Yesterday I wrote briefly and poorly about my fascination with random generated stuff within D&D.

I also threatened to do a couple of examples.

And I’m a man of my word.

If I make a threat I like to keep it.

You know or how else will people know to take me seriously?

Ok this first example will be using the Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG) to create/inspire a location-based adventure. The tables being used can be found on pages 72-75 in Chapter 3: Creating Adventures.

The first decision I need to make is whether this adventure is wilderness or dungeon focused. For this example I am going to generate a dungeon. I will look at wilderness adventures in another post.

Next I need to provide a goal that gives the adventurers a reason to enter the dungeon.

For this I roll a d20 against the Dungeon Goals table. I rolled a 3. Which gives me the goal of “Destroy a magical threat inside the dungeon.”

Already this is sparking ideas for what the magical threat could be. The magical threat could be a magic user of some sort threatening to cast some spell to destroy a town or open a portal to another dimension. It could be a magic item of some sort leaking magic into the surrounding area corrupting all that get close to it.

Next up is identifying important NPCs.

So who will be our villain for the adventurers to go up against? I rolled low again and got a 6. This gave me “Undead with any agenda.” On the Adventure Villians Table.

This fits very nicely with one of the ideas I had above. I’m going to run with that.

I’ve been looking for an excuse to run the Undead Monster Mambo by Jim Murphy (YouTube video below).

This is looks like the perfect opportunity to use this. Finally I can use the small skeleton horde I have built. There was a reason I pointed 15 odd skeletons, 2 minotaur skeletons and the dragon skeleton (I do want to add other creatures to this horde at some point). This is it.

So what is the lich doing?

Ok I’ll come back to that for the lich motivations and cunning plan.

I do feel that the adventurers might need an npc ally or two for this adventurer underground.

For this I have to roll a d12 on the Adventure Allies Table. I rolled a 12! That gives me “Villian posing as an ally.”

I like that. It gives a nice plot twist. Could also set up the next adventure. But I’m going to have this npc acting as an agent for the lich, who is luring unsuspecting victims to their masters dungeon to die and become part of the lich’ s army of undead.

I did say two allies. So lets give them another ally. This time I rolled a 3. So ally number 2 will be an “enthusiastic commoner.” The commoner will be some-one that the other npc has managed to convince to join them on stopping the lich.

Let’s give the adventurers a patron. So back to the d20 and rolling a natural 1! Against Adventure Patrons Table. This gets the adventurers a “retired adventurer.” As their patron.

The next step has me jumping to chapter 5 pages 99 – 101 for building the dungeon.

Our dungeon needs a location. Which is a d100 against the Dungeon Location Table. A 53 gives me “In a gorge.”

But who created this dungeon? I’m not going to roll on this one. We already have our dungeon creator with the lich.

However I do need a purpose for the dungeon. I rolled a 3 on the Dungeon Purpose Table. This means the dungeon is a “Lair“. It fits in nicely with the plot that is developing.

I don’t think I need to give the dungeon a history considering that the creator is still in the dungeon.

Back to the earlier tables and using the Adventure Introduction Table and a d12. I rolled an 8. So “An NPC the characters care about needs them to go to the adventure location.” I like this as I think this ties in nicely with the patron rolled above.

Finally I’m rolling a d12 against the Adventure Climax Table. A 5 gets me “The villain and two or three lieutenants perform separate rites in a large room. The adventurers must disrupt all the rites at the same time.” Nice. This can be the magical threat

So this is what I come up with when I tie it all together.

“Our party of adventurers get asked by an old friend (a retired adventurer) who has been hired to recruit adventurers, to help stop a lich opening up a portal to the Shadowfell Plane to unleash a massive army of the undead at the next full moon in 8 days time.

They are told that the only way to stop this from happening is to disrupt the lich and his lieutenants as the same time as they perform the rites to open the portal. This is when they will be at their most vulnerable.

The old friend has already recruited two others to help them (the enthusiastic commoner and the villain posing as an ally). The reward for stopping the lich is a treasure chest of gold.

The old friend gives the adventurers a map showing the location of the lich’s liar at the end of a gorge in a nearby mountain range that is a weeks travel away from their present location. The adventurers are given supplies, healing potions and some scrolls that will give their weapons a temporary magical bonus.”

So there you have it a dungeon adventure created inspired by using the tables in the DMG.

As for a dungeon map. I’d first look at Dyson Logos for something that might be suitable. I’d then just have to populate it. Otherwise I could use Appendix A to randomly generate one (I can do that another day) or just use the decks I have.

I hope this post has been of use.