuming.” Which is why, I believe, Otus has gone out of his way to simplify the process of creating a dungeon. While I understand why, his methodology deviates in many significant ways from my own, so this should be interesting.

The first task is to describe the entrance in 7-10 words. As someone who blogs, writing to 7 to 10 sentences is more in my wheel house; however, I appreciate the challenge of brevity. Sometimes it brings out creativity in a way that length does not.

A natural cave opening that looks like a dragon’s mouth.

I am sore tempted to write more, but the point here is to channel that creative spirit into the dungeon itself and to actually get the dungeon finished.

Step two is to draw out the dungeon, by which he means a simple point-to-point map. Here is my first real beef with Otus’ methodology; however, I must fully acknowledge that my beef is personal and not general. I don’t hate point-to-point maps (I tend to use them myself as a player when I am designated party mapper), but I find them next to useless in terms of dungeon design. The reason being that I am an (extremely) visual person. With a bunch of bubbles on a page connected by lines I have a really difficult time “seeing” the dungeon and how it works. Placing traps, monsters, treasure, etc. becomes an exercise in arbitrariness. I cannot begin to understand why those things exist where they do.

However, for the sake of demonstrating this process, here is the “bubble” map:

Admittedly, this is not my first draft. It is a copy of the map that best represents my final map. It just goes to show how much I struggle “seeing” this map…I had to draw out a full-blown dungeon map in order to be able to create an understandable point-to-point map!

Despite my problems with this step, I will actually use it in future — as a way of planning out the layout of my final map on a page. I tend to find ways to complicate maps because I like to have things in my dungeon that give players access to multiple dungeon levels in one go. I can trace the concept back to the side-view map of Stone Mountain in Holmes, except I like that shaft to have connecting points to all the other levels:

So, when trying to plan how to lay out a complicated map with three different levels all connected to a large chasm on a single page, I found this step to be kinda useful.

Otus calls for 1d6+6 rooms per level. While on the small side in terms of an Old-School aesthetic, it makes the prospect of creating a three level dungeon in short order doable. For the record, I rolled 9, 9, and 12 for the number of rooms. Due to the fact that I was struggling with the point-to-point mapping style and making it sync with my final map, I ended up with 8, 8, and 11 rooms plus the chasm which reaches all three levels. So, technically, I did 9, 9, 12 if you count the chasm as a room for each level…

Otus suggests having 1d3+1 ways up or down on each level. This is classic Old-School design. It provides players options when exploring and planning expeditions. This is especially important if there is something they wish to avoid that is preventing them from getting to a destination lower in the dungeon. On my “bubble” map, all the squiggly lines are elevation changes: 4 on the first level, 3 on second level, and 3 on the third level.

The next task is to come up with a theme for each level. Personally, this is of greater importance to me than anything up to this point. Again, as a highly visual guy, I have a hard time “seeing” the dungeon without knowing the theme before conceiving of the layout of the map. This was an impossible ask in my case, so I must admit, I did this first:

Level 1 = Caverns
Level 2 = Ice
Level 3 = Crashed Spaceship

Otus also suggests creating a “budget” of 1d3+2 references to the theme for each level. This is the first time in this exercise where I have to vehemently disagree with Otus. While I understand the need for brevity in order to minimize how daunting this project can be, limiting the top end of references to the theme hamstrings the creative process and will make for a worse dungeon. One of the important features of Old School dungeons are empty rooms. They are an important feature to the aesthetic, but they can and will turn a dungeon crawl into a grind if they are simply empty rooms. Giving each a bit of flare by tying them into the theme of a dungeon level transforms the experience into actual exploration as the players try to piece together all these data points to paint a larger picture and understanding.

Thus, I would suggest that rather that placing an upper limit to the “theme budget” of each level, I would place a lower limit. This gives a designer the ability to minimally dress up the dungeon in order to get the process done quickly, but doesn’t limit imagination. I found myself completely shackled because most of my monsters fit the themes, blowing my budget. Thus, rather than spend time making my dungeon better by coming up with more ways to fit the themes, I wasted time trying to justify why the monsters didn’t reflect the themes. For the record, I rolled 3, 3, and 4.

This is turning into a really long post...so I'll stop here and continue the rest with my next post.

Home brewing a "High-Level" "Dungeon"

So, one of the comments on my post on How I Homebrew a Dungeon, I was asked If I could do the same for a dungeon for characters 6-9th level. My short answer to the question is: No.

I have never been a fan of high-level play and neither were most of my friends. We loved those low-level campaigns and usually accomplished something earth shattering by 6th or 7th level. Indeed, I have only ever gotten one character from 1st to 9th level in my entire career as a player and have only ever seen one character survive to 9th level from 1st as a Referee. Both characters are retired.

In other words, by the time my players have advanced to 4-6th level, they have accumulated enough power and influence that the focus of the campaign shifts from that of dungeon exploration to politics, clearing out wilderness areas, and spending a bunch of money on building stuff (this is nicely encouraged by the Arneson rule where 1 xp = 1 gp spent).

So, I have never really had to homebrew a 6-9th level dungeon. As predicted by Cook’s Expert edition of D&D, by the time my players’ characters get to 4th level, I am usually designing wilderness areas, encounters, and lairs — not dungeons.

That doesn’t mean I can’t or I won’t, especially since folks seemed to find my last outing useful. This endeavor, however, does come with a major caveat. What I have in mind doesn’t really qualify as a dungeon…it is more of an elaborate lair. For me, the word “dungeon” is indicative of the Mystic Underground where no matter how deep you go, there is always something else deeper and more dangerous and the place itself is trying to kill you, not just the monsters.

There are two main reason I am choosing this particular path. First, without the previous 5 levels of a megadungeon and a campaign to riff off, doing the 6th level of such a place is both too daunting and too boring. Secondly, I’ll probably never see a day when I’d actually use it in play. By going the route I am, this will go into my folder of stuff I can pull out on a moments notice to fill a need in an ongoing campaign.

Since this is to be a type of lair, I need to figure out what monster lives there before I go to making or finding a map. So, I pulled out The Tome of Adventure Design and rolled up a person associated with the place, the last significant event that happened there, and the original purpose of the place.

As an aside, when I use random tables (especially one where a d100 is concerned), I freely read the dice in as many ways as I am allowed in order to give me more than one option when it comes to results. This allows me a bit a wiggle room and the ability to be inspired.

For example, I wanted to keep my options open on this one to see what kind of stories might emerge from the random rolls. The person in question was either going to be an Assassin or a Cleric and the place in question was either a place of guilt or a place of burial. Music was involved and it created something that would be dangerous to intruders about 10 years ago.

I then rolled an original purpose and who built it: that was when things began to crystalize. I rolled up a Scriptorium that was built by a unique type of Giant.

The Cleric no longer made much sense, so I went with the Assassin and I ended up using both a place of burial and a place of guilt.

This place was built by a blind giant who was a scribe and a scholar. He needed a way to record the research he had done and so came up with a writing method akin to Braile (note to self, Read Magic is necessary to interpret his writings). For this purpose, he needed someone to dictate various texts to him so that he could study and record his findings.

This role is taken up by an Annis Hag and the two end up falling in love with each other. Whether or not the Giant’s love was voluntary at first or not, the important part here is that the Annis Hag ended up in love with the Giant because he saw past the ugly exterior.

This love story, however, has an ugly underside because the Annis Hag still had an appetite for human flesh. When she made the mistake of lunching on a local prince, an assassin was hired to take her out. The killing blow, however, fell upon the Giant who sacrificed himself for his love.

Among the things and knowledge collected by the Giant was the True Name of a demon and a magical harp that would summon it. In a fit of anguished rage, the Annis Hag used the harp to summon the demon and commanded it to torture the assassin as long as she was alive. Unfortunately for her, summoning the demon destroyed the harp. Caught in the magical explosion, she suffered grievous wounds which have never fully recovered. In order to make sure the assassin suffers as long as possible and to guard her own life, she has since drawn a protective circle around the demon and its prey. At this point the demon is kept at bay virtually by will alone.

In the meantime, a group of hobgoblins have taken up residence. According to my own calculations, hobgoblins are eugenicists who love to experiment with breeding techniques.

Thus, they see value in the knowledge found in the Giant’s lair, the demon trapped there, and the hag that keeps it at bay. They have turned the lair into a house of horrors and feed the rejects of their experimentation to the hag to help keep her alive. For her part, she is grateful for every day the assassin is tortured.

So here is the challenge for the players: this is the location of a McGuffin. Whether a magic item in possession of the assassin, a particular piece of information on one of the Giant’s “scrolls,” or something else, it is inside the protective circle keeping the demon at bay.

Since this set-up is kinda mean, I want to reward the characters by providing a lair that could be converted into a stronghold if they so desire. As a consequence, I am looking for a map of a castle with a dungeon. I found that here. As I did with my 1st level dungeon, I proceeded to number each of the rooms:

Between the castle and the dungeon below there are 63 rooms. Using Moldvay’s “Stock the Dungeon Table” we get the following break down:

11 Monsters without Treasure (technically 10.5)
11 Monsters with Treasure (technically 10.5)
6 Traps
4 Trap with Treasure (technically 3.5)
10 Specials (technically 10.5)
18 Empty Rooms
3 Empty Room with Treasure (technically 3.5)

I rounded up on the number of monsters and traps with treasures and rounded down on Empty rooms to make the math work. I erred in the direction of more stuff.

Holmes suggests that it is possible to encounter wandering monsters within a range of two levels up and two levels down. Thus, at 6th level, it would be possible to encounter creatures anywhere from the 4th level through the 8th level. The math would look like this:

2 Level 4 Monsters
5 Level 5 Monsters
8 Level 6 Monsters
5 Level 7 Monsters
2 Level 8 Monsters

I can already sense some confusion because the main monster group I will be using are hobgoblins, which are Level 2 monsters according to Moldvay. This is where S&W becomes really useful. The Wandering Monster Tables found therein are organized according to Challenge Level. Hobgoblins are CL 1; however, Carnivorous Apes (which hobgoblins are known to associate with) are CL 4. The Wandering Monster Tables suggest combinations of different CL monsters and since hobgoblins are interested in genetic and breeding experiments, it opens up a lot of possibilities for higher level monsters:

• Ape-like creatures like Flying Apes (CL 6), Gorilla Bears (CL 4), and Girallons (CL 6)
• Thouls (CL 3)
• Creatures necessary for breeding the above such as Basilisks (CL 8), Cave Bears (CL 7), Ghouls (CL 3), Perytons (CL 6), and Trolls (CL 8) and Cave Trolls (CL 7)
• Experimental failures represented by Gibbering Mouthers (CL 6)

Following the suggestions from S&W we come to the following totals:

1 Annis Hag (1400 xp)
3 Basilisks (2400 xp)
26 Carnivorous Apes (3120 xp)
3 Cave Bears (1800 xp)
8 Cave Trolls (4800 xp)
1 Demon, Erinyes (1400 xp)
2 Flying Apes (800 xp)
28 Ghouls (1680)
7 Gibbering Mouthers (2800xp)
15 Girallons (6000 xp)
14 Gorilla Bears (1680 xp)
112 Hobgoblins (1680 xp)
3 Perytons (1200 xp)
42 Thouls (2520 xp)
4 Trolls (3200 xp)
Total xp = 34,800

In case anyone is wondering where I am going to fit 117 hobgoblins, remember that this place was built by a Giant. Thus, everything is twice the size a map normally would be — giving me plenty of room to stuff all these creatures wherever I want.

The average Treasure Roll is going to be 2.5, so the base treasure is going to be 87,000 gp. Going by math (because I don’t want to roll this many times), the 100 gp Trade Outs will result in 83 Minor Gems and Jewelry and 4 Minor Magic Items. The 1000 gp Trade Outs will result in 8 Medium Gems and Jewelry and 1 Medium Magic Item.The 5000 gp Trade Outs will result in 2 Major Gems and Jewelry and no Major Magic Items.

Thus, there will be 13,500gp in Minor Gems and Jewelry, 5,200 gp in Medium Gems and Jewelry, 6,500 gp in Major Gems and Jewelry, and 67,000 gp in Miscellaneous treasure for a grand total of 92,200 gp.

There are 18 rooms with treasure. If each has 5000 gp I will have 2200 gp left over to place where I deem fit in the moment (probably with the Annis Hag hidden inside the tomb of the Giant).

There is a total of 127,000 xp available, or 31,750 per character in a party of 4. This should be enough for most characters to go from 6th to 7th level easily.

Now to place all of this stuff in the dungeon:

The Annis Hag will be in Room 1.38, an appropriate place for a bedroom turned tomb.
The Erinyes will be trapped in Room 2.21, being the lowest part of the entire structure.

As for the rest of the monsters, they can be categorized into three types:

1. Hobgoblins and their allies
2. Prisoners used to do breeding experiments
3. Failures

The failures would be the Gibbering Mouthers, which are locked away in Room 2.20, since that is nice and isolated.

The prisoners could all be stored away in Rooms 2.3-2.10. These include the basilisks, cave bears, cave trolls, ghouls, perytons, and trolls.

To fill out the dungeon level, I would place Thouls in Rooms 2.12 and 2.18 as guards.

The rest of the monster populate the upper floor, with the hobgoblins, carnivorous apes and gorilla bears primarily occupying the towers — Rooms 1.35-1.37 and 1.39-1.43.
girallons and flying apes would occupy Rooms 1.1 and 1.9.

That’s 22 rooms with monsters. Also note: I’ll probably sprinkle hobgoblins, thouls, and carnivorous apes throughout the last 20 rooms to demonstrate the basic theme of its current use.

Now I need 10 Specials:

Room 1.3 is a magical hall of perfumes. The central section of the hall rains down clouds of the stuff from the ceiling when someone passes through. The stuff is so strong it reduces the chances of surprise to 1 in 6 for 24 hours.
Room 1.5 is a magical hot tub that automatically undresses anyone entering and drying and clothing anyone leaving (with a small percentage of some kind of screw-up)
Room 1.6 is a magical gallery; however, the “pictures” are designed for the blind.
Room 1.8 is a magical music room with various levers and buttons that create various sounds. The music is designed to play throughout the castle, alerting everyone of the player’s presence.
Room 1.21 is a magical kitchen and 1.22 is be a magical ice room for storing food.
Room 1.27 is a library with a device that fetches certain books, but only works if the commands are given in the language of giants.
Room 1.33 is the scriptorium, with a special device used to create the “Braile” scrolls created by the Giant.
Rooms 2.11 and 2.13 are incubating and birthing chambers for the breeding experiments.

Now for 4 rooms with treasure guarded by a trap:
Rooms 1.14, 1.16, 1.30, and 2.2 all suggest themselves because they are dead-ends.

The six remaining traps:

Rooms 1.15 and 1.17 are suggestive because of the portcullises indicated on the map.
Rooms 1.2 and 1.31 are good candidates to alert the hobgoblins in the towers.
Room 2.17 has access to the demon.
Room 2.19 keeps the Gibbering Mouthers at bay.

Finally, I need two Empty Rooms with treasure:

I like Rooms 1.25 and 2.16 for this for no real particular reason.

For the rest, I might note some things to indicate this was once the home to a scholar with servants. Servants quarters, storage rooms, guest rooms, supplies necessary for scholarly work, etc.

Done.

Note: I have sprinkled some cool features within this castle that might prove useful should the players ever want to claim this as their own. Consider it an incentive and a reward for putting up with my dark sense of humor.

Also note: The chances of me ever actually using this are not high. But who knows, it may one day prove useful...if not to me than someone out there who wants to take this and run with it.

How I Homebrew a Dungeon

Justin Alexander has an interesting post about the decline of D&D Adventure Modules. His is a fascinating observation, and one that I am afraid I have to generally agree with. Although, as an aside, I must admit that in my experience as a Referee there are not many “good” adventures in the overall D&D library. I long for the shared experience of running particular adventures, but it is very rare that I find using a module at the table a good experience.

Since I have been thinking about how to prep a sandbox campaign with my middle child in mind, I thought it might be fun and useful to share some of my own techniques and thought processes when creating a 1st level dungeon adventure.

As another aside, I tend to use Swords & Wizardry to design adventures because its Monster Stat Blocks and treasure generation system are both nicely stripped down and simple. This saves on a lot of prep time. Also, at the table, I prefer converting from simplicity to complexity rather than the other way around.  

I tend to start with a map. I am a highly (if not extremely) visual person. Thus, “seeing” the adventure helps me visualize what I want the adventure to be about. So, I went to the archives of maps that Dyson Logos provides and chose a “good” map.

By “good” I mean something that immediately introduces choice to players and offers several different routes to various locations via “loops.” I also like maps that have evocative features. In this particular case I like the underground “lake” as well as the natural dais in one of the large caverns.

Once chosen, I labeled each encounter area with a number:

 

Strictly following the percentages of Moldvay’s “Stock the Dungeon Table” on B52 of his Basic D&D we get the following:

4 Monsters without Treasure
4 Monsters with Treasure
3 Traps
1 Trap with Treasure (technically 1.33)
4 Specials
7 Empty Rooms
1 Empty Room with Treasure (technically 1.33)

In order to get an idea of what Monsters to use, I pulled out The Tome of Adventure Design and rolled up an interesting name for the dungeon: The Dais of Imprisonment. Seems apropos, given my initial attraction to the natural dais in Room 19. It also suggests that there be some kind of monster dangerous enough to need a special prison. I also rolled up why the dungeon was abandoned: a disease wiped out the inhabitants 1000 years ago.

In his edition of Basic D&D, Holmes also has a useful table for stocking dungeons. He suggests that monsters up to “Three Levels Below Ground” can be found wandering on the First Level of a dungeon. Strictly applying the math of Holmes results in the following:

5 Level 1 Monsters
2 Level 2 Monsters
1 Level 3 Monster

My first thought when it came to a “Level 3” monster to occupy “The Dais of Imprisonment” was a mummy, due to the disease factor implied by my random roll in The Tome of Adventure Design; however, the idea really didn’t inspire me much. Then I took a look at what monsters Moldvay has on his Wandering Monster Tables. That is where I saw a Medusa(!) on his Level 3 Wandering Monster list. Now that sounds interesting!

So, Room 19 has a magically sealed coffin suspended by chains atop the natural dais. Trapped inside is a Medusa, once a beloved ruler of her people and then cursed by her own lust for power. (Something to keep in the back of my head, but not something important until the players ask: can the curse be broken and how?)

For my Level 2 Monsters, I wanted to evoke the idea of diseased undead that were once the guardians of the prison. So, I chose Leper Zombies (found in Monstrosities). These two will be in isolated areas of the dungeon: Room 4 (which can only be opened by figuring out how to use the mechanism in Room 3) and Room 23.

This leaves the northern section of the map to populate with a tribe of kobolds and their pet boars who avoid the southern part of the map because they instinctively know better. They will occupy Rooms 10-14 with the chief and guards in Room 11.

Behind a Secret Door (which has not been found by the Kobolds), Room 15 is a nice place for a Treasure guarded by a trap.

Room 5 suggests a natural Trap of a collapsing ceiling.

Given their access to the Dais of Imprisonment, Rooms 17 and 18 are also good candidates for traps.

Technically, I have already placed a “special” in Room 3 so that leaves three:

Room 8 is very suggestive, given the coffins of the former guardians of the place. It could very well be a place of visions which suggest the dungeon’s past.

Given the long standing trope of magic pools, Rooms 22 and 24 are also good candidates.

Given its simplicity, I am very much attracted to hiding some treasure in Room 2.

As an aside, Room 16 is a set of collapsed stairs which gives me room to expand this dungeon if I want to.

That’s all my monsters, traps, specials and empty rooms.

In total I have the following monsters (and S&W XP values):

42 kobolds (210 xp)
3 goblins (kobold chief and guards) (30 xp)
2 wild boars (240 xp)
2 leper zombies (120 xp)
1 medusa (800 xp)
(Total xp = 1400)

According to S&W, base treasure value is 1d3+1 times the total xp value. I am going to assume a roll of '3' for a pair of reasons. First, I want to give PCs an opportunity to level up. Second, I have a couple of "1.33" treasures according to the strict math of Moldvay's Stocking Table.

This gives me 5600gp of treasure value to play with.

500gp will be traded out for Minor Gems which result in 1100 gp in gems and jewelry.

Thus, there is a grand total of 6200 gp in treasure. Given that there are 6 Rooms with treasure, that means each room has approximately 1000gp with an extra 200gp to fill in wherever I think is cool in the moment. Note: This value can take the form of anything. For example, the treasure found with the Leper Zombie in Room 4 could take the form of 1000gp worth of burial urns and the the Kobolds could be enamored by the fact that they have a "massive" treasure of 100,000cp.

In total, there are 7800 potential xp for PCs to earn in this dungeon, or 1950 xp per PC in a party of 4 characters. With some XP bonuses, that gets us to approximately 2000 xp and a level up for Clerics, Thieves, and Fighters. Should Wandering Monsters be added to the mix, this dungeon is within spitting distance of giving everyone a good shot at leveling up.

Speaking of which:

Wandering Monster Table
1. 2d6 Kobolds
2. Wild Boar
3. 1d6 Skeletons
4. 1d6 Zombies
5. 1d6 Fire Beetles
6. 2d6 Giant Rats

Some notes:

There are two keys necessary to open the sealed coffin of the Medusa. The two Leper Zombies have one each.

Items dipped into the waters of Room 24 produce the effects of the spell Gaze Reflection for 1 day. If a magical shield should be dipped into those waters, the effect of the spell is permanent.

I know my rolls did not produce a magic item, but to give players a chance at taking advantage of the waters in Room 24 I will place a +1 shield in the hands of the Leper Zombie in Room 4.

Despite all these opportunities to get an amazing weapon against the medusa, my dark sense of humor is tempting me to make the Medusa blind after being imprisoned for 1000 years in the dark. While robbing players of an easy kill (given that they have a mirror or the Gaze Reflection effect), it also means that the medusa is going to be at -4 on all her to-hit rolls.

The Skeletons and Zombies on the wandering monster table indicate that any dead who are left inside this dungeon are affected by the events of 1000 years ago and rise as undead.

Kobolds encountered outside of their lair are those that got too curious for their own good.

The Fire Beetles and Giant Rats are standard dungeon vermin.

I might make some simple notes about what various things are on the map (like maybe some crumbling mosaics on the columns in Room 1)

The rest, I'd improvise at the table using visual cues from the map and the basic background information I've determined so far.

Done.

Given my own experience at the table, this sparse little document will result in a much more dynamic and fun experience than virtually any published module out there. Rather than having to wade through walls of text, I just have to describe what my imagination comes up with in the moment. An emergent story will be enhanced by player choice, action, and questions. In the end, I will have a mythology based purely on play that will go on to inform whatever campaign this exists in and possibly many others as well (depending on how cool that story becomes).

Saintly Saturday: The Prophet Isaiah

Today is the Feast of the Prophet Isaiah. The book attributed to him is one of the longest in Scripture at 66 chapters and over 25,000 words. Given how much life is demanding my time these days, I am not going to spend a lot of that time on that text. Rather, I will focus on the historical context and share some of the extra-biblical stories attributed to Isaiah.

The prophet was of royal lineage. He was the nephew King Amaziah of Judah (796-767 B.C.). His name means “The salvation of God.” He married a prophetess and had a son named Jashub. He prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Joatham, Ahaz, Hezekiah and Manasseh. This places him in a very turbulent time.

After the reign of King Solomon, the kingdom was torn in two. Sometimes the two are referred to as the Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom. They are also called Israel and Judah. During Isaiah’s lifetime, the Assyrians were busy conquering kingdoms all over the area, including the Northern Kingdom. Isaiah criticized both kings and the people for turning away from God and declared that the various military defeats suffered by Judah were a consequence of this disobedience.

Isaiah influenced Hezekiah to turn back to God and re-instate the liturgical practices specified in the Law. When Assyria came before the gates of Jerusalem, they were turned back through the prayers of Hezekiah and Isaiah.

Isaiah was killed by King Manasseh. Though not specifically named, his execution is mentioned in Hebrews 11:37 where a prophet is said to have been sawn in two. According to tradition this was Isaiah and it was a wooden saw.

Another interesting attribution to Isaiah is the Pool of Siloam. During a siege, Jerusalem’s water supply was becoming exhausted. Isaiah prayed and water started to flow from beneath Mount Sion. It is the same pool in which Christ has the blind man wash his eyes in order to restore his sight (John 9).

The Pool of Siloam had an interesting liturgical role during the Festival of Tents during the Temple era. There would be a procession from the Temple to the pool where water was drawn using a golden pitcher. This water was then processed back to the Temple with the sound of the shophar (trumpet) and around the altar while the Hallel (Psalms 113-118) were chanted. The men would wave fruits, palms, myrtle and willow to various verses in the Psalms. The water would then be offered along with the drink offering made at the altar.

In context of FRPGs, this is an excellent example of the kinds of little details that make exploring a dungeon really interesting. As I have noted before,  I like to have three basic eras that a dungeon exists through: Ancient, Old and Present.

In this case, we can understand the Ancient source of the Pool to be Isaiah’s prayer during the siege. The Old era would be the temple worship and the Present as the ruins of Jerusalem after its destruction in A.D. 70.

These kinds of detail really give a dungeon a sense of place and history. Personally, discovering these details while my PCs explore dungeons or revealing them to players as they explore are some of my favorite moments while playing RPGs.

DMG vs. The Tome of Adventure Design

Recently, I had the opportunity to purchase either the WotC re-release of the AD&D DMG or a hardcover edition of Matt Finch’s Tome of Adventure Design (I didn’t have the budget to do both). After thinking about it, I realized that the only reason that I wanted the DMG was to support WotC for actually bothering to re-release some of their older stuff and that I’ll have other opportunities this coming year to do so. In contrast, I wanted the Tome because I actually wanted to use it.

And use it I have. I have to admit that I let my work on The Chateau des Faussesflammes go fallow because I was stuck. Despite the fact that I had some really great ideas including dungeon features, NPCs, villains and even a couple of decent maps there wasn’t that one thing that strung everything together and answer that elusive question Why? A notebook, a pair of dice and a about a half an hour with the Tome helped me answer that question — which is why I have been furiously making maps this week.

Of course, one of the fruits born of this endeavor was my daughter’s dungeon. So inspired was she by seeing her dungeon get the computer treatment by dad that she wanted to do more. So, she and I sat down with the Tome, rolled some dice and began brainstorming. The results were actually pretty stunning:

The adventure itself is called The Ethereal Maze of the Feathered Priesthood. It refers to a training facility used by an avian race (possibly alien) to weed out unworthy acolytes from the aforementioned Feathered Priesthood. About a decade ago, the Villain got a hold of a map which was supposed to lead him to an artifact called the Head of Disunity. Interested in breaking apart the Kingdom so as to take advantage of the chaos to take over he set out on a quest to retrieve the evil artifact.

In process, he made a mistake and misread the map. As a result, he ended up at the Ethereal Maze. Therein is a glowing tree which produces a black, effervescent syrup-like liquid used by the acolytes in their exploration of the maze. When the Villain did not find the Head of Disunity, he threatened the occupants and in the end tried to cut down their tree. Unfortunately for all involved, this resulted in the liquid gushing forth and infecting entire areas of the Maze. In large enough quantities, it causes insanity.

The Villain, himself infected, ran away dropping his map as he fled. The inhabitants of the Maze all went insane and the facility has been abandoned. The tree continues to seep its black liquid in large quantities. Thus, the Maze offers up the possibility of all kinds of crazy monsters mutated by long exposure to the liquid, including the original occupants as well as the hazard of the liquid itself.

The hook involves the Villain, who has been recovering his sanity for the past decade and is finally active again. A Patron of the PCs has found out that he is after a map that lies somewhere within the Maze and has sent agents to go find it. The PCs are tasked with getting the map before it falls into the Villain’s hands.

All this was made possible because of a bunch of random tables and the creativity of a little girl with some help from her dad. This is a great adventure location with a built in race against time, an excuse for coming up with surprising monsters, a cool magical liquid that could have far-flung consequences and uses, an evil artifact that exists somewhere in the world (another higher-level adventure), a villain who wants to go get it and an implied political setting to boot.

In other words, Matt Finch’s Tome of Adventure Design has already paid for itself, as far as I am concerned. If you haven’t bothered to take a look or make use of it, I can’t recommend it enough (something, unfortunately, I've never been able to say about the DMG).

Making a Linear Dungeon Non-Linear (and therefore much more cool and useful)

One of the reasons that I haven’t been posting this week is that I have been furiously drawing maps (I had an aha! moment about The Chateau des Faussesflammes, which is one of those projects I have left fallow for too long). A curious byproduct of this creative avalanche was that all my kids wanted to get into the action, particularly my eldest daughter. She took one of my pieces of graph paper, carefully tried her hand at a dungeon level and proudly produced this:

Though nicely drawn and quite creative (I particularly like the crooked bridge across the big hole) it is very linear and I said so. I then had to explain how there was no real choice about where to go. She went back to the drawing board and produced this:

While there are certainly more choices than her first attempt (and even a false door!), this is still a rather linear dungeon level. Once entered, there is really only one direction to go and most of the choices made by adventurers are false ones — they lead to a bunch of dead ends and they are therefore still forced in one direction.

It was at this point that my daughter made her cute face and asked if I could pretty please use her map and make it all pretty in the computer — something that I could not say no to; however, I insisted that we make a few minor changes into order to make the dungeon level less linear and the choices made by adventurers meaningful.

Here is the result:

Besides the obvious graphic enhancements, we also made the following changes:

• The former entrance is now a stair leading to a lower level.
• The new entrance is a stair leading to a room with two doors that lead to two distinct sections of the level.
• Each of the dead ends now have teleporter squares which will take adventurers to other levels.
• The hole over which the crooked bridge crosses is now a huge pit which connects to other levels.

The result is a small dungeon level that I would be excited to add to one of my dungeons — it has the potential to offer all kinds of adventuring goodness because it allows player choice and each choice has real meaning.

On Stocking a Dungeon

As I have mentioned in the past, stocking a dungeon is my least favorite part of the whole process of making an adventure. Normally, I will make a few notes and a wandering monster table and I am good to go; however, I am in process of trying to write up my re-imagined version of the Slave Pits of the Undercity. Therefore, I have to do more than my sparse notes in order to make the adventure useful for someone else to use.

Admittedly, I have struggled with this and have been experimenting with a couple of different formats. Part of the rash of Gamer ADD that has afflicted me of late is due to my unhappiness with my write-ups about the Slave Pits.

Fortunately, my most recent foray into Gamer ADD has allowed me to have a fresh look at how to write up a module. In re-skinning The Caverns of Thracia, I have had the opportunity to do some editing of Paul Jaquays' write-ups in order to make them easier for me to use. What follows is my notes on the first section of my re-skinned version of Jaquay's classic:

OVERVIEW: ROOMS 1-5 are covered in bat guano. When running or while in combat a save must be made every round to avoid falling down. The ceilings are vaulted and the walls are covered with several layers of graffiti. Originally, there were scenes dedicated to Set. These were defaced and replaced by images of Atenism. These, in turn, have been partially defaced by beastmen.


1) ENTRY HALL. There are some bats on the ceiling. If disturbed (a Light spell, for example), they will panic and a wandering monster check will be triggered. They are otherwise harmless. 


2) TEMPLE. The ceiling is covered by a swarm of bats. If disturbed (a Light spell, for example), they will panic. Visibility will be reduced to 5’ and a wandering monster check will be triggered. Guano is extra thick. Saves are at -2 to fall. 


3) ALCOVE. Same as Room 2. In addition, there is a broken statue of an Atenist priest. There trails in the guano that lead to both Rooms 4&5. 


4) CHAPEL. The door to this room is jammed shut (-1 on opening). Within the rubble of a winged statue are 8 Giant Centipedes (small, non-lethal): AC9; HD 1d2; HP 2,2,2,2,1,1,1,1; ATT 1 Bite (Poison, save at +4 or be at -4 on all rolls for 2d4 days). The guano here is mostly dried. Saves are at +4 to fall down. Several dead centipedes litter the floor. Treasure: 60gp, 2000sp, and a gold & silver Atenist holy symbol worth 65gp. 


5) CHAPEL. The door to this room is ajar. There is a group of 14 Kobolds AC6; HD 1d4; HP [4],[3],[3],[3],[3],[3],3,3,2,2,2,2,2,1; ATT 1d6. They are recovering from a battle with the centipedes in Room 4. Numbers in brackets indicate poisoned kobolds — they are at -4 on all rolls. There is rubble from several statues that have been broken beyond recognition. If the rubble is removed, they will reveal a discoloration in the wall where the secret door is. Treasure: Each kobold carries 3gp. The leader (4hp) has a gem worth 25gp.

Comments? Suggestions?

Meditating on The Mythic Underground

One of the more interesting aspects of OD&D, as interpreted by various corners of the OSR, is its portrayal of the Dungeon as the Mythic Underworld. For those unfamiliar with this particular theme I suggest Philotomy’s musings on the subject here. I, myself, have played with this interpretation in my own musings about the Holmes Basic Edition here and here.

In the classic mythological trope, the hero finds it necessary to descend into the Underworld in order to obtain something vital in order to achieve their overall quest. This could be information, an item, a skill or even a person. The hero emerges, changed and readied to take on the rest of their quest.

D&D (particularly in its B/X form) emulates this trope very well. The early levels of character development occur primarily in the Dungeon, where they obtain magic items, maps and experience. Once they reach 4th level or so, the characters emerge ready to take on the rest of their quest — explore and tame the Wilderness in order to build a stronghold.

I mention this, especially my own musing on the Holmesian version of the Dungeon (an ever-changing and unconquerable place that is almost a character unto itself), because Christianity takes this classic tale of the hero and turns it on its ear. Christ — the hero figure of the Christian story — does not descend into the Underworld in order to gain some special object or skill. He descends into the Underworld in order to conquer.

Greek Shorthand for Christ Conquers

For He crushed the gates of bronze and shattered the bars of iron — Psalm 107:16 (cf. Isaiah 45:2) 

For as Jonah remained in the belly of the sea-monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of man be in the heart of the earth for three day and three nights. — Matthew 20:14 

In the body He was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life, and, in the spirit, he went to preach to the spirits in prison. — 1Peter 3:18-19

In other words, the implied pattern of dungeon-delving in context of the Christian story is not just exploration, but restoration. This flies in the face of the Mythic Underground as understood by Philotomy and my own understanding of the Dungeon in Holmes.

Given that I am very interested in a Holmesian Underworld as well as playing in a Christian context, I have been trying to meditate on how to reconcile these two divergent views of the Hero and the Underworld. Part of my thinking in this direction is inspired by the general move that the OSR has made in recent months toward the Weird.

In a world where the Dungeon is a semi-intelligent and ever-changing NPC (Holmes), it makes sense to understand that part of this change can be imposed. What if, when a level or a sub-level of a dungeon were cleared (and thus restored) or otherwise "rescued" that it physically moved from the underworld to the surface world? In context of a dungeon beneath a city, these dungeon levels could be additional neighborhoods that spring up. In context of a dungeon in the wilderness, the levels could be ruins restored to full functionality. The more of the dungeon that is restored, the more Civilization takes root and the more Wilderness (whether on the surface or in the underworld) retreats.

The Dungeon would then change in response to the foray by the adventurers. Either the next level could "move up" or another level or sub-level could spring up in its place. Thus, the semi-intelligent and ever-changing Dungeon of Holmes can actually play a vital role in the context of the Christian hero story.

Holmes & Cook: Stocking a Dungeon

Holmes famously wrote this piece of advice:

As a guideline, it should take a group of players from 6 to 12 adventures before any of their characters are able to gain sufficient experience to attain second level.

If we add up all of the available XP in the Sample Dungeon in Holmes by totaling all of the treasure and non-wandering monsters found in encounter areas, we arrive at a number somewhere around 5500 (some treasure and encounters are variable), with approximately 4600 of that coming from treasure.

When describing wandering monsters and advising on what numbers to use, Holmes says this:

First level adventurers encountering monsters typically found on the first level of a dungeon should be faced with roughly equal numbers, i.e. a party of three would encounter 2-6 orcs, 3-12 giant rots, etc.

Intriguingly, the numbers Holmes uses for his example Wandering Monster Table fall into this given range for a party of three! This is important because the number of monsters found in the encounter areas of the Sample Dungeon roughly fall into this range as well (for example, 4 pirates or 2d4 giant rats). In other words, the expected party size for the Sample Dungeon is approximately three PCs.

The Sample Dungeon, however, has enough available XP to allow at least some of those hypothetical PCs to get to second level. This means that, on average, about four new rooms are going to be explored per expedition into the dungeon (if you accept that it will take 6 expeditions by a party of three to explore the whole dungeon and therefore earn enough XP for many in the party to gain second level).

Whether or not you or I think that this is a realistic ratio is irrelevant (for now), because the reason I am doing all of this geeky math is to arrive at an XP per room ratio based on Holmes' Sample Dungeon. I am interested in trying to find a baseline for how much treasure a Holmesian dungeon has for the purposes of stocking my own version of the Chateau des Faussesflammes. Whereas Holmes does an excellent job of following his own advice for the number of encounter areas and encounter strength, he doesn't really give much advice for placing treasure, other than point to the random treasure tables.

There is only one problem with that. Take a look at the list of monsters he has stocked his Sample Dungeon with:

• Skeletons*
• Fighter, 2nd level
• Magic-user, 4th level
• Giant Rats*
• "Enormous" Spider (6HD!)
• Giant Crab
• Pirates
• Skeleton (with 7hp, meaning it is at least 1HD rather than the normal 1/2HD)
• Octopus
• Giant Snake
• Ghouls*
• Ape

Only those marked with an asterisk are listed in the Monster section. [Note: I am operating with the version of the rules I own, which is an early edition.]

I take two things out of this:

1. Holmes seems to be encouraging DMs to make up their own monsters.
2. I have to do all this crazy math in order to figure out what an appropriate amount of treasure is.

To that end, I have two approaches:

1. Gold pieces per room: This works out be be approximately 100gp per character. (Of course this is a ratio and the actual treasure will not be found in every room — especially since a third of all rooms are specifically empty.)
2. Gold pieces per HD of monster: This works out to be about 150gp per HD. (Likewise, not every monster will have treasure.)

I am currently working on a dungeon level with about 38 rooms and approximately 65HD worth of monsters (using the example Wandering Monster table, which assumes a party of three). Using the first method, I arrive at 11,400gp (38 rooms x 100gp x 3 characters). Using the second method, I get 9,750gp (65HD x 150 gp).

This produces a nice range, and provides me with a reasonable "stingy" number as well as a reasonable "generous" number that falls within the range of XP per room of Holmes' Sample Dungeon.

Holmes & Cook: Dungeon Design

I have been busying myself with the prospect of creating a dungeon in homage to the Chateau des Faussesflammes, one of the ruined castles mentioned by CAS in his stories of Averoigne. Being in a Holmesian kind of mood, I have been trying to tackle this particular project by reverse engineering the Sample Dungeon in the Holmes Edition. In some of my initial forays into the project, I have found an interesting curiosity.

As a life-long hobbyist, I cannot remember a time more exciting than the period we are living through right now. We have a plethora of resources at our finger tips that demonstrate an amazing amount of creative output. Being a bit of a map-geek, one such resource that I have taken particular joy in is the rebirth of the geomorph. I was fully planning on taking advantage of this revival for the purposes of creating maps for my version of the Chateau; however, go on over to Dave's Mapper and compare the (marvelous) results that you get there with the Sample Dungeon from Holmes:

The average room size in the Sample Dungeon is 60 x 60, which easily takes up more than half the space on the popular 100 x 100 geomorph used by the good folks who draw them for Dave's Mapper. The largest rooms in the Sample Dungeon wouldn't even fit on a single geomorph. Even more interesting is that the Keyed rooms are on average almost twice as big as the Empty (E) rooms (75 x 65 compared to 35 x 35).

This got me thinking about the necessity of designing a dungeon with such large rooms and, in particular, encounter areas. I think this largely has to do with the way combat works in Holmes. Missile (and Magic) combat is largely distinct from Melee combat. Once Melee combat is engaged, Missile (and Magic) combat effectively ends, due to the fact that missile fire and spells have a chance of hitting the wrong target.

Given this style of combat, movement and closing into melee and/or maneuvering to avoid melee becomes a vital element of the game. If combat were confined to small spaces (such as the majority of the rooms found in 100 x 100 geomorphs) this ability to move would be severely limited. Most combats would engage in melee almost immediately, reducing the usefulness and effectiveness of characters interested in using bows and spells. Therefore, Holmes provides encounter areas with plenty of room to maneuver.

Besides offering more evidence that the Dungeon is an ever-changing underground spawning new rooms, passageways and even monsters, the size of Empty rooms also implies an attempt by Holmes to make them dangerous.

The only monsters a party of adventurers would encounter in an Empty room are Wondering Monsters, which are meant to be a major part of the Holmesian dungeon-delving experience. Outside of evidence of an ever-changing semi-intelligent dungeon, they seem rather innocuous. Their significantly smaller size, however, limits any combat that does happen within them. Like the rooms on a typical 100 x 100 geomorph, the smaller Empty rooms limit tactical choice in combat. They are therefore a more dangerous place to encounter wandering monsters than a normal encounter area.

The long and the short — I (unfortunately) won't be using geomorphs to do my version of the Chateau des Fammesflammes because Holmesian dungeons need significantly larger rooms than we modern gamers are used to. I shall also be endeavoring to have my dungeon create a sense of claustrophobia with players despite these larger room sizes. Hopefully, they will come to fear the smaller Empty rooms, where wandering monster encounters are truly dangerous.

Holmes & Cook: Monsters

As I've pointed out before, Cook makes a distinction between the monsters in the Expert edition and those found in the Holmes Basic edition:

The monster section has been greatly expanded to include wilderness areas and deeper dungeon levels than were covered in the D&D Basic rules.

Cook also reinforces this distinction by providing two types of No. Appearing — dungeon and wilderness encounters.

Given that Holmes seems to paint a picture of the Dungeon as an otherworldly place that might even spontaneously produce wandering monsters in response to the adventuring parties that delve into its depths, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the monsters found in Holmes that are not found in Cook. Ostensibly, these beasts are primarily dungeon creatures; however, this view is tempered a bit when one looks at the wilderness encounter tables provided by Cook.

Despite this, however, if one eliminates all those monsters used by Cook in his wilderness encounter tables, one is still left with a fascinating list of monsters:

• Carrion Crawler
• Doppleganger
• Gelatinous Cube
• Grey Ooze
• Green Slime
• Giant Tick
• Minotaur
• Ochre Jelly
• Owl Bear
• Rust Monster

This list becomes even more fascinating when those monsters from Cook that are not used in his wilderness encounter tables are added (* = are also found in Holmes):

• Black Pudding*
• Caecilia
• Cockatrice*
• Cyclops
• Elementals (including Djinn and Efreeti)
• Golem
• Hell Hound*
• Invisible Stalker
• Purple Worm*

This list can be roughly broken down into three categories:

1. Maintenance/Clean-up Crew

• Caecilia
• Carrion Crawler
• Gelatinous Cube
• Grey Ooze
• Green Slime
• Giant Tick
• Ochre Jelly
• Purple Worm
• Rust Monster

2. Combo Creatures

• Cockatrice
• Cyclops
• Doppleganger
• Minotaur
• Owl Bear

3. Magical Constructs/Summoned

• Elemental
• Golem
• Hell Hound
• Invisible Stalker

Taken together, these monsters playfully suggest an intelligence behind their existence. The Maintenance/Clean-up Crew could be magically created "fire and forget" janitors. The Combo Creatures could be magical experiments. The Magical Constructs/ Summoned creatures most obviously require come kind of magic spell to bring them into existence/this plane. They all also suggest that something went horribly wrong somewhere along the line.

I am inclined to understand this intelligence to be the ancient civilization suggested by Holmes' Wand Spells, Ring Spells and Potion Spells. It gives the Tower of Babel theme a nice Frankenstein's monster vibe. Not only did the ancient humans turn their back on God, they tried to do better than God by trying to become gods themselves. In their delusional pride, their creation turned out to be a monster, which brought the whole civilization crashing down around them.

Using this particular image amplifies Holmes' vision of the Dungeon. It becomes a magical scar left upon creation by those that wished to be gods. It becomes a blight — the ever-changing mother of monsters. I am even tempted to say that ancient magic attracts Dungeon activity. For example, when ancient magic items — even as minor an item as a +1 Sword (Greater) — are successfully removed from the Dungeon, it begins to move towards the item's new home in order to reclaim the ancient magic. This would, in part, explain why the Dungeon has so much magic and treasure buried within and why adventurers are always tempted to delve its depths. It also explains why Zenopus of the sample dungeon in the back of Holmes disappeared 50 years ago and why today there are no stairs that go to deeper depths of the Dungeon. It successfully recovered its magic and has moved on...

Holmes & Cook: The Dungeon

In my recent post about the thought experiment of creating an amalgam of the Holmes Basic & Cook Expert editions of D&D in isolation from every other version of the game, I started going down a bit of an unfamiliar road. Taken in isolation, Holmes seems to suggest that the dungeon is an otherworldly kind of place that is almost a character unto itself.

This suggestion garnered several comments reminding me of the naturalism used by both of the game's founders, Gygax and Arneson. Let me be clear: although the first two D&D books I ever owned were the Holmes Basic and the Cook Expert editions, I never really learned how to play the game until someone taught me. That person did so using 1ed. Thus, I have played with the naturalistic assumptions of Gygax and Arneson from the beginning. One need only look at my take on Rot Grubs to see that naturalism plays a very large role in the way I go about this hobby. This is, in large part, why I find this rather non-naturalistic vision of the dungeon that I am seeing in the pages of Holmes so fascinating.

Part of the reason I even went down this road was Cook's introduction where he has a whole section on how to use the "early" edition of Basic D&D with his Expert Edition. In this section he states:

The monster section has been greatly expanded to include wilderness areas and deeper dungeon levels than were covered in the D&D Basic rules.

Note how Cook differentiates wilderness from the dungeon. His presentation of monsters reinforces this distinction. The stat block provided by Cook adds a few more pieces of information that Holmes does not. One of these is No. Appearing. Here he gives two ranges. The first is for dungeon encounters. The second is for wilderness encounters. Further, he makes a distinction between the dungeon and the lair. He gives an example of a Gnome lair in the back of the book — something that looks like the sample dungeon in the Basic Edition, but which instead of having wandering monsters have 5 times the the normal number range of the monster living in the lair. Cook also states:

A zero means that the monster will only be encountered in a dungeon (or in wilderness) if specially placed by the DM.

Subsequently, there are over fifty monsters that are not normally found in dungeons, ranging from the antelope to the T-Rex. There is also one example that does not appear in the wilderness: Black Pudding.

My own naturalistic mind could see the Black Pudding thriving in a wilderness setting. One might argue that its vulnerability to fire might suggest that it can't be exposed to sunlight over the course of several hours or dry out, etc. I would counter that this would simply mean that it is a nocturnal hunter and its amorphous shape would easily allow it to find shelter from the sun during the day. Thus, I ask: Why would Black Pudding only be found in a dungeon?

These distinctions made by Cook between the wilderness encounter and the dungeon encounter as well as the wilderness monster and the dungeon monster only reinforce a Holmesian view of the dungeon where:

Ochre jellies, green slime, black puddings, etc. are randomly distributed, usually without treasure, most often in corridors and passageways.

My naturalistic mind also questions why the sample dungeon provided by Holmes has eight empty rooms. I grew up playing this game where every single room seemed to have a purpose — every room had something inside of it, even if it was simply dripping water, a funny smell or a pile of bones. Holmes' empty rooms are devoid of anything:

Room E is always an empty room. The size of the rooms and the number of doors is variable, as shown on the Dungeon Master's map.

Why should a third of all dungeon rooms always be empty? Why aren't they being used? Why haven't they been used sometime in the past? Why no other description than empty? Ironically, my own naturalistic thinking leads me to a very un-naturalistic answer: because the dungeon wants it that way.

Given that wandering monster encounters are always tailored to the size of the adventuring party and/or the level of the dungeon, given that that there is the implication that there are monsters that can normally only be found in dungeons (including virtually all monsters unique to the Holmes edition!), it is not much of a stretch to imagine that the dungeon is in constant flux. The reason that there are so many empty rooms in a dungeon is because they are new enough that no one has had time discover them and/or move in. The dungeon itself is a character in the game, constantly shifting and changing its shape so as to challenge those that dare to enter into its depths.

Personally, I find this Holmesian vision absolutely fascinating and even compelling. My naturalistic mind has been flailing about trying to find an explanation for why dungeons should behave this way. Thus, far I have not been able to find a satisfying answer; however, I am beginning to believe that one may not really be necessary.

Holmes on Traps

Given the relative comfort (and even enthusiasm) for traps that have a save or die! mentality around the OSR, I was rather taken aback by the following advice given by Holmes to the would-be Dungeon Master:

Traps should not be of the "Zap! You're dead!" variety but those which a character might avoid or overcome with some quick thinking and a little luck. Falling into a relatively shallow pit would do damage only on a roll of 5 or 6 (1-6 hit points at most) but will delay the party while they get the trapped character out.

Coupled with the rule that traps only go off on a roll of 1 or 2 on a d6 when characters go by/over them, Holmes' vision of traps reminds me of Monty Python's send-up of the Spanish Inquisition.

This is only reinforced by his suggestions for traps other than the fall-into-the-pit variety:

Hidden rooms, movable walls, teleportation devices, illusion rooms, dead ends, etc., make interesting variations.

Having spent some time meditating on this, I have arrived at another Aha! moment. This advice about traps says less about Holmes' philosophy on save or die! than it does about his vision of what a dungeon looks like. The key phrase in his advice is "delay the party."

All of this advice is in context of stocking dungeons. Holmes very specifically says, "Many rooms should be empty." Indeed, he follows his own advice in the sample dungeon where 8 of the 22 rooms are keyed as "E" for empty. Only 9 of the 22 have monster encounters. Holmes suggests that a few special items be placed first, followed by a random assignment of monsters and treasures where a 1-2 on a d6 indicates a monster. If one assumes that the group of pirates and the 4th level magic user are the "few items" placed by Holmes in his dungeon, that gives a ratio of 7 encounters to 20 rooms — approximately 2 in 6. This suggests that a proper dungeon is basically divided equally into three types of rooms:

• Those with monster encounters.
• Those that have something of interest, but no monsters.
• Those that are empty.

Thus, if such a large segment of the dungeon is monster-less and even empty, why would the primary function of a trap be to "delay the party?"

I believe the answer lies in the way Holmes presents wandering monsters. Holmes states that:

The number of wandering monsters appearing should be roughly equal to the strength of the party encountering them.

This strength is determined by the number of HD the monster has when compared to the level of the party or the level of the dungeon. Thus an average encounter of 1 HD creatures would have around 2-6 individuals. If encountered on the third level of a dungeon or by a third level party, this number should be tripled.

In other words, the main danger of dungeon exploration is not traps, or "boss" encounters but wandering monsters! Thus, traps are not meant to be dangerous in and of themselves, but rather in slowing down the party so that there are more chances of the Dungeon Master rolling a '6' during a wandering monster check.

This suggests that the dungeon is an ever-changing wilderness that can never be tamed. When one asks the very reasonable question "where do these monsters come from?" my own reading of Holmes implies that the answer is the dungeon itself.

Thus, the Holmesian dungeon is not really akin to a lair, where monsters live. Rather, it seems to be a character unto itself — constantly adjusting in order to challenge the adventuring parties that dare to explore its secrets.

Random Dungeon

Recently I've been ill and mostly bedridden, during which I usually seek solace in B-movies and/or reading "bad" sci-fi and fantasy novels. For various reasons, I did not have access to either of these comforts and as such had to seek an alternative way to while away my time. I pulled out a book that has been collecting dust on my shelf for many years — Central Casting: Dungeons penned by Robert Sassone and published by Task Force Games in 1991. Claiming to be "The Ultimate Dungeon Construction Guide," it offers up a random dungeon generator to create dungeons that "make sense" (as if dungeons, outside of a metaphor for the underworld, ever make sense). Fascinated as I am with random tables, I couldn't resist picking this up when I ran across it years ago, but I have never really used it. So, I decided to use my sick bed time to create a random dungeon.

There are three things that I really liked about this book. First and foremost, it emphasizes that this whole random table thing is a guide. If you don't like something, you are encouraged to change or alter it — further proof that those of us who like random tables are not slaves to the dice. Second, it determines the function of the dungeon after it is complete based on what is actually there. Thus, the dungeon does actually "make sense." Third, they have a table to determine why the dungeon was abandoned and how that affects various things in the dungeon, giving the whole thing a sense of history. I actually enjoyed this process quite a bit.

Based on my rolls, this particular dungeon was used to house soldiers, but was well hidden and had a pair of throne rooms and a bedroom suite. Thus, I decided that it was the hideout of a Bandit King who enjoyed displaying the trappings of power. The dungeon was abandoned because it was attacked and occupied by a huge monster. The tables suggested a dragon, but I wanted to have a monster that was more likely to attract followers. In the description of Hobgoblins in the MM are these two tantalizing lines:

If the lair is underground, there is a 60% chance that there will be from 2-12 carnivorous apes as guards.

Most hobgoblins speak goblin, orcish and the rudimentary tongue of carnivorous apes...

Since I have never actually taken advantage of this, I decided that the huge monster would be a giant winged ape that then attracted to it hobgoblins and carnivorous apes.


1) Guardroom. A+A
2) Granary. A+A
3) Chapel. +A
4) Blacksmith.
5) Servant's Quarters. B
6) Arena. AA+AA
7) Dining Room. A+A
8) Kitchen.
9) Storeroom.
10) Construction + Trap.
11) Library. +A
12) Guardroom. A+A
12.1) Barracks. A+AB
12.2) Barracks. A+A
12.3) Barracks. A+A
13) Smithy. +A
14) Empty.
15) Guardroom. A+A
15.1) Barracks (Commander's Room). A+A
16) Servant's Quarters. A+A
17) Lavatory. No Water
18) Sculptor's Room.
19) Empty.
20) Torture Room (Whipping). A+A
21) Guardroom. A
22) Execution Room (poison). A
23) Armory.
24) Construction.
25) Guardroom. A
26) Empty.
27) Exhibition Room. A+A
28) Spellcaster's Lab. B+B
28.1) Secret Storage Room.
29) Antechamber.
29.1) Antechamber. B (Ghast)
29.2) Burial Chamber. B+B (Mummy)
30) Empty.
31) Great Hall. AA+AA
32) Arena. C+C (4-armed Ape)
33) Ampitheatre. B+B (Ghast in the crawl space beneath the stage)
34) Master Bedroom. C+AABC (Sons of Cyn)
34.1) Guardroom. A
34.2) Waiting Room. A+A
34.3) Private Dining Room.
34.4) Art Room. A
34.5) Sitting Room.
34.6) Library. B
34.7) Private Bath.
35) Weapon Training Room.
36) Fortification.
37) Great Hall. D+D (Winged Ape)
38) Well Room. Magic Fountain
39) Guardroom. A+A

The codes refer to the type of encounter and type of treasure. The letters before the '+' are encounter type and those after are treasure type. The letter 'A' refers to an encounter easily dealt with by the party (such as a group of Hobgoblins) and a small treasure. The letter 'D' refers to something very challenging to the party and a major treasure. In parenthesis placed creatures I would include in the more challenging encounter areas.

Winged Ape

Armor Class: 2 [17]
Hit Dice: 8
Attacks: 1-10/1-10 (+2d6)
Saving Throw: 8
Special: Rending, Immune to Fear, Never Surprised
Move: 9/18 (when flying)
Morale: 10
Challenge Level/XP: 10/1400

These giants, resembling grey apes with red skin, eyes and leathery wings, attack with powerful clawed hands. If both hands hit a single opponent, the winged ape will do an additional 2d6 damage by rending.

Happy Birthday to H.P. Lovecraft

James over at Grognardia reminded me that today is H.P. Lovecraft's birthday. If you couldn't already tell by the quote over on the right side of this page and the use of Lovecraftian images and quotes in my adventures and worlds, I am a big Lovecraft fan. Much as he has influenced science fiction and fantasy through the quiet background noise of the desolation he depicted in his writings, he has influenced the way I game. Chaos and evil have always passively or explicitly used Lovecraftian imagery in my worlds.

The irony is that I have a much deeper appreciation for Lovecraft and his world-view (with its belief that humanity and their works are, in the great scheme of things, insignificant) now, as a Christian, than I ever did when I first read his work and fell in love with it. The reason is simple: I agree with HPL and he illustrates it in a way that makes the reality of it truly horrifying.

I beseech you, my child, to look at heaven and earth and see everything in them, and know that God made them out of nothing; so also He made the race of man in this way. — 2 Maccabees 7:28

The grand sum total of everything humanity has ever done or will ever do sans God is nothing. I was personally confronted with this reality while wandering around Castle Siklos in southern Hungary on an overcast October day during the Yugoslavian Civil War. Just south of me, the Croatian stronghold of Osijek was under siege by Serbian forces. I felt the shock wave of each artillery shell rip through my gut and shatter my heart. In a world without God, all that remains is the endless struggle for power, at the of which is that black nothingness of a forgotten death. The typical response of an HPL character to such a reality — mind crushing despair — actually seems reasonable. Any one who actually has the fortitude to stand up in the face of this chaos truly is a hero.

Into this mess— this bleak, meaningless exercise in futility — came a babe who 33 years later would boldly march to Golgotha with a cross on His back. Willingly, He embraced the nothingness that is death. In so doing, He brought life, light and hope to those in darkness. He went to the very depths of where evil lay, looked the devil in the eye and said not here, not today. He snatched our very being from the jaws of absolute nothing and took us back with Him as a highly-valued treasure and presented us to His Father.

This is why I love the metaphor of delving into the depths of a megadungeon to face off against some vile spawn of chaos to steal away treasures to further the fight against forces of evil. This is why I love HPL so much. His imagery truly captures the utter terror and mind-dumbing despair of a world without God. Standing up to that horror and surviving to fight another day — that's a perfect expression of the hope I have in Christ.

Happy Birthday HPL.

Stocking a Dungeon

When I started my Erimia campaign, I reread Moldvay's Basic D&D and I came across the following advice for stocking a dungeon:

To "stock" a dungeon means to fill in general details, such as monsters, treasure, and traps. Special monsters should be first placed in the appropriate rooms along with special treasures. The remaining rooms can be stocked as the DM wishes. If there is no preference as to how certain rooms are stocked, the following system may be used.

He then provides a pair of tables where contents maybe determined by a d6:

Contents:
1-2 Montser
3 Trap
4 Special
5-6 Empty

Is There Treasure?
Monster Yes on 1-3
Trap Yes on 1-2
Empty Yes on 1

There is an elegance here that belies the image of random tables being random and chaotic. Using this system, and a couple of sub-tables utilizing a d6, one can create a unique feel for any dungeon map.

For example: I use this system to stock the Dungeon Beneath the Ruins in my Erimia campaign. Each level or sub-level has "special monsters" — the main or climactic encounters on each level. I place some special features, some treasure and leave the rest to the random table. However, the random table is tightly controlled. I use a template with the following pattern:

1-2 Humanoid
3 Animal
4 Undead
5 Vermin
6 Chaos Beast

These numbers can be altered to change frequency, depending on the feel for each level. Each of these results then goes to a sub-table which give a specific result. This is where every level gets its true character. If you have a sub-level occupied by goblinoids next to a sub-level full of lizard-folk, the humanoid sub-table for each could look like this:

1-3 Goblins
4 Hobgoblins
5 Bugbears
6 Lizardmen

1-3 Lizardmen
4-5 Troglodytes
6 Goblins

Keeping each small table within a theme creates the sense of an ecosystem. Since each table has a maximum of six entries, it takes very little effort to create.

There are several advantages to this:

1. It saves time. As a Referee I don't have to worry about stocking everything in a huge mega-dungeon.
2. It makes the dungeon extremely portable and recyclable. I can use the same dungeon several times and have it be different each time. When players clear out a level, restocking is not much of an issue.
3. It is as much an adventure for the Referee as it is for the player. I get to have the fun of seeing my dungeon develop in an organic way through the interaction of my concept, the players and some dice.

The lesson here is that random tables are only as crazy and chaotic as you allow them to be. When tightly controlled, they are an invaluable tool.