Dungeons

Table of contents

Dungeons

A dungeon can be any dangerous location that warrants “zooming in” on the action. Dungeons tend to feature multiple areas (usually rooms) and provide a combination of tension, exploration, discovery, and danger.

Block, Dodge, Parry does not have a Perception or Investigation skill. The Warden presents any obvious information about an area and its dangers without cost. If more time is invested, more obscure information will be obtained (though this might prompt a Dungeon Event). Always assume that the characters are at least capable adventurers. Alternatively, if characters are explicitly in a rush, they might miss certain opportunities and threats offered by the environment.

Rounds, Turns & Actions

A round inside the dungeon is roughly 10 minutes.
For each round, the Warden narrates the current status, environment, and immediate dangers.
On their turn, every character chooses their desired action.
The actions are resolved, and if appropriate in the fiction, a roll on the Dungeon Events table is made. The party responds to the results.
Any loss of resources (supplies, gear, deprivation) and progress is recorded, and the cycle repeats.

Actions

Actions in dungeons can cover a wide range of activities: searching a room for valuables, perusing the books in a dusty library, appraising which weapon isn’t tarnished by rust in a forgotten armory, breaking open a door, disarming a trap…

Some actions can take multiple rounds. The Warden can simply decide something takes X rounds, roll a die (d6 rounds), or determine that an action is a Complex Task.

Some examples of actions:

Searching

Searching reveals all reasonably available information about a specific thing or area. Depending on the size of the object of study, this could take multiple rounds. Searching something before proceeding is safe, but costs time.

Doors

Doors can provide various challenges:

Stuck doors. A door in a dungeon has a 2-in-6 chance of being stuck. A character realizes a door is stuck the moment they try to open it. If a character has a STR of 15 or higher or a specific tool such as a crowbar, they can burst open the door and engage in combat in the same round. Otherwise, it takes a turn to open a door, and everything behind the door will be alerted and ready to strike. Players can barricade a door with furniture, wedges, or spikes, which forces opponents to make STR saves to open it.

Locked doors. Locked doors can be picked or broken down. Lockpicking can be resolved through Time, Gear & Skill. Breaking a door down can take several rounds; consider giving the door HP and impairing piercing damage.

Hidden or secret doors. Interaction with secret doors has three stages: awareness of the presence of a secret door, locating the secret door, and locating the unlocking mechanism. Attentive characters will generally notice the presence of a secret door upon taking a moment to inspect a room. Locating the secret door takes 1 turn. If players are particularly explicit and thorough in the description of their search, they also manage to locate the unlocking mechanism in the same turn; otherwise, that takes another turn.

Resting

Taking a breather does not do anything in and of itself. Keep in mind that recovery can only be achieved by the following means:

Drinking from a waterskin to restore HP. This does not take a full turn, just a moment of calm.
Sleeping can stave off (sleep) deprivation, but rest in a dungeon will always be Perilous and will not remove Fatigue.
Eating can stave off deprivation (hunger), and Simple and Fancy meals can restore Fatigue.

Dungeon Event

When an action performed by the party is notably slow, loud, or reckless, roll on the table below.

1d6	Type	Description
1	Encounter	Roll for an encounter.
2	Sign	Roll for an encounter, and foreshadow its presence through a clue, track, or scent. The next Encounter or Sign will be the encounter you rolled.
3	Environment	Environmental escalation. The dungeon awakens to the party’s presence.
4	Loss	Torches are blown out, or an ongoing spell fizzles. Something of value is lost or depleted.
5	Exhaustion	The party must rest (and roll again on this table), add Fatigue, or eat.
6	Quiet	All is safe… for now.

For Environment, consider the following options:

A timed threat the party is here to stop gets closer to its conclusion.
Add more creatures to the next encounter, as they are searching for the party now.
Environmental threats (natural gas, dark magic aura, ominous atmosphere) intensify.
A route shifts or collapses.

Other Dungeon Elements

Alternative Uses for Weapons

Dungeoneering adds other considerations to weapons:

Two-handed weapons prevent the use of held light sources.
Weapons might have secondary uses: an axe can chop down a door, a sword can quickly take down a rope bridge, and a mace can shatter a statue holding precious gemstones.
Weapons with Reach and those that rely on Slashing movements to deal their damage might be Impaired in their use because of cramped environments.

Traps

Unless in a hurry, assume that adventurers are capable — which means they will detect traps before they are sprung. Traps consist of a triggering mechanism and an effect. By default, characters will detect one of the two, and they can spend a turn to discover the other. If they aim to disarm the trap, use Time, Gear & Skill. If only two out of those three elements are available, roll 1d6; on a 1, the trap is sprung, and on a 2-6, it is safely disarmed.

Damage from traps targets ability scores and bypasses HP. Armor can reduce damage, but only if it makes sense in fiction (a shield doesn’t stop gas).

Traps should be interesting puzzles to solve, instead of gotcha! moments.

Treasure

Pick a few types of treasure that fit your dungeon (that make sense in fiction or add interesting worldbuilding), and determine the base price. For instance:

The tomb of Gralaf the Grim was used to bury the ancient dwarven king. It has since been used as a cultist base, and more recently as a bandit hideout. Ghosts — both dwarven and cultist — roam these halls still. The most valuable treasure to be found here are dwarven funerary masks (1000 coins). Cultist statuettes are also still scattered around (800 coins), and the bandits have stashed their recently-stolen jewelry here (500 coins).

Consider adding properties to certain types of treasure, like:

Lightweight: 10 per inventory slot.
Fragile. Might get damaged in combat or when taking a tumble, making it worthless. Can be wrapped in padding, making the item Bulky.
Bulky treasure takes up 2 inventory slots.
Hefty treasure cannot fit into one’s inventory, and requires two hands to carry.

Combine these aspects together in a rollable table for your dungeon:

1d6	Type	Base price	Properties
1-3	Bandit jewelry	500	Lightweight
4-5	Cultist statuette	800	Bulky
6	Dwarven funerary mask	1000	Fragile

Each treasure item found has a value: Worthless, Common, Rare, or Exquisite. Its true value is only revealed when appraised. This can be done in settlements or with the Appraiser skill. Certain merchants or collectors might specialize in certain goods, and for their appraisal, you roll twice and pick the better result. For merchants who dislike the seller, roll twice and pick the worse result.

1d10	Appraisal	% of base price
1	It’s actually worthless	1%
2-6	It’s common and not particularly valuable.	50%
7-9	It’s rare and quite well-made	75%
10	It’s exquisite and in prime condition!	100%

Deep inside the Tomb of Gralaf the Grim, Silvayn discovers (roll 1d6, a 4) a cultist statuette. A bit further on, he manages to find a (1d6: 6) dwarven funerary mask. On his way back to civilization, he’s forced to hastily rappel down a cliff. He survives, but lands on his backpack (and the funerary mask). Upon returning to town, he gets the statuette appraised (1d10, a 5) and sells it for 400 gold. The mask has lost most of its value, having shattered, and sells for 10 gold.