On Subsystems

Nov 29th, 2023

Rolling dice is fun. Procedural Generation is fun. The GM is a player too. These beliefs stand as guiding principles in my design philosophy and tend to bleed into everything I put to paper these days. 

So we come to this: A completely modular transitional space between main areas of the dungeon in the upcoming adventure.

I'll roll two of them here:

1. A Dimly Lit corridor with a long stretch of very dangerous "soft earth". (1 on Layout, 2 on danger) Inside we find a goblin with a mangled arm (1,1 on 2d6 encounter) and a blood trail leading deeper into the caverns, and two massive spiders with crystalline carapaces dragging a mid-sized draconic corpse to said soft earth. This room was generated with some objectively terrible rolls but has a pretty interesting opportunity to ambush two powerful threats early on and to bypass a ton of dungeon crawling to travel straight to a pivotal scene. 

2. A Pitch Black wide stone room (6,1) containing an elf tending to an inured giant spider (6). Soft light emanates from the healing magic and the curious crystal formations in the nearby corner (17). Obvious (given sufficient light) tracks from the elf lead to the nearby oasis, and loot left behind also litters the corners of the room. (2 loot rolls)

Unless I miss my math, this simple set of tables effectively gives you 4000 room permutations. Granted, they'll all still be a simple room that requires a bit of creative juice to flesh out, but they're a step in the direction that I think I enjoy writing (and GMing) in, where the GM is in for as many surprises as the players

This post was released early on Patreon, alonside plenty of subscriber-only posts.