On Thursday (3 Mar), I was setting down to draw the next day of rooms in my Dungeon, and realized that I’d not keyed a wandering monster chart for level 4!
Every level has its own chart, and there are some NPCs/creatures that are present across all levels. I thought it a fun thread if there’s a small chance of seeing a friendly (or perhaps not so friendly) face again.
I also have denizens of the level in the chart – living their lives and interacting with others. This is all based on an article from White Dwarf #46, published back in October of 1983. I think I found this article mentioned back in 2011 or 2012 and I’ve had a PDF of the article ever since.
The idea of a dungeon level as a living, breathing entity that is going act and react to not only its own devices, but also to the invasion of the players is a fun one to chew over!
It’s also useful to keep a running track of monsters already encountered that might have survived contact with the PCs. What will they do next? They don’t remain static, standing around in their room waiting for the PCs to return. I keep those notes as a running list and will refer back as the players delve, seeing what has changed, or what is happening.
It’s far more exciting for the players to run across two sets of creatures interacting in some way, than them just standing around in their own chamber, waiting to be ambushed.
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For the most part, this week is just plug-n-chug on level 5. I’m following the same approach – map out the dungeon first, figure out the random monster generation, see what that inspires in me, then stock the thing. So far, few diagonals, for which I’m grateful!
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I am noticing a little bit of a decrease in the number of Dungeon23 social media posts. I wonder if the natural drop-out/drop-off is starting to happen?
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We had another Dungeon23 campaign session this week, and our first PC casualty. Cauis, the 3hp mage, had bravely stepped forward to throw a flask of oil at two charging cultists. Unfortunately, he missed and the cultists seized the initiative. A few mace blows and Caius was left prostrate. He was at 0hp, thus invoking a houserule that says if a PC is at 0, but not below, they may save vs. Death to survive.
Alas, Cauis did not and he passed on.
Caius was a fun character, carrying on as if he was in a resort for the hoi-polloi, instead of a prison island. He’s going to be best remembered for setting beds on fire in a dungeon sleeping area, carrying around a goblet of wine in the dungeon, and for trying to pay for a drink by cutting a coin in half, assuming there was “no change”.
Salute to Caius!
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Dungeon23 stats: as of week 12
- Levels: 6
- Rooms: 288 (14 added in wk 12)
- Levels 1 – 4: mapped/keyed.
- Level 5: mapping in progress
- Level 6 connected.
- 3 sublevels mapped/keyed.
- Town: Created, 7 locations/NPCs keyed.