DUNGEON 23: Week 5 The Four Towers

 

PROGRESS: Click here to see this evolving #dungeon23

SWITCHING TO DIGITAL

Okay, I love the notebook but I am creating a lot of work for myself with it because I am drawing these geomorphs in Dungeon Scrawl, then drawing them again in the notebook, writing the entries, and then re-writing the entries in Google Drive. Too much! So, I think I'm just gonna make these things digitally and write them digitally.

WHAT DID I LEARN WEEK 5

• I like this geomoph because it has multiple discrete areas, but also is very interconnected. I am starting to think its somewhat important that a 'morph allows PCs to traverse from almost any one door to any one of the others.
• Rules are also made to be broken too. So it is good to have a few areas that are not connected to any other part of the 'morph because that can create interesting pathways, workarounds, and deadends.
• I really hope to have some sorta unified idea after doing #dungeon23.

DO I LIKE MY WEEK'S EFFORTS?

• With my Week 3 and 4 effort, I realized I created two morphs that are most easily traversed by skirting the parameter which is fine. However, it means the players don't have to contend with anything in the morph. This can be good if being chased because you know the direction to go and its easy to avoid detection, however, it also might be boring to explore at first.

• These towers are also closer to the large "follies" I envision for the dungeon. I want structures that can have multiple functions and provide multiple vantage points. Towers work well for that.
• Its also fun to finally introduce the troll and a big pile a treasure.

DUNGEON 23: Week 2 The Slumbering Field

The area around 0109A is supposed to be a moat

Click here to see this evolving #dungeon23

NESTED ENCOUNTER TABLE

• I have added a fuller encounter table. I am trying a nested format because I want to increase the likelihood of PCs encountering factions then powerful monsters. So, the four results are more "vermin", the next four are factions, and the final four are big monsters. I'll start with a d4 and for every geomorph the PCs cross, I'll increase the die one step to a d8 then again with a d12.

WHAT DID I LEARN WITH WEEK 2

• Each morph still needs a bit stronger focus or visual element. I think I need to make them a little more stunning. Either in terms of the lawns there or have some interesting statue/water feature/ monument there.
• Factions: I finally settled on factions that will be encountered in the garden I think I want their "home bases" to be found on deeper levels and leave this garden space as a sorta battleground/food gathering place.
• Worried I've not started with a strong enough theme or push, but the good thing about morphs is they are easy to combine and adjust.

DO I LIKE MY WEEK'S EFFORTS?

• Like the fuller random encounter table
• Stronger theme to it than the entrance does, but still don't know if the players will get a sense of what this dungeon is building to. Of course, a megadungeon doesn't have to build to anything its a sprawling mythic underworld.
• Different environments here, something funny (coffee machine), and something to try and figure out- how to get in the tower.

Closing Thought: Most likely by the end of dungeon23, no matter the quality of my dungeon, I will probably know far more about dungeon design than when I started dungeon23. That itself makes it a valuable endevour.

DUNGEON 23: Week 1 The Four Halls

 

THE FOUR HALLS
Please click here to see this evolving dungeon

THE OLD GODS HAVE RETURNED

• Judging from Ben L's #dungeon23 round-ups, a lot of the foundational OSR blogs are firing back up to participate in d23. I am very excited to see that happening because I think watching a step-by-step act of creation by these members could be very instructional.

WHAT I LEARNED WITH WEEK 1

• Geomorphs work great. Especially since the 10 x 10 square format comfortably houses 6-9 "spaces" easily. This is also good because each geomorph then conforms to BX stocking procedures.
• So instead of working room by room, I'm more looking at 6-7 areas as a whole. This seems to be suggested by Arnold K and In Places Deep. Matt Finch also suggests this in Tomb of Adventure Design and Ava of Permanent Crainal Damage also remarked once that a 50-room dungeon is really just 10 five-room themes.
• Whatever makes geomorphs "good", I don't know if I quite have it down yet. I am neutral on the one above but it serves the purpose of a starting area. 
• After reviewing some mapping of Nightwick Abbey, I think there are some unlaying principles that elevate a 'morph to "good" from "serviceable". Let me see if I can express them here
• Good geomorphs...
  
• Contain at least one single interesting "thing", 
• then you can create 6 variations on that thing. An idea for the types of variation could involve the BX stocking procedures: monster, monster (+ treasure), trap, empty, empty (+ hidden treasure), special 
• Room in 'morphs should mostly be connected in a Jaquays'ed fashion
• But not always, if you have 7 'morphs with connected rooms, but 2 'morphs with very disconnected rooms this can really add variety to various configurations
• Most 'morphs have 8 doors per 10 x 10 area, PC should mostly be able to travel for the most part from one door to its diagonal counterpart (not necessarily easily)
• Not all doors should be left, long unbroken hallways camouflage a 'morph and create long travel routes
• Feels like 30x30ft or 30x40ft rooms are some sorta optimal but not all 'morphs should be symmetrically laid out
• Asymmetric morphs can be fun, but also terrible
• Or I could be completely wrong. Certainly, it varies with what you write but I think there are some underlying principles.

DO I LIKE MY FIRST WEEK'S EFFORT?

Great advice from In Places Deep 
regarding mega dungeon building

• Dunno. But the key, I think is to just keep moving. I did happen to just sit down and draw 9 additional quick 'morphs focusing on "fantastical garden area" and I think I came out with more exciting 'morphs.
• I did want to rate each morph using Arnold K's Dungeon Check List but maybe I'll wait on that because I don't want to become too critical of myself.
• Here is what I did accomplish with this 'morph though: 
• The "thing" this 'morph is centered around having the players make a choice and have somethings to fiddle with
• It provides two early challenges: a locked door and a trapped archway
• There is a choice that has to be made as to where the party wants to go: four halls
• Each hall has an environmental descriptor- its not just "pick a door"
• There are some enemies to fight- not hard but could pose a problem
• Something to rig up, a lever behind the locked portcullis
• A talking set of statues

DUNGEON23: Flashes of Inspiration

I feel like I have slight writer's block for #dungeon23 so here are some concepts that jump around in my head.

• Bizzare garden full follies and patrolled by a medusa
• Medusa would be a stalking sorta creature; turns folks to semi-precious gems
• Statues exist of great value, but very heavy
• Statues are of other adventures breaking into secrets; study statues to learn this; some are people the town wants back
• Blind mole people patrol garden at night & agents of the Devil Swine (below▽) kidnapping adventures before they are turned to stone
• peacocktrice
• Rappaccini's Daughter situation

• Beholder kind guards a Deck of Many Things
• Uses Create Food & Water to attract humanoids to assist in guarding
• Humanoids have formed a religion around this phenomenon; have a special interest in cups/bowls/plates; People of the Feast/People of the Round Table
• Bothered that the "god" keeps mentioning the end will be in 1 year (this beholder only guards things for 99 years)

• Devil Swine disguised as a kindly wizard "trapped" in a tower
• Sends "press gangs" of guards to capture the most beautiful member of a party
• Want that member to plant a kiss, to wake his sleeping daughter
• Terrible twist: daughter is a vampire or daughter has to be revived for the swine's purpose
• Swine is actually the lord of the town the PCs are in?
• Or assemble every awesome katsuya terada Zelda image in a mood-board and go from there

• A gigantic pomegranate tree produces fruit that tempts the gods (to humans, the seeds are perfect rubies a single fruit is 10,000 GP + other effects)
• Rotten fruit has hideous effects
• A wyrm with brass scales and a poisonous breath is wrapped around the tree
• Waves of its vile breath float through the dungeon
• Roots extend downward to an underground cloud?

• A cloud giant's former castle is now underground; cloud atmosphere; avian monstrosities
• Dead or just dreaming?
• New occupants have a sorta parasitic relationship with giant
• Fay try to keep it asleep; the spinal fluid vampire skulks around taking sips
• This cloud is what feeds the giant tree above

• The Colossal Crab Cities of the Kuo-toa (posted about this here)
• Buried in a flooded plane now filled with sea creature
• 2+ factions of fish people fight it out
• PCs may become godlings in the presence of the kuo-toa's weird powers; may go crazy 
• From former post: All the shell would be is a living reef of Kuo-toa singing mad hymns all the while. A tide pool from a briny hell. Maybe the crab would pick up chunks of cities, towers, and landscapes like decorator crab. Maybe it even has torn a piece of the night sky with it. Maybe this is actually the water elemental protecting itself from the eyes of other gods by disguising itself as a normal spiritual thing (See I have worshipers, cities, bits of land, factions, & sacrifice!). But really its just a crab that wants to eat everything.

• Cyclops/Ogre at the Ruined Moat-house
• Raised prised cerulean sheep and grapes of an exquisite type
• Ruined moat-house contains 2-3 entrances to the dungeon below
• Cyclops is periodically sleeping, sitting at the "front door" of the moat-house, counting sheep near by etc.; basically, PCs don't always have easy access to the dungeon
• Cyclops also has some great treasures too (Type E); e.g. 
• 1,000cp, 10,000sp, 3,000ep, 3 × gems (10gp), 2 × gems (50gp), 2 × gems (100gp)
• piece of jewellery (500gp), piece of jewellery (700gp), piece of jewellery (800gp)
• 2 × pieces of jewellery (900gp), piece of jewellery (1100gp), 2 × pieces of jewellery (1200gp), piece of jewellery (1500gp), Potion of Diminution, Leather armour, Shield + 1, Sword +1 (+2 vs Lycanthropes), Spell scroll (light (darkness), remove fear (cause fear), remove fear (cause fear))
• Monsters Parts
• Gold dragon mummy
• Green slime merchants
• Troll with a magic sword stuck in its back
• Living statues that think they are gods?

Maybe I just wrote the whole thing? Stack all of these one top of each other?? What to do???

DUNGEON23: What "Dungeon" Means to Different Players Who Are Not All D&D Nerds

 

In part of my brainstorming for #dungeon23 I reached out to three different people I know to get their opinions of on the following question:

Really Random Question: If I was gonna run a dungeon for you or you wanted to show someone whose never played D&D a dungeon, what would you want in there?

Because the dungeon I create for this event is something I want to be able to pull out and run for people get fantasy but maybe are not steeped in D&D or know the exact difference between "trad" and "OSR". But I still want the dungeon to embody several of the quality of good old-school dungeons-- mainly decisions making, while being something that people "grok" immediately. This is why I'm constantly trying design good "french vanilla" fantasy.

PLAYER 1: ~40 yro, 5 kids, working professional, reads a lot of fantasy novels, Battletech versed:

• "A good narrative environment"
• "Choices, problem solving"
• "I picture LotR or Willow"
• "PCs with different backgrounds and skills coming together to adventure to gain kills & wealth"
• Freedom, quests, challenges"
• "I think less about dungeons and more about wandering through woods & castles"
• "Abandon homes left vacant from years gone; war that has ravaged the land"
• "Magic culture receding"
• Monsters:
• trolls
• wraiths
• goblins/orks
• dark elves

PLAYER 2: ~21 yro, enjoys D&D, plays NES retrogames, working through Dark Souls

• "A couple of easy enemy types"
• "Puzzles that are not immediately obvious"
• "Roaming baddie that poses a big threat/different course of action"
• "Options for how to approach things"
• "stealth vs fighting vs diplomacy" (I joked: steal, steel, or stall)
• "I like multi-story tower kinda thing"
• "Or maybe a deep forest maze/mushroom people"

PLAYER 3: ~50 yro, completed Temple of Elemental Evil back in the day, steeped in D&D

• "Abandon tomb or library, something very old and you have to keep pushing to figure it all out"
• "Dungeon should show off a variety of D&D"
• "Want surprises, traps, puzzles, various monsters, and undead"
• "Lot of treasure"
• Monsters, "Not all my favorites":
• skeleton, zombie
• grey ooze, ochre jelly
• owlbear/bulette/otyugh
• giant spider/scorpion/centipede/rats/wolves