Putting more on the Dungoen Map

Classical dungeon maps are insanely boring and only marginally useful in play, more can go on there.
Sure yuo can have fancy illustrated floor plans but they are often little more than colored-up flowcharts. Let's get more on those maps.

Graffiti: humans have likely been scrawling on other folks property for a darn long time, dungeons should have ample "dungeon graffiti". These can be scribble din the margins of a map and traced to their location (more on this in future post).

Bones and Fossils:  there's a lot of room to show where the bodies are buried or have been buried for a good long time, I've seen a few maps with skulls and bones as decorations and the presence and location of actual remains to go along with the dungeon dressing opens up whole new reasons to adventure and for the dungeon itself to be there. What self respecting necromancer overlord wouldn't go digging for the remains of dragons and giants to animate  them and put to his horrible use? Put them on the map.

Buried Treasure and Minerals: Lot's of room to indicate buried treasure and mineral deposits on dungoen maps. One age-old reason given for dungeons is mining, why not include notation of where the goodies are that have not yet been found.   As for buried treasure a drawn in treasure chest is a heck of a lot more interesting than note buried in documentation.

Spoor and Stains: animals leave their mark in the wilds monsters should too. We don't have to litter the maps with the retched refuse of monsters but some of it indicated here and there leads to foreshadowing and sets the mood for the dungeon. Puttign an icon on a map is a lot more noticeabel to a dm runnign the game than is a bit of text buried in notes.

There's room to put more on those dungoen maps to make them a useful game-tool for a DM beyond the traditonal elaborate flowchart.


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notes to readers:  Still here, been in a funk lately and it multiple busy contracts has cut into my fun creativity and game posting. Have not tuned my back on the blog or the hobby, more to come for years to come.

Storming The Castle Wandering Guard Tables

I noted in my Review of Bloody Basic Sinew & Steel I noted there was an absence of Wandering Guard Tables for when the PCs are Storming A Castle. Here’s some Tables for Wandering Guard encounters in the Castle of A Petty Lord. 

There are Four States of Alert use don the following tables:
Lax for when the castle residents are letting their guard down and the Lord is not likely to be in residence.
Normal for when the castle residents are using a bit of caution and the Lord is in residence.
Wary means the garrison and staff are on edge and alert
Alarmed! the garrison and residents are aware there are intruders and they are under attack

Chance of Encounters in the Castle of a Petty Lord

	Lax	Normal	Wary	Alarmed!
Dawn	1 in 12 every third  turn	1 in 12 every other turn	1 in 10 every turn	1 in 8 every turn
Day	1 in 10 every third turn	1 in 8 every other turn	2 in 6 every turn	3 in 6 every turn
Dusk	1 in 8 every third  turn	1 in 6 every other turn	1 in 6 every turn	1 in 6 every turn
Evening	1 in 10 every third  turn	1 in 6 every other turn	1 in 6 every turn	2 in 6 every turn
Middle of Night	1 in 20 every third  turn	1 in 20 every other turn	1 in 8 every turn	1 in 6 every turn

Wandering Guard Table Ia, Outer Ward in Castle of a Petty Lord

2d6	Lax	Normal	Wary	Alarmed!
2	Lord of the Castle	Lord of the Castle	Laborer	Laborer or Artisan
3	Sergeant at Arms	Sergeant at Arms	Lord of the Castle	Page
4	Laborer	Laborer	Page	Lord of the Castle & 1d6 Knights
5	Child	Page	Sergeant at Arms	Guard
6	Sleepy Archer	Archer	1d4 Archers	1d6 Archers
7	Lowly Churl	Lackey	Knight	Sergeant at Arms and 2d6 Heavy Men At Arms
8	Guard, unarmored	Guard, lightly armed and armored	Squire	Guard, Heavily armed and armored
9	Turnkey	Squire	Squire	1d6 Heavy Men at Arms
10	Artisan	Turnkey	Steward	Turnkey & 1d6 Heavy Men At Arms
11	Steward	Steward	Turnkey	Lady of the Castle
12	Lady of the Castle	Lady of the Castle and Lightly Armed Guard	Lady of the Castle and 1d3 Knights	Squire and 1d4 Archers

 
Wandering Guard Table Ib,Mid-Wards and Outer Chambers in Castle of a Petty Lord

2d6	Lax	Normal	Wary	Alarmed!
2	Lord of the Castle	Lord of the Castle	Artisan	Artisan
3	Squire	1d6+1 Light Men At Arms	Lord of the Castle and 1d3 Knights	Child
4	Steward	Artisan	Child	Lord of the Castle and 1d6 Knights
5	Child	Steward	Steward	Steward
6	Laborer	Laborer	1d6 Archers	1d4+2 Archers
7	Washwoman	Lackey	Guard, heavily armed and armored	Squire
8	Artisan	Guard, lightly armed and armored	1d6+1 Light Men at Arms	1d6+1 Light Men at Arms
9	Mason	Mason	Mason	1d6+1 Heavy Men at Arms
10	Turnkey	Child	Laborer	Lady of the Castle and 1d4 Knights
11	1d4 Light Men at Arms	Turnkey	Lady of the Castle and 1d6 Archers	Turnkey&1d6 Men at Arm
12	Lady of the Castle	Lady of the Castle and Lightly Armed Guard	Turnkey	Mason

 
Wandering Guard Table Ic, Inner Ward and Inner Chambers

2d6	Lax	Normal	Wary	Alarmed!
2	Lord of the Castle	Sergeant at Arms and 1d4 Ligh t Men at Arms	Sergeant at Arms and 1d4 Heavy Men at Arms	Child
3	Artisan	1d4 Heavy Men at Arms	Artisan	Artisan
4	Sergeant at Arms	Lord of the Castle	Laborer	Laborer
5	Steward	Steward	Lord of the Castle and 1d4 Knights	Steward & 1d4 Heavy Men At Arms
6	Laborer	Laborer	1d6 Heavy Men at arms	Lord of the Castle,1d4 Knights and 2d6 Heavy Men at Arms
7	Child	Guard, lightly armed and armored	Knight and Squire	1d6+1 Heavy Men At Arms
8	Page	Child	1d6+1 Light Men At Arms	2d6 Light Men At Arms
9	Squire	Artisan	Child	Sergeant at Arms and 1d4 Knights
10	Turnkey	Lady of the Castle and Heavily Armed and Armored Guard	Lady of the Castle and 1 Knight	Lady of the Castle and 1d3 Knights
11	1d3 Light Men At Arms	Turnkey	Steward & 1 Knight	Turnkey & 1d6 men at Arms
12	Lady of the Castle	1d4 Light Men at Arms	Turnkey	Lady of the Castle

A Turnkey will have 2 or 3 HD and a set of keys that will open any door or lock in the castle eon a roll of 1-4 in 6.  He will typically be wearing a Gambseon and have a club. If he has time and the castle eis Wary or Alarmed he will grab a helmet and a morningstar.


A Squire will be a 1st level Cavalier in normal and Lax situations he will be unarmored and have himself a Bilbo or Dagger as as arms.  Given time he will armor up as a Knight.

A Guard will have 2 HD and be lightly armored with a Light Helmet most of the time and armed with a spear or club. If the castles wary or Alarmed the Guard will be wearing a Maille Coat and have a Heater Shield.

Laborers such as carpenters are often busty in a castle, one will also find weavers, bearers, and cooks among this category.

Artisans are masons, engineers, visiting portrait artists and sculptors. artisans will be unarmored and poorly armed.

A Steward will typically be a mature knight serving in there administration of the castle. He will be lightly armed and rumored (if at all) unless the castle is Wary or Alarmed and then he will fetch Byrnie and his old sword.

The lord of the castle will typically be unarmored or lightly armored in lax or normal conditions, given the chance he will don his best armor and grab his best weapons when the situation turned for the worse.

The lady of the castle will typically be unarmed (save for a dagger) and unarmored but many a lord will still see his lady has some armor and a sword of some sort on hand should she need it.
Castle Guard (and other) Reaction Table


Castle Guard (and other) Reaction Table

2d6 roll	Lax	Normal	Wary	Alarmed!
2	Hostile, raise alarm	Hostile	Hostile	Hostile
3	Hostile	Hostile raise Alarm	Hostile	Hostile
4	Neutral	Hostile	Hostile	Hostile
5	Neutral	Neutral	Hostile raise alarm	Hostile
6	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Hostile
7	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Hostile rasie alarm
8	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral
9	Friendly	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral
10	Friendly	Friendly	Neutral	Neutral
11	Friendly	Friendly	Friendly	Friendly
12	Friendly	Friendly	Friendly	Friendly

Each round of combat there in a 4 in 6 chance someone will raise the alarm (i.e. alert status will move form Lax to Normal, to Wary, to Alarmed!)

when the reaction tabel above indicates raise alarm those encountered will attemptto raisee the alarm with a 5 in 6 chance per round of being successful. If successful there is doube normal chance of an additional encounter in 1d4 rounds.

Neutral Guards may stand their ground and challenge strangers but will not necassarily raise the alarm in Lax or Normal Circumstance.

Hostile Guards will raise an alarm over immediate attack in Lax or Normal Situations.

Friendly Guards may offer bribes if in Wary or Alarmed circumstances to avoid a fight.