I'm typing an adventure for Drivethurpg.com and I need some ideas for monsters. The adventure is a dungeon crawl, and I want to try to put the party against different types of monsters that all use the dungeon as a hideout. I really appreciate any feedback you have.
In-my-humble-opinion Dungeons are not simply boxes with monsters in them.
Every Dungeon ( that is not made completely from natural caves ) was built for a purpose, has a history, and has a story about how the place it was built as transitioned to the dungeon that it is now.
The first part of any Dungeon construction is the creation of its original purpose, and its detailed History from the time of its creation until the current day. Plus coming up with the history of the people who lived there - especially the ones who were there when the fortress fell - can be very useful
Once you have that, populating the Dungeon with interesting areas, and interesting creatures, is actually pretty simple:
What it was built for will control how it was originally laid out - although there may been alterations at the time of the fortress falling ( e.g. collapsed areas ), and there are likely changes made since the place was abandoned by the new inhabitants.
The circumstance of its fall can inform the kinds of denizens you place there: are there undead remnants of the fallen defenders, still trying to defend the dungeon?
The history of the people who were there can be used to leave interesting lore, and clues to the story of the people who were there. You can have things like caches of hidden gear, and treasure, secreted away, with clues to their location in the personal writings of somewhere there ( if the Party actually does some investigation of the clues left behind ).
The history of the dungeon since the fall of the fortress will prompt you to make all sorts of changes, and give you all sorts of clues as to what kind of creatures will be present.
Once you know the place, and the history, the rest will fall into place much easier.
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To bridge on the above, Tracy Hickman and his wife started work on I-9 Ravenloft after they came across a random vampire in a dungeon. Hickman asked "what is this vampire doing here of all places?" That turned eventually into one of the biggest campaign settings Dungeons and Dragons including a republishing of that adventure in multiple editions.
And if your hope is to publish the adventure through any kind of sales site, I have to ask, what work are you doing that I can't do on my own in 20 minutes with the online encounter builder? The real work of creating an adventure is not in the making monster groups to kill; it's in the writing of the why and the how and the where that makes the story of the adventure work. It's easy to pick up some monsters to kill; it's a lot harder to figure out why they're all living in proximity and what the adventurers are there to do.
I'm typing an adventure for Drivethurpg.com and I need some ideas for monsters. The adventure is a dungeon crawl, and I want to try to put the party against different types of monsters that all use the dungeon as a hideout. I really appreciate any feedback you have.
“Finish Him!”
Btw the dungeon is a ancient fort that is built into the ground, just to clear that up.
“Finish Him!”
In-my-humble-opinion Dungeons are not simply boxes with monsters in them.
Every Dungeon ( that is not made completely from natural caves ) was built for a purpose, has a history, and has a story about how the place it was built as transitioned to the dungeon that it is now.
The first part of any Dungeon construction is the creation of its original purpose, and its detailed History from the time of its creation until the current day. Plus coming up with the history of the people who lived there - especially the ones who were there when the fortress fell - can be very useful
Once you have that, populating the Dungeon with interesting areas, and interesting creatures, is actually pretty simple:
Once you know the place, and the history, the rest will fall into place much easier.
Best of Luck!
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
To bridge on the above, Tracy Hickman and his wife started work on I-9 Ravenloft after they came across a random vampire in a dungeon. Hickman asked "what is this vampire doing here of all places?" That turned eventually into one of the biggest campaign settings Dungeons and Dragons including a republishing of that adventure in multiple editions.
And if your hope is to publish the adventure through any kind of sales site, I have to ask, what work are you doing that I can't do on my own in 20 minutes with the online encounter builder? The real work of creating an adventure is not in the making monster groups to kill; it's in the writing of the why and the how and the where that makes the story of the adventure work. It's easy to pick up some monsters to kill; it's a lot harder to figure out why they're all living in proximity and what the adventurers are there to do.
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