Making a Dungeon, Part 2

I found a biology diagram and plan to turn it into a dungeon. I am going to document the process of turning the original diagram into a runnable/playable PDF and possibly/hopefully create a guide of sorts as I go. 

Part 1. 

Step 2: Ideas.

I like to get some broad ideas of what the dungeon is about before I start stocking it/begin thinking about specific details. I use random tables to help me get these ideas. Having some overall theme/motifs ahead of creating the details hopefully ensures that all the disparate dungeon elements seem  organically/logically related.

I prefer tables that give vague rather than specific results. Additionally, I prefer tables that combine more than one vague result. I think that gives your imagination the strongest, least restrictive springboard. I believe vague and broad table entries allow for deeper/more varied idea peculation, but obviously require you to work a bit harder to get there. For example: "Abandoned seat of power" allows a broader set of potential ideas than "A castle with no king".

For this dungeon I am going to lump together different results from a few separate tables and allocate them to the specific "zones" I identified in the previous post. I am also going to do the same for the overall theme of the dungeon. Hopefully some interesting ideas bubble up. Often in getting your mind to make really weird and seemingly impossible combinations work, you get the most interesting stuff.

Before I show the results, I'll discuss the tables I am going to use.

The first is my "Aspect table". I've been using this for a couple of years to modify/make things more interesting/get ideas when I need them. Generally I roll on the table twice and try to smoosh the ideas together then apply that to an aspect of the game (organisation, npc, monster, etc) to make it weirder. You roll a d4 and a d10 to get a result. I am going to that twice for each dungeon zone and for the overall theme.

	1	2	3	4
1	Good, peaceful, kind	Holy, ordered, right	Light, illumination, enlightenment	Floating, peace, meditation
2	Air, empty, vacuum	Ethereal, wispy, ghostly	Wind, blowing, unseen mover	Storm,  rapid movement, speed
3	Tiny, shrinking, wasting away	Invisible, translucent, clear	Intangible, non corporeal, fading	Life, regrowth, rejuvenation
4	Value, gems, gold	Thought, philosophy, intellect	Internal organs, viscera, blood	Reflection, mirror, stillness
5	Water, cycles, karma	Equalization, law, justice	Cleansing, alkalizing, evaporation	Procrustean, rigidity, incarceration
6	Wildness, out of place, overgrown	Bestial, savageness, feeding	Nature, grove, peace	Chaos, disorder, mutation
7	Fire, explosions, heat	Destruction, rubble, ruin	Limbs, appendages, grasping locomotion	External action, destiny, prophecy
8	Monstrous, terrifying, abomination	Gargantuan, giant, enormous	Enveloping, enclosed, soft embrace	Straining, breaking, cracks
9	Deep, below, underground	Earth, soil, stone	Solid, mass, black holes	Time, dust, history
10	Evil, hate, pain	Profane, cruelty, desecration	Darkness, shadows, loss	Death, rot, decay

The second "table" is a brilliant resource that I've never actually used before. It's a "Magic: The Gathering" random card generator. You refresh the page and get a random magic card from the 23 year history of the game. You could really apply this to anything to get a constant stream of game ideas. I think you could even use it on the fly a random encounter table. I'm going to use it to get a nice meaty slab of idea for each zone in the dungeon!

http://magiccards.info/random.html

The final table is my own "City Visual Generator". I am going to use it to get a little spark of visual idea for the dungeon zones, hopefully a hint of the architecture there. Currently the visual guide is focused on creating places in the a fantasy city, but maybe one day i'll make a purely dungeon visual generator...

http://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/the-city-visual-generator-pdf.html

I will generate the "ideas" and lump the results into the different dungeon zones. The dungeon zones I identified were:

• A caverny, cavey, cliffy section to the south. 
• Stone square dwellings mined into the the southern natural rock section.
• Grander mined stone dwellings/palace section taking up the west side of the map. 
• A central gauntlet of grave danger leading to "The Altar of the Nephron". 
• Tunnels and secret entrances that linked up to this central gauntlet. 
• The altar itself is fed from somewhere deeper/external. 
• There is probably a throne room somewhere and some group is doing rituals and slipping in and out of the altar room.

Here's an updated, coloured version of the dungeon map grouping the different zones: 

Now for the results and initial thoughts: 

Very interesting results, clearly the central "altar" is used to control magic in some way (I'm imagining a random magical effect table whenever PC's enter the dungeon), Also very odd how the text and the image on the card seem to match up. The "altar" is the imprisoned biology of some larger (giant) entity. This magical control device is reaching out into the surrounding areas, adhering to the will of some important NPC. 

Hot baths and water ways, old and abandoned house in ornately carved natural stone. Natural hot springs gone to rot. Heating mechanics/water transportation is broke/malfunction leading to explosions of searing filth water. Slimy things swirling along the water ways. The slimy things are very old and know a great deal (maybe they listened and remembered the conversations of the ancient patrons of the baths, holding the knowledge of long dead patricians). 

 The random generator gods clearly liked the idea of the "central gauntlet of grave danger", bestowing it with the power of assassins. Rotting, decaying stone and brick comes up in both images - the poisons/acids in the gauntlet are so strong they are crumbling the rock (The words shrinking and wasting away re-enforce this). It is a silent, peaceful place - a cathedral of rock and death. 

Robed priests servicing the deadly gauntlet and storing scrolls in elaborate receptacles that are part of the architecture. Wealth scurried away in hidey holes. Wealth begotten by pain and hate - the recovered belongings of those that perish attempting the gauntlet. Priests are bound by some oath where they cannot directly attack interlopers, only arm traps and tricks.

The grand priestess appears! The palace church is clearly made of some magically woven biological material - the flesh of the giant being imprisoned. Very interesting that the architecture of the random visual generator seems to match the architecture behind "Saheeli Rai". The grand priestess can make copies of all those that enter her domain, perhaps replicate magic used near the altar. Her palace church is shifting, warping, constantly weaving itself to bend to her will. 

To be continued...

One Page Dungeon: "The Inverse Tower"

Here is my entry for this year's One Page Dungeon competition.

"The Inverse Tower is simultaneously a dungeon, magic item and portal. It will appear in the campaign world when and where the GM sees fit. The reward for besting the tower is entry to the inverse world, a plane that manifests as the exact opposite of whatever the GM has mapped and written to exist in the campaign above. All ac-tions taken here magically have the opposite effect on the world above (Fires cause floods, deaths cause births, lost things are found). Do not let the adventurers know this until they have returned to their once “normal” world..."

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B43TA_QRzeKqTnlIZWxXblF3Qmc/view?usp=sharing

I actually wrote a couple of extra entries for the door and stuff tables, but had to cut them due space constraints. Here they are restored:

Doors, d10:

1. Ornate, bone gilded door with a 1 way glass viewing portal into next room. Black and featureless on other side.

2. Ornate ivory door that disintegrates to dust whenever anything living gets within 5 feet of it. Rebuilds itself when they leave.

3. Wood door carved into a kindly face. Face will ask in whispered oakey tones if it should open, close or lock and will generally do as told.   

4. A curtain of shimmering upside down blue flames. Heals d6 wounds of any that pass through.

5. Appears as a mirror until a living being is within 5 feet, than appears as see through door to next room, now filled with the best/worst things those peering through can imagine (flip a coin).

6. Bare stone door, rusted iron handle. A puff of sand billows from the hinges when opened or closed.

7. A hacked, burnt and bloodstained wooden door. Anything inflicted on this door is inflicted on the next being that passes through it.

8. A stained, crusty curtain. While it is stationary on ingress, it is slowly billowing around the next room allowing exit at any point (with patience).

9. Bare stone door, iron handle, slightly creaky.

10. Wood door with well oiled hinges, opens and closes silently.

Floor 1 - 2:

Stuff, d8:

1. D6 thunderous circular waterfalls, flowing up and down.

2. Scuttling gilded ivory furniture, traversing floor, ceiling and walls.

3. Invisible walls between doors turn this room into a corridor.

4. Room funnels downwards where a stone maw is chewing rubble.

5. Black ichor drips between the bricks, room shudders when touched.

6. The room is an abyss, traversed by an ornate gilded ivory bridge.

7. A choking grey fog , flashing intermittently with blue bolts of electricity.

8. A calming pond on the ceiling, foliage erupting around it Insects and frogs clog the room.

Floor 3 - 4:

Stuff, d8:

1. This room is filled with treasure hoard, but the party is shrunk to the size of ants while in the room. It takes several days to traverse the room like this.

2. Wind billows in through the cracks of this dilapidated room. Perring outside reveals an endless sky.

3. This room appears to be a part of a sewer system of an aeon aged city.

4. There is a large brass bowl in the center of this room, engraved with the word “sacrifice”. The doors out of the room will not open until someone has placed something they truly love in the bowl.

5. An enormous tome, bound in grey turtle skin, chained to a stone altar. All pages are empty save the middle two, which each has a black spiral draw in opposite directions. A fast deteriorating, child like simulacrum of anything written in the book will appear in the previous or next room.  

6. Ornate pillars and arches fill the room. They crumble and fall with the slightest provocation.

7. Room is inside a giant, scintillating gem. From inside gem is a lovely view of the treasure horde room.

8. Pink gas billows in from cracks in the wall. It will help things float and is also extremely flammable.

Floor 5 - 6:

Stuff, d8:

1. A ceiling to floor frieze depicting an infinity of scenes of human conflict, torture and brutality. Gaseous copies of the party will begin to form and fight each other/the party if too long is spent here.

2. Glass ceilings and floors. Above and below scenes of galactic implosions and explosions whirl.

3. An extravagant feast laid out on long wooden table. Mute, malformed homunculi devour the dishes. The are unaggressive if unprovoked. Leaving the room and returning will find the homunculi dead and the food rotten.

4. Statues of naked humans. Their hands, feet, eyes, mouths, ears, noses are bound with red silk cloth.

5. Untold vegetation chokes the room. Vine, leaves, roots all shift with an unseen, unfelt wind.

6. A soft rivulet of blood runs through the room. Malformed homunculi sometimes wash ashore, coughing and gasping for air.

7. Room filled with mounds of calcified and dusty flesh and bones. There is several basins made from this material containing crystal clear liquid. Washing ones face with the liquid restores their youth and teleports them to the entrance to the tower.

8. Empty save for a chalice in the center of the room. There is a clear liquid in the chalice and at the bottom a key. Touching the liquid transforms the toucher into a random monster from the tower.

Making a Dungeon, Part 1

The other day I chanced upon a discarded scrap of paper with the following, unfinished, diagram printed across it: 

Any half lucid dungeon master mind on seeing this no doubt jumps immediately to thought of completing what is obviously a dungeon map. Which is exactly what my mind did.

Turns out the diagram is of the "nephron", which are the little tunnel filtration systems that our kidneys are made up of. From wikipedia: 

"The nephron (from Greek νεφρός – nephros, meaning "kidney") is the basic structural and functional unit of the kidney.Its chief function is to regulate the concentration of water and soluble substances like sodium salts by filtering the blood, reabsorbing what is needed and excreting the rest as urine. A nephron eliminates wastes from the body, regulates blood volume and blood pressure, controls levels of electrolytes and metabolites, and regulates blood pH." 

The diagram and the description both seemed to me fertile fodder for making a dungeon. So that is what I am going to do. I also thought it may be interesting to document the process and I am going to do that too. I'm going to attempt to describe my thought/work process, hopefully leading to a completed dungeon (maybe eventually in the format of a PDF) that may serve as a fun little guide for making a dungeon of your own. 

Step 1: The Map.

Every dungeon I've ever created and run began as a map. I like to sketch out a place, getting vague ideas of what might inhabit the areas as I draw them. Sometimes these ideas start to influence the design of the map, sometimes not. I think the vast majority of my dungeons have been post apocalyptic in some manner, in that the dungeon was not currently inhabited by the original occupants. This may come out of the fact I draw the map first. Once the structure is there, whoever inhabits the dungeon will have to make do with what they've got, employing the rooms and corridors for their own purposes as best they can.

For "The Nephron", it was clear to me that the bulbous bit at the top of the map was important. Thus the dungeon would either lead/protect/be otherwise obsessed with that point. I imagined an altar of sorts, or some sort of liquid/magma coming in one end, being used in some manner then being shipped out the other side. 

I wanted to make sure there was a few routes to the altar, without diminishing the fact it was probably protected/important in some way. Additionally I wanted to ensure there was more than one way into/out of the dungeon, and give it enough size to allow for more than one major group inhabiting it. I toyed with the idea of much crisscrossing above/below the original diagram, but thought it might be too complicated to read and only did it twice. 

The Dungeon Map, showing my additions in blue.

As I drew the map the vague, broad strokes image of the place I was mapping were as follows:

• A caverny, cavey, cliffy section to the south. 
• Stone square dwellings mined into the southern natural rock section.
• Grander mined stone dwellings/palace section taking up the west side of the map. 
• A central gauntlet of grave danger leading to "The Altar of the Nephron". 
• Tunnels and secret entrances that linked up to this central gauntlet. 
• The altar itself is fed from somewhere deeper/external. 
• There is probably a throne room somewhere and some group is doing rituals and slipping in and out of the altar room. 

The completed map.

To Be Continued...

32 Vaguely Eastern / Guild Dog Weapon Specialisations

This table is intended to randomly allocate a weapon specialisation to PC’s/NPC’s. It is random to purposely avoid the potential of never ending deliberation as to which weapon would be the optimal choice for each specific combat scenario.

Your character gets a random weapon they are good at, which hopefully makes them a little cooler/unique. I’m also trying to do a little world building through the weapons - hopefully these imply the kind of setting “The City” of Guild Dogs is.

While each PC is given a random specialised weapon, the following basics are always available:  Dagger, sword, mace/club, Pole weapons, 2 handed weapons, sling, bow and crossbow.

The Black Hack / the Guild Dog class is dependent on specific class/guild dog to determine damage die. This begs the question, why would I use a dagger over a sword if it makes absolutely no difference mechanically? While there may be some emergent roleplaying answers to that question, I wanted to give each “basic” weapon it’s own little speciality. Now there is a clear reason why you might use a dagger over a sword. Additionally, if each weapon is a little unique, and there is strict restrictions placed on how much a character carry (STR = Number of slot) interesting questions of what weapons to pack come into play.

Normal Weapons:

Dagger: Damage die is lessened by 1 (ie, a d6 becomes a d4), but can attempt a second attack a round with Disadvantage.

Sword: + 1 damage against foes in armour lighter than medium.

Mace/Club: +1 to hit against foes in armour medium and heavier.

Axe: Damage  die is increased by 1 (ie, a d6 becomes a d8), automatically fails initiative tests (always take action after opponents).

Pole Weapon: First attack when entering combat is tested with Advantage and does double damage, once engaged with a foe in melee combat all attacks are rolled at Disadvantage (unless the inherent unwieldiness of the length of the weapon is overcome).

2 handed: Already has rules in “The Black Hack”. Use them.

Sling: Ranged, damage die is lessened by 1 (ie, a d6 becomes a d4), can concuss appropriate un-helmeted targets for d4 rounds by making a successful attack at Disadvantage. Concussion attacks do no damage.

Bow: Ranged.

Crossbow: Ranged, damage die is increased by 1 (ie, a d6 becomes a d8). Once fired, a round must be spent reloading the crossbow before it can be fired again.

Weapons on the table below table do the character’s normal attack die damage, only operating as specific normal weapons detailed above when listed.

(Table was not interfacing very well with blogger, so I had to use images. Original table is here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wFbwDq4QcBaGJZs4uGrJiNhWsGOkC4e47UvSxPouBEY/edit?usp=sharing )

Sargossa (A Sketch)

After resurrecting the Raform Zokuworm Biomass Gladiator class in a recent draft post cleansing ritual, I stumbled upon a dusty old file in my google drive named "Sargossa". In it was 9 location names from Sargossa, with nary a complete sentence between them. Here they are, with descriptions to sketch out the basics of the fleshy pink fields of Sargossa.

The lungflesh fields of Sargossa heave, gasp and shudder beneath the feet of its inhabitants. It is a continent sized valley with lips of pink mountains hedging the field, making it an enormous spongy saucer. Within this immense red disk the civil war of the biomass lords is fought. The primeval and titanic Zokuworms writhe across Sargossa, draining and replenishing the land in gigantic billowing sucks and spurts of genetic material.

Known locations of Sargossa:

• The Flesh Forest: An eruption of crystalline capillaries, reaching towards the bone white sky. Towering jagged, spindly weeds 10's of feet tall. Brittle and delicate as glass, a falling capillary weed is a lethal hazard. Once fallen the spiked stump will slowly gout several spurts of tar like blood before clotting, new dark twiglets forming. Groups travelling through the forest can find themselves nothing more than skewered, shard covered meat if a ill timed tremor topples the glacial forming vegetation around them. Blood ghosts whisper through the forest, often causing the trees to wail and explode into masses of red shards.

• Zokudomes: The glowing feudal pustules of Sargossa. Home and throne to the ever draining bio lords. Each zokudome contains a single zokuthrone at its centre, both seating and imprisoning its lord. Branching off from this throne is the network of tubes that feed the zokuworm and form the architecture of the dome itself. From this throne the genetic information of the lord is drained and manifested into new malformed life by the great wriggling factory that is the zokuworm. Each zokudome, as well as containing a bio lord, will house 20 - 100 raform gladiators. Travelling dignitaries from other domes and representatives from the church of form may be present at the domes of the most eminent and powerful bio lords.

• Zokupits: These are the caverns, pits, holes and labyrinths of flesh carved out across the land by the zokuworms. They are the battlegrounds for the conflicts between the gladiators of the bio lords. Zokuworms will shape the land into fresh arenas then vomit out the warriors gestating within their bodies. After battles zokuworms of the victorious bio lord will feast on the dead, sucking up vital genetic mass through the countless tendrils that cover their bodies. Old, abandoned battlefields are stalked by wild, lordless warriors who have somehow escaped the war - hunting for meat left un-consumed by the zokuworms.

• Mother: A whale that swims beneath the ground, an immense form that ripples and rolls the land itself. The mother's song calls out to the weak, abandoned and wrong shaped zokumen in the night. In the day the surging waves of red ground formed by her movements herd flocks of the forgotten, unwanted beings of Sargossa. She has been known to envelope and destroy lords and worms, punishing them for inscrutable and unknown sins.

• Motherhome: One of the few refuges of peace in Sargossa. A soft curved, undulating mountain of peaceful beige tones. The interior is an organic labyrinth, constantly perspiring a thick calming fog that rolls through the corridors. The mountain is a homely hive of misshapen orphans that heeded the call of mother. Those that enter motherhome rarely leave as exploring the never ending sensual halls becomes the height of bliss, an addiction impossible to escape.

• Church of Form: A site of perfection and solidity in a swarming sea of flux and unsightliness. The interwoven tubes and arches of the church straddle and tame Sargossa's red ruggedness. The rules and results of the civil war are debated in halls of the church by perfectly formed bishops. Only beings that are perfectly symmetrical, rounded, muscled, limbed and appendaged may join the church. While there is no uniform physiology to the church's clergy, each is a perfect example of their form. Any imperfect being caught within sight of the church's towers is instantly hunted, melted and crushed into the dull gleaming mineral of the church's walls.

• The Stones: Elephant sized spheres of glowing stone, floating balefully above a field of fog. The stones are avoided by all inhabitants of Sargossa. There is rumours of the stones leaving the field and silently watching events both momentous and mundane.

• Zokuworm hatchery: A broiling volcano of dribbling metalflesh. Infant zokuworms, the length of 6 men, crawl from the bubbling crater about once a year. A regiment of enormous muscled monks of the Church of Form guard the hatchery night and day, waiting to capture and tend newborn zokuworms. The monks solemnly kill any being that strays too close to the site.

• Zokuworm Cemetery: An expanse of husk tunnels, the hollowed, metallic corpses of zokuworms. Ash and dust fill and the air. Lost and fallen bio lords, often little more than puddles of beige ooze, scrape the innards of the husks - searching for the most meagre of genetic meals to continue their tortured existence. Deep in the graveyard, in the oldest of corpses, a swirling pool of sentient slime contemplates existence. The combined minds and organics of the defeated and discarded bio lords has been coagulating into the manifestation of pure love and transcendence - ready to pour from the graveyard and transform Sargossa.