Dungeons and Designing

It’s been a while since my last blog, but better late than never! Today I’m going to focus on how I created the ruins of Kharamund.

Quick summary: I used the excellent online dungeon generator resource Donjon. With Donjon you can customise your desired design by changing the size of the dungeon, how the rooms/areas are laid out, the size of the rooms, whether there are features such as doors, passageways, stairs and dead ends, and even how many levels it has. This is fantastic if you’re wanting to play a solo game or are rustling up a quick adventure for friends. Once you generate the dungeon, you then get a map with numbered rooms. Each number corresponds to a short description of that room, including, furniture, layout, enemies, traps and any other special features.

Of course, this is also very customizable. I wanted my dungeon to be medium-sized, to give my PCs enough of a challenge without becoming bogged down too much in the location. I kept some of the features (SPOILER ALERT) such as the javelin trap, and the graffiti that says ‘the Cohort of Paha looted here’ (in fact, this gave me the whole inspiration for the death cult plot line, which just goes to show what a throwaway random detail can lead to!) Of course, I changed a lot, to fit in with my theme and story, and I ended up not using certain rooms in the original generated dungeon, but the basis of the fort of Kharamund was plucked out of the ether. 

Next time, I may spend more time crafting a dungeon of my own, but I quite like the way this arbitrary design can help my creativity, and give me something to develop based on the prompts it suggests. A show that does this brilliantly is the amazing Me, Myself and Die! On YouTube, which I highly recommend.

I should also note, I now have a ko-fi page, to help me pay for the costs of running the podcast. If you have enjoyed what I do and would like to buy me a metaphorical coffee, you can find me at ko-fi.com/storiesfromthefirstwatch. 

Likewise if you’d like to talk to me about the show, or volunteer for a voice role, you can email me at firstwatchstories@gmail.com 

Thank you!