The Five Room Dungeon
in http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Five_Room_Dungeon
An idea by Johnn Four (the übernerd that writes for Strolen's), it's a pattern for making a quick
dungeon delve. Five simple steps, and you get enough for at least a session around the kitchen
table, maybe two, and the heroes feel like they really earned their experience points. The idea was
so good, Wizards of the Coast stole it for the example adventure Kobold Hall in one of their works
(DMG, 4th edition, pages 210-219).
Maps and stats aren't important, you can work those out after you have the sequence of the plot and
challenges down. You don't even need exactly five rooms, just five scenes in sequence.
The five rooms are:
1. Entrance with Guardian
2. Puzzle/Roleplaying Challenge
3. Trick or Setback
4. Big Climax
5. Reward/Revelation.
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1. Entrance With Guardian
There has to be a reason why nobody else has come here before. It's difficult to get to, it's hidden,
there's a guard posted outside, or a foreign big nasty decided the entrance makes for a good lair,
something only heroic types could overcome. An antagonist right away gets the player's excitement
up, and gets the dice rolling. (Sometimes you can switch the first and second room, if a puzzle at
the entrance makes more sense.)
• The entrance is trapped.
• There's multiple entrances, but only one is correct (Tomb of Horrors)
• The entrance requires a special key or ceremony: "speak friend and enter," decker must hack
the entrance.
• A guardian was deliberately placed at the entrance: golem, guard dog, nightclub bouncer.
• A hidden ambush waits in the shadows.
• A portcullis that the kobold guards can pass through easily, but heroes must expose themselves
to lift.
2. Puzzle or Roleplaying Challenge
For those whose characters aren't the fightin' types, the next area lets them show off the skill points
they spent in Diplomacy or Spot checks. This pleases the players who didn't pick Rangers and
Barbarians, and breaks up the pace a bit before getting back to the RAWWWWRR. Be sure to allow
for multiple solutions, because playing the "guess what I'm thinking" game is boring for players.
Once you figure out the puzzle here, go back to room 1 and put some clues.
•
•
•
•
•
•
chessboard floor with special squares.
a hallway of coloured portals with an old riddle telling them which way to go. (Tomb of Horrors).
a corrupt city official can give the permits to enter the radiation sector.
the apartment building has buzzers for tenants, but the quarry is using an assumed name.
the chamber of the ark is covered in venomous snakes that will shy away from open fire.
the floor is covered in pressure-plates for dart traps that kobolds are light enough to ignore.
3. Trick or Setback
This is where you raise the stakes. Something about the plan has gone wrong, something the
opposite of what they expected. Maybe the NPC they brought along gets kidnapped. Maybe they
fight the big bad, but it's actually a minion pretending. This room is good for giving your players a
second dose of fighting or puzzle, whichever they prefer. This is also a good opportunity to get
players to waste some resources that could be useful in the big fight in room four, such as using up
their flaming oil on a troll when a mummy is the BBEG.
• The hostages they rescued demand/plead to be taken back immediately, before the heroes can
find the villain.
• You've found the lich's lair, but he seems awfully weak, and isn't he a demi-lich? (Tomb of
Horrors)
• Contains a one way exit, dumping (some of?) the group back outside room 1.
• The heroes found the data they need to steal, but it's encrypted, and the password are further
inside.
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• One of the NPCs that came along takes the magic dingus for himself and runs off.
• The heroes walk right into kobolds playing a sport with swinging boulders from high ledges.
4. Big Climax
Here's the ringleader, the goblin chieftain, the big kahuna -- Big O, it's show time. Spend more of
your effort on tactics, set pieces and showy effect on the fight in this room, because this is what the
adventure module is named after.
• make a detailed map, with interesting terrain and usable props for jumping/tripping over,
grabbing, swinging...
• start or end with some acting. Maybe the boss needs to stall to finish preparing, or to allow for
reinforcements. Maybe there's hapless minions to toy with when their leader falls.
• The big bad is going to have powers that is beyond the monsters & traps encountered up until
now.
• The lair is trapped, and only the BBEG knows how to get around the room safely.
• Previous rooms might have clues for the weaknesses of the main villain.
• The evil guy has the holy whatzit in his grasp, and threatens to destroy it.
• The kobold chief has a magic staff, a pet that steals player's gear, and a rolling boulder trap that
his followers can avoid by climbing ledges and using ranged attacks.
5. Reward, Revelation
Here's where you sucker-punch the players. The big fight is over, time to pat each other on the back
for another great job... OR IS IT? It doesn't have to be an actual fifth room, it could be a plot-twist
that reveals itself after the big fight in room four. Maybe the players will find the plot hook to the
next adventure, or clues about a major plot-arc over the campaign, or maybe the REAL villain will
reveal himself and twirl his moustache.
• A trap is sprung, which re-animates the big guy from room four.
• Bonus treasure is uncovered which leads elsewhere, such as part of a treasure map, or deed to
some land.
• After being weakened by the fight in room four, the bad guy uncloaks from following the heroes
and snatches the whatzit.
• The captured princess wasn't kidnapped, but ran away from home to elope with the bad guy.
(Blackrock Depths)
• The true, gruesome meaning behind a national holiday is discovered.
• The alien's language is deciphered, revealing that the hostilities was all just a
misunderstanding.
• A prophecy comes true, but not they way the players expected.
• The kobold chief was pressured into raiding the human villages by a young white dragon who
demanded tribute.
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The Nine Forms of the Five Room Dungeon
in http://www.gnomestew.com/tools-for-gms/the-nine-forms-of-the-five-room-dungeon/
The Five Room Dungeon has been around almost as long as RPGs themselves, and has been
enjoying a surge of popularity in the past few years as a quick and easy way to build a dungeon
crawl. Interestingly enough, it turns out there are only 9 base designs for the five room dungeon.
With so few, it’s very easy to simply grab one of the nine, populate it and run a crawl, but it’s also
easy to run the same basic layout multiple times until one of your players says: “Wait a minute! Isn’t
this the exact same dungeon layout we ran last week?”
In fact, the 5 room dungeon contest held by Roleplayingtips and Strolen back in 2007 resulted in
almost 100 5 room dungeons, all of which (to the best of my knowledge) make use of a layout I like
to call “The Railroad” ie: 5 rooms in a straight line.
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This is the assumed layout (at least they don’t otherwise specify) used by most setups like those
proposed by Johnn Four and The stew’s own Troy Taylor. That makes a lot of sense because it’s
meant to be simple, straightforward, quick, and the players are meant to hit every room. As soon as
you introduce a fork in the path, there’s a chance that the PCs skip one or more of the five
encounters. Frankly though, these dungeons aren’t your magnum opus, so if a side passage is
missed, the biggest issue is that you may be short a little game time. And let’s be honest: Who’s
players don’t sweep the entire dungeon just in case they’ve missed something sparkly, especially if
they have a half-hour in the session left to kill? Worst case scenario, if you’re worried about it, just
quantum ogre the whole run or put the key to one path at the end of another and call it a day. This
effectively reduces one of the more complex layouts back to The Railroad, but no one is likely to
notice if you don’t abuse the tactic.
Alternately, consider designing your encounters so that all of them must be dealt with to succeed:
destroying all traces of an evil group or collecting a series of McGuffins can require the exploration
of every room.
The major issue then is repetitiveness, since 5 room dungeons are a quick and easy fallback plan,
and there are only 9 possible layouts. Fortunately, there are several ways to keep the same nine
dungeons fresh use after use.
The major issue then is repetitiveness, since 5 room dungeons are a quick and easy fallback plan,
and there are only 9 possible layouts. Fortunately, there are several ways to keep the same nine
dungeons fresh use after use.
They don’t have to be dungeons. It’s been said elsewhere, but these can be layouts for warehouses,
starships, haunted houses, or any other location, not just dungeons. But this concept can be taken
further. These can be used as investigation trees, social networks, or any number of other setups.
Rooms can be shifted. The reason the rooms are arranged in the the way they’re displayed is
because I thought they made cute, funny, or evocative pictures that way. Moving around the rooms
makes no difference to the actual layout though. If you want to move around rooms, change the
order or length of passages, or other merely cosmetic changes, that doesn’t actually change the
layout, but it does make it look distinct. For example, “Foglio’s Snail” can have it’s “eyes” rotated
around to make it look similar to “The Arrow”, with the entrance at the other end. This plays the
same as the snail normally would, but looks different.
Levels can be added. Any or all of the passages can be staircases, lava tubes, elevators or other
vertical transitions, creating a two-level dungeon. Again, this is merely a cosmetic change to the
layout, but it helps make this week’s dungeon look distinct from last week’s. Alternately, you can
prepare two five room dungeons and use one as level one, and the other as level two if you’re feeling
particularly ambitious. This doubles the amount of work you need to do, but creates roughly 405
different possible layouts.
Use different building blocks. All of the nine basic setups are constructed with only two types of
building blocks: The entryway and 4 hall + room pieces. There’s no reason this formula can’t be
changed up. Additional passages can be added. Rooms can be connected directly with no hallways
between. Secret passages can act as shortcuts or create secret rooms. Alternate passageways that
make use of different modes of travel can be created.
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The sixth room. Nothing says that a sneaky GM can’t create a five room dungeon with six rooms. If
you want to be super-sneaky, the sixth room can be a secret room! An extra room adds
many more possibilities with only minimally more effort.
Example – The Cliffside Temple
Using “The Moose” as the base, here’s a sample five-room dungeon
layout. An ancient temple carved into the side of a cliff, our heroes come
in search of a holy relic. From the entry foyer they can either head to the
vaulted central chamber, or climb the stairs that lead to a rising set of
observation rooms that look down on the central chamber through small
windows. A relic is located in the main chamber, as are several others in
the observation rooms, but these are all fakes. The true relics are kept
safe in a secret chamber that can be accessed via a secret door in the
uppermost observation room. Alert PCs may be tipped off to the
existence of this secret room since it too overlooks the main chamber.
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The Five Room Dungeon In Depth
in http://runagame.blogspot.pt/2015/05/the-five-room-dungeon.html
The benefits of a five room dungeon:
• It's a formula that's easy to follow, but generates a lot of unique adventures without seeming
cookie-cutter. • The dungeon can be explored in a single short session of play, making it a discrete story unit.
Use two or more for longer format games. • You can build a larger dungeon out of multiple five-room dungeons; or use several isolated ones
in a hex crawl. • The curtailed design eliminates a lot of the filler encounters that you're tempted to include for
larger dungeons or themed dungeons.
• The formula requires you to include scenes that play to diverse strengths and fantasy character
archetypes. There's a scene for the brain, a scene for the face, a scene for the big guy, etc.
• The diversity of scenes also gives you ample opportunity to insert any kind of character plot
hooks you want. Really, there is no excuse for not doing so.
• It packs a whole three-act structure into a short time, so it has great pacing and a thrilling
conclusion.
• If you're running D&D or Pathfinder, the dungeon is a good amount of content for one
adventuring day, containing 2-4 combat encounters and a 1-3 exploration and roleplay scenes.
There should be no reason for the PCs to camp to recover resources in the middle of the
dungeon, and no need for time pressure.
And the drawbacks are limited. Except for Johnn Four's contest, there's no reason you can't modify
the five-room dungeon formula to suit your needs. Do you want a lot of combat? Add two combat
scenes. More roleplay? Add some more NPCs. Want to make it longer? Stick two or three five room
dungeons together, or add some scenes in the middle. More exploration? Add a maze with some
puzzles, traps and wandering monsters in the middle.
Here's a summary of the technique:
1. The PCs are blocked from getting in by a guardian. The dramatic question is "How can the
heroes get into the dungeon?" The guardian could be in an antechamber or outside the dungeon; or
the guardian could be a trap, puzzle, complex lock, etc. Combat might help overcome the guardian,
or it might be useless.
2. The PCs encounter a puzzle or social challenge. This can be a locked door with a password and
a riddle, or a complex trap, or a guardian. It seems to me that rooms 1 and 2 are almost the same,
except that room 2 should not be a combat scene; and room 1 might be a combat scene. The reason
Four uses these two scenes at the beginning is that he intends to ratchet up the pace later, and
puzzles and roleplay don't have the thrilling, tense nature of a direct conflict. Try to raise the stakes
in room 2, though - the challenge in room 1 might be a sealed door with guards the PCs sneak past.
The challenge in room 2 might be a locked room filling with poison gas; or an angry NPC who
escalates matters to a shouting argument that the PCs can't win by killing him.
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3. A red herring. This is the most confusing room. The dramatic question of room 3 is "Does room
3 cost the PCs something?" It's an opportunity for the players to choose between completeness and
resource conservation. Do we clear out the zombies in the crypt or move past it to deal with the
main crypt? Do we explore the dusty, half-collapsed passage or stay focused? Do we have to fight
the trained wolves guarding the supplies or can we sneak past them? This room adds tension by
forcing the players to give something up: If you sneak past the wolves, you keep more spells and hit
points, but lose out on searching the supply sacks.
The challenge of the red herring for the GM is that the players will ask, "can we just come back
here after we get to the end?" If the answer is "we're sure we can," there is no tension. They'll
ignore the crypt, skip the dusty passage, and sneak past the wolves. The problem is that running a
red herring challenge after the PCs have resolved the main reason they came here in the first place
is anti-climactic (literally opposite of the climax, in this case).
Make sure you have an answer to the question "why can't we just come back here after we finish
our main goal?" but don't make it so pressing that there is no real choice. Often the reason is
hidden in room 5, and applies time pressure: The Sapphire has already been stolen? There's no
time to search that side passage! We have to chase down the tiefling thief! Sometimes the reason is
part of room 3: After the necromancer is slain, the zombies will be free to wander out into the
countryside. Finally, if you made room 3 a challenge already, you can hand-wave this part: The
wolves ran off after their master was slain.
4. The climax. This room is the "boss fight," to use a video game term; and that's probably a better
name for it. The PCs have come to the dungeon to accomplish something. This is the opponent
standing in their way. Did they come to the old crypt to kill the necromancer? This is the
necromancer's toughest undead monstrosity. Did they explore the Lost Caves to get the Sapphire of
Destiny? This is the Archon that protects it. Did they chase the killer of the Baron of Radua to this
abandoned hunting lodge? This is the cloaked assassin they discover in the basement.
5. The twist. This room might not be an actual room at all, according to Four. It's a plot twist that
changes the nature of the story and lets you end the session on a cliffhanger; or causes the PCs a
setback; or just serves as an unwelcome surprise. The necromancer re-animates the undead
monster, and now you have to fight the monster again, and it has the necromancer's aid! The
Sapphire of Destiny has already been stolen? No! But there's a clue here as to who stole it -- a
tiefling hoofprint! The assassin turns out to be just a lackey for a greater secret organisation, but he
takes poison before giving up his handler! Sometimes the twist is just new plot information. Say the
PCs were breaking an infamous pirate out of prison because only the pirate knows how to navigate
the reefs to get to the Isle of Dread. When they get to the pirate, she explains that she was able to
navigate the reefs because she had a deal with the sahuagin, but when the Commodore captured
her and seized her ship, he took the ivory she owes them, so they won't help until they get the ivory
that they want for some reason.
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Three-Act Structure and Five Room Dungeons
Like I said above, five room dungeons are great because they come packaged with the elements of
the three-act story structure.
Act 1. You need to place your plot hooks outside the dungeon, to get the PCs interested in coming
here and motivated to bypass the guardian. The guardian could be the first act twist - where the
protagonists commit to the adventure.
Act 2. Room 2 and 3 are definitely rising action. Room 2 is a non-combat challenge which can be
deadly, but doesn't have the high tension of an active, lethal opponent. Room 3 likely has a serious
threat; and in addition, it forces the protagonists to make a hard choice.
Act 3. How you use room 5 depends on the milieu that the five room dungeon is being designed for.
You might use it as the second act twist, darkest hour (which may last all of one combat round!),
and climax all in one. Or you may use it as a second act twist for your larger adventure. That in turn
helps you decide how to use room 4:
• If your story structure spans only the five-room dungeon, the peak of the rising action is Room
4; the second act twist is Room 5; and the third act - the climax - is overcoming the new
challenge. In a one-shot, you have to wrap up the story at the end, so you have to let the PCs
resolve the new problem in room 5. The example of the necromancer reviving the undead
monster so the PCs have to fight it again works well here, because they have a twist that's
immediately resolved.
• If you are using the five room dungeon as part of a greater story, you can end on a cliffhanger,
with the second act twist coming in room 5. The PCs then enter the "darkest hour" where they
have another adventure (maybe another five room dungeon) where they scramble to resolve the
twist before the climactic showdown against the antagonist (which might be yet another five
room dungeon).
• If you are using the five room dungeon as part of a greater story, but don't need to use this
moment for a twist or cliffhanger, end it on a bang. A "bang" is something exciting that happens
in the story to raise the stakes. Let's say you're using a series of five room dungeons in the rising
action of an adventure where the PCs are taking down a villain's resources to make him
vulnerable. One such sub-adventure is freeing all the villain's slaves. The twist doesn't have to be
a big surprise or even a defeat: It can be a horrific revelation that establishes the main villain's
evil. Imagine a "room 5" scene where the PCs open the slave pit where the villain kept the
children to force the adults to work with threats to their families. Describe how the PCs see the
scarred, stone-faced slaves break into tears as they are reunited with their abused
malnourished children. To make it personal, let each player take an action to heal a sick child
who can't stand, or to help a panicked parent find their baby amid the confusion, et cetera.
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A and B Plots and Five Room Dungeons
Previously, I showed how to build richness into a dungeon by layering an A plot and a B plot. The A
plot is the reason the PCs have come to the dungeon. The B plot is the tale of the history of the
people, place, and geography around the dungeon that has mysterious effects on the A plot.
Rooms As Plot
Room A Plot
B Plot
1
The antagonists placed a guardian here to keep
meddling adventurers out.
The antagonists used this place because of its preexisting defences. They know the trick to getting in
and out - can the PCs figure it out?
2
There is an NPC or trap here that the antagonists
left. This NPC is not immediately hostile to the
PCs - and they may want to offer the PCs an
alternative way to resolve the A Plot. If it is a trap,
it stands out as different from the older
architecture.
If you use an NPC, it's likely to be a creature native
to the dungeon or the area around it, connected to
the B Plot's story, such as a ghost or an intelligent
monster. This NPC will give exposition as well as
present a roleplaying challenge. B Plot in Room 2
could be an ancient puzzle that the A plot
antagonists know how to bypass. Or maybe they
don't - and the puzzle merely opens up Room 3
(there are lots of different ways to structure a five
room dungeon).
3
The obvious A Plot for room 3 is a guard that the
PCs need to sneak past. Other opportunities
include A Plot treasure guarded by a trap.
If you've developed a B Plot that can be resolved,
Room 3 could be a red herring for the A Plot, but
also the climax for the B Plot. Let's say that 2B was
a ghost who, after being persuaded that the PCs
were reverential, offered to aid the PCs if they
would bury her body. Room 3 may have the ghost's
bones, but the carrion crawler in there isn't likely to
give them up.
4
Typically room 4 is going to be the centerpiece of
your A Plot.
Because room 4 is usually an A Plot climax scene,
you may not use B Plot. If you do, it's often to
show the effect of the B Plot on the A Plot. Here's
where your ghost either comes in and attacks
everyone for disturbing its rest, or comes in to help
the PCs defeat their A Plot antagonist as part of
their bargain.
5
If you're doing a one-shot, the twist likely relates to
whatever you did in room 4. If you're using the
dungeon as your second act twist in a larger
adventure, it definitely involves the A Plot.
If you're using the five room dungeon in the middle
of a larger adventure, you can make the twist part
of the B Plot. The room 5 twist is a great place to
resolve the B Plot. This is where you can introduce
a twist or bang related to the history of the people
and place around the dungeon. This is where the
volcano starts to erupt or ancient crypt opens, the
ghost gets her revenge, etc. These developments
can often be surprising and exciting. Ask yourself
"What would Michael Bay do?" (Or read this guest
post to see how to run a game like a Bay film!)
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Example: Kobold Hall (4e)
in http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Kobold_Hall
“You travel 15 miles from Fallcrest into the wilderness to find the once
sprawling manor now known as the ruins of Kobold Hall. Inside the keep,
you find a trapdoor at the base of an old guard tower. It must lead beneath
the ruins.”
Kobold Hall is the sample adventure in the back of the Dungeon Master's Guide for Dungeons &
Dragons 4th Edition. It is a textbook example of a Five Room Dungeon. The hook starts when the
player characters travel to a new town, and are attacked by kobold brigands that are easy to fight
off. The mayor of the town will hear of their exploits, and asks if the player characters can use their
kobold-fighting prowess to put a final end to these brigands so the town can resume trade with their
neighbours unmolested.
Area 1 - The Sludge Pit (Entrance with a Guardian)
2 skirmishers to hold the enemies in place, 2 artillery to attack from distance. There's a pit of
viscous sludge in the middle. The gate to the rest of the Hall allows small creatures (like Kobolds)
to pass freely, but medium-sized creatures (like humans or elves) must lift the gate out of the way,
which makes the lift-er very vulnerable.
Area 2 - The Tomb (the Puzzle)
3 skirmishers, 2 blaster-type traps. Pressure plates (not shown on the map attached to this page)
activate dart launchers; the plates do not react to small creatures such as kobolds. The skirmishers
will try to get their enemies to chase them across the pressure plates.
Area 3 - Skull-Skull Arena (the Setback)
2 brutes, 4 minions, 2 artillery, 1 blaster-type trap. The kobolds and their guard drakes are on the
raised platforms above the sarcophagi. Access to the platforms are by stairs behind double-doors.
Kobolds on each platform alternate swinging a small boulder affixed by rope to the ceiling above
the sarcophagi -- this rock will smack enemies attempting to cross the room. The kobolds use the
rock for sport, piling skulls on the coffins and knocking them over like skittles. The pit is 10' deep,
with more sticky sludge, but also beneath the swinging rock's reach.
Area 4 - The Big Boss (the Climax)
1 artillery (leader), 2 soldiers, 1 skirmisher, 2 artillery, 1 blaster-type trap. The trap is a rolling 10'
wide boulder that starts on the largest platform and continuously rolls in a circle around the room,
bludgeoning any enemies in the way. The kobolds stick to the raised platforms. The artillery-leader
is the kobold chieftain, who can buff his defenders and has a dragon-like breath attack. When
looting the chieftain's body, the adventurers find instructions to the secret door to the west.
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Area 5 - The True Threat (the Revelation)
1 solo brute. The encounter here is a young white dragon. This dragon sponsored the kobolds,
leading to their success over the other tribes, but the dragon's intimidation and greed drove these
kobolds take greater risks in raiding human caravans. Once eliminated, the remaining kobold tribes
will resume fighting amongst themselves, too busy to harass the caravans again.
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Random Mega Dungeon Generation Via 5
Room Iterations
in http://www.gnomestew.com/tools-for-gms/random-mega-generation-via-5-room-iterations/
Mega dungeons are difficult to fully detail because of their sheer size. Here is a random dungeon
generation system that helps make the process easier in two ways. First, it creates chunks all at
once instead of single rooms, and second it’s modular so that you can design only as much as you
need and have rough notes on the rest of what you’ve made while still allowing you to tack on
additional content later and still have a coherent whole.
The basic building blocks of our dungeon are the 9 forms of the 5 room dungeon. So you don’t have
to click through, that article boils down the 5 room dungeon into 9 basic types (which clever
readers pointed out can actually be further abstracted to 3 types, but for the purposes of what we’re
doing here, the 9 actually work better). I’ve included them below and numbered them to make it
easy to choose one randomly using a d66 (like a d100, but uses d6s instead of d10s, generating
numbers in the following set: 11-16,21-26,31-36,41-46,51-56,61-66 chosen because it creates a
uniformly distributed set of numbers divisible by 9)
9 Forms of the 5 Room Dungeon
d66
Room
11-14
The Arrow
15 - 22 The Cross
23 - 26 The Evil Mule
31 - 34 The Fauchard Fork
35 - 42 Foglio’s Snail
43 - 46 The Moose
51 - 54 The Paw
55 - 62 The Railroad
63 - 66 The V for Vendetta
Realms
For our dungeon, we’re going to start by setting up some Realms: large areas that are thematically
similar throughout, but distinct from their neighbours. To make realms, we’re going to choose a
handful of 5 room dungeons and tack them together. 1d4 sounds about right, giving 5-20 realms.
This is of course dependent on your level of ambition. Don’t forget that you can always add more
later if you want or need to.
To start, roll a d66 and do a quick sketch of one of the 5 room dungeons. You can of course move
the rooms about and if you want to change passages, add or subtract rooms or anything else, go
right ahead. The templates are just to keep things quick and easy, not to constrain you. Continue to
roll d66s and add realms by choosing an existing room and connecting the entrance room of the
new section.
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Add as many sections as you want, just keep in mind that each single room may end up with
hundreds of rooms to detail. We’re going to have a random process for the whole thing, but no point
to making a ton more work than necessary.
Now that you have a rough map of your realms, write down the following details about each one:
• Name. Either what you call it, what it’s inhabitants call it, or what the major species in your
game call it. Whatever.
• Level. How dangerous a place is it? Is it OK for beginning adventurers or is it a meat grinder for
all but the most hard core delvers?
• Terrain. The main overarching terrain feature of the zone. Lava tubes, Dwarven Ruins, mud
pits, natural caves. Don’t go into more detail than that.
• 3 Monsters. These monsters inhabit almost every nook and cranny of the realm. Pick one big
nasty monster (for the level you want) one mid-level monster and one wimpy monster all based
around the realm’s theme. Later we’ll refer to these monsters as RL (Realm Large), RM (Realm
Medium), and RS (Realm Small). You can use hazards instead of monsters if that fits the realm.
Of course you don’t need to do this for all your realms just yet. Players aren’t going to get to the
deepest realms any time soon, if ever, so you don’t need to fill this out for any realm your players
aren’t likely to see soon. Finish up your realm map by adding a few passages where you want or any
other tweaks you want to add.
Zones
Next up, we want to further detail our realms. You know where the major paths to other realms are,
but what’s in between? More 5 room dungeons of course! In the same way that you randomly chose
and strung together 5 room dungeons to map your realms, use the same process to define the
zones within each realm. Start with a single realm and map it (probably on a new sheet of paper) by
choosing a random five room dungeon and then connecting the next one, etc… Again 1d4 of these is
probably enough, giving you 5-20 zones within the realm (so your mega dungeon has 25-400 zones
all together). Of course it also makes sense to simply choose how many 5 room chunks you want
given how large you want the realm to be. Again, you can always add more zones to a realm later as
long as the entire realm hasn’t been mapped in meticulous detail yet (or even if it has if you’re
willing to have a cave-in open a new area or some other sneaky GM trick).
Now write down the following details about each zone:
Name. As before, formal, informal or in elvish, it doesn’t matter
Type. We’re interested in 3 types. Controlled, Mixed, and Standard, described below.
Level. Is this zone the same level as the rest of the realm? Higher? Lower?
Terrain. What makes this zone different from the rest of the realm? Is it a gnoll warren? Is there
a leak from a water source that makes the whole thing flooded? Portals to hell?
• 3 Monsters. Just like before we need a Big monster: ZL, a medium monster: ZM, and a puny
monster: ZS, or hazards as before.
•
•
•
•
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Standard zones blend into the realm and have no defining feature or inhabitants of their own. The
more of these you have in a realm, the more strongly the realm theme comes through but the less
exciting stuff is in the realm. Mainly standard realms are to break up over-busy clusters of zones in
your realm or provide a “normal” path or center with points of interest around it. Standard zones
don’t actually need Terrain or monster entries. They just use the realm entries.
Controlled zones don’t have a heavy presence from the inhabitants of a realm. Either the zone is
patrolled and intruders kept out (a city for example) or it may be exceptionally dangerous (full of
toxic gas)
Mixed zones have their unique inhabitants that aren’t found elsewhere in the realm but they mix
freely with other realm inhabitants.
Again, tweak as you see fit and you’ve mapped the zones for the realm, and again keep in mind just
how far your PCs are going to get before you go nuts with the zone maps. After all, there’s still one
more step.
Maps
Finally we want to map the individual rooms and areas within each zone. Do so just like each larger
level. Start a new map and iterate some 5 room dungeons. If you again go with 1d4 dungeons per
zone, you end up with 5-20 rooms per zone, 125-400 rooms per realm and 625-8000 rooms in your
entire map. (I did start this article with the sentence “Mega dungeons are difficult to fully detail
because of their sheer size.”) However, unlike higher levels, these rooms aren’t abstractions, they’re
actual rooms and once you populate them, your zone map is finished.
To populate them you need to know two things: dressing and encounters. You could painstakingly
hem and haw over this, but instead roll once on the appropriate Dressing table and 3 to 4 times on
the appropriate Encounter Table for each 5 room chunk you place and arrange as desired or just
place what feels right.
Notation for tables. As mentioned earlier, RL, RM, and RS are your three realm monsters, ZL, ZM,
and ZS are your 3 zone monsters. Encounter tables have 3 columns. Squabblers don’t mix monster
types, Factions use either realm or zone monsters in an encounter and Allies freely mix the two
type.
#R and #Z are the number of rooms within realm and zone dressing respectively.
References to adjacent realms and zones work if one of your rooms is on the edge of your zone or
realm. If not, just count those as the current realm or zone.
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Standard Zone Dressing
d12
1 - 10
Dressing
5R
11
4R, 1 adjacent zone
12
4R, 1 adjacent realm
Mixed Zone Dressing
d12
Dressing
1-5
2R, 3Z
6 - 10 3R, 2Z
11
2R, 2Z, 1 adjacent zone
12
2R, 2Z, 1 adjacent realm
Controlled Zone Dressing
d12
Dressing
1-5
1R, 4Z
6 - 10 2R, 3Z
11
1R, 3Z, 1 adjacent zone
12
4Z, 1 adjacent realm
Standard Encounters
d12
Squabblers
Factions
1
7RM or 14RS
2RL and 3RM
2-4
6RM or 12Rs
1RL and 2RM and 4RS
5-7
2RL or 4RM
1RL and 2RM
8 - 10 1RL or 4RS
2RM
11
1RM or 2RS
2RS
12
1L from adjacent area
1L from adjacent area
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Mixed Encounters
d12
Squabblers
Factions
Allies
1
7RM or 14ZS
2RL and 3RM or 5ZM and 4ZS
1RL and 1ZL and 3ZM
2-4
6ZM or 12RS
1RL and 2RM and 4RS or 1ZL and
3ZM and 2ZS
1ZL and 2RM and 4ZS
5-7
2RL or 4ZM
1RL and 2RM or 1ZL and 4ZS
1RL and 1ZL or 1ZL and 2RM
2RM or 1ZL
2ZM
8 - 10 1ZL or 4RS
11
1RM or 2ZS
2RS or 1ZM
2RS
12
1L from adjacent area
1L from adjacent area
1L from adjacent area
Squabblers
Factions
Allies
1
7ZM or 14ZS
2ZL and 3ZM
1RL and 1ZL and 3ZM
2-4
6ZM or 12ZS
1ZL and 2ZM and 4ZS
1ZL and 2ZM and 4ZS
5-7
2RL or 2ZL
2RL or 1ZL and 2ZM
1RL and 1ZL or 1RL and 2ZM
2ZM
2ZM
Controlled (Patrolled)
d12
1
Factions
2ZL and 3ZM
2-4
1ZL and 2ZM and 4ZS
5-7
1ZL and 2ZM
8 - 10
2ZM or 4RS
11
2ZS or 2RS
12
4S from adjacent area
Controlled (Dangerous)
d12
8 - 10 1ZL or 4ZS
11
1ZM or 2ZS
2ZS
2ZS
12
1L from adjacent area
1L from adjacent area
1L from adjacent area
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