Die Drop World

A quick method of making a setting, using only dice

Want to play a game but don’t have a map? Here is a method to use to make a small game setting with a couple of settlements and dungeons, as well as a method to roll up a dungeon. All of the information is on the dice.

Die Drop World

The following procedures allow you to almost instantly roll up a wilderness and a dungeon with a few rolls of dice.

Rolling the map:

Die-drop procedure for the wilderness:

1. Drop 2d4, 4d6, 2d8, 3d10, 2d12, and 2d20 on an 8x10 piece of hex paper, where the hexes are each large enough to hold a die. Aim to get them generally spread across the paper, though it is fine if they clump up a bit. Mark the hexes where they fell with a notation that shows what kind of die fell and what the result was. For example, 1/8 would mean that you rolled a 1 on a d8, while 9/12 would mean that you rolled a 9 on a d12.

2. The d4s are the settlements. To create roads, draw a line that runs from one edge of the paper to one d4, from there to the other d4, and then from there to another edge of the paper. The line can curve as much as you like, but it should avoid going through hexes that aren’t d4s as much as possible.

3. The d6s are terrain types. If there are any mountains (a result of 1), use at least one of them to draw a line representing a river, which should pass through at least one of the settlements and then to the edge of the map. If there are no mountains, draw the river from rolling hills, a lake or a swamp. If there are none of those, there are no rivers and all settlements use wells to draw their water.

4. Mark each d6 with a symbol denoting its terrain type. Around every d6, mark the surrounding six hexes with the same symbol. If that would end up with overlap between two terrain types, try to give each an equal number of hexes.

5. Roll on the missions table three times and mark them down. Decide which locations the missions refer to. They can, if applicable, be interpreted as referring to any of the dice locations on the map. For example, if you roll up the mission “Recover a magical object,” you can decide that the object is in a settlement (d4), somewhere on a mountain (d6; choose one of the hexes), in a camp of NPCs (d8), held by an individual NPC at their dwelling place (d10), at a point of interest (d12), or in a dungeon (d20).

6. Mark down the results of the d8, d10, d12, and d20 rolls in more details. Note if there are any required extra rolls on the charts associated with those dice. You may need to embellish or explain the situation better once you roll for the missions, and in some cases, you will want to obscure what the actual roll indicated.

For example, if you rolled the mission “Investigate a mysterious stranger” and you also rolled a vampire on the d10 table, you may not want to tell the players that he is a vampire and leave that as part of his mysteriousness.

Some dungeon types can be present in a terrain that doesn’t fit their description. Dense hills or forest “dungeons” can exist in other terrain types, because they are understood to be just a small part of the hex.

7. You’re now ready to begin the game. Start your players off in one of the settlements, where they can learn about the missions they can pursue.

8. You can move NPC camps/groups around, after their initial placement, if you so desire, one hex per round of PC movement.

The Wilderness Tables:

d4: Settlements

1 Keep/fort—Can recruit multiple fighters and buy weapons and food and mend weapons

2 Village—Can recruit one or two non-fighters, buy food and mend weapons

3 Monastery—Can recruit clerics and buy food; the GM should roll for cult activity (on a 1)

4 Wizard bastion—Can recruit wizards and buy food and magical equipment

d6: Terrain

1 Mountains

2 Rolling hills

3 Forest

4 Canyon

5 Lake

6 Swamp

d8: NPC camps or groups

1 Loggers/miners

2 Hunters

3 Hobgoblins (roll for friendliness)

4 Friendly soldiers

5 Enemy soldiers

6 Bandits

7 Goblins (roll for friendliness)

8 Giants (roll for friendliness)

d10 Individual NPCs and their homes

1 Hunter

2 Wizard

3 Hobgoblin

4 Vampire

5 Cleric

6 Trader

7 Hermit

8 Bandit

9 Giant

10 Animal

d12 Points of interest

1 Shrine/altar

2 Ruins

3 Inn

4 Cult lair or monastery

5 Spring or pool (roll for magic on 1)

6 Abandoned shack

7 Standing stones

8 Cemetery or burial mound

9 Ancient tree or grove

10 Pit

11 Old battlefield

12 Ancient statue

d20 “Dungeons” (roll for boss)

1 Wizard’s tower

2 Ruined castle

3 Mine

4 Cave

5 Deserted fort

6 Dungeon

7 Garden in Faerie

8 Barrows complex

9 Ruined monastery

10 Hobgoblin town

11 Giant rat burrows

12 Spider web maze

13 Swamp maze

14 Ruined town

15 Old manor house

16 Cult campsite and structures

17 Witches’ village

18 Dense hills

19 Forest

20 Canyon

Rolling Dungeons:

1. First, roll for the identity of the BBEG on the d20 BBEG table. You’ll use the BBEG to add flavor to the dungeon.

2. Roll the dungeon. Drop 1d4, 2d6, 2d8, 4d10, 4d12, and 2d20 on a regular-sized piece of paper.

3. Circle each die and write the results of the roll in the circle, as above.

4. Decide on the room or rooms where there will be entrances from the outside. They should be on the other side of the page from the d4, which will either be the BBEG or the entrance to the next level.

5. Connect the rooms with lines. Create multiple routes through the dungeon, from the entrance(s) to the d4 room. Note any rooms that have secret exits. Use the secret exit table to roll for the type of secret exit.

6. If the d4 indicated a BBEG, you’re done mapping. If the d4 indicated an entrance to another level, go back to step 2 and roll up another level. Keep doing that until you get a level with a BBEG. Your dungeon is done at that point.

7. For rooms with minions or NPC factions, roll a d4 or d6 to decide on how many are in each room.

The Dungeon Tables

d4: BBEG/Entrances to lower levels

1 BBEG

2 BBEG with treasure

3 BBEG with minions and treasure

4 Entrance to lower level

d6: Minions

1 Skeletons

2 Goblins

3 Trolls

4 War dogs

5 Ghouls

6 Lizardmen

d8: Other NPC factions

1 Elves

2 Dwarves

3 Frost elves

4 Bandits

5 Giant centipedes

6 Spiders

7 Brigands

8 Acolytes

d10: Rooms with traps

1 Empty room with trapped wall

2 Empty room with trapped floor

3 Room with treasure on floor with trapped treasure

4 Room with trapped pool

5 Room with trapped pool with treasure

6 Room with trapped exit door

7 Room with trapped item on ground

8 Room with trapped item on wall

9 Room with trapped alcove/container/pit

10 Room with magical effect

d12: Rooms without traps

1 Empty room

2 Room with treasure on floor

3 Room with a pool

4 Room with a pool containing treasure

5 Room with a pit

6 Room with a pit containing treasure

7 Room with a closed alcove

8 Room with a closed alcove containing treasure

9 Empty room with difficult exit to return through (slide, slippery)

10 Room with secret exit

11 Room with secret exit with treasure

12 Empty room

d20: Individual NPCs

1 Lost adventurer

2 A wizard, mad or otherwise

3 Goblin salesman

4 Wild dog

5 Wild spider

6 Blind Hobgoblin

7 Annoying elf lord

8 Lost bandit

9 Black pudding

10 Gelatinous cube

11 Ghost

12 Snake

13 False dragon

14 Troll

15 Angry dwarf

16 Bear

17 Draugr

18 Mimic

19 Captive

20 Drunk tour guide

BBEG table

1 Dragon

2 Black hag

3 Lich

4 Brigand captain

5 Goblin chieftain

6 Vampire

7 Demonic knight

8 Lamia

Secret exit table

1 Break down the wall that looks odd

2 Solve the riddle on the wall

3 The wall is an illusion; that’s why it looks weird

4 The structure in the middle of the room is a puzzle that opens the wall

5 That mirror can be walked through

6 A little heat or cold will make the wall shrink and open