Five Room Dungeon Hacks, Part Two – Twisters

I’ve blogged before about the 5-Room Dungeon here, and why its structure needs a bit of help sometimes to make it really shine in one-shots. I’ve been thinking about it more lately – inspired by this post which talks about 5RDs being scene sequences instead of locations. That post was talking about location-based design… but I’m interested in scene-based design as well. So what can we do to hack 5RDs a bit more flexible and epic? We started by introducing Multiples – but now, we’re going to talk Twisters.

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Issues with the 5 Room Dungeon

To remind readers, the 5RD, as created by Johnn Four, follows the suggested structure below.

• Room One: Entrance and Guardian
• Room Two: Puzzle or Roleplaying Challenge
• Room Three: Trick or Setback
• Room Four: Climax, Big Battle or Conflict
• Room Five: Reward, Revelation or Plot Twist

What potential problems does this throw up? Well, to start with it’s super linear – I covered in the earlier post how to mitigate this, either by mixing up the order, or allowing multiple solutions to each scene. So here’s another way to add some variety, with Twisters

Twisters

Twisters are unpredictable elements that sit around and within your five-room dungeon structure. They can be NPCs, factions, or (more loosely) subplots – but they should move around of their own accord and be able to appear and disappear wherever in your session, and your dungeon.

How Many of Them?

As is usual with stuff there’s a number of, I’d go with three. They need to be dangerous enough to pose a threat to the PCs (either physically or socially), and mobile and unpredictable enough to bother them wherever. Give them goals and motivations that are not-quite-perpendicular to the PC’s goals in the adventure.

Example – Bandit Swamp

Let’s look back at the 5-Room Dungeon we used for our example last time, and this time mix it up with three Twisters.

As a reminder, here’s how our basic clear-the-hex 5 Room Dungeon looked:

1 – Entrance / Guardian

• Ambush bandit patrols while entering their part of the swamp, taking a prisoner

2 – Puzzle / Roleplaying Challenge

• Having demonstrated your superior might, negotiate or bribe the captured bandits to find the secret lair

3 – Trick / Setback

• Of course, the bandit leader betrays you, and tries to raise the alarm – can you chase him down in time?

4 – Climax / Big Battle / Conflict

• Fight the bandit leader, either surrounded by his tightest lieutenants (if you snuck in successfully) or with a horde of bandits

5- Reward / Revelation

• Discover the bandits were bankrolled by the King to drive the lizardmen out (along with a bit of treasure, obviously), thus setting up the next conflict.

Twister 1: The Kingsguard. Led by Sir Alric, the Kingsguard are appointed guardians of the Kingsroad through the swamp, and it passes by them. They’re also completed ineffective, and corrupt. Sir Alric himself is turning a blind eye to the bandits in order to get rid of the lizardmen from the swamp, and also because they have excellent wine they rob from passing tradesmen. His men are more than happy to dissuade pesky adventurers sticking their noses in with fists or swords, and aren’t above tipping the bandits off to their plans.

Twister 2: The Lizardmen. Ichtok the Lizardman Shaman is the de facto leader of the swamp, and their fed up with (demi)humans bothering them. Aggressive protectors of the swamp, they’ve laid traps to waylay travellers and bandits alike, and are likely to see the PCs as just more enemies to poison. If they can convince them, they could be stout allies though.

Twister 3: The Swamp Lights. Will-O-Wisp spirits lair in the swamp, seeking only to feed. Bandit, lizardman, and Kingsguard alike avoid them, but they seek to lure travellers into the deepest part of the swamp – and will appear when the PCs least expect them.

Where do these twisters appear? Well, it’s up to you. You can use them, sort of like a collapsible dungeon, when your game needs them – but don’t hold them close to your chest – play your best cards. In the example given, I’d have some Kingsguard show up in Room 2, and probably some lizardmen AND the swamplights appear in Room 3 – if I had time for it. Whether they reappear or not depends on how those scenes play out – but they’ll add layers of excitement and plot to your games by appearing there.

What if They Derail The Dungeon?

There may be a concern here that introducing the twisters may “twist” the dungeon off in a different direction – that’s fine! It’s the whole idea. If you’ve got your 5 Room Dungeon prepped with all the stuff you needed originally, you’ll have everything you need to carry it off. If you’re interested in more situation-based prep like this, a good place to start is Sly Flourish’s excellent Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, where he makes a solid case for separating situations, locations, and scenes.

So, part two of 5 Room Dungeons is Twisters – have you used this technique in your games? What do you use to make your 5 Room Dungeons pop?