Old-School Fantasy RPG Adventures and Campaigns

Read more about the article Periphron’s Tower and Excavation: Adventure in the Making

Periphron’s Tower and Excavation: Adventure in the Making

The wizard Periphron seeks a powerful artifact called “the Seventh.” His research, which includes use of a crystal ball and multiple castings of contact other plane, aided by a library of esoteric tomes, indicates the Seventh is located within the ruins of an ancient town, purportedly buried under a rocky hill in an arid plain.

After charming the blue dragon that laired within, Periphron rebuilt a ruined tower on the hillside. Beneath the tower, he excavated several tunnels in search of the ancient town. Exploratory tunnels broke into a series of natural caverns, which leads to the ancient town’s underground ruins.

Periphron uses the charmed blue dragon to guard the tower entrance. The excavation is accomplished by move earth spells and stone giants. Periphron’s apprentices handle the excavation’s day-to-day management.

Meanwhile, the wizard continues research. For, with the Seventh, Periphron intends to begin the prophesied Age of Dragons. How he will achieve this is unknown, even to the wizard himself.

But lawful factions want to prevent Periphron’s finding the artifact. Chaotic factions want to steal it. After so many uses of contact other plane, Periphron might be fairly nuts.

Imagining a cover for Old-School ’77 Dungeon Stocking Tables, I hit upon the idea to draw a dungeon map with stocking notes, examples from the tables. One thing led to another…

Cover in the Making

To create the adventure locale, I string together a series of five-room dungeons. Among Neagley’s nine forms, a “Moose” makes the tower; a “Cross,” the exploratory tunnels; an “Evil Mule” for the cave network, and a “Paw” looks like the excavation site. For this purpose, I use the forms without necessarily incorporating Johnn Four’s five-room-dungeon story framework.

Wire-frame model of a dungeon consists of four sets of five circles connected by lines. Accompanied by notes and symbols. Notes reproduced in article text.
Periphron’s Tower and Excavation, Draft with Notes.
Symbol meanings are given in parenthetical notations within the text below.

On my draft, circles are rooms or encounter areas; lines are corridors, tunnels, and stairway connections between. I note the entrance (E) to each as well as its exit (X), which joins the next entrance. This makes a wire frame model. Later, while drawing the thing, other connections between rooms within and without each five-room section—much desired according to Jaquays’ Techniques—may become apparent.

See “Xandering the Dungeon” on the Alexandrian. In five parts and three addenda, Justin Alexander’s treatise exposes the techniques, philosophy, and multiple examples of the cartographic and dungeon design methods of Jennell Jaquays, whose early design credits include “F’Chelrak’s Tomb” (The Dungeoneer No. 1, 1976) and Judges Guild modules Caverns of Thracia (1979) and Dark Tower (1980). Alexander’s series is a must-read for fledgling cartographers and adventure-game designers. Jaquays’ work is a must-study.

Monsters and Treasures

As per guidelines in the 1977 supplements Monster and Treasure Assortments and Dungeon Geomorphs, I chose monsters and treasures according to the scenario in mind. “Specials” are the focus of the dungeon, in this case, the wizard and the object of his search. “Selecteds” are those monsters and treasures that round out the story. For example, apprentices and other monsters the wizard uses as tools—because he’s evil—and wealth and magic items they employ to achieve their goals.

Monsters

To accompany the wizard, I figure he must have apprentices, a charmed monster, and some manual laborers. Periphron is throwing high-level spells in the background story, and the sought artifact has world-changing potential. There happens to be a 13th-level wizard on M&T’s Level 9 monster list. In the same list, I find a blue dragon for the charmed-monster guardian and stone giants to do the heavy lifting.

Special: Periphron (13th-level wizard).

Selected: Apprentices (MU 10-ish), stone giants, blue dragon (charmed monster).

I note that stone giants are neutral in alignment. So, their relationship to the evil wizard is not a simple cooperation, and I’ve already used the charm monster spell. As the scenario develops, we might find an opportunity to embellish the story and explain why the giants do the wizard’s work.

Treasures

The object of Periphron’s search, the Seventh is the primordial wyrm’s last unhatched egg from the Wyrm Dawn campaign. Its discovery and successful use (far from obvious) might create competition for the pretender in Wyrm Dawn’s successor Wyrmwyrd.

See the Legends section of “Myths and Legends” for more on the story.

Special: the Seventh (artifact).

Selected: Periphron’s spellbook, crystal ball, wand of metal detection, helm of read languages and magic, reference books.

In the selected treasure list, I have neglected wealth, which we might think would be necessary to accomplish Periphron’s plans. We’ll be generous with treasure-rolling opportunities in stocking—unless the wizard spent all his money and, so, is now desperate to find the artifact…

Placement and Distribution

I place the special monster (Msp) and treasure (Tsp): Periphron in the tower, the Seventh in the excavation site—yet undiscovered. For contents of other rooms, I roll on one of the tables from the Old-School ’77 Dungeon Stocking Tables. The principle difference between the three tables is the chance for a monster encounter as noted below.

Dungeon SectionOld-School ’77 TableChance for Monsters
TowerBy the Bluebook33%
Exploratory tunnelsBasic and Lower Dungeons25%
CavesCaves and Caverns50%
Excavation siteBasic and Lower Dungeons25%

The results are noted on the wire-frame model: selected monsters and treasures (Mse, Tse), other monsters with treasures (MT), monsters without treasure (M—), unguarded treasures (uT), traps (an “X” with a half circle above—my rendition of a skull and crossbones), and interesting variations (star). I also note, with an asterisk (*), a few elements from which I might later derive adventure hooks.

In B/X, Moldvay separates OD&D’s “tricks and traps” into traps and “specials” for “anything not exactly a trap, but placed for special reasons” (B52). Meanwhile, in Holmes’s 1977 Basic D&D, the editor refers to these as “interesting variations.”

Now to draw the map and fill in details. I will of course share the finished adventure module.

In the meantime, with this draft document, you might develop your own version of “Periphron’s Tower and Excavation.” All the elements, the artifact for instance, are interchangeable. Should the cartography be an obstacle, you might browse Dyson Logos’s collection of five-room dungeons (tagged 5RD) or search the network for suitable maps to string together.

This 68-day #Dungeon23 veteran is confident that he can draw a 20-room map.

Justin Alexander changed the verb for using Jaquays’ techniques. See his “Historical Note.” Now we “Xander” the dungeon. I changed references and links accordingly. [13:43 27 November 2023 GMT]

I am an irregular tweeter, but follow me on Mastodon @stephenwendell@chirp.enworld.org for daily #Dungeon23 contributions.

“Flying” Dungeon Stocking Tables Become Old-School ’77

While preparing to stock Dyson Logos’s Deep Halls1 of Amon-Gorloth a couple years ago, we needed a simple way to determine general room contents: monsters, treasures, tricks, and traps. My adoration for Moldvay’s CONTENTS and TREASURE tables (B52) ends at the point I’m wanting to use earlier sources. This is the case for Amon-Gorloth, who speaks to me in Holmes.

So, using guidelines given in Holmes Basic D&D (TSR Hobbies, 1977) and the two supplements that came in early boxed sets: Treasure Assortment and Monster & Treasure Assortment, both Set One (1976, 1977), I devised a single d% table that serves the same function as the Moldvay tables.

The Dungeon Stocking Tables Formerly Known as “Flying” in PDF for Print and Phone

During development, we discovered a distinction between natural and built underworld areas. Dungeon Geomorphs Sets One and Three give a 25% chance to encounter monsters in dungeons, while Set Two: Caves & Caverns gives a 50% chance.2 Prompted by this revelation about OD&D’s implied setting, I made two more tables, adjusted from the first, to reflect this difference between caves and dungeons.

For details on how the tables are derived, see “Flying Dungeon Stocking Table by the Bluebook” and “Flying Table by Dungeon Geomorphs Sets.”

In the solo campaign Dreaming Amon-Gorloth, I use the tables, accompanied by the Monster and Treasure Assortments, to stock the Deep Halls as the adventuring party explores it. We used to call that “winging it” and “DMing on the fly,” hence the title “Flying Dungeon Stocking Tables.”

Since the beginning of this year, the tables serve now and again to fill in where I lack an idea for what’s in the daily room of my #Dungeon23. I’m running Deep Dungeon Doom for a group, though, and rolling for room contents while a pair of 12-year-olds waits to fight something and take its treasure is ill advised.

As they serve so well and might enjoy a wider audience, I am preparing the tables for distribution. “Flying” is a less apt description. I have therefore renamed the document.

Old-School ’77 Dungeon Stocking Tables are soon available in PDF for print and phone on DriveThruRPG.

1 The map god is spreading a rumor on social media that he is working on the Deep Halls II. I don’t find it yet on the Dodecahedron.

2 This difference is lost in the composite product Dungeon Geomorphs Sets One to Three (1980), which uses yet another distribution—a variation on 50% monsters.

LYCEUM ARCANUM

In Deep Dungeon Doom, I follow #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23 to create a D&D dungeon campaign in a few minutes per day for one year. I post irregular updates here. To get the daily rooms, follow me on Mastodon and Twitter.

Extending from the first level and into a second-level sublevel of the dungeon, LYCEUM ARCANUM comprises 39 areas and includes four buried towers, three surface entrances, 11 exits to the first, second, fifth, and unknown levels. It contains myriad secrets and untold riches and magic items, guarded by diverse traps, a cast of magic-users, a lesser djinni, and a baalgaur.

The player party, a pair of neophyte adventurers, descended to the Auditorium (2), took the bronze mask from the statue (b), which they then toppled, and opened the brass door to Baal-Dagan’s Prison (9).

Saving Throw VS. Death

This is the 18th in a continuing series of articles, which reedits house rules for Holmes Basic D&D from 40-year-old game club newsletters. Mentions of house rules are in bold text and followed by a [bracketed category designator].

For rules category descriptions and more about the newsletters, see “About the Reedition of Phenster’s.” For an index of articles, see Coming Up in “Pandemonium Society House Rules.”

Phenster’s Pandemonium Society House Rules is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, incidents, and newsletters are either products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is pure coincidence.

“If hit points are reduced to zero or below, the combatant is dead” (Holmes, 18).

The following article was printed in L’avant garde #77, dated March 1986. If the Postlethwaite Collection is near complete, this is Phenster’s penultimate contribution to the newsletter. It is the last concerning the Pandemonium Society’s house rules for combat.

Saving Throw VS. Death

by Phenster

The fight with the gnoll-demon's army went bad for us. Phenster Prime only had 3 hit points left when the black dragon raised its head out of the water. I tried to DISINTEGRATE it, but it saved, and I didn't have any other good spells against it, because I already used FIRE BALL on the gnolls and CHARM MONSTER on Charon, who was poling us down the River Styx, taking us to Hell.

We were sitting ducks. The dragon spit acid on us, and it didn't matter if I saved or not, and it didn't matter if the acid was washed away as the boat sank into the current. Phenster Prime was sizzled. Hazard called it an ignominious death.

When we used to play cops and robbers and war or other make-believe games, when we shoot somebody, we just say, "BANG, you're dead! Count to 10!" And you have to fall on the ground and count to 10 really really fast before you can get up and get back in the game again.

But D&D isn't like those make-believe games. The rules say when you lose all your hit points, you're character dies. No bang, no counting--when you're dead your dead. We usually play by the rules. You can be raised or resurrected with magic, but it's expensive and takes time to go back to base town and talk to the bishop or a wizard. Most times at 0 hit points it's faster just to roll up a new character, or take a henchman if you have one, and get back in the game.

Hazard gave me a saving throw versus death, but I didn't make it. You have to roll a 20 minus your level, then add your h.p. bonus. I needed an 8, but I got a 5, so Phenster Prime was dead on the River Styx.

The Bully got sizzled, too, but he made his saving throw against death. (He only needed a 4.) He was still unconscious though with 1 h.p., so Friar Tombs had to haul him to shore so he wouldn't drown. Then the Bully woke up, and Friar Tombs put some healing on him, while I rolled up a new character because I didn't have a henchman.

The dragon disappeared, and so did Charon, and they never found Phenster Prime's body. The party was stranded on the shore of the River Styx, so they had to walk to Hell. Phenster Double Prime joined them on the way.

Save vs Death [P]

A character who reaches 0 or fewer hit points may attempt a saving throw vs Death. The number needed is 20 minus the character’s level. The character’s Constitution bonus to hit points is added to the roll. Failure means death. Success means the character has 1 hit point and is unconscious until the end of the current encounter.

This was a recurring joke among the AD&D crowd when I was a teenager. A game in which one might make a saving throw versus Death couldn’t be serious. For that reason, I throw it in category [P] Pandemonium.

Domesday and Environs

In Deep Dungeon Doom, I follow #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23 to create a D&D dungeon campaign in a few minutes per day for one year. I post irregular updates here. To get the daily rooms, follow me on Mastodon and Twitter.

“Step 2 requires sitting down with a large piece of hex ruled paper and drawing a large scale map. A map with a scale of 1 hex = 1 mile … will allow you to use your imagination to devise some interesting terrain and places, and it will be about right for player operations such as exploring, camping, adventuring, and eventually building their strongholds” (Gary Gygax, Europa, April 1975, 18).

Making the Wilderness Map

Scale

We might assume a “large piece of hex ruled paper” is tabloid (A3) size, although I have no idea where one would acquire hex paper in the mid ’70s, especially tabloid size.1 Even at that size, one mile per hex makes what seems to my eyes a too-small area for building strongholds. I suppose I’m used to establishing a barony and having extensive space to explore.

When perusing Dave Arneson’s First Fantasy Campaign (Judges Guild) map and text, though, I imagine a more intimate setting for several PCs and their interactions, the 1977 map’s scale notwithstanding.

Furthermore, with Deep Dungeon Doom’s focus on the dungeon, a small wilderness area feels right, and Ray Otus points out that we’ll have “time to draw a larger scale map in week 5” (The Gygax 75 Challenge, 11).

The reMarkable gives me a hex grid that comes out to ½" hexes on a letter-size page.2 One hex per mile—and limiting the map size to 8" × 10", so as to fit on either US letter-size or European A4 paper—gives us an area of 16 × 20 miles or 320 square miles. Intimate.

Settlements

Following Otus, I place a large town on the coast and a couple villages support-distance away. I like to work in as many terrain types as is logical for a map’s aesthetic appeal and to exercise the wilderness encounter tables, which are differentiated by terrain.

Domesday and Environs.

Mysterious Locations

I choose a remote, vacant area between highlands for a mysterious location. I don’t know why the vale is forgotten or why it might be important to the campaign, but I’m guessing it’s got something to do with the Doommaker herself.

Also, inspired by the real-world map source, the central hills connecting the north and south mountain ranges also mark a geographical divide between the eastern highlands and the western lowlands. A long, straight, sloping tunnel runs between the two. Parallel to it, a series of level tunnels joined by sheer precipices runs the same length. Both structures are huge and blocked by rubble, debris, and monsters. A surface-level track also traverses the hills.

Cyclopean Tunnels

The parallel tunnels are a remnant of the Greater Ones. The sloping tunnel was used for ground transport. The other, after the builders diverted the river, was a series of locks for watercraft. The elves of the eastern woods re-diverted the river some longtime ago.

Dungeon and Base Town

The dungeon, which I name after its most prominent feature, is located off-center, and I place the base town—a stronghold—nearby. I also add regions inhabited by PC races, plus monstrous races for tension.

So early in the campaign—the PC party is still practically at the dungeon entrance, I don’t expect the neophyte adventurers to explore the wilderness soon. I highlight only geographical features on the map, marking each with a single large icon, and restrain myself from adding further detail—apart from an encounter table.

Wilderness Encounter Table

I divide the wilderness map into quadrants, marked by the central hills. Entries separated by a pipe “|” should be read west|east; those by a slash “/” north/south. For example, a 3 result yields halflings when traveling in the west or elves while exploring east of the central hills.

2d6Result
2Magic-User (Men*) (L or N)
3Halflings|Elves
4Knights**
5Orcs/Dwarves
6Men*|Humanoid*
7Roll on Wilderness Encounter Table*
8Bandits
9Lizard Men|Goblins
10Ogres
11Trolls/Hill Giants
12Magic-User (Men*) (C)
* See Wilderness Encounter Table (X57-8).
** Knights? I don’t know yet.

Daily #Dungeon23 Rooms on Mastodon and Twitter

I post the dungeon map, updated with the day’s room and a brief description, every day on Mastodon and Twitter.

1 Avalon Hill of course. In “Hexmaps and Random Encounters Before D&D,” Tom Van Winkle notes that the makers of Outdoor Survival (1972) sold 22" x 28" hex maps for amateur game designers (Tom Van Winkle’s Return to Gaming, September 2, 2023). In an email exchange, Tom points me to a notice in the July 1964 issue (Vol. 1, No. 2) of the Avalon Hill General. Under the heading “Design Your Own Games” on page 1, AH offers the large hex maps in sheets for $1.00 each.

2 Only interesting for reMarkable users: To achieve half-inch hexes, I use the reMarkable template medium hex grid, portrait orientation, exported to PNG, and printed at 176 ppi. Use the highlighter in different colors and export grayscale to get the varying shades. I have to turn the tablet landscape, because reMarkable got the hex orientation wrong. The engineers maybe never played Outdoor Survival, whose map board has the horizontal lines at top and bottom. This is, therefore, the “correct” orientation.

Added footnote 1. [19:04 8 September 2023 GMT]

Edited footnote 1 to include the source. [5:45 11 September 2023 GMT]

Blue Flame, Tiny Stars on DriveThruRPG

Cover of Blue Flame, Tiny Stars

“Stephen’s delightful memoir makes you want to travel upstream to your own formative D&D headwaters, dig out your old graph-paper maps and worn dice, and rediscover the gateway to what the author calls ‘the fantastic path.’”
—Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms

“A celebration of dice, maps, friendship, and, above all, imagination—the very stuff from which the hobby of role-playing is made.”
—James Maliszewski, author of Grognardia: Musings and Memories from a Lifetime of Roleplaying

Warning: Reading this book will make you want to play D&D!

Now Available on DriveThruRPG in Paperback, EPUB, and PDF

Dirty Fighting

This is the 17th in a continuing series of articles, which reedits house rules for Holmes Basic D&D from 40-year-old game club newsletters. Mentions of house rules are in bold text and followed by a [bracketed category designator].

For rules category descriptions and more about the newsletters, see “About the Reedition of Phenster’s.” For an index of articles, see Coming Up in “Pandemonium Society House Rules.”

Phenster’s Pandemonium Society House Rules is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, incidents, and newsletters are either products of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is pure coincidence.

The following excerpts are from Phenster’s contribution to L’avant garde #53 (March 1983). Though out of order, they reproduce the entire article.

Dirty Fighting

by Phenster

Sometimes we want to do something in combat besides attacking with a weapon. Like the time Mandykin had to fight an ogre all by herself after she got separated from the group by a falling portcullis. We couldn't lift the portcullis, so the rest of us went to find another way around. Mandykin found the ogre's lair first. She knew she couldn't beat it in a fair fight, so she had to fight dirty.

She had a bag of salt that we use to throw at zombies, so she threw a handful in the ogre's face, first. She had to make a missile attack with a -4 penalty. She hit, so the ogre was blinded. (Sometimes we throw sand, too, and it's the same.) Then she wanted to trip it. So she rolled her hit dice and added +2 for her high dexterity (17) against the ogre's hit dice. She had 7 4-sided vs. the ogre's 4+1 d8s. It was close but she did it. By the time we found the long way around, Mandykin had the ogre tied up and was sitting on its belly.

Then there was the time we fought a balrog at the edge of the Pit to Hell. Only Beowulf and Jinx had magic weapons, and my spells weren't working on it. Jinx said, "Let's rush it." I said, "What?!" He said, "We'll push it back into the Pit to Hell." I said it was a bad idea, because the balrog could immolate. But Beowulf asked me if I had a better idea and I didn't. Hazard said we should all throw our hit dice (+ damage bonus) against the balrog's hit dice. Only four of us could push, and we got 88 all together. The balrog got 49, so we pushed it into the Pit, but it immolated! We all got burned pretty bad, and Jinx got caught by the balrog's whip and was jerked down into the Pit to Hell.

Shoving, Tripping, and Throwing Sand/Salt

Instead of attacking with a weapon, a combatant may take one of the following actions. A character with multiple attacks with a weapon takes only one of these actions per round.

Hit Dice Roll

Shove [E] and Trip [E], as well as Wrestling [E] farther below, use opposed hit dice rolls. That is, each side rolls dice equal in size and quantity to their hit dice. A 6th-level magic-user rolls 6d4; a 10th-level fighter, 9d8+2.1 Constitution bonuses or penalties to hit points are not counted. The higher roll wins the contest.

Shove [E]

Attackers and defenders make opposed hit dice rolls, adding their Strength bonus or penalty to melee attack.2 A successful shove moves the defender a space in the direction opposite the attacker. Attackers move with the defenders, and the combatants are in close quarters (see Close Quarters). In case of failure, the combatants are in close quarters, but the defenders do not move.

Trip [E]

To trip an opponent, an attacker must step into close quarters with the defender. Attacker and defender then make opposed hit dice rolls, adding their Dexterity bonuses or penalties to AC and missile fire.2 A successful trip indicates the defender is prone. (See Prone [E].) On a failed attempt, the defender may immediately attempt a trip, becoming the attacker. A series of failures takes place in an instant of struggle.

Throw Sand/Salt [P]

The attacker, within 10' of the target, makes a missile attack with a −4 penalty. On a hit, the target must make a saving throw vs. Paralysis or be blinded for 2 to 5 rounds, suffering +2 penalty to AC and −4 to attack rolls.

Note: A penalty to an attack roll to effect a particular result is danger close to allowing PCs to “aim for the eyes” with any attack. When using this [P] Pandemonium rule, be prepared to defend against arguments for such “called shots.”

Source of Opposed Hit Dice Rolls

An opposed hit dice roll is also used in a Shield Wall Push [P] (see “Phalanx Fighting” and “The Phalanx and the Shield Wall.”) I find a similar procedure in the Strategic Review Vol. 1, No. 2 (Summer 1975) under the heading QUESTIONS MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED ABOUT DUNGEONS & DRAGONS RULES (3). In a combat example, a group of orcs grapple with a hero. To be successful, the orcs must roll their combined hit dice and beat the hero’s hit dice roll. Prior to the opposed roll, each orc must make a successful attack roll against the hero before its hit dice can be counted in the grapple. The Pandemonium Society seems to ignore this step.

Nonlethal Attacks

Whenever we have a brawl at the Nine of Pentacles (that's our local Sword & Board), we fight with our fists or wrestle, or we use makeshift weapons, like bottles and chair legs. In a fist fight, you do 1 + STR bonus in NONLETHAL damage, which means, if you go down, you aren't dead, you're just knocked out. Makeshift weapons do 1-3 real damage. We can get in big trouble if we kill someone in base town though, so we have to be careful with that. Wrestling is just another hit dice throw that you add your damage bonus to or your dex bonuses. It doesn't really do any damage, but if you win you can make the other guy do what you want, like pin him to the floor or make him say "Uncle" or just about anything else you can think of.

Fist Fighting [E]

A fist does 1 point of damage. Add the attacker’s Strength bonus2 to damage as normal. All damage is nonlethal.

Knocked Out [E]

When a creature takes nonlethal damage equal to its current hit point total, it falls unconscious for 1 to 6 rounds.

Wrestling [E]

The attacker chooses whether to use Strength or Dexterity and steps into close quarters with the defender. The combatants make opposed hit dice rolls adding the chosen bonus or penalty. If the attacker wins, a desired effect takes place.

Feint

Mandykin wanted a way she could do a feint in melee. Hazard said it was a "subtle action," and it's assumed in a combat round. But Mandykin said a feint is about as subtle as a parry and there's a rule for parry right in the book.

A feint is when you trick your opponent into thinking you're going to do one thing, but then you do something else. You catch him off guard, so you get a bonus (+2) on your attack. It only works against man-type creatures. You do a feint on your go, then you have to wait until your opponent goes to see if he fell for it: Roll a 20-sided die, subtract your level, add your opponent's level or hit dice and his bonus for a high wisdom (if he has one). If you roll under your dexterity score, he's tricked! and takes a -2 to his attack, and you attack at +2. If he isn't tricked, he gets a +2 on his attack (because you left yourself open), and you attack normally.

Feint [P]

To feint, an attacker makes a Dexterity check, subtracting his or her level and adding the opponent’s level (or hit dice), plus the opponent’s Wisdom bonus. If successful, the opponent attacks with a −2 penalty, and the attacker, immediately afterward, makes an attack with a +2 bonus. When the feint fails, the opponent attacks with a +2 bonus, and the attacker with a −2 penalty.

Note: I add the attacker’s −2 penalty in the failure case to discourage overuse, and still I class this one as [P] Pandemonium.

1 We’ll see later that the Pandemonium Society uses hit dice by level progression from Greyhawk (1976, 10-11).
2 Also later, we’ll see ability score bonuses and penalties.

Using How to Host a Dungeon for #Dungeon23

“Not playing through it, I use the rules booklet as a reference work. Tony Dowler’s dungeon-building game provides primordial nexuses, ancient civilizations, and master villains to fill out the dungeon’s space and history should need arise.”

—on How to Host a Dungeon, Inspiration, “Campaign Hook: ‘To All Who Enterin—DOOM’”

As a prelude to some future rendition of Deep Dungeon Doom, I’ll play through an extravagant run of How to Host a Dungeon to establish a robust and detailed history for the 24-level adventure locale. By extravagant, I mean: instead of eight, the dungeon spans 24 strata; not one but a few nexus points are planted within; instead of one each, I’ll run several ages of civilization, monsters, and villainy. Even greater in scope than Wyrm Dawn, it’s a dream project for another day.

Book cover, How to Host a Dungeon: The Solo Game of Dungeon Creation, by Tony Dowler
How to Host a Dungeon: The Solo Game of Dungeon Creation, 2nd Edition, Tony Dowler, Planet Thirteen, 2019.

Meanwhile, for this outing, we adhere to #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23’s prime directive: “Don’t overthink it!” How to Host a Dungeon is a reference work. I use elements from the game’s various “ages” as focal points. So, “rooms” that might be built during civilization and villainous periods become sections of the dungeon, principle characters become major historical figures, and a brief outline of history based on the successive ages becomes the framework for hanging past events on a time line.

“The (unobserved) past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.”

—Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand Design

Working Framework for Historical Events in Deep Dungeon Doom

The following table outlines the major historical periods in the dungeon. This is how I see the time line now. Other—perhaps many other—civilizations, monster ages, and villainous periods, certain to have taken place, may be inserted as the campaign progresses. A thing is malleable until it is observed, that is, used in play.

Time Line—Deep Dungeon Doom

AgesPrimordial NexusesCivilizationsVillains
Prehistory
Void
Primordial Monsters
Alien (Illmind)
Cyclopean Complex
Godthrone
Gateway (Abyss)
Demon
Devil (empire)
Bronze Age
Drow
Iron Age
Dwarven
Giant (empire)
Dark Age
Medieval Age
Magician (Lore Kings)
Fearthoht (empire)
[Present]?

This historical framework is mostly for the DM, so to maintain some coherence as I build out dungeon areas. The process also informs the present situation in the dungeon. Player characters might learn some of the dungeon’s history as they explore it, but they are not obliged to. Players themselves may not much care.

Illmind

The Illmind is a sinister collective of hyperintelligent, extra-dimensional beings. It is responsible for the Rending—the cosmic cataclysm that is the campaign world’s origin. (See Song of the World Dragon.) After the cataclysm, the Illmind established a colony at this location. The colony, whose objective is not yet known to me, grew into the dungeon’s first civilization.

The Illmind civilization ends with the construction of the Godthrone (Megastructure) and the Gateway (Uplift Facility). The latter gates in demons to destroy alien works. The former is now called “Godthrone,” but its true purpose is unknown.

Lyceum Arcanum

To get straight into the thick of things, I want to start the campaign with something about the wizards. Looking at the magician civilization’s constructions, I am attracted to “Lyceum Arcanum.” According to How to Host a Dungeon1, this large structure is built at a nexus point either above or below ground (16). I place it on the surface, knowing that, at civilization’s end, it is buried under a new surface level. For the required nexus, I choose Ley Lines, which is one attraction for the immigrant magicians and later generations.

Lore Kings

As it may be of immediate usefulness, we sketch the history of the magician civilization. It is important to note that, when referring here to ages and civilizations and empires, we speak of the local dungeon and its environs. Other ages, civilizations, and empires take place in the greater world, in parallel and at greater scale.

During the dark age that followed the fall of the Giant Empire, mages were drawn to the donjon, a towering remnant of the Greater Ones from before the Rending. As they grew in power, the mages formed a civilization that brought the dark age to an end.

The magician civilization was ruled by a succession of monarchs, who sought arcane lore lost in the Rending. The Lore Kings discovered much but lost it again in their own apocalypse, which sages now call the Time of Vengeance.

Sometime later, Fearthoht Doommaker rose to dominate the dungeon in an age of villainy that ended with her imprisonment. Now, the dungeon has fallen into another age of monsters, in which the Doommaker Cult attempts to free Fearthoht and promote her to godhood.

Meanwhile, other monster groups vie for power—either through amassing wealth or increasing their numbers—in order to become the dungeon’s next master villain. To determine which monsters form what factions would be overthinking it. Details spill from play.

1 Dowler credits Philip LaRose for the Magician Civilization.