Wandering Dungeon NPCs for OD&D

I said in my last post that I was done statting up monsters from the original Dungeons & Dragons wandering monster tables.  As frequently happens, I was wrong about that.  I did cover all of the animals and dinosaurs (and I kicked the Martian beasties further down the road), but I had forgotten about one of the most prominent elements of original D&D's dungeon encounter tables: non-player characters.

Out of 62 possibilities on those tables, 15 of them are fighters, clerics, or magic-users.  That's almost a quarter of all dungeon encounters that won't have stats ready to go.  Sure, you can figure it out using the character creation rules, but that takes time, and even small delays can kill the pace of the game.  I'd rather take the time now to work up some stat blocks, and have them ready to go when I need them.

The tables use level titles rather than numbers.  I do kind of like the descriptive titles for the various levels of each class, but it's not always the easiest to remember them.  I'm going to need stat blocks for all of the following: Warriors (2nd-level fighting-men), Heroes (4th-level f-m), Swashbucklers (5th level f-m), Myrmidons (6th-level f-m), Superheroes (8th-level f-m), Lords (9th-level f-m), Conjurers (3rd-level magic-users), Theurgists (4th-level m-u), Thaumaturgists (5th level m-u), Magicians (6th-level m-u), Enchanters (7th-level m-u), Sorcerers (9th-level m-u), Wizards (11th-level m-u), Evil Priests (4th-level chaotic cleric), and Evil High Priests (8th-level chaotic cleric).  I should also do Necromancers (10th-level m-u) and Patriarchs (8th-level lawful clerics) from the wilderness tables.  (Due to the entourages that higher-level NPCs can have, I stayed up past 2am doing stat blocks for every level of every class.  Thoroughness is a curse.)

Before properly getting into the stat blocks, I want to write a bit about what all of these people are even doing in the dungeon.  Making sense of the default wandering monster tables - and providing an explanation or point of origin for each monster entry - is one of the primary design goals for my underworld.  So I need to do that for all of these fighters, clerics, and magic-users roaming the depths.  Some, of course, will be tomb robbers and treasure hunters, just like the player characters.  But given how frequently they're encountered, I feel like that starts to strain credulity a little bit.  I don't want adventurers of that stripe to feel quite so ubiquitous, or for the dungeon to feel so well-trodden..

I'd rather tie the presence of these characters to the core concept of the dungeon.  As I've written before, there's an ancient god slumbering beneath the dungeon, which was built by a decadent people seeking to dream the dreams of the gods.  Some folks living in the surrounding lands are sometimes ensnared by those dreams, and enter the dungeon never to return.  So most of the NPCs encountered in the dungeon will be like that, lost souls who've been there so long that the dungeon has become a home to them.  My only problem with this is that it cuts somewhat against the rules for player characters to recruit NPCs met in the dungeons... but I'm sure I can come up with an explanation for that when I need to.  It does somewhat make sense of the rule that all dungeon monsters (including NPCs) can see in the dark when in the dungeon... if I make it something that happens when someone fully gives themselves to the "dreams".

Deciding on some of the stats took a while.  I agonised over the Number Appearing before realising that only the highest levels of each class appear in the wilderness tables, and that they appear singly with entourages.  For % in Lair and Treasure Type I defaulted to the 15% and Type A of all other "men", but I decided that if a lair was rolled it should be a random castle as described in the rules.  Where possible, I will always try to default to rules that already exist.

Armor Class for fighters and clerics I decided would be 4 for characters up to 5th level, and 2 for those of 6th or higher.  I must admit, 5th level fighters being Swashbucklers influenced me a bit there, as I didn't feel right giving them plate mail.  Magic-users, of course, default to a measly unarmored 9 AC.  I ported in the morale bonuses and effects for fighters and magic-users from the Chainmail miniature rules.  I didn't bring them in for clerics, as clerics aren't in Chainmail, but I might adapt them.  I also didn't explicitly mention how many attacks each class gets against "normal men", mostly because I haven't yet decided how I want that to work.

Oh yeah, I also assumed that all of these guys have average ability scores.  Nobody needs to be rolling those on the fly for a random encounter, and their effect is quite minimal in original D&D anyway. 

Otherwise, most of the work was deciding what the default spell selections for clerics and magic-users would be.  I suppose some will quibble with my choices, but I went for variety and spells that are useful in combat, and I made a note that referee's can switch this up if they want.  Thankfully the spell lists in original D&D are pretty small, so it didn't take too long.

And now, the stat blocks: 

VETERANS (1st-Level Fighting-Men)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 4

Move in Inches: 9

Hit Dice: 1+1

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

Veterans fight and save as 1st-level fighting-men. 

WARRIORS (2nd-Level Fighting-Men)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 4

Move in Inches: 9

Hit Dice: 2

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

Warriors fight and save as 2nd-level fighting-men. 

SWORDSMEN (3rd-Level Fighting-Men)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 4

Move in Inches: 9

Hit Dice: 3

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

Swordsmen fight and save as 3rd-level fighting-men. 

HEROES (4th-Level Fighting-Men)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 4

Move in Inches: 9

Hit Dice: 4

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Heroes fight and save as 4th-level fighting-men.  They need never check morale, and those fighting with them have a +1 morale bonus.

SWASHBUCKLERS (5th-Level Fighting-Men)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 4

Move in Inches: 9

Hit Dice: 5+1

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Swashbucklers fight and save as 5th-level fighting-men. They need never check morale, and those fighting with them have a +1 morale bonus.

MYRMIDONS (6th-Level Fighting-Men)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 2

Move in Inches: 6

Hit Dice: 6

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Myrmidons fight and save as 6th-level fighting-men. They need never check morale, and those fighting with them have a +1 morale bonus.

CHAMPIONS (7th-Level Fighting-Men)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 2

Move in Inches: 6

Hit Dice: 7+1

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Champions fight and save as 6th-level fighting-men. They need never check morale, and those fighting with them have a +1 morale bonus.

SUPERHEROES (8th-Level Fighting-Men)

Number Appearing: 1

Armor Class: 2

Move in Inches: 6

Hit Dice: 8+2

% in Lair: 15%

Type or Amount of Treasure: Type A

Superheroes fight and save as 8th-level fighting-men. They need never check morale, and those fighting with them have a +2 morale bonus.  When they approach within charging distance of the enemy, all those within range must check morale.

Wilderness Encounters:

If they are encountered in their lair in the wilderness, the lair will be a castle with the usual randomly determined occupant, guards and retainers.  There is a 50% chance that they will be the leader of this castle.  Otherwise the leader of their castle will be a Patriarch.

 

If not encountered in their lair, they will be accompanied by 2-12 fighters of levels 1-4.

 

The Superhero has a 50% chance to have a magic sword, a 25% chance to have a magic shield, and a 25% chance to have magic armor (roll for each). 

LORDS (9th-Level Fighting-Men)

Number Appearing: 1

Armor Class: 2

Move in Inches: 6

Hit Dice: 9+3

% in Lair: 15%

Type or Amount of Treasure: Type A

 

Lords fight and save as 9th-level fighting-men. They need never check morale, and those fighting with them have a +2 morale bonus.  When they approach within charging distance of the enemy, all those within range must check morale.

 

Some Lords may be higher than 9th level, at the referee's option. 

 

Wilderness Encounters: 

If they are encountered in their lair in the wilderness, the lair will be a castle with the usual randomly determined occupant, guards and retainers.  The Lord will be the leader of this castle.

 

If not encountered in their lair, they will be accompanied by 2-12 fighters of levels 1-4.

The Lord has a 50% chance to have a magic sword, a 25% chance to have a magic shield, and a 25% chance to have magic armor (roll for each). 

MEDIUMS (1st-Level Magic-Users)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 9

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 1

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Mediums fight, save, and cast spells as 1st level magic-users.

 

A Seer will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Sleep.  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare one 1st level spells daily.

SEERS (2nd-Level Magic-Users)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 9

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 1+1

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Seers fight, save, and cast spells as 2nd level magic-users.

 

A Seer will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Sleep, Charm Person.  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare two 1st level spells daily.

CONJURERS (3rd-Level Magic-Users)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 9

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 2

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Conjurers fight, save, and cast spells as 3rd level magic-users.

 

A Conjurer will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Protection from Evil, Sleep, Charm Person, Phantasmal Forces.  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare three 1st level and one 2nd level spell daily.

THEURGISTS (4th-Level Magic-Users)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 9

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 2+1

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Theurgists fight, save, and cast spells as 4th level magic-users.

 

A Theurgist will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Detect Magic, Protection from Evil, Sleep, Charm Person, Invisibility, Phantasmal Forces.  This can be changed as the referee desires. They can prepare four 1st level and two 2nd level spell daily.. 

THAUMATURGISTS (5th-Level Magic-Users)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 9

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 3

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Thaumaturgists fight, save, and cast spells as 5th level magic-users.

A Thaumaturgist will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Detect Magic, Protection from Evil, Sleep, Charm Person, Invisibility, Phantasmal Forces, Fire Ball.  This can be changed as the referee desires. They can prepare four 1st level, two 2nd level spells, and one 3rd level spell daily.

MAGICIANS (6th-Level Magic-Users)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 9

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 3+1

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

Magicians fight, save, and cast spells as 6th level magic-users. 

A Magician will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Detect Magic, Protection from Evil, Sleep, Charm Person, Invisibility, Phantasmal Forces, Fire Ball, Protection from Normal Missiles.  This can be changed as the referee desires. They can prepare four 1st level, two 2nd level spells, and two 3rd level spell daily..

ENCHANTERS (7th-Level Magic-Users)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 9

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 4

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

Enchanters fight, save, and cast spells as 7th level magic-users. 

An Enchanter will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Detect Magic, Protection from Evil, Sleep, Charm Person, Invisibility, Continual Light, Phantasmal Forces, Fire Ball, Protection from Normal Missiles, Polymorph Others.  This can be changed as the referee desires. They can prepare four 1st level, three 2nd level spells, two 3rd level spells, and one 4th level spell daily.

WARLOCKS (8th-Level Magic-Users)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 9

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 5

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Warlocks fight, save, and cast spells as 8th level magic-users. 

A Warlock will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Detect Magic, Protection from Evil, Sleep, Charm Person, Invisibility, Continual Light, Phantasmal Forces, Fire Ball, Lightning Bolt, Protection from Normal Missiles, Dispell Magic, Confusion, Polymorph Others.  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare four 1st level, three 2nd level spells, three 3rd level spells, and two 4th level spells daily.

SORCERERS (9th-Level Magic-Users)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 9

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 6+1

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Sorcerers fight, save, and cast spells as 9th level magic-users. 

A Sorcerer will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Detect Magic, Protection from Evil, Sleep, Charm Person, Invisibility, Continual Light, Phantasmal Forces, Fire Ball, Lightning Bolt, Protection from Normal Missiles, Dispell Magic, Confusion, Polymorph Others, Conjure Elemental.  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare four 1st level, three 2nd level spells, three 3rd level spells, two 4th level spells, and one 5th level spell daily.

NECROMANCERS (10th-Level Magic-Users)

Number Appearing: 1

Armor Class: 9

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 7

% in Lair: 15%

Type or Amount of Treasure: Type A

Necromancers fight, save, and cast spells as 10th level magic-users.

 

A Necromancer will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Detect Magic, Protection from Evil, Sleep, Charm Person, Invisibility, Continual Light, Phantasmal Forces, Knock, Fire Ball, Lightning Bolt, Protection from Normal Missiles, Dispell Magic, Confusion, Wall of Fire, Polymorph Others, Conjure Elemental, Teleport.  This can be changed as the referee desires. They can prepare four 1st level, four 2nd level spells, three 3rd level spells, three 4th level spells, and two 5th level spell daily.

Wilderness Encounters:

If they are encountered in their lair in the wilderness, they will be the castle's leader, and there will be the usual randomly determined guards and retainers.

 

If not encountered in their lair, they will be accompanied by 2-12 magic-users of levels 1-4. 

 

The Necromancer will have a 60% chance of having a magic wand, a 30% chance of a magic ring, and a 20% chance of a miscellaneous magic item (roll for each). 

WIZARDS (11th-Level Magic-Users)

Number Appearing: 1

Armor Class: 9

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 8+1

% in Lair: 15%

Type or Amount of Treasure: Type A

 

Wizards fight, save, and cast spells as 11th level magic-users.  They need never check morale, and those fighting with them have a +2 morale bonus.  When they approach within charging distance of the enemy, all those within range must check morale.

 

A Wizard will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Detect Magic, Protection from Evil, Sleep, Charm Person, Invisibility, Continual Light, Phantasmal Forces, Knock, Fire Ball, Lightning Bolt, Protection from Normal Missiles, Dispell Magic, Confusion, Wall of Fire, Polymorph Others, Conjure Elemental, Hold Monster, Teleport.  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare two spells of each level from 1st to 5th daily.

 

Some Wizards may be higher than 11th level, at the referee's option. 

 

Dungeon Encounters:

Each Wizard will be accompanied by from 1-4 apprentices (Enchanters) and 1-6 body-guards (fighters of levels 4-6).

 

Wilderness Encounters:

If they are encountered in their lair in the wilderness, they will be the castle's leader, and there will be the usual randomly determined guards and retainers.

 

If not encountered in their lair, they will be accompanied by 2-12 magic-users of levels 1-4.

 

The Wizard will have a 60% chance of having a magic wand, a 30% chance of a magic ring, and a 20% chance of a miscellaneous magic item (roll for each).

ACOLYTES/EVIL ACOLYTES (1st Level Clerics/Anti-Clerics)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 4

Move in Inches: 9

Hit Dice: 1

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Acolytes and Evil Acolytes fight, save, and cast spells as 1st level clerics/anti-clerics.  Acolytes are always lawful, and Evil Acolytes are always chaotic in alignment.  Only an Acolyte will have an affect on the undead, as a 1st level cleric.

ADEPTS/EVIL ADEPTS (2nd Level Clerics/Anti-Clerics)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 4

Move in Inches: 9

Hit Dice: 2

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Adepts and Evil Adepts fight, save, and cast spells as 2nd level clerics/anti-clerics.  Adepts are always lawful, and Evil Adepts are always chaotic in alignment.  Only an Adept will have an affect on the undead, as a 2nd level cleric.

 

An Adept or Evil Adept will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Cure Light Wounds (reversed for anti-clerics).  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare one 1st level spell daily.

VILLAGE PRIESTS/SHAMANS (3rd Level Clerics/Anti-Clerics)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 4

Move in Inches: 9

Hit Dice: 3

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Village Priests and Shamans fight, save, and cast spells as 3rd level clerics/anti-clerics.  Village Priests are always lawful, and Shamans are always chaotic in alignment.  Only a Village Priest will have an affect on the undead, as a 3rd level cleric.

 

A Village Priest will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Cure Light Wounds, Protection from Evil.  A Shaman will typically have Cure Light Wounds (reversed), and Light (reversed).  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare two 1st level spells daily. 

VICARS/EVIL PRIESTS (4th-Level Clerics/Anti-Clerics)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 4

Move in Inches: 9

Hit Dice: 4

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Vicars and Evil Priests fight, save, and cast spells as 4th level clerics/anti-clerics.  Vicars are always lawful, and Evil Priests are always chaotic in alignment.  Only a Vicar will have an affect on the undead, as a 4th level cleric.

A Vicar will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Cure Light Wounds, Protection from Evil, Hold Person. An Evil Priest will have Cure Light Wounds (reversed), Light (reversed), Hold Person.  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare two 1st-level spells and one 2nd level spell daily.

CURATES/EVIL CURATES (5th-Level Clerics/Anti-Clerics)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 4

Move in Inches: 9

Hit Dice: 4+1

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Curates and Evil Curates fight, save, and cast spells as 5th level clerics/anti-clerics.  Curates are always lawful, and Evil Curates are always chaotic in alignment.  Only a Curate will have an affect on the undead, as a 5th level cleric.

A Curate will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Cure Light Wounds, Protection from Evil, Hold Person, Bless. An Evil Curate will have Cure Light Wounds (reversed), Light (reversed), Hold Person, Bless (reversed).  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare two 1st-level spells and two 2nd level spells daily.

BISHOPS/EVIL BISHOPS (6th-Level Clerics/Anti-Clerics)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 2

Move in Inches: 6

Hit Dice: 5

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Bishops and Evil Bishops fight, save, and cast spells as 6th level clerics/anti-clerics.  Bishops are always lawful, and Evil Bishops are always chaotic in alignment.  Only a Bishop will have an affect on the undead, as a 6th level cleric.

A Bishop will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Cure Light Wounds, Protection from Evil, Hold Person, Bless, Cure Disease, Cure Serious Wounds. An Evil Bishop will have Cure Light Wounds (reversed), Light (reversed), Hold Person, Bless (reversed), Cure Disease (reversed), Turn Sticks to Snakes.  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare two 1st-level spells, two 2nd level spells, one 3rd level spell and one 4th level spell daily.

 

LAMAS/EVIL LAMAS (7th-Level Clerics/Anti-Clerics)

Number Appearing: -

Armor Class: 2

Move in Inches: 9

Hit Dice: 6

% in Lair: n/a

Type or Amount of Treasure: n/a

 

Lamas and Evil Lamas fight, save, and cast spells as 7th level clerics/anti-clerics.  Lamas are always lawful, and Evil Lamas are always chaotic in alignment.  Only a Lama will have an affect on the undead, as a 7th level cleric.

A Lama will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Cure Light Wounds, Protection from Evil, Hold Person, Bless, Cure Disease, Continual Light, Cure Serious Wounds, Dispell Evil. An Evil Lama will have Cure Light Wounds (reversed), Light (reversed), Hold Person, Bless (reversed), Cure Disease (reversed), Continual Light (reversed), Turn Sticks to Snakes, Finger of Death.  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare two 1st-level spells, two 2nd level spells, two 3rd level spells, one 4th level spell, and one 5th level spell daily.

EVIL HIGH PRIESTS (8th-Level Anti-Clerics)

Number Appearing: 1

Armor Class: 2

Move in Inches: 6

Hit Dice: 7

% in Lair: 15%

Type or Amount of Treasure: Type A

 

Evil High Priests fight, save, and cast spells as 8th level anti-clerics.  They are always chaotic in alignment.

 

An Evil High Priest will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Cure Light Wounds (reversed), Protection from Good (reversed), Bless (reversed), Hold Person, Cure Disease (reversed), Continual Light (reversed), Cure Serious Wounds (reversed), Turn Sticks to Snakes, Finger of Death, Insect Plague.  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare two of each level of spells from 1st-5th daily.

 

Some Evil High Priests may be higher than 8th level, at the referee's option. 

 

Dungeon Encounters:

Each Evil High Priest will be accompanied by from 1-4 apprentices (Evil Priests) and 1-6 body-guards (fighters of levels 4-6).

 

Wilderness Encounters: 

If they are encountered in their lair in the wilderness, they will be the castle's leader, and there will be the usual randomly determined guards and retainers.

 

If not encountered in their lair, they will be accompanied by 2-12 anti-clerics of levels 1-4.

 

The Evil High Priest will have a 40% chance of having a magic weapon, a 30% chance of a staff, a 20% chance of a magic shield, and a 10% chance of magic armor (roll for each). 

PATRIARCHS (8th-Level Clerics)

Number Appearing: 1

Armor Class: 2

Move in Inches: 6

Hit Dice: 7

% in Lair: 15%

Type or Amount of Treasure: Type A

Patriarchs fight, save, affect undead, and cast spells as 8th level clerics.  They are always lawful in alignment.

 

A Patriarch will typically have the following spells available to cast once per day: Cure Light Wounds, Detect Evil, Bless, Hold Person, Cure Disease, Continual Light, Cure Serious Wounds, Protection from Evil 10 ft. radius, Dispell Evil, Quest.  This can be changed as the referee desires.  They can prepare two of each level of spells from 1st-5th daily.

 

Some Patriarchs may be higher than 8th level, at the referee's option. 

 

Wilderness Encounters: 

If they are encountered in their lair in the wilderness, they will be the castle's leader, and there will be the usual randomly determined guards and retainers.

If not encountered in their lair, they will be accompanied by 2-12 clerics of levels 1-4.

 

The Patriarch will have a 40% chance of having a magic weapon, a 30% chance of a staff, a 20% chance of a magic shield, and a 10% chance of magic armor (roll for each).

Prehistoric Monsters for OD&D

This is the last in a series of posts in which I stat up monsters for original Dungeons & Dragons.  This is necessary work, but not the most exciting blog content.  It's helpful for me, though, as it's given me things to post about without taxing the grey matter too much (and I am very, very tired after indoor bouldering with my son this afternoon, so I need the mental break).  I should be back with some more substantial content next time.  (And I will get to the Martian creatures... eventually.)

The main takeaway for me in regards to the various dinosaurs and prehistoric animals, is that adventuring in their environments has a high level of danger for no reward.  I'm adapting their stats from Advanced D&D, which means that pretty much all of them have a Treasure Type of Nil.  What this means is that I'll have to make these environments worth adventuring in, with treasure deliberately placed.  Hidden ruins and such would, of course, be thematically appropriate.  On their own, purely by the rules, dinosaurs and the like are absolutely not worth fighting.

I like the selection of dinosaurs in OD&D though.  The AD&D Monster Manual has a greater variety, but in OD&D it's pretty much all of the dinos that I would have wanted to see as a kid.  It's a real pop culture greatest hits selection (keeping in mind that the velociraptor wasn't in that upper echelon in the 70s and 80s).

TYRANNOSAURUS REX

Number Appearing: 1-2

Armor Class: 5

Move in Inches: 15

Hit Dice: 18

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

This reptile is the most fearsome and terrible of all carnivorous dinosaurs. Despite its huge size it is swift afoot, with huge jaws nearly six feet long, and teeth from three to six inches in length.  This monster will pursue and eat nearly anything

A T-Rex deals 3d6+3 damage on a successful hit, and will swallow whole any man-sized creature that it hits with a roll of 18 or better.

PTERODACTYL

Number Appearing: 3-18

Armor Class: 7

Move in Inches: 3/15

Hit Dice: 3+3

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

Although these flying reptiles typically dive for aquatic prey, they will attack any creature which appears to be vulnerable. They have no teeth, but will spear victims with their beaks if they are too large to swallow.  The beak of a typical pterodactyl is about 4 ft. long. The creature weighs only 40 or 50 pounds, but they can carry off prey four times their own weight.

TRICERATOPS

Number Appearing: 2-8

Armor Class: 2 or 6

Move in Inches: 9

Hit Dice: 16

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

This beaked herbivore is very large and aggressive. It has a huge front plate of bone from which project two great horns (3 ft. or more long), while a somewhat shorter horn juts from its nose. Any creature which infringes on its territory is likely to be charged and speared.

 

The armored front of the Triceratops is AC 2.  Its body is not as heavily armored, thus being AC 6.  

Any creature attacked by a Triceratops will be subject to three attacks (the two larger horns dealing 1d6+2 damage, and the smaller horn dealing 1d6).  Creatures of man-size or smaller creatures may simply be trampled for 2d6+1 damage.

BRONTOSAURUS

Number Appearing: 1-6

Armor Class: 5

Move in Inches: 6

Hit Dice: 30

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

Also known as a "thunder-lizard", this 40 ton plant-eater is found near marshes and lakes.  The creature spends much of its time in shallow water to support its bulk, moving into deeper water to avoid carnivores.  They will generally ignore small creatures, but they are prone to step on anything in their way, dealing 4d6 damage.

 

STEGOSAURUS

Number Appearing: 2-8

Armor Class: 2 or 5

Move in Inches: 6

Hit Dice: 18

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

The stegosaurus, or ”plated lizard,” is a large, very stupid herbivore with aggressive defenses. Its great plates allow the creature to defend 90% of the time at AC 2.  The other 10% of the time it defends as AC 5.

 

When threatened, a Stegosaurus will turn its rear towards the enemy and tuck its head low, attacking with its spiked tail.  The tail has its own brain, and its bony spikes will deal 2d6+1 damage.

CAVE BEAR

Number Appearing: 1-2

Armor Class: 6

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 6+6

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

Despite being omnivorous, the gigantic cave bear tends towards a diet of meat, and is quite aggressive. They have excellent hearing and smell but rather poor eyesight.  They are enormous, standing over 12 ft. tall, but there may be larger individuals that are correspondingly more powerful. 

 

A cave bear's paw deals 1d6+2 damage on a successful hit, and they may attack twice per round.  If a bear scores a paw hit with an 18 or better, it also hugs for an additional 2d6 damage.

 

A cave bears will continue to fight for 1-4 melee rounds after being reduced to 0 to -8 hit points. At -9 or greater damage, they are killed immediately. 

DIRE WOLF

Number Appearing: 3-12

Armor Class: 6

Move in Inches: 18

Hit Dice: 3+3

% in Lair: 15%

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

This "prehistoric" variety of wolf is a huge specimen, but otherwise conforms to the characteristics of normal wolves.  They always hunt in packs and if hungry (75% likely) they will follow and attack prey, always seeking to strike at an unguarded moment.  They love horse-meat, and their howling is 50% likely to panic any horses (or other herbivores) unless a character spends time calming them.

 

If encountered in their lair there is a 30% chance that there will be 1-4 cubs per pair of adult wolves.  Cubs do not fight and can be trained as war dogs or hunting beasts.

SABRE TOOTH TIGER

Number Appearing: 1-2

Armor Class: 6

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 7+2

% in Lair: 15%

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

Sabre tooth tigers are aggressive and fearsome predators, often hunting in pairs.  They are highly adaptable and superb hunters.  They climb well, and are able to leap 10 ft. upwards and from 30 to 50 ft. forwards in attack.

Tigers attack three times per round, twice with claws and once with their bite.  Their six inch long fangs inflict terrible wounds, dealing 1d6+2 points of damage.  Due to the size of these teeth, along with the power of the tiger's jaws, they get a +2 bonus on attack rolls with their bite attack. If a tiger hits with both paws, they will get an additional claw attack by raking with their rear claws.

 

Tigers are surprised only on a roll of 1. 

  

If encountered in their lair there is a 25% chance that there will be 1-3 cubs there, these young having no effective attacks, and being from 30% to 60% mature.

MASTODON

Number Appearing: 1-12

Armor Class: 6    

Move in Inches: 15

Hit Dice: 12

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

Mastodons dwell in nearly any climate, from near arctic to tropical. These huge herbivores are distantly related to elephants, but their body is somewhat lower and longer.

 

Mastodons attack with a combination of tusks, squeezing trunk, and stomping feet.  Each of these attacks deals 2d6 damage.  Although they may attack only a single foe twice per round, they may fight up to six opponents simultaneously.  Their attacks are split between opponents, so that if they are fighting six opponents they get one attack on each, and if fighting three opponents they attack each twice.

 

Their tusks are valued at 100-600 gold pieces each.

SPOTTED LION

Number Appearing: 2-8

Armor Class: 5 or 6

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 6+2

% in Lair: 25%

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

Also known as cave lions, spotted lions are a larger, spotted variety of the common lion.  They hunt in prides, with the lioness doing most of their hunting.  Even so, the males are ferocious fighters and will defend the pride's territory.  A typical pride consists of 1-2 males and 1-6 females.  Their lair will also have 1-8 cubs (non-combatants) and an additional 1-3 females which will immediately attack to defend their cubs.

 

All lions can leap up to 30 ft.  Male lions have an AC 5 for their forequarters, and AC 6 for their hindquarters.  Female lions have a uniform AC of 6. Lions attack twice per round, and if both attacks hit the same victim in a single round they will also rake with their rear claws for a further 1-6+2 damage.  They do not climb trees well and dislike swimming.

Lions are surprised only on a roll of 1. 

WOOLY RHINO

Number Appearing: 1-4

Armor Class: 5

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 10

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

A very large, very aggressive "prehistoric" species of rhinoceros.  Most will charge if they feel threatened.  They have poor eyesight but keen senses of hearing and smell.

 

They deal 1d6+2 damage with their horns, but will deal double damage on a charge. They will also trample any opponent smaller than man size, dealing 1d6 damage with each forefoot which hits.

 

If more than two are encountered, the rest will be young from 30-60% mature. 

TITANOTHERE

Number Appearing: 1-12

Armor Class: 6

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 12

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

These "prehistoric" creatures are huge and fearless plant-eaters.  They roam in herds, and if any creature threatens them the largest males will charge.

 

They normally deal 2d6 damage on a hit, but will do double that on a charge.  In addition, any creature smaller than man-size may be trampled, suffering two additional attacks for 1d6+2 damage each.

 

If more than six are encountered, 1-4 of these will be young, from 10% to 80% grown. 

MAMMOTH 

Number Appearing: 1-12

Armor Class: 5

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 13

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

These massive herbivores are quite aggressive if threatened.

 

Mammoths attack with a combination of tusks, squeezing trunk, and stomping feet.  Each of these attacks deals 2d6 damage.  Although they may attack only a single foe twice per round, they may fight up to six opponents simultaneously.  Their attacks are split between opponents, so that if they are fighting six opponents they get one attack on each, and if fighting three opponents they attack each twice.

 

Their tusks are valued at 200-900 gold pieces each.

Stats for absent OD&D Wilderness Animals

I've been lax with Dungeons & Dragons-related work again this week, and I was kept busy on the weekend, but I really am trying to keep up with weekly posts for the blog this year.  So, as I did with the dungeon monsters last week, I'm dashing out some stats for the wilderness animals that didn't get any in the original D&D rules.

Discounting the prehistoric animals and the Martian encounters, we have the following list for which I need to create OD&D-compatible stats: Spiders, Centipedes, Lizards, Toads, Ants, Weasels, Apes, Beetles, Scorpions, Lions, Boars, and Snakes.  Of these, only three weren't covered in my last post for dungeon monsters: Apes, Lions, and Boars.

I could just say that the Apes here are White Apes, and that the Boars are the same as Giant Hogs (both in the dungeon monsters list and already written up).  Instead, I'm going to base the Apes on Advanced D&D's Carnivorous Apes, and the Boars on AD&D's Giant Boars.  Lions, of course, will just be lions.

This is a bit of a lazy post, because I'm just taking the AD&D stats for three monsters and tweaking them slightly for original D&D.  There's nothing inspired here.  I was planning on doing the dinosaurs and prehistoric animals as well, but it's late, and that will have to wait for another post.  For now, it's Apes and Lions and Boars (and one half-assed blogger, oh my).

APE

Number Appearing: 2-8

Armor Class: 6

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 5

% in Lair: 10%

Type or Amount of Treasure: C

Carnivorous apes are a larger, stronger, and more aggressive relative of the gorilla. They have a fair intelligence, being very cunning, and they have a particular hunger for human flesh.  Their keen eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell means that they are only surprised on a roll of 1.  Apes attack twice per round, and if they hit the same opponent with both attacks they will rend their victim for an additional 1-6 damage.

LION

Number Appearing: 2-12

Armor Class: 5 or 6

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 5+2

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

Lions inhabit warmer climates, and thrive in terrains including desert, jungle, swamp, and savannah.  They hunt in prides, with the lioness doing most of their hunting.  Even so, the males are ferocious fighters and will defend the pride's territory.  A typical pride consists of 1-3 males and 1-9 females.  Their lair will also have 1-10 cubs (non-combatants) and an additional 1-4 females which will immediately attack to defend their cubs.

 

All lions can leap up to 30 ft.  Male lions have an AC 6 for their forequarters, and AC 5 for their hindquarters.  Female lions have a uniform AC of 6. Lions attack twice per round, and if both attacks hit the same victim in a single round they will also rake with their rear claws for a further 1-6 damage.  They do not climb trees well and dislike swimming.

BOAR, GIANT

Number Appearing: 2-8

Armor Class: 6

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 7

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

Due to their size and aggression, as well as their enormous tusks, giant boars deal 2d6 damage on a successful hit.  If their hit points are reduced to 0 to -5 hit points, they will continue to fight for another 1-4 melee rounds.  They will die immediately if reduced to -6 hit points or below.

 

If more than 3 are encountered, there is a 25% chance that there will be 1-4 young.  Young giant boars have from 2 to 6 Hit Dice; those with 2-3 HD will deal 1-6 damage, those with 4-5 HD will deal 1-6+1 damage, and those with 6 HD will deal 1-6+2.  Male and female giant boars fight equally well.

Stats for absent OD&D Dungeon Monsters

I haven't found much time to work on Dungeons & Dragons material this week, but in the interests of providing some weekly content for the blog I wrote up the monster entries below while watching Smackdown (pro-wrestling being great for half-watching in the background).  What I've done so far is a complete list of the monsters in original D&D's dungeon encounter tables that weren't given stats in the game.  I intend to design my mega-dungeon using those tables as a framework, and use them heavily in-game, so these stats are necessary.

Luckily for me, the Advanced D&D Monster Manual is quite compatible with what came before it.  There's an entry in there for every one of these monsters except for the white ape, and I used them a lot.  The main alteration that was necessary was in the amount of damage the monsters deal: AD&D uses variable damage dice, while OD&D restricts itself entirely to the use of six-siders.  Not only that, but the damage monsters deal in OD&D is much lower than in AD&D. To get a rough comparison, I used the giants from both editions.  Just to illustrate the difference, a cloud giant in OD&D deals 3d6 damage, while in AD&D that same giant would deal a whopping 6d6.  So I had to scale things down, and the giants were a big help in getting to numbers that I liked.  Luckily, most of the creatures below ended up having damage ranges in AD&D that converted to a single d6, so assume that damage is 1-6 unless I say differently.  I suspect I'll be dealing with higher damage totals for the absent wilderness monsters.

Of the special abilities I had to come up with something for, the giant rat's disease was the most significant.  I was surprised to discover a while back that the disease from giant rats wasn't explained in AD&D, nor was it in AD&D 2nd edition.  Trying to draw as much from the existing rules as I can, I went with a weaker form of the disease caused by mummies.  Instead of the disease causing healing to take ten times as long, I lowered it to five times, and I also made the disease fully curable by Cure Disease.

Other than damage, and altering some special abilities to better for with the OD&D rules, I had to make some decisions about what type of AD&D monster was the correct equivalent.  There are a bunch of giant beetles and giant snakes, so which is OD&D referring to?  I went with the boring beetle for the OD&D giant beetle, as they are the most generic, and match pretty well to the power level of other Level 4 monsters.  For giant hogs I went with the AD&D wild boar.  I considered the giant boar, but it's a little strong for Level 3, and the warthog is much too weak.  I had a harder time with giant snakes, as I couldn't decide between using the poisonous snake or the constrictor.  In the end I split the difference and gave a chance for both to appear, as I think both should be included for maximum trope representation.

The only monster I had to venture outside of the Monster Manual for was the white ape.  Given that it's a creature originating from the John Carter stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs, I drew what stats I could from TSR's Warriors of Mars.  That amounted to a short description, the creature's movement rate, and its Hit Dice total.  The rest I made up, and time will tell if what I created was balanced.  Given their huge size and strength I gave them the same damage as an ogre.  I also figured that, having four arms, they should get multiple attacks per round, and settled on two so as not to make them too much more powerful than the other Level 4 monsters.

Hopefully the write-ups below will prove of use to somebody (although given the proliferation of retro-clones it seems this work has been done many times before me).  I'll probably work on the absent wilderness monsters next, and I may also do write-ups for the various character classes that can be encountered in the dungeons.  It would be handy to have a quick stat-block ready to go for Evil High Priests, Lords, Wizards and the like.

ANT, GIANT

Number Appearing: 1-100

Armor Class: 3

Move in Inches: 18

Hit Dice: 2

% in Lair: 10%

Type or Amount of Treasure: See below

 

It is 90% likely that any group of giant ants encountered will all be workers.  The other 10% of the time, it will be a mixed group of workers and warriors (20% warriors/80% workers).  Warrior ants have 3 hit dice, and if one hits with its mandibles it will also attempt to sting for an additional 1-6+2 damage.  Damage from the sting can be halved by a successful saving throw against poison.

 

If found in their lair (nest) there will be 2-200 worker ants, plus 1 warrior ant for every 5 workers.  The queen will also be present.  The queen ant has 10 hit dice, but she neither moves nor attacks. If she is killed the other ants will become confused (as if affected by the Confusion spell) for six melee rounds, and then leave the nest.

 

Treasure held by ants will be found in the chamber of the queen ant.  There is a 50% chance they will have 3-12 gems, and a 40% chance of 2-8 potions. The egg chamber will be guarded by 5-50 workers and 5 warriors. Giant ant eggs have no normal market value.

BEETLE, GIANT

Number Appearing: 3-18

Armor Class: 3

Move in Inches: 6

Hit Dice: 5

% in Lair: 40%

Type or Amount of Treasure: D

Beetles are non-intelligent, and always hungry.  They do not hear or see well, relying primarily on taste and feel.

Although they favor molds, slimes, and fungi, they feed on virtually any form of organic material, crushing it in their mandibles before eating it. These mandibles deal 2-12 damage with each hit.  Because of the thorough grinding, the only way to revive any character eaten by a giant beetle is by using a Wish. 

CENTIPEDE, GIANT 

Number Appearing: 2-24

Armor Class: 9

Move in Inches: 15

Hit Dice: 1/4 (1-2 hp)

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

Giant centipedes are aggressive, and rush forth to bite their prey, injecting poison into the wound.  In many cases this poison is weak and not fatal.  The victim takes no damage from this bite, and also gets a +4 bonus to their saving throw to survive the poison.

 

Due to their small size, centipedes are less likely to resist certain attacks, and suffer a -1 penalty on all saving throws.

 

HOG, GIANT 

Number Appearing: 1-12

Armor Class: 7

Move in Inches: 15

Hit Dice: 3+3

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

Due to their ferocity and large tusks, giant hogs deal 1-6+2 damage on a successful hit. 

A giant hog will fight for 2-5 melee rounds after reaching 0 to -4 hit points but will die
immediately if reduced to -5 hit points or lower.

When encountered in the dungeon, hogs will all be aggressive males. In the wilderness, if more than one hog is encountered, one will be a male and the rest will be sows and sounders (young who do not fight).  There will be a ratio of 1 sow to 4 sounders.  Sows have 3 hit dice, and deal 1-6 damage per attack,

LIZARD, GIANT 

Number Appearing: 2-12

Armor Class: 5

Move in Inches: 15

Hit Dice: 3+1

% in Lair: Nil

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

Because of their large maws, giant lizards are able to deliver vicious bites. Any "to hit" score of 20 indicates the creature has snapped both jaws onto its opponent, thus causing double damage (2-12 points).

RAT, GIANT

Number Appearing: 6-36

Armor Class: 7

Move in Inches: 12 (swim 6)

Hit Dice: 1/2 (1-4 hp)

% in Lair: 10

Type or Amount of Treasure: C

  

Giant rats are a plague in many places such as crypts and dungeons.  They will avoid attacking strong parties unless commanded to fight by such creatures as wererats or vampires. They are fearful of fire and flee from it. Giant rats swim quite well, and they can attack in water as well.

 

Any creature bitten by a giant rat has a 5% chance per wound inflicted of contracting a serious disease. If such infection is indicated the victim will become diseased unless a saving throw versus poison is made. This disease will make wounds take 5 times the usual time for healing, but can be fully removed with a Cure Disease spell.

 

SCORPION, GIANT 

Number Appearing: 1-4

Armor Class: 3

Move in Inches: 15

Hit Dice: 5+3

% in Lair: 50%

Type or Amount of Treasure: D

  

Giant scorpions are vicious predators, likely to attack any creature which approaches.  Any creature killed by a scorpion will be dragged to its lair to be eaten.

 

A scorpion will attack three times per round, twice with its huge pincers, and once with its segmented tail, which lashes forward to sting its victim to death with poison. This sting inflicts 1-6 points of damage per hit, and the victim must make a saving throw against poison or die immediately.  The scorpion is able to attack up to 3 different opponents in a single round.

 

Note that if a scorpion somehow manages to sting itself, it will be killed by its own poison.

 

SNAKE, GIANT

Number Appearing: 1-6

Armor Class: 5

Move in Inches: 15

Hit Dice: 4+1

% in Lair: 0%

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

All giant snakes are carnivorous.  Those encountered will either be constrictors (1-5) or poisonous (6).

 

Constrictor snakes will attack with their bite, and on a successful hit they will constrict their victim.  Beginning on the round after the bite, the victim takes 1-6 points of damage per melee round, with no need for the snake to roll to-hit.  Several strong creatures (such as four humans of 16 or greater strength) will be able to uncoil the snake in 2-5 melee rounds.

Poisonous snakes will deliver their poison with a bite, and anyone struck must make a saving throw against poison or die.  At the referee's options, there may be some varieties of snake with poison so strong that the victim may still take damage on a successful save (1-6, 2-12, or even 3-18).

SPIDER, GIANT

Number Appearing: 1-8

Armor Class: 4

Move in Inches: 3 (12 in web)

Hit Dice: 4+1

% in Lair: 70%

Type or Amount of Treasure: C

 

Giant spiders lie in wait in their webs, weaving their sticky traps horizontally or vertically so as to entrap any creature which touches the web. Some will lurk above a path in order to drop upon prey.  They will flee from superior foes, typically hiding in some secret spot for safety.

The web is as tough and similar to the Web cast from a Staff of Wizardry.

 

The bite of a giant spider is poisonous, and anyone bitten.must save versus poison or be killed.

TOAD, GIANT 

Number Appearing: 1-12

Armor Class: 6

Move in Inches: 6 (6" leap)

Hit Dice: 2+1

% in Lair: 0%

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

  

Giant toads are prone to devour any creature which appears edible.

 

They can hop up to 6" in a single round, clearing objects up to 2" in height.  This requires but a single melee round, and the toad can attack in mid-air or at the end of its leap.

WEASEL, GIANT

Number Appearing: 1-8

Armor Class: 6

Move in Inches: 15

Hit Dice: 3+1

% in Lair: 15%

Type or Amount of Treasure: Nil

 

Giant weasels are very vicious and hunt prey aggressively. They will attack until destroyed.

 

When a giant weasel successfully bites its prey, it does not release its jaws, and will suck the blood from its victim.  This begins on the round after the bite, and drains the victim of 1-6 hit points per round. 

If taken before half-grown, and carefully trained, giant weasels can sometimes (25%) be used as hunting animals and guards. When encountered in their lair, there will always be at least 4 giant weasels - two parents and 2-6 young from 10% to 80% mature. The young also attack, doing damage proportional to their development.

Weasel pelts sell for 1,000 to 6,000 gold pieces. 

WHITE APE

Number Appearing: 1-8

Armor Class: 6    

Move in Inches: 12

Hit Dice: 6

% in Lair: 15%

Type or Amount of Treasure: D

 

White apes are enormous, with four arms, white skin and white hair on their heads.  These terrible monsters have an almost human cunning. Many have a rough tribal organization, and those that do always use stone (or some other form of) clubs.

 

Due to their great strength, white apes deal 1-6+2 damage on a successful hit.  They can attack twice per melee round.

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.