Hexcrawling and Its Fundamental Use in Old School DnD Part 3

Previous entries: Part 1, Part 2.

In the last entry, I discussed creating the first 7 hexes including the starting location (usually a village or city, but could be any civilized area/feature) which is in the center, and at least 3 interesting locations outside of the starting location to explore.

Our starting map with 3 locations to explore

So, this next step requires a little bit of prep time, but don't spend too much time on any of the 3 locations (unless you have the time to do so, that is).  We know we have some sort of tower in hex 04.05, a ruin in 05.03, and a monster lair of some sort in 04.03.  This is the time for some brainstorming.  If you've already taken the time to think of some places/NPCs your PCs are likely to encounter in the starting village (inns, taverns, local lords, sages, etc.) now is the time to start tying them into the surrounding locations.

Why do the NPCs know about the monster lair?  Perhaps it is the home of an ogre who has been pillaging the farms of Windholm at night?  Maybe the spot of a local group of bandits who have been hijacking merchants passing through, effecting the commerce in the village.  Obviously these are quick and simple ideas, but they are presented to give you an example.  Find some way to tie these locations into your starting location.

Jot down some starting notes on each location based on their hex:

04.03 - Lair of Hedgemog the Ogre (stats here in parenthesis)  Has a group of hobgoblins working for him (stats for hobgoblins in parenthesis).  At night Hedgemog wanders countryside (50% chance the PCs might catch him in his lair at night).  During the day he sleeps in his lair and the hobgoblins protect him.

Now, if you have the time, you might want to draw out a quick map of the lair, key it with monsters, traps, etc.  And you'll need to do this for at least the first level of each of the 3 locations, but no more than the first level of each location (if it has multiple levels).  If you're pressed for time, try any number of free dungeon generator tools out there to get a layout for each location quickly, then key it up yourself.

The idea in the sandbox and/or hexcrawl is that the players have freedom of choice to go where they want and basically do what they want (and suffer the consequences therein), so you're going to want to ensure there is incentive for your PCs to want to explore at least one of the areas you've prepared.  There are any number of ways to get your PCs going.  Often most campaigns kick off in the common room of a tavern.  How will the PCs know of these locations or learn of them?  Why should they want to go there?  Perhaps they are approached by an NPC offering payment to retrieve a MacGuffin from one of these locations.  Or perhaps they just hear about one or more of them as prime unexplored locations ripe for plundering via rumors in the town.

Rumors are a great way to get the ball rolling in a sandbox, and in my opinion, offers the PCs the most flexible freedom of choice in what they choose to do.  I would start off with 10-12 rumors with half of them being either completely false or only half-true, while the other half are completely true.  Place them on a chart, and roll for one while they are in the tavern in the first night.  If they actively seek out rumors, roll a die (d4 or d6, subtract reaction adjustment but no less than 0) to determine how many rumors they hear from various occupants of the town.  Roleplaying these out can be great fun as well, and really bring the world alive for the PCs.

The key here is making them WANT to explore places you've prepared.  If you don't make them appealing, chances are your PCs can wander off into areas you haven't really prepped yet, and then you're completely flying by the seat of your pants.  Sometimes this can prove to be just as fun, and to be sure, there will always be a certain level of improvisation that goes into a sandbox or hexcrawl game anyway.

In the next post, I'll discuss topics relating to getting the PCs there (i.e. the actual crawl) from constructing random encounter tables, determining movement, weather, etc.

Dreadrock Level 1-2 is Coming...Soon

I've been pretty busy the past couple of weeks, but I have not forgotten about Dreadrock. I have sections 1-2 and 1-3 mapped out already. I am currently working on keying 1-2, which is taking a bit because of the density of the rooms. There must be 50 rooms in this one, many of which are simply empty, but the map is big, so it's taking me a little longer to get it done.

This quadrant will be a bit more gonzo than 1-1, and will feature a scavenger hunt of sorts including finding a dead dwarven adventurer, a demonic looking stone golem, and a hobgoblin king. Oh yeah, there are Carrion Crawlers too...or whatever the OSRIC term for them is...carcass creepers I believe. But it is coming, and very soon. Probably within the next week. I'm currently prepping for my monthly table top Cormyr AD&D 2e campaign, which I'm running tomorrow night. But for those curious, no I haven't forgotten Dreadrock, it's just taking a little longer than I'd hoped. Soon though...very soon.

Running Dread Rock Dungeon

Yesterday I posted about possibly getting a skype game going with a few guys from my old gaming group.  Most of these guys are in my table top Cormyr game, but one of them, who happens to be my best friend, lives a few hours away from us.  I'm planning on running them through the first quadrant of Dread Rock to begin.  It'll be a good way for me to really playtest it out with a good group of veteran old school players.  We created characters late last night on skype. 

 

One of my players is running a dwarf with an 18 CON, which in 2e means at 1st level he has ridiculous bonuses to his saves vs poison, staves, rods, wands, and spells.  On top of it all he's playing a multi-class thief with a high find/remove traps and open locks.  And of course, his high CON means he has a huge bonus to his hit points.  I told him his nickname was going to be Seagal (a reference to the film Hard to Kill).  This player was pretty legendary for us back in the day when we went through two underdark crawls back to back in Undermountain and Night Below.  He really shines in the dungeon environment as a player, despite his often reckless behavior in them.  Usually the results are pretty hilarious when he's involved in a dungeon crawl.

 

My best friend is running a specialist mage (necromancer) who happens to hate the undead.  He's making it his mission to hunt down and destroy undead and those who would defile the dead by raising/animating them.  An interesting choice to play considering necromancers can't cast spells from enchantment/charm and illusion schools, which means no Sleep spell at 1st level, which we know is usually the saving grace of any low level mage.  Keeping him alive for a while is going to be difficult.

 

I have one more player that will be joining us, but we're not sure what he'll be playing at this point.  I'm going to run a Fighter NPC with the party, and of course, I'm sure they'll opt to shop around for some hirelings.  I'm pretty anxious to give Dread Rock a spin in actual play.  I understand quite a few people have downloaded the first quadrant to run in their games.  If you've been running Dread Rock at all, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, so feel free to drop me a line at robertchandler AT gmail DOT com, or just comment here on the blog somewhere.

Preview: Dreadrock Dungeon Level 1-2

click to enlarge

Here's a quick preview of level 1-2 of the Dreadrock megadungeon project.  I still have to clean it up, and key it.  This one will feature a higher empty room vs monster ratio than level 1-1, as this quadrant's population isn't as dense.  I'm hoping to have it keyed up and compiled into a PDF by this weekend.  That large octagonal "room" is actually the ruins of the ancient dwarven proving grounds arena.  That large cavernous looking area is actually a chasm which drops down several levels with a stone bridge stretching across, which the dwarves used for mining and moving ores and precious metals to the top level for working in the forge.

Quick Mini-Dungeon Generator Tables

We've all been in the DM chair when we're put into a spot we haven't quite planned out.  It could be a random encounter, or a part of a dungeon we haven't yet mapped out.  I created this basic mini-dungeon generator system to make a small dungeon with 3-8 rooms on the fly.  It takes about 5 minutes to roll one up.  I've tested it out a few times and it works fine for me.

First just grab a scratch piece of paper.  You're just going to be sketching the layout quickly.  After all, this is on the fly, and you don't want to hold the game up for 30 minutes drawing out a dungeon map.  Odds are, you already have an idea of what may be in the dungeon (i.e you rolled for Orcs in a random encounter, etc.) for stocking purposes.  For this generator you'll need a d4, d6, and a d8. Here's how it works. 

Roll 1d6+2 for the number of rooms in the dungeon

Traps are equal to 1d3+ 1/2 number of total rooms rounded up (example: roll a 1 on a d3 with a dungeon with 5 rooms total. 1+3=4 total traps)
Tricks are equal to 1 + 1/4 number of total rooms rounded up (example: 1 base trick in a dungeon with 6 rooms total. 1 + 1 for rooms = 2 tricks total)
Secret/concealed doors/passages are equal to 1/3 number of total rooms rounded up (6 rooms = 2 secret doors/passages)

If using a secret passage roll 2d* where * is the die most appropriate to the number of rooms (i.e. d4, d6, d8.)  The numbers on each die are the rooms connected by the passage.  If 2 of same number are rolled, re-roll 1d* for the other room.

Roll 1d4 for dungeon type (if you don't already know...most of the time you'll know this, but if not...)
1. ruin
2. tomb
3. cavernous
4. arcane - built for a mysterious purpose.  Perhaps by a long dead wizard to store his sundries, or a mad lord for his own brutal entertainment

Roll 1d6 to determine room type for each room

1. T-shaped
2. Circular
3. Square
4. Rectangle
5. Octagonal
6. Re-roll twice and combine results. Re-roll any further 6s

Roll 1d6 to determine how each room connects to the other starting with 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc.
1. Straight passage north/south
2. L-shaped passage north/south
3. Straight passage east/west
4. L-shaped passage east/west
5. Stairs going up/down
6. Connects directly to next room

Roll 1d6 to determine if Entrance/Exit to room/passage is:
1. Door unlocked
2. Door locked
3. Open
4. Archway
5. Door locked and trapped
6. Door unlocked and trapped

Once the base linear dungeon is created, connect some of the rooms together in some fashion so you're not railroading.  Once you have the layout sketched, you'll see this is easily accomplished most of the time.  Next, I'll be coming up with a random trap/trick table you can use quickly to place those in the dungeon, but on the fly, you can use simple ones like pit, dart, skythe traps, etc.  This system should give you a quick and usable dungeon in just about 5 minutes.

Updated More User Friendly Dreadrock Dungon Level 1-1 PDF

It came to my attention, that the version of level 1-1 of Dreadrock wasn't exactly user friendly. I went in and adjusted the image, along with the room numbers on the map (as my hand writing scanned in is difficult to read). I also added some notes about the dungeon as well. I think you'll find this version MUCH easier to read, print, and work with in your game. Lesson learned.

Updated download for Dreadrock Dungeon Level 1-1 PDF

Dreadrock Dungeon Level 1-1 Download

As promised, here is the first PDF download for Dreadrock Dungeon Level 1-1. This is the first of four planned quadrants that make up the whole of level 1 of the megadungeon. Included in this is a small preview map for easy cross referencing, a dungeon key with all 45 rooms keyed, a wandering monster table, restock table, trap legend, and a high resolution map for printing.

In the future I plan on releasing a full PDF collection on the dungeon, its inhabitants, and some background on the dungeon itself, some of which I've already posted here on the blog. I hope you enjoy the first taste of Dreadrock.

Dreadrock Dungeon Level 1-1 PDF Download

Dreadrock Dungeon - A Preview of Level 1-1

Click map to enlarge to high-res image

Here's a quick sneak peek into the first quadrant of Level 1 of Dreadrock. I am in the process of finishing up the key and putting it into a nice little PDF for download here, which I hope to have complete by the middle of the week.

This area is where adventurers will start out in the dungeon. This quadrant is the current home of the orc tribe I described in my previous entry, the Rakshir Orcs. As such, the density of monsters vs empty rooms will be a bit higher for this section. Of course, feel free to use this current map and key it however you like.

Area 1 is the entry point, via a dimension door from the tavern in Dreadrock Bluff. Naturally, you could replace the dimension door with a stairwell from a ruined keep, or a cave, whatever your preference.

**edit**

Note: This is only the first of 4 planned sections that make up the entirety of level 1 of the dungeon.  There will be multiple entrances into the dungeon in the other sections as well as multiple entrances to level 2 in those subsequent quadrants when I map them out.

Dagger Keep Dungeon Map

This is kind of random, but I was sitting around with my sketchbook tonight and just whipped this up while I was bored. Thought I'd share with you all. Feel free to use as you like, if you like. I call it Dagger Keep Dungeon. As you can see, it starts with a ruined keep with a secret trap door which leads to the dungeons underneath the keep itself. If you're looking for an easy way to key it up for a quick adventure, I'd suggest using the AD&D/OSRIC Dungeon Creator tool over at Djeryv's Graveyard. The dungeon itself has 14 rooms.

Dreadrock Dungeon: The Rakshir Orcs

The Rakshir Orc tribe first appeared in the halls of Dreadrock some ten years ago.  They migrated from the deeper levels connecting into the vast of the underdark and slowly made their way to the oldtown area (located in level 1-1 of the dungeon) of the ruins.  The oldtown area was once home to the common dwarven citizens of Karzamir before the fall of the civilization.  Presently, the Rakshirs have managed to fortify this area of oldtown, and it has become their permanent tribal home.  The area is heavily fortified with armed orc soldiers and crude traps constructed throughout the dungeon.  The tribe itself consists of approximately 100-120 orcs, mostly males.  Their chieftain is an Orc named Ghorash who has a guard of 10 orc warriors and at least 1 orc shaman with him at all times.  The Rakshir orcs remain in a constant struggle with the Warghash Goblin tribe, and the two sides are often battling over supplies and control of their areas.  The two sides constantly raid the others's areas scavenging and stealing supplies.  In addition to the Warghash, the Rakshir are constantly working to stave off curious adventurers who frequently make their way into the dungeon, which has proven to be a drastically difficult task.  Recently the humans in Dreadrock Bluff sealed off the main entrance from the mountain in order to secure a more stable entrance they can control (via a dimension door) which is situated near their tribal holdings in the dungeon.

 

The Rakshirs have managed to accumulate a small amount of slaves (mostly kobolds, but some humans as well).  The Rakshirs use these slaves primarily to work on digging out a tunnel which will lead to the surface, allowing them to make raids into Dreadrock Bluff, and the merchants and travelers coming into the town.  The people of Dreadrock Bluff are currently unaware of this activity. 

 

The members of the Rakshir tribe have an interesting method of disposing of captured enemies and prisoners.  Located in a sub-level near their tribal quarters, is a small cavern.  Orcs will often deliver enemies, goblins, kobold slaves, and captured adventurers to this cavern where they must face the wrath of the creature they call Stone-eye.  Stone-eye is a basilisk, and the orcs manage to keep him contained by offering him the carcasses of their enemies to feast upon, as well as the remains of their own dead.  This tactic has worked thus far in keeping Stone-eye in his own lair.

 

 

GM Notes: If any PC's encounter kobolds in the dungeons, they will always be with at least 1 orc warrior (the slave master), and the kobolds will always be unarmed.  If any PC's manage to communicate with kobold slaves, they will offer to help the PC's clear out the orc tribe if they promise them their freedom afterwards.  The PC's would have to raid the orc weapon cache in the dungeon, or find some way to arm the kobolds, before they will agree to fight with the party. 

Dreadrock Dungeon: An Introduction

Dreadrock Dungeon is a massive labyrinth of tunnels with various levels situated under, what has come to be called, Dreadrock Mountain.  The dungeon was first discovered merely 3 decades ago by chance by a party of adventurers who were fleeing a band of mercenaries in the valley.  They stumbled upon the sealed entrance, and seeking to flee and hide from their pursuers, they managed to open the passage into, what they would soon discover to be the ruins of an ancient dwarven civilization.  A millenia ago, the dwarven city of Karzamir was one of the largest dwarven civilazations in the realm.  For reasons still undetermined, the city was virtually wiped out, and the tunnels leading into the city were sealed shut.  Eventually as time passed, Karzamir was forgotten and knowledge of its existence faded in the realms.  A few historians and sages knew of the place, but after centuries it became nothing more than a place of myth and legend.

 

After the discovery of the dungeon by The Company of the Black Rose, who spent quite a few years exploring its depths and exploiting the hidden riches within, word began to spread about the newly found ruins.  People of all races, especially dwarves, came to the mountain looking for opportunities of their own.  Eventually the members of The Company of the Black Rose retired from adventuring, now rich beyond measure.  A few went back to their own homelands, while a few stayed behind, erecting a small settlement near the entrance to the dungeon.  Soon, others followed suit settling in the town now known as Dreadrock Bluff, situated along the side of the mountain.  Dreadrock Bluff is now a small town with approximately 10,000 citizens, most of which make their living by catering to the adventurers who flock to explore the riches of Dreadrock.  There are various inns and taverns in the town, most charge exorbitant prices in comparison to other towns, because of the convenience of location to the dungeon.  Various sundry shops, weapon and armor shops, smiths, sages, and temples can be found within Dreadrock Bluff's walls, all willing to help the curious adventurer, for a price of course.

 

Dreadrock Dungeon is not without its dangers of course, and many adventurers who decide to explore its depths never return.  The locals in the area simply call it "The Rock."

 

Note: Dreadrock Dungeon is a site based dungeon which can easily be incorporated into any campaign setting or world.

New Project: Megadungeon - Dreadrock Dungeon

"Woe to ye who delve into the halls of that forsaken place. Abandon your Gods for even they dare not enter The Rock"

I'm officially announcing my new project here; Dreadrock Dungeon. So what exactly will this entail? A large scale megadungeon spanning at least 3 levels which will keep those greedy players of yours adventuring for months and months.

I'm planning on releasing the megadungeons here on the blog divided into quadrants in PDF form complete with room and area descriptions, random encounter tables, treasure, and of course the ever important monsters, tricks, and traps, along with a brief synopsis on each area, its denizens, and possible adventure hooks. Once the project is complete, which I don't anticipate for quite a while, I would like to collect them all together into one POD book possibly through Lulu.

Over the next few weeks I'll be posting entries here and there with tidbits on the design process, the various factions within the dungeon, etc. I have already mapped out the first quadrant, and plan on keying it up and putting it in an easy to review PDF within the next week or so.

This megadungeon will be compatible with most older editions of AD&D, as well as OSRIC and will be released under the terms of the OGL.

Islets of Rlloth - Sea of Os'r Adventure Path

Recently over at Planet Agol, the question of whether the OSR needs an adventure path was posed.  Several folks in the OSR blogosphere have taken the reigns and created a few island hopping site based adventures for use with a larger Sea of Os'r campaign adventure path including Paul over at Quickly, Quietly, Carefully, migellito of  The Grumpy Old Troll, and quite a few others.

So, I thought what the heck, I'll throw my own into the fray as well.  I present, the Islets of Rlloth, for inclusion into the Sea of Os'r adventure path.  A dangerous, small isle flowing with undead.

Here's a sample of what the map looks like.

Download: Crypts of Aezoul Vhezian Level 1

Well, I've managed to key the first level and clean the map up a bit. I've put it all in a handy 5 page PDF for you to download for free and use.

Crypts of Aezoul Vhezian - Level 1 PDF

Here's a low-res version of the finished map.  A special thanks to Dyson Logos and Risus Monkey for inspiring me with their awesome dungeon mapping skills.

Crypts of Aezoul Vhezian Level 1

As I mentioned earlier today, I am preparing to run my friends through an old school mega-dungeon crawl in March at our semi-annual camping trip. The dungeon is an ancient crypt buried beneath a ruined tower (originally I was going to go with a city, but have since changed my mind). The crypts hold the tombs of Aezoul Vhezian, a legendary warrior from long ago, as well as his family members and banner men. The crypts themselves will run a few levels with various monsters, traps, tricks, etc. and will eventually lead into underdark caverns far below the surface. The first level of the dungeon will be the smallest. Last night I drew a very quick sketch of that level and scanned it in to share. Now, I've got to key it and prepare some random encounters. I'm really looking forward to diving into this.

Considering this is the first dungeon I've drawn in about a decade, I didn't think it turned out too bad.

The First Semi-Annual Great Dungeon Crawl

If you've been reading my blog, you know that I've had a blast with my old gaming buddies running AD&D via play-by-post.  We've had an incredible time with it, but as I said, nothing beats the table top.  Twice a year my friends and I gather together for a camping trip at a nice lakeside spot in our hometown.  Not everyone can always make it, but most of us end up going.  We usually go in March and October.  It's a night spent with the drink flowing, great company, and a lot of reminiscing.  The thought occurred to me recently; this year for our trip we should break out the old dice, and have a good old-fashioned, table top dungeon romp.  The idea is, we all create the characters before the trip, first level of course, and then we play a session with those characters.  Every subsequent camping trip, we run those same characters, if they live.  If they don't, the player rolls up a new one and we press on.  No complex and twisting plots, no intrigue, just good old fashioned dungeon crawling.  There will be a minor story there, just to make the dungeon make sense, but that's about it.  I'm talking a mega-dungeon here, of course, with lots of levels and paths, various entrances and exits, etc; a very Jaquayed dungeon.

 

I was excited to finally get a moment to work on the first level of the dungeon last night.  I'm still trying to tweak the story, but essentially the first couple of levels will be part of an ancient tomb that was perhaps once underneath a now ruined, and forgotten city.  Of course, as they delve deeper they'll discover passages leading to the underdark, and more dangerous creatures.  I still need to key the dungeon encounters, lay out the traps, and build a wandering monster table, but I was very happy to get this first part finished.  I plan on posting up the first level tonight once I have a chance to scan it in.  I haven't built my own dungeon in nearly a decade, so it's been great to break out the graph paper and pencil once again.  This camping trip should be one for the ages.

The DnD Fortune Card Debacle

I had resolved myself to avoid blogging about the recent news of the inclusion of "fortune cards" into the current version of Dungeons and Dragons.  For starters, I'm a bit apathetic to any current product created by WotC.  The company, now a subsidiary of Hasbro, took the reigns of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise, but it is DnD only in name.  It ceased being the game we all loved many years ago. 
My initial reaction upon hearing about these fortune cards was the same as many of my old school contemporaries; I turned my nose up to the idea.  I had the "how dare they" knee jerk reaction initially, but then I came to realize, as I said above, the game they produced stopped being DnD ten years ago.  They've already spit, soiled, and desecrated the game anyway, so while the news of adding "collectible" cards in an effort to cash-in on the name of DnD was appalling, it wasn't unexpected.

I can't say I fault Hasbro or WotC for this move.  They aren't in the business to make old codgers like me happy.   They're in the business of making money and frankly, they need something to keep a revenue stream coming in.  Table top gaming as we once knew it, has been dying a slow, painful death for many years now thanks to things like World of Warcraft and the like.  So, while I hate the idea of commercializing my beloved game of Dungeons and Dragons to turn a buck, I can't be angry at them from a business perspective.

Perhaps my biggest complaint with the use of fortune cards in DnD is how it can impact the game itself.  Years ago, I jumped on the Magic: The Gathering bandwagon.  Revised Edition had just hit the streets and the game was still relatively underground at the time.  Within a year it blew out of control.  People were buying them left and right, purchasing rare cards, and building super decks and the driving force behind the game suddenly stopped being player skill and, instead morphed into player income.  The more money you had, the better cards you could buy, thus the better decks you had and the better shot of winning.  It wasn't a game of skill and became even less a game of chance.  If you had the bucks to drop on the game, you could win and win a lot.  I see this taking the RPG down the same dreadful path. 

We like to emphasize "player skill" when we talk about our beloved hobby.  It doesn't matter how badass your miniature is, or how cool looking your dice are, if you're not skilled as a player, you won't last long in the game.  It's always been the one thing that really sets our game apart from others.  Fortune cards remove this to an extent.  Because of the "collectible" nature of them, suddenly he who has the money to lay down for ultra-rare power-ups suddenly replaces his skill in the game, with said power-ups.  Player skill becomes secondary to playing a trump card in the game to get a re-roll or a staggering bonus.  It also changes the way players react or deal with certain situations.  If they know they've got the handy power-up to let them re-roll they'll take chances they may not have otherwise taken based on their skill as a player.

The one saving grace about these fortune cards is the fact that they're optional, which means, hopefully wise DM's will see how ridiculous they are, and restrict their use in their home campaigns.  If that happens universally, then people will stop buying the fortune cards, and they'll disappear from the shelves never to see the light of day.  In this new generation of gaming, however, I don't have much confidence in that happening.

But as I said, WotC can go on and do whatever the hell they want to with the game they call Dungeons and Dragons.  I'll cling to my old dusty books and worn dice, because the game I grew up loving is the same game I play today.  Keep your fortune cards.  I'll take the skill of a good player any day.

Dungeon Crawl: Atarin's Delve




Courtesy of Dyson at A Character for Every Game

 


 Courtesy of Dyson over at A Character for Every Game, comes a fantastic dungeon he's created called Atarin's Delve.  Great to add to a megadungeon or to use as a stand alone adventure.  It's full of monsters and treasure galore and is wonderfully constructed to give your players a great dungeon crawling experience.  He's inspired me to start building my own dungeons again.  Go check him out.