I Asked A.I.

The Five Room Dungeon is a classic TTRPG design framework popularized by Johnn Four. It’s designed to provide a complete, narratively satisfying adventure in a single session by moving players through five distinct "beats" or rooms.

The Five Room Structure

• Room 1: Entrance and Guardian
  This room sets the mood and provides the first challenge. The "guardian" doesn't have to be a monster; it could be a literal guard, a magical seal, or a physical barrier like a cliff. Its purpose is to signal that the adventure has begun and to test the party's readiness.
• Room 2: Puzzle or Roleplaying Challenge
  After the initial combat or obstacle, this room changes the pace. Players might need to solve a mechanical puzzle, negotiate with a neutral NPC, or find a hidden path. It often provides backstory or foreshadows the final conflict.
• Room 3: Trick or Setback
  This is the "darkest before the dawn" moment. It weakens the party or complicates their goal—perhaps they fall into a trap, find their "shortcut" is blocked, or realize the villain is one step ahead. It raises the stakes for the upcoming climax.
• Room 4: Climax, Big Battle, or Conflict
  The main event. This room features the "boss" and the most complex encounter of the dungeon. It should be challenging and tie together the themes introduced earlier.
• Room 5: Reward, Revelation, or Twist
  The final room provides the "loot," but more importantly, it provides narrative closure or a hook for the next adventure. The party might find the treasure they sought, but with a twist—like a letter revealing their quest-giver was a traitor.

Example Layout: The Sunken Vault

Room	Type	Description
1	Guardian	A rusted iron golem stands before the heavy stone doors, demanding a password lost to time.
2	Puzzle	A flooded chamber where players must align mirrors to reflect light onto a specific crystal to drain the water.
3	Setback	As the water drains, it triggers a trap that locks the doors and releases a swarm of venomous eels.
4	Climax	A ritual chamber where a rogue priest is attempting to siphon power from an ancient artifact.
5	Reward	The artifact is recovered, but it speaks to the players, warning them of a greater threat approaching.

Design Tips

• Don't be literal: A "room" can be a clearing in a forest, a street corner, or a floor in a tower.
• Use loops: For a more engaging map, connect non-adjacent rooms (e.g., a secret tunnel from Room 2 to Room 4) to allow for non-linear exploration.
• Add "The Three Ts": Incorporate Timers (rising lava), Threats (monsters), and Treats (healing potions) to keep momentum high

A Little Trump Music

 

May Every Day Be Another Wonderful Secret

2025 Update

 Despite all signs to indicate otherwise I continue to plow forward in life and the hobby, if at a reduced rate. This year I hope to transform this site from inactive blog to a library of my TTRPG resources.

Ulysses

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

It little profits that an idle king,

By this still hearth, among these barren crags,

Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole

Unequal laws unto a savage race,

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink

Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd

Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those

That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when

Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades

Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;

For always roaming with a hungry heart

Much have I seen and known; cities of men

And manners, climates, councils, governments,

Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;

And drunk delight of battle with my peers,

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

I am a part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'

Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades

For ever and forever when I move.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!

As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life

Were all too little, and of one to me

Little remains: but every hour is saved

From that eternal silence, something more,

A bringer of new things; and vile it were

For some three suns to store and hoard myself,

And this gray spirit yearning in desire

To follow knowledge like a sinking star,

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,

To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,—

Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil

This labour, by slow prudence to make mild

A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees

Subdue them to the useful and the good.

Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere

Of common duties, decent not to fail

In offices of tenderness, and pay

Meet adoration to my household gods,

When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:

There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,

Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—

That ever with a frolic welcome took

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed

Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;

Death closes all: but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

'T is not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

EZD6 Goblin Gully Conversion

 Minor additions, revisions...

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qEzIbrYXGydzcErn_VZFLLe-MD-DSpNh/view?usp=sharing

EZD6 Tomb of The Evil Philosopher v3b

Minor revisions, monsters scaled back

https://drive.google.com/file/d/160j5OlGv2KdJqE3x_z-DmJvzXraXyvim/view?usp=drive_link

EZD6 Goblin Gully Conversion

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qEzIbrYXGydzcErn_VZFLLe-MD-DSpNh/view?usp=sharing

Goblin Gully EZD6

An Adventure by Dyson Logos

Conversion Notes to EZD6 by Mark Tygart

Download at https://dysonlogos.blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/onepagedungeon-goblin-gully.pdf

Background

Everyone in the area knows of the old slave pit in the ravine outside of town. It fell into disuse with the collapse of the Old Empire, and only the occasional group of adolescent would-be adventurers ever goes there anymore. But then a nearby farm was found ransacked; and that family is now missing. And now someone or thing has rebuilt the bridge between the two sides of the old slave pit.

Why should the players care? Well it seems that each has a truly monstrous bar tab at The Merry Mermaid Tavern after an epic night of drink and debauchery with little or no funds to pay in the brutal light of dawn. Fortunately the tavern owner is willing to forgive the debt if the players will investigate the ravine and determine the fate of his sister’s family.

Rumors

Roll 1d12 for rumors on the table below. Each adventurer from town knows one rumors, while visitors can learn 1d2 rumors by asking around.

1-2. The pits have been taken over by goblin raiders. (True)

3. There are secret areas in the old slave pits that have never been explored since they were abandoned. (True)

4-5. The family had a magic axe among their stolen possessions. (False)

6-7. The slave pits are run by abandoned mutant slaves. (False)

8. There is a secret entrance into pits at the bottom of the ravine. (False)

9. Creepy leftovers of ancient imperial experiments still lurk in the depths of the slave pit. (True)

10-11. The main entrance to the pit is a cave now overgrown by a huge tree. (True)

12.It's not goblins or mutants in the pits, but one of the boys in town who was abandoned there and has gone feral. (False)

1. Entrance – two goblins are up in the tree watching for approaching trouble. The downside is they can't do much about it except attack – their position makes it unlikely that they will be able to get down warning their companions when attacked.

2. Empty Antechamber

3. Grand Hall – this 40-foot-wide chamber has columns along each wall and is home to 4 goblins. The entrance to area 4 requires climbing through the mouth of a relief carving of a huge demon.

4. West Bridge Room – 2 goblins with short bows in here fire into any battles in area 3 and otherwise guard the bridge (area 5).

5. The Bridge – this rope and wood bridge was built by the goblins, but the supports for it are ancient carved stone. While dangerous looking, the bridge is quite sturdy and safe. Moving on the bridge is at quarter speed at best and can only be done in a single file. Falling into the ravine will cost a player a strike.

6. Gully Floor – looking through the reeds along the stream at the base of the gully will reveal the long-decomposed body of an adolescent male, missing from town for 2 years after being pushed into the ravine by his “friends” long before the goblins rebuilt the bridge.

7. Empty Chamber – a goblin in area 8 watches for intruders to spring a surprise attack on them – preferably when they head down to area 11.

8. Boss' Chambers – the goblins climb in and out of this room through a narrow shaft, usually using a rope attached to a ring in the floor. There are 4 goblins here as well as their leader: an enormous Bugbear. This Bugbear has been around for a while. He has cobbled together a full suite of armor for itself. The smaller goblins will follow him without question, at least while he can fight.

The second room is the leader's personal room The farm family (father, mother, daughter) is tied up within along with an unlocked chest holding two healing potions brewed by the goblins and a scroll that should be randomly rolled by the GM. There is also a map to another dungeon! The Bugbear has not decided whether to devour the family or sell them to slavers. Currently the family is terrified but unharmed.

9. Secret Chamber – the goblins have not discovered this secret room. The secret door is trapped and drops a heavy rock in the opening a few seconds after being pushed open. Whoever opens the door must make a save or suffer 1 strike of damage. The room holds the skeletons of two elven guards equipped with rusted (worthless) chainmail, helmets and each has a magically preserved (but otherwise non-magical) enchanted sword that glows with continual light (as per a nimbus of light). It will harm creatures that require magical weapons to damage them but otherwise provides no bonus.

10. Secret Storage – this room has barrels of ancient, ruined arrows and there are the remains of bows and swords on the walls. On the back wall of the room is a crystal statue of an elven warrior that will animate that will attack anyone who disturbs the contents of the room.

11. Barracks – another 6 goblins live down at the base of these spiral stairs. The goblins in area 8 will sneak down to attack anyone heading down the stairs. The door to area 12 is barred from this side.

12. The Pit – the bottom of this room is flooded and 50 feet below the entrance. A set of narrow spiral stairs lead down to the alcoves just above the water level. Once the door is open a gurgling, sloshing sound can be heard from below. The pit is home to a putrescent mutant mass of flesh – the last remnant of an arcane experiment. It is treated as a black pudding but is far more terrifying, looking horrific as its putrescent appendages grow and are then continually reabsorbed. Players seeing it for the first time must make a saving roll or flee. If they do not think to bolt the door, the creature may be free to destroy the town...

Monsters

Bugbear

2 Strikes, 4 to Hit

Large, hairy humanoids that crave battle.

• 1 attack (Morningstar, javelin)

• Boon to melee

• Quiet and stealthy, likes to ambush targets (boon to stealth)

• If a bugbear surprises a targets and scores a hit, it crits on a roll of 5+

Crystal Statute

Magical guardian from a lost empire

2 Strikes, 3 to Hit

• 1 attack (crystal sword)

• Slow

• Mindless construct blindly following arcane commands

• Requires neither food nor drink

Goblin

Small humanoids that are individually weak, but powerful in numbers.

1 Strike, 3 to hit

• 1 attack (sword, bow)

• Hide - boon to hide; may use this effect after an attack if reasonable cover is available

Terrifying Putrescent Mutant Mass of Flesh (Black Pudding)

See above

3 Strikes, 4 to Hit

• 1 attack (Pseudopod)

• Corrode Metal - any non-magical or non-silvered weapon corrodes; player takes Bane on all melee attacks using that weapon

• Pseudopod - if target is wearing non-magical metal armor, target must take a bane to all armor save rolls

• Splatter - if hit with normal weapons, the ooze splatters onto nearby characters and dissolves any armor making all armor saves 6 with a bane. Also, the ooze splits into 2 different oozes, each with 3 strikes each.

• Sensitive to Fire - fire damage does 2 strikes per hit to the black pudding

• Fear-the first time a player sees the pudding he or she must make a saving roll or flee.