The Return of Witt and the Megadungeon

[Witterquick]

I posted this at Dragonsfoot too, but I'd like your feedback as well.

I'm trying to write up encounters for 0one's "Dungeon Under the Mountain, Level One" which is an eight-page fairly random map. To make some order out of the chaos, I'm using some fairly simple (and hopefully logical) math to make encounter-building more simple.

With that in mind, I have two questions:

What percentage of the rooms should be empty (without encounters or traps)?

And what should be the breakdown of the encounters, using the following scale?

1. Unless the PCs are incredibly stupid or unlucky, they should get through this encounter with just a scratch or possible minor injury.

2. Minor injuries likely, Major injuries possible.

3. Major injuries likely, one PC death possible.

4. One of more PC deaths likely, TPK (Total Party Kill) possible.

5. TPK likely. Run away!

You can see my best estimates here but I'd like your take on it. Thanks.
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[serleran]

Quote:
What percentage of the rooms should be empty (without encounters or traps)?

I tend toward 1/3 - 1/4 of the dungeon as "empty" without traps or encounters. However, I rarely have a room be "completely empty" without any sort of interesting description or remnant, even its just to waste the player's time (red herrings) or make them think there is something there.

Quote:
And what should be the breakdown of the encounters, using the following scale?

1. Unless the PCs are incredibly stupid or unlucky, they should get through this encounter with just a scratch or possible minor injury.

2. Minor injuries likely, Major injuries possible.

3. Major injuries likely, one PC death possible.

4. One of more PC deaths likely, TPK (Total Party Kill) possible.

5. TPK likely. Run away!

1: 10% (you want the players to know its dangerous and they have to be careful, but you don't want them thinking its a cakewalk either)

2: 10 - 20% (again, you want to impose risk and make them realize its a dangerous place)

3: 30-60% (the risk of death should be real)

4: 10-20%/ half of whatever % is left (you want to make things difficult, but not impossible)

5: whatever % is left (without the very real challenges, the victories are less important)

Its very hard to do exact percentages, and some of these can turn into something else through smart play, such as an encounter that could kill becoming a walk, or something routine suddenly being more lethal because the party continued when they should have rested... so, just go with whatever "feels right" and don't try to make it mathematically "balanced" because that won't work.
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Serl's Corner

[Frost]

There is a pretty interesting, related thread on the NG boards... it's worth a read-through.
http://necromancergames.yuku.com/topic/ ... tml?page=1
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Lord Frost

Baron of the Pitt
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The Dungeoneering Dad

[Galadrin]

Moldvay Basic (or was it Expert?) had a table for dungeon content generation (just stuff like monster+treasure, empty, treasure+trap etc). I believe the little brown books had an even simpler table, based on a 1d6 roll for monster/trap etc and then another role for treasure. I'm at work so I can't come up with the tables here, but I'll give my best guess:

1-3 Empty

4-5 Monster

6 Trap

1-4 No Treasure

5-6 Treasure

To get a better curve (so that treasure is almost always accompanied by monsters or traps), you can try rolling 2d6, with the lowest roll determining treasure (3+) and the highest determining opposition (as the monster/trap table above).

[Galadrin]

Witterquick wrote:
And what should be the breakdown of the encounters, using the following scale?

1. Unless the PCs are incredibly stupid or unlucky, they should get through this encounter with just a scratch or possible minor injury.

2. Minor injuries likely, Major injuries possible.

3. Major injuries likely, one PC death possible.

4. One of more PC deaths likely, TPK (Total Party Kill) possible.

5. TPK likely. Run away!

Ah I didn't see this. Honestly, don't bother "balancing" the encounters for your party. It's just more work that A) makes the megadungeon feel less realistic and B) you don't have to do. Just use the "Number Appearing" entry in whatever monster book you use.