Flood Trap Megamodule

Here is a megadungeon module that’s slightly different: a Flood Trap. I described the idea some time ago, but haven’t used this location in play. It’s meant to be a side trip, a distraction, although if the players ignore some obvious signs, it can be deadly.

As with the other megamodules, you need filler areas connected to the exits around the module, which can be created with geomorphs or rolled randomly. In this case, the surrounding rooms can be anything; use other megamodules to define what they are. However, what’s above or below the trap are is important; there needs to be a water source above the area and a sewer level or sublevel of some kind below. I plan on doing megamodules for both as examples, but you could design your own.

Aside from wasting the player’s time if they figure out the trap (or wasting their lives if they don’t,) the area can serve as a difficult “back door” into either the level above or the level below. It would work well in a trap-themed sublevel, such as if you wanted to build your own Tomb of Horrors.

The module is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

Written with StackEdit.

Undergrove Cavern Megamodule

I started the map for this megamodule after finishing the first three, but I never got around to the key. I call it the Undergrove Cavern, because the plant arrangement is meant to be the central feature. The location is loosely based on an area in a dungeon I ran a couple years ago, although I’ve changed the details on the fruit and the creatures that fertilize the plants, and added a caretaker.

As with the other megamodules, you need filler areas connected to the exits around the module, which can be created with geomorphs or rolled randomly. I’m assuming that this module is part of an inhabited portion of a dungeon. The inhabitants are left vague, but I’m assuming human or orc; they are not described in the module, though, because they are not regular visitors, except for the caretaker, who is kind of unique. You could substitute any other intelligent creature that can climb a ladder or use a sickle as a weapon.

The module is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

Written with StackEdit.

The Rotating Chamber (Redone)

More re-working of material for the Maps tab. As with the previous two modules, the Rotating Circular Chamber mega-module was messed up by Google Docs, so I decided to update it, restore the missing map, and upload the PDF to Box. As with the other megamodules, you need filler areas connected to the exits around the module, which can be created with geomorphs or rolled randomly.

This module is meant to be part of an inhabited portion of a dungeon. The chamber’s rotation is powered by laborers pushing a wheel below the chamber. Thus, rotating the room controls access to different parts of the dungeon. I assumed that the western corridor was the “way out”, or at least the way out of this section of the dungeon. Raiding parties or work parties would ring the gong, rotate the chamber, and exit west, leaving the chamber aligned to that direction; when they returned, they would ring the gong, rotate the chamber back to the north, and thus seal the entrance to their lair.

Exactly who these inhabitants are is left vague. I only mention “warriors” and “laborers”, letting the GM decide whether these are the same species or not, or whether the laborers are slaves or just workers. These could be any creature desired. I did use “mastiff” for the guard animal, though, which I think of as primarily what humans would use, but you could keep the mastiffs for just about any kind of creature, or change it to some weird beetle or tiny hyena or whatever you wanted.

The module is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

Written with StackEdit.

The Spiral Staircase (Redone)

More re-working of material for the Maps tab. As with the Wizard’s Library, the Spiral Stairs mega-module was messed up by Google Docs, so I decided to update it, restore the missing map, and upload the PDF to Box. As with the other megamodules, you need filler areas connected to the exits around the module, which can be created with geomorphs or rolled randomly. In this case, there’s no guideline for what kind of rooms will be located in each direction, because this will depend on the theme of each area.

This module is meant to be a connection between four dungeon levels. Level One is connected to the eastern exit; alternatively, the eastern exit leads to the dungeon entrance. Level Two and Level Three are connected to the western exits. Level Four is connected to the northern exit at the bottom of the shaft. There’s also a sublevel ten feet lower than Level Three, connected to the southern exit. Contents of these rooms would be based on any megamodules or custom areas used for the theme of each level, but in a pinch you could use the trivial wandering monsters listed in this module.

The module is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

Written with StackEdit.

The Wizard's Library (Redone)

As I’ve said before, I’m working on fixing the material on the Maps tab. One of the problems I encountered was with three of the one-page dungeons. I started doing “megadungeon modules”, areas of interest that could be placed on a megadungeon level and surrounded by random filler rooms and tunnels. The filler areas could be laid out with geomorphs or rolled randomly, and would mostly be unoccupied, or occupied by random creatures; the modular areas would not be random, but would be deliberately designed with their purpose or history in mind.

The problem, however, was that I tried to create a one-page dungeon template on Google Docs. I would think that it was working, then change the size of some text to make it fit on one page… and the map would disappear. Eventually, I had it working… and months later, it stopped working again. This happened around the time Google did the Googe Drive switchover, and it’s something I’ve noticed in general about Google Docs/Drive: anytime they update their product, it modifies anything you have stored there.

So, I’ve started fixing the mega-modules, and have one finished: the Wizard’s Library mega-module. This is, of course, a library, with a nearby reading room/parlor. It includes notes on what to put in the random rooms immediately adjacent to the module. There’s a wandering monster/treasure table to stock the random rooms, but don’t use that to stock the three rooms described in the PDF. The module is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

This time, the PDF is on a Box account. Since this is the first time I’ve used that service, let me know if it works properly.

Written with StackEdit.

MegaModule: Rotating Circular Chamber

I know I've done this before as an unkeyed geomorph, but this version of the old rotating room cliché is arranged a little different. The interpretation here is that the room is designed to control access to a living/working area, located to the east of the map. The center is a circular chamber with a couple stools and a gong; when the gong is rung, slaves or some other team of laborers in a room below begin pushing a large horizontal wheel with spokes, causing the stone wall resting on top to rotate. A single 10-foot gap in the wall lines up with different exits as it rotates. Another ringing of the gong lets the laborers know when to stop; they may also have instructions to stop after one full rotation.

Edit: I had deleted the treasure content of the chest because I was going to change it, then forgot to actually do so. Sorry! The chest contains 300 gp in addition to the listed books. Module text now reflects that change.

The dungeon I am currently running is not a megadungeon and has a much smaller conceptual area, so the rotating room the players dealt with yesterday worked quite differently; it was more of a puzzle room than a control point, and there were no guards or living areas. Instead, the room rotates continuously, and in the center of the room is a capstan. Turning the capstan in different directions changes the rate of rotation:

• Reference Point: room rotates counterclockwise once per day
• 1 Complete Turn Clockwise: room stops rotating
• 1 Complete Turn Counterclockwise: room rotates once per hour

There's another capstan in one of the connecting rooms which has the same effect. The players figured this all out, so they can now enter and exit the area without problem.

MegaModule: Great Spiral Stair

Another megadungeon module based on an element I used in my local game. This one is a spiral staircase leading down a deep shaft. When I used this originally, the location of the landings was slightly different and there were no wandering monsters, no pool at the bottom, and no visible doors, but the elf found a secret door at the bottom. I've added several doors to this version and the other elements to make it an interesting dungeon entrance, or perhaps a boundary zone between the upper levels of a dungeon and the lower ones below the broken stair. I've also included my jumping rules, in case your players decide to take that risk; mine chose to climb down ropes instead.

Because this version of the spiral stair is mean to be a generic connecting point rather than a themed module, there are no suggestions for surrounding room types, other than a general suggestion that the southern exit should be treated as a sublevel of the southwestern level.

Depths are given relative to the start level, which is connected to the eastern exit. Thus, if the eastern exit leads to the surface (Level 0,) the northwestern exit will connect to Level 1, the southwestern connects to Level 2, the southern exit is Level 2 1/2, and the northern exit is Level 3. I probably should have labeled the exits as +1 Level, +2 Level and +3 Level, instead of using -1/-2/-3, but it should still make sense.

MegaModule: Abandoned Wizard's Library

I want to get Map Mondays back on track with a series of "megadungeon modules". The plan is to develop the technique I mused about in Megadungeon Format Tricks and its sequel. In summary: each megadungeon module is a single room or set of rooms focused on a single concept (puzzle room, throne room, crypt of a knight, arcane prison of a demon, elaborate trap, guard room, gateway...) This is what I sometimes have called a "hub". The module is in a one-page dungeon format with a 10x10 or less map, structured like a geomorph, with exits (if any) in one or more of the standard geomorph exit locations; it also includes a full write-up of the room or rooms and a list of one to four supporting room types, monsters and treasures. To use the module, you position it on your level map and padded the borders with ordinary rooms, which you draw by hand or fill in using geomorphs or random mapping techniques. Designate the surrounding rooms as being of one of the types defined in the module and randomly stock them as described for each type; thus, it does not matter where "storeroom with 1d6 rats and 2d12 silver coins in a sack" is located, how it's shaped, or what it connects to.

I would like to try out each module concept before I write it up as a module, so to start off, here's a module based on a couple rooms the players in my group explored last month. It's not exactly the same; I've changed the shapes and connections, added some things, removed some others. The basic concept is a library for magical research, abandoned by the library's owner; in our game, the wizard is said to have fled the area about a century ago. I've changed the "abandoned familiar" from the one I actually used, since the little bat-winged critter in our game is still hanging around because of a Charm Person spell. Can't give the party any clues as to what that little guy is!

My test download of this MegaModule fits all on one page, but it was difficult to get Google Docs to do that, so I fully expect people will report problems with the document. Google Docs doesn't like the one-page template; I had to fight the format to get everything to fit. One weird problem was that the map image would disappear if I changed one of the headings to a different size. I hope the changes in this version stick, so that I can just create a copy and edit it to create future MegaModules.