Pages

Thursday, April 8, 2021

The Unfinished Domain of Scarlet Prince - Part 3

     Continuing with my dungeon creation using the Tome of Adventure Design, I hit Table 1-1A to generate a name for the dungeon.  Not much less unwieldy than the earlier post names, but certainly more evocative.  

    So who is/was Scarlet Prince or is it THE Scarlet Prince or A Scarlet Prince?  I don't know yet, I expect the backstory to emerge from the dungeon creation process.  To date I know one important element in the story is a duel on a bridge and that they were in possession of the Moon Shield when the dungeon was being constructed.  Nor do I know why the dungeon was left Unfinished, but I know either Area 2 or Area 3 will have roughly excavated walls and floors providing trip hazards in combat.

   With this post I get to begin designing and roughly laying out Area 1, which I know has 14 rooms, three of Unusual Size.   Table 3-37 tells me this area of the dungeon was excavated and then faced with stone blocks, walls and ceiling and paved with flagstones.  Typical dungeon construction.

    As I mentioned in the first post, one of the things I liked immediately about the ToAD, is that it provides suggestions for laying out areas with some intention and design, as opposed to the DMG's more random method.  A quick roll on Table 3-41 gives me all rooms connect to a central room, like a star pattern.

Nice idea, but with 14 rooms and a chasm to one side, it gets crowded in a hurry.  So I'll modify it so that I'll have a central room, with the other rooms tumbling out of it into each other.  Something like this, but as I generate the individual rooms, I'll create the actual layout and doorways.


The Unfinished Domain of Scarlet Prince
Area 1 Rough Layout


     Things to keep in mind, I need another way down to level two, as I have the concealed handholds in the chasm, I want a obvious pathway down too.  It's always a good design practice to have most areas, as well as clues, have multiple ways for the party to find them.  I also want a secret or concealed door to the smaller area on this level.  If they don't show up in room generation I'll add them afterwards.


The Unfinished Domain of Scarlet Prince

Part I - The Entry

Part 2 - The Grating Chasm

No comments:

Post a Comment