So, if keying the entirety of The Maddening Corridors of Nuclear Chaos is not really a viable option, what can we do with it?
Well, we can cut it up and use a part of it as a complete dungeon!
I divided up The Maddening Corridors map into 36 quadrants, took a random one (by rolling two six-siders), cut it into half, edited out some errant corridors and superfluous exits; and ended up with a 60-ish room dungeon.
The next step of the exercise was to key it. I followed the basic procedure of my two previous OD&D efforts (Temple of the Berserkers and Outpost of Stone & Silver): stocked it quickly using Delving Deeper (made even quicker through Inspiration Pad Pro automation), then edited as needed...
You can fit 61 rooms on a single page... Of course, the key becomes very minimal, but still, I think this is playable. See for yourselves:
Download PDF with map & key!
Enjoy!
UPDATE 2025: A Level 3 Dork turned this into The Lair of the Serpent Men! Compare & contrast to see how far a little re-skinning can take you in making a dungeon your own.
This worked out really good for our last few sessions. I made some changes to fit our setting and we had a blast. Would you mind If I share my altered version on my blog with full credit & link of course. Much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Glad you and your group had fun. Of course, go ahead and share it. And please drop a link here too, I would like to see how you modified it and I can add it to the post.
DeleteHere is the post & link. https://level3dorkblog.substack.com/p/the-lair-of-the-serpent-men
DeleteThe honey took center stage of this dive for my group. We had a gut busting time. I didn't make too many changes. Just enough to suite the setting. Thank you once again!
I think this is a great example of how just a little bit of re-skinning can go a LONG way to make a dungeon fit into your setting.
DeleteMy version: "Sack of black dragon scales (800
gp) guarded by 4 Lizard men"
Your version: "Sack of black wyvern scales (600
gp) guarded by 4 Serpent men"
And there you go, Conanesque sword & sorcery vibes increased!