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D&D General #Dungeon23

I was really iffy about taking this #Dungeon23 challenge on, and I still think there’s a fair chance that I’ll be among the list of projects that never reach completion (My initial estimate is that we’ll see a thousand first week entries, about a hundred making it to the end of the first month, and a dozen or fewer actually making it to completion.

Finally, last week I decided I’d give it a try. My initial concept was a new & bigger version of my mini-mega-dungeon, Dyson’s Delve. I even got most of the first level mapped out on a twitch stream last week… but mid-stream I started doubting that plan. Instead of something nebulous and essentially ad-libbed like Dyson’s Delve, I realized I would probably have more fun working on something more like My Private Jakalla – not quite as big, but a Tsolyani “underworld”.

After consulting with Victor Jason Raymond of the Tekumel Foundation and James Maliszewski of Grognardia, I settled on the crater city of Tumíssa as the home to this project. For those unfamiliar with Tsolyanu, Tekumel, and the Empire of the Petal Throne RPG (the first RPG setting published), Most Tsolyani cities are built upon the ruins of older structures. Every 500 or so years (although for major cities this often gets pushed back several centuries) the cities undergo a “ditlana” where the city is torn down by sections and rebuilt – allowing the city to update infrastructure, sewers, and move clans, temples, and businesses as suited to their current status (so a city that sees a major shift in power between the temples will have those temples that are out of favour moved to less politically powerful locations, and more powerful temples and clans move in to take their place). Over tens of thousands of years, this results in each city sitting atop a massive collection of weird temple basements, sewers that run through ruins, interconnected basements, and much older structures that date back as far as other civilizations that came before the current era of the Five Empires.

And thus we have my primary #Dungeon23 project concept. Instead of the 12 levels of the megadungeon being stacked upon each other vertically, there will be about 6-8 that form the upper underworld directly beneath street level, another 3-4 on the level below that, and 1-3 deeper level sections that might date back before the Tsolyani Empire.
 

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bedir than

Full Moon Storyteller
I used polls on 🐦and 🦣 sites to determine my next node in my listicle, unmapped point crawl city.

That sent us down a sky-cable gondola 🚠 to the smog-punk goblin neighborhood.

I'm starting to work towards small dungeon options coming via the chosen paths. Though I'm bad at those I'll hand draw and post a pic. Seeing Dyson Logos make that suggestion inspired the change in plans.
 

Zaukrie

New Publisher
Had I stuck with it, I would have made some kind of opening appear in the ground, well, multiple openings. Like a big rift or rifts, with one or more openings in them. Alas, I've been sick for a few days, so even the fiction writing hasn't really started. Good luck everyone. My only advice is to not beat yourself up for missing a day (that's not really the point here). And, some days, just make an empty room or tunnel with a short description.
 

Cadence

Legend
Supporter
Room 1:

A flat circular metal door 4' in diameter with a centered 1' diameter spinning wheel attached (3" above it) is in the floor/ground near where "the passage" was foretold to appear. It is made of some dark-steel colored alloy of adamantine and steel and radiates strong conjuration magic. There is no sound from the other side. It seems turned as far as possible counter clock-wise, but spins easily clockwise. Six spins will loosen it with a hiss of faintly vegetable garden smelling air. Pulling will reveal it is hinged on the west side and opens easily upward. The other side of the door has a similar wheel, and there is a slot to insert a 4'9" cylindrical bar locking it into place - but the bar isn't there. The door opens into the top of a 10' long, 5' diameter tube of the same substance going down into darkness. The cylinder radiates strong conjuration magic. There is a 20' steel ladder on the east side of the tube going down through 10 feet of the tube and then continuing down to the floor in the center of a 10' cube of a room of off-white granite tiles. The room has little dust (recently cleaned?) and the faint smell of a vegetable garden that was noted as the door was opened. There is an 8' tall 4' wide unstained dark-oak door that fits tightly in the east wall that one would be looking at coming down the ladder. It has a nicely crafted steel handle, but no lock. When the first sentient being steps onto the floor of the room a magic mouth on the door will begin saying "Those who come in peace are welcome." in Common, then repeating the message in Celestial, Primoridial, Sylvan, Draconic, Infernal, and Abyssal. Depending on the time of day, a listen check may hear something from room 2 beyond (see room 2).


View attachment 271006

On the road coming home from vacation, and don't have time to do room 2 in the detail I wanted so this is out of order...

Room 9 - The Pit

A 5'x5' room with a 10' ceiling and the holes to the toilet above in room 6. The bottom 5' of the north and south walls clearly seem like they should move, and 20 Str check can forcibly slide them up against some resistance (with something able to support 100 pounds weight being enough to easily keep them propped open at whatever height they are lifted to; they will slowly shut once that is removed). The north wall door opens at 12 and 4 (both am and pm; goes to room 8) and the south wall door opens at 6 and 10 (both am and pm; goes to room 10). From 4-6 and 10-12 there is a medium gelatinous cube doing cleaning duties (5'x5'x5' with 5' pseudopod reach and 48hp; it doesn't carry inorganic material in itself from room to room ). At other times during the day there is a 50% chance the room is clean (exceedingly clean, except for the part of the toilet above ceiling level), and a 50% chance someone has done their business. At night the chances are 80% and 20%. At present there is a small crystal globe lying on the floor as well as 4 gp, 7sp, and 2cp. The crystal globe has a crack in it, but radiates illusion magic. When rubbed an image appears inside showing what is apparently a dwarvish lovestory with the words they are saying appearing in small dwarvish text (anyone familiar with such things will recognize it as a pretty famous one; when suitably engrossed the crack could probably be ignored, but is still annoying). It belonged to one of the now deceased dwarves.


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The next room created (#6) is in post #177 D&D General - #Dungeon23 .

Edit: Named on 1Feb2023
 
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Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
Are folks doing wandering monster tables? I'm thinking about making a 2d6 distribution chart for each section of the dungeon (above ground, dungeon levels 1-3, dungeon levels 4-7, dungeon levels 8-11), so that I can cluster common stuff in the middle and rarer things (visitors from other levels, significant NPCs) at either end of the bell curve.

I'm just pondering how long I'd want to have a wandering monster roll. The OSR/old school method of rolling all the damned time is too much for me (it was too much for me back in 1979, before anyone busts out any "kids these days" stuff), but I don't want it to never be used.

Any thoughts?
 

M_Natas

Hero
Are folks doing wandering monster tables? I'm thinking about making a 2d6 distribution chart for each section of the dungeon (above ground, dungeon levels 1-3, dungeon levels 4-7, dungeon levels 8-11), so that I can cluster common stuff in the middle and rarer things (visitors from other levels, significant NPCs) at either end of the bell curve.

I'm just pondering how long I'd want to have a wandering monster roll. The OSR/old school method of rolling all the damned time is too much for me (it was too much for me back in 1979, before anyone busts out any "kids these days" stuff), but I don't want it to never be used.

Any thoughts?
I will have some wondering Monster tables. The amount of rolls is determined by how dangerous the area will be.

And here is also my Day3 of Dungeon23, now the first time with Ink/Fineliners instead of just pencil.
It is the cellar of the potential HQ for the Megadungeon Campaign. A shadow and a secret cult Altar are waiting to be discovered.
Also a Toilet is there because realism is important, too :Di
I think with going Ink their is already an improvement. Now I just need to improve my penmanship for drawing and writing.
20230103_074322.png


20230103_074314.jpg
 

overgeeked

B/X Known World
Are folks doing wandering monster tables? I'm thinking about making a 2d6 distribution chart for each section of the dungeon (above ground, dungeon levels 1-3, dungeon levels 4-7, dungeon levels 8-11), so that I can cluster common stuff in the middle and rarer things (visitors from other levels, significant NPCs) at either end of the bell curve.

I'm just pondering how long I'd want to have a wandering monster roll. The OSR/old school method of rolling all the damned time is too much for me (it was too much for me back in 1979, before anyone busts out any "kids these days" stuff), but I don't want it to never be used.

Any thoughts?
I love 2d6 wandering monster tables for that exact reason, weighting the results at the center and edges.

I don’t mind once an hour and whenever the PCs make noise. Seems about right for an underground enclosed space where sound will travel far.

But adjusting based on level and danger is a good idea and makes sense.
 
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Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Are folks doing wandering monster tables? I'm thinking about making a 2d6 distribution chart for each section of the dungeon (above ground, dungeon levels 1-3, dungeon levels 4-7, dungeon levels 8-11), so that I can cluster common stuff in the middle and rarer things (visitors from other levels, significant NPCs) at either end of the bell curve.

I'm just pondering how long I'd want to have a wandering monster roll. The OSR/old school method of rolling all the damned time is too much for me (it was too much for me back in 1979, before anyone busts out any "kids these days" stuff), but I don't want it to never be used.

Any thoughts?
I’m definitely going to be doing encounter tables. I’m thinking 1d6+1d10, which may seem a little unorthodox, but it creates a really neat curve where you get a 2-5 one sixth of the time, 6 or 12 one sixth of the time, 13-16 one sixth of the time, and 7-11 half the time. By making 2-5 wandering monsters, 13-16 spoor for those same monsters, 6 and 12 location-specific events, and 7-11 general resource drains (e.g. “torches run out”), I can reproduce the probabilities of the overloaded encounter die in broad strokes, while having more variety in the individual outcomes, and without having to do a second roll on a table.
 

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