Dungeon Stocking as Storytelling

Recently, I read a G+ post from Alex about how he hates stocking dungeons, especially from random tables, and feels a twinge of guilt at this realization.

I feel the same way about the “received” method of stocking, where, for each room, you roll a die on a table to see what kind of thing to put there (monster, monster and treasure, trap, special, nothing), then on subtables to determine the species of that thing to put there.

That method works, but it works as a mechanical exercise that’s better performed by a computer. It’s padding out content. Sometimes perhaps you will want to do this, in which case it will not strike you as drudgery but as exactly what is needed.

And yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.

Prerequisite: Backstory

For this to work, your dungeon needs to have a backstory, a way it got the way it is now, complete with figures who were responsible for it and the legacy of their actions. If you don’t have that in mind, it won’t work, and you can use the received method instead.

But let’s say your dungeon does have a story, either in its particularly as This Dungeon, or as an example of A Kind of Place.

For instance, your dungeon could have a particular identity in your mind, as The Grave of Confessor Eustace. Or you could have just written “Saint Grave” on your overland map, because a “Saint Grave” is a thing in your setting, but you don’t know anything of particular interest about this grave here.

Both situations are fine. You’ve got enough seed content to work with.

List Your Propositions: Environmental Storytelling Table

You’ve got a backstory for your dungeon, or at least for the kind of place your dungeon is. You’re now going to use your understanding of the dungeon-story to create your Environmental Storytelling Table.

This is what you will use for inspiration when stocking the rooms (or in generating rooms that do not yet correspond to a mapped area—whether a map exists or not yet is irrelevant).

(This table is orthogonal to and thus compatible with the “received” stocking method.)

To create this table, note in a numbered list the propositions you know about the dungeon. If or when the players know these propositions, they will know the backstory of the dungeon. (This has the side benefit of multitasking as a rumor table and a reference for you.)

I also recommend doing this in a cloudy software program so you can add to the list from wherever you are. I use the free version of Evernote.

Lets do an example: Weathertop after the events of Fellowship of the Ring. I’m not terribly keen on my Tolkien lore any longer; I’m just going to list what I remember or imagine.

Weathertop: a Ruined Fortress

Weathertop is on a steep hill east of Bree. Only the foundations remain.

1. It was called Amon-Sûl back in the day
2. The Men of the North used it to keep an eye on The Baddies
3. It got wrecked by The Baddies in some war
4. Afterward, Rangers used it to leave messages for each other, like a really laggy Twitter
5. There was a palantir here
6. That scene from Fellowship where Strider drives off the black riders

And that’s all I feel like doing. Of course, you will likely have more interesting tidbits with your homebrew nerd lore.

You will notice that nothing in the list is something you can put in a room. Rather each entry suggests

• Lore
• Monsters
• Treasures
• Tricks
• and Traps

… that you can put in a room. And one proposition can become instantiated in multiple “stockings”.

Let’s take entry 5: there was a palantir here. Here are some things this suggests immediately to me:

• Lore: an engraving on a ruined pillar depicting Weathertop in its prime with a shining orb depicted above it
• Monster: palantir-ghosts (this is probably not canon): pained and malevolent intelligences of people whose deaths were viewed by the palantir here and thus trapped
• Treasure: a palantir, why not
• Trick: a room where you’re surrounded with palantir-DVR-walls, possibly joyous recollections displayed, possibly disturbing, with appropriate mechanical FX
• Trap: weaponized palantir magitek, like security cams mounted in the place that direct the palantir-ghosts to your location when they spot you

The Point: Reveal Story Nonlinearly Through Environment

The goal of doing this isn’t really to lay down traps and monsters. The point is to let the players and their PCs discover the story of the dungeon by interacting with the environment and reflecting on what it means.

When you’re stocking this way, you’re not thinking, “What kind of monster goes here and how do I make that make sense?” You’re thinking, “What part of the story of the dungeon does this area tell?”

I find that approaching things in this way makes me more excited to do the stocking and makes the assignment of room contents feel more natural.