Moormist Manor Design Goals

Work continues apace on restoring Moormist Manor—my 80s-era mega-dungeon. As the weather turns cooler and I spend more of my time indoors, I've been experiencing a lot of creative energy around this project and I'm having a (mostly) good time revisiting my past self through the pages of my old notebooks.

Despite this dungeon being a tribute to Tegel Manor, I stupidly decided not to emulate the Judges Guild module's sparse style and concise descriptions. By this point in the late 80s, 2e's storytelling mode was in high gear and, like many would-be authors, I decided this adventure had to be BIG. It couldn't just be a mysterious haunted house on the hill; it needed HISTORY! I wrote a ridiculous amount of background lore in college-ruled notebooks, squeezing two mechanical pencil lines per page line. The text got so dense that the pages became permanently rippled.

This ultimately created a situation in which actually playing the adventure required its own campaign to do justice to the epic scope. My manor wasn't built to drop into and out of like Tegel Manor was; it needed to be THE focus of the campaign. On top of that, I felt like the entire thing had to be scrupulously complete before I was comfortable running it. The idea of creating the manor in broad strokes and then winging the details seemed like madness, and I lacked the confidence in my DMing skills to pull the trigger.

By the time the manor felt "complete" enough to play in the early 90s, it just didn't fit the tone of the low-fantasy, feudal European-style campaign I was running then (and ran until 2012-ish). That campaign was heavily influenced by Arthurian fables, Templar legends, and the cultural friction between early Christianity and pre-European paganism. The manor, on the other hand, was a wonderfully-creative mix of Hammer horror, Saturday morning cartoons, Arduin-style weirdness, and Monty Python-style humor. The two things just didn't work together, so the manor notebooks got tossed into a box (but never forgotten).

As I move forward with updating the material and getting it ready for my Tuesday-night players (perhaps sometime later next year when I resume DM duties), I want to make use of the lessons I've learned over the years since "finishing" it initially, and I want to apply the lessons of the OSR's analysis of early dungeon-building techniques. To help me order my thoughts and keep my work focused and consistent, I've established some goals for myself as I go through this design process.

DESIGN GOALS

1) Adapt Moormist Manor to a simpler ruleset with limited choices.

Options include...

• BXE/AD&D
• Stripped-down 5e or O5R (Into the Unknown)
• A classless, skill-based system (homebrew idea I'm toying with)
  

My original manuscript mainly accessed the following sources...

• AD&D's Player's Handbook and DMG, along with the Monster Manual 1 and 2, Fiend Folio, and Unearthed Arcana
• Dragontree's Spellbook and Book of Artifacts
• North Pole's Tome of Mighty Magic
• Chaosium's All the World's Monsters trilogy

I want to limit myself to these sources of material (mostly the AD&D books), but...

• Update the monsters/mechanics to whichever system I choose.
• Maintain the classic monsters' levels of deadliness.
• Where possible, convert classic humanoid enemies (goblins, orcs, duergar, etc.) into familiar-seeming (but new and unknown) antagonists (e.g., goons, brutes, and tappers)

2) Use as much of the original content as possible... 

• Even the goofy stuff, try to find a way to make it work in the new context (but don't be afraid to ditch stupid ideas).
• Most room descriptions should not be more than a few lines.
• The manor key's coding system should immediately indicate level and room #.
  

3) Emphasize the re-playability of previously-explored areas.

• Create/modify procedural tables to stock a variety of manor features (e.g., furniture, statues, paintings, tapestries, doors, windows, stairs, etc.)
• Some features are mundane while others may be tricks/traps or have magical effects.
• Cleared (but not "cleansed") areas will experience periodic restocking.
• Manor features will often change between forays (e.g., a room might feature two specific paintings on one foray, and then three different paintings on another).

The manor rooms exist in one of three states: Ruined, Haunted, or Cleansed. Most areas are encountered in a Ruined state (especially during the day), while its Haunted state only manifests infrequently (but moreso at night).

• In its Ruined state, a manor room appears dusty and decrepit. It is likely empty but might contain a mundane encounter (giant rats, goons, spiders, etc.)  or some hidden treasure or clue.
  
• In its Haunted state, the manor room appears vibrant as it did in a previous era. It might contain more fantastical encounters (such as undead and proper "monsters"), as well as magical puzzles or phantasmal scenes that depict past events). It is also in this state that the PCs can find magic treasures, as well as meet and interact with members of the family whose home this is (a la the random Rumps of Tegel).
• An area can become Cleansed by the characters' actions, after which the room(s) and features in question cease restocking and can be safely cleaned and inhabited by the characters.
• The ultimate goal of the dungeon is to cleanse the entire manor and claim its legacy.
  

4) Expand and update maps/material to incorporate new ideas/philosophies. 

• Redo/enlarge maps
• Create general room types with common features (e.g., guardrooms, guestrooms, and anterooms) and relevant pieces of content that can be dropped into any of the occurrences of the room type.

Much of the work has already been done in sketching out the larger map and layout to the point where I am ready to start making high-quality, "permanent" maps. At the moment, the manor consists of six above-ground floors plus a cellar and three dungeon levels below the house. Each floor is roughly 65,000 sq. ft., although the upper floors are attic space and towers.

5) The player-characters will start as "blank slates" 

• Each possesses minimal gear, mundane abilities, and a few tidbits of starting information, but also a strong motivation for entering/exploring the house.
• Character personalities and abilities will emerge through gameplay and interaction with the manor.
• The meat of a character's career will be across 4th-8th level before capping at 10th.
• Deadliness and attrition may also keep average levels on the lower side.
• It will be important to have the right gear to do the job, and provision expeditions accordingly.
• Encumbrance (esp. concerning treasure) will also be an important factor to track.
• Increase/enhance the utility of mundane objects and items found in the manor (as non-treasure "loot").
• Provide creative ways to use found items or specialty gear throughout the manor.