Laws of the Dungeon: Procedure for Creating Free Association Adventure Sites

Inspired by this post from Was It Likely on Free Association Monstrosities.

Pulling also from Electric Bastionland. Everything (dungeons included) has three purposes:

• Original
• Current
• Tangent

Each of these places we’ll be creating today will have the “Current” purpose of Dungeon. It’s meant to be explored, survived, and looted! We’ll roll for the Purpose that it was Originally and the Ruination that changed it to its Current form (Dungeon). For the Tangent Purpose, roll Purpose a second time.

The Purpose table is done by me. The Ruination table is a direct port-in from Maze Rats. Very “Aesthetics of Ruin.“

D66 (2d6, first die = tens place, second die = ones place).

The formula is: “This was a place of [purpose] until [ruination] happened. Now, it’s a dungeon and a place of [purpose] with the threat of [ruination] not far off.”

D66	Purpose	Ruination
11	Art	Arcane disaster
12	Beauty	Army invasion
13	Brooding	Cannibalism
14	Business	Civil war
15	Buying	Collapse
16	Cleansing	Crystal growth
21	Communication	Curse
22	Debate	Degeneration
23	Education	Earthquake
24	Entertainment	Eruption
25	Exercise	Evil unearthed
26	Farming	Experiments
31	Feeding	Explosion
32	Gambling	Famine
33	Hiding	Fire
34	Housing	Flooding
35	Imprisonment	Fungus
36	Information	Haunting
41	Meeting	Ice
42	Mining	Insanity
43	Murder	Lava flow
44	Nesting	Magical sleep
45	Organization	Melted
46	Prayer	Monster attack
51	Processing	Mutation
52	Recreation	Outsider attack
53	Rejuvenation	Overgrowth
54	Ritual	Petrification
55	Rumors	Plague
56	Sports	Planar overlay
61	Storage	Poison gas
62	Study	Resources gone
63	Theater	Revolt
64	Torture	Risen dead
65	Training	Too many traps
66	Worship	War

I’ll roll some for you.

1. “This was a place of education until arcane disaster happened. Now, it’s a dungeon and a place of prayer with the threat of crystal growth not far off.”
2. “This was a place of rumors until the resources were gone (alcohol ran out, most likely). Now, it’s a dungeon and a place of nesting with the threat of “too many traps” not far off.”
3. “This was a place of communication until lava flow happened. Now, it’s a dungeon and a place of rejuvenation with the threat of poison gas not far off.”
4. “This was a place of meeting until revolt happened. Now, it’s a dungeon and a place of ritual with the threat of petrification not far off.”
5. “This was a place of recreation until a haunting happened. Now, it’s a dungeon and a place of worship with the threat of ice not far off.”
6. “This was a place of processing until experiments happened. Now, it’s a dungeon and a place of farming with the threat of magical sleep not far off.”

Funny enough, I’m making a lot of stuff like this for Adventure Hour! recently…

Let me know what you make! 🙂