Thursday, August 6, 2009

Megadungeon - Doors


In OD&D, it's stated that all doors are considered "stuck" closed, at least as far as the players are concerned. The local monsters, of course, are free to come and go as they please. I use a slightly different system, with a simple chart scribbled in the corner of my scratch pad like this:

(d6)
1 - Trapped and Locked
2 - Locked
3-6 - Stuck

While not *that* much different from the standard assumption, is does add a hint more random variety, and as we all all know, randomness is a DM's best friend when it comes to keeping himself as entertained as the players. :)

From there, I use a couple more simple charts for the description of the door:

Door is made of(1d8)
1-3 - Wood
4-5 - Metal and Wood
6 - Metal
7 - Stone
8 - Special
(*10% of doors have Unusual Features, see below)

Wood(1d8)
1- Oak
2- Pine
3- Teak
4- Yew
5- Ash
6- Bloodwood
7- Ironroot
8- Plywood

Metal(1d8)
1- Steel
2- Iron
3- Copper
4- Tin
5- Brass
6- Pewter
7- Rusty Iron
8- Lead

Stone(1d8)
1- Granite
2- Limestone
3- Basalt
4- Marble
5- Obsidian
6- Glass
7- Fieldstone
8- Sandstone

Special(1d20))
1- Leather
2- Bone
3- Cardboard
4- Recycled Shields
5- Book Covers
6- Animal Hide
7- Reptile Hide
8- Boulder
9- Tree trunk
10- Curtain
11- Tapestry
12- Loose Bricks
13- Mummies
14- Illusion
15- Magical Darkness
16- Stone Golem (argumentative but harmless)
17- Sheet of Flames
18- Ice
19- Waterfall
20- Smoke

Now, remember our locks and traps from above?

Locks(1d8)
1- Magical (Wizard Locked)
2- Magical (unique key somewhere in dungeon)
3- Mundane (Extremely Difficult
4-5 Mundane (Hard to pick)
6-8 Mundane (Simple)

Traps(1d12)[damage typically 1d6 per level of dungeon, at DM's discretion]
1- Acid shower-head above door
2- Flame shoots up from holes in front of door
3- Block fall from ceiling
4- Door charged with electricity
5- Pit opens
6- Sleeping gas
7- Spiked portcullis drops from ceiling
8- Poisoned Needle in doorknob
9- Spear Trap
10 - Crossbow Trap
11- Bell Rings, roll for wandering monster
12- Teleporter

*Unusual Features (1d20)
1- arcane writing (read magic required to decipher)
2- ancient pictograms
3- obscene graffiti
4- charred corpse in front of door
5- fingernail scratches on door
6- bas relief of demonic face (10% delivers magic mouth message)
7- warning sign on door
8- sign on door reads "management" in orcish
9- peephole (50% looks in, 50% looks out)
10- water seeping from under door
11- acid scars on door
12- magic circle inscribed on door
13- human-shaped outline charred onto door
14- comedic graffiti
15- smell of rotting meat exudes from door
16- smell of delicious cooking meat exudes from door
17- smell of perfume lingers around door
18- small bouquet of flowers placed outside door
19- holy symbol on chain hangs from doorknob
20- message box hangs on door, contains 1d4-1 messages

(note, some DMs may wish to include supplementary amounts of wild ass, ymmv)

6 comments:

  1. Good stuff. I have an almost identical d6 Doors Table I'm incorporating into my OPDs, but I have not tested it yet.

    1 - Trap, Locked
    2 - Locked
    3-5 - Stuck
    6 - Ajar

    My Doors stuff ends there, though. I like your ideas here.

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  2. I'm snagging this, top notch!

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  3. This is delicious goodness Al. I express my respect for your hard work through the medium of *yoink*!

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  4. Thanks Al---I'm printing this to put alongside my stuff in KS#2 :D

    Allan.

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  5. nice job, i will use this from now on, if you dont mind.
    BarRee

    ReplyDelete

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