Saturday, December 15, 2007

Increbidle Cross-sections

In a big dungeon designed for multiple forays (perhaps as the campaign centerpiece, like Castles Greyhawk and Blackmoor were) it can be very useful for the DM to do a little vertical mapping. This sort of info is especially handy when the PCs start digging their own tunnels or when a teleport goes awry. Here are some examples of the sort of thing I'm talking about.

The original sample cross-section, from OD&D Volume 3:


One of the awesomest examples in the field comes from the '78 Basic Rules, the so-called Blue Book version of D&D. Dig that skull-faced dungeon entrance!

I am just childish enough to put green slime in the nose-chamber."The Pit" is the sort of feature that is absolutely necessary for a good megadungeon. Quick access to lower levels is important later in the campaign, as higher level PCs will bore of constantly having to traverse levels 1, 2, and 3 just to reach the 'real adventure' beyond. And any low level party bold enough to make the descent into the Pit deserves whatever treasure they can wrest from level 6!

Here's my man Erol Otus with his sample cross-section from the '81 Basic Rules. What's extra cool about this example is that it ties in directly with the sample level provided, making this chart a blueprint for fleshing out the rest of the Haunted Keep dungeons.


Here's the cross-section from module B4 The Lost City. That module is wicked cool. It's a great example of a sword & sorcery/lost world outing and is easily expandable into a full-fledged campaign.


For a scan of one DM's use of cross-sections, check out the "Dungeon Elevations" pics at grodog's Castle Greyhawk Archive.

10 comments:

  1. Wouldn't be a lost world setting with out a lava pit and a step pyramid.

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  2. Anonymous10:02 PM

    Expandability is a common thread between the latter two items; so is Tom Moldvay.

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  3. Awesome!

    Man this brings back memories. When I was short, by dad had a pad of gigantic graph paper, bigger than 11x17. I drew many levels of "skull mtn" on that graph paper. Now I know where I got that idea.

    Sadly I've lost those childhood dungeons. I do remember it was on a lake and a gigantic balista was in it's mouth that stopped the "good peoples" from freely trading or landing / supplying troops. (An idea ripped form "Guns of Navarone" movie). And there was a huge water cave entrance that led to a castle on an island in an underground lake. Some reason this castle was inhabited by sea faring gargoyles??? Freedom of the fourteen yr old mind to ignore the why and focus on the "rad".

    I could go on about the memories this is bringing back, but I'll just end with saying thanks and awesome blog.

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  4. Hi Jeff,

    Awesome post!

    Shalom,
    Maksim-Smelchak.

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  5. I had the pleasure working with cross-section in making the maps for Badabaskor, and Dark Tower from Goodman Games.

    The Dark Tower cross section actually proved invaluable as I used it to correct an error in the original maps where the wrong tower levels were placed with the dungeon levels.

    In that regard a cross-section can serve as a means of mapping a complex multi-level dungeon accurately. You can see where things are supposed to connect.

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  6. All of my very favorite dungeon cutaways are in Grimtooth's Traps :)

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  7. Anonymous9:07 AM

    Cross section dungeon maps are very cool. Here's a link to one version of the Haunted Keep that's been fleshed out by some folks on Dragon's Foot.

    http://tower.newcenturycomputers.net/haunted-keep.html

    I've got one for Skull Mountain too- the link I had doesn't work any more but I can email you the pdf.

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  8. Jeff, today you are my hero. The Skull Mountain map figures huge in my personal mythology. It was in the first RPG book I ever ready, and I've racked my brain since to remember where I first saw it. I drew probably a half dozen different dungeons based on that map. The dungeon cross section is a subtle art, and this picture is its jewel.

    I recently wrote a game and created a page dedicated to the classic dungeon map. I'm adding this post to my links. Huzzah!

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  9. Oops, thought I put the URL to my dungeon page in the comment. The page is here if you're interested: http://planet-thirteen.com/Dungeon.aspx.

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  10. Anonymous6:47 AM

    Really cool stuff.

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