
There’s no table in the DMG that offers me a random entrance into the dungeon - on page 290 is the Starting Area table, but I’m going to roll up that option and make it below ground AFTER I figure out how the players get down there. I’m also not yet certain about the extent of this dungeon - a few two-hour sessions to complete or half a dozen? I’ll ponder this question and see if the random generation of the dungeon gives me some ideas. Let’s assume a mix of level 1 to level 3, and maybe we can examine later how the adventure might be tweaked for higher levels. My intent here is to create a locale suitable for low-level characters. Note: The new 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide drops today for most of the world - some of us were able to purchase it a few weeks early from WotC retail partners, but sources like Amazon and other retailers have them now. Now, let’s go find out just what lies beneath that farmhouse… The tables aren’t there to do your job (as DM) for you - the tables are more for inspiration and flavor. While the tables can be used to reduce the overall design time of an adventure, that saved time should be applied elsewhere - to the backstory, the characters, the dialogue, and the descriptive elements. I should also add this disclaimer: No one should go into creating a similar randomly-generated adventure using the new 5e DMG with the goal of doing it as fast as possible. I’ll only deviate where I feel a random adventure detail doesn’t “feel right.” But even with a randomly-generated dungeon, a DM is frequently going to have to dip into his/her creative reserve in lieu of rolling some dice. That means consulting tables and charts and possibly re-purposing them if necessary (as I did in Part I where I used a Magic Item table to determine the type of artifact - a lantern). No promises.)Īs with Part I, my goal here is to try and use the DMG as much as possible.
#Secrets of the lost tomb rolling more than 8 dice pdf
(There may be a short Part IV where I pull everything together into a PDF reminiscent of the old AD&D modules. (Oh, I can already see the comment-requests rolling in now…)įor Part II, my goal is to tackle the dungeon I’ll wrap everything else up into Part III. * The story - once all is said and done, I need to wrap the entire thing up with a bow that offers a backstory, maybe a handout or two for the players, and anything else that I might wish to have as a DM. * A list of potential treasure/magic items – What’s a dungeon crawl without some loot? * The warlock - I need to create the NPC that the players will face in the showdown. * The encounters - Along with fixed and wandering monsters, I’ll need to document any traps or puzzles that players might encounter. * The dungeon - I need the dungeon map and room descriptions.

In a nutshell, these are the items I wish to create before handing off to the my fellow DMs: When I wrapped up Part I of this project, I made a list of the various things still left to do. It wasn’t something I could put out there with just the right amount of detail for other DMs to take and use and modify.

The details I’d rolled up and put together sure sounded like a fun adventure. The priest and villain were both fleshed out a bit, and the origins of the dungeon were also given some details.

Using a number of tables from the book, I put together the fragments of a story involving an elderly priest, a menacing warlock, an underground dungeon, a mysterious artifact, and a ritual that must not be allowed to be completed. I grabbed some dice, sat down at my dining table, and created the framework for a new D&D adventure in about 30 minutes. Last week, I got to have some real fun with the new 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide.
