d100 Banalities for a Standard Dungeon
For some people, role-playing adventures are an opportunity to experience things that are odd, exciting, compelling, and new, and that is the idea that has driven our bestselling and popular line of "Oddities" books! For other people, however, game sessions are just as legitimately. a comfort zone that they can retreat into for predictably, consistency, and well-worn storytelling formulas. It is to them that we dedicate this foil to our strange and unpredictable oddities, namely a series of things that might be found in a standard dungeon that has no purpose other than to be explored, has predominately 10-foot-wide passageways, and is populated with level-appropriate monsters, treasures, and hazards of the sort that might be read straight out of a core book of your choice. You won't find any messy sewers, "enchanted" forests, or other intimidatingly interesting things here ...
1) A 5' diameter wet spot in the middle of the 10-foot-wide passageway. It is not quite deep enough to be a puddle and clearly conceals nothing menacing. It can be easily avoided by anyone who wishes to do so.
2) A standard, person-sized wooden door, about five feet wide and seven or eight feet tall, set into an otherwise featureless stone wall. It is not locked.
3) A secret door that has been left open and which is obvious to everyone. Even those who do not actively examine it can see that the latch that kept it closed has simply become worn or broken from use and that there is no mystery as to why it is open.
4) A four-foot-wide, eight-foot-long wooden table of standard design, with 1d6 equally standard wooden chairs of similar design pulled up to it.
5) Each 10-foot section of this passageway contains one iron torch sconce. These sconces alternate from one side of the passageway to the other and each is 50% likely to contain a torch.
6) You find one or more dead bodies of level-appropriate monsters. They are dead because you killed them earlier and you find them in exactly the spot where you left them. They do not appear to have been disturbed in any way.
7) A bag that contains 10d10 silver coins from the nearest nation that mints coins. There are equal chances that the bag is leather or burlap.
8) A 10-by-10 chamber. Because it is exactly the same dimensions as the passageway it may not even be remarkable enough for characters to notice it.
9) A standard 20-by-20 room. It contains nothing unless the DM really wants it to and, in the event that it does, such things will be immediately obvious.
10) A standard wooden barrel. There are equal chances that it is empty or 10d10% filled with weak beer, watered wine, or water (any such beverages will be mediocre in quality but are clearly not poisoned, tainted, or otherwise exceptional). Do not roll on the "What's In the Barrel" table to determine contents!
