Back in the early 80's, when I was first bitten by the AD&D bug, creating dungeon maps was a game unto itself.
Sometimes I used the random tables in the back of the DMG. On a few of those times, I used a party of the appropriate level to fight the randomly placed monsters from the encounter charts. Solo play back in the day (I didn't own Tunnels & Trolls).
I don't believe the maps I found so far were randomly generated by the tables in the back of the DMG, but I do believe they were randomly stocked. At least I hope they were randomly stocked - from what I've seen so far I notice little rhyme or reason to the dungeon inhabitants linked to my old maps.
Before I truly start the project of turning my early maps into a "mega-dungeon" of sorts, I want to see if I have another stash hidden away in storage. I have some fairly clear memories of maps other than the ones I've unearthed so far. I'd like to make sure I have the most complete pool to work with.
At least I have a theme to link the disparate maps - they were the work of an insane Dwarven Cleric, who enslaved Goblin to build it. This should help explain some of the craziness of the old style maps ;)
I kick myself in the ass for throwing away alot of the maps I made as a kid. I think I psyched myself into thinking they weren't that good but in retrospect they were actually pretty creative. The overarching theme was a Wizards School taken over by a mad wizard. Each levels had a theme, there were puzzles and traps.. I would have loved to run my kids through the levels.. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteI was inspired by the insanity idea too after seeing an episode of "America's Strangest..." or something like that; the episode was about a rich heiress who believed she would die when her house was complete, so she hired an architect to just keep building... and building... and building. Some stairs go nowhere, doors open to deadfalls, and passageways just go on and on with no rhyme or reason. I like the same concept for a dungeon- the builder was cursed just to keep building, and as long as he did that, he staved off the death that was prophesied... maybe tie this to the powers of a demi-lich? Immortality tied to your lair... some cool possibilities here.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing what comes of your might megadungeon.