Dwarven Automata

Postojna Cave

Patrick Stuart and Scrap Princess’s Veins of the Earth is a wonderful book, full of excellent ideas for Underdark adventures that are a quite a bit more weird and wonderful than the usual TSR/Wizards explorations of Drow intrigues. The book also contains an interesting system for randomly generating large-scale underground wilderness maps, cave systems, and individual caves. The first is simple enough to do on paper, but the other two systems are complex enough that they would benefit from some automation. The script on this page provides this automation, along with a few tweaks to make the results easier to use on-the-fly at the table. The only input necessary here is to select the number of caves from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the page; you should be prompted then to save the plain-text result file to your computer. First, though, here is an explanation of the output you will find in that file:

1. Each entry in the result file corresponds to a single cave with some indications of how they connect in terms of entrances, exits, and intermediate tunnels.
2. Each entry has nine or ten elements (depending on whether or not the random generator indicated a special type of exit)
3. The elements of an entry and their purpose is as follows:
   1. Width in Appropriate Units: The width of the cave at its largest point, given in inches (that can be converted to tens of feet or other unit according to the DM’s preferences)
   2. Length in Appropriate Units: The length of the cave at its largest point, given in inches (see above)
   3. Height in Appropriate Units: The height of the cave at its tallest point, given in inches (see above)
   4. Entrance Location: This indicates the location of the opening through which the Player Characters enter the cave (e.g., Roof, Floor, North)
   5. Largest Exit Location: This indicates the location of the largest opening through which the Player Characters can leave the cave
   6. Largest Exit Width: The width of the largest exit (see last item), given in feet
   7. Largest Exit Height: The height of the largest exit (see above), given in feet
   8. Special Exit: Optional field that appears when the generator indicates one of the caves exits is special in some way (refer to VotE, p. 226 for definitions of these)
   9. Number of Other Exits: How many other exits, besides the largest, through which the Player Characters can leave the cave (the first being 1/2 the dimensions of the largest, the next 1/2 of that, and so on)
   10. Directions of Other Exits: The locations of those other exits (e.g., West, Floor); there is one direction indicated for each exit excepting the largest
   11. Length of Exit Routes (Turns): How long the Player Characters will travel through the intermediary cave when leaving by each of the exits until they reach the next cave; there is one entry for each exit including the largest

How to use these entries in play:

1. As the players enter a cave, tell them where they are entering from and provide a general sense of it’s size based on the width, length, and height indicated in the entry. (Only provide more exact measurements if they take the time to survey the cave carefully)
2. Resolve any encounters or other features you place in the cave (via a different random system or conscious placement)
3. After marking off the appropriate amount of exploration time, describe the locations and sizes of the various exits from the cave (along with any special features of the exits); match up the sizes, directions for each exit (largest exit goes with first entry on length of exit route list; first additional exit goes with first direction of other exits, and second length of exit route; etc.)
4. When the party chooses an exit, describe their travel through the intermediary cave, including how long it takes to reach the next cave
5. Move on to the next cave entry in the list and start the process again.
6. Note: Since players will backtrack on occassion, be sure to make a note of which entries connect and how (this will obviously be easier if you print out your list).

That’s all there is to it! Good adventuring, and let me know if you have any feedback.

Number of Caves: 1020304050