A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement CASTLE OLDSKULL – Oldskull Dungeon Generator

CASTLE OLDSKULL – Oldskull Dungeon Generator is a role playing game supplement written and published by Kent David Kelly. This is a generic supplement, although tilted towards OSR games, that can be used to generate dungeons, specifically the first level of an old school dungeon that’s aimed at 1st level characters.

This is an 83 page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $2.79 but was purchased for $0.99 during a sale. One page is the front cover, one an ad for other supplements and one a Quick-Access Table Menu.

The Introduction starts with the concept of the book, with certain parts being word for word copies from the Oldskull NPC Generator, as both introduce the idea of the generator series. There are instructions on using this book, what is needed, how to navigate it and nomenclature used. There is a page of recommended mapping symbols to use – the idea is to use the supplement to map out and populate the dungeon – which are typical for Old School supplements.

First there is an introduction to the descent landing, the primary entrance to the dungeon. Table I: The Starting Area has several designs to use here, each of which is illustrated. The idea is to have the starting area possess several different exits. This is followed by several tips and where to go next.

Table II: Beyond the Door is used to build out from the starting area and beyond any door found in the dungeon. The results are a variety of different corridor types, including intersections, and lengths, doors or a room.

Table III: The Corridor Crawl is used when a corridor continues. There are more type of corridors, doors, openings, rooms, side passages, openings and dead ends. A corridor crawl would be continued until the corridor terminates in some way. This table is followed by some advanced layout options.

Table IV: Dead End has a variety of different options for dead end corridors, including traps, concealed and secret doors and major and minor features.

Table V: Level Connector is a collection sub-tables with different ways to get between dungeon levels. These come in different types and consider which levels the connector leads to; it may skip intervening ones to go much deeper into the dungeon.

Table VI: Monster Guarded Treasure has instructions on how many treasure table rolls to do on Unguarded Treasure, with sentient monsters generally having more treasure.

Table VII: Monster Lair has a variety of different creatures and NPCs. These are considered to be Lethality Level 1, in Oldskull terminology, and list their Blood Dice and Hits to Kill (Hit Dice and hit points essentially) and number appearing. There are brief notes on what monsters and NPCs might be doing there, how to deal with aquatic monsters, splitting up large groups and an advanced option to create thematic predictability in monster populations based on previous results. The latter should avoid things such as having several dozen different creature types populating the dungeon level.

Table VIII: Room Generator has sizes and shapes for rooms found, followed by a sub-table on room exits and exit locations, another on door types, one on unusual doors and one on room contents. There is a tip when using multiple tables for a room and that if more detail is wanted The Classic Dungeon Design Guide should be used.

Table IX: Side Passage is stated as being similar to Table III but gives simple results more frequently as side passages, as they branch off, should be terminated more quickly. The table also includes options such as rivers and chasms.

Table X: Trap has a selection of low-lethality traps, as this dungeon level is intended for characters of 1st to 3rd level. If more options are required, it’s suggested that The Book of Dungeon Traps is used.

Table XI: Trick is a fairly complicated set of tables and it is suggested that traps are used instead if rapid results are needed. The first table is trick feature, which determines where the trick is situated. The second is classification, which is whether it is positive, negative or both, and how it is activated. The third table is the trigger condition, which are things such as race, alignment, age, sex, ability score and level. The next two tables are positive attributes and negative. This is followed by a section interpreting a random trick generation. The last table is a brief one on advanced trick types and a suggestion to use The Classic Dungeon Design Guide or The Classic Dungeon Design Guide Book II if more options are required.

Table XII: Unguarded Treasure is also used for monster treasure. This has a variety of different options and it is suggested that, if more are needed, CDDG Book II is used. There is also a mention of Mega-Dungeon Monsters & Treasures, Book 1, but it says that this is out of date and only available in Kindle. Since this supplement was written, that supplement appears to have been overhauled as Monsters & Treasures Level 1.

Appendix: The Laws of Chaos has some suggestions for using the tables, in particular speeding up creation, by not stocking the dungeon, and stopping the dungeon from becoming a sprawling megadungeon. There are also tips on dealing with overlapping ruins, going deeper than the first level and using the supplement to play solitaire.

CASTLE OLDSKULL – Oldskull Dungeon Generator in Review

The PDF is bookmarked with the various sections, tables and sub-tables linked. There are a few subsections that are missing from the bookmarks. The Quick-Access Table Menu is hyperlinked to the various tables and sub-tables. Navigation is pretty decent.

The text maintains a two column format and appeared to be free of errors. Bar the front cover, the only illustrations are the headers and footers. This means the presentation is actually better than those supplements which have a lot of, public domain, art used in a very haphazard way.

The generator could be used to create a random dungeon during play – and, indeed, it looks in places as if it’s intended to do so, with such as references to wandering monsters appearing. Such will require a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between the different tables, as the results from one table often direct the user to another. Many GMs might find this to be too much of a pain, making stuff like this up on the fly; without being really skilled at it, it is also likely to slow play dramatically. The dungeon created in such a manner will probably only appeal to Old School players as well.

As mentioned a few times, the Oldskull Dungeon Generator references a lot of the other supplements. In most cases, these references tend to be along the lines of “for more results, check…” which does give the, perhaps deliberate, impression that this supplement lacks a lot of content. It is, admittedly, cheaper and shorter than the other supplements.

This supplement can be used to create dungeons, but most GMs would probably be advised to generate them before play so that they can create a more coherent feel. Otherwise any dungeon is going to feel very random and play could be very slow. CASTLE OLDSKULL – Oldskull Dungeon Generator can be found by clicking here.