Greetings, Shield Brothers
With everyone and their grandma doing 5 room dungeons, I just thought I’d share another quick and easy method of building dungeons/adventures, which I’ve used for decades.
The 3 Scene Setup
Now, this shouldn’t really be news to most of you awesome peeps out there, since this method has been used since the dawn of time by cavemen telling stories. Then the greeks ripped off the cavemen, Shakespeare ripped off the greeks, and now every school teacher drills this stuff into us from a young age.
We all know that a story has 3 acts. A beginning, a middle, and an ending. We also know that the beginning is the Introduction, the middle is where everything goes to hell, and the ending is where the good guys win in the end. But for the purposes of this excercise we will phrase it like this:
- Scene 1. - Introduction
- Scene 2. - Trouble
- Scene 3. - Climax
Now, I use this to map out any location/dungeon/adventure. Most of the time, three reasonably fleshed out scenes will encompass about an evening of play. Sometimes we can fit in more, but three scenes isn’t unrealistic, and if we have less, we really don’t fulfill the 3 acts required for a complete story… At least that’s what my litterature and drama teachers kept yelling at me.
Yeah yeah, we all know this stuff. How does it help us build a dungeon, like the 5 room dungeon method does?
Thanks for asking. So kind of you. Here’s how:
SCENE 1 - THE INTRODUCTION
This scene is where you set the theme, atmosphere, present the type of characters (monsters) the heroes are going to face, and tease the trouble ahead.
SCENE 2 - THE TROUBLE
This scene is where the proverbial doo-doo hits the ventilation system. Or as good ol’ George Lucas said; Put the heroes in the worst possible situation. And it worked for Empire Strikes Back, so dammit, we will use it too.
SCENE 3 - THE CLIMAX
This is it. The big evil bad guy is right in front of you. Everything is at stake. Will you rise to new heights in the face of evil, or will you meet the fate of bleeding out on the cold stony dungeon floor?
Now, you can think of each of these Scenes as dungeon rooms. Our supreme overlord H. Ferinale already has some wicked cool advice on Room Design. If you haven’t watched his videos yet, then stop reading and go watch them. I’ll wait.
Done?
Excellent. Let’s continue.
Each Scene could also be a separate location in an adventure. A series of events. Anything really. You could even have 3 locations in your adventure, with 3 scenes each. All of them following the simple 3 Scene Setup.
So let’s do a complete 3 Scene Adventure with a sinlge 3 Scene Dungeon to get the Ball rolling. And with Alex & Hankerin’s new Altered State rules out, let’s do a Cyberpunk adventure to get you jacked in and running for your life.
THE KINKARU VAULT
SCENE 1 - INTRODUCTION
“THE CIRCUIT”
- A back alley watering hole for runners and adventurers.
- The players are approached by a retired runner, who never gave up on finding the mythical Kinkaru Vault. But being too old, he sells the heroes on the idea of finding the vault over a couple of cold Neo-Zizzle beers.
- But in the Circuit, the walls have ears, and a group of greedy runners want to beat the heroes to the punch.
SCENE 2 - TROUBLE
“THE STREETS”
- The heroes are engaged with the rival runners in a high speed death race.
- The rivals want to stop the heroes and steal the data on the vault, or if that fails, follow them to the vault and get hit them again.
SCENE 3 - CLIMAX
“THE KINKARU VAULT”
This is it. The Climax of the adventure. And let’s do a 3 Scene Dungeon.
ROOM 1 - INTRODUCTION
“THE DESCENT”
- No one ever found the vault because it’s hidden deep beneath the ground. The heroes will need to make a harrowing descent into the depths beneath the city.
- The entire descent is a battle against gravity and flesh eating mutant plants. What the hell were they keeping in the vault?
- If the rivals followed the heroes here, the descent is even more deadly. Unless you let the mutant plants eat them all, just to showcase what lies ahead. This is the introduction after all.
ROOM 2 - TROUBLE
“THE GREENERY”
Getting to the vault was the easy part. Now it’s time to put the heroes in deep.
- Getting the vault door open is an extended task. They need to cut the huge heavy door free from mutated man eating vines, crack the lock, and open the heavy door.
- At the same time, the overgrown walls are trying to eat them.
- And mutated humanoid plantoids are dropping in from everywhere on a timer, attacking with poisonous barbs and strangling roots.
- Maybe even add hallucinogenic spores. Why not? We don’t want to make it easy.
- No room is complete without a TREAT! See that Pyroclastic Purification system? If only there was a way to activate it!
ROOM 3 - THE CLIMAX
“THE SEED ROOM”
This is where it all began. Some twisted experiment in mutagenic plantlife. No one knows why, or how. But here it is. Let’s NOT make the world Green Again!
- Big bad Plant Boss - THE HUMONGUS FUNGUS! This thing has several large grappling vines, that could flatten a truck. Cut them off to get to the Eye stalk and kill that thing.
- More Plantoids keep pouring in on a timer.
- More hallucinogenic spores! At least you know what’s producing them… The HUMONGUS FUNGUS!
- Let’s add a TREAT! How about a couple of Mech Frames like the ones from Aliens? But with huge dual CHAINSAWS!!! If only you could get to them!
- And finally the REWARD. Maybe the super nourishing fertile waters that kept these plants alive for centuries is worth drinking for an extra HEART.
So… This is how I use the classic 3 Scene Setup to build adventures and dungeons.
Now go kill some Plantoids!
- Meadbeard
