Let's make a dungeon. I'll be rolling randomly as much as possible, and then just Forge The Narrative as much as possible to make it coherent.
First, we roll 1d20 to determine the overall type. 13! It's a ruined manor. I think it'll have thirteen rooms too, because that's an unlucky number. Roll some dice and we get...
- Monster
- Unique
- Unique
- Unique
- Empty
- Empty
- Empty
- Empty
- Unique
- Empty
- Empty
- Empty
- Trap
- Empty
- Monster
Wow! This is going to be a very weird dungeon. That's two monster rooms, four unique, one trap, and eight empty. Let's check for treasure now. No treasure in any of the empty rooms or trap rooms! Jeez, what a rough place. I think this is a dungeon for the later game, so I'll declare that it's all Level 3. Rolling for my two monster rooms, I get Ogre and Werewolf. The ogres are... *not* in a lair, but the werewolves are. There's eight werewolves, with treasure type J. Here's what the werewolves possess, as per the generator on this site:
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Werewolf Lair: Eight Werewolves (Seven Normal, one Pack Leader)
Approximate Treasure Worth: 6,060 gp
1,000 Electrum
1,000 Silver
3 crates of armor and weapons, worth 225gp each (10 stone each)
6 crates of terra-cotta pottery, worth 100gp each (5 stone each)
2 bags of loose tea, worth 75gp each (5 stone each)
9 jars of lamp oil, worth 20gp each (6 stone per jar)
7 bundles of fur pelts (such as bear, beaver, or fox), worth 15gp each (3 stone per bundle)
35 rolls of garishly dyed cloth, worth 10gp each (4 stone each)
78 animal horns worth 20gp each (1 stone per 5 horns)
1 brass trinkets (40 gp)
1 brass trinkets (90 gp)
1 brass trinkets (120 gp)
1 porcelain trinkets (700 gp)
1 wrought silver trinkets (800 gp)
Potion of Speed
Crossbow Bolts +1 (Quantity: 8)
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Wow. These are some eccentric werewolves. They love garish cloth, animal horns, and pottery. They also have a supply of tea. They seem very sophisticated. Perhaps they're fashionistas, preparing fabulous outfits and viking hats for some purpose?
There are also five ogres in the house. They don't live have a lair, so they travelled to the lair for a reason. They're either there for one of the Unique things, or they came specifically for the werewolves. Do they want to fight, or are they there on business? I just rolled a Reaction Roll for them, and got a 10. That's pretty positive. I think the groups know each other fairly well, and the ogres have come to make some kind of deal with the wolves. But what do they want?
Maybe the ogres want to buy garish cloth for rituals. Perhaps the ugly patterns are actually runes that honor Nehr'Zul, their lich-god. Somebody has to make all those unholy scrolls and cursed tapestries, after all.
Maybe the ogres *brought* the cloth, and need the werewolves to perform some service for them. Perhaps one of the Unique rooms has a magic mirror or something that ogres can't enter.
Hmm, I can't think of one being obviously superior. Let's introduce a little more information by rolling on this chart. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/community-creations/house-rules/random-encounters/encounter-motivations.
A 69! Number of prophets! "Prevent Event." Interesting. What events would ogres be against? Well, in my campaign setting, ogres come in two flavors: Zaharan Ogres, who are still part of the "empire" and in contact with other ogres and actively working to regain control of the world, and Survivor Ogres, who have been cut off from society. Humanoids hate ogres, so Survivor Ogres have to hide in caves and dark places, lest they be hunted down. I think these are the latter kind- They have a lair nearby, and their main motive is self-preservation.
What events might threaten them? Humans! They've heard that someone is thinking about building a settlement, and they want the werewolves to murder the surveyors. They can't do it themselves because if anyone comes to investigate, they can't afford to have ogre tracks found.
So that's their motivation. They brought garishly dyed cloth because they're descended from a master wardrobe stylist and the making of dye has been passed down for generations. They're determined to stay "civilized."
Lycanthropy is a physical corruption, not a mental one. The human brain stays intact, it just shares a body with something bestial now. Werewolves often feel bad about what they do, and are afraid of losing their humanity. The cloth is a fine bribe, because pants and fine dresses are very human. They're not 100% on board with murder yet though, so the ogres have been in the manor for a few days dropping by from time to time to say Emperor Palpatine stuff. "What loyalty do you owe them? The ones who cast you out, beat you and cut you with silver? You're different then them. You think they won't come here with spears and torches next? That they will ever let you rest? Humanity is the most violent race there is- they have even weaponized guilt, driven spears of it through your limbs so you can't even struggle as they come cut out your heart."
So now we need four unique rooms. First, let's check how we're doing on treasure- We want about 4 times the XP value of all the dungeon's monsters. That's 700 for the ogres, and 1080 for the wolves, total 1780, so "by the book" there should be about 7000 gold of treasure. We've got 6000 right now, so we can add a little more to the unique rooms.
So, when I wrote "dresses" awhile back I realized there could be some lady werewolves. In fact, what if this manor is actually a church/monastery thing, and the werewolves are nuns? I think the story of this place is that it got attacked by werewolves, and although they fought the wolves off (holy water being in abundance, after all) they only had a 5th level cleric for their Mother Superior, so she couldn't Cure Disease the survivors. Instead, she encouraged them to kill themselves to preserve their purity. Six of them chose to live, and two uninfected sisters chose to infect themselves (as werewolves risk uncontrollably murdering humans, but can co-exist with other wolves just fine.) Since then, life has more or less gone back to normal.
UNIQUE ROOM ONE:
The Mother Superior's ghost haunts the manor, and espicially the podium in the chapel, where her skeletal remains are slumped. Sometimes she manifests to preach hellfire and brimstone and encourage the werewolves to kill themselves. She's really pissed. Near the podium is a large stone basin containing ten gallons of holy water. If the party appeases her or banishes her somehow, she'll let them take it, although they'll have to bring their own consecrated containers, which makes the financial viability of this limited, so I'm not going to count it as a thousand gold, even if that's the actual value.
UNIQUE ROOM TWO:
Library! This room contains a number of uninteresting, boring books. The interesting ones are a log of the monastery's history, written by the Mother Superior, as well as a couple rare books, worth 200 gold and 100 gold respectively, entitled "Conquering Regret and Moving Forward: A Guide To Spirtual Fortitude, by Zebatrus, Inventor of Owlbears" and "An Abridged Reference Guide to Snow Demons." The history book can be sold to the church for 500 gold.
UNIQUE ROOM THREE:
This is a lot of dungeon, I'll finish it later. Still, I'm pretty proud of it so far-
Let's check Goblin Punch's Dungeon Checklist real quick: http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2016/01/dungeon-checklist.html
1. Something to steal (Big pile of fabric!)
2. Something to kill (Ogres!)
3. Something to kill you (Werewolves!)
4. Different Paths (This'll have to wait till I actually draw rooms)
5. Someone to talk to (Werewolves AND the ghost!)
6. Something to experiment with (Well, there's our next Unique thing)
7. Something the players probably won't find (There's our last Unique thing, I think)
I think we're on track for a good dungeon though!