DUNGEONS, STRUCTURES, & UNDERGROUND

Adventures into the underworld mazes are the most popular. The party equips itself and then sets off to enter and explore the dungeons of some castle, temple or whatever. 

Light sources, poles for probing, rope, spikes, and like equipment are the main tools for such activity. And, since none of the party will know the dungeon's twists and turns, one or more of the adventurers will have to keep a record, a map, of where the party has been. Thus you will be able to find your way out and return for yet more adventuring. As your party is exploring and mapping, movement will be slow, and it is wise to have both front and rear guards.

In the dungeon will be chambers and rooms — some inhabited, some empty; there will be traps to catch those unaware, tricks to fool the unwise, monsters lurking to devour the unwary. The rewards, however, are great—gold, gems, and magic items. Obtaining these will make you better able to prepare for further expeditions, more adept in your chosen profession, more powerful in all respects. All that is necessary is to find your way in and out, to meet and defeat the guardians of the treasures, to carry out the wealth...

THE FIRST DUNGEON ADVENTURE

Movement within buildings is actually the same as in an underground setting. Each square represents an area of 10-ft per side, and movement is very slow as observation and map making and searching takes considerable time. 

Base movement rate translates to 1 square per 1 factor in a turn (10 minute period). 

In like manner, examination and mapping of a room or chamber will require about a 10 minute period. Thorough searching of contents and examination of walls, floor, and possibly the ceiling as well is also a lengthy process. How are doors and secret doors opened? and what about locks and fastenings? It is vital that the DM know such details thoroughly, so that the mundane processes of dungeon adventuring can be carried out rapidly, clearly, and in a fashion which will be interesting and exciting. [DMG, p.96]

VISION & ILLUMINATION

[See ADVENTURING, Exploration.]

MAPPING

One player must keep a map of the expedition's trek, and if two players make maps the chances for the success of the expedition improve. Graph paper with 5 or 6 lines to the inch is suggested for underground map making. A sheet of small size hex grid is usual for outdoors maps. Both sorts of paper should always be on hand.

Never become concerned if your map is not exact, if it is off 10-ft here or 20-ft there. As long as it gives your party an idea as to where they are and how to get back, it is serving its purpose. Always make notes on the map to show danger - traps, tricks, monsters.

MOVEMENT AND SEARCHING

You must make some arbitrary decisions regarding the time expended in activities which are not strictly movement.

Traveling along a corridor and mapping its length takes 1 turn per 90-ft, assuming a base move of 9". 

How long does it take to move along but a short section of passage, open a door, enter the room beyond, and search it? Such variables as passage length, condition of the portal (locked, stuck, or normal), size of the room beyond, and thoroughness of the search make an absolute determination of time nearly impossible. There are many variations of player character activity—looking for signs of use of the corridor, listening for noise, looking for traps, inspection of walls for secret doors, etc.—all of which compound the need for an arbitrary handling of time. If a few fixed references are used, the task becomes a good deal easier, however. Therefore, the following suggestions are offered:

* This assumes that, in fact, the area has items which can be checked for traps, examined, contents searched, hidden compartments looked for, and so on. If there are many containers and much furniture in the area, the time might actually be double that shown. If the place has nothing but some odds and ends, then a casual examination will discover all there is to know about the place (short of a check for secret doors) and a thorough search is contra-indicated. [DMG, p.97]

[See ADVENTURING, Time & Movement for more details on movement rates.]

Detection Of Unusual Circumstances, Traps, And Hearing Noise: Regardless of the means, it takes effort and concentration to perform any of these activities. A gnome, for instance, must remain relatively quiet and concentrate for a turn to detect facts about an underground setting. Likewise, a dwarf must work at it. An elf doesn't detect secret doors 16⅔% of the time by merely passing them unless he or she is actually concentrating on the act. A character with a sword must have it out and be thinking about its power in order for the weapon to communicate anything to him or her.

TIME IN THE DUNGEON

Keeping track of time in the dungeon (or on any other type of adventure) is sometimes difficult, but it is at least as important as the accurate recording of time in the campaign. As has been mentioned elsewhere, the standard time breakdown is ten one-minute rounds to the turn, and six turns to the hour. All referees should keep a side record of time on a separate sheet of paper, marking off the turns as they pass (melees or other actions which result in fractional turns should be rounded up to make complete turns). It is essential that an accurate time record be kept so that the DM can determine when to check for wandering monsters, and in order to keep a strict check on the duration of some spells (such as bless, haste, strength, etc.). The DM must also know how long it has been since the last time the party took a rest. 

A party should be required to rest at least one turn in six (remember, the average party packs a lot of equipment), and in addition, they should rest a turn after every time they engage in combat or any other strenuous activities.

On occasion, a party may wish to cease movement and "hole up" for a long period, perhaps overnight, resting and recuperating or recovering spells. This does not exempt them from occasional checks for wandering monsters, though the frequency may be moderated somewhat, depending on conditions. Too-frequent interruptions may make spell recovery impossible. Keeping correct records of duration of these periods is absolutely essential.

DOORS

As a rule of thumb, all doors are hard to open and hard to keep closed or open for player characters, while inhabitants of the dungeon find little difficulty in these regards. Regardless of how a door opens, it is usual that its weight and condition require that force be used to swiftly operate it. This is represented by the roll of d6 for each person involved in pushing, pulling, lifting, sliding, or whatever. 

A roll of 1 or 2 typically indicates success, anything above indicates the door still remains unopened. (Cf. PLAYERS HANDBOOK, Character Abilities, Strength.) 

Very heavy doors might reduce chances by half. Locked doors might only open if two or even three simultaneous 1's are rolled. 

Most doors are about 8-ft wide, and this allows up to three characters to attempt opening. A door of 3-ft or less width allows but a single character to make an attempt. 

If wooden doors (always metal bound, naturally) are broken down by axes and the like, it will take some time—a full turn is usual—and require at least 3 checks to see if nearby and/or wandering monsters are attracted by the noise. 

Doors can also be blasted away by fireballs and other spells, for example. This will not be likely to draw monsters to the vicinity immediately. Any such destruction will, however, attract the attention of all passing creatures and possibly cause future problems. Intelligent dungeon inhabitants will certainly make efforts to repair damage if it is in their interest to do so.

Finally, metal doors (usually locked) will be very difficult to open, requiring a knock spell or similar means most of the time.

Concealed Doors: These are doors which are hidden in some way—behind a curtain, covered with plaster, a trap door under a rug, etc. They differ from a secret door in that once their concealment is uncovered they are obviously doors.

Secret Doors: These are portals which are made to appear to be a normal part of the surface they are in. They can possibly be sensed or detected by characters who are actively concentrating on such activity, or their possible location may be discovered by tapping (though the hollow place could be another passage or room beyond which has no portal in the hollow-sounding surface). 

Discovery does not mean that access to the door mechanism has been discovered, however. Checking requires a very thorough examination of the possible secret door area. You may use either of two methods to allow discovery of the mechanism which operates the portal:

1. You may designate probability by a linear curve, typically with a d6. Thus, a secret door is discovered 1 in 6 by any non-elf, 2 in 6 by elven or half-elven characters, each character being allowed to roll each turn in checking a 10-ft by 10-ft area. This also allows you to have some secret doors more difficult to discover, the linear curve being a d8 or d10.

2. You may have the discovery of the existence of the secret door enable player characters to attempt to operate it by actual manipulation, ie. the players concerned give instructions as to how they will have their characters attempt to make it function: "Turn the wall sconce.", "Slide it left.", "Press the small protrusion, and see if it pivots.", "Pull the chain."

It is quite acceptable to have a mixture of methods of discovering the operation of secret door.

DOORS

Door, iron: An iron door is typically set into stone with three long hinges/supports. It consists of plates about one inch thick bolted to a frame about one-half that thickness. The cost of larger or smaller or thicker doors is 2 g.p./sq. ft. of one-half inch iron added to or subtracted from the basic door cost. It has an iron bar on one side.

Door, secret: This is a stone portal which operates by counter-poise or pivot, with a hidden mechanism to trigger operation. There is no reduction for smaller portals, and the cost for larger ones is 5 g.p. per square foot of increased size.

Door, trap: This is a stout wooden door about two inches thick set into a floor. It is raised by an iron ring which is constructed as part of the trap door. Each additional square foot of trap door costs 1 s.p.

Door, wooden: This is a sturdy door of hardwood (maple, ash, etc.) about three inches thick. A square foot of additional wood (or for less wood) in the door is 2 s.p. The door is barred on one side by a two-by-four.

Door, wooden, reinforced: This is a stout oaken door, four inches thick, bound with iron bands and secured by a 3 x 6 oaken bar. Each square foot of alteration is valued at 5 s.p.

Portcullis: This is a grille of reinforced wooden or iron bars which is raised and lowered by counter-weights and winch. For each square foot of alteration adjust the cost by 2 gold pieces.

FALLING DAMAGE

Falling into pits, from ledges, down shafts, and so forth will certainly cause damage unless the fall is broken. While such falls could break limbs and other bones, it is probable that your referee will simply use a hit points damage computation based on 1d6 for each 10-ft of distance fallen to a maximum of 20d6, plus or minus adjustments for the surface fallen upon.

This treatment gives characters a better survival chance, although it is not as "realistic" as systems to determine breaks, sprains, dislocations, internal organ damage, etc. [PHB, p.105]

TRAPS & TRICKS

During the course of an adventure, you will undoubtedly come across various forms of traps and tricks, as well as encounter monsters of one sort or another. While your DM will spend considerable time and effort to make all such occurrences effective, you and your fellow players must do everything within your collective power to make them harmless, unsuccessful or profitable. On the other hand, you must never allow preparedness and caution to slow your party and make it ineffective in adventuring. By dealing with each category here, the best approach to negating the threat of a trap, trick, or encounter can be developed. [PHB, p. 103]

TRAPS

Traps are aimed at confining, channeling, injuring, or killing characters. 

Confining traps are typified by areas which are closed by bars or stone blocks, although some might be pits with valves which close and can then only be opened by weight above. Most confinement areas will have another entrance by which a capturing or killing creature(s) will enter later. It is usually impossible to avoid such areas, as continual minute scrutiny makes exploration impossible and assures encounters with wandering/patrolling monsters. When confined, prepare for attack, search for ways out, and beware of being channeled. 

Channeling traps are often related to confining ones. Walls that shift and doors which allow entry but not egress are typical. While they cannot be avoided, such traps can be reacted to much as a confining trap is. However, they also pose the problem of finding a way back. Careful mapping is a good remedy.

Injuring traps, traps which wear the strength of the party away prior to the attaining of their goal, are serious. Typical injuring traps are blades which scythe across a corridor when a stone in the floor is stepped on, arrows which fire when a trip rope is yanked, or spears released when a door is opened. Use of a pole or spear as a prod ahead might help with these, and likewise such a prod could discover pits in the floor. The safest remedy is to have some healing at hand—potions or spells—so as to arrive relatively undamaged. Killing traps are typical of important areas or deep dungeon levels. Deep pits with spikes, poisoned missiles, poisoned spikes, chutes to fire pits, floors which tilt to deposit the party into a pool of acid or before an angry red dragon, ten ton blocks which fall from the ceiling, or locked rooms which flood are examples of killing areas. Again, observation and safety measures (poles, spikes thrown ahead, rope, etc.) will be of some help, and luck will have to serve as well.

In summation, any trap can be bad and many can mean a character's or the entire party's demise. Having proper equipment with the party, a cleric for healing, a dwarf for trap detection, and a magic-user to knock open doors and locks go a long way towards reducing the hazard. Observation and clever deduction, as well as proper caution, should negate a significant portion of traps.

TRICKS

So many tricks can be used that it is quite impossible to thoroughly detail any reasonable cross-section here. As imagination is the only boundary for what sort of tricks can be placed in a dungeon, it is incumbent upon the players to use their own guile. Many tricks are irksome only; others are irksome and misleading. Assume that there are several rooms with a buzzing sound discernible to those who listen at the doors and/or enter them. Does this cause the party to prepare for battle only to find nothing? Or is there some trick of acoustics which allows sound from a nearby hive of giant wasps to permeate the rooms? If the latter, the party might grow careless and enter yet another "buzzing" room unprepared so as to be surprised by angry wasps. 

Illusions can annoy, delay, mislead or kill a party. There can be illusionary creatures, pits, fires, walls and so on. But consider an illusion of a pile of gold cast upon a pit of vipers. 

Slanting (or sloping) passages, space distortion areas, and teleporters are meant to confuse or strand the party. They foul maps, take the group to areas they do not wish to enter, and so on. The same is true of sinking/rising (elevator) rooms, sliding rooms, and chutes. As an example of the latter, consider a chute at the bottom of a pit, or one at the end of a corridor which slopes upwards — so that the effect is to deposit the party on the original level but seemingly on one deeper. Rooms can turn so as to make directions wrong, secret doors can open into two areas if they are properly manipulated, and seemingly harmless things can spell death.

Tricks are best countered by forethought and discernment. They can be dealt with by the prepared and careful party, but rashness can lead to real trouble. Your DM will be using his imagination and wit to trick you, and you must use your faculties to see through or at least partially counter such tricks.