Creating a Sandbox for B1: In Search of the Unknown

B1: In Search of the Unknown is a very self-contained dungeon module. That is, the dungeon is the module. There is a hint of civilization nearby, but it isn't made explicit how far the dungeon is, how long it takes to get there, what the surrounding terrain is like, or if there are monster lairs or other noteworthy locations in the area.

Since I've been spending a lot of time with B1 and would like to run it myself sometime, I thought it might be fun to come up with a small region to place the dungeon in a larger context. 

It's perfectly fine to just plop the party down in front of the dungeon entrance and run the module as is, but I also take a lot of joy from the journey to and from a place. Quasqueton is supposed to be remote, so I don't want the journey there and back to be trivial or handwaved.

I also think it would be neat to see if B1 could be a starting point for a larger game - the low-level dungeon which launches the player characters into a larger sandbox with which to engage.

The only clue B1 gives as to Quasqueton's surroundings is this:

Quasqueton is built upon a heavily forested hill. We also know that the region borders some barbarian lands to the north:

So let's say that Quasqueton is situated atop a hill in a heavily forested sub-arctic-ish region bordering barbarian lands to the north.

I use a version of the Welsh Piper's Hex-Based Campaign Design to generate terrain and the AD&D DMG's wilderness stocking procedure to add settlements, strongholds, ruins, and monster lairs. Here is what I got (scale: 1 hex = 6 miles):

The text makes it a bit crowded, so here's the version with grid numbers along with a key:

• 01.05: Adventurer Camp
• 02.02: Town
• 02.05: Giant Eagle Nest
• 03.01: Brigand Castle
• 03.02: Thorp
• 03.04: Ogre Den
• 03.05: Quasqueton
• 04.03: Owlbear Den
• 04.04: Leprechaun Burrow

Many of these locations are too far in the wilderness to be known to the players at the start of play, so here's the player-facing version of the map with just the locations they would know of:

The players will of course know about the town and the thorp, as well as the castle ruled by brigands (who likely prey upon the people of the thorp below). The ogre den is close enough that the ogres might emerge from the forest and cross the river to prey upon the farms south of the town, and a wandering homesteader may have ventured into the wilderness and stumbled upon the cave's location. Quasqueton's location is not generally known, but B1 tells us that the player characters have acquired a map to its location, so it should be known to them:

It might make sense for the players to know about the adventurers' camp as well, but let's say the adventurers have only recently moved into the area, so their exact location is not yet common knowledge.

Based on the map, the fastest way to Quasqueton is to head south from town, then through the forest hex to the south or southeast (but likely through the former, since the latter is the lair of at least one ogre) and then up into the hills. 

Based on the overland movement rates I use (from AD&D 2e), it takes 1 hour on foot to enter a plains or farmland hex (2 hours to cross from edge to edge), 2 hours to enter a forest hex (4 hours to cross), and 3 hours to enter a hills hex (6 hours to cross). It also takes 1 hour to cross a river unless traveling on a road (where there would presumably be a bridge or other crossing). It isn't relevant for traveling to Quasqueton, but it takes 4 hours to enter a heavily forested hex (8 hours to cross).

Normally I would advocate for there being a road to the dungeon, which would negate the movement modifier imposed by difficult terrain, but because Quasqueton is intended to be remote and unknown, I will omit one in this case.

So if the party departs from town, it will take 11 hours to reach Quasqueton: 3 hours to cross the farmlands (assuming there is a river crossing immediately south of town, since that is all inhabited land), an hour to cross the river a bit further south, 4 hours to cross the forest, and 3 hours to climb into the hills. 

Since the party can only travel 8 hours per day before forcing a march and risking exhaustion, they will likely have to rest at some point during the journey. Because the farmland is safer than the forest, I would recommend having a short first day and camping on the north side of the river, then crossing and venturing into the forest the following day (this however, would necessitate resting at or near Quasqueton at the end of the day, which can also be dangerous).

Here is a more detailed description of each location on the map:

01.05 Zerelda's Company: This adventuring company is led by Zerelda, a human magic-user. The members of the party and their henchmen are as follows (although B1 is written for B/X, I would want to run it in AD&D, so these NPCs are generated using that edition's guidelines and rules):

• Triphina Springwaddle, LG gnome fighter 6/illusionist 7
• Windemuth, N human fighter 3
• Omarion, LN human illusionist 4
• Tharmus Trollreach, LN dwarf cleric 8
• Farmund Burrowhorn, LG dwarf cleric 4
• Thurmond, N human cleric 9
• Carsten, N human cleric 5
• Alvaro, N human thief 5
• Zerelda, NG human magic-user 10

Zerelda's company has recently moved into the area in search of a site on which to establish a religious stronghold for Thurmond. They have settled on this forested hilltop and seek laborers to aid in clearing the trees around the site. Lambrecht, the ruler of Timbershore (02.02) has been cooperative to a point, but will only lend the aid of tree cutters for a significant tithe of magic items or the delivery of eggs from the Giant Eagle Nest (02.05), both of which Zerelda's company has balked at, leading to tension between the groups.

02.02 Timbershore: A walled town of 5,500 people. They are mostly human, with small enclaves of dwarves, elves, half-elves, gnomes, halflings, and half-orcs.

Using the demographics outlined in my post on henchmen, I determine there are 9 henchmen in town and 58 non-henchmen character-type NPCs. The players will only be able to recruit 1st-level henchmen at the start, of which there are only two, so those are the only ones that need detailing. 

B1 already provides ready-made henchmen to use, but - while I am sad to part with the likes of Grampal of the Secret Church, Glendor the Fourth, and Trebbelos, boy Magician - since I am doing this with an eye towards AD&D, I'll make my own henchmen. 

The 1st-level henchmen here are Othmar, a LN human fighter, and Zelmae, a NG half-elf thief. B1 recommends that the party might need as many as four henchmen (if there are only two player characters), but in that case they could simply hire men-at-arms to round out their numbers.

I'm not going to detail all 58 non-henchmen in town, but I've determined there are four high-level and two very high-level character-types among them, so those should be fleshed out:

• Manolito, LN human fighter 7
• Sigismund, N human magic-user 7
• Pia-Marie, LG human ranger 8
• Albertyna, LN human magic-user 11
• Blanchefleur, CE human cleric 13. Rules a large shell keep.
• Lambrecht, NE human illusionist 16. Rules a large walled castle with a keep.

It's a bit troubling that the two highest-level NPCs in the town are evil, but it's probably fine. I'm sure they won't complicate things at all. Surprisingly, there is no conflict between Lambrecht and Blanchefleur. They are not working together, but have an uneasy truce.

You may be wondering why there should be such high-level NPCs in a settlement tied to such a low-level adventure. Why don't they simply solve all the problems themselves? Well, for one, these ones are evil. But also remember that high-level NPCs must live somewhere, and they are assumed to have little interest in engaging in adventuring activities themselves and make a habit of using player characters to do their dirty work.

Lambrecht has four henchmen of up to 10th-level, whereas Blanchefleur has 3 henchmen of up to 8th-level. If I really wanted to get into the nitty gritty, I could detail all of the character-type NPCs in the town and assign them as henchmen to the higher-level NPCs (if their alignments aren't in opposition). This is certainly too much work to do up front, so I won't. But, for example, Manolito and Sigismund are likely henchmen of Lambrecht. Albertyna is too high-level to be a henchman of either, and Pia-Marie's alignment does not agree with either, so they are independent.

Lambrecht is in a standoff with Zerelda's Company (01.05) over the construction of a religious stronghold, a magic item tax, and the acquisition of eggs from the Giant Eagle Nest (02.05). While no one knows where the giant eagle nest is, the eagles have enough range to fly over the entire area, so everyone knows of their presence in the region. Lambrecht is an evil wizard, so of course he wants to kill them and take their babies for evil magic reasons.

Lambrecht is in conflict with the brigands of Fayette's Hold (03.01) and is courting the ogres in Okorg's Den (03.04) to do his bidding.

02.05 Giant Eagle Nest: This is the lair of four giant eagles which routinely fly over the entire region. There are actually no young or eggs present in the nest at this time, so Lambrecht's predations (02.02) are for naught. They generally shun the other creatures in the region, but have taken an interest in the dwarf cleric Tharmus Trollreach and are monitoring the activities of Zerelda's Company (01.05).

03.01 Fayette's Hold: This castle was ruled by Fayette, a LN human fighter who had established an uneasy truce with Lambrecht (02.02). Lambrecht schemed to infiltrate Fayette's Hold by sending a band of brigands led by Ulrika (8th-level fighter) to enlist as men-at-arms. With aid from Lambrecht, the brigands slew those loyal to Fayette and imprisoned the fighter in the castle dungeons. Ulrika's brigands have since had a falling out with Lambrecht over missed payments and have seized control of Ebongrove (03.02).

There are 40 brigands, including six 2nd-level fighters, two 3rd-level fighters, a 4th-level fighter, a 5th-level fighter, and Krimhild, Ulrika's 7th-level fighter lieutenant.

03.02 Ebongrove: A thorp of 30 people, caught between the tyranny of Lambrecht (02.02) and the predations of Ulrika's gang (03.01). With a small militia and no character-types to protect them, they're at the mercy of both. When she still ruled the castle, Fayette would protect them. The people of Ebongrove have little to offer, but would be eternally grateful to any who could overthrow the brigands and free Fayette from her cell.

03.04 Okorg's Den: A clan of 16 ogres lairs in this forested cavern, making forays out of the forest and across the river to plunder homesteads south of Timbershore (02.02). The ogres believe that the people of Timbershore have been sneaking into their lair and stealing their treasure.

The ogres are led by Okorg, a 37 hp chieftain, and two 31 hp leaders. There are six female ogres and four young ogres who remain in the lair (in addition to the aforementioned 16). They have captured and keep six humans and one dwarf as prisoners and slaves.

Lambrecht has made overtures towards the ogres, attempting to bribe them with trade goods, coins, and gems to turn their ire from Timbershore's farmers and towards Zerelda's Company (01.05), with the promise of plundering Fayette's Hold (03.01) if they prove themselves useful. Lambrecht's gestures have proved insufficient, as the ogres have captured, killed, or eaten all messengers and their escorts.

Blubazar, one of Okorg's lieutenants, is lobbying Okorg to take a band of ogres into the deep forest to hunt down the Owlbear Den (04.03). The ogres have not located the den, but have had the misfortune of encountering the owlbears when venturing into the wood's depths.

03.05 Quasqueton: See Dungeon Module B1: In Search of the Unknown.

04.03 Owlbear Den: This deep forest cave is the lair of three adult owlbears. They are fiercely territorial and ravenous, running off or devouring any who venture into their domain. They bear injuries from past encounters with the ogres of Okorg's Den (03.04), and have only become more irritable as a result.

04.04 Jinglepuff's Burrow: This idyllic forest glade is home to Jinglepuff, a mischievous leprechaun who wanders the woods stealing things, especially from Okorg's Den (03.04). 

He knows the location of Quasqueton (03.05) and visits on occasion, and may invisibly watch adventurers going to and from the place, using ventriloquism to frighten and trick them into surrendering any treasure acquired inside (pretending to be the ghost of Zelligar).

He knows of the owlbears in the deep forest but has not located the Owlbear Den (04.03). He is sure that there's great treasure to steal there, but avoids going in search of it because he knows the owlbears will smell him.

Here's a quick summary of the elements I've added:

• A company of medium-to-high-level adventurers in conflict with the local ruler over constructing a stronghold
• A town ruled by an evil illusionist with multiple nefarious schemes in motion
• Giant eagles who watch over the region and closely monitor the activities of good-aligned adventurers
• A band of brigands who have usurped a castle and imprisoned its ruler, and who are in conflict with the local ruler over a scheme gone awry
• A humble thorp caught between two unrelenting masters, who have little to offer but gratitude for the liberation of their former protector
• A clan of ogres who plague the locals due to a misunderstanding and resist attempts to be reasoned with
• A den of belligerent owlbears who prey upon everyone without discrimination
• A mischievous leprechaun with lots of information who loves to steal

One problem I'm noticing is that I've simply plopped Quasqueton down in a sandbox environment which is otherwise totally unrelated to B1. Quasqueton is inhabited by orcs, troglodytes, kobolds, gnolls, hobgoblins, goblins, and gnomes, among other things - yet none of those are represented here. There's still nothing here to suggest where those creatures are coming from. Would it be better to replace the ogres with orcs? The leprechaun with kobolds, goblins, or gnomes? Or is it enough to simply say that those creatures make their home only in the dungeon?

I could instead try to tie these new elements in. Perhaps Lambrecht was Zelligar's apprentice - he's a wizard after all, and he's certainly evil enough. Perhaps the brigands were once used by Rogahn and Zelligar as mercenaries in their campaign against the barbarians to the north - when the war was lost, they headed back south and flooded this region, which allowed Lambrecht to use them for his own purposes. Perhaps the ogres were once among the slaves used in Quasqueton's construction. Perhaps the owlbears are escaped creations of the mad Zelligar. That all sounds fun.

B1 already includes a legend/rumor table, but many of the entries are misleading or outright false. The party might waste tons of time searching fruitlessly for the powerful magic of Zelligar or Rogahn's 100,000 gold piece gem (neither of which exist) or avoid Quasqueton altogether because of the curse upon those entering it or stealing its treasure (which isn't real), the guards that still patrol its halls, or the rumor than Rogahn and Zelligar have in fact returned (neither of which is true). False rumors are fun to an extent, but not so much when they end in frustration or disappointment or when they discourage players from undertaking the adventure entirely.

Instead, we could replace the problematic rumors about Quasqueton with information about the surrounding region:

1. A band of adventurers has made camp on a hill to the southwest. Perhaps they seek Rogahn and Zelligar's treasure. Maybe they're here to rid us of these brigands, or of Lambrecht himself?
2. The truce between Lambrecht and Blanchefleur is shaky, but Blanchefleur would be an even crueler mistress than Lambrecht. It is said she consorts with demons!
3. Lambrecht has offered a reward of 700 gold pieces for any giant eagle eggs delivered to him. If only we could find the nest!
4. The brigands of Fayette's Hold claim to hold the Lady for ransom, but they're utterly ruthless - former soldiers of fortune under the banner of Rogahn and Zelligar. She's surely dead, right?
5. The people of Ebonshire seek to liberate the Lady Fayette from the dungeons of Fayette's Hold. They have little to offer, but are kindly.
6. The ogres plaguing the lands south of Timbershore accused the homesteaders of stealing their treasure. Could it be true?
7. A horrible beast lurks deep in the forest where the three rivers meet. It's said to be one of mad Zelligar's escaped experiments.
8. A fearsome spirit haunts the ruin of Rogahn and Zelligar's hold, wherever it is. It is the ghost of Zelligar, demanding intruders surrender his stolen treasure!

Another potential issue is that, aside from Quasqueton itself, I'm not sure there's enough here for low-level characters to actually do. Completing B1's content alone is probably not enough to graduate new player characters to a level at which they can begin exploring the wilderness and knocking off monster lairs in earnest.

Let's figure out roughly what level each of the monsters and powerful NPCs in our sandbox are, calculating average XP values using Appendix E of the DMG for monsters and the rough calculations on page 85 of the DMG for our character-types:

I cross-reference the rough XP values with this section from Appendix C:

Here's what I ended up with:

• Level III: Jinglepuff (85 xp)
• Level IV: Giant eagles (average 168 xp)
• Level V: Owlbears (average 421 xp)
• Level VI: Okorg (521 xp) and Ulrika (~815 xp)
• Level VII: Zerelda (~2,300 xp)
• Level IX: Lambrecht (~5,870 xp)

Now we can use the DUNGEON RANDOM MONSTER LEVEL DETERMINATION MATRIX to get a feel for at what level the player characters might be able to take on each of these factions:

For example, Lambrecht is a level IX "monster", but the party could maybe challenge him as early as 7th-level. They could maybe take Okorg or Ulrika at 4th-level, and the owlbears at 2nd- or 3rd-level, though it might be a tall order in any case.

This is, of course, just a rough estimation of what level the party should be if they intend to fight these creatures. There's nothing but (potentially deadly) random encounters preventing the party from venturing into the forest to track down the giant eagle nest or investigate the nature of the monster in the deep woods, and they could always sneak into these creatures' lairs to steal their treasure for XP while avoiding a direct confrontation.

Similarly, there's nothing but their reputation, social acumen, and reaction rolls preventing them from treating with Okorg (and from there, perhaps finding a way to track down Jinglepuff), Ulrika, Zerelda, or Lambrecht.

The player characters will be small fish in a big pond, but if they're savvy, they can definitely make some moves. The point of this is not to create a "balanced" play environment where the party is herded from one level-appropriate challenge to the next in the "adventure path" style, but rather to simply get an idea as to whether there's enough that the party can reasonably accomplish to feel like they're making progress in the game. 

The most important thing is that the environment feels lifelike, is engaging, and provides the players with choices. What they choose to do with it is entirely up to them.

B1 and Toyetic Dungeon Rooms

Over on Bluesky, I did a walkthrough of B1: In Search of the Unknown. I already wrote about how B1 tells the story of Rogahn and Zelligar, two adventurers motivated "by greed and vague evil" who in their retirement became dungeon sickos and built Quasqueton, a labyrinthine dungeon stronghold, as a monument to their own egos and sadism, and as a middle finger to the upstart adventurers who would one day surely come to plunder its riches.

But how, exactly, does the module tell that story? Well, it's largely through its room descriptions.

By default, most of the rooms in Quasqueton are empty. A few contain incidental or major treasures, tricks, or traps. But, being a teaching/introductory module, the intention is for the DM to manually stock each of the rooms (excepting a few) with monsters or treasure from a provided list.

When I stocked my version of B1, I treated a roll of 1 or 2 on d6 as a monster. If there was no monster, a roll of 1 on d6 would indicate a treasure should be placed. This is based on OSE's stocking procedure, minus special rooms because those are already written into the module:

That still leaves something like 56% of rooms empty. My version of B1 ended up with 33 empty rooms out of 56 total rooms - that's 59% (here I'm counting traps and special rooms already written into the module as "empty" in the sense that I'm not adding anything that isn't already there - these are not strictly-speaking empty rooms, so the numbers aren't wholly accurate).

That number is fairly consistent with AD&D, where 60% of dungeon rooms are empty:

Overall, I was impressed by the quality of B1's rooms. Even without monsters, tricks, traps, or treasure, few of them are ever actually truly empty. This is consistent with modern OSR design philosophies, wherein empty rooms can be actionable, containing mundane items to use, clues to or warnings about encounters elsewhere in the dungeon, environmental storytelling in the form of artwork and other set dressings, or dangers other than monsters, tricks, and traps, such as hazards or obstacles.

Interestingly, despite what the common wisdom may be regarding empty rooms, there is some evidence to suggest that Gygax (in the earliest days, at least) imagined empty rooms as being truly empty - or at least, not worth detailing. Even so, truly empty space in a dungeon can still serve a purpose by facilitating tension or mystery, or by helping with the pace of the game, providing breathing room between dungeon factions or a safe place for the party to rest or think.

For the most part, B1's rooms, when empty, are of the mundane items and environmental storytelling variety. As my previous post describes, many of the rooms tell the story - by way of carvings, tapestries, paintings, torture devices, and manacled skeletons - of Rogahn and Zelligar's egos, cruelty, and paranoia. Many others are filled with mundane equipment and barrels, bottles, and casks of various unremarkable substances.

One thing that struck me when reading B1 was that even those rooms without prewritten tricks, traps, and treasure, when my stocking method revealed them to have no additional monsters or treasure, still ignited my imagination. Specifically, they made me imagine how these rooms might play if there was some additional element like a monster or treasure. That is, the descriptions made me imagine the rooms' potential.

Take for example Area II, the kitchen. You could easily just describe this room as "An old kitchen. Y'know, there's moldy food and utensils and crap all over, but there's nothing else here." And that's basically what the room is. There are two big cooking pits, a very narrow chimney, moldy food on the tables (including a "particularly noxious" chunk of cheese), hanging utensils, pots and pans, and a large cast iron kettle hanging from the ceiling by a chain.

The room isn't empty. It's got stuff in it. At the same time, none of the stuff here is particularly useful to adventurers (unless they want to cook a monster they kill later), it doesn't provide any clues about the rest of the dungeon, there isn't much in the way of environmental storytelling (besides establishing that people used to eat here a long time ago), and there are no other dangers present.

But I can't help but imagine what if there was something here. What if a huge spider hid in one of the cooking pits? What if giant centipedes nested in the chimney? What if you got into a food fight with some hobgoblins? Is the "particularly noxious" cheese an especially potent weapon? Would it have the same effect if the enemies were instead stinking troglodytes? What if you stabbed a goblin with a fork or smashed it over the head with a cooking pan? Could you use the kettle on a chain as a wrecking ball against a band of kobolds?

Or take Area X, the storeroom. This one contains barrels of stale but still edible foodstuffs. This room falls into the "mundane but useful stuff" category, since the party can provision itself here (albeit with old, nasty food), but the room takes on a different aspect if, for example, giant rats are currently getting their way into the barrels. Or, if the party does plunder the room's contents but isn't careful to avoid spillage or to reseal the barrels, vermin and monsters will be attracted to the place on future delves.

Or Area XXXVII, the recreation room. This is basically Rogahn's gym, complete with archery targets, barbells, a pullup bar, a climbing rope, very heavy weapons, and battered shields. The party might make use of some arrows, lug around a notched sword, or replace a broken shield with one in less than pristine condition. 

But I can't help but imagine if there were orcs in here. Would they challenge the party to some sort of sporting competition? A single player character would get exhausted if they tried to defeat the orcs - who are probably universally quite strong - in every competition themselves, so the whole party would have to get involved. A thief could likely win an archery contest or climb a rope pretty quickly, but what will the magic-user do?

And you might say, "That's all well and good, but the rooms are still 'empty'. They may have potential as the scene of such an encounter, but in the absence of one they're just places for the party to poke around for a bit, maybe pick up one or two useful items, take a breather, and move on. The potential isn't used!"

But that isn't true, because empty rooms might only be empty when the party first encounters them. If you're checking for wandering monsters (which you should), any one of those rooms could suddenly not be empty at the roll of a die. This is doubly true if you're restocking the dungeon or having the monsters that remain in the dungeon react to the party's actions in between delves - both of these practices can result in originally empty rooms becoming occupied.

If a room's dressing is simply barren, there's little creative juice to squeeze when and if a monster ends up being encountered there. The gnolls are simply passing through, camping out, or maybe looking for secret doors - what else could they be doing in a barren environment? But in the kitchen they might be roasting some slain gnomes in the cooking pit, in the storage room they might be reprovisioning, and in the recreation room they might be pumping iron.

What I'm getting at is that empty rooms should be "toyetic" - that is, they should contain lots of little elements that the players can mess around with like knobs and levers. I'm cribbing this particular term from Prismatic Wasteland's Encounter Checklist. That post describes a goblin encounter wherein each of the goblins has a sort of prop that invites interaction or experimentation by the players. The encounter should be designed "like a child’s playset—something with elements the characters can interact with. These can come in many forms: ladders, rope swings, trap doors, greased floors, functional stove tops, round boulders begging to be pushed, things that can be opened or locked or launched, etc., etc." That sounds a lot like a well-designed dungeon room!

The Encounter Checklist is in turn derived from Goblin Punch's Dungeon Checklist, which includes "Something to Experiment With". In the Dungeon Checklist, this role is filled by what we might ordinarily call a trick or special room, but those are relatively rare (1-in-6 rooms in OSE and 1-in-10 rooms in AD&D). 

What I'm arguing for in this post is that every room in your dungeon should have something to play with. That might be something more or less mundane like a bunch of adventurer's corpses to examine, a potentially valuable object like a nude statue of a bodacious babe to leer at, or a magical oddity like a mica formation you can chip pieces off of and eat for various magical effects. 

That might be all that's in the room, but if there does happen to be a monster or a treasure, the set dressing gives you something to riff on. There are kobolds picking over the bodies, orcs leering at the statue, or gnolls sticking pieces of rock in their mouths. One of the adventurer's corpses still has treasure, there's a jeweled pendant hanging from the statue's neck, or one of the pieces of mica transmutes itself into a valuable gemstone when removed.

Because B1 is a teaching module and is intended to be manually stocked with monsters and treasure by the new DM, it's especially important that each and every room has such elements to work with. There are certainly truly empty rooms in B1 - the second level of the dungeon in particular is filled with empty caverns, many of which are barely described - but they are few and far between. 

And that should be the norm. Design all of your dungeon rooms under the assumption that, even if there's no monster, treasure, or whatever there now, there could be something there later. In that case, you'll want there to be some toys with which to play.

Greed and Vague Evil: B1 and the Retired Adventurer as Dungeon-Brained Sicko

I did a fun little walkthrough of B1: In Search of the Unknown over on Bluesky. While you can read the detailed play by play over there (including my step by step stocking of each and every room per the module's instructions, with some interesting results), I thought I'd use the blog to discuss some more high-level impressions of the module's contents overall.

One thing that immediately struck me about this module is that it's essentially the embodiment of my blog post Retired Adventurers Long for the Dungeon. That is that high-level adventurers, upon retiring to their (typically) wilderness seats of power will, for whatever reason, feel compelled to construct "dungeon mazes thereunder." Dungeons are all that adventurers know. They stake their claim to power and wealth by plundering them, then apply that same wealth and experience to perpetuating their existence. Inadvertently or not, they create the proving grounds for the next generation of adventurers.

This is basically the premise of B1. Rogahn the fighter and Zelligar the magic-user built a single tower for lookout purposes, but it isn't detailed at all in the module and may not even still stand. Instead, the focus is on the mazelike dungeon beneath the tower, which contains all of the retired adventurers' living quarters and utility rooms.

But the dungeon isn't just a place where Rogahn and Zelligar once lived. It's also filled with impracticalities like needlessly long hallways, twisting corridors to nowhere, door labyrinths, pit traps, and portcullises which drop from the ceiling to trap hapless wanderers in dead end passages. The dungeon is not incidentally hazardous to plunderers, but intentionally so. Rogahn and Zelligar lived alongside these contrivances, presumably because they anticipated that one day, their spiritual successors would arrive to overcome the challenges they had created.

This can all be written off as dungeon weirdness typical of TSR modules of the time, but I think this would be a disservice to the legacy of the great Rogahn and Zelligar. The dungeon is not just a lair with some weirdness necessitated by gameplay expectations. Rather, it is a place that tells a story about who these two characters were - they had huge egos, were without moral scruples, and were massive trolls.

Rogahn and Zelligar are a perfect representation of the character of adventurers in D&D. "Their motives were based on greed and some kind of vague (or chaotic) evil." Using "the work of hundreds of slaves and laborers" they built their stronghold far from civilization, "since both men disliked visitors and intruders." 

They ventured out only occasionally to do adventurer stuff, until for some reason they emerged to defeat a barbarian horde which threatened the valley which the stronghold overlooked. This was either because they expected a substantial reward from the populace (which they did receive) or because their massive egos simply could not tolerate barbarians within their domain (this is my read on the situation). They then went on campaign in the barbarian lands, never to return.

But their stronghold, Quasqueton, remains, and it is a monument to both men's legacies. The place is thick with ego:

• The entrance corridor contains a pair of magic mouths which declare one after the other and then in unison: "WHO DARES ENTER THIS PLACE AND INTRUDE UPON THE SANCTUARY OF ITS INHABITANTS? ONLY A GROUP OF FOOLHARDY EXPLORERS DOOMED TO CERTAIN DEATH! WOE TO ANY WHO PASS THIS PLACE - THE WRATH OF ZELLIGAR AND ROGAHN WILL BE UPON THEM!" Then they both laugh as the enchantment fades away. Keep in mind that this effect would have been triggered any time anyone entered the stronghold even when Rogahn and Zelligar were still alive.
• Zelligar's chamber contains a 70-foot wall carving of himself casting the spell which turned away the barbarian horde. 
• His laboratory includes a wall hanging which reads "What mysterious happenings have their birth here? Only the greatest feats of wizardry, for which every element of earth, water, and sky is but a tool!" 
• The library has blocks of white granite in the floor which form "R&Z".
• Rogahn's mistress's chamber contains a tapestry depicting himself rescuing her from a burning village with enemies watching from afar.
• Rogahn's own chamber contains tapestries which depict him personally slaying a dragon (his companions are also there, but he is striking the killing blow), his and Zelligar's battle with the barbarians, he and his mistress holding hands on horseback, and him and Zelligar shaking hands atop the hill where the stronghold now sits.
• Rogahn and Zelligar gifted their advisor what is essentially an autographed painting of themselves which hangs in the advisor's chamber.
• The unfinished second level contains a museum dedicated to Rogahn and Zelligar's own lives and deeds. Who's to say how else the two would have managed to stroke their own egos had they lived to finish their construction?

Quasqueton is filled with indications of not only Rogahn and Zelligar's egos, but also their sinister nature:

• Rogahn and Zelligar used orc slaves in the stronghold's construction, and some of those slaves can still be found within the dungeon.
• Zelligar's laboratory contains a barbarian chieftain's skeleton hanging from the ceiling and also serves as a torture chamber.
• The stronghold's trophy room contains not just trophies from monsters but also a dwarf skeleton suspended in irons from the ceiling.
• The worship area contains an idol of a horned head with an evil visage.
• There is another barbarian skeleton on display in the museum on the second level.

Finally, Quasqueton contains many elements which seem to exist for the sole purpose of inconveniencing, annoying, or otherwise thwarting adventurers:

• The aforementioned needlessly long corridors, hallways to nowhere, and labyrinth of doors.
• The "wizard's annex" where Zelligar practiced his magic contains, for seemingly no reason, an illusory treasure hoard. It is not tied to a trap or any other element of danger which would justify its existence.
• Zelligar's laboratory contains a glass jar with a black cat in clear liquid. If someone opens the jar, the cat yowls, jumps out, and flees, even passing through closed doors, never to appear again. This is there explicitly "to surprise and/or mystify the adventurers."
• Two teleportation rooms in close proximity connected by winding hallways exist solely to confuse intruders attempting to map the dungeon.
• The room of pools contains some elements which might be of practical use, such as healing liquid, drinking water, and fish, but also acid, sickening syrup, wine which compels imbibers to drink to excess, liquid which puts the drinker to sleep, another illusory treasure hoard, and water which causes muteness.
• A guest chamber contains a false door which seemingly exists solely so that intruders will attract monsters while trying to open it.
• A hallway outside an empty utility room contains false steps which trick intruders into thinking they've descended a level.
• A statue on the second level points to a rocky outcropping of no significance.

There are other tricks and traps to be found in Quasqueton, but those which I haven't mentioned at least serve an apparent purpose in deterring intruders or meddlers who may have been present during Rogahn and Zelligar's lives. The poison needle trap on the nightstand in Zelligar's chamber is protection against thieving guards or apprentices. The portcullis or pit trap in the dead end hallways could be used to trap or kill visiting dignitaries or enemies. The treasure cave on the second level is guarded by animating statues because slaves working in the caves might stumble upon or know about and seek to plunder that room.

The tricks and traps listed above, however, seem to have been included with the assumption that one day Rogahn and Zelligar would be no more, and that upstart adventurers like they once were would come to rob the strongholds of its riches, just as Rogahn and Zelligar did to similar dungeons in their youth.

B1 is a good teaching module, not just for its advice for players and Dungeon Masters, but because it gives us a look into the psyche of the retired adventurer: reclusive, inscrutable, and egomaniacal. Maybe that's not the kind of retirement you as a player see for your character, and maybe as a DM you don't want all your retired adventurers to be this type, but it's an interesting place to start when thinking about what all those deserted castles are supposed to look like from a gameplay perspective.

As should always be the case when preparing to run a site-based adventure like a dungeon crawl, the place should tell a story. In the case of Quasqueton, with its elaborate tapestries, proudly displayed skeletons, and middle fingers to adventurers, B1 tells the strange story of Rogahn and Zelligar, dungeon-brained sickos.

The Implied Setting of AD&D Towns & Cities: Four Themes

This is a topic I've been dancing around a lot for the past few months. As my observations have accumulated, I've begun to feel that it would be beneficial to collate my findings into a broader "master post" which paints a more comprehensive picture of the subject. To summarize my findings so far (more or less sorted beginning with broad ideas down to specific details):

• Player characters are assumed to be strangers to the land in which they adventure, including the local town or city, and will have to learn the lay of the land when they first begin their careers. Even things as simple as entering through the gate and finding lodging, a place to buy equipment, and where to meet fellow adventurers is intended to be a challenge.
• Towns and cities are home to high-level NPCs. They represent the established order, and view player character adventurers as a threat to that order. While they generally have no interest in adventuring themselves (allowing the player characters to rightfully be the main agents of change of the campaign), they are more than happy to use the player characters as pawns, both to accomplish their own ends as well as to remove these threats to some distant border region where they will pose less of a danger and hopefully build their own domain well removed from the NPCs'.
• NPCs are expensive and irritating to deal with, and because of the high density of NPCs in towns and cities, adventures in these places will as a result be particularly expensive and irritating. While towns and cities offer many amenities and services to the player characters, actually obtaining these is a challenge of the player characters' wealth and the players' patience.
• Encounters in AD&D towns and cities are intended to be disguised "using vagueness and similarity". The players are meant to never be quite sure who or what exactly they're encountering. While many encountered people and creatures will be indifferent to the party, many others will be actively seeking to prey upon them (using their mistaken identity to their advantage), or more than ready to throw a fit if they're offended or mistreated (likely because their identity is mistaken).
• AD&D towns and cities are supported by a robust system of duties, excises, fees, tariffs, taxes, tithes, and tolls - including tolls to use roads to dungeons. Towns and cities do not exist solely to house and support the player characters but also to lord over them and drain their resources. If the player characters conspire to dodge these annoying inconveniences, they might pay for it by way of the usual complications involved in engaging in criminal activity or by becoming indentured servants to the city guard or watch.
• Towns and cities are the best place to find henchmen and hirelings. 1 to 2% of NPCs are "suitable for level advancement", and of those, only 10% are looking for work as henchmen. Recruiting them takes time and - like other interactions with NPCs - is likely to be costly and frustrating. There's a cottage industry of criers, tavernkeepers, and printers who make substantial amounts of money on the side helping adventurers advertise to prospective henchmen. It's also suggested that there is a complex web of social taboos and expectations when recruiting henchmen, which may apply more broadly to interacting with other NPCs in towns and cities - alignment and religion are touchy subjects, and speaking the language of alignment is a social faux pas, reinforcing that in these environments the player characters should never know exactly who they are dealing with.
• Larger towns and cities will usually have a market for subdued dragons as well as other enslaved monsters, their eggs, young, hides, and other parts - that is, there exists in AD&D towns and cities an adventurer-fueled "monster economy" of sorts. Occasionally, adventurers (player characters or otherwise) will pull a subdued dragon, a train of giant beavers, a cartload of pegasus eggs, or a barrel full of mind flayer brains into town to sell, which is probably an occasion worth noting. If followed to its logical conclusion, this presupposes that wealthy and/or high-level NPCs will own pet dragons, griffons, and the like, and be decorated with the pelts of giant otters and winter wolves.
• Cities are infested with disease, which proliferates due to crowding, filth, and plague-bearing beggars and rats. These diseases can be quite lethal, and because curing them is relatively expensive and difficult at low levels, these characters would be wise to spend as little time in cities as possible.
• Most towns and cities will be home to both a Thieves Guild and an Assassins Guild. Thief and assassin player characters will need to choose whether to join them or supplant them. Even in the absence of such player characters, there will likely be conflict between these entities and their upstart rivals, generating conflict which the player characters can choose to avoid or become embroiled in.

To these points I'll add a few others before concluding. From the PHB, in the section titled MONEY, AD&D cities and towns are analogous to gold rush boom towns:

This not only justifies why equipment prices are so high compared to what might be "historically" accurate (I'm to understand that some people are concerned about this), but also lends additional character to the town or city. Towns and cities are vital places to adventurers due to the availability of goods and services, but they are also money sinks where opportunistic merchants and service providers will test them to see just how much they're willing to spend for what they need. Also, D&D is a Western.

From the PHB section titled THE ADVENTURE:

Town adventures are described as "interesting, informative, and often hazardous", requiring "forethought and skill". "Care must be taken in all one says and does" and in these environments one can find "many potential helpful or useful characters" as well as "clever and dangerous adversaries".

Later, in the section titled SUCCESSFUL ADVENTURES, we are told that, compared to underworld and wilderness adventures, "City adventures are the toughest of all":

Like underworld and wilderness adventures, successful adventures in the city depend on "Setting out with an objective in mind, having sufficient force to gain it, and not drawing undue attention to the party." Why then are city adventures "the toughest of all"? 

Probably it is some combination of the aforementioned high-level NPCs and powerful factions, hidden dangers, meddling officials, social landmines, and the overall size and complexity of the place. Crawling through a dungeon filled with monsters and traps is one thing, and assaulting a wilderness monster lair or stronghold is another - engaging in a protracted war with the Thieves Guild in the city streets is an order of magnitude more complex because of the many different characters and factions in proximity to the scenario, each of which will have their own goals and opinions about the matter and will intervene or otherwise react in ways befitting their personalities.

I would be remiss not to mention that in addition to criminals, officials, character-type NPCs, and other mundanities of municipal life like laborers, merchants, and rats, the city/town encounter table is also filled with demons, devils, dopplegangers, lycanthropes, and undead:

The town or city is home to Evil temples guarded by devils, wizards who conjure demons, deserted places, entrances to the underworld, and ruins where dopplegangers and shadows lurk, haunted charnel houses and graveyards, and shapeshifting beasts and vampires almost always in search of victims.

Each of these points reinforces one or more common themes in the portrayal of AD&D's towns and cities:

• They are fantastic places - maybe not as mythic as the dungeon, but nonetheless inhabited by the game's highest-level NPCs and warring guilds, and the sites of the occasional market day featuring the sale of everything from exotic monster pelts and eggs to live dragons. Conjured demons and devils, haunted graveyards, deserted ruins, predatory shapeshifters, and entrances to the underworld are common.
• They are also mundane places, where player characters are subject to real-world annoyances like overbearing taxes and other drains on their wealth, meddling officials, easily-offended nobles and merchants, beggars, drunks, rowdy laborers, and common diseases.
• They are useful places. Player characters can rely on them for common services and resources such as lodging, equipment, meeting with fellow adventurers, selling treasure, and recruiting henchmen. Due to the presence of the aforementioned high-level NPCs and the monster economy, they are also places where player characters can procure powerful spellcasting services and purchase rare ingredients needed to ink scrolls, brew potions, and craft other magic items.
• They are adversarial places. They are strange to the player characters, and will require some investigation to become familiar with. The player characters are viewed as troublemakers at best and threats at worst, and NPCs will require significant persuading before offering aid to them. These environments are social mine fields and money pits, with powerful authority figures and hidden dangers eager to exploit the player characters, do harm to them, or otherwise embroil them in trouble.

These themes help to lend a unique character to these environments which the DM can keep in mind when running scenarios therein. They also suggest that, like dungeons and wilderness environments, towns and cities serve a dual purpose when it comes to gameplay. 

Dungeons are dangerous places, but they're also a reliable source of treasure in a somewhat "balanced" gameplay environment suitable for lower-level characters. The wilderness is often even more dangerous and unpredictable, but the treasure hoards possessed by monsters there are often much greater in value, and the environment provides ample room for characters to establish and carve out their own domains around which higher levels of play are centered. Towns and cities are essential to characters because of the goods and services they offer, but rather than being purely beacons of safety, they are perhaps the most dangerous, complex places in which gameplay takes place.

In AD&D, no environment exists solely to benefit or serve the player characters. Nowhere is without peril or challenge - and towns and cities are no exception.

Where are AD&D's High-Level NPCs?

This is a question I've pondered quite a bit in my exploration of AD&D. Theoretically, my assumption would be that there's nothing to restrict a character-type NPC from reaching the same level of experience as a player character of the same type. That is, a human character can become a cleric of 29th level, a fighter of 11th level or higher, or a magic-user of 18th level or higher (no upper limit is provided in the latter two cases, whereas 29 seems to be the cleric's limit for whatever reason). 

Non-human NPCs would also presumably abide by the same restrictions imposed on player characters of that type, so an NPC elf could advance as far as 7th level as a fighter and 11th level as a magic-user, and no more, just like a player character. Interestingly, NPC dwarves, elves, and gnomes can be clerics, and NPC halflings can be druids, even though these options are not available to player characters:

The PHB, in the section titled THE ADVENTURE, describes three different adventure types, characterized by the setting in which they take place: Town Adventures (which include not just towns but also cities and large villages, and so are probably more accurately described as settlement adventures), Dungeon Expeditions, and Outdoor Exploration (this is, for my money, a better configuration of modern editions' "Three Pillars of Play" - which are Combat, Exploration, and Social Interaction).

The DMG provides some guidance as to what level character-type NPCs encountered in each of these scenarios will be, so I'll analyze the subject within this framework.

I'll begin with Dungeon Expeditions, because NPCs encountered in these scenarios will tend to be of lower levels. Character-type NPCs are encountered in dungeons as early as the 1st dungeon level:

They can also be encountered all the way in the deepest levels of the dungeon, and on every level in between:

Here is the relevant section describing the level of these NPCs:

Character-type NPCs encountered on the 1st through 4th levels of the dungeon are of the corresponding level in their class. Such NPCs encountered on the 5th through 15th levels are level 6 to 12. NPCs encountered on the 16th level or deeper can be as high as 13th level. 5th level NPCs are oddly never encountered in dungeons, nor are those higher than 13th level.

This suggests that 13th level is the maximum level at which player characters should continue to embark on dungeon expeditions - that's before clerics or magic-users gain access to 7th level spells, for context.

Next, let's look at Outdoor Exploration. For whatever reason, character-type NPCs are encountered in temperate and sub-tropical uninhabited/wilderness areas and nowhere else - not in arctic, sub-arctic, sub-tropical, or tropical areas, and not in waterborne environments. Not even in inhabited areas! The occasional high-level NPC is still encountered in groups of men (bandits, berserkers, brigands, etc.) and demihumans (dwarves, elves, gnomes, etc.), but full parties of fellow/rival adventurers are not.

According to the special footnote to these encounter tables, character-type NPCs in the outdoors are always of 7th through 10th level:

But random encounters are not the only way to encounter character-type NPCs outdoors. We must also account for those NPCs who rule strongholds:

Excepting the bard, which is an outlier by design, there is a good deal of overlap with those character-type NPCs found in the lower levels of dungeons and in random outdoor encounters. Only magic-users, thieves, and assassins exceed 13th level - and, as I mention in my post on Thieves and Assassins Guilds, this table is not totally reliable when used to stock an outdoor area, since the PHB states that thieves can only build small-type castles within or close to towns and cities, and only Grandfather/Grandmother assassins (15th level) rule wilderness strongholds (14th level assassins' strongholds are always in a town or city).

Where are all the higher-level character-type NPCs, then? According to the rules presented by the DMG, characters adventuring in dungeons and outdoors will never encounter a cleric capable of casting 7th level spells or a magic-user capable of casting 8th level spells (16th level in both cases), an illusionist capable of casting 7th level spells (14th level), a Great Druid (14th level), a Grandfather/Grandmother assassin (15th level), or a monk of higher than 13th level.

This has gameplay significance because players may need to be able to find such NPCs. They may need a cleric to cast resurrection, a magic-user to cast wish, or an illusionist to cast vision. Druids, assassins, and monks will need to find higher-ranked NPCs of the same type and defeat them to advance in their own class. Where are they?

As I've already mentioned, the Grandfather/Grandmother assassin should be in a wilderness stronghold. Druids, likewise, according to the PHB, "do not dwell permanently in castles, or even in cities or towns", but "in sacred groves...set in woodlands and similar natural surroundings":

While no such restriction is imposed upon higher-level monks, it seems fitting to me that these too would be (literally) cloistered away in some remote wilderness monastery. It seems to me that the highest-level druids, assassins, and monks are left off the castle sub-table merely because they are unique individuals who should be deliberately placed in the play area with careful consideration by the DM - though this rationale again is not applied to monks in the same way, who appear on the sub-table despite the fact that those of 9th level or higher are, according to the PHB, one-of-a-kind:

That still leaves the higher-level spellcasters, which brings us to Town Adventures.

In my post on henchmen, I mention that 1-in-100 humans and 1-in-50 demihumans are "suitable for level advancement". Of those, generally, 1-in-10 are "interested in offers of employment as a henchman". Since newly recruited henchmen can only be 1st through 3rd level, this means that 10% of the character-type population in a settlement is of 1st through 3rd level, but no guidance is provided for the level distribution of the remaining 90% of character-type NPCs.

The city/town encounters detailed in the DMG shed a bit of light on the level of NPCs found in these environments:

• Assassin encounters are with assassins of an indeterminate level (my guess is that one is to refer to the Thief encounter below to determine the level of the assassins).
• Bandit and Brigand encounters at night will include "1 or more leaders" (based on the Monster Manual there could be a fighter from 8th to 10th level, a magic-user of 7th to 10th level, or a cleric of 5th to 6th level, but it's unclear how to determine which leaders and of what level will be present because the Monster Manual deals with much larger groups of bandits).
• City guard encounters include fighters of 2nd to 5th level and indentured magic-users of 1st to 4th level.
• City official encounters include fighters of 1st to 4th level.
• City watchman encounters include fighters of 1st to 5th level and indentured clerics of 2nd to 5th level.
• Cleric encounters are with a cleric of 6th to 11th level and can include lesser clerics of 1st to 4th level.
• Druid encounters are with a druid of 6th to 11th level and include either lesser druids of 1st to 4th level or fighters of 1st to 6th level.
• Drunk encounters can include individuals from many of the other encounter types, presumably at similar levels.
• Fighter encounters are with a fighter of 6th to 12th level and include henchmen of 1st to 4th level.
• Gentleman encounters can be with fighters of 7th to 10th level.
• Harlot encounters may be with a harlot who is a thief or is working with one (presumably of the same level as those described under Thief, below).
• Illusionist encounters are with an illusionist of 7th to 10th level and include either illusionists of 1st to 4th level or fighters of 1st to 6th level.
• Magic-user encounters are with a magic-user of 7th to 12th level and henchman magic-users or fighters of 1st to 6th level or 4th to 7th level, respectively.
• Mercenary encounters include 1st level fighters and may include fighters of 2nd to 5th level.
• Merchant encounters include a fighter of 1st to 4th level.
• Monk encounters are with a monk of 7th to 10th level.
• Noble encounters include fighters of 1st to 4th level, and the noble may even be a fighter or cleric of 5th to 12th level.
• Paladin encounters are with a paladin of 6th to 9th level.
• Pilgrim encounters may include a cleric (or druid) of 2nd to 8th level, a monk of 5th to 6th level, a fighter (or paladin or ranger) of 1st to 8th level, a thief (or assassin) of 2nd to 7th level, or a magic-user of 6th to 9th level (as with Bandit and Brigand encounters, it's not entirely clear how to determine which of these character-types will be with the group, as the Monster Manual details much larger groups).
• Press gang encounters will be with 1st level fighters with a leader of 2nd to 5th level.
• Rake encounters will be with fighters of 5th to 10th level.
• Ranger encounters will be with rangers of 7th to 10th level.
• Ruffian encounters will be with 2nd level fighters and may include an assassin of 5th to 8th level.
• Thief encounters will be with a thief of 8th to 11th level and may include lesser thieves of 1st to 4th level.

So, that's a lot of information that I probably didn't need to type out. Do you notice anything? The highest-level character-type NPC which can be randomly encountered in a city or town is of 12th level (and that's only individual fighters and magic-users and noble clerics). Again, where are the higher-level NPCs?

Well, they must be somewhere. The DMG contains the following list of prices for hiring NPC clerics to cast certain spells:

(Interestingly, there is no such list for druid, magic-user, or illusionist spells, suggesting that while clerics are probably happy to accept tithes to their faith in exchange for service - if the character requesting such is "of similar alignment and religion as the cleric" - those other classes will probably only provide their services in exchange for magic items or service in kind.)

This list includes 7th level cleric spells like astral spell, control weather, earthquake, gate, regenerate, and restoration. Higher-level NPCs are present in the world (and specifically in large enough settlements), but for some reason are never randomly encountered in dungeons, outdoors, or in settlements.

This suggests that such NPCs are essentially retired from adventuring (they do not go into dungeons or the wilderness) and insular (they do not leave the place in which they reside to wander the streets of towns and cities). They have to be deliberately sought out where they live, and they probably won't be happy to see you.

So where do they live? Clearly not in dungeons, and apparently not in wilderness strongholds. However, while there are certainly domain-less high-level NPCs in D&D, I have a hard time believing that retired, insular, very high-level NPCs would be without them. 

Rather, I suspect that these individuals have ruled their strongholds for a long time - long enough that they are well a part of the established order. Strongholds maintain order in the borderlands, attracting people to settle around them in tax-paying single dwellings, thorps, hamlets, and the like. Eventually, I imagine, those communities grow into villages, towns, and even cities, with those old strongholds at their core. Is this where the highest-level NPCs live?

I think so. I think cities especially probably have lots of strongholds within them - those may be ruled by NPCs like those found on the castle sub-table in the DMG, but I imagine others will be ruled by even higher-level ones. Unfortunately, there's no guidance as to what the distribution should be.

In my post on settlements (which leans towards 5e), I stated that the character-type NPCs in my settlements are broken into groups corresponding to the "Tiers of Play" - 65% will be Tier 1, 20% tier 2, 10% Tier 3, and 5% Tier 4. In a later post, I wrote about how a similar "Tiers of Play" framework might be applied to AD&D (specifically 2e). While in that post I found that the "Tiers of Play" framework did not clearly map onto AD&D, I do still find it helpful to consider here.

In my post on henchmen, I provided an example AD&D city of 35,000 people with the following character-type NPC demographics:

• 280 humans
• 35 dwarves
• 35 elves
• 14 gnomes
• 35 half-elves
• 14 halflings
• 3 or 4 half-orcs

Since the total is 416 or 417, and 10% of these will be henchmen of 1st to 3rd level in accordance with the AD&D DMG's rule of thumb, that leaves 374 to 376 character-type NPCs to be distributed as follows:

• 243 to 245 low level (level 1 to 3 but not interested in work as henchmen)
• 74 to 76 medium level (level 4 to 7)
• 37 to 38 high level (level 7 to 12)
• 18 to 19 very high level (level 12 to 20 - or 20+ in AD&D 1e's case)

We can use AD&D's Character Subtable for dungeon encounters to get some idea as to what classes those very high level characters are:

Since this is for dungeon encounters, it may not apply to cities exactly, but it's what we've got. It's also worth noting that I'm not taking race into account, which would affect the distribution somewhat. Dwarves can't be magic-users, for example, so allowing all of these NPCs to be of any class will result in skewed numbers - but this is just a broad overview.

We can expect the average AD&D city to have the following very high level character-type NPCs in residence: 3 or 4 clerics, 7 or 8 fighters, 0 or 1 paladins, 0 or 1 rangers, 3 or 4 magic-users, 0 to 1 illusionists, 1 or 2 thieves (each of which might have their own guilds or gangs at war with one another), 0 to 1 assassins (but no higher than 14th level), and 0 to 1 monks. There will be no druids, because druids do not live in cities, and you might opt to rule the same for rangers and monks depending on taste (this is how I'm leaning).

While the demographics I'm using to divide the NPCs into "tiers" are entirely of my own invention and not based on anything in particular, I think they work reasonably well for the setting AD&D is depicting. The assumption seems to be that player characters will be able to find very high level NPCs in large settlements if they go looking for them, and these numbers support that. It also makes sense that player characters will be bumping into NPCs of up to 12th level in the streets, since there are a decent number of them living in the settlement.

Hopefully this is helpful to someone, and hopefully I've demonstrated that this is not just worldbuilding and number crunching for its own sake, but that these numbers actually have gameplay implications and are important to consider when running a game. What are the chances that a high level cleric of the player character's alignment lives in the city? What is the political landscape among the city's fighter lords? If the party has earned the ire of one powerful magic-user, is there another they can call upon for powerful magical aid? How many Thieves Guilds are active in the place, what is the status of their internecine turf war, and which would it be best to align with?

The player characters are not the most important or powerful individuals in the setting, and they may never be. I for one think it's important to know who those individuals are, how many of them there are, where they can be found, what they want, and most importantly, how the player characters might have to deal with them.