Take-aways from running quick pick-up games

Occasionally, when I have a free-ish evening and the urge to play, I run an impromptu pick-up game over at the OSR discord server. The first time I ran the Secret Hide-Out of Glaxorzis, that Sorcerous Creep! for a party of three players, the second time The Outpost of Stone & Silver for a single player controlling two characters, and the most recent game was a delve into A Single Tomb, Unplundered for three players.

The games were all ran on a super short notice – announced circa 30 minutes before starting time (the server has a pick-up-gamer role you can ping).

The setup is quite simple, so that we can get to the good stuff right away:

1. Searchers of the Unknown

a. Again and again, SotU proves to be the best lingua franca minimalist D&D for such quick games. If a person has played any kind of D&D, they are able to pick up right away. Of course, on the DM-side, it requires an experienced judge, who already has a bunch of rulings and tools and procedures memorized.

b. A little extra thing I introduced this time was MAGIC WORD based spellcasting. It worked quite well, although no combination spells were attempted, only single-component magics.

2. Pregens!

a. Pregens are a must for such quick games. I guess you can also do the Flailsnails thing and let the players bring in any character they want (esp. if the “setting” is kitchensink), BUT, and this is my next point:

b. PREGENS ARE THE SETTING! A lot can be conveyed about the game’s broader setting by the roster of pregens. If the pregens are “elf magic-user”, “dwarf fighter” and “human thief”, that’s a vanilla D&D sort of world. SotU doesn’t use classes, so instead I add a randomly generated two-word description to each character: “ruthless hero”, “vampiric acolyte”, “wild nymph”. They confer the vague vibe of the setting, help the players get into it + I also let them use these descriptors for in-game bonuses and in-setting knowledge. The equipment list is another setting-conferring element (“broadsword” and/or “energy rifle”? “chain armor” or “Kevlar vest”?)

c. In case of character death, left-over pregens can be used as backup.

3. Dungeon crawling (using a dungeon I already have), starting at the entrance

a. That’s where it’s at.

b. I use my own dungeons, so prep is minimal.  

4. Short session, aiming for 90 minutes (usually ends up being closer to 100-120)

a. Enough time to crawl through 4-5 rooms, have a fight, screw around with some stuff. You have to run a tight ship, sometimes cut down on random encounters to highlight the keyed stuff, but, overall, a satisfying amount of fun game stuff can happen in this timeframe.

5. Tech: Discord voice chat, tldraw for shared whiteboard 

tldraw has everything you need to quickly map stuff, record marching order, etc. Very handy tool.

Low-level games are fun. But so are mid-level games! This third time around, I went for levels 4-5 and gave the pregens more power and some cool toys. Good change of pace.

Below is how I explain the rules and the list of pregens from the third game:

Twenty-one eldritch dungeons...

I finally updated the list of dungeons I've written over the time. The tally is 21! That includes one-page dungeons, pocketmod-sized dungeons, 8-page booklet dungeons, a "megadungeon" (three levels so far...)... I've ran 10 out of the 21. What makes me particularly glad is that other people have used my dungeons in their games!

All of them are available on the blog as free PDFs.

You can always find the list here.

So, as of March 16, 2026, in chronological order:

• The Belly of Gargantuel (mini-dungeon inside the rotting carcass of a sea monster)
• The Chaldean Archives (30 minute dungeon, set in Assyrian ruins)
• The Golem Master's Workshop (30 minute dungeon, fun "haunted house")
• Temple of the Berserkers (minimalist OD&D fantasy adventure!)
• Outpost of Stone & Silver (OD&D/Delving Deeper science fantasy adventure!)
• Maze of Amazement & Death (minimalist OD&D/Delving Deeper dungeon, 61 rooms!)
• Bloodsoaked Gem Caverns (system-agnostic OSR dungeon, set in an abandoned mine!)
• Cave of Trials (a prehistoric initiatory dungeon for OSR games!)
• Nest of the Circuit Roaches (small system-agnostic OSR sci-fi horror dungeon!)
• Parallel Dungeons (a dimension-shifting OSR adventure, three dungeons in one!)
• Temple of the Forgotten God (16-room OSR dungeon, written as a 1-hour exercise)
• The Bleak Corridors (15-room OSR factory dungeon with a steampunk/victoriana vibe)
• Oracle of the Laughing Prophet (small 6-room lair)
• Delver's Delight (ongoing megadungeon thing, currently 3 levels completed)
• The Red Bastion (15-room OSR dungeon, the map from my GIMP mapping tutorial keyed)
• Hole of the Goblin King (hand-written one-page dungeon, OSR)
• The Dark Keep in the Snow (snowed-in yeti monastery, OSR dungeon)
• Secret Hide-Out of GLAXORZIS, that Sorcerous CREEP! (minimalist 3-level OSR dungeon that fits in a pocketmod)
• Underground Station, Long Abandoned (OSR science fantasy, post-apoc, abandoned subway hub station)
• Wreck Worship (a sea & salt themed cult dungeon, OSR)
• A Single Tomb, Unplundered... (Egyptian-style tomb adventure, for OSRIC)

Have fun! Let me know if you run something.

[Dungeon] A Single Tomb, Unplundered... (Egyptian-style tomb for levels 4-6)

There are many Egyptian-style tomb dungeons like this, but this one is mine... 17 rooms, one level, I think it turned out quite good. 8 pages for the main text, so you can print it as a booklet (but print the cover on a separate sheet).

I wrote the bulk of this back in 2023, but somehow never got around to share it. I used OSRIC for the stocking. And I wanted to do something NOT for levels 1-3.

GRAB THE PDF HERE

The Bloodsoaked Gem Caverns in action

Vance A from Leicester's Ramble ran my dungeon, Bloadsoaked Gem Caverns. You can read the actual play report here! 

They used Shadowdark. The PCs definitely lucked out on the Reaction rolls!

The dungeon can be found here. It's an abandoned mine (overtaken by monsters) that the party can explore and even start exploiting.

[Dungeon] Wreck Worship - a sea & salt themed cult dungeon

Here's the hide-out of a shipwreck-worshipping cult of weirdos! They even have their own lighthouse to lure sailors onto the reefs. The dungeon is this best situated on a seaside cliff. 

19 keyed areas, minimal keys. Print on two pages or even on a single page. Stats are for Searchers of the Unknown, so, you know, D&D.

There are stairs to a potential level 2 (I envision it to be a Deep One cave?), but who knows if that ever gets created.

The lighthouse is not described in detail here. I imagine it to be a tall tower without an overground entrance, only reachable from below (or if somebody manages to scale the walls).

Actually, now I have TWO sea-cult dungeons. I'm gonna post the other one later as well, because it's also good, plus it was playtested in The World of Tomorrow campaign. But there is some overlap between them, so I cannot just connect them together.

The process was simple:

1. I picked 8 monsters that fit thematically, put them on the wandering encounters list, and also used that list to stock the monster rooms.
2. I rolled up the basic structure and contents from the Atelier Clandestin Sandbox Generator (pretty sweet book!)
3. I re-rolled results that didn't quite fit (like overlong corridors) and then modified everything on the go to make it fit better with the theme

GRAB THE PDF HERE

Have fun.

What do I love in dungeons?

A classic element or two... Idols with gems for eyes. Secret passage behind a waterfall. Statues coming alive. Torch sconce that opens a secret door. Eyes of a portrait that follow you – animate art object or peepholes for a hidden observer? Okay, so most classic elements are about EYES and SECRETS and STATUES. Crystals, too. Crystals, fungi, tentacles. Classic archetypical dungeon stuff that gives you a buzz when it shows up. We don't get to play often. So don't skimp on the classics.

Variety and reveals. A big change in the dungeon is always cool. Two thirds of the dungeon might be dwarven-engineered corridors. But then you suddenly transition into a large natural cave area. Or maybe a section is flooded. Somehow a flooded area is the biggest fear or many players – it is a gamechanger, your lights and movement are not as you are used to.

ROPE PLAY. A good dungeon always provides opportunity for rope play. And masks! Uh... I mean. Yeah, the dungeon must have places where players can satisfy their urges to fix ropes to each other. Grappling hooks, basic mountaineering.

Verticality. This ties in with the rope play aspect, but not only. I love balconies, overhands, BRIDGES, esp. rope bridges, stairs, ramps. When the way forward is also above or below. And the opportunity to spy a place before reaching it.

Which also leads to cool architecture. You don’t have to make every room special, but rectangular boxes become boring quickly. A couple of pillars, niches, platforms. Think about the ceiling, is it flat, domed, vaulted? Are all doors rectangular slabs of wood? Vault doors. Airlocks. Arched passageways. Dunno, horizontal slits for all those slithering creatures.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to put this in writing quickly.

Obligatory links to the OSR’s classic posts, Goblin Punch’s Dungeon Checklist and Grognardia’s Old School Dungeon Design.

 

don’t forget,

ROLE PLAY IS ROPE PLAY

and the game is the door game

AD&D DMG, p. 68

[Random table] A winged amazon with six-shooters riding a pegasus and more sick airbrushed panel van art pieces

Dunno, I guess roll on this when you airbrush your van or get your next tattoo OR JUST RUN A GAME AND GENERATE THE CHARACTERS WITH THIS, GO BIG OR GO HOME.

The Hero is...

	Appearance	Type	Weapon	Mount/Ride
1	buff	amazon	crystal sword	pegasus
2	sexy	barbarian	moon staff	unicorn
3	masked	paladin	lightning wand	Harley Davidson
4	lion-maned	sorceress	machine gun	warhorse
5	winged	wizard	pair of six-shooters	sabretooth tiger
6	golden-skinned	supersoldier	katana	dragon
7	bionic	princess	battle axe	woolly mammoth
8	mighty-thewed	skylord	laser rifle	giant eagle
9	armored	angel	rocket launcher	antigrav skiff
10	chain bikini/loincloth	cyborg	psychic enhancer	nuclear warhead

 

Vanquishing…

	Appearance	Type	Minions	Animals
1	skull-faced	giant	zombies	serpent
2	one-eyed	tyrant	skeletons	vulture
3	undead	high priestess	mutants	scorpion
4	half-*Animal	cult leader	*Animal-men	fish
5	*Animal-headed	lich	harpies	frog
6	oozeified	warlock	mindless fanatics	roach
7	flaming	godling	fungoids	worm
8	cthulhoid	alien	super	spider
9	tentacle	robot	imps	shark
10	serpentine	demon	goblins	bull

 

Against the backdrop…

	Backdrop	Color/Pattern
1	erupting volcano	rainbow-hued
2	jagged rocks	shimmering
3	sunset	orange
4	clouds & mists	purple
5	cosmic vistas	green
6	lush jungle	translucent
7	post-apocalyptic wasteland	aquamarine
8	megapolis skyline	silver
9	ringed planet	black
10	fetid swamp	yellow

 

(Images from Cvlt Nation)

Hand-drawn deck for Scoundrel, the solitaire dungeon crawling game

Happy new year!

Yesterday I played a lot of Scoundrel. Scoundrel is a wonderful little solitaire dungeon crawling game, created by Zach Gage and Kurt Bieg. You can find the rules here (free PDF). The game is played with a standard deck of cards. E.g., a 10 of Spades is a monster of level 10, an 8 of Diamonds is a weapon with 8 damage, and so on. I drew my own minideck, with little images for all the monsters and items.

Download the deck from here,

or from itch.io (it's free, of course),

cut it up & play!!

Have fun!

On the itch page, you can also download a template for you to draw your own deck.

And here's a list of the cards:

	♦ (Diamonds) Weapons	♥ (Hearts) Health	♠ (Spades) Monsters 1	♣ (Clubs) Monsters 2
2	Dagger	Bandages	Skeleton	Goblin
3	Battle Axe	Soothing Ointment	Pixie	Cultist
4	Bow	8-hour Sleep	Ghoul	Mimic
5	Trident	Potion of Lesser H.	Killer Bees	Fishfolk
6	Scimitar	Potion of Greater H.	Giant Snake	Chaos Dwarf
7	Magic Wand	Antidote	Plant Monster	Moon Elf
8	Blunderbuss	Meditation	Smilodon	Ooze
9	Sword of Legends	Divine Intervention	Werewolf	Troll
10	Laser Rifle	Regeneration Vat	Mummy	Rival adventurers
J = 11	-	-	Ghost	Giant
Q = 12	-	-	Beholder	Evil High Priestess
K = 13	-	-	Lich	Hydra
A = 14	-	-	Elder Dragon	Mindflayer