This is not the high quality, thought-through output we are seeing from #dungeon23 - this is about the "I need a site, fast" or "what *is* in that thing the party came across".
Rough process
- take a real thing for a floor plan
- stack it up or down to represent the full structure
- dice up whatever is in all of the rooms using a suitable generator
- roll roll roll, then see what arises from the results
- block out the factions, read the story of the dungeon's past from what is there now
- brush back over the whole thing, now that the inhabitants are correctly skinned - see what clash points, hazards, etc they work around
- figure out the ties to the surroundings from what is there now; look at who is near which entry points
- write up what rumours about the place escape
Going into these steps in more detail:
Start with a real floor plans from a castle or something else. Do this because it instantly kills the whole 'is this too obvious' nagging in the back of your mind; its a real thing, built by real people, maybe it is simple, maybe it is bizarrely complex - you did not make those decisions, no reason for you to worry about them now.
- You can find lots of maps of real castles online from tourist sites - you typically only need a single floor because most castles are built as a vertical shell; see Blarney Castle as an example.
- For the rest stack them up or down to represent the full structure, easier to modify from there than cook up more levels from whole cloth.
- Otherwise for natural tunnels and burrows, any kind of tunnel structure like woodworm or others will do.
- Similarly the 'malls as megadungeons' as Prismatic Wasteland recommends can be another source
- I tend to grab a map for description purposes then work up each floor as a point-grid of how things connect if I am in a rush for time.
Rough redraw of interior so I can annotate
Generate the contents
- dice up whatever is in all of the rooms
- roll roll roll, then see what arises from the results
- I use the 3.5e DMG table 3-18 on p78 but you can use other games or editions as suit you
- I used the generic tables to get contents then reskinned to be world-appropriate and coherent with one another
Dungeon tone - emergent or applied
- block out the factions, read the story of the dungeon's past from what is there now
- things that jump out are sections that are in communication and have sentients and other places where traps, damage, monster lairs block passage. The bits in communication and their residents get formed into the factions
- I tend to mark up the points on the point grid with colours to identify the factions. They are usually obvious once the blocking points are identified.
- brush back over the whole thing, now that the inhabitants are correctly skinned - see what clash points, hazards, etc they work around.
Situate the Site
- figure out the ties to the surroundings from what is there now; look at who is near which entry points and what they are going to do with that
- which groups are sitting on which access points - who seems to connect to the outside world, who the sub-structures, who has access to the roof and fortifications.
- are there groups that interact with the surroundings and just has a dangerous rear area to their lair? Are they a group that prevents any outsiders from coming near the place?
- write up what rumours about the place escape - based on how deep into the place anyone is likely to have gotten and returned - if the only thing people know is that the front entrance has a hideous monster that eats all who come near then that will be all they think of the place, never mind the mysterious lights
Endpoint sketch-map + keys for multiple floors
This is to quickly knock a place together, figure out some sort of sense to it (assuming it has living inhabitants not just undead, automata or monsters like oozes). This is not going to get you cunning map puzzles and it is not great for sophisticated traps. This is best for an occupied ruin - was a structure, now a shared lair - with the monsters and inhabitants being the threats - and maybe some structural hazards like tumbling walls - rather than purpose built swinging pendulum traps and the like.
This is not your methodology for Grade A dungeons, this is for when you're out of time and need something fast.
No comments:
Post a Comment