Megadungeon Practical Example 2: Rough Maps of Levels and Contents

In the first post in this series, I gave an example of how to come up with a basic concept for a mega dungeon giving effect to various themes. Today, we move on to the subject of general, rough mapping of contents - a bird’s eye view of the main areas within the dungeon itself, along with ideas about certain key inhabitants/factions for each, which will provide a guide when keying the dungeon room by room later. 

This exercise is partly brainstorming - free associating and letting the results just flow out without too much conscious filtering, influenced of course by the overall dungeon concept and its central themes. It is therefore loose, sketchy, and not to be taken as permanent - everything is subject to change once keying proper begins. 

My own preference is to take a blank piece of paper and just scrawl a few largish circles (say 4-6 in number), with each circle representing a subdivision of the level proper, in the region of 5-10 rooms on average. This provides the level with a very basic shape that can be properly fleshed out during the process of detailed mapping/keying. It also provides space in which to jot down ideas about contents.

For the purposes of this illustration, I will just do one level of Lost Eskinoot, Palace of the Artificiers, but in reality I would do all the dungeon levels, one after another, in an A4 or A3 pad. The advantage of doing this kind of rough, 'ideas mapping' for all levels before beginning the detailed mapping is that it allows you to spot links and points of commonality or divergence between locations on different layers. ('Aha, maybe the orcs on level 1 are actually the servants of the hags on level 3', etc.)

The levels of Lost Eskinoot, Palace of the Artificiers are concentric rings, so with that in mind, it's pretty simple to come up with a loose ring-shaped set of sub-divisions, with ideas about contents:

Going clockwise, we begin with the Aviary - a parkland containing many automata of birds, some of which can fly and others not. They are worshipped by a cult of effete aesthetes who marvel at their finery and the cleverness of their designs, and who have constructed an elaborate, ritualistic faith accordingly. Also present in the area is an eccentric wizard who is attempted to fashion apparatus to power flight. 

Next is the Forge, where the artificers' servants heated metal for their constructs - probably not from just one forge, but many. These servants are still there (perhaps pech-like creatures commanded by a salamander as their master?). Also present are dweomerlings, formed from the slag and molten metal and magical run-off present in the area.

Next to the forge are the Kilns, where the artificiers made their clay and porcelain. Their servants here were mephits, who remain to this day, and who have since developed a complex society with different ranks and roles, under the rulership of a Sultan. I imagine they are rivals of the servants in the forge, and exist in a state of 'cold' war with them. 

Onwards to the Water contraptions - a series of canals, pools, cisterns, pipes, and so on which the artificiers used for recondite practices. Now home to a gang of vodyanoi and their underlings - water weirds? (These might be a bit too powerful for level 1 of a dungeon; I did mention everything would be subject to later revision.) 

And finally we come to the Statues - another parkland containing many hundreds of stone statues, each depicting an artificier in commemoration after his or her death. A pleasant and extensive place, filled with rose gardens, willow trees, lawns and wildflower meadows, it is now home to a group of lotus-eater-style decadents, as well as scholars and sages studying these reminders of the artificiers' greatness. 

We now have in place a basic structure in which to work when mapping the level for real. The locations and inhabitants suggested above will not be followed slavishly and there is plenty of scope for revision. But they provide the springboard to start the process of keying.