Building the Tutorial Dungeon

To give you insight into the process of making a megadungeon, we’ll demonstrate writing a dungeon level and explain and how it’s intended to be used at the table. This is a nitty, gritty example. The end result will be a tutorial dungeon called The Tomb of Golden Ghosts, which you can use to try out His Majesty the Worm.

Creating the map

Let’s use a premade map for expediency. We’ll use a map from a cartographer named Dyson Logos, whose work is used extensively in this book. They have both free and purchasable work for you to use, too!

In this example, we’re going to call this dungeon Level 1, so we’re going to key all our rooms as “1xx.” This map can be found, fully keyed, on page 379.

The player’s version of the map needs to be a little different than the GM’s version: it shouldn’t show secret doors and rooms. The copy to give your players is provided on page 389.

Writing room descriptions

When it comes to populating a dungeon, the first step is just brainstorming. Write your ideas for different rooms down. Select the ones you like and put the others aside for another project. Then, read through the dungeon design checklist on page 335 to make sure you have a good mix of interesting things.

Brainstorming

Imagine a tomb that was once the resting place of a magical royal family, but is currently occupied by a pair of brain spiders. The brain spiders excavated the former tombs to make a nest for themselves.

• Reading over the notes about brain spiders in the Bestiary (Appendix C, p. 256), it feels like these creatures are Saturday morning cartoon villains, so that will inform some of our choices.

• To give the brain spiders a bit more teeth, let’s give them some spell-casting abilities, too. Casting illusions has a mad genius bend to it.

The inhabitants of the tomb probably don’t like their resting places defiled. There are ghosts.

• Because the ghosts are royalty, they appear to be made of pure gold.

• It would be cool if the ghosts were contained the spiders’ webs. We’ll say the webs effect both tangible and intangible creatures. When the guild explores, they might destroy these webs. This is a good way to change the dungeon mid-exploration.

A focused example (sidebar)

For the sake of this example, we’ll assume that steps 1 and 2 of Underworld creation are complete. We’ve already determined the general lore and layout of the Underworld. We’ll focus entirely on making one of our Underworld’s dungeon levels (steps 3-5).

To more clearly demonstrate the ideation process, we’re not going to use a specific dungeon seed level, although you might imagine that this dungeon could be part of the Necropolis of Ot or the City of Ruin.

Reread the dungeon checklist

Once you’ve got some ideas from brainstorming, reread the dungeon design elements on page 335 to see if you have any gaps. Did you get everything?

We’ve sketched out two opposing factions: the brain spiders and the golden ghosts. These cover a reason to talk. But let’s think a bit more about their motivations and personalities.

The brain spiders could possibly ally with the guild if their goals align. What do the spiders want? Their stat block in the Bestiary says they want to feel smart: they are susceptible to flattery along those lines. They also want to advance their cause and grow their power in the Underworld. Successfully hatching a new clutch of brain spider eggs would accomplish this, as would obtaining new forms of magical power.

The ghosts probably want their tomb treasure and for the brain spiders to be destroyed. Will the players be willing to trade potential treasure for the aid of the ghosts?

It’s dull to just repeat “the brain spiders” and “ghosts.” Let’s give these creatures names. What about:

• One brain spider’s name is Kodi Dove-devourer. That sounds just soft enough to be actually nefarious. Its mate is Glaura Glossalalia. That sounds arcane.

• The ghosts are members of the Aurumius Dynasty. The word “aurum” is Latin for gold, so that’ll be a mnemonic device to help us remember it.

• If it comes up, we can name individual ghosts based on the Latin numbering system: Primus, Secundus, Tertius, etc.

What other creatures exist in this area that could provide reasons to fight?

What did the spiders do with the bodies they excavated? Maybe they use webs to puppet the mummified bodies, making adventurers think that there’s actually undead in the area. That’s a Scooby Doo-esque plot that feels fun.

What else would be in this tomb? The brain spiders might have captured a slime. That sounds villainous. They could keep it in a pit and feed it garbage, using it as a disposal system.

Giant centipedes are probably natural monsters to encounter in an underground, detritus-filled area. They’re probably constant headaches for the spiders. Maybe one centipede has achieved sentience by eating too many books. Now, she speaks in a terrible voice, but is friendly and intelligent. Her name is Book Worm. She’ll help the players if they bring her more books to devour.

Next, let’s determine a reason to explore. Treasure is a good one. Interesting treasure is more than just coins: it’s works of art, personalized clothes or jewelry, ancestral weapons, exotic beasts, academic works, etc.

Because this dungeon might be used to introduce players to His Majesty the Worm , and thus exist as a free-standing mission instead of one of many dungeon levels, we need to provide a reason to engage with the space. Quests usually provide this motivational factor. Perhaps there is an ancient treasure entombed within. We’ll call it the Tripartite’s crown to ground the treasure with the “lore” of the setting. If this dungeon is used as a tutorial, consider asking one of your players to take “Find the Tripartite’s crown” as a quest. Ask them why they’re seeking this item to help them think through their character’s backstory. You can be clear about this framing device. Tell your players: “This is your quest, this is the dungeon. This is just a small example so we can try the game out.”

We need a reason to experiment. Let’s put a strange artifact in the spider’s nest—something Glaura is experimenting with. What’s weird? Babies are weird. Space is weird. Let’s put a weird, sleeping star-baby into her chambers. Its radiation will randomly generate maleficence (Appendix A, p. 202).

We need a reason to return, too. You can put a hook in another part of the Underworld where two or more factions want someone to steal or eat the star-baby. This provides incentive to travel back and forth.

We still need a reason to flee. Ghosts, as non-corporeal enemies, are difficult for flesh and blood adventurers to deal with in any circumstance. Let’s establish that a) if the ward-webs are taken down; and b) the golden ghosts have not been appeased by the return of their treasure, they will become an essentially unstoppable force.

We need a reason to be surprised and a reason to breathe easy. Since this is just a small section of the dungeon, let’s combine them. Let’s place a hidden door into an undiscovered (and therefore safe) room. If found, the guild can retreat here and hide out.