Let’s Build a Low-Prep Megadungeon: Part 4
Population Control
Hello there, and welcome back to my series about building a “low-prep” megadungeon. In my last post, I wrote about breathing life into our dungeon by filling it with competing factions. This time I’ll expand on that a bit, and discuss how we can make the dungeon both more dynamic and save ourselves some effort by preparing routines instead of static locations.
When you read through most published adventures, encounters are generally static things. What I mean by this is the author will usually provide a description of the location to be read to the players (so-called “box text”), some more detail for the dungeon master, and a list of creatures or other obstacles inhabiting it. If the location is within proximity to another populated area, there might be a note about loud noises bringing nearby adversaries to investigate. Populating a dungeon this way makes a certain kind of sense, from the perspective of the designer — they can’t know how experienced or adept the DM is, and by giving a clear description of what is in each area, the designer makes life easy for the DM. Running the dungeon is essentially just like reading off a list, where one area flows into the next.
While this can make for an easier experience for the dungeon master, it can also make the dungeon a boring, never-changing thing. I know I was certainly guilty of just letting the characters slog through a dungeon, always encountering exactly what the box text told me to give them, never deviating. As a new DM, that’s the easiest way to experience the adventure as intended by the designer. More over, trying to imitate this style makes preparing your own adventure more time-consuming; the idea that you have to plan ahead of time which encounters happen in which rooms, for every area of a dungeon, is daunting, especially if you’re populating a megadungeon! Luckily, there’s a more dynamic way to fill our dungeon, and it ends up being less work, to boot!
Rather than fill our megadungeon with encounters which remain static until the party happens upon them, we’ll figure out some routines for our dungeon denizens; activities they would be going about as a normal part of their existence; and then supplement them with more tradition static or “set-piece” encounters. We’ll also make a rough note of population size for our factions, so we can track the PCs’ impact as they make their way through the dungeon. In the end, we’ll have a number of encounters we can drop in when appropriate, without the need for tons of boilerplate text.
As we discussed in Part 3, we have three factions in the upper halls of our dungeon; a newly arrived clan of kobolds who are trying to establish a lair; a cult made up of humanoids and fishpeople who worship a grotesque aberration as their god; and some malign presence deeper in the dungeon, which might be responsible for the nightmares which plague the surrounding country side. Since the “deeper presence” hasn't really been defined yet, we can concentrate on the other two factions — the kobolds and the cultists.
While the kobolds are relative newcomers to the dungeon, they’ve already managed to carve out a significant portion of the first floor for their own. So right away, we can think of two routines for them — patrolling their territory to keep intruders out, and making raids against the cult. This second routine is especially likely, given that the cult has captured the kobold clan’s totem; their dragon wyrmling (remember, we’ve slapped a new coat of paint onto the Sunless Citadel adventure). We can also imagine the kobold leader sending scouts to other areas of the dungeon, in an attempt find away to outflank their enemies. Lastly, since this is an entire clan, and not just an expeditionary or raiding force, there are non-combatants; the young, old, and infirm to care for and guard. If we lay all of this out into a simple list, and assign some numbers to it, it might look like this:
- Kobold patrol: Kobolds(4), Kobold Elite(1), Giant Rat(1)
- Kobold raiders: Kobolds(6), Kobold Elite(2)
- Kobold scouts: Kobolds(3)
- Kobold Throne Room: Kobold Shaman(1), Kobold Elite(4)
- Kobold Haven: Kobold(8), Kobold Non-Combatants(36–48)
With these spelled out, we can also decide how many kobolds there are, and make a tally to keep track of them as they are killed or otherwise dispatched. You’ll also notice that the Throne Room and Haven encounters are traditional and static; unless the shaman is leading an attack, engaged with her clanmates in some way, or resting, she will always be in the throne room with her guards. Similarly, since the dungeon is dangerous, the non-combatants are not allowed to wander until they’re old enough to become patrollers, raiders or scouts.
We can follow a similar strategy for our cultists. Since the dungeon is an active battleground, the cult will also have patrols, raiding parties and scouts. Also, while the humanoids and kuo-toa are allied, they have slightly different goals. The cult leader, Belak, is trying to use the aberration below to communicate with the evil which resides deeper in the dungeon; the fishpeople believe the aberration is their god. Therefore, we can say that some of the kuo-toa are usually busy praying and making offerings, and Belak and his protectors are nearly always engaged in some kind of research and investigation. Lastly, we have the captured wyrmling, which is always kept in one place, and guarded.
- Cult patrol: Cultists(1 or 2), Kuo-Toa (1 or 2)
- Cult raiders: Cultists(3), Kuo-Toa(3)
- Cult scouts: Cultists(2)
- Dragon’s lair: Kuo-Toa(2), Dragon Wyrmling(1)
- Kuo-Toa worshippers: Kuo-Toa(4)
- Kuo-Toa leader: Kuo-Toa Whip(1), Kuo-Toa (3), Aberrant Manifestation(1)
- Belak and entourage: Belak, Cultist(3), Aberrant Manifestation(4)
While this list is longer, it follows the same pattern as the one before; we have a variety of encounters which can be dropped in wherever they are needed, and one or two static encounters which will almost always take place in a predetermined area. Again, with numbers in hand, we can get a rough idea of how large the cult is, and make notes as they are impacted. Perhaps as the PCs (or kobolds!) advance, certain routines stop, or become reinforced, or are no longer available.
The other obvious thing we can do with these lists is build random encounter tables, thus injecting even more dynamism into the adventure. When the PCs make too much noise fighting with a kobold raiding party, do they attract the attention of the cult patrol? Or perhaps the party stumbles into an a fight already in progress? When they rest, who (or what) happens upon them?
You see — with very minimal work, we’ve got a fully realized set of encounters with which to populate our dungeon! All we have to do is decide what the characters are likely to encounter when they enter a given area; be that something we decide ahead of time, on the fly, or by rolling on a table. No matter how we determine what to do, we’ve saved ourselves plenty of prep-time by not building out a bunch of box text.
Hopefully you find this style useful and appealing for your own adventures. What do you think of the lists I’ve made, and the ideas of routines in general? Do you see something I should add or change? Let me know what you think!
