Post by geoffrey on Apr 9, 2014 14:33:40 GMT -6
'A good dungeon will have no less than a dozen levels down, with offshoot levels in addition, and new levels under construction..."Greyhawk Castle", for example, has over a dozen levels in succession downwards, more than that number branching from these, and not less than two new levels under construction at any given time.' (The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, page. 4)
This puts me in mind of Bob Bledsaw's 28-level dungeon he had for the Lonely Mountain.
Consider the sample dungeon level given on pp. 4-5 of The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. It has 8 numbered encounter areas as well as a further 9 areas labelled A through I, for a total of 17.
This relatively small dungeon level size makes dungeons with 27 or 28 levels more achievable for the harried referee. To make the math easier, let's bump those 17 rooms up to 18 and see how to stock them:
3 rooms have monsters with no treasure.
3 rooms have monsters with treasure.
3 rooms have treasure (but no monsters).
What about the other 9 rooms? Consider page 6 of TU&WA: "It is a good idea to thoughtfully place several of the most important treasures, with or without monsterous [sic] guardians, and then switch to a random determination for the balance of the level. Naturally, the more important treasures will consist of various magical items and large amounts of wealth in the form of gems and jewelry. Once these have been secreted in out-of-the-way locations, a random distribution using a six-sided die can be made as follows:"
Thus we see that "several" important treasures will be specially placed by the referee, in addition to the six treasures randomly distributed. Let's say several equals 3. These will be "with or without" monstrous guardians. Keep in mind that page 6 of TU&WA says that "As a general rule there will be far more uninhabited space on a level than there will be space occupied by monsters, human or otherwise." In light of that, let us say that only 1 of the important treasures will have a monstrous guardian. Now we have the following numbers:
3 rooms have monsters with no treasure.
4 rooms have monsters with treasure.
5 rooms have treasure (but no monsters).
That accounts for 12 out of the 18 rooms. What about the other 6? Many of these can be filled with tricks or traps, and the rest simply with interesting things (that are not monster, treasure, trick, or trap). Let us say three of each. We are left with:
3 rooms have monsters with no treasure.
4 rooms have monsters with treasure.
5 rooms have treasure (but no monsters).
3 rooms have tricks or traps.
3 rooms have interesting things that are not monsters, treasure, tricks, or traps.
There's your level. That is so much easier and faster than massive levels with 60 to 100+ areas. I can imagine making a dungeon with 27 or 28 levels if each level is as described here (which would give a total of about 500 areas). Compare that with levels averaging 60 areas, which would necessitate over 1,600 areas.
This puts me in mind of Bob Bledsaw's 28-level dungeon he had for the Lonely Mountain.
Consider the sample dungeon level given on pp. 4-5 of The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. It has 8 numbered encounter areas as well as a further 9 areas labelled A through I, for a total of 17.
This relatively small dungeon level size makes dungeons with 27 or 28 levels more achievable for the harried referee. To make the math easier, let's bump those 17 rooms up to 18 and see how to stock them:
3 rooms have monsters with no treasure.
3 rooms have monsters with treasure.
3 rooms have treasure (but no monsters).
What about the other 9 rooms? Consider page 6 of TU&WA: "It is a good idea to thoughtfully place several of the most important treasures, with or without monsterous [sic] guardians, and then switch to a random determination for the balance of the level. Naturally, the more important treasures will consist of various magical items and large amounts of wealth in the form of gems and jewelry. Once these have been secreted in out-of-the-way locations, a random distribution using a six-sided die can be made as follows:"
Thus we see that "several" important treasures will be specially placed by the referee, in addition to the six treasures randomly distributed. Let's say several equals 3. These will be "with or without" monstrous guardians. Keep in mind that page 6 of TU&WA says that "As a general rule there will be far more uninhabited space on a level than there will be space occupied by monsters, human or otherwise." In light of that, let us say that only 1 of the important treasures will have a monstrous guardian. Now we have the following numbers:
3 rooms have monsters with no treasure.
4 rooms have monsters with treasure.
5 rooms have treasure (but no monsters).
That accounts for 12 out of the 18 rooms. What about the other 6? Many of these can be filled with tricks or traps, and the rest simply with interesting things (that are not monster, treasure, trick, or trap). Let us say three of each. We are left with:
3 rooms have monsters with no treasure.
4 rooms have monsters with treasure.
5 rooms have treasure (but no monsters).
3 rooms have tricks or traps.
3 rooms have interesting things that are not monsters, treasure, tricks, or traps.
There's your level. That is so much easier and faster than massive levels with 60 to 100+ areas. I can imagine making a dungeon with 27 or 28 levels if each level is as described here (which would give a total of about 500 areas). Compare that with levels averaging 60 areas, which would necessitate over 1,600 areas.