Pre-Loaded Random Non-Linear Example: Blood of Prokopius

I've been sick for the last few days and unable to write the next installment of the random non-linear dungeon series, so I'll instead link to an example dungeon by FrDave at the Blood of Prokopius blog: The Sunken Halls of the Ape Brotherhood. This uses the leximorph-based pre-loading method to establish the main corridor structure, although instead of randomly-selecting letters using a table, he picked the letters "A", "P", and "E" from the most important descriptive keyword in the dungeon title.

The main thing I'll note is the loops and branching paths, which is what we are looking for in these methods. If entering from the south, there are three routes to choose from, all of which can connect to the same areas, forming a large loop: westwards from the western or middle branch to the apex of the "A", northwards through the flooded chambers, then southwards to the Bizarre Ice Gateway and out the eastern branch of the "E". There are several smaller loops as well: the apex of the "A" and the entire "A" form nesting triangular loops (although you'd have to clear some debris in one area,) the square loop of the "P", the loop(s) between the middle and eastern branches of the "E", and multiple loops of rooms off to the side of the major corridors.

On the whole, very loopy! And a tough environment, too!

Pre-Loading Random Non-Linear Dungeons

In the post on guaranteeing that a randomly-generated dungeon is non-linear (contains loops,) the first technique I mentioned was to start with a dungeon structure that already contains these loops, then generate rooms and additional corridors that connect to that structure. I call that technique "pre-loading". The predefined structure is a tunnel template which you then modify with dice rolls.

A long time ago, I toyed with the idea of leximorphs: using letters of the alphabet as if they were geomorphs. This could be used for a tunnel template. Assume that your dungeon is divided into sectors, for example four quarters. If you randomly select a four-letter word or character string, assign one character to each quarter, and draw them on a map so that each character touches the adjacent characters, you wind up with a network of tunnels. Some letters have loops built into them, for example "A", "B", "D" and "O". This guarantees at least a little bit on non-linearity. The loops can be drawn with curves or as angular shapes, as in the example image. Other curved strokes can be straightened or turned into angles as well, as desired.

There are a couple sources for random word generation, for example the random page feature of Wikipedia. But one quick option is to use this d10-based table:

Roll (d10)	Letter Pattern
0	R
1	A
2	D
3	T
4	Q
5	L
6	X
7	P
8	B
9	lowercase g

I chose mostly letters with loops in them, although I did include three letters that do not contain any loops (T, L, and X,) just for variety. Roll a d10 once for each sector on your map. Optionally, roll a d4 for rotation of each letter (1= normal, 2= turn 90 degrees clockwise, 3= turn upside down, 4= turn 90 degrees counterclockwise.) Make sure each letter touches the adjacent letters, so that there aren't any disconnected lines. This is your base tunnel template.

At every corner or junction between letters or within each letter, roll to see how the two tunnels connect (d6).

1. Ordinary Junction
2. Trapped Junction
3. Trapped Junction (disabled)
4. Minor Obstacle (debris, pool of liquid)
5. Door
6. Room

Finally, check both sides of the tunnel every 60 feet for doors or branches (d8).

1. Blank Wall
2. Blank Wall with Secret Door
3. Branch/Side Passage
4. Two Diagonal Passages
5. Blocked Passage
6. Door
7. Pair of Doors, side by side
8. Stairs

I am assuming here that you are using tables borrowed from Appendix A or another random dungeon generator to roll for size and shape of rooms, type of door, what's behind each door, or other details as needed.

MegaDungeon: GUAN-1

The next installment of the test megadungeon, GUAN-1: the raiding area. I wanted to include this specifically as a second entrance area; megadungeons should have multiple entrances. Also, since the list of monsters used in the dungeon is getting fleshed out more, I started using a technique mentioned briefly in the training series: using letter labels like "M:Q" directly on the map. I changed the letters for "extraordinary monsters" to lowercase so that I could make a temporary pair of six-letter labels off to the side of the map to act as my 2d6 monster roll. This enabled me to do room stocking rolls while drawing the map in Inkscape: add a label if a monster is indicated, draw a container if it's a monster with treasure, and draw a dotted box on a room floor or cache behind a wall if a hidden treasure is indicated.

MegaDungeon: CHIL-1

Next in the test megadungeon series is region CHIL-1: the smugglers' quarters. There's not much new to say about the design steps behind this page; I did use the wandering chamber principle on every room except 3, 7, 8 and 12, and made a decision that 7 would include skeletons of some kind (because it's a sealed chamber.)

Room 12 was slated to be a central goblin congregation point, but I left the decision about whether the goblins used the secret passage (3) or door (8) to the whim of the dice. No goblins were rolled for the rooms in area 2, so I left them unaware of the secret passage, and no goblins were rolled for 8, so I left them unaware of the door. However, there was 1 goblin rolled for the game room, so I arbitrarily decided he knew about the secret door in 8.

There were a lot more rooms on this map than previous maps, so I tried to compress descriptions more. Hence, the 2A through 2E, 10A through 10c, and 11 A/B numbering.

MegaDungeon: FING-1

Here's the next installment of the MegaLex MegaDungeon project: FING-1, The New Iron Mines. To spice this section up, I gave it a sublevel of four rooms where presumably the smugglers had started to dig support facilities for this expansion of the mines. The monsters are also a little weirder in this region, but the treasure is richer.

I also updated the overview for level 1 to include a "wandering chamber" list and master monster index. Neither are alphabetical, because the lists are meant to be added to, one to three entries at a time, as the level expands, so everything's in order of appearance. The wandering chambers haven't been used yet.

MegaDungeon Level 1 Overview

Just to show where I'm heading, here's the overview map for the entire first level, so far. This document is not a PDF, because it's going to be changed as the project continues. It's a "crude megalevel map" as described in Part V of the megadungeon training series. What to note right now is the way some regions are butting up against each other, but others are connected by lines representing tunnels. The tunnels leave room for expansion; the party could later find a map showing a secret door in the rail tunnel connecting the forge to the mines, for example, or the tunnel leading from the new mines can have simple codes indicating a reusable geomorph.

Next up are the new mines (FING-1); the map is done, just need to start stocking and preparing the key.

MegaDungeon: WOOD-1

Another addition to the example dungeon using principles from the megadungeon training series. This one is called the slave mines. As a reminder: the label "WOOD-1" does not mean that the region has anything to do with things made of wood, it's the leximorph used to provide structure for the region. I placed the treasures in areas 3 and 15 first; area 3's treasure is kind of open-ended, although I'd probably give a 1 in 6 chance of running out of gems; a couple hours of hard labor might restore the gem stream. This, plus the fact that I rolled really well for treasure placement and upped the base value for this region, means that WOOD-1 is more lucrative than LEXI-1. The unique monsters and magic item were improvised using the simplified system in this post with a lot of leeway for interpretation. I like the sage spider; it's not really dangerous, but adds a lot of color. A non-vocal spider crawls towards you, bows, and gestures that it likes your magic scroll? The magic medallion, although seemingly boring, is probably the best find; adventurers might not care for it, but it's probably worth hundreds of gold pieces to the right person.

MegaDungeon LEXI-1 Notes

Here are some notes on yesterday's megadungeon post (one-page dungeon PDF here.)

• In keeping with an intent to improvise, the background is sketchy: someone was smuggling weapons made by enslaved dwarves; this is the entrance to the abandoned forge.
• The map, as mentioned, is built around a leximorph based on the letters "LEXI"; since this would be all tunnels and an "I" is a rather bland addition to the dungeon structure, I placed it in a slightly unusual place: a gallery to the "L" corridor; after placing the letters, I filled in rooms around them as needed.
• A second goal of this map was to practice mapping in Inkscape instead of my usual AutoREALM mapping; the doors, stairs and tapestries are purposefully drawn by hand, which is why they look a little ragged.
  
• To suggest a story behind why the forge was abandoned without actually setting anything in stone, two of the special monster types are dwarven undead; one of the treasures is a magical hammer with a curse that affects humans.
• The wandering monster list is short and mostly generic, as befits a first-level entryway to the rest of the dungeon; small centipedes, rats and bats will dominate the encounters and will be basically limitless, invading from above; but I've already planned ahead for another region on the first level and added goblin bands from the east.
• I compared some of the simple monsters to published materials like Labyrinth Lord and AD&D, but I mostly improvise their stats, and added two variant jackals for diversity.
• Since I wanted a ghost to fit the mood, but didn't want one of the bad-ass, age-you-40-years ghosts, my haunting dwarf spirits are weaker; they're still pretty dangerous if you stand and fight.
• I added one variant monster not on the main list to two locations: the hoard crawler, which is really just a small centipede with different behavior; these may show up as wandering monsters in another region.
• I also placed one human skeleton with a special treasure in the secret cache; it doesn't wander, and unless the party figures out how to get in, they don't need to deal with it.
• I placed the magic hammer first, at one of the forges, and placed one set of dwarf skeletons and one haunting dwarf spirit each on separate sides of the region; the remaining rooms have random monster and treasure allocation.
• I'm working on a low-treasure principle: silver piece instead of gold piece standard; this region of the level is treasure poor, because it's an easily accessible part of the dungeon; I expect most of the first-level treasure to be in the smuggler's quarters to the east or the mines to the north.
• There are, however, a lot of salvageable items in this region; they aren't explicitly listed, but several of the "empty" rooms like 5 and 7 were former storage areas; rummaging through the debris may yield usable items.

All in all, it's a pretty simple but I think effective opening to the dungeon.

MegaDungeon: LEXI-1

There were a couple ideas in the megadungeon training series, particularly in Parts IV through VI, that I wanted to explore with practical examples, so I've been working on an example megadungeon in my spare time. I've started with these basic constraints:

• each region will be a one-page dungeon based around a four-letter leximorph;
• the wandering monster table will revolve around a few generic types that define a theme for that region;
• monsters will then be copied to a master level list so that they can be referred to by letter.

I will add more of the principles from the series as I build the dungeon. Plus, I'll start out with a simple region and get more elaborate as I add new regions.

The starter region's physical structure is based around the letters "LEXI" (from "leximorph".) Each time I add stairs, chutes, or tunnels to other levels or regions, I'll look at a list of news headlines, pick a noun with more than four letters in it, and take the first four letters as the leximorph that defines the structure of the new region. Thus, each region will be labeled with four letters plus a level number. The starter region is "LEXI-1": The Prisoner's Forge.

If anyone wants me to go into more detail on the choices I made for this area, I can do a follow-up post.