This is a working document. At the time of publication, no magic items have yet been written for A Dungeon Game. The main treasure table assumes that the only magic items in the game are magic weapons, potions, and scrolls, and I am currently working on a generator for magic weapons. If you would like to have more traditional magic items in your game, I have included an additional column under Alternate Magic Items that gives chances for the presence of magic items other than weapons in your treasure hoards. Use this in conjunction with whatever magic item tables from whatever game you prefer and convert the items as needed.

The Accumulation of Wealth

One of the means of character advancement in A Dungeon Game is the accumulation of wealth in the form of coinage and valuable items extracted from dungeons. When liquidated into spendable currency, these items provide characters with experience points (XP).

The standard unit of currency is the silver piece (sp), which may be broken into 10 copper pennies (cp). Fifty silver pieces are worth 1 gold pound (gp).

Adventurers gain 1 XP for each silver piece they extract from the dungeon and return to civilisation. Suitable buyers must be found before non-monetary treasures (gems, art objects, and the like) can be liquidated into coin and the XP earned.

Likewise, the coinage found in dungeons is more often than not ancient currency. In most cases this is simple to exchange or melt down into its constituent metals, and GMs should generally allow players to bank coins recovered as though they were normal currency. Use your best judgement as to whether coin hoards of particular antiquity might be worth more than the face value of their contents, and whether making the players hunt for a buyer before they can convert their coin to cash is actually interesting or enjoyable.

Distributing Treasure

Part of designing good dungeons is making sure that they contain enough treasure. Partly this is a matter of game pacing. Ensuring characters have access to an appropriate level of wealth means they advance in level at a satisfying pace, as well as having enough money to outfit themselves, craft scrolls, hire retainers, etc. The other factor is a much more simple one - finding treasure is a fun reward at the end of a hard delve, and working out how to extract it is a satisfying challenge.

Treasure found in dungeons comes from two sources. Individual treasures are the personal wealth of the people and creatures who live in the dungeon, carried on their person as they go about their business. These are usually small amounts; handfuls of coins, pieces of jewellery, small gemstones, etc. Use the Pocket Treasures table to generate them.

The second type of treasure is found in hoards. These are large deposits of valuables located in dungeons, often guarded by traps or some sort of creature but just as often left forgotten and undiscovered. These form the bulk of the wealth that player characters will have access to.

As part of designing a dungeon the GM generates an amount of treasure using the tables below and distributes it either by placing it by hand or else with the aid of the dungeon stocking tables.

Dungeon Building Procedure

• Decide on the size of the dungeon
• Choose the appropriate dungeon level
• Roll for total treasure
• Generate the map
• Determine room contents
• Distribute treasure

Dungeon Size

For the purposes of using these generation tools and distributing treasure, dungeons comes in three sizes:

• Small. 4 to 15 rooms. Can be explored in around 4 hours of play. Parties may explore this dungeon in one delve, only returning to the surface when they have achieved their goals.
• Medium. 16 to 24 rooms. Can be explored in around 8 hours of play. Parties might camp just outside the dungeon, or set up a safe place to rest for the night inside. Food and resources might be tested.
• Large. 25+ rooms. Will take many sessions to explore. Parties may leave and return multiple times, and resource management will be important. ¹

Dungeons smaller than 4 rooms will tend not to contain large treasure hoards, and instead should be stocked with individual treasure appropriate to their occupants and purpose. As with everything, use your best judgement and build something that fits your game. If you want to place a large hoard at the end of a 3 room dungeon, that is entirely your prerogative.

Megadungeons

One of the classic modes of play revolves around the megadungeon, a vast complex of hundreds of rooms and potentially dozens of levels. Megadungeons generally form the basis of an entire campaign, with most of your play occurring in the dungeon over many delves.

These tables can easily be used to construct a megadungeon, generating discrete chunks of different sizes and connecting them together to form one larger complex.

Dungeon Level

The term “level” when applied to dungeons refers to the approximate Adventurer Level ² of the characters assumed to be exploring the space. As parties will often be formed of characters of varying levels of experience, you should try not to worry about this too much. These are simply guidelines rather than strict rules - the idea of ‘balance’ is something that isn’t a concern in A Dungeon Game, as players are expected to explore with caution and not treat every encounter with a denizen of the dungeon as an opportunity for violence.

Select the dungeon level that fits your needs, and then find the row on the treasure tables that corresponds to your chosen Size and Level.

Level vs. Floor

A dungeon may be split over several floors. In traditional modes of play, each floor of the dungeon roughly corresponds to an equivalent level - that is, the first floor of the dungeon where characters initially enter (for the most part - see Non-Linear Dungeons for more on that) will be built with 1st level characters in mind, the next floor will be built with 2nd level characters in mind, and so on.

A Dungeon Game is less concerned with this clear divide between floors of the dungeon. It’s still true that in general large dungeons should become more dangerous as one moves deeper into them, and it would be unusual to find a level 1 section of the dungeon directly bordering a much higher level section, but you should feel free to assign dungeon levels to areas as you see fit and to allow sections of the dungeon of a specific level to contain multiple floors. Adding verticality to dungeons always makes for a much more interesting exploration experience!

Generating Treasure

The tables that follow will help you generate the both the value and composition of the treasures that are contained in your dungeon.

To generate a hoard, find the row that matches the Dungeon Size and Dungeon Level you picked in the previous steps. Each row contains several columns, and each column contains two values. The first, Frequency, is a number that represents the chance of that column’s treasure appearing in the dungeon. The second value gives the size of that treasure as some combination of d6 rolls. Treasures with no chance listed are always present, though you should still roll to determine the quantities in which they appear.

To check for the presence of treasure where a frequency above 0 is listed, roll 1d20. If the result is equal to or lower than the number given, the treasure type appears in the hoard.

Where the size range is expressed as d3 rather than d6, roll a six sided dice and half the result, rounding up. A roll of 1-2 becomes 1, 3-4 becomes 2, and 5-6 is a result of 3.

As an example, the Frequency of Silver Pieces in a Level 1 dungeon of any size is is 10. If the d20 result for silver when generating a hoard of this type is 10 or less, the hoard contains silver pieces. The row beneath it tells us that there are 3d6x100 silver pieces present regardless of the dungeon’s size, so we roll three six sided dicee and multiply the result by 100 to determine how many silver pieces are found.

Further information about specific types of treasure other than coinage is given after the tables.

The Treasure Tables

Alternate Magic Items

Average Value

The average value of each treasure hoard in silver pieces is given in the Average Value column at the end of each row. The values represent the amount of silver a typical horde of treasure is worth if all coins and items are present in the hoard and all rolls are average, which equates to how much XP adventurers who successfully extract the entire hoard will split between them. These averages don’t include the value of magical items that might be in the treasures, and assume that gems don’t vary from their base value.

Gems

When gems are found, use this table to determine the value of each gem. This table gives the base value for each gem and the general type of each stone.

To add some variety to your hoards and the values of loot being acquired you may wish to allow values of individual stones to vary. You can roll on the Gem Variations table to modify the stones adventurers find.

Gems By Type

Players may not be interested in exactly what sort of gemstones they have discovered, but the following table is provided to aid GMs who find themselves in need of a description.

Art Objects

Art objects are valuables beyond jewellery and gemstones. Ornate cups and glasses, paintings, rugs, carvings, and the other small trinkets and goods that people surround themselves with.

After generating the value of an art object the GM should describe each item, since these things are more notable than simple gemstones. If you are struggling to think of something, roll on the following list.

1. Carved bone or ivory statuette
2. Finely wrought gold bracelet
3. Silk vestments stitched with gold thread
4. Black velvet masks studded with crystals
5. Large tapestry
6. Silver-plated longsword with rubies set in the hilt
7. Beautifully carved wooden harp
8. Solid silver idol
9. Gem-encrusted velvet eye patch
10. Silver tiara
11. Finely made thick fur coat
12. Set of silver stacking dolls
13. Oil painting in a gold-plated frame
14. A set of leather-bound encyclopedias with gilt edges
15. Silver chalice studded with lapis lazuli
16. Silver calligraphy pen and bottled inks
17. Exquisite taxidermy
18. Crystal decanters
19. Finely carved redwood coffin
20. Bone statuette inlaid with mother of pearl

Pocket Treasures

Individuals who live in the dungeon may carry their wealth with them. Roll on the following table once per creature HD to generate pocket treasures.

Magic weapons are not distributed using the table below but should be manually placed by the GM. Dungeon denizens in possession of magic weapons are incredibly rare and should be significant figures in your campaign.

Magic Weapons

Magic weapons are rare. Some are created intentionally, the end result of rituals that force the soul from the body and trap it inside the weapon. Others are created via more mundane means, the by-product of acts of extreme violence and betrayal.

All of these weapons retain their intelligence and their personalities. Many have been left alone in the dark for hundreds if not thousands of years, with nobody but themselves and the rats to speak to. Others have been dragged across the earth in endless cycles of violence. All of these post-death experiences leave a mark on the psyche of the weapon.

Magic weapons may be indistinguishable from mundane weapons when first discovered, and the intelligences trapped within them may not reveal themselves to new wielders immediately.

Each magic weapon should have a unique power. There is no such thing as a +1 longsword in A Dungeon Game.

This version of A Dungeon Game provides statistics for five such weapons, and tables to be used in generating your own.

Sample Magic Weapons

Hadratha

Weapon Type: Longsword (medium melee weapon)
Aliases: Twin-Edge
Location: The Moss Mother’s Maze

Hadratha was betrayed by her companion Alarath, who slaughtered her inside the Moss Mother’s Maze and left her for dead alongside the sword he used to cut her down. As her blood pooled around the blade she vowed vengeance.

Ability

When you roll damage you can Exert 1 point of Cunning to add an additional damage die. You can do this as many times as you like on each attack, provided you have the Cunning to pay.

Sacrificing Cunning to the blade in this way strengthens Hadratha, with the following effects.

Hadratha Given Flesh
HD 6 AC 7
Deals damage directly to Cunning.
Can choose for her attacks to hit without making an attack roll. She can do this up to 12 times, after which point she loses this ability.

INCOMPLETE Creating Magic Weapons

Use the tables below to generate a weapon. The Magical Ability tables are just a starting point. Flesh these out into something unique and memorable. The sample weapons above can serve as a guide.

• Name
• Weapon Type
• Weapon Form
• Aliases
• Location
• Desire
• Who forged it?

Making Maps

A future goal for A Dungeon Game is to include a method for creating dungeon layouts. For the time being use whichever method you prefer, or make use of random dungeon generation tools like Watabou’s One Page Dungeon generator.

For the purposes of utilising the treasure tables, keep the following definitions in mind:

• Small. 4 to 15 rooms.
• Medium. 16 to 24 rooms.
• Large. 25+ rooms.

Dungeon Stocking

Use the following tables to generate the contents of your dungeon, rolling for each room in turn and noting down the result. The first table is for dungeon with multiple floors and will provide connections between levels. The second table is for single-floor dungeons.

The Supplementary Tables that follow the dungeon stocking tables can be used to determine what treasure is contained in, how the treasure is guarded or hidden, and the nature of exits ans traps. As always, use your best judgement and ignore results that don’t make sense.

Supplementary Tables

1d6|Guarding Sigil Words 1|Expanding|Foam 2|Exploding|Shards 3|Slowing|Mist 4|Collapsing|Air 5|Falling|Blades 6|Corrupting|Touch