Dead Malls as Dungeons

I think it's important, in these trying times, to stay in touch with folks, and to be creative. Looks like Twitter is finally dead. FB is an existential nightmare, IG the same. I got rid of the TikToks, and now I can't get it back on the phone so I'm bummed about all the funny weejios but hey man, things are tough all over. SO: here I am back on the blog scene. Enjoy, I guess.

I was thinking about the general decline of Empires, as one does. And coincidentally, I've been reading 

 "Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet" by Will Hunt. It's quite a fun read: has bits of New York transit system, the Parisian Catacombs, cave systems in Europe, subterranean cities in the Middle East. Good imagination juice for D&D peeps. And it got me thinkin' about how the dead spaces of today and yesterday will be viewed. Real estate ain't cheap, these days. We have empty spaces in our downtown area of Frederick, Maryland where I work. There are tax incentives to letting properties go unused (which is a community disaster, but anyways) and rents are pretty high and so: empty buildings.

ABANDON MALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE

And what could be emptier, deader, less interesting than a former industrial/commercial/social space that Amazon has obliterated into obsolescence? Defunct shopping zones? Why Dead Malls, of course!

My own mythical underworld where our group often consensually hallucinates is a vast, sprawling, dimly lit nightmare of electrical conduits, leaky pipes, and obsolete technology. This is shoe-horned on top of mutants (a la Gamma World 1e) and space weirdos (from Star Frontiers and Star Wars). Technology exists from the ancients, but the fantasy-themed PCs don't often know how to use it unless they are familiar with it. Elfs, dwarfs, goblins coexist with robots and clones and laser rifles. I was looking at a map of the Parisian Catacombs - at least the ones that are readily accessible to tourists - and I grokked how regular they are in some places. Blocky, chunky, orderly. And sprawling and groping in other places. It reminded me of every Atari Adventure and C64 goldbox dungeon I played as a lad. Do you know Telengard? Of course, of course. But I digress.

And I was struck at how the Dead Malls of today can nicely accommodate dungeons! I think I saw this episode of The Last of Us the other night with my wife and the young protagonist and her friend are wandering around this dead mall that just so happens to have electricity and it's chock full of cool stuff to play with, and of course there's zombies.

So I'm going to put on the Great List of Unfinished Projects: squishing dungeons into the footprints of Dead Malls. We have the Francis Scott Key mall here in Frederick. But from my youth in Miami, Florida I can recall the Midway Mall, International Mall, Dade Mall. Probably all now gone. White Flint Mall was torn down a few years ago. A useful feature is that you can sort of stock some areas based on the store-key available in some maps? I guess?

Anyways, we'll see how it goes.

Here's a link to my dead malls Pinterest board that I've been nursing for like 15 years or so.  
 

The Sea Caves of Aubergiole

I found this file on my hard-drive a few days ago, and since I will never ever finish the project (and in fact I don't recall many of the ideas) I give it to the internet in goodwill. To each, as they say, according to their need. This was probably right after the publication of my solo gamebook. I think it's very clearly inspired by the D&D Expert module "Lathan's Gold" which was an epic "sailing around adventuring" solo module. Grand in scope and procedural possibility but sort of tangled up with weird mass combat mechanisms. Pretty sure it was conceived right around the heyday of the Google+ share-and-share alike era. I kinda dig the vibe, but the only thing that stands out to me particularly is the random starting entry mechanic, which is based in part on your Luck modifier (this is DCC obviously). I think I was also inspired by "Barbarian Prince" which is a long-time favorite of mine, and still available for free.

Also, I think I stole the Secrets idea from Kabuki Kaiser's "Mad Monks of Kwantoom" in which certain play experiences would prompt you to read appendices at the back of the gamebook and thus open up new ways to play, spells, PC races and options, and lore about the world of the game...

Way too ambitious in scope, in reflection. This was back when I thought fun ideas about tabletop RPGs, or at least read other peoples' fun ideas and synthesized things into something of my own. Now, I just play Skyrim with like 500 mods...

"Sea Caves initial entries the City".rtf

Oubliette of the Fishfolk

Cities:

1.       Aubergiole - Innsmouth Equivalent from French Inn (‘Auberge’) and Maw (‘Gueule’).  Market, Docks, Tavern, Supplies,

2.       Visulax – Specularum Equivalent: Docks, Market, Tavern

3.       Aredeth Bay – Pirate Port

4.       Helleborine – Coastal Megalopolis (off limits due to Zombie Plague)

5.       Marbourg – Seaside Town, nearby River (off limits due to Zombie Plague)

 

Islands:

1.       Three Harpies Key – Gate to Lightless Realms, Other Universes

2.       Meridot’s Cay- The Wizard Meridot’s Tower

3.       Hyomand Rock – The Oubliette of the Fishmen

4.       Forlorn Island – Giant Monsters, Occasional Big Treasures, Death for Big Parties

5.       Hammer Island (Home to Aredeth Bay) – Small Town, Pirate Wizard Patron

6.       Bloodrock Plinth – Empty, Granite and Basalt, Gribb Roosts

7.       The Island of the Amazonians (Mountain Range)

Locations:

1.       Sail upriver to near Halthrag Keep, attacked by Jackal Bandits

2.       The Howling Whirlpool of Awfulness, ship destroyed, flotsam!

3.       Jungle of Teth

4.       The Crystalline Spire of Meridot

Remember to give lots of opportunities for Luck Use, Saves, and Especially Thief Skill Checks

Random Non-Thief Character Starts

(for the start of the game, use 1d12 plus the Luck Modifier.  Pre-generated Characters Will Start at Specific Entries in the Book)

-3	GALLOWS!	SQUARE
-2	To the JAIL, BAD FINE, MAYBE DEATH	TRIAL
-1	INNSMOUTH TAINT: Thank the Gods it is morning, now.  You find yourself at the edge of a long and lonely dock in the city of Aubergiole, neck, hands and feet itching.  Your eyes are watering and your head hurts.  You have fought the overpowering urge to jump into the water and swim away since being awoken around 2 bells, after strange dreams of vast cities through which you floated.  As the sun rises, you feel somewhat better and resolve to take some aid to help you sleep, tonight.  A skilled thief like you can’t operate well when fighting urges like these! Looking down at the end of the barnacle-encrusted dock, you notice an Intricately Carved Tetrahedron, possibly a fishing weight or lure.  You may take it if you like.  Then, turn to DOCKS	DOCKS
0	SHANGHAI’ED AND CAST AWAY	ISLAND (Lonely)
1	SHIPWRECKED	ISLAND (Random)
2	KIDNAPPED AT SEA!	TEMPLE ISLAND
3	PLAGUE SHIP!	AT SEA(Random)/RANDOM DOCKS
4	In town, down on your Luck (-2 Luck), Gambling debt
5	On a Mission – Recover a Captive (Randomly Determined – Attached to Secrets!)
6	FIRST MATE, MUTINEERS – SHIP WITH POOR MORALE
7	On a Pilgrimage – See a Sight
8	Hunting Party – Fight a Monster
9	Cartographer for a Lord – Visit 4 different islands and map 3 locations of each (cities do not count!)	VOLCANO ISLAND
10	Free Agent – No particular Quest, 350 GP in Savings
11	SECRET AGENT! , Minor Sum of Gold for Expenses 1000XP, Kill the Bandit King	BANK
12	MAP TO TREASURE, TAVERN, No Money	TAVERN
13	MINOR TREASURE, MARKET, Skull Chime	MARKET
14	FIRST MATE, DEAD CAPTAIN – SHIP WITH GOOD MORALE	ISLAND (Random)
15	LAWYER’S OFFICE – ESTATE OF WEALTHY TRADING CAPTAIN UNCLE, FREE SHIP	DOCKS

 

Straight Thieves Begin in a Spot Determined by their Alignment, and Receive a Mission Based upon it, if they like.  Else, they can use the Random Chart and adjust the result depending upon

ALIGNMENT	START LOCATION	MISSION
Lawful	Hyomand Rock, Shoreline	Acquire The Prayers of Hydra Volume 4, Deliver to Boss in Aubergiole (or take the 4th Oath!)
Neutral	Aredeth Bay, Pirate Port	Ring the Storm Bell at the Top of Hyomand Rock, Watch What Happens (Or Destroy It, Better!)
Chaotic	Hyomand Rock, Acolyte’s Chamber	Assassinate the Priestess of Hydra, She Keeps the Undersea Peoples In Check (Or Assume the Priesthood Yourself, with 4th Oath and the Rod of Command)

 

SECRETS!!!

A.      Random Aubergiole House/Basements/Treasures/Monsters

B.      The Storm Bell – Rang It

C.      The Storm Bell – Cracked It

D.      Deep One Hybrid Class

E.       Eagle Eyrie on Meridot’s Cay

F.       The Dead Cyclops Underwater at Hyomand Rock

G.     The Dead Cyclops Chained to Forlorn Island

H.      Halthrag’s Circle On Hyomand Rock

I.        Ifrit’s Pizzle, Drink Recipe and Spell

J.        JaleBeard, the Pirate Wizard Patron

K.      On Kelpies

L.       On Lesthirash, the Wasp God

M.    On Merfolk

N.     On Nixies

O.     The Orpiment Skull Magic Item

P.      Pendlebrook – A Pleasant Spot

Q.     Queen Leonora of Hamathrace

R.      Raiders of Rayloon

S.       Summon Tentacular Horror

T.       Tcho Tcho PC Class

U.     Ulfire Mistress Patron

V.      Vecnull’s Revenge (A ship, The Cyberlich’s Flagship)

W.    Wizardarium Gate to Calabraxis

X.      X The Mysterious (A Sage)

Y.       Yeoman’s Bow Magic item

Z.       Zither of Antipathy Magic Item

 

NEW MONSTERS

Raylooni Raiders (Albinos, Tall, Thin, Debased) – Stout Ships, Low Damage

Cyborg Corsairs – Very Stout Ships, Somewhat Damaging

Deep One Hybrid Pirates – Weak Ships, Weak Damage

Tcho Tcho

Tentacular Horrors

Ocean Sprites, Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic

Kelpie/Seaweed Folk

Pirahna Birds

Amazonians

Island Sprites

 

 

PREGENERATED CHARACTERS/QUEST

Nithan Knifeknot – Thief, Lawful, Level  2 (Bring 10,000 in Gold to Bad Guy on the West Edge of Aredeth Bay by Day 30 to rescue your beloved Kelani). Swimming and Diving Skills

Murlo – Fighter, Lawful, Level 2 (Destroy a 5-Headed Hydra on Forlorn Island, Day 30). Commander Skills.

Diego Panselfaust – Male Halfling, Neutral, Level 2 (Take an Immortal Bride by Day 30).  Ladykiller Skills

Holga Vohrnknicht – Female Dwarf, Neutral, Level 2 (Find a place for the Clan to Live – there are 2 acceptable spots 1 on , Day 30).  Stoneworker Skills.

Brother Emmerit Lutz – Cleric, Chaotic, Level 2 – Find a New Home for Temple of Lesthirash the Wasp God.  Lore Skills.  Sacrifice a Ship to the Whirlpool and Find the Location of the Wasp Temple.  25 Days

Yesorian, Wizard, Chaotic, Level  2 – Acquire the Rod of Undeath, 50 Days, or Die!  (Very difficult for a Wizard but fairly simple for a Thief!)

 

THIEVES FOR HIRE (Special Thiefly Rules; You may hire a thief on the crew of your boat, but each skill roll calls for d6xrate fees, and each thief can be killed by monsters in landing parties.  Some locks cannot be picked by NPC thieves )

Aram, Barjum, Blastin, Corexin, Duglash, Efrim, Odess, Pyotr, Alenk, Gyurtom, Hirelm, Inigo, Jakes, Melporine, Nidora, Olegh, Trendio

SPECIAL HIRELINGS (For example, as in Barbarian Prince)

Wives/Husbands

Sages

Monsters

A Robot

Familiars/Demons/Imps/Quasits (for example, Spellvexit)

Sailing/Supplies/Ship’s Crews/Landing Parties/Morale (based on Personality)

 

Random Treasure Entries are given with the expected roll of dice, 1d3-1d100 (with 0 as a possible result); some areas will increase the given +d for monsters and some will decrease 

Gongfarmers on Sea-Devil's Island

Inspired by this podcast - Christian B. has an entertaining and edifying and justice-aware view of the ways that business and corruption drive our lives.

So: the Dungeon Crawl Classics rulebook has a 0-level starting occupation that is a pretty interesting in that it's literally the shittiest job you ever heard of: Gongfarmer. What is a gongfarmer? well, it's someone who empties chamberpots and collects shit and piss for other things. I think historically speaking it was tanneries that used piss and shit in an economical way. Turning shit and piss into money is a special kind of alchemy, I guess. So - the job sucks, but within the framework of DCC you leave it (assuming you survive your first adventure) and become an adventurer. But like, a REAL adventurer who already knows how to muck around in the shit-soaked underground and bring out a living.

Thereafter, all your occupational rolls - anything involving the collection of shit and piss and underground exploration and survival - are at d20 rather than the lowly d10 that an unskilled check would involve. Pretty broad, because there's a lot of shit and piss in the world, and a lot of terrible places to fuck around in.

Brings me back to the aforementioned podcast - so in the mid 1800's in the US - around the world, really - it was discovered that nitrogen found in guano of birds (and later bats) could be reliably transformed into fertilizer. I think you would be surprised at what a big deal this is, and what having reliable crop fertilizer does for a population of humans. It's pretty transformative.

And so, inevitably, capitalists, indutrialists, colonialists, and all the other worst sorts of entrepreneurs seized upon the notion of finding sea-bird infested islands and stripping them bare of everything. Well, not everything, but all the birdshit which was the important part.

This really happened, and as I drove in a mindless lull, listening to this young woman relate the tale of desperate men on a blazing hot, shit-soaked island in the Pacific, struggling against weather and famine and oppression and rats, I got a sense of what a REAL Gongfarmer's Adventure would look like - something like trying to take on The Isle of Dread (X1) but instead of a sword all you have is a trowel at first and maybe some Kuo-Toa, and Cthulhu rising out of the cyclopean depths at the end...

Anyways, it's a decent podcast and Busted Business Bureau is totally worth a subscribe.

INSERT NEW TABLE FOR GONGFARMER EQUIPMENT (A work in progress)

1. Shit-and-piss-proof boots

2. Canary in a cage (for deadly gas detection)

3. Umbrella/Umbrella hat for staving off the evil sun's hateful rays

4. UV50 protection sunscreen/paste/mud

5. Rusty pick (d6) - may cause disease on a critical

6. Rusty shovel (d8) - see 5 above

7. Guano-bag

8. Rat-poison pellets

9. Mermaid-resistant earplugs

10. Thick-soled leather knobbly-lugged climbing shoes

11. A rope with a lot of knots tied in it

12. Makeshift crampons

13. Hardtack/biscuits in a water-and-shit proof container

14. The nightshift has non-flame electric torches because the gas is explosive

15. Natural immunity or resistance to several terrible illnesses

BRIEF ADVENTURE FRAMEWORK

Island/Nautical

Terrible "employers" (really slavers) just begging for an ass-whooping

Deep-Ones/Kuo-Toa cultists lurking around constantly

Mermaids - I mean what horned-up, broke-ass, desperate shit-miner wouldn't be tempted by mermaid song?

Pan-Lung water dragons, tired of eating seabirds and seals

Maybe a shit-encrusted temple underneath a couple of tons of/layers of rock-hard guano

Deep-One gold artifacts here and there (but the tyrannical slavers who run the place want it for themselves)

A well-guarded and ugly (but fast and seaworthy) ship to get away in when the guano hits the fan

Finally, and most-dreadfully, the imminent arrival of Dagon/Hydra/Evil Neptune/Nodens/Cthulhu telegraphed by weird astronomical and weather events, and freaked-out birds and rats

Freebie Dungeon Challenge

So, here is the recent outputs of my ever-evolving dungeon generator code for Tablesmith. The idea is that you generate a big map. I use this ZORBUS map generator and also a local installation of Wizarddawn, mostly. Although I enjoy drawing maps, I find my own style of mapping is a little lame and IMHO dungeons ought to be the weirder the better, dig?

fixing to throw down a gauntlet. Are you an all-powerful demigod, or a scrub? Well? Which is it?

So, you make a vast, mostly lightless land. Then, if your players are brave (they are!) they agree to consensually hallucinate entry of their avatars into this perilous realm. If you the DM/Judge/Whatever are brave (you are!) you may try it like this:

You get your random map and have your mass-generator make you THREE different levels, slightly more dangerous than what you would feel comfortable with. Why? Because death is right around the corner. BUT, you don't look at the listings. Instead, you place each listing into a separate envelope. And you sit down to play. When the avatars go hence into the deeps, you have a player pick an envelope and you play the dungeon inside it, with the map you already made! You AND the players will have about as much awareness of what is going to happen... a kind of magic.

Your random encounter table ought to include some badass wizards, some crazy nasty dragons or near-dragon substitutes, friendly dungeon caretakers, a couple of settlements with some friend-able factions, and a fuck-tonne of treasure there for the taking, with plenty of things for each class to do. Unlocking locks, slaying beasts, turning undead, deciphering codes, tracking escapees, maps to follow, frenemies to make, and many many saving throws. So much treasure that you level up a lot, but dangerous enough to get that you die a lot if you fuck around and find out. And you have to get somewhere safe with the treasure to get your XP. Sprinkle around some easily defensible safe rooms with water and a toilet (I mean, why the fuck not?)

the pseudorandom lightless realm in question

I use the Moldvay random encounter method : every other turn roll a d6 and on a 1 you get an encounter moving toward the party from some short distance away (2d6x10") is how I interpret it. If you wanted to really and truly up the ante, you could have a random encounter happen on a 1 or a 2. You are free to make the random encounter table to your liking, because that will take some of the pressure off of you to totally think on your feet - you can stock it with RP opportunities, combat, horrid events, mysterious clues, helpless supplicants, or faction leaders for players to align with. Whatever you want the mostly flavor of the thing to be, the Random Encounters is where you really customize it. And feel free to slightly modify the weird entries if they don't suit your sensibilities but be fair and consistent or some players will catch on and get cranky (in my experience). You can pick some core beasties for the level, a couple of humanoid factions, and keep an eyeball on one of your bigger rooms for a possible small settlement.

EXAMPLE NOAH'S RANDOM ENCOUNTER TABLE (2d6):

2: A BADASS RANDOM WIZARD and ENTOURAGE (have these generated previously)

3: FRIENDLY NATIVE (some talky, wimpy race of under-dwellers, plenty of food and rough gear to trade, possible henchpersons or replacement PCs)

4: NPC Party (again, generate randomly, I usually have like 6 pregenerated parties on a separate sheet with their alignments and gear and some motivations)

5: swarm of beasties, small and irritating

6: pack of beasties, few but dangerous

7: wandering beasty, large but not a top-level predator (see below)

8: strange possibly dangerous environmental disruption (lights out/on, noxious gas, gravity fluctuations, chaos magical flux, mass-migration of vermin)

9: mindless undead or automaton (I like robots, because genre purity is dumb)

10: ethereal undead (gotta keep clerics useful, too)

11: random unguarded treasure but slightly hidden (in addition to whatever might already be generated in the room)

12: A Dragon. Whatever that means (I like Manticores, myself). Run for your life, or stay and get trounced or possibly make a powerful ally.

I include, as an attached file, one of these that I have made this morning. I challenge you to use it, and I will think of a prize if you let me know how it goes. I am thinking of making a donation of some copies of my gamebook to the local High School's gaming club near where I work, and maybe I will include you as the benefactor if you will let me know how your session(s) go.

ENTER WITHIN IF MOXIE AND/OR YARBLES YE HAVE

Empire of the East: Received

I had forgot i backed the kickstarter for this. I received the hard copy this morning (sitting at the local snowbound post office!), and the cover art and contents are terrific.

Quick breakdown before I need to get to work: relatively brief compared to some settings for DCC although much more is implied than given. Which is great. The flipside of the coin is that I have no experience with Saberhagen (except I did read some of the Berzerker stuff) and I promptly would discard  all the NPCs, which must account for a good chunk of the book. Page counts are not important but a chapter of NPCs is meant for fans of the books, which I could be but am not, and even then I  

Things to steal explicitly: science/technology. If you don't want a sentient tank and artificial intelligence in your fantasy, then you and I ought not to be friends. The idea that physical combat effectively nullifies magic is delightful and would save a lot of hmm-ing and hmm-ing at the table. Psychic combat, maybe even simplified further than what is presented (I tend to discard the DCC spellduel since it's infamously clunky - there's a blogpost on here from way back that has some proposed rule changes). Class limitations might feel restrictive to players, but makes sense to me sometimes. Gifting of spells - Wizards temporarily loaning another PC the use of a spell is a delightful idea and blows a whole world of cool opportunity wide open. The patrons Ardneh and Orcus. I read the PDF that came to backers pretty fully and totally skipped over the NPCs. I guess my DCC already IS Empire of the East except for some details - technology and aliens and AI more rampant in Thrend than what is represented in this fine book, but of the same cloth if you get my drift. Less tolkien and more asimov. 

The magic items are fun leftovers from the end of the techonological era of long ago... like all magic items they ought to be mysterious, powerful, and unpredictable (or else so haywire that they are dangerous to use)

More later, but i'd buy it probably just for the Ian Miller cover art! My group has sadly moved on from DCC since I don't run the majority of games, these days, but I may convince them to return so I can do some Ynn/Amberville/Xyntillian. The spectre of the Orange Emperor no longer clouds my judgement with the long shadows of fear and so I may rise again to wizardly prominence when these piteous fools drop their guard! Muwahahahah!

Anyways, more later (I forgot to post my One of Us review, also). Peace and Plenty be upon you, zero-level henchpeople!

Noah's Knot, Redux

metaphor for the code, and incidentally a room in the dungeon!

When I was in 5th grade, in our BASIC programming class, Mrs. Dempsey saved my project as NOAHSKNOT because I had too many badly-nested GOSUBS. This project is a lot like that one was! It changed the course of my life, I think, because until then I programmed my C64 with aplomb and joyously - if badly. So, I don't enjoy programming much, today. Hence, I was having a problem with the code for the Tablesmith funhouse dungeon-maker. That being: it's got so much random good stuff in it that it becomes a heaving mass of good ideas all entangled into a heap which doesn't make sense.

Here's from the file's header where I keep track of changes. The wish list is large, but not un-doable. The guys on Tablesmith.io asked a question that pulled back the veil and now I have more intimate knowledge of how I was mucking it up before, and so new and better features must inevitably arise - I think I can do almost all the stuff I was wishing for. Further! I can use markdown to just take the whole chunk of stuff and send it right to GMBinder for custom-made .PDFs of Goodness +2. I'm talking custom page styles, random illustrations, random maps that may even have some sense to them, hyperlinks to NPCs, the whole Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine Hellish yards of it.

## Feature wishlist

## 1. Geases and quests, maybe with a call to an outside table (seems improbably easy but unnecessary)

## 2. Difficulty of some traps and saves scales with dungeon level via variable (done!)

## 3. Integrated personalities of some generated NPCs (probably unnecessary but doable!)

## 4. Standardized formatting for monsters (bold), treasure (italics) - (done! - new wish: markdown output for generated monsters right to GMBinder - probably easy! Could even spit out SRD documents to an appendix but that's for later)

## 5. Re-rollable via link options for some non-sensical entries (Done!!)

## 6. Room sizes (Done!), with larger rooms containing larger features (not done, but now imminent)

## 7. Random chance of adding a template to a monster - the templates are included - note added kludgy version on June 19,2020

## 8. Better treasure the farther down you go, maybe like the random treasure system in DMG1e (this is a whole 'nuther table and the current one suffices)

## 9. Lair treasure vs. Carried Treasure? (not wished for any longer)

## 10. More Steam, Electricity, Magnetism, Flooding, and Wild Organic zones? (highly desired feature!!! - n.b. now ludicrously easy - the level will be broken into zones of d6 rooms sharing certain features)

## 11. Lairs/Settlements of humanoids with leadership, for allies and trading. Pretty easy, actually. Single line of code.

## 12. Zones of 2-4 rooms of various sizes that share qualities (fairly easy to implement with Loop command - I think this is the same as 10, above)

## 13. Maybe room contents depend on room size? Not likely since that gets complicated... n.b. would require a minor re-write but not too bad.

## 14. Trap triggers (implemented in another table, but needs weirding)

## 15. Factions of humanoids are the main populants of each level - up to 3 Factions would be cool

## 16. Room numbers - Should be pretty easy, actually. Having troubles with the variable (problem resolved - now FIXED!)

So, I haven't implemented it, yet, but here is the somewhat-less repetitive but MOAR CHAOTIC and less-sensible output of the generator, now, for a 30-room, 1st level dungeon in the Lair of The Robolich. I'm pretty sure I've figured out a way to send back the number of generated monsters in each encounter to the main generator for... reasons. 

1. The room has a patches of russet mold that is activated by false switch. The trap is attached to a steps.
2. There are Mimic subtype Frost and a winch and pulley, in this average-sized room.
3. A Slowing Gas. The victim is slowed for 4 turns, DC 18 Constitution save keeps the Potion of Poison and 17 Native Amethyst 250gp safe.
4. A Essence Displacer that shift the soul/consciousness of the target into the 1-Astral 2-Ethereal 3-Positive 4-Negative 5-Shadow 6-Alternate Reality that is activated by psionic magnet keeps the antique coins worth 3261 GP safeguarded.
5. There are Displacer Beast and a broken furniture in this room.
6. A 10 lewd voxel sculptures. They activate an animated information provider, containing 2216 GP. The treasure is divided into small coffers and safeguarded with spring darts firing up from inside bottom of container.
7. The room contains Vampire Spawn subtype T-Virus and a Hail Of Needles. It deals 10 attacks per PC as fighter of Level 4 doing 5 damage each that is activated by psionic magnet.
8. Owlbear, a charcoal bin, and hidden treasure antique coins worth 2154 GP .
9. 2 Large Monstrous Scorpions subtype Nega-, a spinning wheel, and hidden treasure 28 omnium nuggets.
10. 3 Troglodytes subtype Mutant guard 30 Black Opal 1000gp. The treasure is held in metal urns.
11. Janni, hidden Antitox Functions on 1-8 in 20 loose, and a trap: Sprayer soaks entire party with dirty water.
12. 4 Ghouls, hidden 51 Amber 100gp locked in iron trunks, and a trap: patches of green slime.
13. There is a maintenance area. There are Mop and hidden 40 Moonstone 50gp, here.
14. There is a planetarium projector - if disturbed then laser attacks at d24 on each party member for 1d10 damage and hidden A Hastelloy aigrette, set with star rubys, worth 100 gold coins, here.
15. An abandoned storage area, with 30 larval spider-demons, twitching but dormant in egg-sacs.
16. 1 Lizardfolk subtype Arachno, a stuffed beast, and a Quark bender will alter victim's alignment by 1 step 1-3 Law/Neut/Chaos or 4-6 Good/Neut/Evil that is activated by low frequency sonic motion detector.
17. It is dusty, here. There is also a spike.
18. Hound Archon subtype Crystal, an overhang, hidden 2618 GP, trapped with Spring Loaded Chute, which will eject a PC into an oubliette that is activated by false switch.
19. 3 Androids subtype Space guard 11 omnium nuggets. The treasure is stuffed into sacks.
20. There is antique coins worth 3935 GP hidden here.
21. This room has an office supply storage facility. 1d100 suspicious 40 gallon drums, marked as biohazard (1d8: 1 tar-zombies, 2 ooze-like mutagen, 3 movement sensitive explosive, 4 distilled water, 5 Synthetic Fire Flower juice, 6-8 surfactant/sanitizer).
22. Minotaur subtype Steam, a manger, hidden 4738 GP, trapped with Cold Glyph on a cauldron, full of mutagenic fluid, forcing a DC 19 Constitution save or 8 that is activated by video motion detector.
23. A Large Spring Loaded Chute, which will drop the party down 1d3 dungeon levels that is activated by pressure pad keeps the 54 Native Red Coral 100gp safeguarded.
24. 4 Grimlocks subtype Nega-, an arch, and hidden treasure A Cast Iron bracelet, set with a thulite, worth 600 gold coins.
25. 1 Lantern Archons subtype Ghost, hidden 3462 GP stored in pottery jars, and a trap: Rust Glyph, forcing a DC 18 Wisdom save or lose all non-magic metallic items.
26. There is antique coins worth 5061 GP concealed here, nestled in huge chests.
27. This modest room includes an a pit full of broken worker robots.
28. This modest room includes an is half-flooded with waist-high water. The next 2 rooms are also flooded.
29. This is a food-supply store room, with a few scroungeable rations and some potable water..

30. This room has a 3 shipping containers containing 111 wrench,pipe.  

Review - House of the Red Doors for DCC

TL;DR:
Overall - 4.8 Hapless Henchpeople out of 5
art - 20/5 buy it now you mook
fun - 4/5 (numerous unlucky deaths, possibly receptive sexual partners turned off of RPGs entirely)
tone -  3.14579 out of i, beautiful and you may actually be doing a tarot reading on yourself while playing (don't/very much DO play whilst intoxicated)

James P is here
Stefan P is here
Doug's website is here

In a fever dream, or maybe awakened with anxiety in the witching hour, I fumbled in the dark for my glasses but found the hard copy of this instead. I recalled kickstarting it, and losing track because of 'zinequest but there it is. Did i put it there?

These days, when I read modules, i'm usually in bed, hunkered down, ready to fall asleep. This'n's no different. My eyes don't work so great. They tire easily. I desire to read things digitally but frankly, digital sucks. This DCC module came in the mail last week, or maybe right before the 'Rona struck. It sat in the DONT TOUCH pile or something, because, corruption, you see. So i forgot about it. I'd looked through it already when the digital version arrived - must have bounced off my tired brain. Intrigued, yawning, i fell asleep without grokking fully. through the gates of the silver key etc etc

The eponymous dwelling, pulled by ollyphaunts

This one, this "The House of The Red Doors" by James Pozenel. I like it. I think we used to interact on the GeePlus, maybe?. I kickstarted it because it's a solo DCC funnel, something close to my heart. Interestingly, not solo as in "I play masturbatorily by myself" which mine is, but rather "We two people play you through this module and I am the DM and you are the player." I don't know if I will ever use it, but I like it. I like it inspirationally. I like it for a number of reasons. Maybe I will play it with my kid, but right now it'd be too scary for her, in my opinion. She's 6 and runs out the room when the tarantula shows up in Animal Crossing (BRB got an idea)

Anyways, this is great. Dreamy. I mean dreamy as in "relies heavily on symbolism". There is some amazing Doug Kovacs B&W art for Lotteria-inspired images. Not quite Tarot/not quite Archetype. The player is meant to pick up clues at the start, maybe decide to adhere to an alignment, and follow the prompts in the narrative to get either killed (medium likely), bad-choice out (fairly likely as a frequent possible choice), or "win" and become a full-fledged character candidate. You could come away with some cool stuff (a mirror, a knife, a holy symbol), maybe better stuff (for example the deed to a whole haunted castle!). It's evocative, creepy, dreamy, rife with Appendix-N symbols. There is even a Bull-Headed Clockwork Bird thing as a monster. All the DCs for success are fairly low - in the DC5-DC8 range, as befits pre-heroic nobodies slinking away from the pub one night to take a stab at a better life.

Sneak around 'im, if you are able. I named him Poag

Worth buying for Kovac's and Poag's art, alone, the prose is pretty good and a great model for short adventure design. Fairly linear, with meaningful choices in the scope of the narrative. There is even a score sheet included for the Judge's ease of use, and it would be handy if you were trying to run it as a tourney (which is suggested). I like it so much that I would probably steal the idea and re-write similar, limited scenarios for certain classes. I've had a follow-up for HHSOLO1 in my head for thieves for a long time but it's too tangled but this is great bite-sized game for two lonely (or quarantined!) people. Love the art, Stroud's fingers are in it, Teigler's too

Run don't walk. Seems to me you could internalize the whole thing except the faux "reading" and use it to introduce curious passers-by. I geas thee: now go and retrieve it and get thee from my site

a smattering of the symbols/lotteria page by Doug Kovacs; erotic, don't you think?