Examining the OD&D Wandering Monster Tables

I haven't started properly designing my dungeon yet, but I have nailed down the overall concept, and I've been jotting down some ideas for areas and special encounters.  I think I already mentioned that I want the dungeon to be situated above a god sleeping beneath the earth, whose dreams affect the surrounding lands and the minds of those who live nearby.  I'd initially said the dungeon was built by a cult of worshippers, but I think I've narrowed it down into something more flavourful: the dungeon was built by a rich and decadent society, digging ever deeper to dream the dreams of the gods while the world goes to ruin around them.  But the deeper they dug, the more the sleeping god was roused, and his dreams called out to monstrous beings, and the society fell.  I think it's a more than solid framework to build my dungeon around.

Because my players might read this, I'm not going to go into any deeper details.  What I want to do today is go through all of the monsters in original Dungeons & Dragons, and note down where they can be encountered in the dungeon and the wilderness.  I want to make sure that every monster is able to appear if I'm relying on the tables.

Here are my findings below: 

Men (Bandits): Dungeon monster Level 1, all wilderness except desert and waterborne

Goblins, Kobolds, Orcs: Dungeon monster level 1, all wilderness except city

Skeletons: Dungeon monster level 1, swamp and city in wilderness 

Men (Berserkers): Dungeon monster Level 2, all wilderness except desert and waterborne

Gnolls, Hobgoblins: Dungeon monster level 2, all wilderness except city

Ghouls, Zombies: Dungeon monster level 2, swamp and city in wilderness

Ochre Jelly: Dungeon monster level 3, not in wilderness 

Wights: Dungeon monster level 3, swamp and city in wilderness 

Ogres: Dungeon monster level 4, all wilderness except city

Lycanthropes: Dungeon monster level 4, all wilderness except desert and city

Gargoyles: Dungeon monster level 4, not in wilderness (except castles)

Wraiths: Dungeon monster level 4, swamp and city in wilderness 

Cockatrices, Manticores, Trolls, Wyverns: Dungeon monster level 5, all wilderness except city

Gorgons, Medusae, Minotaurs: Dungeon monster level 5, only optional woods in wilderness

Mummies, Spectres: Dungeon monster level 5, swamp and city in wilderness 

Balrogs, Basilisks, Chimeras, Dragons, Giants, Hydras: Dungeon monster level 6, all wilderness except city 

Purple Worms: Dungeon monster level 6, not in wilderness

Vampires: Dungeon monster level 6, swamp and city in wilderness 

Centaurs, Dryads, Pixies, Unicorns: Not in dungeon, only optional woods in wilderness 

Dwarves, Elves, Ents, Gnomes, Griffons, Hippogriffs, Pegasi, Rocs: Not in dungeon, all wilderness except city

Men (Brigands): Not in dungeon, all wilderness except desert and waterborne 

Men (Dervishes, Nomads): Not in dungeon, only in desert wilderness

Crocodiles, Dragon Turtles, Giant Crab, Giant Fish, Giant Leeches, Giant Octopi, Giant Snakes, Giant Squid, Men (Buccaneers, Pirates, Mermen), Nixies, Sea Monsters: Not in dungeon, only waterborne in wilderness

Men, Cavemen: Not in dungeon, only in mountain wilderness

Black Pudding, Djinn, Efreet, Elementals, Gray Ooze, Green Slime, Horses (Draft, Heavy, Light, Medium), Invisible Stalkers, Mules, Yellow Mold: Not in dungeon or wilderness

As I suspected, the tables are comprehensive, but there are a number of monsters that weren't included (all those in the final category I listed).

• Horses and mules are, of course, okay to leave out, as they've only been included as mounts and pack animals for the player characters and certain non-player characters.
• Elementals and invisible stalkers can only be summoned by high-level magic-users, so they'll enter the game that way.  It makes sense that they wouldn't be randomly encountered.
• Djinn and efreet can be summoned using certain magic items, so their omission is also fine.  The elemental summoning rules in the Chainmail wargame can be interpreted to allow the summoning of djinn and efreet, but it seems as though that's not something that can be done in D&D.
• Green slime and yellow mold aren't mobile, so they wouldn't be encountered as wandering monsters.  I'll have to make sure to place plenty of these hazards around the dungeon.
• Black pudding and gray ooze, however, are mobile, and should be on the wandering monster tables.  Looking back at the pre-publication draft of D&D, the black pudding was included as a level 6 monster.  The gray ooze wasn't included.  It's weaker than the ochre jelly, so I'd perhaps peg it as level 2.  I can't just add these monsters to the end of each table, as that would create an odd number of monsters that wouldn't correspond to any die type.  I think the best thing to do is add them to the same line as another monster, so that, say, "Purple Worms" becomes "Purple Worms or Black Puddings", and "Toads" becomes "Toads or Gray Ooze".  When that result comes up, I'll just roll another die to determine which monster it is.  It makes toads and purple worms a bit less common, but so be it.

So that covers all of the monsters in the book, and makes sure they can all be randomly introduced somehow.  But there is one more problem to be dealt with: there are a bunch of monsters in the random tables that haven't been given stats in the game.  I'll list those out below:

Dungeon Monsters without Stats: Giant Rats, Centipedes, Spiders, Lizards, Toads, Giant Hogs, Giant Ants, Giant Snakes, Giant Weasels, Giant Beetles, Giant Scorpions, White Apes

Wilderness Monsters without Stats: Spiders, Centipedes, Lizards, Toads, Ants, Weasels, Apes, Beetles, Scorpions, Lions, Boars, Snakes, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Pterodactyl, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, Cave Bears, Dire Wolves, Sabre Tooth Tigers, Mastodons, Spotted Lions, Wooly Rhinos, Titanotheres, Cave Bears, Mammoths, and also the various Martian monsters from the Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom novels (Apts, Banths, Thoats, Calots, White Apes, Orluks, Sith, Tharks, Darseen, Red Martians, Black Martians, Yellow Martians, and White Martians)

Before I can begin playing, I'll need to create stats for these monsters (although I won't need to work on the dinosaurs, the prehistoric creatures, or the Martian ones right away).  That's my next task i think.  I can use the original D&D supplements and the Advanced D&D Monster Manual as a guide, so it shouldn't take too much work (plus it helps that I've done some of this already).  There's a temptation to just use the Monster Manual stats as-is, but the scale of damage, attacks and Hit Dice would be out of synch with the original D&D monsters. So, there's nothing for it but to do the work.

Crunching the Numbers on OD&D's Random Dungeon Treasure Distribution

I've been putting some thought into the design of my mega-dungeon.  My plan is to rely fairly heavily on the tables in the original Dungeons & Dragons booklets, but before I get too far in I want to check the math on the dungeon treasure tables.  Because treasure is the main method of player character advancement in the game, it's vital that a mega-dungeon has enough treasure to facilitate that advancement for a decent number of characters.  So strap in folks, because today I'm crunching some numbers and figuring out, on average, just how much treasure those tables provide.  Yep, it's a math post!  What else would I do on a lovely summer Sunday afternoon?

Here's the table I'm talking about:

 

This is the only guidance that original D&D gives for stocking a dungeon with treasure.  Many monsters have "treasure types", for randomly generating a large hoard when that monster is encountered in its lair, but those are usually only used for wilderness adventures.  For the dungeon, it's the table above, and that's what I'll be crunching the numbers on today.

For starters, let's assume that every dungeon level has 100 keyed areas. This is larger than most levels would normally be, but it makes the math easier for me.

The random monster distribution rule says that a roll of 1-2 on 1d6 for each area will indicate the presence of a monster.  So let's assume that we have 33 occupied rooms, and 67 unoccupied.  Half of the occupied rooms will have treasure (so 16.5), and 1-in-6 of the unoccupied rooms will have treasure (11.2).  This results in 27.7 out of 100 rooms that will have treasure.  Let's round that up to 28 rooms with treasure per dungeon level.

As per the table above, every one of the rooms will have silver pieces.  Half of them will have gold pieces.  The percentages shown indicate how many gems, jewelry, and magic items there will be, but I need to do some more involved math to find the average value of gems and jewelry.

Average Value of Jewelry

Luckily for my sanity, the average value of jewelry doesn't change based on dungeon level.  Below is the jewelry value table.

 

The average value of the first category is 1,050gp; the average value of the middle category is 3,500gp; and the average value of the last category is 5,500gp.  If I assume 100 rolls on this table, 20 will be of the lower value, 60 will be of the middle value, and 20 will be of the higher value.  If I add all those figures up and divide by 100, that will give the average value of jewelry throughout the dungeon:

(20 x 1,050) + (60 x 3,500) + (20 x 5,500) = 

21,000 + 210,000 + 110,000 = 

341,000

Divide that figure by the number of pieces of jewelry rolled (100), and we arrive at an average total of 3,410gp.  That wasn't too difficult!

Average Value of Gems

As with jewelry, the value of gems doesn't change based on dungeon level, so this also shouldn't be too difficult.

 

Once again assuming that we generate 100 gems, we would have 10 of 10gp value, 15 of 50gp value, 50 of 100gp value, 15 of 500gp value, and 10 of 1,000gp value.  Let's add all of those:

(10 x 10) + (15 x 50) + (50 x 100) + (15 x 500) + (10 x 1,000) =

100 + 750 + 5,000 + 7,500 + 10,000 =

23,350 

 Divided by 100, that gives an average gem value of 233.5.  Simple again!  But wait...  What fresh horror is this...?

 

Well, that certainly complicates matters.  It's been a long time since I've done this kind of math, but I guess it's time to roll up my metaphorical brain-sleeves and get to work.

Any gem has, of course, a 1-in-6 chance of going up to the next higher value.  To go up twice, it has a chance of 1-in-36.  Three times is 1-in-216, four times is 1-in-1,296, five times is 1-in-7,776, six times is 1-in-46,656, seven times is 1-in-279,936, eight times is 1-in-1,679,616, nine times is 1-in-10,077,696, and ten times is 1-in-60,466,176.  So yes, that means that a 10gp value gem has about a one-in-sixty-million chance of being elevated to the value of 500,000gp.  A 1,000gp value gem's chance of the same is 1-in-46,656; still extremely unlikely.  But these chances still need to be factored into my average gem value.

To do this, I assumed 100 gems would be rolled, distributed exactly as the table indicates.  Then I had to figure out how many of each would be increased to the next value.   I'll show my working for the 1,000gp gems below.

Out of 100 gems, ten will have a value of 1,000gp.

1-in-6 (or 1.67) of these gems will increase in value to 5000gp.

1-in-36 (or 0.278) will increase to 10,000gp.

1-in-216 (or 0.0463) will increase to 25,000gp 

1-in-1,296 (or 0.007716) will increase to 50,000gp

1-in-7,776 (or 0.001286) will increase to 100,000gp

1-in 46.656 (or 0.0002143) will increase to 500,000gp

This leaves 7.997 that will remain at the base value of 1,000gp 

To figure out how much these ten gems would be worth in total, I multiply the number of gems by their value and then add them all together, as follows.

(7.997 x 1,000) + (1.67 x 5,000) + (0.278 x 10,000) + (0.0463 x 25,000) + (0.007716 x 50,000) + (0.001286 x 100,000) + (0.0002143 x 500,000) =

7,997 + 8,350 + 2,780 + 1,157.5 + 385.8 + 128.6 + 107.15 =

20,906.05 

That figure of 20,906.05 is the average total value you'd get by rolling ten gems.

I won't bore you all by going through my workings for the other base values, but here are the totals for each:

• Total average value of ten base 10gp gems =  232.08gp
• Total average value of fifteen base 50gp gems =  1,217.32gp
• Total average value of fifty base 100gp gems =  11,343.65gp
• Total average value of fifteen base 500gp gems =  11,723.1gp
• Total average value of ten base 1,000gp gems = 20,906.05gp 

Adding the above figures and dividing by 100 gives an average gem value of 454.22gp.  I think this is correct, but if anyone who is actually good at maths wants to correct me, feel free.

Thankfully, the hard part is out of the way, and I can get down to calculating the amount of treasure per dungeon level. 

DUNGEON LEVEL 1

Remember we have 28 rooms.  All of those will have silver (100 x 1d6), and half will have gold (10 x 1d6).  5% will have gems, and 5% will have jewelry (1d6 of each if present).  5% will have a magic item.

• Silver Pieces: 28 rooms x 350sp = 9,800sp
• Gold Pieces: 14 rooms x 35gp = 490gp
• Gems: 1.4 rooms x 3.5 gems = 4.9 gems x 454.22gp average value = 2,225.69gp
• Jewelry:  1.4 rooms x 3.5 pieces of jewelry = 4.9 pieces of jewelry x 3,410gp average value = 16,709gp
• Average number of Magic Items: 1.4
• Total Experience Points from Treasure =  20,404.69

This is enough to get any character to level 5, or ten fighters or clerics to level 2 (magic-users would reduce that figure slightly.  That seems about right to me, but the magic item number seems very low.

DUNGEON LEVELS 2-3

28 rooms, all of those will have silver (100 x 1d12), and half will have gold (100 x 1d6).  10% will have gems, and 10% will have jewelry (1d6 of each if present).  5% will have a magic item.

• Silver Pieces: 28 rooms x 650sp = 18,200sp
• Gold Pieces: 14 rooms x 350gp = 4,900gp
• Gems: 2.8 rooms x 3.5 gems = 9.8 gems x 454.22gp average value = 4,451.37gp
• Jewelry:  2.8 rooms x 3.5 pieces of jewelry = 9.8 pieces of jewelry x 3,410gp average value = 33,418gp
• Average number of Magic Items: 1.4
• Total Experience Points from Treasure =  44,589.37
• Cumulative Dungeon XP Total (level 2) =  64,994.06
• Cumulative Dungeon XP Total (level 3) = 109,583.43

A four-person party that's cleared level 2 would be around 4th or 5th level, and one that's cleared level 3 would be around 5th or 6th.  That's a little more than I'd like.  But let's assume that some of this treasure won't be found, and a single party won't clear out every encounter.  Ideally I'd want multiple parties adventuring in my mega-dungeon.  This level of treasure would get 25 to 43 characters to 2nd level by the end of dungeon level 2, and 21 to 36 characters to 3rd level by the end of dungeon level 3.

DUNGEON LEVELS 4-5

28 rooms, all of those will have silver (1,000 x 1d6), and half will have gold (200 x 1d12).  20% will have gems, and 20% will have jewelry (1d6 of each if present).  10% will have a magic item.

• Silver Pieces: 28 rooms x 3,500sp = 98,000sp
• Gold Pieces: 14 rooms x 1,500gp = 21,000gp
• Gems: 5.6 rooms x 3.5 gems = 19.6 gems x 454.22gp average value = 8,902.75gp
• Jewelry:  5.6 rooms x 3.5 pieces of jewelry = 19.6 pieces of jewelry x 3,410gp average value = 66,836gp
• Average number of Magic Items: 2.8
• Total Experience Points from Treasure =  106,538.75
• Cumulative Dungeon XP Total (level 4) =  216,122.18
• Cumulative Dungeon XP Total (level 5) = 322,660.93

Our theoretical and thorough party of 4 would all be 7th or 8th level by the end of level 5.  Treasure up through dungeon level 4 is enough to get 21 to 36 characters to 4th level, and up through dungeon level 5 it's enough to get 16 to 26 characters to 5th level.

DUNGEON LEVELS 6-7

28 rooms, all of those will have silver (2,000 x 1d6), and half will have gold (500 x 1d6).  30% will have gems, and 30% will have jewelry (1d6 of each if present).  15% will have a magic item.

• Silver Pieces: 28 rooms x 7,000sp = 196,000sp
• Gold Pieces: 14 rooms x 1,750gp = 24,500gp
• Gems: 8.4 rooms x 3.5 gems = 29.4 gems x 454.22gp average value = 13,354.13gp
• Jewelry:  8.4 rooms x 3.5 pieces of jewelry = 29.4 pieces of jewelry x 3,410gp average value = 100,254gp
• Average number of Magic Items: 4.2
• Total Experience Points from Treasure =  157,708.13
• Cumulative Dungeon XP Total (level 6) =  480,369.06
• Cumulative Dungeon XP Total (level 7) = 638,077.19

Our four-person party by the end of dungeon level 7 would be 8th or 9th level. Treasure up through dungeon level 6 is enough to get 13 to 19 characters to 6th level.  Up through dungeon level 7 has enough to get 9 to 12 characters to 7th level.  Things are dramatically slowing down as the XP requirements get steeper.

DUNGEON LEVELS 8-9

28 rooms, all of those will have silver (5,000 x 1d6), and half will have gold (1,000 x 1d6).  40% will have gems, and 40% will have jewelry (1d12 of each if present).  20% will have a magic item.

• Silver Pieces: 28 rooms x 17,500sp = 490,000sp
• Gold Pieces: 14 rooms x 3,500gp = 49,000gp
• Gems: 11.2 rooms x 6.5 gems = 72.8 gems x 454.22gp average value = 33,067.36gp
• Jewelry:  11.2 rooms x 6.5 pieces of jewelry = 72.8 pieces of jewelry x 3,410gp average value = 248,248gp
• Average number of Magic Items: 5.6
• Total Experience Points from Treasure =  379,315.36
• Cumulative Dungeon XP Total (level 8) =  1,017,392.55
• Cumulative Dungeon XP Total (level 9) = 1,396,707.91

The four-person party will all be name level (around 10th or 11th) by the end of dungeon level 9.  Treasure up through dungeon level 8 is enough to get 8 to 13 characters to 8th level.  Up through dungeon level 9 has enough to get 5 to 13 characters to 9th level.

DUNGEON LEVELS 10-12

28 rooms, all of those will have silver (5,000 x 1d6), and half will have gold (2,000 x 1d6).  50% will have gems, and 50% will have jewelry (1d12 of each if present).  25% will have a magic item.

• Silver Pieces: 28 rooms x 17,500sp = 490,000sp
• Gold Pieces: 14 rooms x 7,000gp = 98,000gp
• Gems: 14 rooms x 6.5 gems = 91 gems x 454.22gp average value = 41,334.2gp
• Jewelry:  14 rooms x 6.5 pieces of jewelry = 91 pieces of jewelry x 3,410gp average value = 310,310gp
• Average number of Magic Items: 7
• Total Experience Points from Treasure =  498,644.2
• Cumulative Dungeon XP Total (level 10) =  1,895,352.11
• Cumulative Dungeon XP Total (level 11) = 2,393,996.31
• Cumulative Dungeon XP Total (level 12) = 2,892,640.51

We've gone well past the XP charts at this point, but close to half a million gp per level is enough to for a handful of high level characters to level up on each dungeon level.

DUNGEON LEVELS 13 and below

28 rooms, all of those will have silver (10,000 x 1d6), and half will have gold (5,000 x 1d6).  50% will have gems, and 50% will have jewelry (1d12 of each if present).  30% will have a magic item.

• Silver Pieces: 28 rooms x 35,000sp = 980,000sp
• Gold Pieces: 14 rooms x 17,500gp = 245,000gp
• Gems: 14 rooms x 6.5 gems = 91 gems x 454.22gp average value = 41,334.2gp
• Jewelry:  14 rooms x 6.5 pieces of jewelry = 91 pieces of jewelry x 3,410gp average value = 310,310gp
• Average number of Magic Items: 8.4
• Total Experience Points from Treasure =  694,644.2
• Cumulative Dungeon XP Total (level 13) = 3,587,284.71

THOUGHTS ON THE NUMBERS

The figures above certainly look sufficient to provide enough advancement for a large number of characters.  The thing is, I very much doubt that I'll be designing dungeons with 100 keyed areas per level.  Maybe I'll approach that on the first few levels, but I expect that the lower it gets the smaller the levels will get.  I may be able to supplement this with side levels here and there.  But I think that averaging about 60 keyed areas per level might be enough, especially given that dungeon adventuring isn't going to be the sole means of advancement (and also remembering that monster XP is a factor as well, and modifiers due to prime requisites).

I'm a bit concerned about the number of magic items, though.   It comes to a total of 58.8 across the whole dungeon, which doesn't seem so bad... but that's very concentrated to the deeper levels.  The first three dungeon levels would have about 4, spread over 300 keyed areas...  It's quite sparse.

WAYS OF MODIFYING THE NUMBERS

I was thinking that if treasure seems a bit slim, I could use the Treasure Types in areas that have enough monsters to warrant it.  I could do this when any group of monsters reaches the number range indicated for a wilderness encounter in Vol. 2 (or maybe by rolling for % in Lair whenever this is the case).  This would create some larger treasure hoards here and there, if I feel like they're necessary.  The rules suggest that the referee should place some treasure caches before turning to random distribution, so of course my own judgment is always something to fall back on.  But I like to systematise these things as much as I can.

As for magic items, that could be alleviated by using the treasure tables as above.  I could also roll for magic items whenever a fighting-man, cleric, or magic-user is suggested as an encounter.  The entry for Bandits has a method for generating magic items for these types of characters, and that would be a good way to juice up the number of items in the game.  I worry that it might tip things over too far in the other direction, but this is all a learning process.

Well, that was time consuming; my sunny summer Sunday afternoon has gone, and now it's well past time I need to find some food.  As I said before, if any math-heads stumble over this post, I'd appreciate any corrections.  That means you, Dan "Delta" Collins!  Anyway, time for some Nando's I think.  My brain has earned it.

Early Mega-Dungeon Ideas and Design Principles

I posted a while ago about the steps necessary to set up a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, as outlined in the original booklets.  I'll repost those steps in brief below:

1. Read the damn books.
2. Acquire all of the recommended equipment
3. Design at least six levels of my underworld
4. Design a ground level map of the area above the underworld
5. Map the terrain immediately surrounding the dungeon on hex paper, with a hex being 5 miles across
6. Map the town that will serve as a home base for the PCs

I can strike through steps 1 and 2, because I've done them.  Step 2 isn't quite finished, because I'm still waiting on the arrival of the Outdoor Survival board game I ordered, as well as some hex paper (which isn't in the equipment list but I consider a necessity).  That means the next step is to begin designing my "underworld".  That's what original D&D calls it, but more commonly we call it a mega-dungeon, or a campaign dungeon, and my first task is to design the first six levels.

Doing that requires some forethought, because I don't want to design a meaningless labyrinth full of disconnected monster encounters.  That kind of game was a lot of fun when I was young, but I wouldn't be satisfied running something like that now, and I doubt my players would love it either.  I need some underlying concept to tie the whole thing together.

My initial plan had been to use a version of Castle Greyhawk, but for various reasons I found those that exist a bad fit for what I want to do.  Castle Zagyg - Gygax's aborted attempt at publishing the castle - remains unfinished, although I hear that there's more on the way.  The Greyhawk Ruins module by TSR is a decent enough funhouse dungeon, but it's loaded with far too many game elements that were introduced after original D&D.  Castle of the Mad Archmage - which began as a fan's attempt to provide a complete dungeon for Castle Zagyg - seems promising, but it also has more post-1974 game elements than I want.  The Castle Greyhawk module of the late-1980s, as an out-and-out joke adventure, was never in consideration.

Given the above considerations, I've turfed Castle Greyhawk as my initial mega-dungeon.  I'll probably place all of those modules in my world at some point, but what I really want to open with is a dungeon built using the 1974 rules.  And I want it to be my dungeon, something personal that belongs to me.  I don't think that anything can capture the spirit of 1974 D&D better than that.

As it stands, I have the following plans for my campaign world.  I'm using Australia as the basis for the geography and climate.  I'm going to use a loose interpretation of my hometown of Ararat as the home base for the PCs.  Obviously I have a lot of familiarity with both, and there are elements of Ararat's history that I can tie in to my dungeon concept (particularly it's prison and lunatic asylums).

For the dungeon, I have a loose idea that something lies sleeping far beneath the earth close to the town.  Some entity that infects the dreams of the town's inhabitants, driving some to insanity.  A cult tried to dig down to find it, and to take advantage of its power, and later on monsters took over, and other defenders birthed from the dreams and nightmares of the entity sleeping below.  So I have a mega-dungeon concept that's broad enough to incorporate a lot of D&D elements, and I can make smaller dungeons of the local prison and asylums if I wish.

As a basic design principle, the mega-dungeon has many levels that grow successively more dangerous the deeper they go.  Gygax suggests that the dungeon have no less than a dozen main levels.  The random dungeon treasure table has entries for levels 1-13, as does the wandering monster table.  My current thinking is that I'll plan for 13 levels, which seems large enough to accommodate regular play for a long while without being overwhelming. 

Getting down into the finer design elements of the dungeon, I don't have any ideas yet, except that I know I want to create something that incorporates every dungeon monster from original D&D, with the possibility of expanding to incorporate those from Supplement I: Greyhawk.  Basically, I want to be able to plausibly use the wandering monster tables in those booklets, and to run a dungeon that makes sense of the original D&D rules. 

I'm particularly inspired by this article over at All Dead Generations. To summarise the post, the author writes about using less combat, and more obstacles that take advantage of the inherent capabilities of the PCs.  It particularly focuses on magic-user spells, but it's an idea that's easily expanded to cleric spells and other class and racial abilities.  Basically, I need to ensure that every tool available to the PCs will be useful in my dungeon.  It seems simple enough, but I think many of us have experienced the opposite.  Ever played a 3rd edition rogue in a dungeon full of undead, constructs and oozes, all of which are immune to your sneak attack ability?  Or a ranger from the same edition, with a favoured enemy that never shows up in the game?  This is something to be avoided, especially in a mega-dungeon campaign where the bulk of the game will take place in that one environment.

To that end, I'm going to list out the various class and race abilities that I need to make sure are a viable part of the dungeon:

Fighting-Men

• Use of Magic Swords: This is easily taken care of by simply using the random tables to generate treasure hoards.  The exclusive ability to wield intelligent magic swords is vital to the fighter, and the tables make them far more common in original D&D than in later editions.
• Barony: The ability to build a castle and become a "baron" is a part of wilderness play, and not relevant to dungeon design.
• Sweep Attacks: This is the fighter's ability to make multiple attacks against "normal men" (enemies of 1 Hit Die or lower).  I've cribbed the term from the Gold Box computer games, where I first encountered the ability.  Using the standard dungeon encounter tables should take care of this for me, providing plenty of opportunities for higher-level fighters to hack their way through low-level enemies.

Magic-Users

• Spells: Much of this ground is covered in the post I linked to earlier.  To highlight some specific spells that need to be provided for, or that dungeon areas could be "gated" behind:
• Read Languages (I'll need to include some dungeon writings in languages that PCs are unlikely to have)
• Detect Invisible (this spell is useful in its own right for detecting invisible creatures, but it's also called out that objects and treasure can also be made invisible)
• Detect Evil
• Knock
• Levitate and Fly (just providing some verticality in the dungeon will make these spells more useful)
• Water Breathing, Lower Water and Part Water (flooded dungeon levels are always a fun time)
• Dimension Door, Pass-Wall and Teleport (for dungeon areas that can't be accessed any other way)
• Plant Growth (possibly a dungeon section that can be reached by making some plants taller?  Although it seems like Levitate and Fly would take care of that at an earlier level.)

Clerics

• Spells: The main spell I need to make provisions for is Find Traps.  Filling a dungeon with traps is of course not difficult.  Finding the balance between including enough for this spell to be worthwhile but not so many that they get frustrating and annoying is the real trick.  But otherwise the Cleric spells are generalised enough, and the list small enough, that I don't need to specifically design for them.  It might still be a good idea to look over the spell lists for clerics and magic-users when I'm thinking of "keys" to unlock hidden dungeon areas.
• Turning Undead: I need to include undead in my dungeon for this ability to be useful.  No shit, Sherlock.  The trick for me, as ever, will be in not using too many undead creatures, especially with old-school level drain in effect.

Dwarves

• Wielding the +3 Magic War Hammer: Much like fighters and magic swords, the +3 War Hammer is powerful in the hands of a dwarf.  I'll need to make sure that my dungeon includes one, although the random tables may take care of that for me.
• Noting slanting passages, traps, shifting walls and new construction in underground settings: This is the ability that will probably most influence the design of my mega-dungeon.  Gygax was big on this kind of stuff in his early writings: tricks and traps that are designed to get the players to go unwittingly deeper into the dungeon, or to trap them in certain areas.  Passages that are imperceptibly slanted enough so that they lead down to a deeper level without anyone realising are a particular favourite of his.  These are things I have to include and keep in mind if I want to make this dwarf ability a useful one.  What I won't be using is the Gygax trick of including passages so imperceptibly slanted that even dwarves can't notice them.  Granting PC abilities just to arbitrarily negate them isn't the kind of game I want to play.

Elves

• Noticing Secret and Hidden Doors: Yes, of course my dungeon will have secret doors.  But for the sake of completeness, I must mention the ability.

Hobbits

• Hobbits don't have any special abilities that need to be specifically designed for.

Magic Items

As with the game's spells, the list of magic items is small enough, and their applications broad enough, that specific design is not required.  For weapons, I just need to make sure that there are plenty of the monster types that certain swords are extra-effective against.  Cracks in walls for the Potion of Gaseous Form, treasure to be found by the Treasure Finding Potion...  Areas and objects that are worth scanning with a Ring of X-Ray Vision...  None of this is too difficult.  As with spells, looking at these items can provide inspiration for tricks and obstacles in the dungeon.

SUMMATION

What's become apparent (and what I already suspected) is that original D&D is a game small enough in scope that the majority of its elements are baked into the game's random tables.  I'm quite confident that, simply by following the design guidelines laid out in the booklets and using those random tables, I'll get a game that incorporates all of those elements and avoids making any PC abilities useless.  The only race or class that needs to be specifically designed for, at this stage, is the dwarf.  The booklets have a lot of suggestions for tricks and traps of the kind that dwarves can detect, and I'll try to incorporate as many of those as possible.  Otherwise, I'll be following my own design instincts with a heavy reliance on the game's random tables.

Assembling the Original D&D Recommended Equipment

Towards the end of 2025, I decided that I was going to return to first principles with Dungeons & Dragons, and start up a campaign exactly as the original rules instruct.  I'm not sure exactly what I'm trying to achieve by returning to the game's primordial roots in this way, but I do have some vague goals in mind.  I'd like to evoke the spirit of the earliest D&D campaigns, if such a thing is possible.  I want to experience first-hand some of the failings and holes in the rules that led to the creation of Advanced D&D.  Most of all, I want to kickstart my own creative process, strip away the analysis paralysis and anxieties that have stopped me moving forward with a new campaign in the past, and just get cracking with some simple procedures.

The first thing I need to do is assemble the list of recommended equipment at the front of D&D Vol. 1: Men & Magic.  I spent a decent chunk of today at a shopping centre, and a quick trip to Games World and Officeworks was sufficient to obtain (almost) everything I need.  I'm going to run through the list and show what I got, so strap in for the high-octane thrill that can only come from stationery photography.  On with the list!

Dungeons & Dragons (you have it!)

I do indeed have it, as the list in the booklet attests. In fact, I have it in various forms: the official PDF purchased from drivethrurpg, other PDFs of different printings from rather more dubious sources, and a physical copy that I had the foresight to purchase nearly 20 years ago before the price became unfeasible.

This is the Original Collector's Edition from the late 1970s, so at the earliest it's a 6th printing.  It's definitely past the point where hobbits, ents, balrogs, and other such Tolkienisms have been excised.  I doubt I'll ever be able to afford a printing that includes that earlier text, but I have a PDF so I'm happy enough with that.

Outdoor Survival (available from your hobby dealer or directly from Avalon Hill Company, 4517 Harford Road, Baltimore, MD. 21214)

Please note that Outdoor Survival is no longer available from Avalon Hill Company at that address, or indeed any address at all.  But I'm listing the recommended equipment exactly as it appears in the booklet, so you get the full details.

I don't yet have a copy of Outdoor Survival, but I do have one on order.  It's not exactly cheap to find these days, especially when you add in shipping to Australia, but it's no more expensive than I'd pay for an upmarket board game at retail, so I'm not too bothered.  The board is the component most relevent to D&D play, and I'm looking forward to checking it out when it arrives.

Dice -- the following different kinds of dice are needed:

    1 pair 4-sided dice                1 pair 20-sided dice

    1 pair 8-sided dice                1 pair 12-sided dice

    4 to 20 pairs 6-sided dice

I've been playing D&D since 1988, of course I have dice!  Alas, not the original green plastic dice that came with my D&D Basic Set, I lost those on a tram many years ago.  But I have a few sets.  Certainly not as many as some folks, I don't have that urge to collect huge mounds of them.  I have enough to suit my needs.

Note that there are no 10-sided dice on the list above.  Those didn't exist in 1974, as far as I know.  Also note that the 20-siders mentioned above would have been numbered 0 through 9 twice.  So they were effectively 10-siders shaped like the d20 we know and love today.  I guess that rolling to attack back then would have involved rolling a d20 for a result from 1 to 10, then any other die to determine the 50/50 chance that it's a result from 1-10 or 11-20.  I won't be going so far in my efforts to explore 70s D&D, I'm quite happy to use the full range of dice I have available.

 This is my meager dice collection.  The two black-and-red sets I bought separately; one set is missing the d6.  The ugly multi-coloured set on the top left came out of the D&D Adventure Game (aka the starter set for 3rd edition).  The blue d20 in the middle found its way into my collection from somewhere.  The purple d6 was sent to me as part of the Fighting Fantasy Fan Club about 25 years ago.  I bought the large group of d6s today from Games World.  The equipment list recommends having from 4 to 20 pairs of six-siders; I bought ten.  I'm not thrilled that they have the company's brand name on them, I wouldn't have bought them if I'd seen that earlier.  But at least the font is kind of metal.

Chainmail miniature rules, latest edition (available from your hobby dealer or directly from Guidon Games, P.O. Box C, Belfast, ME. 04915)

Once more I must point out that Chainmail is in all likelihood not available from your hobby dealer, and is definitely no longer available from Guidon Games.  Which is a shame, because I don't have a physical copy, and they are too bloody expensive to justify purchasing.  I have PDFs of the 2nd and 3rd editions though, so I'm sorted if the need for Chainmail arises.

1 3-Ring Notebook (referee and each player)

This is the first of my Officeworks purchases today.  I ran into some slight confusion, because Gary wrote notebook but I think maybe he meant binder.  I dunno, maybe he meant exactly what he wrote, but describing a notebook as "3-Ring" is unusual.  So I bought a 3-ring binder and a notebook that can go in it.  I only bought one, because I don't know how many players I'll have yet.  And to be frank, they can fend for themselves when it comes to stationery.

 Graph Paper (6 lines per inch is best)

Ah, beautiful graph paper.  I already have plenty of it, but I can never resist an excuse to buy more.  Officeworks didn't have any that was "6 lines to the inch" (which I'm interpreting as 6 squares per inch).  Sorry, but we're on the metric system here, Gary.  The closest I could find was paper with 5mm squares, but that only gave 5 squares per inch.  So I've gone with 2mm squares, which fits about 12 squares per inch.  That can divide by 6, so that's as close as I'm going to get. without doing some more shopping.

Sheet Protectors (heaviest possible)

As Gary instructs, I did buy the heaviest sheet protectors I could find (80 whole microns!).  But now I'm wishing I'd bought a thicker binder, because these things take up almost all of the room it has.  For now, it will have to do.  Regardless, my sheets will be adequately protected.

3-Ring Lined Paper

Did they not call this looseleaf in the 70s?  Or is Gary just being needlessly descriptive?  Anyway, it took me forever to find this today.  There were loads of exercise books, and one small pile of looseleaf tucked away next to them. I guess the kids don't use it at school anymore.  I'm already annoyed that one page has a damaged corner.

Drafting Equipment and Colored Pencils

Behold, my new drafting equipment!  I'm actually pretty happy with this.  It comes with a stencil, a ruler, set squares, a protractor, a compass, a pencil and sharpener, and an eraser, as well as a handy little tin to store them all in.  I'm not sure if this is what Gary meant when he mentioned drafting equipment, but he definitely wasn't referring to a copy of Campaign Cartographer, so I can only guess that I'm on the right track.  As for the coloured pencils, see below.

Scratch Paper and Pencils

 

I bought this set of coloured pencils years ago to draw the wilderness maps of my last campaign.  The pad and pencils are new.  Having some proper Staedtlers is very nostalgic.  I threw in the coloured pens as well, because if I'm being honest I'll probably get more use out of them than I will the pencils.  Apologies to Gary and Dave for deviating from the list.

Imagination

1 Patient Referee

Players

No photos here of course, and no shopping necessary.  I have a brain, or so the anatomy books would have me believe, and thus imagination.  I am a referee, and a patient human being in general.  And while I don't have players lined up as yet, I do have friends who enjoy D&D and trust me as a Dungeon Master.  So I'm probably sorted.

Before I end the post, I want to mention some things that aren't on the list of recommended equipment.  The first is miniatures, which is odd for a game that advertises itself as "Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures".  The use of miniature figures and unit counters are covered earlier in the rules, where it's said that they can be used if they're available and the players desire, but their purpose is mostly aesthetic.  It's been a long time since I've played without minis, as 3rd edition D&D is just about unplayable without some sort of battle map.  It would be nice to go back to full "theatre of the mind", mostly because in my experience combats run a lot faster that way.  Plus, it's also very difficult to obtain an adequate variety of minis to cover every monster in the rules.  I suspect I'll run a mix: theatre of the mind for simple combats, and a battlemat with minis for when things get more complex.

The other big omission seems to be hex paper.  The wilderness movement rules assume the use of a hex grid, so I feel like I'll have to get some for when I start mapping the outdoors.  Of course, wilderness exploration can be abstracted with the Outdoor Survival board... but I'll need a bespoke wilderness sooner rather than later, so I'll need to source some hex paper.  I doubt Officeworks will have any, so I'll need to do some searching.

That's enough for today.  It's not the deepest of D&D content, but I'm happy to have almost completed this first step.  Soon enough, the actual work will begin.