Generating a dungeon

Dungeons · guide 1 of 3

Need a dungeon for tonight, with no time to draw one? Critsmith builds it for you in seconds: the map, the rooms, the fights and the treasure.

Start a new dungeon

Open Dungeons from your home page, and press Generate a dungeon.

Dungeons

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5 dungeons

Generate a dungeonImport from the library

The Forgotten Tomb Crypt · 5 rooms

Every surface is dusted grey, and footprints stay where they are put. 5 rooms in all, connected by passages that have not been kind to anyone in a hurry.
The Boiling Hollow Caves · 5 rooms

A hot spring feeds this cave system from somewhere below, warm enough that local trappers avoid it and warm enough that something has decided to stay.
The Apprentice’s Workshop Laboratory · 5 rooms

Wizard Colm Ashery took on exactly one apprentice in thirty years of practice, and dismissed her without explanation after four months.
The Flooded Drain Sewer · 5 rooms

A smuggling ring used the old drain tunnels under the harbor district to move goods past the tariff house for years.
The Sunken Shrine Sunken · 5 rooms

The flooded temple beneath Havenreach, walked once already and now sitting half explored on the party map.

Dungeons, with the buttons to generate or import one

Choose what to make

Choose the campaign it goes into. Then pick a Theme, from crypts and caves to sunken ruins and planar rifts, and a Difficulty for the fights: low, moderate or high.

Theme and Difficulty

Next, the number of Rooms. Your plan sets the most you can have: five on Free, twelve on Standard, and thirty on Archmage Tier. Corridors are added for free and never count.

Rooms, with the most your plan allows

Under At the table, tick the characters who are playing. Every fight is sized for exactly that party, so nothing is too easy or too deadly.

At the table, with the characters who are playing ticked

Give the dungeon a name if you like, or leave it blank and Critsmith names it for you. Keep Include treasure rooms ticked if you want loot.

The box underneath says exactly what will be made, and what counts against your plan. Generating saves nothing, so roll as often as you like. Press Generate.

Before you generate

Generating writes nothing. Nothing is saved until you press Accept.
Accepting creates the dungeon, one location for it on your map, a real runnable fight in every fight room, and a real NPC in every NPC room.
The dungeon, the location and the NPCs each count against your plan’s allowances. Rooms, doors, fights and treasure do not count against anything.
Treasure is described in the room it is in and stays there. Nothing reaches your inventory or your party gold until you say the party found it.
Puzzle rooms are marked as puzzle rooms and left empty for you to fill, so they use none of your puzzle allowance.

Before you generate: what will be made, and what counts against your plan

Look over your dungeon

Here's your dungeon. A map with numbered rooms, corridors and doors, and a card for every room. Fight rooms already have their monsters, picked to fit your party's XP budget. Treasure rooms hold coins and items, which stay put until you say the party found them. And a room can have someone in it, ready to meet.

The Silent Ossuary 5 rooms · 2 corridors · 6 doors

Every surface is dusted grey, and footprints stay where they are put. 5 rooms in all, connected by passages that have not been kind to anyone in a hurry.

−+

DoorLocked doorSecret door, hidden from the partyArchway, always openCorridor

Re-roll the shape, keep what is in itKeep the shape, re-roll what is in it

Fights sized for 4 characters at level 3.

Accepting uses 1 dungeon, 1 location, 1 NPC from your allowances, and creates 7 rooms and 1 fight that count against nothing.

1. Silent Entrance Ossuary Entrance

Every surface is dusted grey, and footprints stay where they are put. This is the way in. Everything else opens off it, directly or eventually.
Deep Processional Corridor

The cold in here has nothing to do with the weather outside.
2. Forgotten Chapel Fight

Every surface is dusted grey, and footprints stay where they are put. Something is waiting in here. The fight is set up and ready to run.
Specter x 4 · 800 of 900 XP
Lower Corridor Corridor

Something about the quiet makes people speak more softly than they mean to.
3. Silent Rest Empty

The air is dry and does not move. This room was generated empty, on purpose. About a third of a good dungeon is space to breathe, and a party that has just fought something needs somewhere to do it in.
4. Forgotten Ossuary Treasure

Every surface is dusted grey, and footprints stay where they are put. There is something here worth carrying out.
290 gp, Ram, Portable, Climber’s Kit x 3 · Notable find · stays in the room until you say the party found it
5. Silent Vault NPC

The air is dry and does not move. Someone is in here, and they are not necessarily hostile.
Edwin Larkin · Town guard who is not quite who they claim to be. Found in Silent Vault, The Silent Ossuary.

Accept and save this dungeon

Changed your mind about the whole thing? Back to your dungeons.

A generated dungeon: the map, the buttons to re-roll and a card for every room

Not keen on the layout? Press Re-roll the shape, keep what is in it. You get a new map with the same rooms.

Or press Keep the shape, re-roll what is in it, for new fights, treasure and people in the same layout.

Save it

Happy with it? Press Accept and save this dungeon. It's saved to your campaign with its own place on your map, and every fight is ready to run. Editing and filling the map has its own guide: Editing and filling a dungeon.

The saved dungeon, with its own place on your map

Import one from the library

Would you rather start from one somebody has already written? Back on Dungeons, press Import from the library.

These are ready-made dungeons, each with its own story. The line at the top shows how many fit your plan, and any that are too big say which plan they need.

A dungeon too big for your plan says which plan it needs

Open one to see its map and its rooms. Tick who's at the table and choose a difficulty. The fights and treasure are rolled fresh for your party, not the one it was written for.

If a room is written around somebody who lives there, choose whether to create that character or leave the room empty for your own.

Import this dungeon

Importing copies this dungeon into your campaign: 5 rooms and 3 corridors, its doors, and one location for it on your map.
Its contents are rolled for the party you choose below, not for the party it was written for: a real runnable fight in its fight room, and fresh treasure in its treasure room.
1 NPC will be created, and they count against your allowance.
Puzzle rooms are marked as puzzle rooms and left for you to fill, so they use none of your puzzle allowance.
The dungeon and its location each count against your plan’s allowances. Rooms, doors, fights and treasure do not count against anything.

Save toThe Demo Chronicles▾

At the table

✓ Brannoc HaleLevel 3
✓ Isolde FennLevel 3
✓ Sir Roland BrightshieldLevel 3
✓ Wren AshdownLevel 3

Party levels 3, 3, 3, 3

4 characters · average level 3

Difficulty

Moderate▾

The people who live here

One room in this dungeon is written around a character who lives there, and no character came with it. Create one, or leave the room empty and add your own.

✓Create a character for each of them. They count against your NPC allowance. Leave the rooms empty and I will add my own. Nothing is created and nothing is used up.

Import it

Import this dungeon: who's at the table, the difficulty and the people who live there

Press Import it. It's your own copy now, to rename and rewrite as you like.

The imported dungeon, ready to open

That's generating a dungeon. A complete, playable dungeon for your next session, in less time than it takes to roll initiative.

Next ›Editing and filling a dungeon

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