Dungeon Crucible I: Random Dungeon Name Generator

The DUNGEON CRUCIBLE, BOOK ONE: RANDOM DUNGEON NAME GENERATOR is an experimental dungeon inspiration tool, created specifically for the most recent edition of the world’s first and foremost Fantasy Role-Playing Game (FRPG).

This 336-page book is designed to perform three tasks:  [1] To give you an inspirational name and concept for your next dungeon in 10 seconds or less; [2] To give you a full suite of tools to create your own unlimited dungeon and location names and themes throughout the lifespan of your campaign; and, [3] To walk you through the process of deriving an entire setting concept — to the point where you can create an initial draft overview of the dungeon’s nature, precepts, and its secrets — by using the dungeon name as a guiding force to focus your further design efforts.

In short, any time you are stuck, uninspired, experiencing writer’s block, out of time, or simply want a flexible system to bounce ideas in and out of until you unearth something truly worthwhile and unique, this supplement will speed and enhance your creative efforts.  Get rid of the early grunt work, get out of the rut, and get inspired to create a unique and unforgettable dungeon that will surprise not only your players, but also you as well.

The DUNGEON CRUCIBLE is actually a complex set of interrelated dungeon naming and conceptual customization systems.  These systems follow the unifying principle of guided randomness, ensuring that your dungeon is always unpredictable, while also following the classic naming structures used in weird fiction, swords & sorcery fiction, and c. 1978-1985 TSR dungeon modules.

Herein, to assist the harried Game Master (GM), you will find: 

• INSTANT RESULTS:  1,000 pre-generated dungeon names, ready to go with no work or input required on your part beyond a single roll of the dice.  I have included all 60 pages of the D1000 table in the preview, so that you can see the types of outputs that this system is capable of, from the most simple (“The Donjon”) to the most complex (“The Shattered Crematoriums of the Necromancer’s Deviltry”).  Find inspiration immediately, and move on with your new ideas for a productive night of dungeon design.
• POWER:  Complete and flexible guidelines for creating any kind of dungeon name, adventure title, or even a story title; and a detailed mentorship showing how you can turn those seeds into a full dungeon concept.
• OPTIONS:  Unlike most random generators (where you will start to see an unacceptable level of repetition in less than a minute), the DUNGEON CRUCIBLE system features seven different random tables which magnify one another’s potential output:  [1] name construction, [2] descriptors and adjectives, [3] entities and monsters, [4] locales and dungeon types, [5] medievally-themed female names, [6] themed male names, and [7] principles (e.g. treasures, environments, ideals, and abstract concepts, such as Chaos).  The variety of the dungeon names you can create is virtually infinite.
• ARSENALS:  A vast array of conceptual tools, providing you with the most potential results of any dungeon name generator in existence.  To date, there are 16 naming methods, 1,162 descriptors, 1,014 entities, 332 locales, 1,028 female names, 1,268 male names, and 331 principles.  And more are being added all the time.
• CURATED, NOT SLAPDASH:  Each of the 5,100+ data elements has been researched and pulled out from a vast array of classic module titles, 20^th-century weird fiction and sword & sorcery tales, out of print Victorian thesaurus searches, Greek and Roman history, European folklore, world mythology, Arthurian chronicles, Grimm’s and Perrault’s faerie tales, and more classical and architectural encyclopedias than I care to mention.  I have developed this system from many older Gygaxian and “JG” tables used in my own campaign, over several decades of play.
• LAVISH ILLUSTRATIONS:  In the proud tradition of the grognards’ Old School Renaissance (OSR), this volume features dozens of haunting masterworks from elder artists such as Blake, Doré, Martin, Piranesi, and Sime.  Many of the images that inspired Lovecraft, Machen, Poe, Tolkien, and others in their writings are found herein.

DUNGEON CRUCIBLE I:  RANDOM DUNGEON NAME GENERATOR is the latest FRPG offering from Kent David Kelly, the author of over twenty books including Spawning Pool of the Elder Things (a 5-star DM’s Guild mega-supplement), the popular Castle Oldskull line of OSR gaming supplements, and the acclaimed FRPG history series Hawk & Moor.  This is the second in a line of extremely detailed player-requested supplements to be published by Wonderland Imprints.  You are always welcome to guide future development and my upcoming offerings.  What do you want to see?  Feel free to provide feedback, questions, and future content requests to the author at shadowed_sky@hotmail.com.

(V1.0, 36,500 words, 336 pages.)

From Wonderland Imprints – Only the Finest Works of Fantasy.