Restocking Dungeons

If adventurers return to a dungeon after clearing out some or all the rooms, or if you are running several groups of players through one megadungeon, you would typically restock some of the cleared rooms. Here are some quick ideas about restocking.

Quick General Guideline

Roll each visit: 5+ on 1d6 means new monster has moved in.

Treasure is not rerolled, but some monsters may bring incidental treasure

Small Lairs

Examples: Single troll in cave, 3-18 bandits in watchtower

Restocked by: random ordinary wildlife

Roll again if visited 1+ seasons later for human/humanoid/monster take-over

Small Dungeon

Example: One or two small levels below abandoned keep

Roll first for entire dungeon, then roll for each empty room if first roll is 5+

Restocked by: surviving monsters (or vermin, if none)

Survivors of last party visit will add up to 1/10th of their number
(Roll 1d6 if 20 to 60 monsters survive, 2d6 if 70 to 120 survive, etc.)

Completely cleared dungeons may be taken over after 1+ seasons as for lairs

Tomb

Most undead do not restock, so treat cleared areas as Small Lair

Undead that create more of their own kind, or cursed tombs that create undead, will restock as Small Dungeon

Large Dungeon

Examples: 2-6 medium levels below castle, extensive catacombs

Roll first for entire dungeon, as for Small Dungeon

If one level is completely cleared, it may be restocked by survivors on levels above or below (50/50 chance of either)

If a cleared level is to be restocked from above, but there are no surviving monsters above, treat that level as a completely cleared Small Dungeon, restocking with vermin and allowing a take-over by outside immigrants after a couple seasons.

Megadungeon

As Large Dungeon, but break each level down into regions

Restock a cleared region from adjacent regions. If there are stairs up in the region, the level(s) above are adjacent. If there are stairs down, the level below is adjacent.

After 1+ seasons, whether a region has been cleared or not, consider rolling for a possible take-over by a completely new creature.

Vermin are things like small bugs, rats, etc. These things should be everywhere, so they will eventually move into a cleared environment unless active measures are taken to prevent them.

Take-overs represent monsters traveling through the wilderness and settling in an abandoned area. Thus, if you clear an undead menace from a tomb near the town, bandits may take it over a couple seasons later to use as a base of operations. Random monster immigrants will not bring one of the standard treasure types with them; most beast-like monsters won't have any treasure to start with, and each intelligent creature may only bring 1d6 GP per hit die, with leaders of organized groups possibly having ten times as much. If a monster immigrant stays in a lair long enough, though, it may acquire treasure through looting:

• Semi-intelligent fantastic beasts: Type I
• Men: Type A, 10% normal value
• Humanoids: Type D, 10% normal value