Good Rules for Creating Random Dungeons

[dreaded_beast]

Anyone know where I can find good rules to create a random dungeon?

 

[wolfpunk]

Nothing really fancy, but this is the one I made for myself. All you need is a d20 a paper and pencil and you can come up with a pretty decent dungeon in 10-15 minutes.

Dungeon Generator. Roll 1d20 on each Table.


Start with Table 0: Behind the Door
1-10: Room: Go to Table 1.
11-20: Hallway: Go to Table 11.

Table 1: Width of Room
1-4: 10 feet. Go to Table 2.
5-8: 15 feet. Go to Table 2.
9-12: 20 feet. Go to Table 2.
13-16: 25 feet. Go to Table 2.
17-20: 30 feet. Go to Table 2.

Table 2: Length of Room
1-4: 10 feet. Go to Table 3.
5-8: 15 feet. Go to Table 3.
9-12: 20 feet. Go to Table 3.
13-16: 25 feet. Go to Table 3.
17-20: 30 feet. Go to Table 3.

Table 3: Height of Room
1-10: 10 feet. Go to Table 4.
11-15: 15 feet. Go to Table 4.
16-19: 20 feet. Go to Table 4.
20: 20+ feet. Go to Table 4.

Table 4: Condition of Room
1-5: Empty room. Go to Table 5.
6-10: Furnished room. Go to Table 6.
11-15: Empty room with Complication. Go to Table 8.
16-20: Furnished room with Complication.
Go to Table 6 then go to Table 8.

Table 5: Additional Entrances into Room
1-4: No additional Doors.
5-8: 1 Additional Door. Go to Table 0.
9: 1 Additional trapped Door.
Go to Table 10 then go to Table 0.
10-12: 2 Additional Doors. Go to Table 0.
13: 2 Additional Doors, 1 trapped.
Go to Table 10 then go to Table 0.
14: 2 Additional trapped Doors.
Go to Table 10 then go to Table 0.
15-17: 3 Additional Doors. Go to Table 0.
18: 3 Additional Doors, 1 trapped.
Go to Table 10 then go to Table 0.
19: 3 Additional Doors, 2 trapped.
Go to Table 10 then go to Table 0.
20: 3 Additional Doors, 3 trapped.
Go to Table 10 then go to Table 0.



Table 6: Furnishings in Room
1-5: Furnishings destroyed. Go to Table 5.
6-10: Furnishings still usable. Go to Table 5.
11-15: Item of treasure. Roll on Table 7.
16-20: Pick 1 and roll again. Go to Table 5.

Table 7: Treasure
1-4: Coins. Go to Table 5.
4-8: Gems. Go to Table 5.
9-12: Normal weapon or armor. Go to Table 5.
13-16: Item of art. Go to Table 5.
17-18: Masterwork item, weapon or armor.
Go to Table 5.
19: Magical item. Go to Table 5.
20: Pick 1 and roll again.

Table 8: Complications in Room
1-2: Requires a Jump Check. Go to Table 12.
3-4: Requires a Climb Check. Go to Table 12.
5-6: Requires an Acrobatics Check. Go to Table 12.
7-8: Requires a Swim Check. Go to Table 12.
9-10: Magical Effect. Go to Table 5.
11-19: Encounter. Go to Table 9.
20: Pick 1 and roll again.

Table 9: Encounters
1-6: Animal. Go to Table 11.
7-12: Trap. Go to Table 11.
13-18: Monster. Go to Table 11.
19: NPC. Go to Table 10.
20: Pick 1 and roll again.

Table 10: NPC Encounter
1-3: Ally.
4-9: Neutral NPC. Go to Table 11.
10-16: Minor NPC villain. Go to Table 11.
17-20: Major NPC villain. Go to Table 11.

Table 11: Difficulty of Encounter
1-4: Very Easy. Go to Table 5.
5-9: Easy. Go to Table 5.
10-14: Average. Go to Table 5.
15-18: Difficult. Go to Table 5.
19-20: Very Difficult. Go to Table 5.

Table 12: Difficulty of Check
1-4: Very Easy. Go to Table 5.
5-9: Easy. Go to Table 5.
10-14: Average. Go to Table 5.
15-18: Difficult. Go to Table 5.
19-20: Very Difficult. Go to Table 5.

Table 13: Length of Hallway
1-4: 10 feet. Go to Table 14.
5-8: 15 feet. Go to Table 14.
9-12: 20 feet. Go to Table 14.
13-16: 25 feet. Go to Table 14.
17-20: 30 feet. Go to Table 14.

Table 14: Height of Hallway
1-10: 10 feet. Go to Table 15.
11-15: 15 feet. Go to Table 15.
16-19: 20 feet. Go to Table 15.
20: 20+ feet. Go to Table 15.

Table 15: Complications in Hallway
1-2: Requires a Jump Check. Go to Table 18.
3-4: Requires a Climb Check. Go to Table 18.
5-6: Requires an Acrobatics Check. Go to Table 18.
7-8: Requires a Swim Check. Go to Table 18.
9-10: Magical Effect. Go to Table 19.
11-12: Encounter. Go to Table 16.
13-14: Doorway in Hallway. Go to Table 0.
15-19: Nothing. Go to Table 19.
20: Pick 1 and roll again.

Table 16: Encounters
1-7: Animal. Go to Table 17.
8-15: Trap. Go to Table 17.
16-19: Monster. Go to Table 17.
20: Pick 1 and roll again.

Table 17: Difficulty of Encounter
1-4: Very Easy. Go to Table 19.
5-9: Easy. Go to Table 19.
10-14: Average. Go to Table 19.
15-18: Difficult. Go to Table 19.
19-20: Very Difficult. Go to Table 19.

Table 18: Difficulty of Check
1-4: Very Easy. Go to Table 19.
5-9: Easy. Go to Table 19.
10-14: Average. Go to Table 19.
15-18: Difficult. Go to Table 19.
19-20: Very Difficult. Go to Table 19.

Table 19: End of Hall
1-3: Hall turns left. Roll on Table 11.
4-6: Hall turns right. Roll on Table 11.
7-10: Hall dead-ends.
11-17: Doorway into a new room. Go to Table 1.
18-20: Trapped Doorway into New Room.
Go to Table 16 then go to Table 1.


Miscellaneous Tables

Types of Traps:
Dart
Poison Dart
Pit
Spiked Pit
Snare
Slicing Blade
Crushing Weight
Magical Effect

Types of Furnishings:
Armor Stand
Bed
Bookcase
Bookshelf
Brazier
Cage
Chair
Chest
Closet
Cot
Couch
Drapery
Dresser
Fire pit
Fireplace
Item of Art
Lantern
Pile of straw
Raw materials
Refuse Pile
Rug
Statue
Table
Tools
Torch
Torture Device
Weapon Rack
Workbench

Types of Animals:
Bat
Bird
Cat
Dog
Lizard
Rat
Scorpion
Snake
Spider

 

[Shadowslayer]

Thats a good table Wolfpunk.

Another option, Dreaded, would be found in the 1st ed DMG if you can find one (used bookshops?) Toolbox, by AEG games has some extensive stuff there too. Toolbox is a little more recent. Its a neat book with all kinds of info in it. (check the reviews...its there)

I'm thinking though that WolfPunk's is just as good as any found in any of published works that I'm familiar with.

Heh, Sometimes a random dungeon table can be a cool way to kill a couple of hours. But guaranteed that once you get the first bit laid out, you probably won't need the table anymore.

Trev

 

[Whisper72]

Definately the 1st Ed DMG is a good one... Dungeoncraft by FFG has some tables in it, though not an entire 'automated' system, still offers enuff hold to whip up something random in short time... the Wilderlands of High Fantasy boxed set has a nice random 'relics and ruins' page that provides random stuff more on a 'meta' level (i.e. not individual rooms and what is in it, but the what and why of the 'dungeon')...

Hope that helps some...

 

[Kradlo]

There was a book called Central Casting: Dungeons. It was a random dungeon creator, from Task Force Games. It was really quite nice. They also put out Central Casting: Heroes of Legend, and Central Casting: Heroes of Tomorrow, for generating PC and NPC backgrounds. All of the books were terrific.

I don't know if they're still in print. You may have to look on eBay.

Kradlo

 

[grodog]

There was a book called Central Casting: Dungeons. It was a random dungeon creator, from Task Force Games. It was really quite nice. They also put out Central Casting: Heroes of Legend, and Central Casting: Heroes of Tomorrow, for generating PC and NPC backgrounds. All of the books were terrific.

I don't know if they're still in print. You may have to look on eBay.

Those books are pretty expensive on eBay: $25+ in only decent condition; I've seen excellent+ copies easily sell for $45+.

 

[sydbar]

You could do a search for james buck's random dungeon generator, it makes a map, and populates the rooms, tells what treasure there is, what kind of random crap there is in the room,if there are traps and what kind. it allows you to customise size of dungeons, size of rooms, amount of rooms, what level dungeon, and many other things. I love that program for one night games.

 

[Breakdaddy]

My copy of Central Casting: Dungeons is still one of the most heavily used of my books after owning it for, damn, I dont know how many years. Unfortunately, it is almost completely worn out at this point. When the pages start falling out I am going to have to scan it to PDF to maintain a copy for myself. If you can find a reasonably priced copy of it, dont hesitate to buy it. For a quick and dirty generator of dungeons and much more, pick up a copy of AEG's Toolbox, another excellent GMing resource, although not specifically targeted towards dungeon creation.

 

[Shadowslayer]

You could do a search for james buck's random dungeon generator, it makes a map, and populates the rooms, tells what treasure there is, what kind of random crap there is in the room,if there are traps and what kind. it allows you to customise size of dungeons, size of rooms, amount of rooms, what level dungeon, and many other things. I love that program for one night games.

I'll second that too. I used it a couple times. Its neat.