...And extra Dungeon sauce.

Wow. Thats a redundant title. Ok.

Over on Levi's Gamecraft forum (which is fun to read, even if I don't want to join), Levi asked "What do you consider standard GM prep". The first guy answered "Drawing the dungeon map", and Levi responded with "Seriously?"

So this, along with a few other conversations I've had online, and some fairly bad advice in the dungeon crawl how-to right here (I'm not naming names!)  have led me to think the old standard must now be some kind of lost art.

So I'm going to go through how to do it. Note that this won't create something amazing that will shatter your worldview or anything.  This is the sort of campaign any 14 year old can run.

Before the Campaign Begins

This is where you actually do the most work. And yes, it involves drawing a dungeon map. And a region map.

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1) Region Map first! -

You need one single sheet of graph paper. This isn't a massive continent either. Low level characters don't generally fly across the continent right away. The scale will be about 1 mile per square.

a) drop two or three towns on the map, and some features. Make one of the towns bigger than the other(s). Give every town a name.

b) drop a few features on the map. Put in a couple of foresty areas and some hills and possibly a swamp or coastline.  Put in a river. I mean, everyone knows how to make maps, right? Well, try not to make it too crazy or clutter it up too much. Name all the major features (forests, swamps, river, etc). Now mark about 3 places to put dungeons. At least one of these should be within walking distance to one of the towns.  

Put this map in your folder or binder or whatever.

Next up: The First Dungeon!

2) Dungeon Map Next!

To start, you're only creating one dungeon, and that shuld occupy the players for about 2 or 3 levels.

Draw a dungeon map. I recommend making it at least two levels deep with a surface feature of some kind, so that's what I'm going to show here. You will need *three* pieces of graph paper.

a) On page 1, you split it into two maps. So fold your graph paper in half to make a little crease line.  

b) On the top half you should make a vertical profilewhich shows the layers. The reason for this is you may eventually be expanding the dungeon, so leave some room for that.

c) the bottom half should show a surface encounter area- like maybe some ruins. Yeah, lets' go with that. So you have some overgrown foresty areas, some crumbling walls, or whatever. And you place a couple of low level encounters. Also make two entrances to the dungeon. One should be obvious (a big cave entrance and it goes right to room 1 on level 1) and the other one hidden and it goes right to level 2 somewhere.

d) Use the other two pages to draw your dungeon map.
* Make sure you include lots of multiple pathways- avoid bottlenecks.
* Don't bunch up the rooms too much. Make the rooms big enough to battle in.
* Make it good enough for you, because you're the only one who will see this map!
* Include a few traps. Put em right on the map!
* Make sure you put at least one stairway that leads from level 1 down to level 2 somewhere.
* Make sure to include that secret exit that leads out of level 2 back to the surface.
* Do at least 10 rooms. Preferably more.

You can also do sub-levels (little side-tracky mini-levels) if you are so inclined. Most importantly...

* have fun with it!

e) Now stock the dungeon. Since this is the 'first' dungeon the players will ever encounter, you have to be careful about encounters. You've already placed three encounters on the surface. Drop 5 to 10 (EL-1 or 2, or 1-2HD if we're talking about earlier versions of D&D) encounters on the first level. Stick an EL 3 in there somewhere too, near the back or the stairs. About half (or just over half) the encounters should have treasure*. I'd say make at least one encounter per level an NPC who isn't interested in fighting the PCs.

You don't have to write out full stat blocks for everything. Just write what encounter is there, how many, and anything else interesting. When it comes time, you can run the encounter right out of the Monster book.

* Rule of thumb is an average of 300 gp x encounter level. So if you don't give an EL 1 encounter any treasure, you need to give the next EL 1 encounter double (600gp).

Which ever dungeon this is, should be the one closest to the town you plan on having the PCs start in.

I'm going to link to this from the GameCraft thread, okay?

3) Next up, the Town!

In a dungeony fantasy campaign, the town needs a few things.

1) a place to get healed.
2) a place to buy stuff.
3) a couple of places to get missions.
4) a home base between missions

These things are mandatory. I'll go over each one seperately.

A Place to get Healed
The obvious thing is to make a temple in the center of town. A cleric at this temple heals people at standard rate, and also performs a few charity healings. Optionally: you could just have an npc cleric, druid, bard or healer (not an entire temple edifice) that helps the PCs out and just lives in the town. Also, they should sell scrolls and potions of heal-type stuff at standard prices. I highly recommend you have a cleric who is able to cast Raise Dead live here, just in case the players need it.

A Place to Buy Stuff  
A couple of places, really. A blacksmith or 'general store' is the standard, but you might want to also put an alchemist and a 'goods' merchant. Anything you can buy out of the PHB should be available somewhere in town. The Goods merchant is there specifically to buy stuff from the players and convert it into gold. The temple (see above) is a good place to have some low-level cures for sale as well.

Places to Get Missions
You can make this really simple if you want by having just an NPC (perhaps the town mayor or an important NPC like a town bard) that constantly approaches the PCs to give missions. The 'old standard' is the tavern where mysterious strangers give missions. The temple can give you a mission. Maybe there's a wizard in town who needs stuff. Bottom line- you'll need to create a few places and npcs who make missions available to the PCs. Most of these missions at first will involve tasks around town, in the nearby wilderness, and going to the dungeon you made.  

A Home Base Between Missions
This can be a house or an Inn or have the PCs be guests of a someone else. But they need some place to hang out and rest up between adventures.

So that's your town. Make sure it has a name, and make sure you have a few special NPCs together.  

At a minimum: the cleric guy, the inkeeper guy, and maybe the town sheriff.

Next up: guide to NPCs.

Quote from: Levi KornelsenI'm going to link to this from the GameCraft thread, okay?

Oh go ahead. I'm pretty much sure I'd be really disruptive over there (myself), but this is all fairly caveman stuff.

Go cavemen!

Quote from: Abyssal MawOh go ahead. I'm pretty much sure I'd be really disruptive over there (myself), but this is all fairly caveman stuff.

Done.

As for being disruptive, well...

If you mean "I wouldn't be able to resist getting into confrontation with those folks", then I totally respect that decision.

But, if you mean "My actual techniques for play would not be welcome.", then, uh...   I gotta disagree.  I very much want to bust up indie and traditional and completely unique play into little tiny components, lay those out, and see what people do with the "whole buffet".

But totally regardless of that, this is very much appreciated.

Ok, so anyhow. NPCS!

First go get one of these: http://ebon.pyorre.net/

That's the Everchanging Book of Names. It has chapters for all kinds of names, every nationality, and several fantasy nationalities (including an extensive selection of Greyhawk regions). That helps with NPCs.

If your NPC has class levels of any kind (say he's a priest or whatever) do a full character sheet for him, save it as a document on your computer, and print out a copy for the campaign notebook*.

Every other NPC gets a name, a basic handle ("grumpy" or "foppish" or whatever).

Keep a copy of every npc you create. I do mine in word and I keep mine in a folder on my computer. So in case I lose a guy, I can always just print one out.

Don't stress about most of the normal stuff people suggest you do with NPCs. Their personalities and relationships will emerge over time. In any case, all you want to worry about right away is the players and what they need.

The last thing you do before you actually start the campaign!

(Is everyone getting this? All of the prep work I'm talking about happens before the campaign even begins.)

The last thing you need is a campaign notebook.

This should be a big old looseleaf binder.

In there you should put your dungeon maps, your region map, your town, and your npcs. Also plenty of scratch paper, and some graph paper.

When you get to the point where the players are ready to move on, you put your other dungeon maps in there, and the other town maps, and the big stack of NPCs, and then just about anything else you come up with.

The entire campaign fits in the notebook. You take the notebook to every game.

Game Prep Part 2

Before each game session you should probably prepare a few fresh encounters. Maybe just 1 or 2. These could be wilderness encounters, or maybe just an intersting new NPC who wanders by. But that's really all you have to do.

Quote from: Levi KornelsenDone.

As for being disruptive, well...

If you mean "I wouldn't be able to resist getting into confrontation with those folks", then I totally respect that decision.

But, if you mean "My actual techniques for play would not be welcome.", then, uh...   I gotta disagree.  I very much want to bust up indie and traditional and completely unique play into little tiny components, lay those out, and see what people do with the "whole buffet".

But totally regardless of that, this is very much appreciated.

I truly think that my naturally controversial viewpoints would invite confrontation (similar to the way Malcolm Sheppard's being confronted now), and then I'd lock horns like the seasoned brawler I am, and then I'd probably be banned. It's sorta like in Zoo Tycoon where you have to build a special TheRpgSite enclosure for the dinosaurs.

Slowly but surely I am gearing up for my Runequest Campaign (january, hopefully... holidays and getting moved in sucked up most of my gaming)...and I will definitely be stealing some of this wholeheartedly.  Right now I have a crude, wider scale 'region' map... one that needs a bit of fine tuning. Now I need to break it down into smaller, more managable chunks.

NPC's and a good place to start everyone off would be the next logical step, I should think... my ambition got the best of me... I've got most of a world, but I don't really have nations.

So, Abyssal...

http://gamecraft.7.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=99

What did I miss, in terms of 'things to prep'?

Well, I'm looking at your list which is much more comprehensive than the Caveman's Guide I have here. But one thing you might want to mention (and I'm not quite sure if this covered by your Central Vision or your Setting Nuggets) is having more comprehensive world information or a gazetteer.  

This often gets lumped into "over-prep", but it doesn't really have to be that way.

Here's (as an example) Jonathan Tweet's D&D Campaign, Elysombra. Notice he has articles on stuff that really isn't central to the game, but describes the world-- including an article about the reproductive cycle of dragons on his world.

That's a fairly good example of world development.

Another worthwhile thing to prepare is a structure for communicating with players when outside of the game: I usually develop an email list with everyone on it, and in my latest campaigns we also use a wiki.

I want you to know, Abyssal Maw, that this "Caveman" stuff is great -- and it's exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for these days.

"Back To Basics" is my motto, after spending so much time trying to be refined and sophisticated.  I believe that those things can (and probably should) grow naturally on the backs of basic, steadfast ideas, crystals sprouting from an ancient stone.  

I'm totally gonna run through this process of yours today, and furthermore I'd like to link to it on my 'blog, with your permission.

You are very welcome, I am flattered, and nobody needs my permission for anything!