First Time Making A Dungeon

OSR-style Dungeon-Making

Photo by Intricate Explorer on Unsplash

For the first time, I’m making an OSR-style dungeon. I joined a collaborative Substack-mega-dungeon project started by Thog’s Table. I figured, why not join and make my first?

Mine is the 3rd level of the mega dungeon, called “Undercrypts of the Bell-Scar.” Early on, I decided the Bell-Scar was an actual bell that’d fallen from an upper level into the tombs below, disturbing the undead within. Along with that, I decided the dungeon would be the tombs of an ancient warlord, buried with his greatest warriors and servants, now whom wander the tunnels attacking intruders. Below is a picture of the dungeon I drew. I didn’t have any particular ideas about rooms or things when I made it, but I think it came out okay, and I like the design of it.

I remember as a kid, drawing lines on graph paper. You start by randomly drawing 1 or 2-unit length lines all over. Then, as the paper gets filled in, you start connecting areas, drawing more lines, cutting off certain spots, opening up others, deciding on an entrance and exit. At the end, you’ve created your own maze. I would even sometimes add portals (spirals) to the edges that would teleport you to different areas of the maze. It was simple, gave my hands something to do, and fun.

This reminded me of that, although of course, it required a bit more thinking.

While I’m not big on OSR gaming itself, (I bounced off the White Box awhile ago), I am having fun using the free Delving Deeper books to create and populate this dungeon.

I’m intending to keep it fairly simple. Some wandering undead, brigands, and spiders. Some specific undead monsters that rise from tombs. The warlord himself, a mummy. Some giant spiders who’ve made a nest within one of the rooms. An NPC party attempting to loot the place, a few traps here and there to keep the party on their toes…

Through this collaboration, I got this awesome art made by the talented Empaykin:

One of the warlord’s greatest warriors, disturbed from their rest

I’m almost done, just filling out a couple more rooms with monsters and treasure. Maybe add a bit more detail and narrative flair when all the mechanical bits are sorted.

Having done all this, I’ve been considering what a “dungeon“ needs. It needs a purpose for existing. It needs threats. It needs rewards. It needs mysteries. It needs connections to other places. It needs empty rooms. It needs to make some logical sense, within the world it is placed.

I’ve also been thinking about how to create “dungeons” in other settings, like Niv Lova. I have the Abandoned Urban Areas, which I took inspiration from Kal Arath, which replaces your standard ‘dungeon’. It still has all the things a ‘dungeon’ needs but adapted to a new setting.

I think every RPG needs ‘dungeons’ of some kind. Places filled with mystery, threats and rewards.

So I suppose it’s unfair to say this is my first ‘dungeon’, as I’ve been gm-ing for years, creating areas of danger, exploration, combat and narrative the entire time. I just never really thought of them as ‘dungeons’.

I hope to do a short playthrough one-shot of a game where I randomly generate a dungeon through play. Maybe Mork Borg with Solitary Defilement? Who knows. I’m hoping playing through something like that will help me improve my own ‘dungeon-making’ system in Niv Lova.

This is a shorter update, but I’m hoping to keep to a weekly, Wednesday release schedule, which may make for shorter posts, but more consistency.

Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash

Thanks to Andrew Wylde, BuddhaRandom, and Eric, for being paid subscribers. A reminder paid subscribers will receive the final pdf version of Niv Lova, free of charge, when it’s available.

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Check out the Table of Contents for previous games I’ve played as well as other stuff I’ve written.