Unique, old school, creative, dank – five words that describe Dungeon Builder! Dungeon Builder is a dungeon crawl generator, which leads to unique encounters experienced through the ease of an old school tri-fold pamphlet.
Dungeon Builder uses a basic map and key system that allows characters to explore a premade dungeon. What makes Dungeon Builder unique, is that each room key corresponds to one or more lists of words – which are rolled on – to generate the room encounter.
Encounter Words
Each room in the dungeon holds a key – three numbers in order. These numbers refer back to a specific word list. As players enter a room, words are rolled on a list, to determine what is encountered in that room.
For example – a room has a key of 1-2-1. The first word is rolled from Word List One. The second word is rolled from Word List 2. And the third word is rolled from Word List One again. After rolling all three words, the results might be, witch – fangs – rusty. And so, an encounter is created from the rolls.
You enter the room. Sitting on a chair over a bubbling cauldron, is a hunched figure in a tall black hat. You can’t see its face, but it’s scratching its head. It turns, and opens its mouth in surprise – startled! Two glaring fangs protrude from the figure’s open mouth, as it tries to piece together what is going on as it sees you.
Another example room key might be 2-1-3. The results of these rolls might be, Deep Lake – Sword – Mind Sharing. Another encounter can be created from the rolls.
An eerie breeze greets you as you enter the room. In front of you, is a lake. Its waters are shockingly clear. You can see how deep the depths of this lake goes – and it is deep! However, something else catches your eye. At the very bottom, glowing, is a pale blue sword. As soon as your eyes fall upon the sword, you feel a presence in your mind…”release me” it says, “release me…”
As you can see, the different room keys provided in Dungeon Builder create nearly endless possibilities of encounters and challenges for a quick to play dungeon experience!
Playing Dungeon Builder
Dungeon Builder was built as a challenge for the Pamphlet Dungeon Jam on itch.io. Dungeon Builder is a simple and quick way to have a unique, challenging, and old school dungeon experience!
One of my favorite things about playing with Dungeon Builder has been the creative challenge that comes with building an encounter based on three seemingly random words. It’s a fun exercise, especially if you are dungeon master for your own games. It has also lead to some really funny, and very clever encounters!
I hope you enjoy using the Dungeon Builder tri-fold pamphlet. If you do, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below or on twitter, let me know some of the funny, clever, or crazy word combinations you encounter while playing!
Paper Dice Games 