First Ever Dungeon
Dak
🖼️ 37 images Surveyor
Hello everybody,
I was searching for this map for years and I eventually found it. This is the very first dungeon I created. It was for my first campaign around level 4 (1st ed AD&D). I needed an adventure and I thought it was time the players met a dragon since that's the name of the game. Here is the result. I'm still doing dungeons pretty much the same way today. A dungeon complex in a hill with natural caves and a river flowing through them somewhere.
This is a great dungeon for a Monty Haul campaign, I highly recommend it for those who want a ridiculous amount of realism in their game. Give the players more money than they will receive in all the other games combined they will play in their life. A few million gp, a few billion gp, it doesn't really matter so long as it's more wealth than they know what to do with. Do this at a very low level, level 2 or 3 is ideal. Then let the fun begin. If you DM it properly those players will never wish for another treasure haul in their entire gaming life.
Also with this dungeon, at low levels the dragon should be medium size, so it fits into a 5x5 square. It should be dwarfed by this treasure mound, and yet it's no bigger than the average player.
Here is the original map probably from 1984. The word Sklug was in the Margin, but I can't remember what it referred to. I called the new map the Dungeon of Sklug. It really doesn't sound like a name I would come up with for a dragon so it may have been a hobgoblin chief or some such monster.
Comments
Lovely map, Love seeing those old hand-drawn maps converted.
That's one tiny dragon though. Was there some sort of reason for the poor guy being that small, cursed by an evil wizard or the like, or maybe it was something like a Faerie Dragon
Hi Monsen, When I ran it I used a 1st ed Blue Dragon, (I even bought a mini a painted it up to surprise the players) so it would have been Large size. My comment was for running this map in 5th ed, where the dragon could be medium size for a low level party. I put a medium dragon token on the treasure pile in roll20 and it looks great dwarfed by the mound (you can almost miss the dragon if you don't look carefully). I thought it would be interesting to have such a young dragon with such a massive haul as there should be a good story as to why, and the adventure should not be as simple as kick in the door, kill the dragon and steal its loot, although you could still do that and suffer the consequences of doing so. The idea generally is that of careful what you wish for, it may come true, as the problems players face should be greater than the reward of having such a massive amount of gold. I got the idea from Mansa Musa (possibly the richest person who has ever lived) who destabilized the economy of Egypt for over a decade because he gave so much gold away. It's a bit of a dry premise to bring real economics into a game, but I think it would make for a very interesting and different campaign as the players problems mount up due to their wealth.
I had a conversation similar to this with a friend and fellow GM - we were discussing our preferred campaign 'event' that we would tend to fall back on because it was interesting to see how groups react. His preference was to at least once in every campaign give the characters a massive pay day just to see how people approached the complications of sudden extreme wealth. Spookily his nickname was DAK based on the initials he put into the Uni games machine!
Hi Principalfish,
My Dak comes from Abslom Daak, a character from Dr Who comics. This is a part of my DM style now. Sometimes I'll just throw something out there to the players or into the game just to see how players react. It's not a trap or Dm vs Players, it's more trying to generate interesting or unique situations.
I'm playing a one shot on Weds' it's all pre-written and the players have to solve the mystery in a tomb. I'm thinking of having someone approach the players and offer them more money not to solve the mystery just to see how they react. The moral dilemma; here's 500 gp to solve the mystery and save the Lord, but here's 1,000 gp not to. Although this being a one shot it may derail the game so I'll probably leave that and use it in a campaign.