Fill Before You Find Out: Filling

Random generated stuff is just awesome! In the last 15 minutes, I came up with this for The Huge Ruined Pile Level 1a:

1. 200 sp in several sacks, guarded by 11 orcs
2. Cask enchants victim to perform a difficult quest
3. Empty
4. Empty
5. Empty
6. 1,000 sp in an iron trunk. There’s contact poison on the container (Save to avoid 1-6 damage; victim is stoned for 3 turns.)
7. Empty
8. Empty
9. Empty
10. Empty
11. Empty
12. 12 Giant rats
13. Special (stairs?)
14. 10 brigands, have 1.100 sp in several sacks. The leader owns a Potion of Levitation.
15. 1.100 cp in iron trunk, 825 ep in a huge chest, guarded by a shrieker.
16. 7 orcs
17. Empty
18. Altar sends victim to Ethereal Plane if touched.

Since the Traps/Tricks section in Appendix A totally sucks (really), I decided to use Kellri's amazing Old School Encounters Reference. I'm still laughing about the charming cask! I'm so happy I've decided to go ahead with this project, I'm having real great time!

Level 1A Complete

Still missing pits and furnishings, but it's almost done. I've spent a lot of energy on creating a good looking map style, so please give me some feedback! On the plus side, now that the style is done, creating a map only takes up to 15 minutes – Photoshop magic!

Megadungeon Madness, Dungeon Look

Lot of work with that, but finally done. Still three days till the end of the week, I can do it!

The floor tile has been created in photoshop raping (you really have no idea what I had to do to make it look acceptable) a Rappan Athuk Reloaded pdf page. It looks awesome to me! I can wait to see how the project will look once complete.

Fill Before You Find Out

One thing I would like to try with this new Megadungeon project is to fill the dungeon before trying to find how why things are there. I'm quite obviously using DMG and the awesome Kellri's CDD4 – Encounter Reference to randomly fill the dungeon.

This should give the whole project a Huge Ruined Pile feeling, which is exactly what I'm looking for. Perhaps, since each map piece is a 30x30 squares grid, I may also using a bit more of Appendix A. I'm still working on the layout, by the way.

Is it May Already?

May is going to be the first One Page Megadungeon Madness Month here on The Yaqqothl Grimoire: I'm writing/publishing a one page dungeon each week, for the next four weeks, and let's see how it goes. If it works, then I'll try to continue this way for some time, and see how big my megadungeon gets. I still have to work out a couple of things about the layout, and to pick a ruleset. All in all, I think I'll go with Labyrinth Lord for a couple of reasons:

1. It's free;
2. It's great;
3. No really it's amazing;
4. It's perfect for one shot games.

Quite awhile ago I read about the Megadungeon Binder on How to Start a Revolution in 21 Days or Less, and the idea just made my head explode. Why not combine it with the crazy Jeff's One Issue Campaign? In the space? No, wait.

One Page Dungeon a Week?

Perhaps not exactly the kind of Dungeon we're all used to

This morning I had this weird idea: what about building a mega-dungeon by working on a one page dungeon a week? Considering a 20/25 rooms average per 1PD, that means roughly a dungeon level a month, provided a certain "constant" in writing it. In a year, I could make a respectable 12-level megadungeon.

I've spent part of my easter vacancy trying to work the hell out of Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, and although I still haven't reached any "notable" progress, I think these are terrific tools for campaign design. Illustrator looks like a way to significantly speed up and greatly improve dungeon/wilderness design, while InDesign is just so amazing that I think it could be used to significantly improve the original One Page Dungeon Layout by ChicagoWiz, at least from a lamer eye-candy point of view.

Designing a megadungeon could also be the perfect excuse to finally use all the iconic monsters that I've always loved, and was never be able to use at the table! My list includes:

• Mind-flyers
• Dragons (!!)
• Balrogs
• Vampires
• Remoraz
• Hydras
• Giants
• Flail Snails
• Gelatinous Cubes
• And that's all I think.

I have to consider the whole thing...

Beneath Castle Bélial - Encounter Keys

Dungeon Level
Suitable for 3-6 characters levels 1-2

Wandering Monsters (1d20, 1/3 turns)
1-10. No Encounter
11-14. Skeletons (1-6)
15. Green Slime
16-17. Giant Rats (2-6)
18-20. Sinister happening

Sinister Happenings (1d6)
If not otherwise specified, the perceived direction is determined on a d8: 1 N, 2 NW, 3 W, 4 SW, 5 S, 6 SE, 7 E, 8 NE.
1. Loud shattered rock sound
2. Sudden female scream
3. Rustling
4. Chill air current (extinguish torches on 1-2 in 12)
5. Green goo on the walls
6. Strong putrefaction smell

Legend
1 square = 10'
'x' = shattered grave

Standard Features
Walls are made of rough stone blocks, floor is tiled, and the ceiling is carved out stone in rooms, vaulted in corridors. Rooms are about 10-15' high, corridors are 10' feet high. Doors are made of rusty iron reinforced heavy wood, and are all closed unless otherwise specified. Doors of the tombs are made of stone, and require a Strength check with a -1 penalty to open. The entire level is dusty, air is damp and stale, bringing a faint smell of putrefaction. Dense cobwebs cover everything.

Background
The adventurers who built the moat house dug the crypts to bury their henchmen and fallen companions with their treasures. One of them, a good magic-user named Lòkhr, was buried with a cursed artifact: The Eye of Decay, which he had stolen from a powerful necromancer. The corrupting power of The Eye quickly lead the party to an inevitable doom, and the moat house was abandoned. One of the long term effects of the power of The Eye was to awaken the dead buried in the tomb, who eventually returned as skeletons. All except the good magic-user, whose spirit returned as a presence. His mind twisted, the magic-user acquired control over the skeletons, and commanded them to kidnap a young girl in order to possess her body and return to life.

Encounter Keys
1. Entry Room: The statues of a mighty warrior and a hooded sorcerer guard the crypt's entry. The warrior is tall and bearded, and holds a great sword and an incredible shield. The sorcerer holds a big, tattered book and a strange sphere.
2. Falling Ceiling: This room is empty, dust shows signs of frequent passage. There are some spots of fresh human blood here, leading to the east. As the northern door automatically closes (thanks to a spring mechanism) both the doors gets automatically stuck, and the ceiling starts to descend (1' per round). Characters have 1 turn to get out of the room or die in it.
3. Tomb of Àlshol: A human thief, named Àlshol, was buried here. Àlshol is inside a stone coffin, he returned as a wight and is sinisterly scratching on the grave's lid which he can't open. If the characters open the grave and defeat Àlshol, they can get the treasure buried with him: 1.200 gp, a big gemstone (worth 200 gp), a short silver sword and studded leather armor +2.
4. Burial Chamber: This is the place where the dead were prepared for burial. The southern door is made of stone, and it's partially open. The fresh blood spots from Room 2 lead there. 5 skeletons are guarding this room, guarding the magic-user who is attempting to go ahead with the ritual in Room 20. From the start of the fight, the magic-user needs 1 turn to complete the ritual.
5. Arrows from the Walls: This room is empty, dust shows signs of frequent passage. There are holes in the walls, at a distance of 5'. As the characters enter the room, the arrow trap triggers. 1-3 arrows attack every character, hitting as a 5th level fighter. Save vs. Breath to halve damage.
6. Burial Furnishings: In this room are a pile of rotted torches (some may still work), sealed jars filled with aromatic oils, a pile of candles and a chest containing linen bandages.
7. Passage Room: This room is empty, dust shows no signs of recent passage. A sliding wall (marked as S on the map) leads to the secret tombs of two of the members of the party.
8. Tomb of Sigfyrd: Sigfyrd was a legendary archer, and the husband of Nyhanil. In his stone grave he was buried with his padded armor (of magnificent manufacture), and his elven composite bow +3 (to hit). His quiver contains 10 arrows +1 (+2 vs. trolls, also prevent regeneration.) The grave is protected by a gas trap: as the characters open it, they have to Save or Die vs. Poison.
9. Fake Tomb: The cover of this grave is magnificently carved, showing a mighty warrior holding a two-handed sword with magical inscriptions on it. The lid opens easily (no roll required), and the tomb is full of gold beetles. Within a round, the beetles come to life and attack the party as a swarm (as Summon Swarm spell cast by a 10th level wizard, and if they hit with an 18-20 they penetrate under the living flesh, dealing 3 hp of damage every round – have you seen The Mummy?)
10. Tomb of Nyhanil: Nyhanil was a incredible elf girl, a powerful warrior and the wife of Sigfyrd. She was buried here with her Elven Chain Mail, her Dragonslayer Sword +2 and a wonderful necklace, a Talisman of Health. The grave is protected by a gas trap: as the characters open it, they have to Save or Die vs. Poison.
11. Passage Room: This room is empty, dust shows no sign of recent passage.
12. Lòkhr's Puzzle: This used to be the tomb of Lòkhr. There are roman numerals above all the doors: a VII on the southern one, a XVII on the center one, and a XIII on the northern one. The only number that makes sense is the XVII, whose anagram is VIXI ("I lived", in latin.) Thus, that number indicates the tomb of Lòkhr.
13. Ka-boom: The XIII sign on this door is a magical glyph. As a character opens the door, the door itself explodes as a Fire Ball cast by a 5th level magic-user. The room is completely empty.
14. Tomb of Lòkhr: Here was buried Lòkhr the magic-user with the Eye of Decay and his voluminous spellbook. If the Eye of Decay is destroyed, all the undead immediately turn into ashes, and Lòkhr is finally free. If the girl has been possessed by Lòkhr, she falls faint and forgets everything from the day she was kidnapped.
15. ZAP: As the characters open the door, they get "zapped" by lightning originating from a hole in the opposite wall (THAC0 18, 2-8 dmg, always hits characters wearing metal armor.)
16. Burial Chamber: This is the place where the dead were prepared for burial. Four zombies are confined here.
17. Empty Tomb: This is an empty chamber, probably an unused crypt. Characters may rest here, since the stone door is good enough to protect them against the perils of the dungeon.
18. Burial Furnishings: In this room are a pile of rotted torches (some may still work), sealed jars filled with aromatic oils, a pile of candles and a chest containing linen bandages. Two giant rats are in this room, trying to open the jars. They are hungry, and will attack characters on sight.
19. Lower Crypts Entry: The statue of a kneeling priest guards the entry to the lower crypts, where the henchmen were buried.
20. The Final Match: Lòkhr is trying to possess the young girl as explained in Room 5. Characters have only two possibilities to stop the ritual: destroy The Eye of Decay or use it to awaken the mighty warrior Edlebert, who was buried in this small temple. If Edlebert defeats Lòkhr, he will also show gratitude to the characters and resuscitate their fellows who met their maker in the crypts. Then, he will destroy The Eye of Decay. If Lòkhr manages to go ahead with the ritual, the possessed girl immediately becomes a 9th level magic-user, able to cast all the spells in Lòkhr book. She only has 5 hit points, anyway, and if the characters kill her Lòkhr will flee away, commanding his undead slaves to find another girl. The characters can still try to awake Edlebert to defeat Lòkhr.
21. Lower Crypts: Here were buried the henchmen. The chambers marked with an 'x' contain shattered graves, and the bars of their doors have been torn open. 2-12 skeletons dwell in the darkness.
22. Empty Tomb: This is an empty chamber, probably an unused crypt. Characters may rest here, since the stone door is good enough to protect them against the perils of the dungeon.
23. Treasure Room: This room contains most of the adventurer's treasure. Room a contains A Type treasure, room b contains B Type treasure, and so on.

The Eye of Decay: The Eye of Decay is a transparent glass sphere of the same size as a human eye. It feeds on people's misery. It was created by a powerful necromancer to awaken an army of undead, and needed his power to transform misery into a controlled force. Alone, the artifact needs a very long a time to actually do that. The Eye of Decay is very fragile, and can be broken just by throwing it to the ground. In defense, the artifact casts Charm Person on anyone who takes it. If destroyed, the crypt will collapse, all the awakened dead will turn back to dust, and the party will have to run out as fast as hell not to die into the collapsing crypt. On the other hand, the moat house will finally be free, and wonderful flowers will grow everywhere (even if it's winter.) The Eye of Decay turns blue near a buried corpse, and immediately awakens it if the owner feels strongly enough.

I'm still not that happy with The Eye of Decay, so if you have suggestions I'd be glad to use them!

Beneath Castle Bélial Azure Edition

As asked for by many of you, here the "blue" edition of the one page dungeon map I posted yesterday. I don't really like the canonic azure, nor do I like grey for dungeon maps, thus I've chosen a grey-ish azure similar to the one used by Yesmar for his awesome Interesting Places (like this.) I'll post the complete OPD later today in the form of a post, and will turn it into a pdf as soon as austrodavicus grammar-checks it (you know who to thank if this blog is readable!)

On a side note, I've just discovered that color replacement in photoshop is easier than I ever thought.

Beneath Castle Bélial One Page Dungeon Map

I made this in photoshop for the new-going campaign. It's, of course, a 30x30 squares map, following ChicagoWiz's One Page Dungeon Template.

Does this makes for a good dungeon?

Awesome Random Dungeon Generator

I'm probably late to the party, but this morning I found the awesome Gozzy's Random Dungeon Generator and it's great! Unlike most dungeon generators, it also allows weird room shapes, and comes out pretty good. As an example, here's a couple of maps created using the Random Room Type, Classic first and then Ruins. The Ruins set also generates caves!

The Random Dungeon Generator is pretty good too! And you can change background and tile-sets, so to achieve a wide range of possibilities:

It's a shame that this dungeon generator doesn't assign numbering too...

Exploring Pathfinder, Part II

And then we come to the inevitable DOOM! I've just spent about two hours trying to create a 5th level evil cleric for use as the Boss NPC of the test. I got as far as Feats, I was so close to finishing the damn thing, and eventually realized I still was like far from the goal (I still had to choose magic/non-magic equipment.) As a comparison, I built the same dead-raising NPC with LL in about 12 minutes. Screw you Pathfinder!!!

This game definitely have some good points, but actually I'm still not ready to go through the whole learning curve. Live long and prosper!

Exploring Pathfinder, Part I

Finally some good-looking ghouls

I was about 8 years old when I discovered roleplaying games in 1996. The first manual I bought was the second edition revised Dungeon Master's Guide (black cover), I think in 1998 or so. Then I had the two Monster Manuals (vol. I & II) from my mother the following year for christmas, and the Player's Handbook only in 2002 or so by my fellow gamers for my birthday (still one of the best gifts of my life.) Had I started buying manuals a few years later, I wouldn't be a pariah in the gaming community in the following decade, I guess. I think I'm kind of an exception in the edition flow: the youngest people who started with second edition I know are, I think, about 28 years old, while most of my peers started with and extensively played 3rd edition. I think that is the reason why I played Call of Cthulhu for the most part of the 2000's (this and the fact it's a really awesome game, indeed.)

I never played 3rd edition until I had to DM it using Pathfinder, less than a year ago. And I'll be honest: that first impact was tragic. Too much time to set up PCs, let alone learning the rules! And the fucking 6 seconds round (I mean, 6 fucking seconds?! What about the abstract combat dudes?!) And the hours spent trying to find out how the hell to build up an encounter. In the end, I just moved back to Labyrinth Lord and had fun with that (for a while.) Nowadays, I'm a player in a weekly Pathfinder campaign, and I have to say that the game just isn't as shitty as I thought it was – perhaps I was just a little biased with the whole 3rd edition thing. So this evening, after 4 hours spent programming in java for a test I have tomorrow (and a aspirin so as not to have my head explode), I turned off my mac, grabbed a sheet of paper, my Pathfinder rulebook and my 1st edition DMG for a little "dungeon planning experiment". In short, I wanted to see if the whole encounter scaling story could really be useful for simplify dungeon design. I still don't have an answer, since I'm just half a way through completing this work.

The point is: in any edition of D&D, you should be able to explore dungeon levels equal to your level. So, you should be of second level before venturing down to the second level, and that means each level should reward you with enough XP to reach the following. Ok, I'm definitely going to go hardcore on this very point. So let's take a look to the "Encounter Scaling" table in PF: in it, we know that an average (i.e. 4-5 players) first level party can face encounters of CR 1/2 to 4 (easy to epic.) But how many encounters? Reading the simplified individual column, I came out with this table:

CR N°. Enc. XP each (Individual XP each)
1/2     5                 200 (50)
1        8                 400 (100)
2        4                 600 (150)
3        2                 800 (200)
4        1                 1.200 (300)

This makes for a total of 9.400 XP (or 2.350 XP for each character in a party of 4 characters, or 1880 XP for each character in a party of 5 characters.) The total is 20 encounters, divided between monsters and traps. How? Let's ask the DMG. First edition requires for more "empty space" than original edition, in that in AD&D the ratio between encounters and rooms is about 1/3 (one encounter each three rooms), while in OD&D it's almost 1/2 (one encounter each two rooms). That means with 20 encounters, a dungeon designed with AD&D has a total of 60 rooms, while a dungeon designed with OD&D has a total of 40 rooms (to be a little more precise, 66 and 44). Knowing that empty space is just as important as occupied space, I will go with first edition. Ok so, from the Room Contents table in Appendix A, we get this:

• 60% of rooms are empty
• 10% of rooms contain monsters only
• 15% of rooms contain monsters and treasure
• 5% of rooms are special or have stairs
• 5% of rooms contain traps and tricks
• 5% of rooms contain only treasure

Thus, 20/6 encounters are traps (about 3 traps), 40/6 are monsters (6 monsters) and the remaining 60/6 are monsters with treasure (exactly 10). 3+6+10 = 19, so I assign the remaining encounters to traps (I love traps.) So it's now 4 traps, 6 monsters, 10 monsters + treasure. Now let's talk about treasure. From the appropriate table in PF, I learn that a character should find 1.000 gp before reaching second level, thus the level should contain 4.000 to 5.000 gp. I guess (and you should correct me if I'm getting this wrong) that magic items and equipment can be thrown into treasure, so that we could say of the 5.000 gp, 2.500 are for magic items (a minor weapon/armor plus some other cheap goodies, such like potions, scrolls and so on – I'm not letting the players find them in cities of course, I know that by now, so there should be plenty of them in treasure.) (I mean, I'm not playing this stuff anytime soon, but I know I'm hardly going to change my mind about buying magic items: if you want the big loot, go and get it!) From the table above, we know that 3/4 of said treasure are with monsters, and the remaining 1/4 is all alone, perhaps protected by very simple traps (CR 1/3?) or simply hidden.

I'll be honest with you: I really had a great time doing this! I know it sounds weird, but I felt like I was playing a managerial game. You know, I was pretending to be Pinko The Sorcerer, building his dungeon, and I only had 9.400 credits for monsters and traps, spending 1.200 for the Big Boss and the remaining for the other stuff and so on. Well, it definitely sounds worse once written...

Dying in Darkhorn

Last night I drew the surface and first level of a hypothetical megadungeon, which I temporarily named Darkhorn. The place is supposed to be the lair of a very powerful necromancer (perhaps a lich?), who expanded the underground of his tower (precisely, Darkhorn Tower) for hundreds of years. The Necromancer now dwells in the deepest levels, regardless of what happens in the higher ones. To spice up things a bit, I decided to introduce a special rule for the adventurers who may die in Darkhorn.

Dying in Darkhorn
Down in the underworld of the dungeon of Darkhorn proliferates an awful fungus, created by The Necromancer himself Orcus only knows how long ago. The fungus is invisible, odorless and tasteless, and fills each room and corridor of the entire complex. Each time a humanoid dies in Darkhorn, the fungus immediately attacks his dead body, taking control of its vital functions. Thus, the dead body rises again as a fungus-controlled avatar for a certain period, according to the type of undead it rose as. Check the table below to find out:

d20 Undead Type Period
1-10 Control Fails –
11-14 Skeleton* 1-6 months
15-17 Zombie 1-6 years
18-19 Ghoul 1-6 decades
20 Ghast** 1-6 centuries

You find this idea stupid and unrealistic? Well, check out this:

Click on the image to learn more about fungus controlled zombie ants

___________________________________
*Flesh gets consumed during the process
**In levels below 5th change Skeleton to Zombie, Zombie to Ghoul, Ghoul to Ghast and Ghast to Minor Vampire (lasts eternally)

Possible Main Themes for The Huge Ruined Pile

Dwellers Beneath The Pile

• Underground Forgotten City: populated by nuclear/zombie fallout survivors, drow, dwarves, Snake Men, and so on...
• Collapsed Underground Civilization: once populated by [see above].
• Sorcerer's Domain: name level Magic-users should be really building dungeons instead of strongholds/towers.
• Fallen Starcruiser: the original crew may or may not be still onboard, but The Mad Computer is of course still working. Perhaps he has killed all the people onboard while they were cryogenically hibernating.
• The Reversed World: the entire world is underground, with no passages to the surface.
• Buried Temple: you know, something between Dante Alighieri's Inferno and Rappan Athuk.
• The Black Ziggurat: A truly expanded and re-designed "Lost City" from module B4.
• Other? Feel free to submit further ideas!

Right now I quite favor the Sorcerer's Domain. The idea of the identification between the Dungeon Master and the truly Mad Sorcerer who built the megadungeon in order to contain his very unspeakable secrets sounds just pretty cool to me.

How Do You Design Dungeons?

This is a question I hope I have never asked in past. So how you design your dungeons (and megadungeons in particular)? Do you just draw, draw, draw and then add encounters using the random tables (i.e. monster, empty, empty, trap, monster & treasure, empty, empty...) or do you place each encounter as you see fit? Or a combination of both? Or maybe you decide on the general feeling of the level before you even start mapping? And where do you write your notes? Do you have a notebook? Or use a computer? Or directly write stuff on the map?

I would be glad to read everything about your dungeon design methods, and especially your tips for dummies if you have some to share!

First Edition Dungeons

I'm trying to recreate the same look as first edition dungeons in Photoshop. I'm working slowly, because of my many ongoing projects out there, but I found the process pretty easy. Here is some detail from one of the dungeon maps of T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil:

T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil, Dungeon Map Detail

I like these maps very much. As you can see, the outline is not black, but transparent black, and most of the features (doors, columns, stairs) were hand-drawn. This is what I made this evening:

Dungeon Map, My Take

I used an old grid (which is grey, not black, and not thin enough), and a font more similar to the sample dungeon of the DMG. Design was surprisingly easy: just open a new file, set the grid, create a new level, turn the new level to black and set opacity between 70-80% (arrange to taste). Then just use the selection tool on the new level, and cut the rooms away. Add grid, numbers and features, and you are done. Yes, it's just that easy-peasy buddies. I'm working on some brushes for doors and such right now. Who said that old school maps have to be blue? Blue sucked in 80's, and still does.