Connective tissue table

d20 location connection types

Prismatic Wasteland is running another blogwagon, and the topic is randomness. Here’s my contribution!

I drew something inspired by Perplexing Ruins’ recent posts. Its inclusion in this article is, in fact, random.

Far-reaching connections - they are what separates a good dungeon from a great dungeon. From the classic use of a key and a chest with large spatial separation between them, to the complex designs of modern modules and distributed puzzles, building in clusters of connections between locations is something you want to think about when preparing adventure spaces.

But sometimes your mind goes blank. You need a push to get the creative juices going. Despite this being a naturalistic design problem, randomness can help us out a bit.

I turn to this d20 table of location connections, for a general idea of how I might add some more connective tissue between some places.

It’s not exhaustive, but there’s enough general categories in here to help me when I need a little push to come up with some creative connections.

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d20 Location Connections

1: Alternative transport. A non-typical means of transport links the locations. Portals, teleporters, a high speed maglev, secret passages.

2: Separated allies. Allied NPCs have been separated and seek to reunite. Lost travellers, prisoners and those seeking to free them.

3: Adversaries. NPCs seeking to find other NPCs with ill intent, or NPCs who work against each other. An assassin and their target, a thief and those they stole from.

4: Locks and keys. The classic. A multi-key door and the keys for it, sets of keycards and restricted areas, a passphrase for an enchanted door.

5: Fractured knowledge. A truth that is broken into pieces but can be revealed by recovering the pieces. Fragments of a tablet that records a piece of important history.

6: Object components. An object that has been split into pieces but can be reconstructed. Shards of a wizard staff, pieces of a spaceship engine.

7: Puzzle. Spread the parts of a puzzle between the locations. Secret levers that must be pulled in all locations, ciphers in each location that form an answer.

8: NPC(s) and goals. Simple really, NPCs and their objectives. Thieves and the vaults they want to rob, two knights and the sword they want to claim.

9: Environmental manipulation. Mechanisms for manipulating the environment in other locations. Valves that change the water level in a dungeon, generators that power lighting on different floors.

10: Clues and mysteries. The locations contain clues that hold an answer to a mystery. A murder weapon, a body, and a murderer - in different locations.

11: Obstacles and solutions. Some locations contain solutions to obstacles in others. One location causes a disease while another holds a cure.

12: Consistent hazard. The same kind of hazard or threat is in the locations, and repeated encounters with it allow players to master dealing with it. One room has a pit trap, another has multiple.

13: Faction(s). These locations have the same faction(s) present. Why? Shrines to the same deity and their acolytes, data banks guarded by SecOps under strict orders.

14: Similar opportunities. Similar opportunities are presented in the locations. Treasure chests hidden in similar ways, same model computer terminals with useful data.

15: Escalation triggers. The locations have connected triggers for an escalating danger. Unstable reactor cores found in multiple labs, sets of beast pens across a dungeon which can be broken open.

16: Points of safety. The locations all offer some form of safety. Reinforced chambers with strong doors, safehouse apartments.

17: Function. The locations all have the same function or linked functionality. Prison cells, windmills, factories, distributed computing centres.

18: Causes and effects. The situation in some locations is being caused by situations in others. A building without power and a malfunctioning substation.

19: Cultural/historical. The locations are linked through cultural or historical significance. Burial sites and shrines to the dead, protest street art murals.

20: False connection. A red herring. These rooms seem linked but actually are not. Similar iconography on all the walls but no real meaning behind it.