This post begins a series that will examine the process of turning my Hurricane Maps into a proper megadungeon, using the guidelines provided in the stocking tables found in the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide and recreated in OSRIC. The methodology I'm using to create the dungeon levels sticks pretty close to these two sources, with a few modifications based on personal preference and a desire to expand the source of monsters across the three original books (favoring OSRIC stats over AD&D stats where the monster exists in both sources).
By the time I finished rolling up contents and writing keys for levels 1–3, I had built enough background connections into the material to warrant adding a surface ruin, to not only serve as an entrance area into the dungeon, but also provide a few clues as to what lies beneath. As a result, I'm starting this series with what is technically the fourth level I rolled out and keyed: The surface (level 0) of the dungeon.
Most of the interior dungeon levels have 35–45 chambers or obvious locations, so I was calculating the surface level as having half that many, or 20 potential areas. The surface ruins will have already been picked over, meaning little of obvious value should remain except natural lairs and a few secrets.
Since I intended the exterior space to have a larger map scale, I first placed the dimensions of the dungeon-scale (10' sq.) graph paper sheet in the (approximate) center of the larger-scale (20' sq.) graph paper sheet, then sketched out the map in pencil. Thus, each dungeon level map fits inside the boundary of the outer palace walls.
After a few corrections and retakes, I drew over the finished sketch with a Sharpie ultra fine-point and added more detail with an even finer-point Pilot Precise V5.
I finished off the map in Photoshop, adding shading and a key (this step was performed after making the content rolls and figuring out their locations). I considered drawing separate (10' scale) maps for the outer ruins and palace interior, but decided against it. I like the flexibility of uncertainty that makes it easier to add stuff later. Any interior encounter areas will be easy enough to sketch out on the battlemat, ad hoc.
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I made all the content stocking rolls using the methodology I established. My results for the 20 estimated surface locations were:
–Empty: 9 (45% / 35%)
–Monster: 3 (15% / 20%)
–Monster + Treasure: 5 (25% / 25%)
–Stairs: 1 (5% / 5%)
–Trick/Trap: 1 (5% / 5%)
–Treasure: 1 (5% / 5%)
The first % number is the percentage of the actual content rolls; the second % number is the typical expected percentage spread (per OSRIC). They came out fairly close to the statistical percentages, leaving me with 11 locations to key (since I won't bother identifying or keying this level's empty spaces).
I rolled for monsters using a spread of the dungeon level tables found in the DMG, Fiend Folio, and Monster Manual 2, taking into account the distribution of monster/dungeon level on p. 174 of the DMG (I prefer AD&D's d20 spread over OSRIC's d12 version).
For straight monsters (no treasure), I ended up rolling once on the DMG tables for Dungeon Level I ("Human, Berserker") and twice on the level I FF table ("Ant, giant" and "Rat, giant"). For the monsters with treasure, I rolled once on DMG table I ("Rat, giant"), once on the FF table I ("Orc"), and three times on the MM2 tables, two on table I ("Rat, giant" and "Webbird") and one on table II ("Skeleton").
I knew I wanted to add a couple of higher-HD monsters in the ruins to give players something to flee from at low level, but return to deal with later. I settled on two D&D classics: A wight (a terrifying encounter for a party with no magic items) and a basilisk. I also added horse skeletons in the stable because why not? The dungeon guidelines include instructions to bring your own ideas into a stocking exercise, beyond what the tables generate. Finally, to make the garden areas more dynamic, I included a formidable monster-hazard in the form of patches of witherweed (from the FF). (I also stuck some extra orcs in the ruined village outside the palace walls, as an appetizer.)
I rolled for treasures using the OSRIC tables to get a variety of coins (mostly silver, with some copper and electrum), along with a few gems and 3(!) magic items after rolling 3 '19's on the table and confirming the results: A Potion of Levitation, a Scroll of Cacodemon (7/MU), and a roll on Miscellaneous Magic table IV, resulting in "Roll Again & Roll Magic Sword." I rerolled and came up with a Portable Hole (!) and a +1 Short Sword.
I balked a little at first when I rolled a 7th-level spell scroll and an awesome item like a Portable Hole. These seem over-powered for what is essentially an extension of the first level of the dungeon. But after thinking about it for a bit, I let the results stand. Maybe the magic item tables should be scaled by dungeon level, similar to monsters? But they're not, so I have to believe the potential for over-powered results is intended. Gary advised DMs to use their judgment in placing monsters and treasures as the best way to regulate which items are found on what level. Since this is just a fun exercise in random generation, I kept the items in the mix.
To limit their early acquisition, I made both these potent items well-protected, requiring parties to be either higher level or extremely clever to attain either one. I placed the scroll with the wight as its guardian, and hid the Portable Hole "in plain sight," under a canopy of witherweed, which can have a devastating effect on anyone trying to pass through it. Even if the party has the temerity to move into this hazardous area and reach the hole's location, they still may not recognize the item for what it is and fail to take it as loot.
In doing the stocking rolls for dungeon levels 1–3, I was unhappy with the overall magic item results (or lack thereof), so I made an arbitrary change to my methodology to include 3 additional magic items per level to each level's stocking, just to juice up the magic treasure/xp numbers. Statistically, these would be mostly potions and scrolls, but it provided opportunities for the players to find additional stuff.
I didn't want to seed these extra items for the surface level though, because I want players to get into the dungeon, not poke around up here too much. I did, however, imagine the basilisk as being a fun "boss" encounter for later-game characters with the guts to go after it. So, instead of adding magic items, I decided to put the basilisk in its "lair" and roll out its treasure type. This turned out to be quite lucrative, with a hoard of electrum and platinum coins, nearly 2 dozen gems, and 5 magic items: A Potion of Invulnerability, Oil of Slipperiness, a Scroll of Augury (2/Cl), a Wand of Detecting Minerals and Metals (with 96 charges), and a set of +1 Leather Armor. Very cool! This feels like it has potential to make for an awesome session (or a TPK).
At this point, I was still using a 50/50% roll to determine whether a treasure is hidden and/or trapped. Of 6 treasures rolled (not including the basilisk's hoard), I came up with one treasure that was hidden, one that was trapped, three that were both hidden and trapped, and one that was neither. Due to the trap-heavy results I received for levels 0–3, I've scaled this base percentage back to 30/30% as I don't want to make players so twitchy that the sessions drag on while they micro-inspect everything. I like the spread of the results better now and it's less work for me coming up with so many variations on the concealment and traps tables. I went back and removed a few of the traps I'd already rolled.
I should note that I don't roll the contents room by room. I roll out each thing separately and then pair them up. For example, I rolled 5 locations with "Monster + Treasure." I rolled 5 monsters and 5 treasures separately and then joined them together later in a way that made good dungeon sense to me. This gives me better control over where the monsters are located in relation to each other, and allows me to group up locations with the same monsters. I tried doing it using the room-by-room method, but didn't care for the results at all. I'm not entirely certain which method (if any) is the "correct" one intended by the guidelines. Doing it my way felt more creative.
When placing the monsters and treasures here, I already had guidance for the first 3 levels. I'd placed orcs, giant rats, berserkers, and skeletons on level 1, and established both that the orcs and (CE) berserkers were allies, and that the giant rats and skeletons were ubiquitous and self-generating. Their appearance on "level zero" is connected to those dungeon locations on level 1, so I placed these "forward bases" in strategic locations in the ruins. The orcs would be protecting the main entrance down to level 1. Their "pathetic human" allies would be close enough, but kept separate. The skeletons—former palace guards, forever doomed to haunt its evil halls—would naturally occupy the most obvious fortification.
I centered the rat infestation in the stables and also placed the animated horse skeletons there. The giant ants went into the garden along with the witherweed and basilisk add-ons. The additional wight went into the outer ruins, hidden in a dark basement among the burned-out buildings. The webbirds required a little consideration because they have an odd method of attack.
Appearing in the MM2, webbirds were actually introduced in the 1980 AD&D adventure module: S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, an incredible fusion of sci-fi and fantasy written by Gary Gygax at pretty-much the height of his powers. Still one of my favorite, never-run adventures. I just wish Erol Otus had been assigned ALL the art. His stuff for this adventure is amazing.
Though webbirds were monsters newly created for this adventure, they were not given a traditional stat block and writeup at the end. Instead, their description and unique attack method was in the location key for their encounter, as well as illustrated in the module's visual guide (the image at right). Comparing their writeup in S3 to their entry in MM2, we can see that the physical description is mostly the same, though the MM2 text refers to it as "some form of feathered insect or arachnid," despite appearing more reptilian in the illustrations. A web-effect from a reptile is an easier incongruity for me to swallow than a feathered bug.
Multiple webbirds flock over a 12'x12' area dispensing strings of sticky webbing (that doesn't burn) to entrap prey. The overall effect of this is determined by rolling 1d6 and adding +1 for every 6 webbirds in the flock, then comparing the total to a short table of results. The higher the result, the worse off the targets are. The MM2 version is slightly more forgiving and certainly more comprehensible in its ultimate effect.
The other major difference is the onset of the grub damage and its duration, which is faster and deadlier in the MM2 version. I don't really have a point for discussing all this; I've just never used webbirds before so I thought I'd take a look at how they work. I ended up simplifying the entrapment mechanic in the level key so I don't have to consult the book table. I'm not sure whether I like this monster or not; we'll see what happens when I playtest it. I have them roosting in the upper parts of the outer palace ruins, with shiny treasure in their nests.
The rest of the stocking rolls came up with 1 "Stair" and 1 "Trick/Trap." The stair rolled out to be a trapdoor to the level below (level 1). The "Stair" category is a result on OSRIC's "Chamber or Room Contents" table (8) but its inclusion is really an extension of the dungeon generation tables 1–7, as it provides the connections between dungeon levels. But if you already have your maps drawn out and don't need more level access routes, it becomes an extraneous result. In the DMG tables, this result is "Special" or stairs, meaning "place your own idea here or add a stair."
One of the first problems I ran into when trying to turn nine, largely-separate maps into a cohesive dungeon is that I didn't draw them with a grand plan in mind, so most levels don't have logical access points between them. I'll go into this a bit more when I post those level writeups, but I ended up having to add stairs and other routes to the existing maps to connect them all. When I get a Stair result on the stocking rolls, I'm doing my best to incorporate them into the writeup as additional routes (but I'm also allowing myself the freedom to ignore the result and place something "special" there instead). In this case, I added a new trapdoor route to level 1 in the E Bastion (0.7), as it lined up to a location that was not only "open space," but also had good dungeon logic.
The last stocking piece was the Trick or Trap. There are some nice results on the tables, but I inserted my own idea here. One dungeon feature that developed while keying levels 1–3 is the existence of a network of teleportation circles that the players may ultimately end up learning how to use. I put one of these circles here, in an exterior location, to give certain monsters on lower levels (like the young adult red dragon on level 4) access to the outside world. It will also be a way for the players to learn a quick entrance down to level 4 if they can figure out the command word.
Now that I had my contents and outline, I wrote out the key proper. By this point, I'd already established a format and layout for the key, and simply plugged in the level details. But since this blog post is the starting point of describing the process, I should probably discuss the decisions I made. I have a fairly standard layout I prefer: 2-column, 9–10-pt. text, 12–14-pt. headers and sub-heads, italics, bolding, one level of bullets, etc. About the only thing I change with any frequency is font.
I love fonts, but many fonts are intended for signage, not long passages of text. A font needs to be clear and easy to scan at the table. Calibri, Verdana, or TNR works just fine for my home-game notes, and I tend to write most stuff in .txt docs anyway, before committing it to a Word doc, so I like that font as well (Consolas now, but it used to be Lucinda Console).
A good font can strike the right mood for an adventure, though, so when I'm writing something out in "finished" form for others to (potentially) read, I like to give the font a little more thought. While working on my Isle of the Dead adventure (which is "done," but needs finishing), I settled on a nice font called Alegreya Sans. It's clean, feels antique, evokes an old typewriter. I kept that font for Sinister Secret of Zenopus' Tower, but I've done some research on old TSR fonts and found a few others I want to try out soon, so my latest "standard" format may be changing in the near-future.
Judges Guild materials were typed out in single-column format, with tight leading, narrow margins, and judicious use of indents to create makeshift tables. Its poorly laid-out, with no visual emphasis other than capitalization. But there's something magical and proto- about it that just creates all this nostalgia for me whenever I see it.
Since both the DMG and Badabaskor were fundamental inspirations for this adventure, I went with an emulation of the JG format: Single-column, 3/4-inch margins, 9-pt text, 10- and 11-pt. headers and sub-heads, bolding and italics (along with caps) for emphasis. The font is Lucinda Sans Typewriter, very similar to both the JG typewriter font and Wordpad text docs. I'm keeping my preferred format for monster stat blocks, however.
In addition to a key, each level features a unique table of wandering encounters, based on a 2d6 curve. The monsters included in the table are (almost) always found somewhere in the level key, either as part of a location's finite "roster" (thus reducing the total number found therein), or simply as "extra" monsters of the type. Many of the monsters and humanoids in the dungeon have "respawn" rates, with a population that recovers from a party's attacks over time until they are completely defeated. For the book-end slots (requiring either "snake-eyes" or "boxcars" on the dice), I like to place a couple of the level's "Big Bads." For the surface ruins, I populated the table with the usual suspects, with the bookend slots going to the red dragon from level 4 (exiting or entering the teleport circle) and the basilisk from the palace garden.
I created a second encounter table for the gardens, to represent some localized threats and mix things up a bit so that different areas of the palace grounds felt... different. I added a mosquito hazard (something I'm quite familiar with, living in the southeastern US) and an unrolled ("special") treasure in the form of a golden orchid (quite valuable, with an even more valuable magical property), as well as potential clues to the presence of a nearby basilisk. I swapped some of the monster types as well, to reflect the creatures found in the gardens.
One of those was the giant ant, which is a formidable animal in AD&D, but absolutely curb-stomping deadly in OSRIC. Well, giant worker ants are exactly the same in both versions, but the way the giant warrior/soldier ants are handled is completely different. I believe OSRIC misinterprets how the AD&D version works.
In both versions, you're supposed to ADD one warrior/soldier ant for every 5 workers. A warrior/soldier has 3 HD and a mandible bite for 2–8 damage. In my reading* of the AD&D version (right), a successful bite from a warrior/soldier triggers a special (extra) attack: A poison sting that, if it hits, does either 3–12 damage, or 1–4 damage with a successful save. (*As always, Gary's writing can be interpreted different ways, and what he's not saying is often the critical factor.)
The OSRIC version not only makes the sting its own (second) attack that does 3–12 damage if it hits, but also lists a Poison special attack (presumably save or die, as that is the OSRIC standard for poison effects; the monster description doesn't specify otherwise).
This dramatically raises the threat posed by a giant soldier ant, so I'm making an exception to my normal deference to OSRIC stats and using (my reading of) the AD&D version in this case. And since I have "infinite ants" populating the area, I've changed the soldier frequency from an additional sixth soldier for every 5 workers encountered to (1:6) giant ants is a soldier.
Last but not least, I added a section after the surface key that goes over a few dungeon features that persist across levels, so that I don't repeat myself throughout the text. One goal of this adventure writeup is to keep the keyed text to a comfortable minimum. Short descriptions, quick-roll mechanics, and hints to context without overblown explanations. Those were JG hallmarks and I'm striving for that level of detail in this.
All told, the surface level has ~200 HD of monsters worth approx. 7,000 xp, plus another 17,694 xp in valuable treasure (not counting individual loot carried by orcs, etc.) for a total of 24,694 xp. Magic xp if the items are kept runs to either 9,400 using AD&D values or 3,785 using OSRIC; or 65,800 (AD&D) / 37,850 (OSRIC) if the items are sold. A full 100% of xp is not attainable for a 1st or 2nd level party, so any xp for the surface ruins is likely to be spread out as bonus xp over multiple character levels.
To date, I've written full keys for levels 0–4, I'm well into writing the keys for 5 and 6, and I have contents rolled and partial outlines done for 7–9. I'll write everything out in coming weeks and post each level's process and results. Below are download links for the level 0 map and key.
>>Hurricane Dungeon – Level 0 (Surface) Map
>>Hurricane Dungeon – Level 0 (Surface) Key
<<Intro<<
>>Dungeon Level 1 >>
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