Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish Appendix A: Random Dungeon Generation

[SgtHulka]

EDIT: Modified to tinker with the Periodic Check table, change the Encounter Tracker to 2d6, change the default size of rooms and chambers, and add secret doors after playing the Catacombs-Clysm scenario.

GENERATING THE DUNGEON

A Dungeon is generated during the course of play. It is represented on the table top by connecting a series of pre-determined sections that for the purposes of this guide will be referred to a "Tiles". Tiles might be passages, rooms or chambers.

Tiles have either the "EXPLORED" or the "UNEXPLORED" status. If an Attacking Figure has entered an UNEXPLORED tile the status of that tile immediately turns to EXPLORED.

HOW TO CONNECT TILES

On the Tile diagrams, you will see arrows (->) pointing to the right, up or down. These indicate where the entrances and/or exits of the tiles are. Tiles can connect to each other wherever arrows indicate.

DUNGEON TILES

Stairs Down:

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..._._._...
->|\\\\\|->
->|/////|->
...-.-.-...

U-Passage:

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..._._.
<-|_|_|
<-|_|_|
..|_|_|
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->|_|_|
->|_|_|

Straight Passage:

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->|_|_|_|_|_|_|->
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Straight Dead-End:

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L-Passage:

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...^.^.
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L Dead-End:

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S-Passage:

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..._._.......
->|_|_|......
->|_|_|_._...
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S Dead-End:

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..._._.....
->|_|_|....
->|_|_|_._.
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..|_|_|_|_|

T-Passage:

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X-Passage:

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...^.^...........
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..\/\/...........

Room:

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..._._._._.
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Room Dead-End:

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..._._._._.
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Chamber:

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.......^.^.....
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Chamber Dead-End:

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SET-UP

Before play begins, place STAIRS DOWN. The don't have to be the exact dimensions indicated in STAIRS DOWN tile diagram. Instead, they should be large enough to contain the Attacker's entire faction.

Immediately roll 1 Die and conuslt TABLE I: Periodic Check. Attach the passage or room indicated to the stairs. This newly placed passage is UNEXPLORED because it has not yet been occupied by the Attacking Faction's figures (all of the Attacking Faction's figures are currently on the Stairs Down tile).

THE FIRST TURN

Now the Attacking Faction may take a turn. As soon as an activation ends with an Attacking Faction figure's base entirely within an UNEXPLORED passage, room or chamber, that passage's, room's or chamber's status changes to EXPLORED. The turn immediately ENDS.

Now Roll 2 dice on TABLE I: Periodic Check for each exit indicated. Attach the newly generated passage, room, chamber, portcullis or door to the newly EXPLORED passage, room or door at one of the exits.

ADDITIONAL UNEXPLORED PASSAGES
If, after changing a passage, room or chamber's status from UNEXPLORED to EXPLORED, there are still passage, rooms or chambers elsewhere in the dungeon with the UNEXPLORED status, add a die when you roll on Table I. For each additional status of UNEXPLORED elsewhere in the dungeon, add an additional die to TABLE I.

TABLE I: PERIODIC CHECK
1: Chamber
2: X-Passage
3: T-Passage
4: U-Passage
5: S-Passage
6: Room
7: L-Passage
8: Straight Passage
9: Stuck Wooden Door
10: Locked Wooden Door
11: Portcullis + Roll Again using only 1 Die
12: Room Dead-End
13: L Dead-End
14: S Dead-End
15: Straight Dead-End
16: Locked Iron Door
17: Chamber Dead-End

Example: Morgan Ironwolf (M) moves off of the stairs onto a T-Passage. The turn immediately ends and the T-Passage changes its status from UNEXPLORED to EXPLORED. Since the T-Passage has two exits, Morgan Ironwolf rolls 2 dice twice on Table I. She rolls an L-Passage and a S-Passage. She attaches each passage to one of the exits of the T-Passage. Now the Attacker's turn begins anew.

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->|\\\\\|M|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|......
->|/////|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_._...
...-.-.-................|_|_|_|_|->
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Morgan Ironwolf activates and moves north onto the L-Passage. Once she ends her activation with her base fully within the L-Passage, the status of that passage turns from UNEXPLORED to EXPLORED. The turn ends. The Attacking Faction immediately rolls on Table I: Periodic Check. However, this time there is an UNEXPLORED passage elsewhere in the dungeon...the S-Passage...so Morgan's faction adds an additional die to the roll on Table I. Rolling 3 dice instead of 2, Morgan's Faction rolls a 16, and attaches a straight dead end to the L-Passage:

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........|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|..
........|_|M|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|..
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..._._._|_|_|_._._._._._._._.......
->|\\\\\|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|......
->|/////|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_._...
...-.-.-................|_|_|_|_|->
........................|_|_|_|_|->
Since it is a Dead-End, Morgan will have to re-trace her steps to the South-East and explore the S-Passage, instead.

DOORS

If a door is generated, place it on the Tile's connection point instead of a new tile. When the door is opened or destroyed, the turn immediately ends and a new tile is generated and connected to the door. In this case only roll 1 die to generate the type of new tile.

There are several types of doors. A STUCK WOODEN DOOR can only be opened by a figure in base contact using a Special Action to smash it open. The figure must make a STRENGTH ABILITY CHECK. If it is successful the door is smashed open and it must be removed from the table (it can no longer be closed).

A LOCKED WOODEN DOOR may also be smashed open exactly like a STUCK WOODEN DOOR. However, it can also be picked by a figure in base contact with Thieves Tools (x) using a Special Action. The figure must make an INTELLIGENCE ABILITY CHECK, adding the X value of Thieves Tools as a die modifier. If the Ability Check is successful the door is opened, but it is not removed from the table. From that point forward any figure in base contact with the door can spend a Special Action to close it, in which case the door will return to being a LOCKED WOODEN DOOR and must either be smashed open or picked again.

A LOCKED IRON DOOR may not be smashed open; it may only be picked or unlocked with a key. A figure in base contact with Thieves Tools (x) may use a Special Action and make an INTELLIGENCHE ABILITY CHECK, adding the X value of Thieves Tools as a die modifier. If the Ability Check is successful the door is opened, but it is not removed from the table. Alternatively, any figure with a KEY in base contact with a LOCKED IRON DOOR may use a Special Action to open the door. A Key is a special treasure item that can be found in the dungeon.

A PORTCULLIS is a barrier of iron bars that slams down from the ceiling. A Portcullis stops movement, but it does not prevent fighting. Figures on either side of a Portcullis can still fight each other. In order to lift a Portcullis a figure must be in base contact with it and succeed on a STRENGTH ABILITY CHECK with die modifier of -1. So long as that figure succeeds and remains in base contact with the Portcullis, any other figures may pass under (through) the Portcullis. As soon as the lifting figure leaves base contact with the Portcullis, however, it slams back into the ground and once again blocks any movement through it. In order to move through it, a new (or the same figure) must once again get in base contact and successfully lift it.

A Door or a Portcullis can also be ignored by figures that are Incorporeal. If an Incorporeal figure walks through a door, immediately generate the tile on the other side of the door, and then immediately generate the next tile as well.

A Portcullis can be ignored by figures that use Teleport.

SECRET DOORS
A Dead-End room may be searched for secret doors. Any figure in base contact with one of the room's three dead-end walls may search for a secret door. Draw an Adventure Card. If it is a Treasure Card or Event Card, discard discard it and place a Locked Wooden Door in the wall that was searched. If the Adventure Card is a Trap Card or Wandering Monster Card, play it as normal, treating the point on the wall directly adjacent to the searching figure as the source of the Trap or Wandering Monster. If the card is the special Quest card, re-shuffle it back into the Adventure Deck.

ROOMS AND CHAMBERS

Rooms and Chambers always contain an Adventure Token. Roll one die for the X-axis of a Room or Chamber and one die for the Y-axis of a Room or Chamber to determine where to place the Adventure Token. For a Room, use d3's and place the Adventure Token as indicated within the middle 9 square inches. For a Chamber, use d6's.

GENERATING ENCOUNTERS

Players should create an ENCOUNTER TRACKER. An Encounter Tracker is simply a list of numbers from 1 to 9, with a coin or other indicator that can be placed over the number. For example:

2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..10..11..12

Before play begins, place the coin or indicator over the 12.

During the End Phase of each turn, slide the coin or indicator to the next lower number and roll two dice. If you roll the number the coin or indicator is on or higher, an Encounter will occur.

Certain actions can also slide the coin or indicator to a lower number. Attempting to bash open a door (with a Strength Ability Check) will immediately slide the coin or indicator down one number. Likewise, using the Horn of Dread will move the coin or indicator down to one lower number.

As soon as an Encounter is Generated, immediately slide the coin or indicator all the way back up to 12.

THE ENCOUNTER TABLES

Each Dungeon should have an Encounter TABLE. At its most simple this is a chart with monsters listed for each roll from 1 to 6. Each number should roughly represent 10% of the Attacking Faction's starting strength. So 1 should be 10%, 2 should be 20%, and so forth.

For example, if the Attacking Faction was 50 points of novice adventurers a "1" on the matrix should indicate a roughly 5 point minion, a "2" a 10 point minion (or two 5 point ones), a "3" a 15 point minion, and so forth.

On the other hand, if the Attacking Faction is 100 points, "1" should be a 10 point minion, then 20 points for "2", and so forth.

Whenever an Encounter is Generated by the Encounter Tracker, roll on the Encounter Table to determine the actual minions encountered.

Sample 100 Point Catacombs Encounter Table
1. Giant Rats x3
2. Shadow
3. Ghouls x3
4. Wraith
5. Mummies x2
6. Wights x3

MONSTER PLACEMENT

Monsters may come from the direction of any Unexplored tile. They are usually placed 12" from the closest Attacking figure in that direction (torch light, darkvision and ultravision will usually only penetrate 60' into darkness, which is 12"). They are always placed at the furthest distance within line of sight of the closest Attacking figure, or 12" away, whichever is closer.

However, they can be placed even closer under certain circumstances.

If there is no legal tile on which to place the newly-generated monsters 12" away, place them as far away as possible on a legal tile.

If the monster has Concealing Cloak or Natural Camouflage, place it at the nearest Attacking Figure's INT x 2 in inches instead of the full 12 inches.

If a monster has Wall Crawling, Teleport or Invisibility, place it one inch away from the nearest Attacking Figure.

Monsters that have Incorporeal or Invisible always begin play in the Incorporeal or Invisible state.

CONCEDING DEFEAT

If the Attacking faction concedes defeat, every figure within that faction is considered lost (killed) for the purposes of Victorious Upgrades (below). Otherwise, the scenario will not end until any surviving Attacking Figures have escaped back out of the Stairs Down Tile, or all of them have been removed from play.

Example: Morgan Ironwolf (M), Silverleaf (S), Fredrik the Dwarf (F), and Sister Rebecca (R) are a 100-point Faction. When Morgan moved onto the L-Passageway in the Dungeon Generation Example above, the Encounter Tracker was on "11". Since the turn ends when Morgan turns the L-Passageway from UNEXPLORED to EXPLORED, the Encounter Tracker drops from 11 to 10. During the End Phase of the turn, Morgan's faction rolls an "11", indicating an encounter. MOrgan's faction then rolls a "3" on the Encounter Table, indicating 3 Ghouls.

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........|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|Y|Y|..
........|_|M|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|Y|..
........|F|S|......................
........|_|R|......................
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..._._._|_|_|_._._._._._._._.......
->|\\\\\|_|_|X|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|......
->|/////|_|_|X|X|_|_|_|_|_|_|_._...
...-.-.-................|_|_|_|_|->
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Normally the ghouls would be placed on the "Y" squares, because that is as far away from Morgan Ironwolf as they can be placed on the newly-generated, Unexplored Tile. However, since there is also still an Unexplored Tile to the south-east (the S-Tile), the Ghouls could instead sneak up behind Morgan Ironwolf's Faction. So the "X" squares, just out of Fredrik's line of sight, are also legal placements for the Ghouls.

Morgan Ironwolf's Faction and the Ghouls roll for initiative and fate tokens and do battle. The Encounter Tracker is placed back at 12. However, at the end of every turn, the Encounter Tracker drops one point. So if the battle lasts longer than three turns, more monsters may be drawn to the combat.

[Harry von Fleischmann]

Good work! With the explored/unexplored I'm getting hints of the source of the Nile game from AH. If the party has to retreat from an area it could be different if they go back... "You said it was a crossroads. It's a dead end!"...."yeah but the hobgoblins had killed Sven and there were arrows everywhere and then the troll appeared and we didn't have time to map with a troll biting Ragnars head off....."

[Chris Abbey]

I like the look of that. We will try to playtest at the weekend and report back.

[Modhail]

On a quick first read it looks like a good, useable system, and not just for Otherworld!
I might give it a go the next time I get to go play a dungeon game.

[SgtHulka]

Good work! With the explored/unexplored I'm getting hints of the source of the Nile game from AH. If the party has to retreat from an area it could be different if they go back... "You said it was a crossroads. It's a dead end!"...."yeah but the hobgoblins had killed Sven and there were arrows everywhere and then the troll appeared and we didn't have time to map with a troll biting Ragnars head off....."

That's the hope! Even though the monsters are never more than 60% of the party strength (before casualties), since they constantly re-spawn I hope it plays kind of like a ticking clock of getting in, getting the treasure (victory points), and getting out before the Attacking faction can be destroyed. Your description has definitely inspired a scenario, though, where the mission is to find the dungeon exit. Maybe the stairs crumbled behind the attackers, maybe they fell through a pit Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan style, maybe they escaped underdark slavers and are trying to find their way to the surface, just replace "Chamber" with "Stairs Out" or something like that and you've got a mission that should play out exactly as you describe!

Though, admittedly, you'd have to open up at least 3 unexplored passageways in order to reliably hit "Chamber" on an 18+. That sounds like it would be an extraordinarily tough mission to survive, which is where playtesting and tinkering is going to have to come in. I kind of imagined "Chamber" to be the "Quest Room" in Warhammer Quest -- the goal of the group when designing missions. But as I'm looking at it 18+ to reach your goal might be too much.

[SgtHulka]

I like the look of that. We will try to playtest at the weekend and report back.

Awesome, if you do get a chance to play it I'd love to hear how it goes (and see pictures even more!)

[SgtHulka]

SAMPLE SCENARIO: THE CATACOMBS-CLYSM!

SYNOPSIS
Recently while on an errand for Krongil the Prudent, Sister Rebecca discovered a rotting note rolled into the spine of a dusty scroll. The note was hastily scribbled by a thief hiding from Temple guards, and it described where the forgotten burglar had stashed his ill-gotten loot: deep in the Catacombs beneath the Temple. Sister Rebecca has labored too long as a mere acolyte. She is tired of scrubbing Krongril's vestments and transcribing his meaningless dreams. Now is her chance to finally rise above the High Priest who orders her around like a slave. A quick visit to the Gladiator Stadium procures her a group of violent bodyguards and now she prepares to delve the Temple's sublevels in search of the thief's treasure: a magical grimoire written by the Thoth the Terrible...

Factions
The Attacking faction is Sister Rebecca and her band of hired mercenaries (or, perhaps, purchased slaves?). The Attacking faction is valued at 100 g.p.

The Defending faction is the undead guardians of Thoth' catacombs. The number and type of undead are generated randomly using the following table:

The Catacombs-Clysm Encounter Table
1. Giant Rats x3
2. Shadow
3. Ghouls x3
4. Wraith
5. Mummies x2
6. Wights x3

Setting
The setting is the catacombs beneath the Temple of Thoth in the City of the Invincible Overlord, resting place of three generations of High Priests and countless undead guardians.

Set Up
Use the Appendix A: Rand Dungeon Generation method to create the dungeon during play.

Adventure Tokens
An Adventure Token is placed in every unexplored room or chamber, as per the Appendix A rules. Slip the Grimoire magic item into the Adventure Deck (perhaps using opaque card sleeves so that it isn't obvious) or else add one Wandering Monster card to represent the Grimoire. When the Grimoire is discovered no more Adventure Tokens are placed; any future unexplored rooms or chambers are empty.

Special Rules:
It's A Trap!
Remove the wandering monster cards from the adventure deck. No wandering monsters are used in this encounter. Each time any model comes into base contact with an adventure token you may draw a card from the top of the adventure deck.

The Prize
The Grimoire is the prize. A Legend or Companion that reveals the Grimoire may use it as normal. Should a model carrying the Grimoire lose its last Hit, be removed from play, or be Dominated, Immobilised or Stunned, the Grimoire is dropped and may be picked up by another model.

End
The encounter ends with the Attacking faction has no active models in play.

Victory Points
In additional to normal Victory Points, the Attacking faction also receives +3 VP if it escapes the dungeon with the Grimoire.

Victorious Upgrades
If the Attacking faction is victorious, that player may add the Victory Points achieved to the overall Gold Piece value of the faction. Additionally, if the faction has a surviving Legend or Companion and successfully liberated the Grimoire, that Legend or Companion immediately gains the Magic Items (1) ability and the Grimoire (or Magic Items (x+1) ability if the Legend or Companion already had the Magic Items (x) ability).

Example of Victorious Upgrades: Sister Rebecca and her henchwoman Morgan Ironwolf are the only survivors of the Catacombs-Clysm but they do manage to escape with the Grimoire. Additionally, they forced two Shaken tests on Giant Rats and Ghouls, for 2 victory points. They also recovered The Crown, A Golden Idol, and Bags of Gold, for 4 victory points. They therefore received 9 Victory Points total.

Now Sister Rebecca may build her faction with 109 gold pieces instead of 100. She may want to spend 15 of those gold pieces to upgrade Morgan Ironwolf from a Veteran minion to a Veteran Henchman, or perhaps even to build her as a Wild Ranger, instead. Regardless how she chooses to upgrade her new faction, Sister Rebecca also adds the Magic (1) ability and the Grimoire to her character profile for free.

[frogimus]

I just realized - the way I roll 1's, I'm going to need lots and lots of rats.

This seems to be a nice dungeon crawl mod for OFS. Actually, for a lot of different games with minimal tweaks.

[SgtHulka]

I just realized - the way I roll 1's, I'm going to need lots and lots of rats.

On the plus side you'll be generating a lot of chambers (and therefore a lot of adventure tokens)!

[Morgan]

Example: Morgan Ironwolf (M) moves off of the stairs onto a T-Passage. The turn immediately ends and the T-Passage changes its status from UNEXPLORED to EXPLORED. Since the T-Passage has two exits, Morgan Ironwolf rolls 2 dice twice on Table I. She rolls an L-Passage and a S-Passage. She attaches each passage to one of the exits of the T-Passage. Now the Attacker's turn begins anew.

I just wish to applaud your shout-out to a classic character (leaving aside my own coincidental possession of the same first name).

Yours,

Borg, the 1st level Fighter.

[SgtHulka]

I just wish to applaud your shout-out to a classic character (leaving aside my own coincidental possession of the same first name).

Yours,

Borg, the 1st level Fighter.

Hahaha! Glad you liked that! She's always been my favorite! My playtest faction is Morgan, Sister Rebecca, Silverleaf the Elf and Fredrik the Dwarf. Funnily enough, Fredrik died just like in the Moldvoy basic example of play! Though in my case it was to a Mummy instead of a Hobgoblin.