Let's Make a Dungeon - Map

Want to make a dungeon with me?  I'll show you a method that is quick and easy and yet still a good stand in for natural caverns.  If you get tripped up on your own perfectionism or are just too tired from work to make a dungeon come game night, this is dedicated to you.  I'll break this up into several posts because blogging about the process actually takes longer than using it.  So, today we'll just do the map.

Get 12 dice of various shapes.  Make about half of them visually distinguishable from the rest.  I chose dark and light:

Whoops, my d10 with the dark 7 should be on the other side

Toss the dice on the paper.  If  some roll off the paper just move them back to the closest edge:

I use blank paper but if you feel more comfortable using graph paper go right ahead.

Now trace the dice in pencil as you remove them and write down the number they rolled.  Light, sloppy, and fast is good.  If several dice clump together, trace around all of them like its one lumpy room.  Also put a little dot for the dark dice:

Now, draw connections from odd numbers to odd and from even numbers to even.  Not all of them have to connect but try to avoid a a simple circle. or completely linear arrangement:

If there is no connection between the even and odd caverns you'll need to arbitrarily make one. (luckily, our clumpy room connects the 3 even elevation rooms here.)

Now, clean up the connecting passages and draw little curved lines to indicate differences in elevation.  I draw them like little steps leading from the lower areas to the higher, each indicating a rise of 10'.  If a difference is too much, make it a sharp cliff:

Now, those dotted areas where the dark dice fell are "Fat Man's Misery" type passages, they're passable, but just barely.  Characters will either have to crawl on their bellies, or sidle along sideways. The chambers can be very low-ceilinged or choked with stalagmites. (I decided to make the passage from the elevation 3 room to elevation 13 very narrow, and make the 1, 3, 10 elevation rooms with dots have low ceilings)

One last thing.  If we roll a 12 sider and just count clockwise (roughly) to pick a room, we can place a water source and see what it does.  If there are lower elevations nearby, let it flow along.  If not, it can be a pool, or you can disregard- not every cave has to have water.

The largest numbers are the exits to the surface. So, here the 15 and 13 have entrances from surface caves or sinkholes.

Now we have some treacherous terrain to explore: narrow passages, long drops (one 60', one 100'), and even a dry cave hidden by a nearly impassable underwater one.  Next we'll place some monsters.

CaveCon 2010 - Post Session

Thanks to ze Bulette for the invite to the Lava Beds National Monument to game in the lava tubes there. He's a nice guy, funny, and great player. He gave me one of his famous Labyrinth Lord Purple Boxes, a copy of Matt Finch's urban encounters, and a Canadian Club dice bag. He has a recap of the caving action and pics up here. It was also great to meet his nephew, at nine, my youngest player ever. Here's what went down:

The party consisted of Ehud of the sands, a mage, and his two female porters; Bodabox the Elf, and his two porters including Nosarie with the filthy habit of picking her nose while commenting on how her employer spent his money; and Scantilous, divine servant of a god of celebration and revelry (or debauchery, depending on your point of view) along with his fabulous father/daughter team of porters- he blind an she weak and sickly, both roped together.

Just off the road into a village the party encountered an old, weathered wagon. It was so weathered it looked as if it was made of drift wood. It was hitched to an ox but sat motionless with two men up front. One looked older and moaned in pain. The party was very leer of ambush and slowly approached gathering little bits of information.

It appeared the moaning man was old and wounded- signs of infection from a bite spreading through his face. The other man was younger, sat motionless and didn't answer to questions. Ehud moved to inspect under a tarp in the back of a wagon finding a wooden statue of a foreign-dressed man pointing west. Scantlious approached the wounded man who grabbed his arm and asked him to care for his son Notrix, while pressing a leather satchel into his hands. The old man expired soon after.


Scantilous' persistant questioning finally elicited a response from the younger man but it was an odd response and the party was surprised; apparently he was in serious shock or godtouched in some way. The leather satchel contained twenty small glass vials of various kinds of white powders and a small bag of worn, glass beads of different colors. Notrix asked for the beads and in the ensuing back and forth Scantilous determined they might have some magical effect when combined with the powders (?). He gave the beads to Ehud for safe keeping.

After moving the corpse of the old man to the back of the wagon Scantilous tested a hypothesis by leading the ox in a circle. Sure enough, the statue in the back remained pointing in the same direction-- it turned on wooden cogs as the wagon turned. At this time Bodabox noticed a worn inscription on the back of the wagon, the only thing still legible: " . . . the last watch tower . . . Josiah 12:5"

The party went into town and asked a tavern keeper about any watch towers. He mentioned a series of watch towers left by an ancient empire and the rumor that one out in the broken lands held a magic bush that's fruit granted immortality when eaten.

Because the parties hirelings were all non-combatants and the Broken Lands to the west were said to be dangerous, Scantilous was interested in finding another sword arm. The provisional plan was to have the elf use his charm person spell on the village smith, but on seeing his grizzled beard and massive frame, Scantilous was worried what he might do if the charm failed. After conversing with the amicable smith the party learned of a local youth who might be willing to travel with them.

Robert son of Robert was found asleep behind a cottage, his crooked, bowl cut hair quite unforgettable. The party woke him and asked if he would be willing to join them. He seemed reluctant at first until Bodabox blurted an offer of 20 gp for his service. He readily agreed, upon which Bodabox earned back some of the money by selling the weaponless youth a battle axe for 10 gold.

After a few more inquiries the party learned there were two dirt roads heading west, one swinging north headed into red wolf territory and one swinging south passed acrosss a great slat flat. They decided a salt flat sounded safer than wolves and spent a few gold provisioning the wagon with 2 barrels of water.

With that, the party was off. The plan was to follow the south road until the wagon's statue pointed north upon which they would leave the road looking for the tower. The road soon turned to glaring white flats for as far as they could see. The sun beating down on them eventually drove them under the wagon's leathern tarp for cover. Robert's son drove for a time until he began complaining of the heat upon which Bodabox took over the reins.

A little later, Bodabox pulled the wagon to a stop on seeing a strange transparent frog. It was a tiny frog, its organs clearly visible through its skin. A debate ensued between Ehud and Scantilous about the frog. Ehud, curious as a mage was intent to collect it as a specimen, Scantilous was leery of any creature surviving in such a harsh environment.


Eventually another frog appeared and leaped at the ox' leg letting out a strange hissing cry. At the cry the slat flats began rippling with movements as hundreds of similar clear frogs began closing on the wagon in concentric circles.
The part immediately whipped the ox into a run and started splashing handfuls of water off of the wagon, which drew the frogs away. They had to slow their speed as the ox began to lather and foam, but at about this point the statue in the back of the wagon was pointing dead north.

The drove the wagon until the broken red rocks made it impossible to go any further. After examining the wagon to determine if they might dismantle it, taking the statue as a way-finder into the broken wastes, they realized it required the turning wheels to work. They would have to leave the wagon and head into the wastes unguided.

Scantilous decided to leave his blind hireling tied to the wagon to care for it and and the ox. He gave him explicit instructions on how to ration out the water over the next three days.

With that the party formed a single file and headed into the broken lands navigating by a huge snowy peak far to the north east. The only thing moving it the hot, hellish land was a circling bird- a vulture?- which must be huge to be so big at such a distance.
______________________________________

And at that we realized the time, that we might be locked into the cave area, and had to gather up all our gear and scramble back out of the cave and run for the car.

It doesn't seem like much happened, but there was a lot of role playing, some of it quite funny. The party still has to figure out what to make of odd Notrix and the satchel of white vials.

Even though there was no combat and the party didn't make it to a tower or any lava tube caves, it felt pretty dramatic to me, almost like a movie, the tension building. I as a DM am not even sure what might happen, but I have the feeling that any combat could sweep in like a storm, killing many of the weak porters and changing the balance of things in an eye blink.

Thanks again to ze Bulette, his nephew, and my buddy Marcus. Especially to Marcus who had to listen to my caffienated rambling about D&D for about 22 hours of hot driving, haha. But I've got some interesting ideas to post about out of those conversations.

World's Largest Cave Found

Apparently deep in the jungle in Vietnam. More pictures at the story.

At 262-by-262 feet (80-by-80 meters) in most places, the Son Doong cave beats out the previous world-record holder, Deer Cave in the Malaysian section of the island of Borneo.

Deer Cave is no less than 300-by-300 feet (91-by-91 meters), but it's only about a mile (1.6 kilometers) long.

By contrast, explorers walked 2.8 miles

via Neatorama

Update 7/28/09: Nellisir points out the Sarawak chamber, may actually still be the biggest cave chamber:


You could fly dragons around in these things!

Deadly Distraction - Cave Tarsier

These small scavengers dwell in dark caves and have learned to associate noise and light with potential food. They will follow an adventuring party in hopes of fresh meat, whether it is the remains of some wandering monster the party dispatches, or the party itself.

While no direct threat to adventurers, the problem is the noise and movement they produce just out of torch light. Cave tarsiers scrambling over the rocky floor and bounding from stalagtite to stalagmite make it very hard for a party to hear what other creatures may be lurking down a tunnel. Parties beset by cave tarsiers are unlikely to surprise and much more likely to be surprised.

Their great eyes shine in the dark.

Cave Tarsier
Armor Class: 6[13]
Hit Dice: 1d4
Attacks:1 (Bite 1-2)
Saving Throw:18
Special: Make parties more likely to be surprised
Move: 18
Challenge Level/XP: A/5

Coastal Caves - One Page Dungeon

My entry to the One Page Dungeon Contest. I tried to incorporate player choice into it from the very first room. I'm afraid I may have added too much detail based on my own "story" of how characters might encounter this place. I think what made adventures B1 and B2 work so well was the room to fill in your own details and fit them into your world. I'd like to try running a party through it and make some revisions based on how that goes.

I envisioned this for lower level parties. They'll get wet, miserable, and, if the treasure is adjusted appropriately, rich.