Nightmoor Abbey Level 1 Saturday Night Specials

Using the Megadungeon - Random Area Name Generator, the area names from the Diablo games, and game reports from In Places Deep as inspiration below are the names of the "Specials" on level 1 of my Nightmoor Abbey Dungeon.

Level 1 has 108 rooms and I used the B/X dungeon stocking method. Therefore, I knew I had to come up with ~18 "Specials". My stocking spreadsheet only required 16.

• Hidden Shrine of St. Gax
• Thrones of Deviltry
• The Red Chapel
• The Hall of Forbidden Tapestries
• The Map Room
• The Tombs of Silence
• The Lady's Lounge
• The Lost Lounge of Black Magic
• Cells of the Damned
• The Butcher's Abattoir
• The Chamber of the Black Pyramid
• The Golden Skull
• The Demon Hole
• Cave of the Brass Face
• Chaotic Chamber of Purple Eyes
• The Chambers of Bone

Nightmoor Abbey Wandering Monster Table Level 1

I'm about to begin a new megadungeon campaign with K-slacker and some guys he's been playing with for a while. I'm calling it Nightmoor Abbey and it is heavily based on Evan's Nightwick  Abbey from In Places Deep. I'm also leaning heavily on Diablo and Spellbook Games' Journey through Malebolge (which, I believe, is a completed and expanded version of Judges Guild's Inferno). Another thing I am looking at is pulling in some of Warhammer Fantasy's Doomstones and/or Enemy Within for when they leave the Abbey.

The dungeon map is derived from the geomorphs at Dave's Mapper and stocked largely using spreadsheets with random number generators and the Semi-Random Megadungeon "Saturday Night Special" Using Existing Resources from Planet Algol.

One of the trickiest and funnest parts of doing this has been developing the history (as mentioned above I am largely stealing this) and developing ways to pass this history on to the players through play. For this I've been leaning on a post from the Angry GM and the processes and presentations in Dwimmermount.

Oh, and we're using 1E AD&D (with a few minor house rules - no elves as PCs, the addition of the frogling race, adding a usable Bard class, and simplifying the alignments down to the B/X three). I threw out the idea of using B/X, but some of the players were pretty adamant in their preference for race + class. Anyway, I've had a bit of a hankering to see how much of the 1E AD&D combat procedures I can actually use. I know the players are going to dislike the random determination of targets hit in combat.

Below is the wandering monster table for Level 1 of demon-haunted dungeon below Nightmoor Abbey.

March 9th should be B/X Appreciation Day

Just sayin'...

Small Greyhawk

Quick campaign idea
Using World of Greyhawk box set with the following changes:

• Hexes are 6 miles instead of 30 miles

• Stock each hex using the dungeon stocking rules treating each hex as a dungeon room. Specials = dungeon, tower, etc. Monster = lair.

• Castle of the Mad Archmage is the tent pole, can roll in other classic greyhawk models (Giants, Slavers, Tharizdun, etc)

• Populate hexes with classic modules (TSR, Judges Guild, Necromancer, Kuntz, Mythmere etc) and Dyson’s maps/adventures

• Doomstones with orcs from Iuz and gems leading to Elemental Evil (using Elemental Princes instead of Zuggtmoy)

• The kingdoms marked on the map are kingdoms in name only. Each marked location, except for the City of Greyhawk, is either a village or a castle as per the rules regarding establishing a stronghold (use Judges Guild Villages and/or Castles books and some of Dyson’s maps [other Wilderland cities; Rauxes = CSWE]). Some may have swore allegiance to another castle (thus the “kingdoms”)

• Populations are cut by a factor of 10

• Religion:
• Generally, the central area is dominated by the Church of Law with numerous venerated saints (faux catholic, St. Cuthbert) or the Old Faith (druids)
• eastern barbarians - Odin, Thor, et al.
• West - babylonian
• Chaotic - deviltry & old ones
• Others from Deities & Demigods are also available
• Starting in the City of Greyhawk - Use CSIO

• Put Dyson’s Jakalla maps under the city. With connection to Castle of the Mad Archmage

Hex Stocking Density

For interest sake I pulled out one of my copies of Isle of Dread. For most, it is the benchmark for hex-crawling modules. I wanted to approximate the ratio of hexes-to-encounters. Using the methodology mentioned in my last post there is a 1-in-3 chance of a hex having a monster for a hexes-to-encounter ratio of 3:1 which gives me approximately 133 monster encounters in my 400 hexes.

Just eyeballing the number of hexes on the island, I would guesstimate that there are approximately 400 hexes (has anyone actually counted them? I am far too lazy). Using the numbered island map from the module which as 24 encounters and adding 5 for the number of locations on Taboo Island, there are a total of 29 encounters on the island. Let's round up to 30. I am assuming that all numbered encounters on the map are with monsters which may not be correct. I took a quick look and didn't see any exceptions but I could be wrong. This gives a ratio of 13 hexes to 1 encounter.

My hexes are far more densely populated with monsters than those on the iconic island.  I'm okay with this. One reason I am okay with a higher number of encounters on my map is that it is for an open, exploration focused game in the West Marches style. I want the PCs to go out into the wilderness and find stuff. Also, the there is an explicit social contract that characters will try to return to town at the end of a gaming session so the quicker implied consumption of resources that will result from more encounter will not be an issue.

Wilderness Hex Stocking

I am currently stocking a wilderness hex map. It is 20 hexes by 20 hexes numbered 0 to 19 in each direction.

I have mentioned in the past that I stock wilderness hexes in the same manner as I stock dungeon rooms. Each hex is treated as a "room" and I roll on the table in section E "Stock the Dungeon" on page B52.

Instead of rolling 400 d6's I set up a simple random number generator in each cell of a 20 by 20 cell spreadsheet in excel with a vlookup function that referred to a table that matched the one on page B52.

Below are the very high level contents of my 400 hexes:

B/X Cover-to-Cover - pages B6 and B7

Quick thoughts while I read pages B6 & B7:

• "To choose a class, a player should first look for his or her highest ability scores." - Moldvay was a rabid power gamer ;)  As an aside I always loved playing clumsy thieves, sickly fighters, clerics that are lacking common sense, etc. It is funny how often these "sub-par" characters can sometimes last in a campaign.

• Strength, Intelligence, et al are called "ability" scores instead of attribute scores, stats, etc. The word "ability" is also used throughout the descriptions.

"Strength" is a measure of muscle power and the ability to use that power.

 "Intelligence" is the ability to learn and remember knowledge, and the ability to solve problems. 

etc...

• I noticed a number of times in the descriptions terms (or closely related terms) that become "skills" in later editions - balance, endurance, intuition, knowledge, etc.
• Ability Score Adjustments - "This adjustment shows that a character may practice hard and learn how to fight or reason well..." I always new the option for the 2-for-1 swap but I don't remember ever reading this sentence before. As such I find it somewhat perplexing that Constitution cannot be raised or lowered.
• A very short description about Hit Points and what they are. No talk about them being part luck or divine favour such as found in the 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide.
• Surprise, surprise... I love the standardized -3/+3 ability score bonuses.
• "Maximum Number of Retainers" - at one time or over the life of a character?