GLoGtober 24: Quick Cave Generator
Me, doing my best Dyson Logos impression. Pen and ink.
GLoGtober '24 Challenge #6a: Secrets of the stones.
I'm frequently in need of a quick dungeon, whether its because my players decided to track a random encounter to its lair or because I'm running an impromptu session over lunch. This is a procedure for generating a cavern using a fistful of dice, a pencil, and a sheet of paper. The goal is for it to be doable mid-session while the players take 5.
This procedure is inspired by the bean map trend that was popular on tiktok a few years back. You could probably use any handful of small objects (trail mix? actual stones?), but you'll need to interpret them yourself. Ideal objects come in at least three varieties.
1. Grab a fistful of dice and place them on your paper.
It doesn't matter what dice, but I wouldn't use all d20s. You should be able to fully enclose your hand around the dice, such that your fingertips touch your palm.
Place your closed hand, fingertips down onto your paper then gently release. Set aside any dice that scatter off the page.
2. Draw "bubbles" around the dice.
These are your rooms! Trace each die with a loose, wavering contour. Don't worry too much about accuracy and press lightly.
If two dice are close enough together that you couldn't fit a pencil between them without moving either, compound those dice into a single room.
3. Connect the rooms with tunnels.
Start with the room with the lowest sum. This an exit to the surface. Draw that.
Now, if that room shows an even number, draw a tunnel connecting to the nearest room. If it's odd, connect to the two nearest rooms. If a tunnel would be shorter than the base of your pencil lead, draw a door instead.
Pick one of the rooms you just connected to, then repeat this process, ignoring the room you just came from.
Continue until you connect back to a room you've already processed before (i.e. you've checked whether it's even or odd). When you do, draw a secret tunnel leading to the nearest room you haven't touched yet (if there are any), then stop.
If you still have untouched rooms, find the lowest sum among them and draw a new entrance from the surface. Repeat the whole process until there are no rooms that haven't been processed.
4. Key the rooms based on the dice inside them.
Interpret the dice as follows:
- 1 - 2 | Monster
- 3- 4 | Trap
- 4 - 6 | Treasure
- 7+ | Omen / Spoor If a room contains multiple dice, it contains each of those things.
5. Select a dungeon font.
Check the sum of your initial entrance room:
- If it divides cleanly by 2, wild animals live here. The rooms are naturally occurring caves covered in claw marks and skeletal remains.
- If it divides cleanly by 3, bandits lair here. The rooms are reinforced with wooden posts and littered with bed rolls, barrels, and other clutter.
- If it divides cleanly by 5, undead lurk here. The rooms are sometimes stone masonry and are filled with burial nooks, coffins, and urns.
- If none of the above, elementals manifest here. The rooms are eerily lit and covered with glowing sigils.
Multiple may be true. Copy down the appropriate encounter tables below or invent one.
6. Invent some details.
Sweep away the dice. You should have a rough schema of a cave system. Think about the creatures that reside here. Which room is safest for them to rest in? What path do they take to the surface? Where do they go in the event of an alarm?
I'll leave the rest to you.