A Sample Dungeon: Rooms 10 through 13

Before I get to the rooms I want to say that I am pleased those who have taken up the sample dungeon challenge continue to stick with it (and surpass me in number of rooms accomplished).  We had a new entry this week, so go check out the Sample Dungeon Home for the links to the other blogs playing along.  

Room 10

A passageway extends straight into the shadows beyond your vision.  Heavy, oaken doors set with bars from the outside line the walls on either side.  The air smells faintly of urine and of blood. 

The 10’ square rooms adjoining this passageway are cells.  Each is barred from the passageway side and has a 6-inch square window secured with a small, iron door at about eye-level for an average human.  Looking into the cells will reveal their contents: iron chains set into the back wall (waist-height), small wooden benches and scattered straw.  Entering any of the cells characters may find broken pottery and graffiti scratched into the walls.  Most of the latter are obscene or darkly humorous pictures of one kind or another, but a few cells had occupants that could write and some passages include:

“Here I sit in a pile of shit with no drink and no girl for to wrassle; I eat magotty bread and pray to be dead and gone from the cells ‘neath the castle”

“When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.”

 “I renounce all arrogance, self-sufficiency and pride, which was the downfall of the Enemy.

I have nothing and am nothing, except in You

I confess all my sins, I confess all my omissions, I confess the sins of my anc-“

“I will go in Your name,

In likeness of deer, in likeness of horse,

In likeness of serpent, in likeness of king,

Stronger am I than all persons.”

Characters that search will find nothing of value in the cells.  As they approach area 11, the smell of blood will become stronger and stronger. 

Room 11

The smell of slaughter is thick in the air here. Iron manacles are set into the walls at left and right and situated to bind hands and feet of standing humans on short, rusted chains. The south wall of this square room has a great, wooden table set against it.  A cloud of flies buzzes above a gruesome pile of flesh, blood and bone set upon it.  Blood also covers the table and nearby floor. 

The pile is what remains of a hapless villager caught by the ghouls occupying the crypt area.  Most of the organs have been consumed and many of the bones cracked and the marrow withdrawn.  What remains is mostly skin, fat, broken bones and of course blood.  This has sat here for a day or so.

Bite marks upon the bones are obvious upon any close inspection, and a successful Intelligence check made by an examining character will indicate the bones were likely cracked open by force and then gnawed upon, not bitten in two.  All of this can be ascertained with careful observation of the pile.  Any character touching the pile has a cumulative 25% chance each round they do so of contacting one of the 8 rot grubs currently inhabiting this bloody mess.     

A pile of bloody rags in the corner are what remain of the peasant’s garb

Room 12 & 13

Each of these rooms (12 & 13) are identical.  Characters may not enter until they make a save vs. spell as described below.

A dull, hellish glow emits from the chambers beyond this passageway. 

Peering into the room you see a large, stone altar set against the back wall.   Six white candles set before it are lit and emit the strange, red light that fills the room entire.  A cold hand seizes your heart as you lay your eyes upon this and you are compelled to look away.  But not before a sparkle of light catches your eye from one of the carved skulls of the altar.

Any character wanting to actually enter either of rooms 12 or 13 must save vs. spell or be under the effects of a Cause Fear spell.  They will flee the area at full movement for 20 rounds and may not attempt to enter the room again for 24 hours.  Those successfully making the save may enter and approach the altar. 

The altar candles are of wax but magical and emit a faint aura of the same.   They will remain “lit” forever, emitting their strange, red light (but not heat) as a torch and will never melt or change in any way unless intentionally damaged or broken.

Each of the eye sockets of the carved skull images on the altar are fit with a perfectly cut and smoothed high-quality onyx.  Bright, silver bands in the stones reflect light and sparkle.  These are ornamental stones, but quite unique in composition and cut.  Each stone (4 per altar) will be worth 100 gp to the soul brave enough to pry them loose. 

Any character attempting to take the candles or  pry the ornamental stones loose will be filled with foreboding and dread, regardless of having made the save vs. spell, but is free to act in any way they see fit. 

Combat and Movement

Inspired some time ago by some of the combat rules Alexis uses and has discussed, I generated some of my own movement rules to be used in what was then a stripped down, tricked-out version of 3rd edition.  (Alexis, if there's a more complete posting of your rules somewhere, let me know and I'll link to that.)  Recently I decided to brush them off and use them in my Labyrinth Lord campaign.  They are posted here for your use and comment.  My goal was to better identify what could or couldn't be done in a given combat round.  Using this cost system for movements and actions, one could begin an activity at the end of one round that carried over into one or more rounds.

Specifically, aside from saying that you love or hate it I'd like to know what you would add to or change about tables 33 through 35.

P.S. I'll post the next four rooms of the sample dungeon this week.  I know what they are, just need to write them down. 

Combat

Combat Sequence

1. Initiative (first round only)
2. Check morale
3. Declare actions & act
4. Resolve actions in initiative order

Initiative:  Group initiative is rolled.  One player rolls d6 for the entire party and the DM rolls d6 for the other side.  Highest number wins and individuals act in order of their dexterity score, highest to lowest.

Check Morale:  If the opposing side has lost 1/3 of their original number or some other circumstance exists that would make them question the prudence of continuing the fight, a morale check will be made by the DM.

Movement:  Most characters begin play with a base movement ranking of 8.  Given no other activity, this means that the character can move eight 5’ hexes or squares each round or move six squares/ hexes and attack.  Base movement is modified by encumbrance and armor worn (see below).

Encumbrance, Armor and Movement:  Multiply your character’s strength score by 3.  This is their encumbrance factor in lbs.  A character may carry this amount before becoming lightly encumbered; two-times this amount before becoming moderately encumbered and three-times this amount before becoming heavily encumbered.  Encumbrance effects movement as indicated in the table below.

Table 33: Encumbrance & Movement

Encumbrance	Movement Factor
Non	0
Lightly Encumbered	-1
Moderately Encumbered	-2
Heavily Encumbered	-3

When figuring encumbrance, do not add in the weight of armor that is worn.  That is figured using the table below:

Table 34: Armor and Movement

Armor Type	Movement Factor
None	0
Light	-1
Medium or Heavy	-2

Types of Movement/ Actions:  Your character’s effective movement value (base movement ranking minus modifiers for encumbrance and armor worn) determines what he can do in a given round of action.  The table below lists several common actions and how many movement points they cost. 

Table 35: Actions and Movement Costs

Action	Cost
Move 5’ (a 1” square or hex)	1
Run 10’ (may not attack unless charging)	1
Attack*	2
Aim and fire any bow*	2
Load a light crossbow	4
Load a heavy crossbow	6
Drop an item	0
Draw a weapon	2
Locate and seize an item in backpack	2d6
Drink a potion	2
Read  a scroll	4
Cast a spell	1/level**
Pick up an item in your hex/ square	2

Controlled withdrawal from melee

2***

* Regardless of the amount of movement left to a character, they are limited to one attack or spell per round unless otherwise specified.  In the event of multiple attacks, the character must have the movement points to spend to take more than one attack.

** Casting a spell costs 1 point per level of the spell, not level of the caster.  This replaces any other casting time rules that exist

*** plus normal movement costs

Echo in the Echo Chamber, Echo Chamber, Echo Chamber...

If you read this blog you probably already know about the community call-to-arms I caught wind of from Jeff Rients of Jeff's Game Blog to post links to valued house rules on a wiki thoughtfully set up by Alex Schroeder after the Jovial Priest and his readers cooked up the idea.   If you don't, you should go check it out.   I'm posting about it to second or third or twenty-third the motion and to say that I've already found some goodies there that I had previously missed.  Thirdly, I need to make a confession.  When I went there to post links to some of my own favorite bookmarked pages, most of them were already posted.  So... wanting to participate somehow and noticing that I got no love myself... I linked to a couple of my own house rules.  That's got to be a violation to the spirit of the whole thing, or at a minimum rather pathetic in some fundamental way.  Admitting it here is cathartic. Thank you.

Also linked there is the wiki Alexis administers, Same Universe Wiki.  I recommend checking that out as well.  That the community of former-day editions seems concerned with hanging on to all of these ideas being bandied about and given away is a good thing.   Having more than one place to do it is even better. 

A Sample Dungeon: Rooms 7 through 9

Before I get to the rooms, a random encounter table.  All of the below monsters can be found in the Labyrinth Lord book and most likely also in whatever book you're using. 

Rooms 1 through 23 Encounters (1 in 6 chance of encounter)

1. 1d6 giant rats
2. 1d4 giant crab spiders
3. 10 normal rats (max hit points)
4. 1d10 subterranean locusts
5. 1d2 ghouls (from rooms 24-39)
6. The specter (area 14 & 16)

Room 7

The door to this room is stuck.

The room smells of wet, moldy fabric.  A large, irregular and dark mass lies on the floor at the room's center spreading out nearly to the back and side walls.  Smaller masses lie in the corners and upon the same walls. 

The masses are only the ruined cloaks and priestly vestments once stored in a more orderly fashion on 32 evenly-spaced wooden pegs protruding from the north, south and west walls at approximately 5' above the floor.  Depending on how the players approach the "dark masses" this will either become immediately known to them or discovered carefully.  If only possessing torchlight to see and without entering the room,  the fact that the masses are merely clothing should not be obvious. 

18 tattered and nearly useless sets of priestly vestments can be counted and organized from among this wreckage while 2 whole but stained and smelly sets can be assembled with 1d10 minutes of effort.  Don't forget to roll for random encounters while the room is being checked and the cloaks sorted through.

Room 8


(Assuming an approach from the north) A passageway (from the hall connecting this to 7 & 9) turns around a corner up ahead.  The floor is littered with rat droppings and small, scattered bones.  Wisps of cobwebs cling to the corners where the walls meet the ceiling.

Beyond the charred ruins of a door frame you see the walls, floor and ceiling of this room are black as if touched by flame.  Burnt objects, most little more than piles of ash and dark splinters of wood, suggest what once might have been furnishings.  The blackened ribcage of a humanoid protrudes grotesquely form one such pile.

As with room 4, the idea is to get the players looking down or interested in the room's contents.  The spider webs and bones in the north passageway may have clued them in.  If the party discovered the secret passageway at the end of the southern corridor they would have discovered the spider's lair (see below) before the spider and should be ready.  Or not.

In any event, characters not actively looking up into the 20' domed ceiling will likely (5 in 6) be surprised by the giant black widow there.  If searching above, thick webbing will be spotted and the spider discovered once it makes a move on the party.

The spider will use its web ability first to trap as many characters as it can.  Failing a morale check during the fight, the creature will make for its lair in the passageway to the south (ignore the door shown on the map, this is an open doorway).

The Spiders Lair


The south passageway is the spider's lair.  Dense webbing and cocoon-like objects fill the middle part of the passage.  Characters carefully and slowly traversing this part of the passageway can avoid becoming stuck as long as they touch nothing but the floor.  Those that investigate the cocoon-shapes by means beyond observation or burning webs have a a 2 in 6 chance of becoming stuck.  Stuck characters are held as if by a web spell.  Stuck characters and any loud noises or burning of webs will attract the spider in room 8 in 1d4 rounds (I use 6-second rounds). 

There are countless "cocoons" which are actually egg sacks or the remains of past victims.  Characters managing to access a "cocoon" have a cumulative 1 in 6 chance (i.e. 1 in 6 on first try, 2 in 6 on second try, etc...) of uncovering something other than an egg sack.  Each time something "other" is found refer to the list below and select one sack then start over with a 1 in 6 chance for the next search, increasing by one for subsequent searches.  Characters can safely burn 10' cube sections of the webbing with fire each round.  Doing so destroys any egg sacks and causes any items marked with an asterisk below to require an item saving throw.  In this case the DM must determine where any given sack is located.

sack 1: bones, leather armor, rusted short sword, 22 gold pieces & 46 silver
sack 2: bones, robe, potion of healing*, potion of levitation*
sack 3: bones, rusty but serviceable chain mail, 11 gold, 27 coppers
sack 4: bones, golden necklace with diamond pendant (worth 400 gp)

Room 9

A large tapestry hangs on the south wall, concealing it from end to end and nearly floor to ceiling.  It is of a heavy grey-black material and depicts strange scenes in a white thread now yellowed with age.  In each scene, skeletal figures are leading people of various stations and occupations away. The floor is dressed with a once rich fur rug of some kind.  It is dirty and frayed and covered with dark, rust-colored stains.  You notice scattered bones about the rug and piled into the corners.

The tapestry is of wool.  A careful examination of the scenes sewn there will accomplish two things:
 
One, the character examining will note several features

• Local landmarks are depicted including the hill upon which the ruined monastery rests.  The monastery is also of course depicted, though the ruin is now so tumbled down it barely resembles the magnificent structure shown.  
• Robed figures are depicted in every scene, often in the background and with their faces always concealed.  These robes and vestments match those found in area 7.
• Each scene depicts somebody being led away by skeletons.   The woodcarvings shown above shouldn't be taken as exact depictions, but are used to convey a sense of what's on the tapestry. 

Two, any close study of the tapestry will make the observer feel uneasy.  Figures will seem to move at the edges of one's vision and the skeleton figures will seem particularly mocking and malignant in some way.  A save vs. spell must be made.  Failure indicates an immediate  need to leave the room and not touch or look at the tapestry.  This compulsion can not be resisted and only physically restraining such an affected character will prevent them from leaving room 9.  Those failing the save will also suffer a -1 penalty to all rolls for the remainder of the day.

The concealed door to area 23 is an open archway hidden by the tapestry.  It will be obvious to anybody looking behind the tapestry.  The tapestry emits faint auras of both evil and magic if detected.  The rug is worthless but the tapestry might have some value.  Most merchants will shun the thing, but a special collector could pay several thousand gold pieces for such a unique item if the characters find the right one and drive a hard bargain.


My Thoughts

So no doubt you've noticed by now that I've got this whole dance macabre thing going on with this dungeon.   Those old wood carvings always gave me the creeps and I'm using that to set a mood here.  The skeletal figures in the art are metaphorically leading the people off.  My thoughts for this dungeon are, what if the depictions aren't allegory at all, but literally what was happening?  All of this dressing is to foreshadow creepier things to come in areas 24 through 39.  More clues will be dispersed about the remaining rooms of areas 1 through 23, including the specter of the former abbot to be found either randomly or in areas 14 and 16.

Because Making the Players Map the Dungeon is a Waste of Time, THAT'S Why!

DM:  The passageway continues another 60' south.  Following it, you come to a T-junction, the perpendicular corridor running east-west.

Player 1:  Was that 60' from where we're standing, or 60' from the door?

DM:  Which door?


Player 1: The door on the east wall.

DM:  You mean west wall?  There was a door to the north and one to the west.


Player 1: That one (indicates door on map with eraser tip)

DM:  Yeah.  60' from that one. 

Player 1:  OK.  I got it.  Which way, guys?

Player 2:  Let's go west and see if this backtracks.

DM:  No objections?  The party goes west, travelling another 40' before approaching a large, square 40' chamber.  (Blah, blah, blah room description)

Player 1:  Wait, does the other corridor intersect this chamber?

DM:  Other corridor?  There's no other corridor.  There's only one way into or out of the room as far as you can tell

Player 1:  The long corridor with the spiders.  It runs right through this room.

DM:  No it doesn't, that's clear on the other side of the dungeon.

Player 1:  Not according to this (shows whole map)

DM:  This is all wrong.  You've got this all wrong.

Player 3:  Man, you are the WORST mapper.


Player 1:  No, I'm the ONLY mapper.  I don't see anybody else ever volunteering to do it.

Player 4:  So he's the worst AND the best.  Where did we go wrong?


DM:  Way back here at this intersection.  This whole part of the dungeon is supposed to come off of the north passageway, not the east one.  


Player 1:  I thought we went east there.  I said we should go east.


DM:  I thought B. said north (pointing to Player 2)


Player 4: (To Player 2)  Did you say north or east here?  I thought we were going south, toward the noise.

Player 2:  What here? (Points to map) I don't remember, that was like an hour ago.  

Player 1:  No we said away from the noise, you were refilling the chips. 



Player 3:  Fuck.  


Player 4:  I'm going to catch a smoke while we figure this out, that OK?


DM:  Sure.  Everybody take 5.  I'll redraw it the way it's supposed to go.


Player 3:  (To Player 1) Dude, you suck.


Player 4:  Fuck you.  You do it. 




Personally, I've decided just last night during our session to take 5 extra seconds each time the party moves and quickly trace out the room that they see on their map.  The truth is there's a lot going on at the table even under the best playing circumstances, and I'm sure I'm not always clear about what is what.  The time it takes to stop and check the map every time a player adds to it is equal to or more than what it would just take for me to quickly do it myself.

I like dungeons.  I like sprawling floor plans and even something as relatively straightforward-looking as the Sample Dungeon could be a real pain in the ass to map.  Look at those diagonal rooms and passageways.  Getting those right would make play grind to a halt at our table.  I don't want our sessions to become cartography debates.  I suspect nobody does. 

If any of your sessions sound like the one above (which was a representative exaggeration of ours wherein I did nothing wrong, heh-heh), how do you manage it?  How much time is spent arguing over or fixing the map in your game?

A Sample Dungeon: Rooms 4 through 6

As of this writing there are five blogs aside from this one that are participating in stocking and describing the Sample Dungeon, and I think that's very cool.  It's never too late to join in the fun.  

Room 4

The hallway that leads to this room is behind a door.  Players approaching the door will note that its bottom is rough-edged and chewed a bit, as if by some sharp-toothed creature.  A casual examination of the floor here will reveal hair and droppings (both from rats, apparently of a particularly large size).

Beyond the door lies a hallway that extends into the darkness.  The floor is littered with the scattered leavings of some creature and the air smells of urine.

A party traversing the passageway will note that there is more rat debris about as they get closer to area 4.  Once at the threshold and passing into area 4, unless paying close attention to the top of the doorway/ ceiling of the chamber as they enter, characters will be surprised on a 5 in 6 by a green slime dropping from the ceiling just beyond the arch of the door.  If particularly observant of the overhead, though, they are surprised only on a 1 in 6.  I use stats from the Labyrinth Lord book.

The square chamber was most likely used for storage, but the sacks, crates, casks, barrels and kegs that may have once lined the walls here have long ago been smashed and broken into bits.  

Searching the room will reveal only several large nests made from fabric and hair within broken crates or barrels.  And poop.  Lots of poop.  No rats, though.  The slime got those.

The secret door can be found normally, though debris must first be moved aside.  It is opened by simply prying up the wide, loose flagstone from the floor of the chamber where indicated on the map.  It is a narrow (3 ½’) opening and the short tunnel beyond is likewise narrow.   This tunnel leads to area 5.  

Room 5

The room can normally be accessed only from a secret door set into the floor that leads to area 4.  Characters emerging from this narrow passageway find a square stone chamber whose four walls are lined with racks of weapons.  It is left up to the DM running the dungeon to stock the racks, but commonly available weapons or weapons used specifically by the inhabitants of the old abbey should be considered as most likely being present.  The weapons are old and in such a state that rolling a natural “1” on any to-hit destroys the weapon instantly.  Any successful hit likewise has a 5% chance of destroying the weapon.  

Room 6

The door to this room is stuck but may be opened normally with a successful roll.

This long chamber has a high (30’), vaulted, onion-shaped ceiling that is buttressed by stone arches every 15’.  The stuccoed walls may have once bore murals, but these have long faded into almost nothingness.  Light pigments and faint outlines are all that remain of the depictions.  The room’s most recent use was likely that of storage, as the floor is dense with the debris of smashed containers.

Any kind of search of the room or moving of the debris has a cumulative 1 in 6 chance of rousing the 40 large rats dwelling here (i.e. 1 in 6 first time, 2 in 6 second time, 3 in 6 third time, etc...).   Once roused, roll 3d6 for the rats’ reaction using the below table.  Then roll 1d4x10 to see how many rats are actually out on the floor.  The remaining rats are either in the nest or out and about elsewhere in the dungeon.   These are large rats (approximately 2’ long) and not giant rats.  I use the Labyrinth Lord stats for normal rats and check for disease normally.

The rats are nesting in a series of tunnels accessed from four separate openings along the east wall.  The openings are just large enough for a character to slip an arm and hand through.  There is a 50% chance that a character doing so will be bit by a rat.  Items may be also discovered there.

1^st opening:  60% chance to grab a gold and silver holy symbol on gold chain (worth 50 gp)

2^nd opening: 35% chance to grab an emerald (250 gp)

3^rd opening:  nothing

4^th opening 90% chance to grab a silver piece

My Thoughts

I subscribe to the notion that the Dungeon, being an extension of the underworld, should be weird and dangerous.  I still like them to hang together with some sort of logic, though.  I feel particularly strong about this when considering those levels closest to the surface world.  In the case of our sample dungeon, in my use it is the first level below a ruined monastery.  That means (to me) that there are going to be some mundane rooms such as those previously used for storage.   

But how does one maintain a certain atmosphere of weirdness or a sense of danger and tension in the event that the party spends a ton of time looking through sacks and barrels?  One way is to rely upon time as the enemy.  Torches burn out, monsters wander by.  Another way is to make the rooms interesting in some other way.

For rooms 4 through 6 I opted to attempt the latter.  Not mind-blowingly interesting, I grant you, but I did try to put a twist on things.  In area four I decided to have something drop on the party from above but did my best to have them all looking down.  When I decided to send the trope of dungeon rats against the party in area 6 I  wanted to come big.  A swarming, aggressive pack of 1d4x10 normal rats clambering over debris to overwhelm the party has got to be better than 1d3 giant rats hanging out and chewing on whatever, right?

I'll get a random encounter table up soon for areas 1 through 23.  

Sample Dungeon Group Project Home Base

The purpose of this post is to re-print the guidelines and provide a list of blogs participating in the challenge.  It's never too late too join in if you happen to stumble upon this or one of those participating.  I'll do my best to keep this list up-to-date.  If you're missing, I either don't yet know about your participation or don't have your url. 

The Lands of Ara  has completed Alaxxx's Pofflsnoo and its available here as a single .pdf

Lunching on Lamias

Sky Full of Dust

Tower of the Archmage has completed the Challenge and posted his .pdf version here

Harbinger of Doom

... You find a Deck of Many Things

I'll be stocking my dungeons room-by-room here on the blog at a rate of about three rooms per week starting March 7th.  I'm encouraging those reading this to do the same.  At the end of this process the world will have (hopefully) several stocked dungeons based on a single, iconic map.  The differences and similarities between them can be an interesting statement on the game and its participants.  

I offer only some simple guidelines for this venture:

1. Use any version of D&D, the clones or even another game (even genre) entirely to complete the dungeon.
2. Provide as much or as little detail as you desire as you go.
3. To get started add a comment to this blog saying that you're getting started and provide a link to your blog so we can all go see.  
4. You can join the fun at any time and take as long as you like doing it. 
5. Use as much or as little of the background and the few existing room descriptions associated with the map from the DMG as you like.  The only requirement is that you use the above map.
6. I'll be posting three rooms per week starting Monday, February 7th. 
7. I encourage you to not only stock the thing, but talk about your choices and dungeon-building philosophy as well.  For instance, if you're using randomly generated results, talk about why.  If not, also talk about why.  Will it be a themed dungeon?  The value in this project to me is in hearing about what a particular DM likes as well as seeing it directly applied.  
8. Will there be winners?  Will there be prizes?  Everybody is a winner but there won't be prizes.
9. If you want to play but don't yet have a blog, start here.

Hot Fish with Elf Chick!

After following a recent discussion on creative content vs. commentary I realized that I've been going about this whole blogging thing all wrong.  Serendipity being what it is this simple but brilliant community-wide bait and switch got proposed at about the same time.  Unfortunately, between these and something about raw fish I think I've fouled the whole thing up.  Oh well, back to my regular RPG posting... for whatever its worth.

A Sample Dungeon: Rooms 1 through 3

 (Note:  I edited the post to clean up the exposition and descriptions a bit)

Perched upon a tall, sheer-sided hill overlooking the valley is the ruin of the abbey.  None now living can recall the time when it was more than a tumbled down pile of stones, but all of those dwelling in the vale have heard the tales.   It was the custom of the black-cowled priests that dwelt upon the hill to take the sick and dying from the nearby villages.  Theses folk were given over wordlessly to the monks for while none now can remember why, there was believed to be an understanding between the people of the vale and the strange holy men upon the hill.   Most of those taken never returned. Those that did were said to act in a strange and unwholesome manner for evermore. 

It is known now amongst the villagers that the abbey was built for the safe-keeping of a crimson-colored gemstone whose possessor could wield power over life and death.  It is said that in the year of the abbey's ruin an ambitious lord of the east who sought to posses the gem sacked the abbey.  His soldiers and henchmen toppled the stone walls and slew all those living within,  but this lord's prize was never recovered.  Indeed, with his last breath the dying abbot set a curse upon the usurpers, damning their wretched souls to the immortality their lord sought.  In undeath these men now dwell within the abbey ruins, guarding the sacred stone from any who would seek its powers.

Upon hearing tales of the ruin, most shudder and pull their loved ones closer or make a sign of warding to banish their dark thoughts.  A rare few set out to learn of the matter for themselves, and perhaps put their hands on the magical gemstone...

Room 1


The sound of dripping echos up the long stairway that you have descended.  The air is cool and dense and tastes faintly of metal.  An arched chamber opens up before you and from its high, domed ceiling a red liquid rhythmically plops into the room's center, where a slippery, shiny red cone seems to emerge from the flagstones of the floor.  Above each doorway of this chamber is an arched alcove filled with skulls and bones.

The cone is merely the beginnings of a stalagmite, and those entering the room can see the accompanying stalactite forming in the ceiling above once beyond the doorway.  The water is red-tinged due to iron content.

The ceiling is 20' high, domed and supported with arches.  The bone-filled alcoves are in truth worked stone and not actual humanoid remains.

Room 2

The door is made to open into the chamber beyond, but is stuck in some manner.

A listener at the door will hear the sounds of moaning on the other side.  Opening the door requires a check, for the difference in air pressure and the warping of the wood hold the door fast.

The door is forced open and a gust of air extinguishes your light and nearly pushes you from the chamber.  You hear a forlorn moaning and the trickling of water from the blackened room beyond.


The moaning is the sound of wind escaping the cave, which was once natural but expanded by the abbey.  The party will be unable to light a torch or lantern here.  If they have other means of illumination or seeing (e.g. a light spell or infra-vision) then they find a rough-hewn chamber with a fissure near the ceiling of the southwest wall.  Water pours forth from here, spurts down the wall and collects in a deep pool of cold, clear water before exiting from a similar hole in the northwest floor. Six old buckets, warped and moldy, lie about the floor.

The pool is 7' deep at its middle and the floor uneven with odd mineral formations.  Amongst these odd formations are the remains of the abbot.  The minerals can be chipped away and the abbot's remains recovered.  He still wears about his neck a key that appears to be a holy symbol.  Any careful examination will reveal its actual purpose.  This key opens the secret door in area 28.

Room 3

The worked stone of this room has been stuccoed over up to about 9' in height, and faint etchings similar to the one shown above fill the four walls from the floor to the bottom of the arched, dome ceiling.  The room is silent, almost eerily so, and otherwise empty.

The center of the dome is 25' high.  A careful examination of the room will reveal 7 small protruding knobs of stone about 9 1/2' above the floor, but only if the searching player specifies a close examination of the wall's surface above eye level, as they are quite difficult to spot.  Pushing in the 7th knob from the left activates a secret door 8 1/2' wide, 10' high, and 10' above the floor of the chamber that was previously accessed via a wooden platform, now long gone.  This door may be found through normal means if the players search high enough.

Other clues related to the platform include several socket holes (2 each at the 20' and 2 at the 30' line one at about 4' height, 1 at about 8'). Each of the four sockets is 1/2' x 1/2' square and a little deeper. The first socket hole examined by the party will have several splinters of wood (from the platform, of course).

If the secret door is accessed there is an immediate 2 in 6 chance that 1d4 of the ghouls occupying areas 24 through 27 are present and alerted of the party's presence. 

My Thoughts

First, the exposition at the beginning.  When designing a dungeon or other adventuring locale I like to write a few lines, perhaps as much as a paragraph, that sum up the environment for me.  I probably labored over the above passage a bit more than normal since it was meant for the blog, but the purpose remains the same.  I use the paragraph to both evoke for me the overall feeling I'm looking to achieve with the location as well as provide a context to help direct my design efforts.  In the end, some or part of it finds its way into the players' hands. 

As for the locale itself and the first three rooms, I have cleaved rather closely to the original purpose and room descriptions provided in the DMG.  For one thing, they're so strongly associated to the map for me that I'd be resisting a lot of strong urges to the contrary if I wrote something completely different.  For another, part of what compelled me to do this in the first place was the desire to finish my version of the adventure begun there.   I'm hoping that for the sake of variety others who may take up the challenge are less inclined to follow through with what was originally presented. It appears that so far at least one of you has. 

I replaced the spider encounter presented in room 1 of the DMG, though, with the stalagmite as a means of not dismissing tension too early.  The first three rooms are devoid of any direct danger to the party, but each serve to either establish the mood (creepiness) or indirectly present some of the history of the place to the players.  The stalagmite that looks like a bloody pile upon first sight, the moaning in the pitch black room of area 2 and the creepy skeleton etchings in area 3 are all meant to evoke a sense of uneasiness and impending nastiness upon the party.  I want them to be a little freaked out if I can manage it, before anything actually leaps out at them.

When providing room descriptions to my players I strive to involve more than one sense each time, if I can.  I consider how damp or close is the air?  Can anything be heard or smelled?  What about felt?  I don't always write them out like above, often they're just scribbled notes on a paper or written onto the map itself.  The idea is never to read aloud more than a few lines at a time and to try to put them into the environment so described by relating to them all possible, immediate perceptions of the environment.  I've chosen the above written format, somewhat at odds with the current trend in the OSR of minimalist room descriptions, to give the reader a sense of how I would deliver the information at the table.

Group Project! (A Sample Dungeon)

Most people that have been playing the game longer than, oh say... 15 years should recognize the rather iconic map above.  Even those of you that may have cut your teeth on 3rd edition have seen it presented there.  It is, of course, the dungeon originally provided in the AD&D 1e Dungeon Master's Guide.  It and the accompanying sample of play have together long been a sort of touchstone for me in the way that things like Village of Hommlet, In Search of the Unknown, Bargle & Castle Mistamere or Keep on the Borderlands are for others.

I realized something about this map and I recently.   Despite it's importance to my early understanding of the game I've only ever used it for off-the-cuff, ill-prepared ventures.  I've never actually sat down to stock and prep it like I now normally do.  That's rather a pity,  I think, because it's a well-constructed level.   That secret door in room 3 (hiding somewhat in plain view and challenging the party to put the clues together to find it) is a prize in and of itself.  Overlook it and you've got only a handful of standard 1st-level-dungeon-looking rooms on the top half of the map to explore.  Discover, it though, and the whole level opens up.

Beyond room three one can reveal the nooks and crannies of those odd passageways and the weird little side rooms whose overall layout and construction beg the questions "what?" and "why?".  Why this little bit here and that narrow passageway to nowhere there?  What earthly (or unearthly) purpose is served by the three 10' square rooms that terminate the narrow halls in the south-east quarter?  That series of rooms beyond the secret door is just dying to be stocked and described, is it not?

So here is what I am proposing to do and this is where those reading along can come into the picture if they so desire.  I'm going to stock that thing room-by-room here on the blog at a rate of three rooms per week starting next week.  I'm encouraging those reading this to do the same.  At the end of this process the world will have (hopefully) several stocked dungeons based on a single, iconic map.  The differences and similarities between them can be an interesting statement on the game and its participants.  

I offer only some simple guidelines for this venture:

1. Use any version of D&D, the clones or even another game (even genre) entirely to complete the dungeon.
2. Provide as much or as little detail as you desire as you go.
3. To get started add a comment to this blog saying that you're getting started and provide a link to your blog so we can all go see.  
4. You can join the fun at any time and take as long as you like doing it. 
5. Use as much or as little of the background and the few existing room descriptions associated with the map from the DMG as you like.  The only requirement is that you use the above map.
6. I'll be posting three rooms per week starting Monday, February 7th. 
7. I encourage you to not only stock the thing, but talk about your choices and dungeon-building philosophy as well.  For instance, if you're using randomly generated results, talk about why.  If not, also talk about why.  Will it be a themed dungeon?  The value in this project to me is in hearing about what a particular DM likes as well as seeing it directly applied.  
8. Will there be winners?  Will there be prizes?  Everybody is a winner but there won't be prizes.
9. If you want to play but don't yet have a blog, start here.

Outdoor Encounters

I probably determine and run my random outdoor encounters a little bit differently than most.  I say "little bit differently" and I mean it.   The basics remain essentially what you see in most versions of D&D, but the results vary due to how I've generally interpreted or dealt with things.  At least that's my sense of it when referring to the D&D rule books or reading other blogs.  I'm not sure when or in what manner I adopted the method I'm about to describe.  I don't remember ever sitting down to think it out and I can't seem to find it documented anywhere other than in my notes so I suspect it's my own way and it just came about naturally and over time. 

Before I get into the specifics, though, I should address my philosophy when it comes to the outdoor setting.  It's not the dungeon.  Put another way, the outdoors isn't necessarily out to get you.  Its antagonism is a subtler one than that of the underworld.  The outdoors are populated by malignant and benign things but these aren't necessarily inclined to hurt or hinder you whatever their essential nature.  As a result of this view, only a handful of rolled encounters need to result in combat without the players driving it toward such a conclusion on their own.  Indeed, random outdoor encounters have not only typically been fertile ground for our roleplaying, they have at least once helped to shift the entire direction and focus of the campaign.  

Determining the Encounter

Obviously the first step in any random encounter system is to figure out whether or not you have one.  I fall somewhere in-between the "roll once a day" camp and use of the rather specific terrain-type tables presented in the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide.  If you're not familiar with them, essentially you roll a number of times per day for specific intervals based on the type of terrain you're in.  These sorts of tables often leave me wondering and struggling over the question:  Is the party in wooded hills or hilly woods?  I digress.

I've lately been assigning a 1 in 6 chance of an encounter, but I've gone back and forth or tweaked this so many times that its hardly a consistent feature of the system.  I don't concern myself overmuch with assigning a different chance of an encounter based on a particular population density, even one as obvious as the difference between  traveling a busy road vs. a remote grassland.  For one thing, if I lean a certain way between being a simulationist or a gamist its toward the latter.  For another, one can pass dozens of travelers on the road without any of them necessarily being a random encounter.  In my use, "encounter" implies more than just something or someone is nearby.  It means that something is about to happen.

I roll two to three times a day for a random encounter.  There's a daylight encounter roll, a nighttime encounter roll and if the party moves at least one 5-mile hex in a day a third movement encounter roll.  I use separate tables for each of daytime and nighttime and generally use the daytime table when the party travels.  I make all of my own tables.  They tend to be rather specific to the region and terrain.  Here's an example:
 

It looks a lot like the sort of homegrown tables that I imagine most DM's use and the rulebooks offer.  Noteworthy items might be the title (specific to region, terrain and time of day) and what content was chosen for the table. The generic results are right out of the book, but consistent with what could be found in a dry, warm highland area in my world.  The less generic results (Mrung horsemen, Oubran vagabonds) are specific to my world and also vary by region and terrain type.  I reference two sub-tables above.  One is a fey sub-table.  In my world, all fey come from "elsewhere" and the portals they traverse are spread out around the world.  As such, they can appear anywhere and each specific kind of fey creature has about the same chance of appearing regardless of the terrain or climate.  So the sub-table is used everywhere.   The second sub-table includes the Specials.  This is used across my world (so far, at least).  I won't post that table or discuss it much since I'm using it and at least one of my players regularly reads the blog.  Included there are the mysterious ghost towers, standing stones, fey portals, Baba Yaga's hut, outdoor festivals, dark idols, abandoned temples, camped armies, etc... that fall into a sort of murky gray area between random encounter and adventure location. 

What may have jumped out at you from the table above is the column for reaction dice.  I use the same essential reaction table that multiple versions of the game and clones use.  It's shown below.  I roll for the encounter reaction ahead of time, when an encounter has been indicated and determined but before I decide how to introduce or describe it to the players.  Each creature has a different set of dice I roll for reaction based on that creature's general temperament.  Trolls shouldn't be helpful and farmers not immediately violent is my view, hence the variable dice rolled for reaction.

Given the above two tables you'll see that an encounter entry that rolls 2d6 for reaction isn't particularly inclined toward peace or violence.  A 3d4 encounter will tend toward neutrality and is never outright friendly.  A 2d6-1 encounter is never outright violent.  A 2d4+4 encounter is at best neutral but slightly more inclined to be unfriendly.  The dice combos you see on the table are the same I use on almost every table.  It's possible with this approach to have a creature's reaction dice vary by time of day or region/ terrain, but I don't recall ever having made it so.  The analogous "night" table for that posted above adds some undead to the mix and swaps in some nocturnal creatures for the daytime variety.   The net result is that night encounters have an overall tendency to more than likely be hostile.  I'm fine with this as it fits the mood for the kind of game I run. 

Introducing the Encounter

In introducing the encounter I leave the tables behind and go by the seat of my pants.  This is where contextual information influences the encounter before the players even know what's going on.  Is the party traversing war-torn lands?  Have they recently encountered similar creatures or people?  What was the result of that encounter?  The rolls indicate an unfriendly group of farmers on their way back from market.  Why are they so unfriendly?  Bad day at the market?  Were they swindled by a charlatan?  Do they know the party's poor reputation?  I think you get the point.

The idea is that, while random, the encounter need not be some non-sequitur to the ongoing campaign.  Weave the results into the bigger narrative and allow the players' previous actions or experiences to influence or inform the encounter without the necessity of a dozen more modifiers and random tables.  In short, do the job of the dungeon master.  The DM should be describing a world that his or her players will have some interest in... to eventually have a stake in.  Let the random outdoor encounter be a part of that and not just a way to hinder the party, distract them in between dungeons or be a way to grind out some XP.  It's all of those things, yes, but it can be more.

Some versions of the game suggest you roll for encounter distance and surprise after an encounter has been determined.  I ignore the former and try to (but sometimes forget) the latter.  Encounter distance outdoors for half-day intervals provides a rather broad range of what I would consider acceptable results and I'm frankly not interested in worrying about them.  It's enough for me to know where and when the encounter will take place and who might have the jump on who if it comes to it.

The unfriendly farmers, upon surprising the party (i.e. notice the party first) may seek to simply avoid them and be away.  Perhaps they saw them a mile away or hear them over the next rise.  The neutral gnolls may want to follow the party to see where they're going.  I understand this is a somewhat broad interpretation of the surprise rules as presented in the books, but like I said... this ain't the dungeon and there are far more interesting things to explore beyond who gets a free round of actions.

Another reason I don't account for encounter distance randomly is that in rolling at most three times in a given 24-hour period, I've got some flexibility in how I introduce the potential encounter.  The day encounter I generally roll for in the morning.  The night once the party has settled down and made camp and the movement roll once they move one hex.  That's when I roll for it.  When it actually takes place during the related time period is up to me.  Understanding the fluctuations inherent in the time of year and the party's proximity to the equator, one essentially has about a half of a day to work the encounter in.

Resolving the Encounter 

Once the encounter has been introduced, resolution falls back into the fold of what is generally accepted as the norm and I don't have a whole lot more to say or add to that. Here one might apply an IMech system, were one to subscribe to the use of one.   Otherwise, you invoke some good old-fashioned role playing or just go right to the combat, should the results of the dice taken in context indicate its inevitability.  I'd only add one more thing for your consideration.  Like introducing the encounter, its resolution can have broader implications to the campaign beyond who survived the gnoll ambush or what the surly farmers told you about what can be found over the next rise.   In my recent experience, the party's chance encounter with some bandits and their noble victims has influenced or is related to events ongoing and shaping the campaign world.  The party now finds themselves smack dab in the middle of it.  All or most of it evolved from a random roll or two.